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Kelty Hearts lowland league quest


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6 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

 


When and why did he shout that and I take it you mean a group of Rangers fans?

 

It was in the Sun the other day, yes it was at some Rangers supporters function , think he was speaking about 2008 when Rangers had to play loads of games around the time of the UEFA Cup Final - although as Muzz stated it was the SPL who scheduled their games.

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10 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

 

 


When and why did he shout that and I take it you mean a group of Rangers fans?

 

Cowdenbeath is correct. It was some Rangers event with him and "Jig" acting like simpletons. It had nothing to do with the SFA and I am sure the league was extended, I am also sure it was impossible to extend the season further.

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He did. He paid to put them up in hotels etc.

There was an interview not long ago where either his brother or another ex teammate of his said that. Simon Ferry podcast I think, maybe Peter MacDonald.
He didn't put any of his own money in but he was good at finding companies to pay for this type of thing. Not that helped because we still got beat.

Ferguson put a lot of time and effort into the Clyde job. He also did a decent job of attracting some of the better players from our league to Clyde. However he was hopeless when it came to tactics and changing things if it was going wrong. Sticking Marvin Andrews up front for the last 10 mins was about the extent of it.

He also went through a ridiculous amount of players, played players out of position regularly and started signing anyone that was out of contract when things were going seriously bad in his last season in charge.
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2 hours ago, Muzza81 said:

It had nothing to do with the SFA and I am sure the league was extended, I am also sure it was impossible to extend the season further.

League season was extended - SPL put back the finish from Sunday to Thursday and they played 2 games after the intended end-date.

Overall season wasn't expended, partly due to the Euro 2008 release period which started after the Scottish Cup Final.

Ironically, given their apparent ire, some SFA top brass actually wanted to put the cup final v QotS back to 8pm on the Wednesday night to help Rangers.

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BF was the first person with a bit of ambition involved at Clyde for a number of years. He apparently worked every hour of the day and did a huge amount away from the pitch with charity/community events. He improved our professionalism (which probably means little to fans but not players); organised pre-season tours, arranged for us to stay overnight before Elgin, Brora etc. got us training on a full-size pitch, personalised training kit, video analysis etc. He signed a fair few players that were probably a bit beyond what we could expect to have brought in (Scott Linton, Alan Martin, Dylan Easton, Peaso MacDonald) and plenty of others who were (or should have been) decent players at our level, binning those who weren't good enough. It was a huge contrast to Jim Duffy's time when everyone we signed was a guy who had been released by another team for being rubbish.

I know a player or two, contracted when he arrived, but who were quickly released in his tenure and whilst slagging off his man-management (he didn't talk to one of them for six weeks), they said his training was light years ahead of anything they'd seen before. They absolutely loved it, despite hating him. He literally never criticised a referee, or other sides/players. In his second season, we were a team who got close to challenging (we were actually top of the league at half-time in the sixth last game) but ran out of steam after a horrible run of midweek games. Queen's Park deserved to beat us in the play-off final but with all sorts of injuries (particularly our captain, Mark McLaughlin) and suspensions we still took it down to the final minute of the game.

However, there's absolutely no doubt that he had serious man-management issues. A number of long-term staff left, fed-up with his attitude. Properly tearing into players, particularly younger lads. Scott McLaughlin mentions quite a bit about it in THIS  Tell Him He's Pele Podcast. Tactically he'd change what he was doing every time we lost a game and we never really had any consistency as a result. Despite what I said earlier about signings, he completely overhauled the team four or fives times in his two and a half years (he started like Barcelona and was at Stoke 12 months later, having gone everywhere in between). By the end of his stint, we were a dire side and he had no way of fixing it. The goalkeeper he had re-signed was continually a bombscare, and Ross Perry/Chris Smith were shipping multiple goals every game. The couple of players who were difference makers (Linton, Easton) were injured. To give him some credit, he left of his own accord when it became clear we weren't getting near the promotion playoffs. Clyde fans were delighted when he left but it's not a huge stretch to suggest that things could have gone differently, in his second season.

If, and it's a big if, he's got a better realisation of the demands of part-timers and an acceptance of the fact they're not as good as he was, then him going to Kelty may well work out. I think an assistant with a better idea of the lower leagues would have helped, rather than Bob Malcolm. I'm not convinced. I certainly think he's worth another shot in management though and he'd take credit for going down to that level. I'd rather have him than Jim Chapman anyway :lol: .

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Barry Ferguson [emoji23]

A few of the Clyde posters have summed it up pretty well above. He will bring his ideas of professionalism; ice baths, protein shakes, overnight hotel stays etc. He is ambitious and will demand lots from his players.

This all sounds good until you realise we are talking about part time players here, a totally different world from the pampered lifestyle he knew as a player. Anyone that doesn’t meet his high demands gets slaughtered and/or dropped, resulting in rock bottom morale and no confidence on the park. He might attract a higher calibre of player, those who view working under him as an attractive option, but this all means little as his tactical and man management skills are so abysmal.

Maybe, just maybe if he has learned lessons from his spell at us and you get an experienced head (and decent coach) to work with him and help mitigate his inadequacies you might be onto something. However his own arrogance will probably rule him out of working with anything other than a yes man.

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I'm like Gogsy apart from his column in the Daily Record on a Friday, which is mostly about Rangers, I can't really see much exposure if he got the job, maybe initially when he got the job but that would be about it. 
EK had a high profile appointment in Billy Stark last season but that didn't see wall to wall coverage in the media. You also  never got wall to wall coverage on Clyde when Barry was there.
Take it you never heard Sportsound then? They were constantly being mentioned, especially on the midweek show. And of course, like Sevco this season, they weren't Clyde any longer. They were "Barry Ferguson's Clyde".
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2 minutes ago, Salvo Montalbano said:
4 hours ago, cowdenbeath said:
I'm like Gogsy apart from his column in the Daily Record on a Friday, which is mostly about Rangers, I can't really see much exposure if he got the job, maybe initially when he got the job but that would be about it. 
EK had a high profile appointment in Billy Stark last season but that didn't see wall to wall coverage in the media. You also  never got wall to wall coverage on Clyde when Barry was there.

Take it you never heard Sportsound then? They were constantly being mentioned, especially on the midweek show. And of course, like Sevco this season, they weren't Clyde any longer. They were "Barry Ferguson's Clyde".

No never listen to it midweek sometimes on a Saturday when driving to a game.

I was thinking more in the papers etc.

Edited by cowdenbeath
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What does a few mentions on a tedious radio programme listened to by Rangers fans really get you though? There’s nothing tangible about being referred to as ‘Barry Ferguson’s Kelty’ before he goes on and tells us why Rangers will stop Celtic winning 10 in a row. They wouldn’t have talked about Clyde in any depth other than mentioning the name after his.

Initially you may get a few more local Rangers fans coming along. A few hospitality guests/cretins who will be excited about meeting Barry. That will all soon dry up and you’ll be left with a manager who doesn’t understand what it is to be a part time player.

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