The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[Steven Glansberg]

2 hours ago, Ric said:

McGrath is a great addition. Surprised he never broke through at Wigan as it's clearly a level he could cope with. No problem with him going to United, after all we weren't in the running for him. Not sure who takes United's penalties but that's going to change pretty soon.

 

Except it's clearly not a level he could cope with if he's back up the road already. He's not good enough for the English Championship. 

[SuperSaints1877]

Ronan great player at our level, but I just don’t see him cutting it in the EPL with Wolves. Hope I’m proved wrong though. I never thought Kenny McLean would play in the EPL.

[Ric]

6 minutes ago, Steven Glansberg said:

He's not good enough for the English Championship.

Conjecture, imo.

 

As it is, he's a decent player for this league and that's all that matters.

 

[FTOF]

29 minutes ago, Lex said:

 

Yep having a quality player in the team who will regularly score important goals will always be the difference in a league where there’s not much between 8-9 teams. Last season it was Ronan, the season before it was McGrath.
This season we don’t have a player like that and it seems like the 3-5-2 system he is intent on playing won’t allow for one. So we get games like Arbroath and Motherwell where we dominate both, but we don’t have that bit of quality to score and we lose them.
It doesn’t bode well.

 

I take it that you've changed your mind regarding Kiltie?

What's changed your mind?

 

[Billy Jean King]

Yep having a quality player in the team who will regularly score important goals will always be the difference in a league where there’s not much between 8-9 teams. Last season it was Ronan, the season before it was McGrath.
This season we don’t have a player like that and it seems like the 3-5-2 system he is intent on playing won’t allow for one. So we get games like Arbroath and Motherwell where we dominate both, but we don’t have that bit of quality to score and we lose them.
It doesn’t bode well.

Plenty time yet, we didn't have Ronan this time last season remember.

[Lex]

I take it that you've changed your mind regarding Kiltie?
What's changed your mind?
 

The formation Robinson is playing. I don’t think Kiltie is in the first choice 11.

[Lex]

Plenty time yet, we didn't have Ronan this time last season remember.

Yep exactly. Let’s hope we sign a player of similar quality before the end of the month.

[FTOF]

7 minutes ago, Lex said:

 

The formation Robinson is playing. I don’t think Kiltie is in the first choice 11.

 

Fair enough.

If that's the case, then signing a Ronan/McGrath type player might not fit in either.

Baccus looks like a player. Maybe, like Ronan, he'll add goals to his repertoire. Ronan's scoring record before he arrived at us was almost non-existent.

 

 

[NorthBank]

McGrath is a good player. His last season with us he rarely saw the ball, along with the rest of the midfield, as Jim's one and only tactic was a long ball to the wing backs pushed up the park. The midfield was redundant.

McGrath left us to a team who were settled and winning every week and won the League so there was no way he was going to walk in and change a winning team. Surprised he is not getting a chance this season to see what he can do as he was also a slow starter with us.

Good luck to him. Jim wasted him at the end.

[AW saint]

I do wonder if we are done for this window

[Billy Jean King]

Yep exactly. Let’s hope we sign a player of similar quality before the end of the month.

Got to play the loan market for that little bit of something extra. Robinson hasn't gone there so far so I'm assuming we might see a bit of quality come in via that route but that's far more likely in the dimming embers of the transfer window.

[houston_bud]

I think a loan or two is the most likely addition. I'd be surprised if we brought in any other permanent signings unless we move someone on.

I won't be holding my breath for any loan player to be as good as Ronan though. He was a special player and I hope he goes on and has a good career. Loan signings (like all signings at our level I suppose) are a bit of a lottery. Plenty of talented young guys will find it very difficult when coming up against pros with 100s of first team games. I reckon we've had more underwhelming loan signings than successful ones over the years.

[Coventry Saint]

3 hours ago, houston_bud said:

I think a loan or two is the most likely addition. I'd be surprised if we brought in any other permanent signings unless we move someone on.

I won't be holding my breath for any loan player to be as good as Ronan though. He was a special player and I hope he goes on and has a good career. Loan signings (like all signings at our level I suppose) are a bit of a lottery. Plenty of talented young guys will find it very difficult when coming up against pros with 100s of first team games. I reckon we've had more underwhelming loan signings than successful ones over the years.

Definitely think we've got a bit better at playing the loan game in recent years. If you compiled a top ten of loanees, most would be from the past decade. TBH, most would be the past 5/6 years but the trio of loanees in the cup winning side skews the data slightly.

Off the top of my head, and in no order, Paul McGowan, Isma, Newton, Dummett, Sean McLoughlin, Famewo, Cammy Smith, Liam Smith, Connor Ronan, Harry Davis... have all been, I'd say, very successful for us. I'm not counting Lewis Morgan, and there's probably others I've forgotten.

However, the current model - maybe using a loan player or two to add a bit of quality to an otherwise settled squad - is a WAY better strategy than filling the team with loans in a 'spray and pray ' approach.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

I don't think anyone is saying we will bring in a player of Ronan's quality. We lucked out by convincing him to come and Wolves agreeing to it. If we can pull off a loan of a creative midfield type who is anywhere near Ronan's level then that would definitely be a boost for us.

I've only seen Baccus play the game at the weekend, but he is more of a creative spark than I expected. I had presumed he was a midfield anchor, similar to Erhahon, but his passing looks decent and he makes some really good runs as well and seems to have a decent engine. Probably not up to the attacking level of Ronan, or McGrath for that matter, but far more attacking than I had anticipated, which is a bonus.

I'd be disappointed if we didn't bring in one more creative midfielder before the window closes.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Shuggie_Murray7

[pozbaird]

35 minutes ago, Shuggie_Murray7 said:

I've only seen Baccus play the game at the weekend, but he is more of a creative spark than I expected.

When the red card assault on Baccus happened, I thought he might have been snapped in two. Have you ever seen thinner legs than Baccus’ legs on a fitba’ player? Great engine on him, and he’s off to a good start.

[flyingscot]

17 hours ago, NorthBank said:

McGrath is a good player. His last season with us he rarely saw the ball, along with the rest of the midfield, as Jim's one and only tactic was a long ball to the wing backs pushed up the park. The midfield was redundant.

McGrath left us to a team who were settled and winning every week and won the League so there was no way he was going to walk in and change a winning team. Surprised he is not getting a chance this season to see what he can do as he was also a slow starter with us.

Good luck to him. Jim wasted him at the end.

Aye, Jim failed to manage to sign a replacement for Durmas really, which meant we ended up shelling it in a 3-5-2 as we didn't have a lot of wide players bar fullbacks as you say. 

He sort of fixed it later on by going to a back 4 and bringing in Jay Henderson on the right and McGrath on the left. When McGrath went, he stuck Jordan Jones in there instead but we never saw much of that as he cleared off to Aberdeen soon after. 

[pozbaird]

https://www.stmirren.com/fans-news/4535-use-of-pyrotechnics-2
 

They surely forgot to add the final paragraph to their statement. ‘Would all fans please note. We’ll forget we have taken this strong stance when the Sevco & Sellik come calling. They can do what they like. You just sit on your arses and shut up. They’ll be gone in just over ninety minutes, then we’ll be against pyrotechnics again. Thank you for your understanding in regard to the shitebaggery the authorities will display, until a diddy team comes to the SMiSA Stadium again that is.’

Our town. Our team. Our double standards.

[Biscuits]

26 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

https://www.stmirren.com/fans-news/4535-use-of-pyrotechnics-2
 

They surely forgot to add the final paragraph to their statement. ‘Would all fans please note. We’ll forget we have taken this strong stance when the Sevco & Sellik come calling. They can do what they like. You just sit on your arses and shut up. They’ll be gone in just over ninety minutes, then we’ll be against pyrotechnics again. Thank you for your understanding in regard to the shitebaggery the authorities will display, until a diddy team comes to the SMiSA Stadium again that is.’

Our town. Our team. Our double standards.

Not meaning to start an argument or come across as a dick but what exactly do you expect St Mirren to do if either Rangers or Celtic fans light a flare in our ground?

The police won’t do anything as it takes something very serious for them to go into a crowd for obvious reasons.  CCTV will be checked in an attempt to id the main culprits but other than that I don’t really see what Saints can do about it.  

 

[Torfason]

36 minutes ago, Biscuits said:

Not meaning to start an argument or come across as a dick but what exactly do you expect St Mirren to do if either Rangers or Celtic fans light a flare in our ground?

The police won’t do anything as it takes something very serious for them to go into a crowd for obvious reasons.  CCTV will be checked in an attempt to id the main culprits but other than that I don’t really see what Saints can do about it.  

 

I realize this is a simplistic view but the same as we did against Motherwell.  It just depends if we are willing to staff appropriately. 

[pozbaird]

1 hour ago, Biscuits said:

Not meaning to start an argument or come across as a dick but what exactly do you expect St Mirren to do if either Rangers or Celtic fans light a flare in our ground?

The police won’t do anything as it takes something very serious for them to go into a crowd for obvious reasons.  CCTV will be checked in an attempt to id the main culprits but other than that I don’t really see what Saints can do about it.  

 

Torfason beat me to it. I expect the police, stewards, and the club, to treat everyone in the stadium the same. St Mirren fans, Arbroath fans, Livingston fans, whoever. They don’t though. They haven’t for year after year. I distinctly remember someone on here saying that the police attitude to visiting ‘Old Firm’ fans is just to get them in and out again as quickly as possible. Turn a blind eye, don’t rile them, just get them to fcuk out of their policing patch.

Just as a very simple and easy example. For years, the entire away stand full of visiting ‘OF’ fans stood up throughout the 90 mins. We generally sit in the West Stand anyway, but I witnessed on more than one instance, stewards getting up and moving towards a few Saints fans who had stood up following an on-field incident, and hadn’t yet sat down as quickly as the yellow jacketed stewards wanted. The stewards were waving their arms in a ‘sit down, sit down’ motion. The fans shouted back and pointed at 2,000 in the away stand. Perfectly valid point.

There’s one set of rules for visiting OF fans, and another for everyone else. Can you deny it?