Aitchy

Any update from tonight’s meeting?

I went for Max as he is one of the few players that has actually made any meaningful contribution this season (2 goals vs Dundee). I agree with your assessment that he lacks pace to play consistently on the wing, but he is disciplined, works hard and can chip in with a goal. Ive seen nothing from Smith yet that suggests he will offer an attacking threat. Looks to me like someone who is more comfortable sitting deep in the midfield, although I may be wrong. I like Philips physicality and think he will provide more energy in the middle of the park. Whoever plays, we need to greatly improve our passing. Needlessly giving the ball away has been a massive issue for us this season. Could really do with Drey getting back to last seasons levels as well.

I think most of us are would view Ross County, Dundee and Livi as the three teams who are likely to be at the lower end of the table with us this season. Lose on Saturday and we will be 7 points behind Livi and at least 5 behind County and 4 behind Dundee. Far from ideal after only 7 games. My team would be: Mitov Olufunwa Gordon Considine Robinson Drey Sprangler Philips Max Jephcott May Given Maccas comments in the media this week about Jephcott its very unlikely that he will start, but what other options do we have? Its a big risk playing Kano again if he is fit and Costelloe does not look up to things yet. Ideally you would want Jephcott to be in better shape, but we have surely got to better off starting him than leaving him on the bench and him only getting the last 10 minutes. Let the midfield and Stevie May do the pressing and leg work and ask Jephcott to make sure he is in around the box for when any crosses come in etc. Macca described him as a "fox in the box" - https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/st-johnstone/4577668/luke-jephcott-steven-maclean-st-johnstone-transfer/, he should use him to his strengths rather than expecting him to come on and close down defenders.

I try to cling to the positives - we’ve not been completely outplayed in the league, we have a new squad with a number of younger players etc, but there’s only so long that we can keep using these excuses. Three out of our next five games are home games. I think we need at least 8 points from the next 5 games and for the team to show more attacking intent. If we go through the next 5 and things continue as they are, I think the club should be looking at Maccas position. Macca needs to put his hands up and acknowledge that Ryan McGowan would be a better option than many of ahead of him currently in the team and also move away from playing May up front on his own.

I think he sees Sprangler and Smith as holding midfielders and hopes to use Philips further forward.

Moving on to the game, this would be my team.. Mitov Dare McClelland Gordon Gallacher Philips Smith Wright Turner-Cooke May Kane Courier article a few weeks ago mentioned that Drey wouldn’t be back until the Hibs game, but Macca never mentioned him (I don’t think) when discussing injured players in his press conference this week. All the pressure on The Rangers for this one. If we get the first goal, will be interesting to see how their team and support react.

It sadly a common theme throughout Scottish football these days. I used to go to as many away games as I could, but now due to pricing I only go to a few a season. For tickets alone for our two away games at Ross County and Celtic this season I would have been £79 for my daughter and I. Take into account travel and food etc and its almost impossible to justify for a couple of hours "entertainment". Saints know that both the Glasgow teams will sell out their tickets at £30 a head, so that is why they increase the price. We obviously tried to put tickets on sale to home fans for a lower price against Celtic but quickly stopped that when it was pointed out it was against the rules. Clubs obviously have increased overheads these days with things like gas and electricity increasing significantly, but there is no doubts that many are being turned away due to the cost of tickets. What is the answer? A mass boycott of all games? Very unlikely to happen.

Utter nonsense. Imagine organising a supporters bus to Dingwall and having to contact the Police to ask if its ok to pick up a few more supporters in Bankfoot or Pitlochry. Fancy making a day out of it? Sorry, we are not allowed to be in Dingwall until 1pm at the very earliest. A few pints before the match? Nope sorry you will need to have a three course meal with that. How about going to a pub after the game for an hour? Nope sorry, you need to leave Dingwall by 5.30pm.

We could have had no complaints if we had been 3 or 4 down after 80 minutes. I talked about hoping to see a more positive approach at home, but that performance was as bad as many of the performance's we witnessed during Davidsons tenure. I was really encouraged by the display from many of our new signings in the Celtic game and was hoping they would build on it, but it never happened. Many of these players will never have experienced the frantic, competitive way in which Scottish football is played and they are going to have to learn quickly. Keeping Chris Kane fit is going to be crucial for us this season. The likes of McCann, Kerr and Rooney rightly got the plaudits during the double season but he was every bit as important that season as well. He is so good at winning fouls, linking up with others and getting us up the pitch. Stevie May should never be played up front on his own again. Its been tried and tried for the past two years and it just does not work. He works well in a two, but cant play as the lone frontman and our performances suffer as a result. I have been encouraged by Dan Phillips recent performances, if he can avoid picking up needless bookings and be consistent in his performances, then he will be a massive asset for us. Hopefully Drew Wright is not out for too long as felt we really missed him on Saturday. Hopefully the break for the next two weeks provides the opportunity for us to get some more of the injured players back into training and also improve the fitness of others whilst working more on the shape and style that Macca wants from the team.

I think it’s still early days to judge the team. Unfortunately our lack of planning in terms of recruitment means we will are playing catch up and it’s likely to take a few more weeks until all the new players gel and we get a better indication of where we are. In saying that, we really need to be picking up point’s tomorrow. The next four games include Rangers at home and Hibs and Aberdeen away.

Feeling a bit more optimistic about this one after our performance last week. Will be interesting to see how we handle having to come out and play more attacking though. Home performances in the main have been dreadful to watch for the past few years, hopefully we will see a much more positive approach. Dundee look to be in the best place for they have been for years. Plenty of options throughout their team with an experienced keeper and defence. Do we play the same team that started last week? Jephcott still looks short of fitness and fans of his previous clubs have all suggested that he is not a lone striker. Does someone drop out and we bring May into partner him up top or will we see Costelloe play closer to him? All the makings of a good game with a hopefully a decent crowd. Thoughts?

Spot on. If Phillips can just stick to what he is good at by breaking up the play and playing simple passes, he will be a massive asset for us. Delighted with todays performance. Really good shape and discipline. Mitov was outstanding and will get all the plaudits, but a lot of praise must also go to the likes of McClelland, Olufunwa, Robinson, Costello and particularly Matt Smith. I thought they were all excellent. Todays result will provide a massive boost of confidence to the whole squad, hopefully we can build on it with a win against Dundee next week. The club should be doing as much as possible in the week ahead to promote the game and try to get as many people as possible into McDiarmid.

I try to remain optimistic about all things Saints as the alternative is acting like a lot of these moonhowlers on social media who would find fault with the club even if we were playing free flowing attacking football, but after a while realism takes over from optimism and the reality is that we are in big trouble. Yes, the injury situation is bad, but of this out injured, who is going to come back in and drastically improve us? Drey Wright, Chris Kane and Nicky Clark would give us better options, but none of them are going to come in and improve the team significantly. On paper our current squad looks like a mid table championship team. Over the next three weeks we urgently need players who have skill and pace in the final third. Ross County and Hearts defenders have probably never had such an easy 90 minutes. We offer nothing up front. May works all day and as we seen last season still has the ability to get goals, but having him up top on his own is a waste of time. Carey is technically a talented player, but due to having no pace, he offers very little. It’s going to be a long season and on current evidence, it’s going to take a miracle for us to stay up. We have been lucky the past two seasons in that Dundee and then Dundee United were a shambles. The only team I can see possibly doing similar this season is Livi, so we just have to hope our injured players return and remain fit and we get lucky with some signings over the next few weeks.

Mitov Dare McClelland Considine Gallacher Drey McGowan Phillips Carey May Jephcott

Hope I am not stepping on the prediction leagues space, but thought it would be interesting to make some more in depth predictions on how you see the the upcoming season going. I will start: Player of the Year: Drey Wright Young Player: Sam McClelland Final League Position: 11th Top Goalscorer: Stevie May

Davidson, Grieve, Flaherty have all massively contributed towards where we are, but ultimately the decisions to hire all three and keep them at the club as long as they did lies with Steve Brown. History will look kindly upon the great success we had during his tenure, but the last two years of his legacy were a disaster. Moving forwards, I can see no merit in continuously trying to blame certain individuals for the position we are in. We as a support need to get behind the club as much as we can. I realise that’s extremely difficult, particularly when we have just just witnessed one of our worst ever results and we are a few days away from beginning a league campaign with an extremely poor looking squad, but what’s the alternative? Im not suggesting people don’t critique line ups or formations, but getting on players backs at the games and directing drivel at players on social media serves no purpose. When the club decided that Macca was the man they wanted to lead the club, they had no option but to give him a long term contract. It’s been hard enough to sign players and would have been made even harder if we had only given him a one year deal. Players like Mitov and Jephcott would be very unlikely to have moved hundreds of miles to join us if they manager that wanted to sign them was only contracted for a year. It’s not going to be easy, but when we get another two or three permanent players through the door and supplement them with some loans later in the window we will be in a much better place. Added to that, if and it’s a big if, we can get Kane, Clark and MacPherson fit and playing regularly, then that will make a big difference as well.

Leg break was 7 years ago. Since then he has played over 200 games. Cambridge fans were raving about him last season.

Ex Falkirk player and one of Mitovs teammates from last season the next player we are trying to get in.

Sam McClelland ex Chelsea youth is the defender apparently.

I would be surprised if part of MacPhersons role as Head of Football Operations was not to identify targets. He dosent specifically mention it in this interview, but it certainly seems he is actively involved in our recruitment process - https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/st-johnstone/4134355/gus-macpherson-st-johnstone-are-restoring-their-stability-and-callum-davidson-is-perfect-fit-for-perth-club/. Convincing players to come to us has always been an issue. The one thing we were able to offer over the past decade was stability and reassurance to a player that they were joining a stable club where they would get looked after well and also receive their wage on time as well as being a club that was usually in the latter stages of the cup competitions and being in the top half of the table, but the past two seasons have probably impacted on a players perception of us. The suggestions about the English players contracts also surprised me. You would have thought it would have been in a free agents best interest to get signed up with a new club sooner rather than later.

Surely Gus MacPherson must have been compiling a list of potential targets over the past year. I realise we will not be the first choice of many players, but still would have be nice for the morale of the squad and the supporters if we had signed a few new players by now. I like Macca saying he is looking for quality over quantity and is willing to wait, but it could be a risky strategy. If we go into the League Cup games and suffer some poor results against lower league teams, then it could have an impact on the mindset of an already fragile squad, particularly the younger players. I note that it has been mentioned that players in England who are out of contract are still due another months salary, so it may be the case that we see more movement towards the end of this month. I try to remain optimistic as I can in regards to all things Saints, but it’s hard to keep remain upbeat when you look at our current squad. A inexperienced keeper, two ageing defenders, two left backs who have had injury problems, a midfield containing players like Crawford and Carey who go missing at every opportunity and then a strike force that contains two players (Clark & Kane) that are both coming back from serious injuries. Maccas recruitment is going to have to be spot on.

Seen some mentions on social media about Macca not having contacts or the stature to attract decent players to the club, which I don’t agree with. Macca, Liam Craig and Alex Cleland have all played in England and Scotland and all will have built up some good contacts throughout their careers which they will be able to tap into regarding the potential availability of players and said players abilities. Judging by Maccas press appearances, he can talk a good game and I am sure he will be able to sell his vision of the club to any potential signings. We do have the potential sale of the club hanging over us, but I would be surprised if that had any impact on players joining us. We are in a good position financially and have always had a reputation as being a club that looks after players well. Clubs like Saints, Motherwell, Killie and Ross County are all fishing in the same pool. A lot of players are based on the west coast and if offered a similar deal by Motherwell or Killie then they are always likely to choose them so that they don’t have to do so much travelling. County pay over the top to attract players due to their location. Out of the players that have gone to similar sized clubs recently, the only one I m really fussed about is Deas who has evidently been offered a good deal by Killie who seemed to be splashing the cash. Ideally we will see a couple of new signings in place soon to give the squad a bit of freshness and hopefully boost the morale/pre season excitement amongst the support.

Rumour today that Theo Bair has agreed a mutual termination of his contract with the club. Mahon, Eetu and now Bair away all after we spent significant fees on them with no return

I think given the fact there is no imminent chance of the club being sold and that plans are already underway regarding new faces becoming board members that we will likely see Macca given a short term contract very soon. I am comfortable with that now. Its evident that the players have bought into his methods and he has come across well in the media and we have started to see signs of more attacking football and the also the introduction of Ballantyne and Sinclair. I would much rather have Macca and Liam Craig in place moving forward rather than some of the "usual faces" in Scottish football. He knows the current squad and will have his thoughts on what we need for next season.