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Performance review - managers


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End of season, so taking into consideration budget support /constraints, board interference, existing squad, and everything else that is out of their control, what marks would you give your manager (or management team) for their performance this season? 

I'll lead off with Ferguson and Kettlewell. 

Clearly good guys who love the club and are well liked and respected by players. Most squad additions have been good ones, and the results have been what they need to be. 

Some puzzling and formation choices, but eventually seemed to coalesce on a formation and team that the fans were crying out for weeks before. 

Given the number of game changing second halves that we've had, they clearly do a good half time session. 

Overall solid 8/10, happy to have them at the helm going into next season, will be a much bigger test though! 

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Ray McKinnon, made us look partially competent (out-with cups) but ultimately a snakey b*****d that deserves no respect from Morton fans

1/10

JJ while at Morton, while seemed like the up-and-coming, young manager that a few fans were keen to see, just never made an impression, displayed a huge lack of inexperience even with Houston behind him and was, for the most part, a statue on the touch line for a majority of his time here, players having to ask what they are suppose to be doing was a big red flag. His recruitment ability was questionable to say the least, with only one acquisition being a stand out in Greg Kiltie, McRorie did well but had a few shaky games which is understandable for a young keeper, Dallas, Dykes no where near ready for this level and O’Connell hardly got a sniff.

Would be hesitant to credit him with our upward turn in form at the end of season.

2/10.

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10 minutes ago, Pedro1874 said:

Ray McKinnon, made us look partially competent (out-with cups) but ultimately a snakey b*****d that deserves no respect from Morton fans

1/10

JJ while at Morton, while seemed like the up-and-coming, young manager that a few fans were keen to see, just never made an impression, displayed a huge lack of inexperience even with Houston behind him and was, for the most part, a statue on the touch line for a majority of his time here, players having to ask what they are suppose to be doing was a big red flag. His recruitment ability was questionable to say the least, with only one acquisition being a stand out in Greg Kiltie, McRorie did well but had a few shaky games which is understandable for a young keeper, Dallas, Dykes no where near ready for this level and O’Connell hardly got a sniff.

Would be hesitant to credit him with our upward turn in form at the end of season.

2/10.

Does a lack of inexperience mean JJ was too old?

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Ian McCall
8 out 10
Sometimes frustrating with shoe horning Crawford in the team and playing him on the wing when he should be in the middle or not in the team and us really not having a plan B but it's hard to really criticise after the season we have had, big statement tonight about pushing on and not just setting for staying up each season let's hope the director's back him.

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Alan Archibald - 3/10 

While hindsight will say he should probably have been sacked at some point in 17/18, I felt he had enough credit in the bank to see out the season. However I thought he should have gone as soon as Livi beat us. Looked absolutely gubbed and summer recruitment was largely  disastrous, both in terms of numbers - having  3 outfield subs, 2 of which were teenagers who hadn't started a game at that stage and 1 contract holdout vs Ayr on day 1 was a disgrace- and quality (Bell, Storer, Mutombo, Ntambwe, Melbourne). Managed 3 wins and 5 defeats from 8 league games plus a  defeat to East Fife in the challenge cup, even then one of those was against Hartley's Falkirk rabble and one against Morton the day after McKinnon snaked away. The football was soporific and even the staunchest of the Archie backers  agreed his time was up.  A shame it ended that way and he did far more good than bad for us despite some re-writing of history by his detractors.

Gary Caldwell- 5/10

A complex character, and this might have been 6/10 before Thursday. He promised an immediate improvement having allegedly detailed individual plans in his job interview  to improve every player in the squad. This did not materialise with only 1 point  (Away to an equally dismal Falkirk) from his first 6 games and 5 in his first 10  including the nadir of the season in a 5-1 hounding at Cappielow where Cammy Bell flapped about like an overweight seal. Performances started trending upwards when allowed to bring in his own players in January and ship out some of the accumulated dross. Good use of contacts to bring his mate Scott McDonald out of retirement which basically saved us from back to back relegations. 

However, he's made a number of controversial decisions, moving on fan favourites Erskine and Doolan , the latter being simultaneously handled dreadfully and causing the most OTT reactions I've seen online from Thistle fans , which is quite an accolade. Also attracting publicity with stunts like the SAS day and the envelopes (I accept that wasn't meant to be in the public domain), some bizarre quotes like "the league table is irrelevant until the final day"  and comes across as a very hard guy to warm to, although in his interview yesterday he's fully aware that he's not winning popularity contests.  Having done what he's done and said what he's said, I think he'll need to be in the top 2 after 6  or 7 games next year or his jacket will be on a very shaky nail.

Actually, I forgot I had a tenner on him at 20/1 to get the job, so bump him up to 5.5/10.

 

Edited by Fuctifano
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Ian McCall 9/10

A good season overall. Was going to give him an 8 but after listening to his post match interview I’ve bumped it up to a 9.

He’s made mistakes this season and he’ll probably know that deep down but he’s still done a great job and managed to build a really young exciting team that will likely be ripped to bits in the summer.

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John Robertson - 9/10
 
Unquestionably the best manager in the league. Has taken a bunch of young, cheap rejects from other clubs along with a few longer serving experienced heads and plays to their strengths. 3rd place, Scottish cup semi-final and still a possibility of going up.
 
Steady on now. The list of dud managers ICT have made look good is incredible.
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John Robertson - 9/10
 
Unquestionably the best manager in the league. Has taken a bunch of young, cheap rejects from other clubs along with a few longer serving experienced heads and plays to their strengths. 3rd place, Scottish cup semi-final and still a possibility of going up.
 

I’m not sure about “best manager” but I’m a fan of what he’s done at Inverness.
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Alan Johnston: We'd lost some key players and was heavily backed in the summer transfer window to replace said key players. Signed a lot of shite and was sacked in January. 2/10

Stevie Crawford: Carried on the season with the aforementioned shite players adding Ryan Scully, Bruce Anderson & Ryan Blair. Got papped out the cup in a Fife derby in spectacular fashion, largely down to the captain stupidly getting himself sent off. Put together 5 wins on the spin which ultimately kept us up, however the football has not improved(many say it's got worse, don't personally buy that). 1 point from the last 8 games makes for grim reading. 3/10.

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Jim Goodwin - 9/10

 

Overall, a successful season. He’s got the best out of our small squad and on our day we can beat anyone in the league. Would’ve been a 10 if not for his tendency to try and sit on a lead. Still gutted about that St Mirren cup game.

 

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Gary Naysmith - Until Mid January - 8/10 - Has finally won over a large number of the fans. Progress In all cups, team looking like a playoff side. Few  choice signings and we could be up there.  Styles not really there but players are working hard for each other.

Gary Naysmith - Post January 

0/10 

 

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Caldwell.
6/10

He's better than Archibald but he probably should have got more out of the squad he initially inherited and had us clear from relegation sooner and maybe even pushed for a top 4 spot.
His January signings were good which is an encouraging sign that he might build a decent team for next season.

An additional point cause he pisses off the opposition supporters.

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2 hours ago, Cerberus said:

Caldwell.
6/10

He's better than Archibald but he probably should have got more out of the squad he initially inherited and had us clear from relegation sooner and maybe even pushed for a top 4 spot.
His January signings were good which is an encouraging sign that he might build a decent team for next season.

An additional point cause he pisses off the opposition supporters.

He probably pisses off more Jags fans.

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Wee Jobby gets  7.5/10 from me.

The season fizzled out, but was still the best in a long time. Worried that the injury problem we have seems to be happening every season. Is it something in the training or is it just an unfortunate coincidence. Either way with the size of the squad we have we can't afford to have six or seven players injured for long spells.

But still McCall deserves praise for getting us where we are.

Loses a point for that fucking cup game. Gains half a point for effortlessly winding up opposition fans

 

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Ketts and Ferg: 8/10

The odd baffling formation aside, they've done all they were targeted and more. I'd like to see them get a run where our squad isn't falling to pieces to see what their ideal first XI is.

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Shrinking the pitch at Alloa was a serious error of judgement and simply didn't make sense when the manager was saying he would continue playing attacking football and signing tricky wide players. Took Alloa a long time to adapt and any advantage was arguable. We ended up with just 1 more point at home than away, scoring twice the number of goals away and actually picking up points in more away games than home. The narrow park was a real benefit to limited Falkirk sides who were more adept at shitfesting and took 6 points on it. It didn't suit Alloa and I do believe we'd certainly have been safe earlier without it. 

However, need to measure that against the many positives. The manager used the loan market superbly to add to his established core and really developed the young players he got from Premier League clubs. The team were fit and organised, played good football and the spirit was outstanding, the team again and again responding to setbacks. Goodwin did inherit a terrific nucleus of good pros at Alloa but he is clearly a huge influence in all of the above. 9 out of 10, and I'd have ranked him 10 but for the park. Still plenty of questions about how he will cope in a different situation but he has earned a crack at f/t and I hope he picks the right job and makes a real success of it. 

As for the rest, I'd say McCall and Robertson have done extremely well given their resources. The County pair had a relative fortune to spend and no credible rival yet visibly wobbled in the closing weeks. Despite that spending they also look like they'll need a good bit of strengthening for the Premier. As such, job done but with plenty to prove. 

The rest of the managers in the league were absolutely shite. 

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