Linky

Ok, here's my view on Davidson.
He had an amazing first season, everything just slotted into place. A mixture of the right players coming good at the right time, Covid restrictions meaning that bigger teams had less of an advantage over us, and other teams around us being quite poor. Davidson had his tactics, and the players we had slotted into that vision perfectly.
You finish an incredible season and it's always going to be hard to match that. Players have nothing to go for, they've achieved everything they could possibly achieve at the club (how could it get better?), so it's a good time to leave. We don't capitalise in pre-season (presumably because we're waiting to see how much money might be available from Europe) and so, we're dumped out of Europe. Morale plummets. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we weren't a huge gap away from actually making it.
2 key players leave. Another 3 make it clear they want to see out their contract & go (or wanted to go anyway, but offers were rejected). This starts to effect the togetherness of the squad. What could the future be if 5 keys players have left/are leaving at the end of the season. Morale falls further.
Davidson thinks that his model is so successful, you could basically bring in anyone and it will work. Ok, we might not do as well as last season, but we'd get a top 6 place. So the idea is to bring in young players from England on loan (+ Macpherson), sign them at the end of the season, sell them on for a profit after a few years. In a way, not a bad idea. Throw in a few more experienced players, who know the league (Ambrose & Crawford) & a wildcard to replace Melamed (Vertainen), and it looks an ok team on paper.
It all falls apart: injuries to key players, fallouts with others, a tug-of-war on signing policies leading to some players not being played just for the sake of it. The loan players brought it are ok back-ups, but not first team material. Nor are the older 2. Results don't go our way. Suddenly, the younger players, rather than growing in confidence in a clear system with those around them, look completely out of their depth. They aren't developing, but going backwards under the pressure.
Morale drops further, the magic of last season has been lost. Davidson only had one system, if the system doesn't work, he doesn't know what to do. He panics, and starts blaming certain players (those he didn't want to sign), and only playing those he did want to sign. Morale drops further. He asks for money in January, and is given it. He's indecisive though, so we miss out on some key signings. Others are blocked by the Chairman as too expensive and not good enough. He gets a number of players in, but again: some are his, some were signed against his will. We have another situation where he only plays those he 'trusts' and others are shut out. Davidson - never the best with money - blows a whole load on getting lots of players in, not really caring for the long-term future of the club. The hope is, if there are enough new players, at least SOME of them will be good enough. He thinks, the players are the problem, not me - my system worked perfectly last season.
In the same way that he doesn't really know how it went so right last season, he doesn't know how it's going so wrong this season. He thinks if he keeps playing the same way, it'll come good eventually. It did last season, so why not now? More players start looking towards the exit, they stop trusting one another or the management team. MacLean was brought in my Davidson, so certainly isn't going to question him. Gordon was made captain by Davidson, so isn't going to question him. Perhaps one or two older players do, which is why we don't see them for a long time. It just gets worse and worse, players fearful of making mistakes, the favourites know they'll get a game no matter what, those rejected know there's no point trying as he's not going to let them start a game anyway...

Anyone but Parrish.

Ok, here's my view on Davidson.
He had an amazing first season, everything just slotted into place. A mixture of the right players coming good at the right time, Covid restrictions meaning that bigger teams had less of an advantage over us, and other teams around us being quite poor. Davidson had his tactics, and the players we had slotted into that vision perfectly.
You finish an incredible season and it's always going to be hard to match that. Players have nothing to go for, they've achieved everything they could possibly achieve at the club (how could it get better?), so it's a good time to leave. We don't capitalise in pre-season (presumably because we're waiting to see how much money might be available from Europe) and so, we're dumped out of Europe. Morale plummets. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we weren't a huge gap away from actually making it.
2 key players leave. Another 3 make it clear they want to see out their contract & go (or wanted to go anyway, but offers were rejected). This starts to effect the togetherness of the squad. What could the future be if 5 keys players have left/are leaving at the end of the season. Morale falls further.
Davidson thinks that his model is so successful, you could basically bring in anyone and it will work. Ok, we might not do as well as last season, but we'd get a top 6 place. So the idea is to bring in young players from England on loan (+ Macpherson), sign them at the end of the season, sell them on for a profit after a few years. In a way, not a bad idea. Throw in a few more experienced players, who know the league (Ambrose & Crawford) & a wildcard to replace Melamed (Vertainen), and it looks an ok team on paper.
It all falls apart: injuries to key players, fallouts with others, a tug-of-war on signing policies leading to some players not being played just for the sake of it. The loan players brought it are ok back-ups, but not first team material. Nor are the older 2. Results don't go our way. Suddenly, the younger players, rather than growing in confidence in a clear system with those around them, look completely out of their depth. They aren't developing, but going backwards under the pressure.
Morale drops further, the magic of last season has been lost. Davidson only had one system, if the system doesn't work, he doesn't know what to do. He panics, and starts blaming certain players (those he didn't want to sign), and only playing those he did want to sign. Morale drops further. He asks for money in January, and is given it. He's indecisive though, so we miss out on some key signings. Others are blocked by the Chairman as too expensive and not good enough. He gets a number of players in, but again: some are his, some were signed against his will. We have another situation where he only plays those he 'trusts' and others are shut out. Davidson - never the best with money - blows a whole load on getting lots of players in, not really caring for the long-term future of the club. The hope is, if there are enough new players, at least SOME of them will be good enough. He thinks, the players are the problem, not me - my system worked perfectly last season.
In the same way that he doesn't really know how it went so right last season, he doesn't know how it's going so wrong this season. He thinks if he keeps playing the same way, it'll come good eventually. It did last season, so why not now? More players start looking towards the exit, they stop trusting one another or the management team. MacLean was brought in my Davidson, so certainly isn't going to question him. Gordon was made captain by Davidson, so isn't going to question him. Perhaps one or two older players do, which is why we don't see them for a long time. It just gets worse and worse, players fearful of making mistakes, the favourites know they'll get a game no matter what, those rejected know there's no point trying as he's not going to let them start a game anyway...

Ok, here's my view on Davidson.
He had an amazing first season, everything just slotted into place. A mixture of the right players coming good at the right time, Covid restrictions meaning that bigger teams had less of an advantage over us, and other teams around us being quite poor. Davidson had his tactics, and the players we had slotted into that vision perfectly.
You finish an incredible season and it's always going to be hard to match that. Players have nothing to go for, they've achieved everything they could possibly achieve at the club (how could it get better?), so it's a good time to leave. We don't capitalise in pre-season (presumably because we're waiting to see how much money might be available from Europe) and so, we're dumped out of Europe. Morale plummets. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we weren't a huge gap away from actually making it.
2 key players leave. Another 3 make it clear they want to see out their contract & go (or wanted to go anyway, but offers were rejected). This starts to effect the togetherness of the squad. What could the future be if 5 keys players have left/are leaving at the end of the season. Morale falls further.
Davidson thinks that his model is so successful, you could basically bring in anyone and it will work. Ok, we might not do as well as last season, but we'd get a top 6 place. So the idea is to bring in young players from England on loan (+ Macpherson), sign them at the end of the season, sell them on for a profit after a few years. In a way, not a bad idea. Throw in a few more experienced players, who know the league (Ambrose & Crawford) & a wildcard to replace Melamed (Vertainen), and it looks an ok team on paper.
It all falls apart: injuries to key players, fallouts with others, a tug-of-war on signing policies leading to some players not being played just for the sake of it. The loan players brought it are ok back-ups, but not first team material. Nor are the older 2. Results don't go our way. Suddenly, the younger players, rather than growing in confidence in a clear system with those around them, look completely out of their depth. They aren't developing, but going backwards under the pressure.
Morale drops further, the magic of last season has been lost. Davidson only had one system, if the system doesn't work, he doesn't know what to do. He panics, and starts blaming certain players (those he didn't want to sign), and only playing those he did want to sign. Morale drops further. He asks for money in January, and is given it. He's indecisive though, so we miss out on some key signings. Others are blocked by the Chairman as too expensive and not good enough. He gets a number of players in, but again: some are his, some were signed against his will. We have another situation where he only plays those he 'trusts' and others are shut out. Davidson - never the best with money - blows a whole load on getting lots of players in, not really caring for the long-term future of the club. The hope is, if there are enough new players, at least SOME of them will be good enough. He thinks, the players are the problem, not me - my system worked perfectly last season.
In the same way that he doesn't really know how it went so right last season, he doesn't know how it's going so wrong this season. He thinks if he keeps playing the same way, it'll come good eventually. It did last season, so why not now? More players start looking towards the exit, they stop trusting one another or the management team. MacLean was brought in my Davidson, so certainly isn't going to question him. Gordon was made captain by Davidson, so isn't going to question him. Perhaps one or two older players do, which is why we don't see them for a long time. It just gets worse and worse, players fearful of making mistakes, the favourites know they'll get a game no matter what, those rejected know there's no point trying as he's not going to let them start a game anyway...

Ok, here's my view on Davidson.
He had an amazing first season, everything just slotted into place. A mixture of the right players coming good at the right time, Covid restrictions meaning that bigger teams had less of an advantage over us, and other teams around us being quite poor. Davidson had his tactics, and the players we had slotted into that vision perfectly.
You finish an incredible season and it's always going to be hard to match that. Players have nothing to go for, they've achieved everything they could possibly achieve at the club (how could it get better?), so it's a good time to leave. We don't capitalise in pre-season (presumably because we're waiting to see how much money might be available from Europe) and so, we're dumped out of Europe. Morale plummets. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we weren't a huge gap away from actually making it.
2 key players leave. Another 3 make it clear they want to see out their contract & go (or wanted to go anyway, but offers were rejected). This starts to effect the togetherness of the squad. What could the future be if 5 keys players have left/are leaving at the end of the season. Morale falls further.
Davidson thinks that his model is so successful, you could basically bring in anyone and it will work. Ok, we might not do as well as last season, but we'd get a top 6 place. So the idea is to bring in young players from England on loan (+ Macpherson), sign them at the end of the season, sell them on for a profit after a few years. In a way, not a bad idea. Throw in a few more experienced players, who know the league (Ambrose & Crawford) & a wildcard to replace Melamed (Vertainen), and it looks an ok team on paper.
It all falls apart: injuries to key players, fallouts with others, a tug-of-war on signing policies leading to some players not being played just for the sake of it. The loan players brought it are ok back-ups, but not first team material. Nor are the older 2. Results don't go our way. Suddenly, the younger players, rather than growing in confidence in a clear system with those around them, look completely out of their depth. They aren't developing, but going backwards under the pressure.
Morale drops further, the magic of last season has been lost. Davidson only had one system, if the system doesn't work, he doesn't know what to do. He panics, and starts blaming certain players (those he didn't want to sign), and only playing those he did want to sign. Morale drops further. He asks for money in January, and is given it. He's indecisive though, so we miss out on some key signings. Others are blocked by the Chairman as too expensive and not good enough. He gets a number of players in, but again: some are his, some were signed against his will. We have another situation where he only plays those he 'trusts' and others are shut out. Davidson - never the best with money - blows a whole load on getting lots of players in, not really caring for the long-term future of the club. The hope is, if there are enough new players, at least SOME of them will be good enough. He thinks, the players are the problem, not me - my system worked perfectly last season.
In the same way that he doesn't really know how it went so right last season, he doesn't know how it's going so wrong this season. He thinks if he keeps playing the same way, it'll come good eventually. It did last season, so why not now? More players start looking towards the exit, they stop trusting one another or the management team. MacLean was brought in my Davidson, so certainly isn't going to question him. Gordon was made captain by Davidson, so isn't going to question him. Perhaps one or two older players do, which is why we don't see them for a long time. It just gets worse and worse, players fearful of making mistakes, the favourites know they'll get a game no matter what, those rejected know there's no point trying as he's not going to let them start a game anyway...

The point I was making there were another 11 players on the park who were absolutely crap yet someone comes on and slags May off who played for about 15 minutes. I’m not saying he is good or not good it’s one of my pet hates that someone’s likes or dislikes cloud their overall judgment. 

Ultimately the defenders had very little option. Crawford and Hallberg pretty much pushed wide close to the wing-backs leaving Davidson alone on the middle of the pitch. We are crying out for a McCann or Millar that looks to come short and try to keep possesion. The fact Davidson can't see something so simple is worrying.

Pretty poor. We just have no plan going forward. The 3 centre-backs just knock it around between themselves, and then kick it up the pitch and out of play. Same all season, but nothing is done about it. We really miss Kane, who can hold it up and bring others into play. Booth was doing his best to get forward, but there is no outlet for him. We were lucky with our goal and they actually looked slightly better than us for much of the game.

Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I haven't seen any of this. I actually think the Saints fans, on the whole, have been incredibly patient and supportive under the circumstances. Kelty match aside, there hasn't really been any significant sign of fan unrest at matches. I think the fans of most other clubs in our league would have been vocally rounding on the manager quite some time ago if they were in our situation.

For me, now is the time for change. It's not about yesterday or even about staying up any more. Are Saints really better placed for the long-term or the next manager if we scrape survival and let Callum Davidson work his magic over the summer? 
Even if still in the Premiership, we could be in a far worse position come the World Cup than we are right now. 
When you can't see how the club moves forward with a manager, why do you continue to back him? 
Be brave please, Mr Chairman. 

This is the irony of it: Ciftci has looked pretty poor, and yet seems to be rated by the manager the best of the 3 new strikers we signed, one of which we supposedly paid a fee for. It's pretty shambolic whichever way you look at it

I doubt very much if that is anything to do with it. 
The physio will not be dealing with the stretching and preparation of players that will be the sports scientist.
Jim is there to pick up the pieces and get players back fit highly regarded in his field and also been there dealing with players at the club for a while now 

Probably more linked to the amount of games being played and the squad not being adequately rotated? With a large squad its probably not best to keep playing the same people.  It would also give the new guys a chance to get up to speed. Subbing tired players earlier during the game may also help.  Also the training methods may be another factor??  Just guessing...

It would be no surprise if CD did that though.In fact it's highly probably 

That's kinda how I read it. Sounds like a manager who knows we are going down and is starting damage control. Even worse one that is secure in the fact that it will effect his employment not one jot 

Also, the 'avoiding relegation would be a bigger achievement than winning the cups' comment. I know what he's trying to say: 'if we turn this around, we'll have done really well' essentially. But it sounds like: 'winning the cups was a once in a lifetime thing, there's no chance we're going to avoid relegation'. 

He was solid and did the basics well. He's never going to be Rooney or McNamara, but he's improving game by game. Part of the reason Middleton had some space on that side, was due to Brown's play, in the same way that a huge part of Wotherspoon's success last season was that he had Booth playing well behind him.

Never a penalty, but possibly a foul outside the box before that from Booth.
Either way, we did the same thing again: started brightly, but second half is awful. I can't understand why anyone would think it a good idea to bring on May at that time, and then lump the ball up to him. It's like playing with 10 men, as he jumps away from the ball rather than towards it. We were really hanging on and deserved to lose. We sign 10 new players in January and then bring on....May and Craig. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. Is Bair going to be another Eetu?
If we could play like we did for the first 25 mins for the whole game, we wouldn't be in the position we are now.

I'm sure this was his thinking, but honestly, May offers nothing offensively or defensively. He can put in a tackle from time to time, but if the ball comes near him in the final third he does this weird jumpy thing to look like he's going for the ball, but actually getting nowhere near it.

Never a penalty, but possibly a foul outside the box before that from Booth.
Either way, we did the same thing again: started brightly, but second half is awful. I can't understand why anyone would think it a good idea to bring on May at that time, and then lump the ball up to him. It's like playing with 10 men, as he jumps away from the ball rather than towards it. We were really hanging on and deserved to lose. We sign 10 new players in January and then bring on....May and Craig. It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic. Is Bair going to be another Eetu?
If we could play like we did for the first 25 mins for the whole game, we wouldn't be in the position we are now.

Really bad news for Clark. However, Middleton looks back to his old self and is linking up well with Hendry. Midfield looks much better with Hallberg there. Even Crawford is looking ok. Brown has been particularly good in this first half too.

Well, that's Hallberg just signed which is a start.

Well, that's Hallberg just signed which is a start.

I've just decided I don't want us to change manager after all.

Criticising Kane last night is shite too, its not his fault he spends 90 minutes chasing hoofs and having to fight with 2 6ft+ CBs for everything because we're just shelling it at him.
When he does manage to fight them off and keep the ball he's no choice but to hold onto it far too long while he waits for our plodding, paceless, collection of wing backs and central midfielders to actually get up the park to offer him an option.