blueheaven

Difficult times for Inverness Caley too: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/chairman-confirms-inverness-caledonian-thistle-will-restruct-347354/
Both Dundee and ICT seem to be citing struggling with operating as a full-time club in a lower division as one of the causes of their problems. This is a big part of why the thought of relegation worries me so much. It could be disastrous for Saints.
 

It was around this time last year we jettisoned Davidson and found ourselves away at Killie - a match we ultimitley won to confirm our top league status whilst Killie were left scrambling anxiously late on to avoid the play off game. How things have changed; Killie are on the brink of European football and we find ourselves desperatley trying to keep our head above water. In another quirk of fate the corresponding game in Perth earlier in the season we turned over a buoyant Kilmarnock with stand in manager Alex Cleland managing to bring the best out of our beleagured squad exposing the underlying problemes with the squad with the previous incumbent.
Kilmarnock are still playing some nice football and will be a tough side to over come but we go in to this game buoyed by our fine win in Edinburgh last weekend. Three points would be massive for our future aspirations in the Premeir league.
Killie have great wide players so I think this might come in to the thinking of the manager when choosing the starting line up. Gordon will start if he's fit and I have a feeling Carey might be in the line up too with Sid up front on his own with Clark in behind. I expect Clark to have a big bearing on this game.

So DFC has just posted accounts that show -£6.5m shareholders funds as at May 23 - and projected to get worse in the period to May 24.  Ongoing operations unsustainable and key shareholders have had to commit to injecting more funds to keep the business going. Seems to me as DFC technically insolvent as a going concern and the ultimate owners are aiming to plough capital in to a new stadium and non football infrastructure in the hope that they’ll recoup the outlay over time from non football activity. There’s risk and madness - think it’s the latter!
If the new ground / commercial ventures don’t proceed the games a bogey and administration will be just round the corner
interesting parallel to be drawn with our situation. Cash in bank and sitting on a substantial land asset - but the land asset can only be realised by relocating the stadium and how would any excess funds be reinvested to support football activities and increase non football revenue. Brown won’t dispose of the business unless he secures guarantees on the land and what would happen on its disposal. If he were 20 years younger he would know how to manage this and that would have a sustainable football club at its core.  What investor out there would hold the same values and not have a focus on a financial return. ? Therein lies the conundrum that Brown faces - legacy is important to him but time is against him.Hopefully he finds the right answer !!!!

Pretty much agree with all of that. Assume Gordon will stay and I'd like to see McGowan get another year (but would expect him to start fewer games next season). But even if McClelland and Olufunwa really step up, we're going to need at least one CB and one LB.
The other priority has to be some width for the midfield. DJ seems to be coming to the end of his contract at Charlton - would we offer him something? Personally I'm not sure he's done enough, but he was starting to look good when played in his more natural position just before he got injured. Hopefully we give Taylor Steven a new contract, but will we look to send him back out on another loan? I can see Drey Wright getting some sort of short-term deal to prove himself if he doesn't play much between now and the end of the season.
I don't think another striker will be high up the list of needs, given Sidibeh, Kimpioka, Clark and May are all signed up for next season.
I think we'll see Considine, Brown, Booth, Gallacher, MacPherson, Crawford, Carey, Ballantyne and Kane all being released, along with Phillips who we know wants to go. A few of our bigger earners amongst that lot so hopefully that'll free up a good bit of budget to have a smaller but better squad.
 

Pretty much agree with all of that. Assume Gordon will stay and I'd like to see McGowan get another year (but would expect him to start fewer games next season). But even if McClelland and Olufunwa really step up, we're going to need at least one CB and one LB.
The other priority has to be some width for the midfield. DJ seems to be coming to the end of his contract at Charlton - would we offer him something? Personally I'm not sure he's done enough, but he was starting to look good when played in his more natural position just before he got injured. Hopefully we give Taylor Steven a new contract, but will we look to send him back out on another loan? I can see Drey Wright getting some sort of short-term deal to prove himself if he doesn't play much between now and the end of the season.
I don't think another striker will be high up the list of needs, given Sidibeh, Kimpioka, Clark and May are all signed up for next season.
I think we'll see Considine, Brown, Booth, Gallacher, MacPherson, Crawford, Carey, Ballantyne and Kane all being released, along with Phillips who we know wants to go. A few of our bigger earners amongst that lot so hopefully that'll free up a good bit of budget to have a smaller but better squad.
 

Training with Saints to improve his fitness. Good luck with that

I doubt Sky would give a ****, to be honest. As you say, Old Firm away games - with some random game on every 6 months to show they care - from now until the end of time. 
Be stunned if it works out that simplistic. 

I think Keltjens looks a pretty good player though not currently in the best of form. Hopefully that's something that can be worked on as I feel he has a lot more to give. I'm not even sure RB is his preferred position, though? Part of me wonders if he might move into midfield when Phillips moves on.
Totally agree on Sidibeh and I really don't think it should even be a surprise. There was some ridiculous stuff being said by some fans when he first arrived, without even seeing him play or knowing anything about the level he'd come from.
 

Always nice to get a reminder of the fact that, as bad as we've been, the other teams around us are pretty guff too and it often only takes one win to make the picture look a bit rosier. Reminded me of the Aberdeen game in that our opponents looked really poor on their own patch and we managed to take advantage, mainly thanks to the pace of our main striker.
I felt there were loads of question marks over the team selection and substitutions yesterday but having someone like Sidibeh (and also Kimpioka against Aberdeen) has given us that small margin of difference that has allowed us to get three points from these games where we'd previously only have got one point or even zero. Turn those Hibs and Aberdeen wins into draws and we'd be on the same points as County right now, so those two signings have been absolutely vital.
Forgive me one moan, but does anyone understand Levein's hesitancy to make subs? Just what is the logic there? Again yesterday Sidibeh was knackered by around the hour mark but it took another 20 minutes to get Kimpioka on to replace him. He then brought Stevie May on when there were about 30 seconds to go and we were about to defend a corner. Surely that's the worst possible scenario to be introducing a new player into? Madness. But anyway. Three points. Phew.
 

I thought our defence was a bit leaky but ****ing hell, I'd have more confidence in Considine and McGowan than in Hibs CBs.
One of the worst groups of defenders I can remember seeing this season.

Given the quality of Sidibeh and Keltjens, and to a lesser extent Kimpioka, I have reasonable confidence that if we manage to stay up this season (which I think we will - 10th place), Levein has an eye for a player, and the contacts to ensure we can have a decent squad next season and be more like 7th/8th finishers. We have some high earners whose contracts will be finishing in the summer, and some older players who will be moving on.
Both Livi and Ross County are likely to lose their final game before the split (against Hearts and Rangers respectively). We have a really good opportunity at home against Killie to pull 7 points ahead, which would then make it very hard for Ross to catch up.

Always nice to get a reminder of the fact that, as bad as we've been, the other teams around us are pretty guff too and it often only takes one win to make the picture look a bit rosier. Reminded me of the Aberdeen game in that our opponents looked really poor on their own patch and we managed to take advantage, mainly thanks to the pace of our main striker.
I felt there were loads of question marks over the team selection and substitutions yesterday but having someone like Sidibeh (and also Kimpioka against Aberdeen) has given us that small margin of difference that has allowed us to get three points from these games where we'd previously only have got one point or even zero. Turn those Hibs and Aberdeen wins into draws and we'd be on the same points as County right now, so those two signings have been absolutely vital.
Forgive me one moan, but does anyone understand Levein's hesitancy to make subs? Just what is the logic there? Again yesterday Sidibeh was knackered by around the hour mark but it took another 20 minutes to get Kimpioka on to replace him. He then brought Stevie May on when there were about 30 seconds to go and we were about to defend a corner. Surely that's the worst possible scenario to be introducing a new player into? Madness. But anyway. Three points. Phew.
 

The conversation was in regards to a poster discussing starting MacPherson.

Fu is the last posts tae do with the hibs game.
 
take yer pessimistic drivel onto another thread and save us the shoite players and anti management agenda.
 
Yer not real fans .

Finishing above St Johnstone is Dundees biggest achievement in the past decade tbf, I'd expect them to add it to their honours list.

He definitely was crap though.

I think history will remember Davidson kindly. 100 years from now, if there's still a St Johnstone, he'll still be known as the manager who won the Double for Saints, long after whatever happened after that has been forgotten about.
But he also played a huge part in destroying so many of the elements that had made St Johnstone successful. We're still feeling the repercussions of the damage he did, and it's looking increasingly like we're going to continue feeling them for several more years to come. If we go down, much of the blame for that is going to be at his door.
His signing policy was atrocious, he didn't bring through a single youngster, his treatment of some players seemed unfair, he implemented the most turgid and ineffective style of football I'd ever seen at Saints, and he was too arrogant to change his ways when it was obvious he needed to. He also made an absolute pig's ear of probably the best chance this club will ever have of reaching European group stage football. 
He just completely ruined everything that Tommy Wright had built, and I still find that very hard to deal with.
 

Agree with all of this, but for me the thing that really puts Wright top of the bunch isn't just the obvious stand-out achievements, but the fact that he sustained us at a high level for year after year. Our other successful periods have petered out relatively quickly (even Ormond's league positions and cup performances were fairly unspectacular outside that one 3rd place finish and European run), but Wright turned us into a club that was comfortable in the top flight and enjoying at least one good cup run pretty much every year.
The other thing I loved about Wright was that every single time it looked like things were taking a dip, he'd haul us out of it. We had some bad patches, but I always had faith in him to turn them around, and he always did.
And his ability to continually refresh the squad without ever needing to resort to a massive rebuild was almost Alex Ferguson-esque (except Fergie had millions and Wright had a shoestring). Even when we lost Stevie May and he wasn't allowed to use any of the money to sign a striker to replace him, he just got on with things and somehow managed to finish 4th in the league despite only scoring 34 goals all season. That's just incredible.
 

Heard a very similar version of this story, with the addition that when Burns said no he recommended Stark and Geoff went with it. Stark's only previous management job was at Morton, where he achieved nothing of note and was eventually sacked, and yet he walked into a Premier League job with Saints after that. Still don't understand what on earth Geoff was thinking with that decision.
I've always been pretty sceptical about whether Burns would have been any better. I remember feeling at the time that we were very similar to Burns' and Stark's Celtic team (albeit at a lower level) in that we sometimes played some nice-enough football but lacked any real fight and ultimately failed in our goals. We even ended up with a few of the same players.
Was very, very glad when that particular Saints era came to an end.

Ian Scott was his assistant and certainly not bringing his staff was a big mistake, as I'm not sure how much coaching he actually did. That issue was then compounded by appointing Jim Weir to the assistant role when he was a complete rookie and was being expected to lead training etc..
But the bigger issue was how Connolly (and his staff) had enjoyed success at Palmerston. They were all based in the north of England and had adopted a complete scattergun approach to transfers. They'd used something like 80 players in his first couple of seasons there before finding the diamonds in the rough like Steve Bowey that formed a decent squad.
That sort of approach was never going to work in full-time football when you can't just bring in guys on short-term contracts to suss them out for a few games.
He tried to sign a good number of his QoS players but they weren't interested in relocating before he finally got David Bagan, almost to prove a point, but he was miles off the standard required.
An appointment that was doomed before it even got going.

Agree with all of this, but for me the thing that really puts Wright top of the bunch isn't just the obvious stand-out achievements, but the fact that he sustained us at a high level for year after year. Our other successful periods have petered out relatively quickly (even Ormond's league positions and cup performances were fairly unspectacular outside that one 3rd place finish and European run), but Wright turned us into a club that was comfortable in the top flight and enjoying at least one good cup run pretty much every year.
The other thing I loved about Wright was that every single time it looked like things were taking a dip, he'd haul us out of it. We had some bad patches, but I always had faith in him to turn them around, and he always did.
And his ability to continually refresh the squad without ever needing to resort to a massive rebuild was almost Alex Ferguson-esque (except Fergie had millions and Wright had a shoestring). Even when we lost Stevie May and he wasn't allowed to use any of the money to sign a striker to replace him, he just got on with things and somehow managed to finish 4th in the league despite only scoring 34 goals all season. That's just incredible.
 

Agree with all of this, but for me the thing that really puts Wright top of the bunch isn't just the obvious stand-out achievements, but the fact that he sustained us at a high level for year after year. Our other successful periods have petered out relatively quickly (even Ormond's league positions and cup performances were fairly unspectacular outside that one 3rd place finish and European run), but Wright turned us into a club that was comfortable in the top flight and enjoying at least one good cup run pretty much every year.
The other thing I loved about Wright was that every single time it looked like things were taking a dip, he'd haul us out of it. We had some bad patches, but I always had faith in him to turn them around, and he always did.
And his ability to continually refresh the squad without ever needing to resort to a massive rebuild was almost Alex Ferguson-esque (except Fergie had millions and Wright had a shoestring). Even when we lost Stevie May and he wasn't allowed to use any of the money to sign a striker to replace him, he just got on with things and somehow managed to finish 4th in the league despite only scoring 34 goals all season. That's just incredible.
 

He definitely was crap though.

Agree with all of this, but for me the thing that really puts Wright top of the bunch isn't just the obvious stand-out achievements, but the fact that he sustained us at a high level for year after year. Our other successful periods have petered out relatively quickly (even Ormond's league positions and cup performances were fairly unspectacular outside that one 3rd place finish and European run), but Wright turned us into a club that was comfortable in the top flight and enjoying at least one good cup run pretty much every year.
The other thing I loved about Wright was that every single time it looked like things were taking a dip, he'd haul us out of it. We had some bad patches, but I always had faith in him to turn them around, and he always did.
And his ability to continually refresh the squad without ever needing to resort to a massive rebuild was almost Alex Ferguson-esque (except Fergie had millions and Wright had a shoestring). Even when we lost Stevie May and he wasn't allowed to use any of the money to sign a striker to replace him, he just got on with things and somehow managed to finish 4th in the league despite only scoring 34 goals all season. That's just incredible.
 

Aye for me the Totten period was the most memorable in terms of exciting football.There was a great passion for the club from both players and fans that seems lacking these days.Maybe I'm just being nostalgic but i definitely felt more connected to the club than now.The heart and soul of Saints is sorely missing at the present time imo.
Think TW was one of our best managers and Davidsons success was off the back of that.I certainly echo BHs previous post that CD although ironically managing us through a double cup win then went on to blow our best chances in Europe and systematically ruin the team and waste millions of pounds on poor players.Just a shame TW was never given this money.Just imagine where we would be now.I still feel pissed off about it tbh