Walking Down The Halbeath Road

[Stellaboz]

Hopefully not the Ross Graham of central midfield. He'll get me wishing for Matty Todd.

[ParsJake]

Tremendous headline-pun potential with his name so for that reason alone I'm buzzing like an old fridge.

[CallumPar]

But I have a feeling that the next contract extension will be Matty Todd, who has shown nothing to suggest he’ll cut it at the club.

Just announced that he’s signed a new contract until 2024. Being ‘homegrown’ is more important than ability at this football club, which is very worrying for the future.

[DAFC.]

Todd being given a new contract. Must say, I'm not seeing what the Pars staff are for giving out these deals to the younger players. 

[101]

Just now, CallumPar said:

Just announced that he’s signed a new contract until 2024. Being ‘homegrown’ is more important than ability at this football club, which is very worrying for the future.

 

I think increasingly we will see young players being given longer deals as the club look to protect their  investment however I think the manager wouldn't be using his budget if he didn't see a future for the players at the club. Hopefully we see the performances he puts in on the training pitch are seen regularly at EEP.

[da_no_1]

Here's an idea - let the guy develop like other clubs seem to do rather than binning him early doors.

If we could maybe go on some sort of half-decent run of form the young guys confidence/form will only grow.

Edited January 18, 2022 by da_no_1

[Rob1885]

Was as good as I've seen him on Saturday there.

[Stoo61]

I assume hes on buttons. 

[CallumPar]

I think increasingly we will see young players being given longer deals as the club look to protect their  investment however I think the manager wouldn't be using his budget if he didn't see a future for the players at the club. Hopefully we see the performances he puts in on the training pitch are seen regularly at EEP.

I get that, but I think the club also have to be quite realistic with things and realise that a small percentage of our youth products will ‘make it’. That’s the nature of any academy. At any given age group, you’re putting together a team of players in the hope that 1 or 2 make the cut. If we’re running our own academy, the club will have to make difficult decisions and release players when they are young, or we will be spending far too much money on salaries for players that just won’t ever be good enough.

As I said before, I was happy enough with the Allan and McCann extensions. But a one year extension for Todd might have been the better option as he’s the one most likely to struggle for game time, assuming we improve our midfield options.

Yogi has openly said that our midfield options aren’t good enough, but out of the 3 contract extensions handed out, 2 of them have been 2 year deals for players in that area of the team. That doesn’t make much sense to me. Those comments suggest that at least one of these 2 players won’t be playing regularly once he has ‘his team’, so why are we tying them both down to 2 year deals? On the other hand, I do appreciate that other people would complain about us only giving out 1 year deals. Can’t please everyone, but I feel like fringe players aren’t worth longer term deals when we’re struggling at the bottom of the championship.

I would be delighted if Todd can kick on and prove himself to be a great midfielder for us. He’s been in/around the team for 3 years now and had a handful of good games. He played well on Saturday and I thought he played well in the Morton game when Shields/Whittaker were in charge. But he’s been poor in between and I think he was deserving of being dropped and is likely to be the player dropped when Dorrans is fully fit and/or we bring in another midfielder.

[101]

21 minutes ago, CallumPar said:

Yogi has openly said that our midfield options aren’t good enough, but out of the 3 contract extensions handed out, 2 of them have been 2 year deals for players in that area of the team. That doesn’t make much sense to me. Those comments suggest that at least one of these 2 players won’t be playing regularly once he has ‘his team’, so why are we tying them both down to 2 year deals? On the other hand, I do appreciate that other people would complain about us only giving out 1 year deals. Can’t please everyone, but I feel like fringe players aren’t worth longer term deals when we’re struggling at the bottom of the championship.

This makes it sound like yogi isn't the one deciding who is getting extensions, which it must be otherwise I suspect he would be offski.

I would imagine Todd won't be on huge money and perhaps Yogi has sussed either he doesn't play well during uncertainty or plays better with increased incentives and has taken steps to do this. 

 

But I would agree that despite Allan being the one that is dropped Todd would be the one I would replace for Dorrans/ Wilson.

[101]

 

 

[DA Baracus]

He isn't good enough.

[CallumPar]

This makes it sound like yogi isn't the one deciding who is getting extensions, which it must be otherwise I suspect he would be offski.
I would imagine Todd won't be on huge money and perhaps Yogi has sussed either he doesn't play well during uncertainty or plays better with increased incentives and has taken steps to do this. 
 
But I would agree that despite Allan being the one that is dropped Todd would be the one I would replace for Dorrans/ Wilson.

Apologies if the wording was poor. Wasn’t meant to come across as if Yogi isn’t deciding on contracts - I agree, if that was the case he would be off. I was just explaining why the 2 year deal didn’t make much sense to me.

As I say, I would be delighted if Todd goes on to prove that this is the right decision, by really kicking on and having a great career. Same goes for the other young players we have. I’m just not sure ‘fringe’ midfielders are worth 2 year deals when the manager has identified that as the weakest area of our team and we are performing well below expectations.

Forgot Wilson existed. For what it’s worth, I’d rather give Todd a deal than him. Not due to ability, just the fact that Todd’s available to play most weeks and Wilson has a total of 3 sub appearances in the last 9 months and has only been fit enough to make the match day squad on one other occasion. Good player, but we can’t ignore the fact he’s never fit.

[smpar]

Todd being given a new contract. Must say, I'm not seeing what the Pars staff are for giving out these deals to the younger players. 

All joking aside, it’s like Hughes and the club are genuinely preparing for League One.

Here's an idea - let the guy develop like other clubs seem to do rather than binning him early doors.
If we could maybe go on some sort of half-decent run of form the young guys confidence/form will only grow.

I agree to an extent. He’ll be on a low wage, so little harm in keeping him on and letting him get some first team action. We’ve let guys like Lewis Spence and Shaun Byrne go at young ages and they’ve gone on to play at a higher level than when they left us.

However, I’d be worried if (and this looks likely) he’s in Hughes’ longer term plans to be one of the first names on the team sheet.

I suppose Todd signing doesn’t mean we aren’t looking/won’t sign other midfielders, so I’ll try not get too wound up about it.

[Rob1885]

Yogi confirming interest in Ambrose. Noticed he was on the bench for St Johnstone tonight. A like for like replacement for Connolly I guess. Could be a stroke of genius or a complete disaster. I'm all for it.

[DAFC.]

Ambrose should skoosh this league. He isn't as bad as people make out. 

[Stellaboz]

[DAFC.]

Ha!

All those plates will be smashed shortly. 

[LowerLeagueFC]

Efe Ambrose would be a great addition, has better grasp of English than John Hughes also

[CallumPar]

I see Fraser Currid’s left to sign a permanent deal with Bo’ness Athletic. We didn’t announce he signed for us, we didn’t announce he left on loan and we now haven’t announced he’s left the club permanently. Even by Grant’s standards, it was a very bizarre signing.