Radford 72

Yep. Was staggered when the manager described it as a back three last week.

Absolutely no motivation for a summer of Levein and Kirk but struggle to see us making a change. Current hierarchy aren't going to sack him and any new owner is surely going to wait. Which is only going to cause us long-term harm. Sad times.

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.

How much did Geoff Brown have to do with the appointment of Stark? All the quotes were from Ian Dewar as GB was away from the club in recovery at the time? We've been very fortunate with the managerial appointments made during the Brown era up until the last couple and I'm going to excuse him from Stark. Connolly was the big mistake when he let heart rule head as it was a nonsensical appointment but at least they acted quickly. McClelland was an attempt to change direction from big-spending under Totten and it kick-started the youth side of things. I certainly wouldn't lay too much blame his way for the 1994 relegation either, that was events conspiring against us as much as anything. And again it was quickly identified as not working. All the others had at least some level of positive impact for a spell at least. That's why we should never just accept mediocrity, which, at best, is very much what is on the menu currently.

If I'm going to shit myself, I don't care what colour it is.

I do think that was huge in terms of manager/squad dynamic but the rot had already set in and we'd taken some heavy defeats. The emergence of Parker papered over things a bit for a while but (under him) his expensive signings like Hartley and Lovenkrands just hadn't worked. I remember being 3-0 down at HT at home to Motherwell at the start of a run of 13 games without and win and giving him another summer was the wrong call. The budget probably wasn't great but you've got to have more imagination than the signings you mentioned above. Davidson and Stark weren't good for opposite reasons. The former is, in my mind, undoubtedly a good coach. What he did with the double-squad was remarkable and (despite the fact we couldn't always put chances away) we were entertaining and attacking, as well as really well drilled. Up there with the Saints teams I've most enjoyed watching. 5-2-3 was Gary Rowett's system though, Davidson was just good at coaching it. He was completely unable to adapt and identify and new way of playing when it was required. And his man-management skills seemed lacking. Stark though, was clearly very popular with his players, which created the problems for Connolly. I think Geoff Brown is quoted as saying he's his favourite manager in terms of personality. He just couldn't get us playing to any level of consistency or in a particularly exciting manner. We've become accustomed to dross these days but back then that was far more of an issue after the best of Clark, Sturrock and Totten.

You'd bracket Connolly with McClelland and MacLean, mistakes that were relatively quickly rectified. Clark, Stark and Davidson weren't necessarily dreadful managers but were allowed to carry on for far too long. Things started going downhill for Clark in the autumn of 2000 and by the spring of 2001 they probably should have been assessing things. Geoff Brown had stepped away from Saints at the time though and I think has said he'd have acted sooner than leaving it until the start of the following season. Like with Davidson, the club were too loyal because of past achievements. I think CD probably earned a chance after Kelty (despite the losing run it was part of) but the 7-0 at Celtic Park should have ended him, the players just weren't playing for him by that point. Stark had a knack of getting a result when he needed it which always seemed to keep our promotion hopes alive, when the reality was that we'd never have the fight to win big games if it really mattered. There was never going to be a benefit to sacking him mid-season though so the missed opportunities were at the end of his first two campaigns. It is hard to compare the first three against the latter three but Stark was clearly worse than Clark and Davidson, by miles, so your worst four in McDiarmid-era are: McClelland, Stark, Connolly and MacLean. I'll let others rank them in order of ineptitude.

Jesus. Christ. Almighty.

Can you imagine any other business where hard work, dedication and competence drives standards up, then the customers just accept the acquiescence to how things used to be? Customers would just walk away. Especially if the price of an inferior product was only rising.

Just look at who put the majority of it together. A lesson to learn moving forward is to ensure a manager has the charisma required to assess the personality of potential signings.

He'd probably interview himself on his podcast.

Saturday was definitely down in a large part to tactical issues but after that I guess the question becomes confidence or actual quality when it comes down to individuals. I'm wholly unconvinced it's not the latter I'm afraid. The lack of width is crippling. It's why I'd have Jaiyesimi in the team for Wednesday out wide.

Is the consensus that this squad is rubbish? Probably? But is it unreasonable to suggest it's still being managed as poorly as it was under MacLean? Folk are posting evidence of it anyway. Both managers got an initial bounce but their records are now comparable over essentially half-a-season. Of course the argument will be that managers need time but they need to buy themselves it surely and 2 goals from open play from inside the area (i.e. breaking teams down) isn't doing that. Even that number is generous as the Kimpioka goal comes from a defensive error and the Keltjens one from Roos doing a Superman. There is a case we haven't scored a single goal under this management team from breaking a team down. NOT A SINGLE ONE. For me, there needs to be an improvement and very quickly or my patience is going to be fully exhausted. Actually, who am I kidding, it already is. Compare going down under Sturrock to going down under Stark. Look at the bigger picture. Levein was bored at home again so thought he may as well have a play at shop. And this is the result.

One million percent this. Arseholes.

I mean a sceptic would suggest that the Head of Media and Comms got the minutes then omitted the bit about Hercules since he'd taken the initial credit for setting up the partnership... Or maybe it was a genuine mistake...

Proper banter years stuff. Maybe the Head of Media and Comms would be advised to remove the brag of setting it up from his LinkedIn profile. Absolute charlatans that managed to infiltrate the club.

Team will be Kucheriavyi and 10 others. Every week until Levein leaves.

Queen's Park surely.

Was David Martindale a poor reflection of a person? I don't think that is in doubt, but imagine everyone who went to jail took his attitude. I'd suggest the world would be a far better place. Continuing to beat on a guy who has turned his life around, has owned his crime and has shown remorse is so ridiculous. David Martindale is the perfect example of how a justice system should work. Do your time and try to better yourself. He's done both. He wouldn't be my first choice for the job but there are so many more worse options out there.

Can I ask why? He's a fiery personality but, IMO, we need to take that gamble. The whole place needs galvanised and Norman Normal won't cut it.

Steven MacLean should be toast. His threats are as hollow as they come and must surely only be alienating a group of players we need to get a tune out of for the next 7 months because, make no mistake, we cannot throw money at this again in January. Tactically he's hopeless as well. The only defence for him now will be he took over in a tough situation and hasn't had much time. But neither is a reason to keep a manager that is still under performing, but also showing zero signs of having anything about him. Sack him today before we fluke a win over the next fortnight then limp on for a few more weeks just doing more long-term damage. Continuity was never the right approach when Davidson was emptied but I tried to get behind the appointment and was open to what he talked about doing in the summer. Every manager deserves that. It's been a disaster though and I can't endure us making the same mistake as with Davidson and struggling on in this manner for a year plus longer than we should have. Act now.

I don't think he was saying that. He was saying we'd been working on the 4-3-3 all week and when Kane got injured he went with May up front because, one, we'd been working on the shape and, two, because May and Jephcott would leave us no strikers on the bench. Whatever my thoughts prior to his appointment, I'm content that I gave Steven MacLean a clean slate when he got the job. I listened to what he said and tried to buy in. I think in the past I'd have kept my thoughts to myself about things right now to give him the sort of chance the argument will be that everyone deserves and because I know it's still very early days but, my God, my gut feeling is not good at all right now. Obviously I hope I'm completely wrong.

You can't play two up front at Celtic Park. They bypass it too easily then you are effectively 8 against 8 in an attack versus defence exercise. Suicide. The other side of the coin is you have to ensure it remains 8 against 9 and not 8 against 10, otherwise you are just plugging the dam. The striker being able to take the ball in at least forces them to start again. Time for Stevie May to stand up and be counted as a senior player. Lone striker isn't his game but he needs to get the sleeves rolled up and get on with it. Get your body between the ball and the centre backs, take the hits and get your team up the park. As someone said above, today a perfect opportunity to show we can have a good shape and discipline and make it hard for the opposition. There will be no excuses if they can't display that they've been coached to do that. Just meekly accepting a pasting isn't acceptable. If this ends up the realms of embarrassment then, IMO, we should potentially be looking at making a managerial change within the next few weeks.

I think we need to be honest and say we don't know. Being totally defeatist and negative doesn't achieve anything when we are still in the dark but equally it's never wrong to question things and not just bury your head in the sand. I guess we need to try and be optimistic that there is a plan in place that can be delivered.

I think a big issue for Davidson was trust. He trusted Gary Rowett, not just in terms of loans but also guys we signed. Even players like Bryson, Butterfield, Solomon-Otabor had played under him. And whether people like the fact or not, there was an unhealthy relationship between Davidson and his agent, Allan Preston, when it came to bringing players to Saints. Contacts are vital for a club like Saints who don't have an extensive scouting or recruitment network and you'd hope it was given consideration before appointing MacLean. It was always something Geoff Brown saw as a priority. I also can't see any way our reputation hasn't been tarnished by the last 2 years. Paying inflated fees for players, paying bigger wages, settling up contracts and a big turnover of players. You go from being a club that rogues wouldn't waste their time with to ripe pickings. How we did conduct our business isn't too distant a memory though so hopefully we gain move back towards that model.