The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[Insaintee]

1 hour ago, GAD said:

I think part of the problem was that MacPherson's teams were a bit boring. Even when we won the league it was a pretty hard working, hard to beat team. The season we won the league, if we were 1-0 up you were pretty confident we were winning. We didn't really blow teams away like we did under Hendrie or Ross. Whenever you see one of these all time XI or favourite ever players discussions on here the guys who played in MacPherson's teams never feature as highly as the 99/00 team, 11-14 Lennon team or even the Ross era, and some of those that do, like Van Zanten, S. McGinn and Murray are more in it for things they did in other teams mentioned.

Still, I started supporting St Mirren in the late 80s, and most of my teenage and early 20s St Mirren were a shit championship team mostly fighting relegation to league 1. We were as relevant as Morton. Gus was the one that got us out if that.

Yip Gus had us set up a bit like Hamilton Accies or earlier Livi teams. We basically shit fested our way to safety (and no more) every season. TBF our teams were not that great and probably needed to..  I was looking at our back line Saturday and thought it was not that long ago that we would be putting out a back line  of Potter, Mair, Broadfoot, Millan McAusland, 

[ZingaliMan]

Ross and  MacPherson , Goodwin included all did a good job for us. Always felt Ross left to early as has Goodwin though understandable why they moved on. Although it's early days I think Robinson is better than any of these three managers time will tell. 

[Drooper]

Jack Ross was out his depth at Sunderland, and has been playing catch up since then. It was a mis-step, but an entirely understandable one.

He left when his stock was high. Fair enough. I think he was a good fit for a club like St Mirren, and would have done well to stay a bit longer to cut his teeth in our top tier, but that's easy for me to say.

I have no ill-will towards him, but no great sympathy either. He believed in the mythology that had developed around him, and overstretched, but you can't knock his ambition and self-belief.

[GAD]

2 hours ago, Insaintee said:

Yip Gus had us set up a bit like Hamilton Accies or earlier Livi teams. We basically shit fested our way to safety (and no more) every season. TBF our teams were not that great and probably needed to..  I was looking at our back line Saturday and thought it was not that long ago that we would be putting out a back line  of Potter, Mair, Broadfoot, Millan McAusland, 

I actually think prime Broadfoot would walk into our current side in all honesty. I think that's another part of the reason MacPherson's reign isn't looked on as fondly, some of the guys who were big players in his sides are seen as total wankers by our fans these days. If you were doing one of those "best teams of the last 20 years" or whatever, then Broadfoot should probably be in there, but he never is, because everyone thinks he's a dick.

[Drooper]

18 minutes ago, GAD said:

I actually think prime Broadfoot would walk into our current side in all honesty. I think that's another part of the reason MacPherson's reign isn't looked on as fondly, some of the guys who were big players in his sides are seen as total wankers by our fans these days. If you were doing one of those "best teams of the last 20 years" or whatever, then Broadfoot should probably be in there, but he never is, because everyone thinks he's a dick.

He is a dick, to be fair. That said, he pretty much kept St Mirren up in his last season with us, despite the PCA.

It's interesting when you think about the impact key players have had on the fortunes of the club, especially when considering the perceived success or otherwise of their managers at the time.

Broadfoot was central to our survival that season (notably his Roy of the Rovers performance at Tannadice). Ricky Gillies almost kept us up after Hendrie got us promoted, and would have done but for United buying themselves out of trouble. Losing Kenny McLean (our top scorer) on the last day of the January window all but relegated us. Steven McGinn should be credited with a central role in keeping us in the 2nd tier and securing the subsequent promotion to the top. Hladky kept us up under Kearney. 

For all the talk of the managers who were in post during these key periods, these players (in McLean's case, his absence) contributed massively to how things ultimately panned out.

[Bobby_F]

13 minutes ago, Drooper said:

He is a dick, to be fair. That said, he pretty much kept St Mirren up in his last season with us, despite the PCA.

It's interesting when you think about the impact key players have had on the fortunes of the club, especially when considering the perceived success or otherwise of their managers at the time.

Broadfoot was central to our survival that season (notably his Roy of the Rovers performance at Tannadice). Ricky Gillies almost kept us up after Hendrie got us promoted, and would have done but for United buying themselves out of trouble. Losing Kenny McLean (our top scorer) on the last day of the January window all but relegated us. Steven McGinn should be credited with a central role in keeping us in the 2nd tier and securing the subsequent promotion to the top. Hladky kept us up under Kearney. 

For all the talk of the managers who were in post during these key periods, these players (in McLean's case, his absence) contributed massively to how things ultimately panned out.

I don't think Main or Hartley actually took any payment.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Any updates on Josh Reid? It’s all gone very quiet.

[Stu]

Gus did a great job for us. It wasn't pretty but he dragged out of the mire, got us promoted then established us. The football was nowhere near as exciting as it was in 1999/2000 but maybe that's why it gave us a far better base for avoiding promotion the year after. He was perhaps lucky to get another chance after his penultimate season where we stayed up by the skin of our teeth after winning just twice in the league following the turn of the year. His tenure can perhaps be compared to the previous board - went really well for the majority and greatly benefited the club but went stale towards the end and it was time for a change.

Ross also did a great job for us - even though he was partly responsible for digging the massive hole we found ourselves at the end of 2017. The second half of that season was just a wild ride. Pretty much every game was win or bust so there was no point on a Gus-style approach of trying to shitfest it and grind out points, we had to go for it - and we did. The home games against Ayr and Raith Rovers were just insane. Opposition fans said there was no way that team should have been in a relegation battle - but it wasn't that team that had got us in the mess in the first place. You just knew after we stayed up that if we could keep the side together we had a really good chance the following season. I think Mallan, Loy and O'Brien was the only major players we lost - we replaced the latter two and Morgan's full emergence more than made up for Mallan's departure. I have no ill will against Ross - doesn't mean I haven't found how his Dundee United tenure went, especially giving them a 3-0 doing.

So, Gus and Jack - great work and great for St Mirren despite how it ended.

[aldo_j]

1 hour ago, Drooper said:

Jack Ross was out his depth at Sunderland, and has been playing catch up since then. It was a mis-step, but an entirely understandable one.

He left when his stock was high. Fair enough. I think he was a good fit for a club like St Mirren, and would have done well to stay a bit longer to cut his teeth in our top tier, but that's easy for me to say.

I have no ill-will towards him, but no great sympathy either. He believed in the mythology that had developed around him, and overstretched, but you can't knock his ambition and self-belief.

Yeah, broadly my feelings.

Ross came across as a good man manager, but as sharp tactically. That was good enough for Scottish Championship and with players like Morgan and McGinn, but he needed to develop up a level.

He’s consistently been found out tactically and in big games since then, hence where he’s ended up. If rumours of dressing room unrest at United are true, he’s failed at his one big strength. 

[Spam_Valley]

MacPherson gets a hard time because he's a total arsehole of a bloke that treated the clubs fans with utter contempt from the beginning.

Ross gets a hard time because he fed us 'this is just the beginning' whilst he knew fine well he was away as soon as he could and had his agents working in the background before the season had finished. He also more or less made Samson retire leaving us with no goal keeper at a pivotal point in the season,  and then all the Hibernian player and staff nonsense. Nobody would knock back Sunderland at that time but the way he stitched us up was as snide as you can get.

[pozbaird]

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Gus did a great job for us. It wasn't pretty but he dragged out of the mire, got us promoted then established us. The football was nowhere near as exciting as it was in 1999/2000 but maybe that's why it gave us a far better base for avoiding promotion the year after. He was perhaps lucky to get another chance after his penultimate season where we stayed up by the skin of our teeth after winning just twice in the league following the turn of the year. His tenure can perhaps be compared to the previous board - went really well for the majority and greatly benefited the club but went stale towards the end and it was time for a change.

Ross also did a great job for us - even though he was partly responsible for digging the massive hole we found ourselves at the end of 2017. The second half of that season was just a wild ride. Pretty much every game was win or bust so there was no point on a Gus-style approach of trying to shitfest it and grind out points, we had to go for it - and we did. The home games against Ayr and Raith Rovers were just insane. Opposition fans said there was no way that team should have been in a relegation battle - but it wasn't that team that had got us in the mess in the first place. You just knew after we stayed up that if we could keep the side together we had a really good chance the following season. I think Mallan, Loy and O'Brien was the only major players we lost - we replaced the latter two and Morgan's full emergence more than made up for Mallan's departure. I have no ill will against Ross - doesn't mean I haven't found how his Dundee United tenure went, especially giving them a 3-0 doing.

So, Gus and Jack - great work and great for St Mirren despite how it ended.

When we were doing the ‘Final Chapter’ book, we interviewed and took some photos with Gus. I was also at a Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Service function one time, where Gus was at another table near ours. Some bloke with a drink in him was giving a lassie at Gus’ table unwanted attention, may or may not have been a relation, but Gus dealt with him. Put it this way. I wouldn’t want to cross Gus MacPherson or get in his bad books.

[Torfason]

I liked Gus, yes he is a bit dour but our fans are not the easiest to please either. The interesting part is his ex players like him……..Danny Lennon on the other hand

[Buttocks Brown]

3 hours ago, Shuggie_Murray7 said:

Any updates on Josh Reid? It’s all gone very quiet.

I happened to meet a close friend of the Reids the other day. 

Said that Josh is a Rangers fan but not at the same level as his old man. Signing for Celtic would not be a problem.

The reason why he didn't go in July was because he was under the impression that he'd get game time for us in the Premiership. Obviously that hasn't happened so perhaps that's why there's chat of the Celtic deal being back on. Guaranteed Lowland League game every Saturday....

Apparently he fancies going to England but it doesn't look like there's any interest at the moment.

[Kempes]

I'm sure he was asking about the Coventry player, Josh Reid, not our sought after midfielder...

[Buttocks Brown]

2 hours ago, Kempes said:

I'm sure he was asking about the Coventry player, Josh Reid, not our sought after midfielder...

Sorry, misread. Yeah I was speaking about Dylan.

[FTOF]

Seems strange not to be panicking or being excited about who we're going to sign before the deadline.

Ideally we'd sign a LWB for cover, but we could probably get by without one to a certain extent.

[GAD]

10 hours ago, FTOF said:

Seems strange not to be panicking or being excited about who we're going to sign before the deadline.

Ideally we'd sign a LWB for cover, but we could probably get by without one to a certain extent.

Yeah, Tait has been pretty good. I'm not actually sure he drops out for Tanser right now even if Tanser is fit. It's just wether you are confident in him doing that job long term or not I suppose.

Probably depends on Shaughnessy leaving. If he does I expect we will sign a new LB and Tait will become general cover for the whole back 5. That's probably a better balance tbh, as at the moment Strain and Tanser being injured would be a disaster.

[CambieBud]

Anything happening today? Very quiet 

[Shuggie_Murray7]

It would be nice to bring in a but of defensive cover, especial a left FB/WB, as Tanser is quite injury prone. Tait has been very good there, but I’d rather a naturally left sided player there.

That being said, if we do no more business then I’m actually very happy with our squad.

[Coventry Saint]

I still reckon Dylan Reid will be away. He's probably seventh choice for one of the middle three slots after O'Hara, Baccus, Gogic, Erhahon, Kiltie & Flynn. He can't afford to be sitting about for another season.

I also wonder if Jay Henderson will go out on loan. Real shame but can't see him getting any minutes in a 3-5-2. Sadly, same goes for Fraser Taylor. It's annoying because we all want young players to get game time but the stakes are always so high. You couldn't have dropped someone into the game on Saturday, for example .

 

As for incoming players, I'm happy to run with what we've got so won't be too upset if nothing else happens.