The Queen of the South thread

[queenslad]

1 hour ago, Fae_the_'briggs said:

. I also think we might offer some of the existing players new deals so maybe not have as big a clear-out as last time. Obviously the likes of Shields and Obileye will probably be offered better deals elsewhere but otherwise it maybe not be the massive rebuild we had before this season. 

 

There is a big difference between being offered and a new offer being accepted. I don't know how contracts work but they will be offered £x but feel they may get 2 x £x by waiting to see who else may make an offer. Maybe other clubs have already made offers to these players so they know what they can achieve and we are offering less.

Will QOS not be looking at potential players from league 1 and 2 on the same basis whete  as these clubs may prefer to keep the. It's market forces

[Homer Thompson]

2 hours ago, JessieField said:

I wonder if Johnston and Clark will want to stay if the have to rebuild another entire team at the end of this season? 

I would imagine they will be expecting it. Its just how it is for a club our size and its not likely to change anytime soon.

[Rjc-1988]

I wonder if Johnston and Clark will want to stay if the have to rebuild another entire team at the end of this season? 

It must be a hugely frustrating job managing a club of our size - FT football but on a shoestring budget. The challenge that AJ and SC faced at the start of this season was huge as, understandably, the club adopted a very cautious approach to player retention in a hugely uncertain Covid environment.On top of that the average supporter makes little (or no) allowance for the scale of the rebuild and the lack of finance available. Results are expected immediately and it is not long before the knives are out.

What is not in doubt is the underlying quality of our management’s recruitment - some inspired signings and a really sharp use of the loan market. I would contend that our recruitment has been amongst the best in the league considering the constrained budget.

It has been hugely frustrating and disappointing to lose twice recently to Alloa and play very poorly at Morton as even one victory out of those 3 matches would put us in a strong challenging position. As it is we still have 5 of our Play off rivals to play so still in there. Personally I think it is a big ask for us with more games played and we will probably need 8/9 points + from last 5 games unless there is a spate of draws (which is far from impossible).

I hope our Mgt team want to stay and put themselves through another major rebuild. They probably won’t be on anybody’s radar unless we do the unthinkable and get promoted (dreamland stuff). Some Managers like Robbie Neilson seem to get a succession of big jobs but I know who I would rather have managing my club on an ultra low budget formula.

[ATLIS]

I really do wonder if we're asking about Shields as well

8 hours ago, Otis Blue said:

Sorry for being churlish last night, you picked the wrong timing ......... there was me enjoying a very infrequent moment of joy following a good result and in pops someone to say they're about to pinch another of our best players and burst my wee temporary bubble of happiness.

I get that clubs like Queens will always eventually lose their best talent to bigger clubs - that's the nature of the professional game and of course you can't blame the players who naturally want to better themselves and find out how high they can go.  But I get so frustrated when we lose players to the likes of Livi who (as I said earlier) aren't really a huge step up from QOS - don't mind it so much if we lose them to one of the recognisably bigger Scottish sides or to the EPL/Championship.  I guess its more our own fault to be fair in that the club insists in operating in a financially prudent manner, hence why we don't offer long contracts and hence why we will lose our best talent at the end of each season, hence we can never have any continuity and can never build on any success.  As I said, just really frustrating.

As you say ATLIS, it is good though that Livi are willing to work with clubs like QOS to ensure that we also get some return on future sales (eg Dykes).

I think the only reason we are where we are is down to good management and smart ownership. We lost quite a few players even when we went up, Mullin, Longridge and a few more. We had a good run of momentum winning League 1 at a canter and then kept the momentum going. Only thing we possibly did different was using stats based recruitment, Hopkin and Martindale were a good management combo too.

We're at times lucky to be located where we are as it's easy to get players who want to stay here, being 20 minutes from Edinburgh and 40 from Glasgow. At that though, both clubs are similar on attendance and if both were in the same league you'd imagine finances would be the same (prior to the Dykes money). 

It happened to us for years with Scougall, McNulty, Donaldson, Garcia Tena. Any time someone done half decently they'd be off to someone in the same league most of the time. Even Danny Mullen went to St Mirren in the January season we went up with them! We replaced him with Ryan Hardie who was a far better player to be fair though, so hopefully QotS can manage to keep finding gems. 

Livi are the same about insisting on operating on a financially prudent way too, since John Ward came in as CEO he's refused to let us make any loss regardless of how we do. Within the last week we made an agreement with Nixon to finally make us effectively debt free. When we were in League 1 it was a choice of FT or going PT, even then with about 1.7m in debt. All it takes for QotS right now is one good season and you can easily stay in the Premiership for years with the difference in cash available. 

I'm just happy for Livi to finally be shaking the title of an easily hateable financial basketcase of a club. Becoming a likeable underdog and making positive connections with other clubs, helping them out as well. 

[Homer Thompson]

2 hours ago, Rjc-1988 said:

 

It must be a hugely frustrating job managing a club of our size - FT football but on a shoestring budget. The challenge that AJ and SC faced at the start of this season was huge as, understandably, the club adopted a very cautious approach to player retention in a hugely uncertain Covid environment.On top of that the average supporter makes little (or no) allowance for the scale of the rebuild and the lack of finance available. Results are expected immediately and it is not long before the knives are out.

What is not in doubt is the underlying quality of our management’s recruitment - some inspired signings and a really sharp use of the loan market. I would contend that our recruitment has been amongst the best in the league considering the constrained budget.

It has been hugely frustrating and disappointing to lose twice recently to Alloa and play very poorly at Morton as even one victory out of those 3 matches would put us in a strong challenging position. As it is we still have 5 of our Play off rivals to play so still in there. Personally I think it is a big ask for us with more games played and we will probably need 8/9 points + from last 5 games unless there is a spate of draws (which is far from impossible).

I hope our Mgt team want to stay and put themselves through another major rebuild. They probably won’t be on anybody’s radar unless we do the unthinkable and get promoted (dreamland stuff). Some Managers like Robbie Neilson seem to get a succession of big jobs but I know who I would rather have managing my club on an ultra low budget formula.

 

Thats a really interesting point. Normally, you get a few players who dont work out and move on in January or simply dont make the squad. This season, almost everyone has contributed at some point, maybe with the exception of Robinson but even then he was injured. Goss and McKechnie havent featured often but its unlikely either was signed to be regular starters.

[Otis Blue]

3 hours ago, Rjc-1988 said:

What is not in doubt is the underlying quality of our management’s recruitment - some inspired signings and a really sharp use of the loan market. I would contend that our recruitment has been amongst the best in the league considering the constrained budget.

 

54 minutes ago, Mr X said:

Thats a really interesting point. Normally, you get a few players who dont work out and move on in January or simply dont make the squad. This season, almost everyone has contributed at some point, maybe with the exception of Robinson but even then he was injured. Goss and McKechnie havent featured often but its unlikely either was signed to be regular starters.

Fully agree with both of you - by the end of the first third this season there were quite a few being critical of AJ/SC, but as Mr X says unusually most of our signings have turned out well.  AJ and SC have performed wonders this season given the challenge set at the start of the season.  Great use of the loan market a key part of that success too.  There was a thread somewhere trying to rate the managers, but you'd have to think that AJ/SC have to be up there contending for the top spot given their budget etc.  Great work from them both.  Can we expect them to perform similar miracles each season though?

[JessieField]

Seeing as how it's been 58 years since we won at Hearts, I hope we're going to get a highlights package soon.

[JessieField]

Any news about Dapo?

Quote

 

 

[qos1990]

Any news about Dapo?

 

 


Tomorrow I’ve just saw on twitter

[SUPERSOUTH]

22 hours ago, JessieField said:

Any news about Dapo?

 

Dapo has been handed a 6 match ban, 4 immediate & 2 suspended so will miss cup game & next 3 league matches. 

[Broony88]

8 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said:

Dapo has been handed a 6 match ban, 4 immediate & 2 suspended so will miss cup game & next 3 league matches. 

I would say that is a bit of a result for us. 

[die hard doonhamer]

39 minutes ago, Broony88 said:

I would say that is a bit of a result for us. 

I'd agree. Available for the last 2 games of the season, potentially more if we can spring a surprise on Monday.

[Guest Flash]

53 minutes ago, SUPERSOUTH said:

Dapo has been handed a 6 match ban, 4 immediate & 2 suspended so will miss cup game & next 3 league matches. 

So, he misses Hibs (H) (Cup) Inverness (H) Raith (H) and Dunfermline (A).
Back for Ayr (A) and Dundee (H).
If we beat Hibs (I know) he would miss the next Cup game instead and be available for Dunfermline (A).
 

[Northfield 53]

41 minutes ago, die hard doonhamer said:

I'd agree. Available for the last 2 games of the season, potentially more if we can spring a surprise on Monday.

Best we could have expected now do we try and bring in another loan or go with what we have 

[Monkey Tennis]

1 hour ago, Flash said:

So, he misses Hibs (H) (Cup) Inverness (H) Raith (H) and Dunfermline (A).
Back for Ayr (A) and Dundee (H).
If we beat Hibs (I know) he would miss the next Cup game instead and be available for Dunfermline (A).
 

I take it he'd also be available for either type of play-off games?  

 

[ALOREBURNE]

59 minutes ago, Northfield 53 said:

Best we could have expected now do we try and bring in another loan or go with what we have 

What we have is fine. Even if you take away Medube from Saturdays squad, our bench was strong.  The return of Jones and Pybus soon possibly too and we should be positive about looking up the table with the players available. 

[Guest Flash]

1 hour ago, Monkey Tennis said:

I take it he'd also be available for either type of play-off games?  

Aye.

1 hour ago, ALOREBURNE said:

What we have is fine. Even if you take away Medube from Saturdays squad, our bench was strong.  The return of Jones and Pybus soon possibly too and we should be positive about looking up the table with the players available. 

Did Johnston say in his interview after the Hearts game that Jones is back training with the squad tomorrow? It was difficult to make out what he was saying. If so, he might make the bench on Monday or, at least, be available for the ICT game.

[trotsky27]

I think the club will be doing everything they can, for all players. But certainly there will be interest for both Ayo and Shields from bigger clubs than us.

He’s not Not staying turned a deal down weeks ago

[19QOS19]

He’s not Not staying turned a deal down weeks ago

So is he staying or not?...

[Slipmat]

41 minutes ago, trotsky27 said:

He’s not Not staying turned a deal down weeks ago

Who's not not staying?