Dear Tommy

[saintcraigieboy]

Might worry is the loosening of the purse strings.

We have been linked with numerous players, Mcginn, Loy, Hemmings, Mcshane, Holt, etc but all went elsewhere, mostly will be because of money offered.

Even if we did loosen the purse strings, we will still be no where near paying enough to attract decent players.

Tommy wont play youngsters, so are we even looking at good younger lower division players, to try and get, take a risk on, as other teams have.

What happened to the Medhi Abeid type loans that we previously got, don't even hear of any whispers recently

This team is falling apart due to age, staleness, etc. Yet we have done nothing to try and improve for the future.

The futures not bright

 

[Kyle]

Might worry is the loosening of the purse strings.

We have been linked with numerous players, Mcginn, Loy, Hemmings, Mcshane, Holt, etc but all went elsewhere, mostly will be because of money offered.

Even if we did loosen the purse strings, we will still be no where near paying enough to attract decent players.

Tommy wont play youngsters, so are we even looking at good younger lower division players, to try and get, take a risk on, as other teams have.

What happened to the Medhi Abeid type loans that we previously got, don't even hear of any whispers recently

This team is falling apart due to age, staleness, etc. Yet we have done nothing to try and improve for the future.

The futures not bright

 

Of those players mentioned, we were linked to Loy and that's it. McGinn went to Hibs for £100k, Hemmings went to Dundee early on, McShane went to County for £75k and we don't need a left back/didn't go for any others, so I doubt we went for Holt.

The manager also denied that we made an offer for Loy, although I think you're right about that one.

Agree with the general point though -  we went for 6 players on deadline day by the chairman's own admission and only got 1 of them...and he had to be released before we got him.

The right targets need to be identified, the chairman needs to put up the finance. We all know the money's there and we can all see the glaring issues in the squad. No excuses.

[RandomGuy]

Think he meant Paul McGinn.

Id happily spunk two players wages on Abdul Osman. Would love Doolan too but he'll retire at Thistle. 

[Ali91]

It's completely disrespectful to our achievements to suggest they are tainted because Hibs and Hearts were struggling and Motherwell were in a slump. We had a better team than them all and our achievements were all on our own merits. Whatever your thoughts on where we are at the minute, to belittle our achievements to back up your point is ridiculous. 

[Kyle]

Think he meant Paul McGinn.

Id happily spunk two players wages on Abdul Osman. Would love Doolan too but he'll retire at Thistle. 

Other than HSF saying he was good (think I backed her up but I can't remember) I don't think the club were ever actually linked with him either!

[RandomGuy]

Other than HSF saying he was good (think I backed her up but I can't remember) I don't think the club were ever actually linked with him either!

Yeah, similar to the Gavin Reilly and Danny Carmichael rumours im not sure there was ever too much in it

[Abernethy Saint]

Bloody hell, some misery on here at the mo. Although I have to admit to some considerable admiration to those of you mad/brave enough to turn out in midweek nights in these temperatures, and with these results!

[Jimmy Wallace]

Must admit that I was praying he took the United job when all the rumours were flying around. Would have been great for us as new manager on board and United sunk without trace.

 

[rik2304]

Are there no meet the manager nights coming up?

[deej]

Are there no meet the manager nights coming up?

If there are mind and get there on time to see the first goal go in

[saintee69]

It's completely disrespectful to our achievements to suggest they are tainted because Hibs and Hearts were struggling and Motherwell were in a slump. We had a better team than them all and our achievements were all on our own merits. Whatever your thoughts on where we are at the minute, to belittle our achievements to back up your point is ridiculous. 

Sorry I forgot about our magnificent achievements since, out of cups to Queen of the South, Hibs and a terrible Killie. I stand corrected. Certainly Hibs looked a far worse team than us a few weeks back!!

Edited March 3, 2016 by saintee69

[Kyle]

Sorry I forgot about our magnificent achievements since, out of cups to Queen of the South, Hibs and a terrible Killie. I stand corrected. Certainly Hibs looked a far worse team than us a few weeks back!!

They relied on an abysmal penalty decision to beat us. We weren't great, but they were hardly world beaters either.

[The Real Saints]

Jesus Christ. I admire the moderators' restraint. If I was in a position of power, I'd ban saintee69 with immediate effect (purely for spouting absolute drivel).

[Ali91]

Sorry I forgot about our magnificent achievements since, out of cups to Queen of the South, Hibs and a terrible Killie. I stand corrected. Certainly Hibs looked a far worse team than us a few weeks back!!

Conpletely irrelevant to the point I was making, won't read again. 

[Honest Saints Fan]

Other than HSF saying he was good (think I backed her up but I can't remember) I don't think the club were ever actually linked with him either!

Wish we did sign McGinn. Cracking player at this level.

[saintee69]

I am not trying to belittle Saints as a whole but things just now are very poor. We cannot keep harking back to the good times and sticking our heads in the sand hoping things will all be ok. I have supported Saints for over 40 years and have seen situations develop like this one in the past and the outcome is never good. I was one of the sorry souls who was on the terrace at Muirton watching our team go from the old first division down to the very bottom. I don't want to see things get bad again. I have been watching and hoping that Tommy can work wonders and turn it around but sadly this team is getting rapidly worse and worse. There is no leadership at the moment and its time that we, the support, stood up and screamed that's its just not good enough the same way every other supporter in the world does when their team is failing miserably. The sad fact is that this team and management aren't good enough and things have to change soon.    

[HertsAgain]

It's completely disrespectful to our achievements to suggest they are tainted because Hibs and Hearts were struggling and Motherwell were in a slump. We had a better team than them all and our achievements were all on our own merits. Whatever your thoughts on where we are at the minute, to belittle our achievements to back up your point is ridiculous. 

Nice try, but the whole truth sometimes hurts. The fact is that several stars need to be in alignment for any club our size to win something. How the draws in cup competitions pan out, and the fundamental talent of the squad at the time are the obvious ones. But whether or not bigger teams, who might ordinarily be expected to reach the latter stages of cup competitions are going through hard times is certainly going to be an advantage. The hard fact whether you like it or not is that our success has in part been possible because of the absence of Rangers, Hearts and Hibs at some point from the top league. ICT have done exactly the same thing, so we're probably the two Scottish clubs to have taken advantage of the situation. There's no doubt it was a fine achievement but to say it was nothing to do with the relative slump of other clubs is nonsense.

Edited March 3, 2016 by HertsAgain

[HertsAgain]

They relied on an abysmal penalty decision to beat us. We weren't great, but they were hardly world beaters either.

Dont want to go over old ground, but do you SERIOUSLY believe we deserved to win that game??

[The Real Saints]

No disrespect intended whatsoever, but I don't really understand what you're trying to prove. We won the Scottish Cup and finished in the Top 6 because we were better than Rangers, Hearts, Hibs and a number of 'bigger' teams. That's the nature of football. Whether they were in a slump or not, it takes absolutely nothing away from the achievement.

[SaintSam1884]

Last night was absolutely atrocious. Never have I felt like walking out of a game after 12 minutes but had their free kick gone in shortly after they went 2-0 up, I would've got out of my seat and went home. Why should I sit there in near freezing conditions when the players don't care? The manager just sat down in front of the dug out for parts of the first half. He may be human and he may be feeling defeated but he is paid to lead this team and make decisions. A good coach would've made changes to that situation straight away last night. He seems to still believe these players will get us out of this mess but doesn't seem to realise it's not the same players that have been so reliable for him the last few years. No Millar, MacKay, Wright or Easton on the pitch last night. The other stalwarts are not leaders. Anderson doesn't talk, Mannus doesn't talk, Davidson always keeps his level up but doesn't drag others up with him. There is NO leader on the pitch. For all MacKay seems to be nearing the end of his career, he is a leader and we miss him. 

Darnell Fisher jogging about the pitch all night, being repeatedly turned with ease, letting two midfielders do his job for him. At times he was literally hiding in the centre of defence while said midfielders went out wide to pick up his man for him but only after the crowd started groaning and booing after their wide man was allowed to travel into the box with no Saints player anywhere near him for the umpteenth time. This sums up - for me - how this team has turned to shit. Tommy Wright is responsible for fielding guys like that. He's responsible for Fishers very presence at this club and it's a complete smack in the face that Frazer Wright was the kind of player forced to leave to accommodate it. 

I hate listening to the manager saying there wasn't much between the teams and we played well. We did NOT play well and there was a gulf between the teams. We got ourselves back into it but that turned to shit when he took Wotherspoon off and brought on an untested kid who was poor. Last season TW was some sort of tactical master whose subs won us points. The last couple of months his subs have been so poor. They lost us the game last Tuesday night and again last night. Thomson was a rotten decision and Sutton was beyond dreadful when he came on. 

This is a huge period of transition for us and I'm not advocating sacking TW. We need to avoid the drop and then the summer will be huge. I would appreciate a greater degree of honesty and empathy from him and an end to the crap of how we are "playing well enough" because we are not. I don't want to listen to the players talking about top six. I'm a glass half full person but that is delusion and a blatant ignorance of the huge problems we are facing. Stop ignoring it. If we finish top six it's because other teams are somehow worse than us and that is no achievement when you're giving your paying customers crap like last night. 

Still raging actually. Feel like that mental Kilmarnock fan. Saints are destroying my happiness at the moment. 

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by SaintSam1884

[babychunder]

We're not going to sack Tommy because that's not the way we do things. He needs time, money and luck plus the most important ingredient our support to get out of this bad run.

Agree some of selections and subs have appeared odd but he has more information than we do about who's fit, who's up for it and he says what the tactics are for each game and decides who's best to suit them.

it will only take a win or two to put us in Euro slot assuming the tic win the cup too. Not time to panic or make a knee jerk reaction IMO

 

[The Real Saints]

Last night was absolutely atrocious. Never have I felt like walking out of a game after 12 minutes but had their free kick gone in shortly after they went 2-0 up, I would've got out of my seat and went home. Why should I sit there in near freezing conditions when the players don't care? The manager just sat down in front of the dug out for parts of the first half. He may be human and he may be feeling defeated but he is paid to lead this team and make decisions. A good coach would've made changes to that situation straight away last night. He seems to still believe these players will get us out of this mess but doesn't seem to realise it's not the same players that have been so reliable for him the last few years. No Millar, MacKay, Wright or Easton on the pitch last night. The other stalwarts are not leaders. Anderson doesn't talk, Mannus doesn't talk, Davidson always keeps his level up but doesn't drag others up with him. There is NO leader on the pitch. For all MacKay seems to be nearing the end of his career, he is a leader and we miss him. 

Darnell Fisher jogging about the pitch all night, being repeatedly turned with ease, letting two midfielders do his job for him. At times he was literally hiding in the centre of defence while said midfielders went out wide to pick up his man for him but only after the crowd started groaning and booing after their wide man was allowed to travel into the box with no Saints player anywhere near him for the umpteenth time. This sums up - for me - how this team has turned to shit. Tommy Wright is responsible for fielding guys like that. He's responsible for Fishers very presence at this club and it's a complete smack in the face that Frazer Wright was the kind of player forced to leave to accommodate it. 

I hate listening to the manager saying there wasn't much between the teams and we played well. We did NOT play well and there was a gulf between the teams. We got ourselves back into it but that turned to shit when he took Wotherspoon off and brought on an untested kid who was poor. Last season TW was some sort of tactical master whose subs won us points. The last couple of months his subs have been so poor. They lost us the game last Tuesday night and again last night. Thomson was a rotten decision and Sutton was beyond dreadful when he came on. 

This is a huge period of transition for us and I'm not advocating sacking TW. We need to avoid the drop and then the summer will be huge. I would appreciate a greater degree of honesty and empathy from him and an end to the crap of how we are "playing well enough" because we are not. I don't want to listen to the players talking about top six. I'm a glass half full person but that is delusion and a blatant ignorance of the huge problems we are facing. Stop ignoring it. If we finish top six it's because other teams are somehow worse than us and that is no achievement when you're giving your paying customers crap like last night. 

Still raging actually. Feel like that mental Kilmarnock fan. Saints are destroying my happiness at the moment. 

 

I generally find myself in agreement with you, but I think you're incredibly harsh on Fisher who has been one of our best performers recently (not necessarily an impressive achievement, of course).

I thought it was an exciting signing at the time. The Sportsound commentators were raving about him last season during a Celtic league match. Their fans were proclaiming him to be one of their best young prospects. I thought it would be an excellent coup. In truth, he maybe hasn't impressed quite as much as I'd hoped. I can't see him having a future at Celtic Park. However, I believe he is certainly good enough for Saints. And he's only 21.

[Tranmere Saintee]

I thought Fisher had turned the corner recently but last night, as SaintSam says, he constantly disappeared into the centre of the park behind the central defenders leaving the right wing wide open for Partick to rampage down there. I don't know if it was one of Tommys peculiar tactics or Fisher hiding but it was frustrating as hell and certainly contributed to their goals. 

[Crossest Man In Scotland]

I am a big fan of TW but I have just realised that he only signed 4 of the cup winning team (Easton, Wotherspoon, Dunne & O'halloran). His subsequent signings have been less successful plus a number of key players are past their best and no youngsters have established themselves in first team.

[RandomGuy]

Fisher, like all Celtic youngsters, is hugely hindered by the fact he barely plays for them and when he does its for a youth side that strolls 90% of their matches. His loan with us is the first real game time he's had. I said on P&B a few months ago that he's clearly got some ability and reckon, long-term, he'd be a decent permanent signing, but I get the impression sometimes he's in a comfort zone of sorts due to the fact hes only on loan, and when he does make a mistake he's happy to hide so he doesnt make another which'll be reported back to Celtic.