The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[Virtual Insanity]

Any ideas what offers he has on the table? Would be an ideal signing for us if we came up. 

[SS77]

7 minutes ago, NorthBank said:

Gutted that Joe is leaving. He still has loads to offer us and would have stayed if a 2 year deal.

Really don’t think we could afford to have both him and Gallagher around. If it came to a straight pick between the 2 then Dec is the better player IMO.

[SS77]

Tait, Dunne, Main and Shaughnessy gone then.

Realistically the only massive loss to the starting 11 is Main and I have full belief that Robinson/Foyle will replace them all with similar or better.

[flyingscot]

6 minutes ago, Virtual Insanity said:

Any ideas what offers he has on the table? Would be an ideal signing for us if we came up. 

I think he was keen on a return to Ireland. 

I still think he has a fair bit to offer, and disappointed he hasn't stuck around. Gallacher and Taylor are decent enough options but we're going to have to recruit at the back. 

[glenburn bud]

It looks like Joe Charles Dunne and Curtis Main leaving opens the door for an improved offer for the centre back at Morecambe, given the amount of wages we’re freeing up.

Curtis Main will be a difficult one to replace. But Robbo & Martin Foyle has been superb in their previous recruitment. So fingers crossed for a good outcome in the hunt for replacements.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Shaughnessy did get his maths degree last year and I did wonder if when his cointract expired he may look to go part time and start putting his degree to use.

Cracking player though and could certainly still do a job on the bottom half of the league or he'd stroll the Championship.

[djchapsticks]

https://twitter.com/saintmirrenfc/status/1663923800407154689?t=80bBINYYRxP6U594LkH1lA&s=19

 

Real issue with tweets embedding lately  

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by djchapsticks

[djchapsticks]

There was allegedly a conversation had early doors that Macron suggested we incorporate pink somewhere into our home kit for the coming season and the idea was swiftly booted into touch. 

[Buttocks Brown]

16 hours ago, Wilbur said:

Plan A was 100% fan-ownership. I was (and still am) in favour of this. Third party involvement was never on the table when the deal between GS and SMiSA was originally formulated. There was no need to scupper this arrangement other than to repay GS earlier than had been initially agreed. So who benefitted from this other than GS ? Certainly not the fans who wanted 100% ownership. 

In February '20, when SMISA members were asked if they wanted Kibble on board, 92% voted in favour. Democracy....

7 years ago, GS could have just continued to sun himself in Spain. Where would we be if he hadn't put up the capital to buy out the previous board then pass ownership onto SMISA? Who would own the club? Would we still be up for sale?

I don't grudge him getting out in 2023 rather than 2026. He's done a huge amount for the club in the past 7 years and previous to that as part of the old board.

[NorthBank]

The manager recently said that he offered Joe a 1 year contract but Joe wanted 2 years which Robinson wasn't prepared to do. Joe is 2 years younger than Gallagher and doesn't have the injury problems Gallagher has had. Joe can also play on the right when Fraser has his mad moments. And Joe has the greatest threat at set plays than any other defender we have. While I like Gallagher when he's fit Joe would get my vote if only one of them was to stay. But Taylor, Gallagher and Joe is a decent backline.

[Wilbur]

4 minutes ago, Buttocks Brown said:

In February '20, when SMISA members were asked if they wanted Kibble on board, 92% voted in favour. Democracy....

7 years ago, GS could have just continued to sun himself in Spain. Where would we be if he hadn't put up the capital to buy out the previous board then pass ownership onto SMISA? Who would own the club? Would we still be up for sale?

I don't grudge him getting out in 2023 rather than 2026. He's done a huge amount for the club in the past 7 years and previous to that as part of the old board.

I was one of the 8% who opposed Kibble's involvement with St Mirren as I favoured 100% fan ownership. You are absolutely correct to point out that democracy should (and did) dictate the outcome and therefore the Kibble deal was passed. However that doesn't necessarily mean that the correct course of action has been achieved as 92% may have chosen what may turn out to be the worse alternative. Time will tell, but I remain of the opinion that 100% fan ownership was the correct option. What did we really know about Kibble back then ? What were their motives behind buying into our club ? What do we know about them now ? 

As for Gordon Scott's contribution to St Mirren, I have nothing negative to say about him. I agree he should be thanked for what he has did in moving us out of the Gilmour era, and who could blame him for cashing in his chips early when the opportunity arose. But as I say, 92% may have got it wrong.

I remain deeply suspicious of Kibble and their motives and I am very uncomfortable that they own a sizeable % of St Mirren. 

Hey, just my opinion of course. 

[medals]

So worst case is we could bring in about 12 :-

 

To replace and cover for those we might send out on loan too.

Eamonn Brophy, Toyosi Olusanya, Lewis Jamieson, Kieran Offord, Luke Kenny

Jay Henderson.

Charles Dunne, Curtis Main, Joe Shaughnessy and Richard Tait. 

Thierry Small and Tony Watt

I still believe Watt will be back though. 

[djchapsticks]

9 minutes ago, medals said:

So worst case is we could bring in about 12 :-

 

To replace and cover for those we might send out on loan too.

Eamonn Brophy, Toyosi Olusanya, Lewis Jamieson, Kieran Offord, Luke Kenny

Jay Henderson.

Charles Dunne, Curtis Main, Joe Shaughnessy and Richard Tait. 

Thierry Small and Tony Watt

I still believe Watt will be back though. 

I'd say of that list, Brophy, Olusanya and Henderson will go permanently and Jamieson and Offord back out on loan.

I also think @Div mentioned Murray Campbell was on verge of signing for Burnley. Disappointing to lose another highly rated youngster before he's kicked a ball in anger but can't be expected at only 16. Will be interesting to see what the fee is  if anything.

I'd also wager that at least one of Baccus and Strain will draw sufficient interest to tempt us.

I've a feeling that we'll go with about 9 or 10 new faces if we lose all of those.

[medals]

10 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

I remain deeply suspicious of Kibble and their motives.

It's OK being suspicious or cautious but you then need to quantity your fears and assess your reasoning next.

Investing in most football clubs is not a lucrative investment. So what is in it for the Kibble?

It seems to me that they get to help us and gain access for the people they are trying to help. (Is it any more than this?)

What that looks like internally only those in the mix can quantify, but I'm far more concerned about the motives of those who have tried to cause fear during our best season in years.

E.g. Spouting financial ruin and running to the press week in week out.

[Buttocks Brown]

1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

I remain deeply suspicious of Kibble and their motives and I am very uncomfortable that they own a sizeable % of St Mirren. 

Is there something specific that Kibble could do to provide you with peace of mind? We are now more than 3 years into them purchasing their 27.5% stake and, certainly from the outside looking in, the club has moved forward in that period of time.

[RandomGuy.]

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

I also think @Div mentioned Murray Campbell was on verge of signing for Burnley. Disappointing to lose another highly rated youngster before he's kicked a ball in anger but can't be expected at only 16. Will be interesting to see what the fee is  if anything.

Its brutal how common this is going to become.

Seemingly most EPL sides/serious Championship sides, have full time scouts up here now watching U16/U18 level with your Manchester clubs looking even younger.

Wont be look until U12s are signing for these clubs instead of Scottish clubs.

[Div]

1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

I was one of the 8% who opposed Kibble's involvement with St Mirren as I favoured 100% fan ownership.

 

It's a bit pedantic but there has never been a proposal whereby SMiSA bought 100% of the shares. The number they would have had with the SG consortium block plus Gordon's shares would have taken us to 70 odd percent. As it is Kibble bought that chunk that left us with 51%.

As far as I remember you do need to offer to buy all remaining shares when you hit a certain number, but can't mind what that number is, 80% maybe?

Either way there are hundreds of shareholders with a few shares here and there and I'm sure the vast majority bought them for sentimental reasons rather than in expecting a return. I doubt many of them would have been up for selling.

The 50+1 model is how German clubs are run. Fans must own 51% of the club.

In this case we saved ourselves, as the fans, about £300K and got fan ownership 3 years earlier than planned, and Gordon got his money back.

It's hard to argue that was a bad deal but I think the default knee jerk from too many people is to blame Kibble when literally anything goes wrong, but to ignore them completely and praise everyone else when something good happens.

I've said a few times that I have no doubts at all about Kibble as an organisation, but I think there are valid reasons to have concerns about the character of one or both of their reps on the club board.

Both those guys need to do some work on their personal PR to turn around the notion that they are bad guys.

In terms of the day to day running of the club I can tell you from first hand experience that it's not been in better hands since Brian Caldwell left.

Keith Lasley has been an absolutely fantastic appointment.

[Div]

2 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Its brutal how common this is going to become.

Seemingly most EPL sides/serious Championship sides, have full time scouts up here now watching U16/U18 level with your Manchester clubs looking even younger.

Wont be look until U12s are signing for these clubs instead of Scottish clubs.

Although I do not support the Conference League proposal there is a real problem in Scotland when players get to Murray's age.

Murray is stuck. He's not physically capable yet of competing in the first team, and I don't think, given the position he plays, that he's physically able at this point in his development to even go on loan to a lower league club. A 16/17 year old kid playing CH would get smashed to bits in League 2.

Without a proper reserve league to play in he literally has nowhere to go and that more than any financial rewards are what will eventually see him go down to England where clubs have full squads competing in the England Under-23 Leagues.

Worryingly our under-18 squad got absolutely destroyed this season as per the league table that champions Hamilton published.

[AW saint]

Gutted to see Main leave. Was hoping he would stick around. 

I think there could still be a couple under contract players on the move as well. 

Not fussed about Henderson tbh. 

One thing for sure this will be an interesting pre season

[houston_bud]

3 hours ago, SS77 said:

Really don’t think we could afford to have both him and Gallagher around. If it came to a straight pick between the 2 then Dec is the better player IMO.

Agreed but he's injured a lot.