Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[NYD1997]

 

17 minutes ago, Costanza said:

Steve Grieve away………

[mizfit]

Now that’s interesting.

We’ll never know the full story, but can’t see it being a mutual split considering no official statement from the club.

[PauloPerth]

Can’t say it’s a huge loss, as I can’t think of any of the many players we’ve brought in over this season who is an improvement on what was here before, with the probable exception of Cleary as he’s provided consistency in the back three.

Our best players are the ones that were already here.

[PSJ.84]

Strange of him to say he’s leaving the team in a good place when we are 11th, six points from safety. I’d still rather he, or somebody in his ilk, was there than have Callum preside over the summer dealings himself right enough 

[mizfit]

Strange of him to say he’s leaving the team in a good place when we are 11th, six points from safety. I’d still rather he, or somebody in his ilk, was there than have Callum preside over the summer dealings himself right enough 

Apparently the new boy wants a new scouting network in place.

Could be interesting times ahead. I do agree with above comment, Cleary has been head and shoulders above everyone else we used in the position this season. Hallberg decent, but apart from them, it’s all a bit of meh, or waiting to see what Mahon, Bair and the lesser see Jamal Hector Ingram can do.

[FrankChickens1]

In my head  I'm keeping it as he's gone for Le Tissier style issues, but obviously I know it's not that

[The Saintee]

No great loss IMO.

[RandomGuy.]

45 minutes ago, mizfit said:

waiting to see what Mahon, Bair can do.

Maybe they'll get minutes now that the manager doesn't need to try and prove a point...

[RandomGuy.]

Worried about our future.

We have a massive, bloated, expensive squad that lacks quality in depth. A manager who's been in charge two years and can't identify or resolve our lack of goals. A handful of key players seem likely to leave this Summer, and we're now relying on Callum Davidson learning from last Summer and being proactive in replacing them, as he's just forced the person out the club who was doing that work for him.

Even if we survive this season I think the balls already rolling unless we do something major this Summer, which we won't if we stay up. Rock and a hard place for me, relegation in the next few years now feels inevitable. 

Looking forward to replacing McCart with Andy Considine, with him becomes our highest earner.

Edited April 7, 2022 by RandomGuy.

[mizfit]

I’d take Considine tbf.

[RandomGuy.]

2 minutes ago, mizfit said:

I’d take Considine tbf.

He's 35 and hasn't played for 8 months as he blew his ACL apart.

[SuperSaints1877]

3 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

He's 35 and hasn't played for 8 months as he blew his ACL apart.

Find it incredible that Considone turned down the initial contract offer from the Dons. Footballers and agents IQs are often not much bigger than their shoe size.

[The Saintee]

I wonder what Cautious Callum's pet journalists will say about this 

[Costanza]

Modesty is probably SG's most endearing quality. 

[Saint Huck]

5 hours ago, Theyellowbox said:

Changing topic, Davidson praising Ciftci after the weekend both baffles and concerns me. He worked much harder than he has been, but in reality contributed very little if that is passable by Davidson, then the bar is way way to low.

Could be he's trying to justify an expensive signing

[shibbydoo]

5 hours ago, Theyellowbox said:

If we do get relegated it will be nothing other than self inflicted, which in some ways is harder to take because we had great opportunities to strengthen in the summer and didn't vs a bitter relegation like Hearts had a few years back that galvanised the following season.

IF we go down (and I actually don't think we will), then I'm not convinced we come right back up with these players and coaches.

Get to the summer, stay up and then some difficult conversations need to be had. IF we persist with Davidson, the backroom staff needs changing and we need to be ruthless and clear out some long serving stale players. Otherwise, we will be back here in 10 months.

IF we do go down, we cannot be loyal to some of the players.

Changing topic, Davidson praising Ciftci after the weekend both baffles and concerns me. He worked much harder than he has been, but in reality contributed very little if that is passable by Davidson, then the bar is way way to low.

The last paragraph is why Callum has to go. Ciftci was mince.

[Theyellowbox]

16 minutes ago, Saint Huck said:

Could be he's trying to justify an expensive signing

Quite probably. Ciftci will deffinately be a CD signing. Bair, E2 and Mahon likely not to be. Not a massive stretch to join the dots to SG's leaving. 

[Mr Heliums]

3 minutes ago, shibbydoo said:

Ciftci was mince.

Yeah, I had sympathy with Cifti  to an extent on Saturday because all he was feeding on was daft high balls. But it's a stretch and a half to say he did well. It's this sort of shite that Davidson comes out with that makes me lose faith with him. You want to support him if he recognise where things are going wrong. But that's nearly a season of dire football and it's quite clear he can't - or won't - see what others see.

[Kyle]

If we go down, I think Considine makes a lot of sense. If we stay, not so sure. One you’d probably want to take a look at on trial before committing to a contract, but then he’ll feel he’s got nothing to prove. 
 

In respect of Grieve, I’m disappointed at how this has all panned out. Tommy Wright asked for a Head of Recruitment years ago, specifically did an interview on it to try and convince the chairman to do it. It finally happens a year after he leaves  and you’ve got to wonder if the current manager ever really bought into the idea. From the outside looking in, it certainly didn’t always seem like a knitted together strategy. I can’t see the the person who wanted the likes of Bair, Vertainen, Cleary etc being the same person who wanted Crawford, Ciftci as an example. I’d like to have been a fly on the wall when they were discussing targets. 

I actually think the club had a good January. Jury’s out on some players and others haven’t had a chance yet, but they pulled together a decent selection of players. I’d have been interested to see what Grieve/Davidson could’ve pulled together in the summer, when the prices aren’t so high and there loads more options available.

Hope this isn’t just an excuse to have a scapegoat for this disastrous season. Grieve didn’t come into the club until the end of July so it’s pretty hard to blame him for the summer (and the previous 2 windows) which caused most of the damage to the squad. He also doesn’t pick the team. Still feel that, regardless of what happens this season now, a full review has to take place at the end of the season. Things have to change at the club, off the pitch everything has felt very half arsed for a long time now (what other club in Scotland would do absolutely nothing to celebrate a cup double with their fans, for example) and on the pitch 21 home league goals in 2 seasons too is just dreadful and that’s the games people pay to see when they buy a season ticket. More positivity, more engagement both off and on the pitch is the minimum requirement. 

[RandomGuy.]

17 minutes ago, Mr Heliums said:

You want to support him if he recognise where things are going wrong.

This Summer will cement my feelings on him. Just now I've seen literally nothing to suggest he's learned anything from this season beyond buying decent players instead of shite ones helps, and even then he's bound himself to dross like Crawford and Ciftci by signing and playing them.

Even in January he was reluctant to actually sign people early because he's convinced quality will pop up late in the window. It worked out fine because Hallberg, eventually, said yes this time, but it could quite easily have gone the other way and we'd have seen Charlie Gilmour wedged in to try and turn our season around.

If we lose Clark, McCart, Rooney, Craig and Hendry in the Summer he needs to have replacements in before the season starts, with some of them playing at least a couple of friendlies ideally. We can't afford to f**k about with past it injury prone duds or signing kids on loan again, it's not how a top flight club should operate.

Honestly I'm just bored of the shite football, shite signings, and shite interviews. I'm genuinely delighted things are happening in my life which means I can push Saints well down the pecking order as there's just zero appeal to the club at the moment.