The Falkirk FC Thread

[Zbairn]

It's a small step in the right direction.

We should never get excited by players or results at the lower age levels. It breeds a good understanding of the game, but quite often in the early teen stages, the physical attributes of a player can outweigh actual ability...until everyone catches up.

However, even if only one gem is unearthed per season , it's doing its job. 

[D'Jaffo]

Afternoon lads,

Bit of a random one for you but how would you rate John Hughes from his time in charge of yourselves?

Obviously with Hopkin away there’s been a bit of a clamour from our fans demanding we hire him but it’s not easy to forget the massive balls up he made at Raith.

[Zbairn]

9 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Afternoon lads,

Bit of a random one for you but how would you rate John Hughes from his time in charge of yourselves?

Obviously with Hopkin away there’s been a bit of a clamour from our fans demanding we hire him but it’s not easy to forget the massive balls up he made at Raith.

Just my opinion.....media darling and overrated (this will probably generate a few comments on here, in support of his tenure at our club). I think he needs a good "right hand" man to keep him in check and that is when he has been at his most successful. His track record when he goes off on his own hasn't been great.  There are also probably some other reasons why he isn't employed at the moment.   

[latapythelegend]

15 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Afternoon lads,

Bit of a random one for you but how would you rate John Hughes from his time in charge of yourselves?

Obviously with Hopkin away there’s been a bit of a clamour from our fans demanding we hire him but it’s not easy to forget the massive balls up he made at Raith.

Good up until 2008 then it went to his head. 

If he doesn't like a player then he'll make their time at the club a living hell but I've no doubt that he gets players to give there 100% when on the pitch.

[Ranaldo Bairn]

There's no definitive answer.

He had a stodgy first season with us, but then when we spent the cash he employed Duffy, McBreen, Thomson and of course Latapy in attack and annihilated the First Division.

In the SPL he did brilliantly for 3 years, signed young talented hungry players and played some great stuff, then got carried away by his own PR, signed Dad's Army (McNamara, Bullen, Lovell, McCann...) and we just stayed up but got to the cup final where, in typical Hughes style, we utterly outpassed Rangers, running rings around them for 90 minutes, and lost 1-0.

He left May with a horrendous squad in terms of morale and crippled by expensive contracts for the likes of O'Brien. Of course a lot of the blame there must go to the uberfud George Craig, and May should never have been appointed either.

He still lands in the + column for me.

Of course the lesson from his Inverness time is "don't let him sign anyone, ever!" and Raith was utterly catastrophic. On the other hand he kept Ross County up last season so you genuinely don't know what you're going to get: the master motivator who plays good stuff, or the egotistical buffoon. It's a big risk I think.

[ebobsboy]

1 hour ago, Ranaldo Bairn said:

There's no definitive answer.

He had a stodgy first season with us, but then when we spent the cash he employed Duffy, McBreen, Thomson and of course Latapy in attack and annihilated the First Division.

In the SPL he did brilliantly for 3 years, signed young talented hungry players and played some great stuff, then got carried away by his own PR, signed Dad's Army (McNamara, Bullen, Lovell, McCann...) and we just stayed up but got to the cup final where, in typical Hughes style, we utterly outpassed Rangers, running rings around them for 90 minutes, and lost 1-0.

He left May with a horrendous squad in terms of morale and crippled by expensive contracts for the likes of O'Brien. Of course a lot of the blame there must go to the uberfud George Craig, and May should never have been appointed either.

He still lands in the + column for me.

Of course the lesson from his Inverness time is "don't let him sign anyone, ever!" and Raith was utterly catastrophic. On the other hand he kept Ross County up last season so you genuinely don't know what you're going to get: the master motivator who plays good stuff, or the egotistical buffoon. It's a big risk I think.

This. If he does get the Ayr gig he won't be there long. He'll want money to strengthen which I doubt Ayr have or at least not what he would want.  Raith were a sinking ship when he was there and nothing he did or said stopped them going down. I suspect it might be the same at Ayr. 

[Shadwell Dog]

Question for me would be why would you knock back a deal at Ross County in the top flight and then join Ayr United hovering about the bottom of the championship? The Ayr statement would appear to say that Hopkin wasn't very happy with something and so has decided to bolt . Whether it's the lack of finances that were available or failure to sign certain players who knows but you'd expect Hughes to want a bit of cash to spend to take on this job so early in the season.  He won't want another Raith on his CV.

[Guest Caractacus Potts]

Just now, Shadwell Dog said:

Question for me would be why would you knock back a deal at Ross County in the top flight and then join Ayr United hovering about the bottom of the championship? The Ayr statement would appear to say that Hopkin wasn't very happy with something and so has decided to bolt . Whether it's the lack of finances that were available or failure to sign certain players who knows but you'd expect Hughes to want a bit of cash to spend to take on this job so early in the season.  He won't want another Raith on his CV.

Hughes surprisingly wasn’t offered a contract at Ross County. 

[Guest Back Post Misses]

Ayr could do a lot worse than employ Hughes 

[D'Jaffo]

Question for me would be why would you knock back a deal at Ross County in the top flight and then join Ayr United hovering about the bottom of the championship? The Ayr statement would appear to say that Hopkin wasn't very happy with something and so has decided to bolt . Whether it's the lack of finances that were available or failure to sign certain players who knows but you'd expect Hughes to want a bit of cash to spend to take on this job so early in the season.  He won't want another Raith on his CV.

Hopkin was well backed and with that backing was able to bring 3 duds with him from his previous club. He absolutely jumped before he was pushed and I’d imagine the home support literally telling him to f**k off on Tuesday night played some part in his decision.

Whatever manager we get will be well backed on the pitch and there are any number of reasons why Hughes decided to leave Ross County in the summer.

[Shadwell Dog]

8 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Hopkin was well backed and with that backing was able to bring 3 duds with him from his previous club. He absolutely jumped before he was pushed and I’d imagine the home support literally telling him to f**k off on Tuesday night played some part in his decision.

Whatever manager we get will be well backed on the pitch and there are any number of reasons why Hughes decided to leave Ross County in the summer.

Hughes said he had decided to explore further football opportunities when he left county so you never know but it would be a hell of a backwards step to end up at Ayr mind you.  Problem is it's very late in the day too so whoever takes over is going to be stuck with Hopkins duds till at least January and most of the decent loan players have been snapped up.  Going to be on a hiding to nothing till then.

 

[Bairney The Dinosaur]

4 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

Afternoon lads,

Bit of a random one for you but how would you rate John Hughes from his time in charge of yourselves?

Obviously with Hopkin away there’s been a bit of a clamour from our fans demanding we hire him but it’s not easy to forget the massive balls up he made at Raith.

Sexy man with sexy teams. 

[D'Jaffo]

Sexy man with sexy teams. 

Will do for me.

[ebobsboy]

36 minutes ago, Bairney The Dinosaur said:

Sexy man with sexy teams. 

And paying them a decent wage. Wasn't O'Brien on 3k a week or something? 

[MrDust]

1 hour ago, Caractacus Potts said:

Hughes surprisingly wasn’t offered a contract at Ross County. 

Is it a surprise ?

He obviously went the bad yogi route again and county said thanks but no thanks for the future.

57 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Hughes said he had decided to explore further football opportunities when he left county so you never know but it would be a hell of a backwards step to end up at Ayr mind you.  Problem is it's very late in the day too so whoever takes over is going to be stuck with Hopkins duds till at least January and most of the decent loan players have been snapped up.  Going to be on a hiding to nothing till then.

 

Hughes isn't gonna say I've been punted and have nothing planned beyond, perhaps one of the Falkirk disclosure contracts were agreed.

He kept County up, good achievement not the miracle worker.

Yogi can be a good appointment but it's the gamble if you get chocolate or shite.

I seen some pars fans were touting him for the pars job. Id hope it was the shite they'd see but he is capable of chocolate but full well knowing shite is just around the corner

[Guest]

Yogi now tries to portray himself as the diddy level Sam Allardyce…….the guy you turn to when a saviour is required.

His one supremely smart move came when he was at Celtic. He could never be described as a tactical genius, but Yogi wrote down and recorded every training and tactical routine in the Parkhead playbook, and applied them for many years. I don’t think he had/has an original footballing idea in his head, but he was smart enough to put into practice what he learned from those who did.

Obviously in later years, his own ego got in the way, and he and John Collins also had a bit of a disastrous gig at the Launderers. If he gets the Ayr gig, and if hard work and a bit morale boosting us all that’s needed, he might turn things around…….but as mentioned earlier, it all depends which side of his brain is in the ascendancy.

[Guest Caractacus Potts]

10 minutes ago, MrDust said:

Is it a surprise ?

He obviously went the bad yogi route again and county said thanks but no thanks for the future.

Hughes isn't gonna say I've been punted and have nothing planned beyond, perhaps one of the Falkirk disclosure contracts were agreed.

He kept County up, good achievement not the miracle worker.

Yogi can be a good appointment but it's the gamble if you get chocolate or shite.

I seen some pars fans were touting him for the pars job. Id hope it was the shite they'd see but he is capable of chocolate but full well knowing shite is just around the corner

He actually did say on Open Goal that Roy McGregor didn’t want to keep him on. 

[Shadwell Dog]

26 minutes ago, ebobsboy said:

And paying them a decent wage. Wasn't O'Brien on 3k a week or something? 

Aye old yogi lost the plot that season.  My biggest issue was always his team's complete lack of competitivenes between the 1st of January and the split. We were awful every season during that period when latapy would disappear and he'd replace one or two decent players with complete dross in the January window. Always killed any chance of a top 6 finish. Seemed to have the same issue at Hibs too.

[Guest Caractacus Potts]

47 minutes ago, Shadwell Dog said:

Aye old yogi lost the plot that season.  My biggest issue was always his team's complete lack of competitivenes between the 1st of January and the split. We were awful every season during that period when latapy would disappear and he'd replace one or two decent players with complete dross in the January window. Always killed any chance of a top 6 finish. Seemed to have the same issue at Hibs too.

I always think the problem with a team that plays possession football is that the key to its success relies on one or two playmakers. Once teams suss out how to nullify those players or they lose form then results start to dwindle. 

[Shadwell Dog]

8 minutes ago, Caractacus Potts said:

I always think the problem with a team that plays possession football is that the key to its success relies on one or two playmakers. Once teams suss out how to nullify those players or they lose form then results start to dwindle. 

Replacing the likes of Stokes and Thomson with dross like Finnigan and McBride certainly never helped either.