The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[Ric]

Just now, Munoz said:

Was always going to be a long shot. 

I'll not lie, the thought had crossed my mind.

It's interesting that Goodwin avoided answering the direct question of whether the captain will be getting a new contract. I've only heard rumours but I've got a feeling, even though he was injured for a fair part of this season, that he was a bit surplus.

[FTOF]

1 hour ago, Ric said:

I'll not lie, the thought had crossed my mind.

It's interesting that Goodwin avoided answering the direct question of whether the captain will be getting a new contract. I've only heard rumours but I've got a feeling, even though he was injured for a fair part of this season, that he was a bit surplus.

I doubt that McGinn will be returning. Even before his injury, it was clear that Goodwin didn't rate him as first XI material. Big wage too. Mullen wil be gone too, given that he nearly joined Dundee in January.

My opinion on players that we should keep or re-sign.If we ever get to re-sign players...………………...

Out of contract players ( will probably have missed a couple).

Re-sign

Flynn Hladky (Not that it will ever happen) Wallace 

Release

McGinn MacKenzie Mullen Andreu Djorkaeff Cooke

Loans

Chabbi - back to Turkey

Jakubiak - Out of contract. Would try to sign

Waters - back to Kilmarnock

Famewo - Back to Norwich. Try to get back next season?

Hodson - Back to Gillingham.

Not sure whether Lyness is out of contract or not, but would be decent back up for new 1st choice 'keeper.

 

 

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by FTOF

[Ric]

38 minutes ago, FTOF said:

I doubt that McGinn will be returning. Even before his injury, it was clear that Goodwin didn't rate him as first XI material. Big wage too. Mullen wil be gone too, given that he nearly joined Dundee in January.

My opinion on players that we should keep or re-sign.If we ever get to re-sign players...………………...

Out of contract players ( will probably have missed a couple).

Re-sign

Flynn Hladky (Not that it will ever happen) Wallace 

Release

McGinn MacKenzie Mullen Andreu Djorkaeff Cooke

Loans

Chabbi - back to Turkey

Jakubiak - Out of contract. Would try to sign

Waters - back to Kilmarnock

Famewo - Back to Norwich. Try to get back next season?

Hodson - Back to Gillingham.

Not sure whether Lyness is out of contract or not, but would be decent back up for new 1st choice 'keeper.

Yeah, I think if we dropped a division then maybe McGinn and Mullen would be an option but I don't now the sorts of deals they are on. Bit of a shame for Mullen as I always felt he was a useful backup. Flynn is an interesting one. He really came onto a game under Goodwin and even did well at RB once (the other) McGinn moved to Hibs. The worry is whether he'll come back as good after such a long layoff. Not sure if he'll get many offers else where though so maybe we can get a pay for play deal going, at least for the first 6 months.

I still sort of hope that Cooke might show something but really not sure about that. I could see Goodwin aiming to bring Hodson back. He's always been dependable and seemed to enjoy his time at the club plus is quite versatile.

Thought the game time given to Famewo may convince Norwich to give him at least another 6 months with us.

Any idea about Baird? I presume he's coming back.

[GAD]

I'm not sure we will keep any of the out of contract players to be honest, apart from Flynn if he wants to stay. I think Hladky will leave for sure (providing someone actually wants him), Ross Wallace will be 35 in a couple of weeks and was only really signed because we were desperate. I think we will probably think we can do better and look for someone a bit younger and longer term, and the rest have really struggled to make a mark this season, with the Covid also denying Gary Mac the chance to do his usual heroic end to the season to make everyone forget he hardly played for most of it. Also, lets be honest, with the current situation it makes sense to cut as much as you can from the wage bill and none of these guys are key players.

For the loanees I think we will try to sign Hodson and probably Jakubiak, though to be honest, I wasn't as sold on Jak as many of our other fans. I though he was a bit headless chicken in all honesty, and his passing was horrendous, on the rare occasion he actually passed. I'd love for Famewo to come back, but I expect given his age and lack of first team football so far, Norwich would rather get him in at another English team, or even keep him themselves as a squad player if they get relegated. I don't think Kilmarnock would loan Waters back to us even if we wanted them to. I personally thought Waters was decent enough and couldn't really understand why he got so much stick. Chabbi never really got the chance. My gut feeling on him was that he was going to come good and might be worth another season, but that's really based on nothing other than a couple of sub appearances.

All this is dependent of course on next season actually happening and St Mirren still being in existence when it does.

[FTOF]

6 minutes ago, Ric said:

Yeah, I think if we dropped a division then maybe McGinn and Mullen would be an option but I don't now the sorts of deals they are on. Bit of a shame for Mullen as I always felt he was a useful backup. Flynn is an interesting one. He really came onto a game under Goodwin and even did well at RB once (the other) McGinn moved to Hibs. The worry is whether he'll come back as good after such a long layoff. Not sure if he'll get many offers else where though so maybe we can get a pay for play deal going, at least for the first 6 months.

I still sort of hope that Cooke might show something but really not sure about that. I could see Goodwin aiming to bring Hodson back. He's always been dependable and seemed to enjoy his time at the club plus is quite versatile.

Thought the game time given to Famewo may convince Norwich to give him at least another 6 months with us.

Any idea about Baird? I presume he's coming back.

Baird is signed until June '21.

However, he'll be made available to other clubs, as Goodwin doesn't rate him.

He might not want to go though.

 

Edited May 17, 2020 by FTOF

[GAD]

4 minutes ago, Ric said:

Yeah, I think if we dropped a division then maybe McGinn and Mullen would be an option but I don't now the sorts of deals they are on. Bit of a shame for Mullen as I always felt he was a useful backup. Flynn is an interesting one. He really came onto a game under Goodwin and even did well at RB once (the other) McGinn moved to Hibs. The worry is whether he'll come back as good after such a long layoff. Not sure if he'll get many offers else where though so maybe we can get a pay for play deal going, at least for the first 6 months.

I still sort of hope that Cooke might show something but really not sure about that. I could see Goodwin aiming to bring Hodson back. He's always been dependable and seemed to enjoy his time at the club plus is quite versatile.

Thought the game time given to Famewo may convince Norwich to give him at least another 6 months with us.

Any idea about Baird? I presume he's coming back.

I think with Baird, under normal circumstances he be a great signing for a championship club and we would be easy to deal with, but right now there is probably nowhere for him to go, especially as I expect he would be on a fairly decent wage at that level.

[Ric]

3 minutes ago, FTOF said:

Baird is signed until June '21.

However, he'll be made available to other clubs, as Goodwin doesn't rate him.

 

 

2 minutes ago, GAD said:

I think with Baird, under normal circumstances he be a great signing for a championship club and we would be easy to deal with, but right now there is probably nowhere for him to go, especially as I expect he would be on a fairly decent wage at that level.

Baird played a lot better when next to McKenzie, I'm not sure he is a first team starter but not a bad player to have around.

If it's a money thing, or just that Goodwin doesn't fancy him then are we as well just letting him go?

[GAD]

3 minutes ago, Ric said:

 

Baird played a lot better when next to McKenzie, I'm not sure he is a first team starter but not a bad player to have around.

If it's a money thing, or just that Goodwin doesn't fancy him then are we as well just letting him go?

I don't think we can just let him go if he's under contract, we'd have to pay him off. If someone else wanted to sign him it would be a lot easier.

[Ric]

Just now, GAD said:

I don't think we can just let him go if he's under contract, we'd have to pay him off. If someone else wanted to sign him it would be a lot easier.

Yeah, I appreciate that, we'd need to do some sort of deal. Not sure how well he did at Morton. Some posters seemed to like him, some didn't but I didn't follow it his time down there that closely.

[pozbaird]

As a season ticket holder who just renewed this week, Goody can keep or release whoever he wants. I give him my full backing. I won’t be watching any of them anyway. Easy the invisible Mirren men.... from behind sofa every Saturday with Open All Lockdown Mics on...... ‘FFS whoever you are, get it sorted’.

Edited May 17, 2020 by pozbaird

[djchapsticks]

1 hour ago, GAD said:

I'm not sure we will keep any of the out of contract players to be honest, apart from Flynn if he wants to stay. I think Hladky will leave for sure (providing someone actually wants him), Ross Wallace will be 35 in a couple of weeks and was only really signed because we were desperate. I think we will probably think we can do better and look for someone a bit younger and longer term, and the rest have really struggled to make a mark this season, with the Covid also denying Gary Mac the chance to do his usual heroic end to the season to make everyone forget he hardly played for most of it. Also, lets be honest, with the current situation it makes sense to cut as much as you can from the wage bill and none of these guys are key players.

For the loanees I think we will try to sign Hodson and probably Jakubiak, though to be honest, I wasn't as sold on Jak as many of our other fans. I though he was a bit headless chicken in all honesty, and his passing was horrendous, on the rare occasion he actually passed. I'd love for Famewo to come back, but I expect given his age and lack of first team football so far, Norwich would rather get him in at another English team, or even keep him themselves as a squad player if they get relegated. I don't think Kilmarnock would loan Waters back to us even if we wanted them to. I personally thought Waters was decent enough and couldn't really understand why he got so much stick. Chabbi never really got the chance. My gut feeling on him was that he was going to come good and might be worth another season, but that's really based on nothing other than a couple of sub appearances.

All this is dependent of course on next season actually happening and St Mirren still being in existence when it does.

Flynn, with a cruciate ligament injury that was going to keep him out for most of 2020 and now being in his 30s was always going to be at risk for release unfortunately. Shame as he's been superb for us in the last year and a half. 

Jakubiak, I'd definitely try and get. He was excellent foil for Obika who definitely benefitted from a partner up top doing the legwork. 

Hodson, we've no chance of. Sure I read he's on £8k a week at Gillingham. Fucking mental money in league one if true and part of the reason that this epidemic will annihilate English lower league football. 

Wallace did a very decent job but I agree, at 35 and with what will surely be a massively extended pre season behind him, he's going to struggle. In fact, I'd be keen on avoiding players approaching mid 30s in general just now. A poor pre-season can kill a lot of guys of that age at the best of times (remember Thommo when he came back for 2014/15) so I wouldn't fancy risking a talented player at 34, 35 who hasn't kicked a ball or done any real structured training for potentially 6-8 months. 

Like most clubs in the league, we will surely be going with a smaller number of first team squad players next season and heavily supplemented by younger lads until football is back into the full swing of things. 

I also don't think there is any imminent danger of us going down the tubes. I've heard we are relatively strongly positioned financially to see us through towards the end of the year once prize money is distributed. 

[GAD]

20 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Flynn, with a cruciate ligament injury that was going to keep him out for most of 2020 and now being in his 30s was always going to be at risk for release unfortunately. Shame as he's been superb for us in the last year and a half. 

Jakubiak, I'd definitely try and get. He was excellent foil for Obika who definitely benefitted from a partner up top doing the legwork. 

Hodson, we've no chance of. Sure I read he's on £8k a week at Gillingham. Fucking mental money in league one if true and part of the reason that this epidemic will annihilate English lower league football. 

Wallace did a very decent job but I agree, at 35 and with what will surely be a massively extended pre season behind him, he's going to struggle. In fact, I'd be keen on avoiding players approaching mid 30s in general just now. A poor pre-season can kill a lot of guys of that age at the best of times (remember Thommo when he came back for 2014/15) so I wouldn't fancy risking a talented player at 34, 35 who hasn't kicked a ball or done any real structured training for potentially 6-8 months. 

Like most clubs in the league, we will surely be going with a smaller number of first team squad players next season and heavily supplemented by younger lads until football is back into the full swing of things. 

I also don't think there is any imminent danger of us going down the tubes. I've heard we are relatively strongly positioned financially to see us through towards the end of the year once prize money is distributed. 

Yeah, I did think about that with Flynn, but he's not that old I don't think, only 31, so I think he can come back and his versatility is important if we are going with a smaller squad. I expect we won't offer him anything until he proves his fitness.

I had no idea Hodson was on that amount of money. That's fucking mental.

I don't really think there is danger of us going under either, even without the maroon or blue pound.

[Ric]

I'd be tempted with a pay for play deal with Flynn. I think many people remember him from being a winger years ago and when he rocked up at Greenhill Road I think many still expected that of him, but after seeing him put in a shift in midfield and covering so ably at full back I think he's earned the right to play. All depends on his mentality and fitness. That said, that's the same for any player.

@djchapsticks Any idea what sort of wages Famewo was/is on? I wouldn't want to put all our eggs into one basket but for me he'd be worth seeing if a return was possible.

Wonder what Popescu is up to these days..

[FTOF]

10 minutes ago, Ric said:

I'd be tempted with a pay for play deal with Flynn. I think many people remember him from being a winger years ago and when he rocked up at Greenhill Road I think many still expected that of him, but after seeing him put in a shift in midfield and covering so ably at full back I think he's earned the right to play. All depends on his mentality and fitness. That said, that's the same for any player.

@djchapsticks Any idea what sort of wages Famewo was/is on? I wouldn't want to put all our eggs into one basket but for me he'd be worth seeing if a return was possible.

Wonder what Popescu is up to these days..

Given the leaps and bounds that surgery to repair ACL injuries has experienced over the years, I'd be very surprised if a 31 year old would even entertain that type of deal, even in these difficult times.

Given his versatility and his form over the past 18 months, I'd be surprised if he wasn't one of the few being offered a new contract.

Popescu played regularly for Dinamo Bucharest last season and is contracted until June '21. Never going to happen I'm afraid.

Given that he's probably got unfinished business with us, I could see why Famewo might want to come back up.

Goodwin said we had six targets identified, but ,for obvious reasons, we weren't in a position to move forward with them.

 

 

[Ric]

14 minutes ago, FTOF said:

Given the leaps and bounds that surgery to repair ACL injuries has experienced over the years, I'd be very surprised if a 31 year old would even entertain that type of deal, even in these difficult times.

Given his versatility and his form over the past 18 months, I'd be surprised if he wasn't one of the few being offered a new contract.

That's good to know. I do think he's got something to offer.

[djchapsticks]

54 minutes ago, Ric said:

I'd be tempted with a pay for play deal with Flynn. I think many people remember him from being a winger years ago and when he rocked up at Greenhill Road I think many still expected that of him, but after seeing him put in a shift in midfield and covering so ably at full back I think he's earned the right to play. All depends on his mentality and fitness. That said, that's the same for any player.

@djchapsticks Any idea what sort of wages Famewo was/is on? I wouldn't want to put all our eggs into one basket but for me he'd be worth seeing if a return was possible.

Wonder what Popescu is up to these days..

No idea.

I'd love Popescu back but think we can put paid to notion of bringing in many foreign players from here on out. 

Foreign travel restrictions will be in place for a relatively long time, coupled with Brexit going to make it harder for foreign players coming over unless they are on wages way beyond our scope. 

[Ric]

2 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

No idea.

I'd love Popescu back but think we can put paid to notion of bringing in many foreign players from here on out. 

Foreign travel restrictions will be in place for a relatively long time, coupled with Brexit going to make it harder for foreign players coming over unless they are on wages way beyond our scope. 

That's a very fair point. My Popescu comment was a little tongue in cheek, but as @FTOF says he was a regular with Bucharest anyway.

I listened to Goody on Sportsound today and he mentioned we have 12 players contracted for the coming season (whenever that happens) I presume that's senior players. I honestly don't know but I'm guessing we'll be moving some up from the youth ranks to fill in some of the gaps as well as looking to get more on board.

Any idea how Erhahon did down at Barnsley? Checking their website, it doesn't look like he got any game time.

[djchapsticks]

7 minutes ago, Ric said:

That's a very fair point. My Popescu comment was a little tongue in cheek, but as @FTOF says he was a regular with Bucharest anyway.

I listened to Goody on Sportsound today and he mentioned we have 12 players contracted for the coming season (whenever that happens) I presume that's senior players. I honestly don't know but I'm guessing we'll be moving some up from the youth ranks to fill in some of the gaps as well as looking to get more on board.

Any idea how Erhahon did down at Barnsley? Checking their website, it doesn't look like he got any game time.

Was a development loan. Think he played regularly for their U23 side which was all it was ever going to be.

I'd have Ethan back in a heartbeat. We did the lad a disservice by continuing to play him at let back. Folk forget just how young he still is. He only turned 19 last week.

[Ric]

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

He only turned 19 last week.

Talking of age, I'm surprised Cooke is so old I honestly thought he was 3 or 4 years younger. McAllister on the other hand I thought was 2 or 3 years older!

[Coventry Saint]

8 hours ago, Ric said:

Talking of age, I'm surprised Cooke is so old I honestly thought he was 3 or 4 years younger. McAllister on the other hand I thought was 2 or 3 years older!

Yeah, I had Cooke pegged as 'one for the future' until someone pointed out his age!

As pointed out above, Brexit and Corona could really create a perfect storm in terms of reducing the selection, and therefore the quality, of players available to all Scottish teams. It will also completely wipe out transfer budgets of the sort of teams that typically buy from Scotland (ie Championship/League One in England).

Also, we don't yet know what impact it's going to have on people's willingness/ability to relocate. It's one thing doing social distancing in your own town, but imagine doing that in a strange place (if you're someone like Famewo, for example). It might be that teams such as ours, and others of a similar size, have to look a lot closer to home to fill squads for a couple of years.

It wouldn't surprise me if Jim has to readjust his views on Jack Baird, as the most obvious example, and I certainly hope Erhahon will get his chance as a DM.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Coventry Saint