Saints Summer Transfers 2021


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3 hours ago, Saintdunc said:

Taken fro the official site
St Johnstone are pleased to announce that Stevie Grieve  has joined the club as the new Head of Recruitment.

Interesting that this is happening now, after Tommy Wright asking for it for years and not getting it. I wonder if Callum has been willing to sacrifice some of his playing budget in order for it to happen, but Tommy wasn't. Callum certainly seems more willing to work with a smaller squad.

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9 minutes ago, blueheaven said:

Interesting that this is happening now, after Tommy Wright asking for it for years and not getting it. I wonder if Callum has been willing to sacrifice some of his playing budget in order for it to happen, but Tommy wasn't. Callum certainly seems more willing to work with a smaller squad.

This is a very bold move by Saints. No doubt Grieve has been working behind the scenes for us ("consultant"?) prior to his appointment. 

Most welcome. Wonder if Boyd also said to SB "Callum is being too stretched- let him coach".

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32 minutes ago, Melbourne Saint said:

This is a very bold move by Saints. No doubt Grieve has been working behind the scenes for us ("consultant"?) prior to his appointment. 

Most welcome. Wonder if Boyd also said to SB "Callum is being too stretched- let him coach".

He was the opposition analyst at Dundee United 

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1 hour ago, Melbourne Saint said:

This is a very bold move by Saints. No doubt Grieve has been working behind the scenes for us ("consultant"?) prior to his appointment. 

Most welcome. Wonder if Boyd also said to SB "Callum is being too stretched- let him coach".

I think he is just replacing Ewan peacock who has gone to Hearts. Although I think this is a increased role in that Ewan was previously just opposition analyst. 

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2 hours ago, blueheaven said:

But by the same token he could opt for a permanent move away from Rangers now and that might not work out either. At least in his current situation he'll be making good money for a couple of years. He's actually in a pretty good situation. Either he plays his way into the Rangers team which he'd be happy with, or he keeps his Rangers contract while going out and playing elsewhere. If he keeps performing like he did for Saints last season, I don't think he'll have anything to worry about reputation-wise.

Also I think we have to bear in mind we don't know what he's being told by Rangers. If they tell him he has no future there, maybe he'd want to look at other options. But if they're telling him he has a chance of breaking into the manager's plans by doing well on loan, it's probably a no-brainer for him to not cut his ties.

Totally agree. On the financial side, he'd be mad to seek a permanent move, especially if thinks there is any chance he makes their first team. But, as you say (and I think is the case) he is surplus to requirements, does he want to waste a year of his short career sitting in the stand or risk a loan move that doesnt work out. Best for him (and sai ts TBH) would be if he was here on a tears loan and signed a pre contract in Jan, if he wants to stay and Rangers dont want him. Equally, they could pay up his contract and release him if he pushes for it, as what happened with MOH. 

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15 hours ago, TheYellowBox said:

Totally agree. On the financial side, he'd be mad to seek a permanent move, especially if thinks there is any chance he makes their first team. But, as you say (and I think is the case) he is surplus to requirements, does he want to waste a year of his short career sitting in the stand or risk a loan move that doesnt work out. Best for him (and sai ts TBH) would be if he was here on a tears loan and signed a pre contract in Jan, if he wants to stay and Rangers dont want him. Equally, they could pay up his contract and release him if he pushes for it, as what happened with MOH. 

From what I can tell he's actually tied to them until summer 2023, so wouldn't be able to sign a pre-contract this January. He could be looking at another two seasons of going out on loan. Absolute madness that the last contract Rangers gave him was a five-year one.

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16 hours ago, mainstand said:

I think he is just replacing Ewan Peacock who has gone to Hearts. Although I think this is a increased role in that Ewan was previously just opposition analyst. 

I'm going to surmise that in order to bring in someone as HoR, they needed to let Peacock go. 

EP certainly didn't seek publicity, so I could be doing him a disservice, but I'd guess that Stevie Grieve has a much wider range of abilities and knowledge. 

EP was clearly a good opposition analyst given our success but what SG will bring in terms of player identification and recruitment could be game changing. And hopefully they'll still be able to lean on his analysis and youth coaching attributes as well. 

By putting structures in place to work on recruitment, football operations etc... hopefully it allows the chairman to reduce his own involvement and work rate if that's what he so desires. The club is under great ownership and hopefully this helps prolong that. 

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Middleton won't want to leave Rangers permanently whilst he's still in contract. He'll have loan deals for the rest of his contract, and then be released, unless he can show himself to be a first-team player for them. The best we can do is to secure the loan deals to be with us.

Deals were supposed to be done by the end of the week. I think Middleton and another (Hastie perhaps) to sign on loan soon.

Edited by Linky
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6 hours ago, Linky said:

Middleton won't want to leave Rangers permanently whilst he's still in contract. He'll have loan deals for the rest of his contract, and then be released, unless he can show himself to be a first-team player for them. The best we can do is to secure the loan deals to be with us.

Deals were supposed to be done by the end of the week. I think Middleton and another (Hastie perhaps) to sign on loan soon.

Hastie is crap. Even Motherwell don't want him back. Rangers paid good money on the strength of hype after s couple of scoring matches

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18 hours ago, Cagey said:

Hastie is crap. Even Motherwell don't want him back. Rangers paid good money on the strength of hype after s couple of scoring matches

I'm not saying he's good, I just wonder if he's the other loan target coming in. I believe he can be a back-up striker and winger, which might tick some boxes.

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19 hours ago, chips said:

Well then what's happening on Tuesday Saints ? 

 

Screenshot_20210723-172143_Facebook.jpg

New away kit, Im guessing we may use last years yellow as 3rd kit. Cant imagine they have to wait until Tuesday to announce a loan like Middleton but who knows.

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On 7/23/2021 at 8:38 AM, Radford 72 said:

I'm going to surmise that in order to bring in someone as HoR, they needed to let Peacock go. 

EP certainly didn't seek publicity, so I could be doing him a disservice, but I'd guess that Stevie Grieve has a much wider range of abilities and knowledge. 

EP was clearly a good opposition analyst given our success but what SG will bring in terms of player identification and recruitment could be game changing. And hopefully they'll still be able to lean on his analysis and youth coaching attributes as well. 

By putting structures in place to work on recruitment, football operations etc... hopefully it allows the chairman to reduce his own involvement and work rate if that's what he so desires. The club is under great ownership and hopefully this helps prolong that. 

Agree on the new structure but not sure on your assumption regarding Ewan. 

Don't think Ewnan was full time with Saints so I doubt if that would have been a major part in appointing a full time Head of recruitment. I really don't see how the head of recruitment could do both roles. Surely he has to be away looking at players we can not recruit and in this case combining that with opposition analyst would be impossible. 

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1 hour ago, mainstand said:

Agree on the new structure but not sure on your assumption regarding Ewan. 

Don't think Ewnan was full time with Saints so I doubt if that would have been a major part in appointing a full time Head of recruitment. I really don't see how the head of recruitment could do both roles. Surely he has to be away looking at players we can not recruit and in this case combining that with opposition analyst would be impossible. 

I'm not trying to belittle the importance of having an opposition analyst (but I will), but I honestly can't see how it could ever be a full-time position. There's only 11 other league clubs. 

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25 minutes ago, Melbourne Saint said:

I'm not trying to belittle the importance of having an opposition analyst (but I will), but I honestly can't see how it could ever be a full-time position. There's only 11 other league clubs. 

Do you think those 11 sides just play the exact same way, with the exact same players, every single week?

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45 minutes ago, RandomGuy said:

Do you think those 11 sides just play the exact same way, with the exact same players, every single week?

Rooney said on Open Goal that Callum doesn't worry about the opposition, its how we play. May he just didn't want give the game away.

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1 hour ago, Melbourne Saint said:

I'm not trying to belittle the importance of having an opposition analyst (but I will), but I honestly can't see how it could ever be a full-time position. There's only 11 other league clubs. 

From an advert from Chelsea which is obviously on a different level but shows job description for  an opposition analyst 

Chelsea FC hiring Opposition Analyst & Coach in Cobham ...

https://uk.linkedin.com/jobs/view/opposition-analyst-coach-at-chelsea...

CONTRACT: Full-Time, Fixed Term to June 2022 Main Responsibilities 1st Team. To analyse games, then provide subsequent analysis and feedback to players and management, including film training sessions, as …

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1 hour ago, Melbourne Saint said:

I'm not trying to belittle the importance of having an opposition analyst (but I will), but I honestly can't see how it could ever be a full-time position. There's only 11 other league clubs. 

They aren’t just watching 90 mins though.
 

They’ll be watching multiple games from a technical perspective which might take 3x the length of a game, looking to identify weaknesses, where we can gain an advantage.
 

I’d assume they’ll watch tape of our opponents taking on multiple opponents. Breaking down play and creating videos etc for our guys. 
 

I can’t see how it could be anything but a full time gig. Every team does it. If we don’t, we’re 5 steps behind before a ball is kicked. 

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3 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

Do you think those 11 sides just play the exact same way, with the exact same players, every single week?

Against us, pretty much yes actually. Only difference is players out injured/suspensions. We set up pretty consistently against other teams in the league. Occasionally CD tries tweaking it a bit, but clubs and players know each other pretty well.

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10 hours ago, Melbourne Saint said:

Against us, pretty much yes actually. Only difference is players out injured/suspensions. We set up pretty consistently against other teams in the league. Occasionally CD tries tweaking it a bit, but clubs and players know each other pretty well.

A fair percentage of footballers are thick as shit, they need it drilled into them where, when and who they should be close to on the pitch for every situation and where they'll have success when certain things happen. These change for every team, every game play and every player. Belittling tactical analysis in the modern game is just stupid.

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1 hour ago, andy rhodes fancy watch said:

A fair percentage of footballers are thick as shit, they need it drilled into them where, when and who they should be close to on the pitch for every situation and where they'll have success when certain things happen. These change for every team, every game play and every player. Belittling tactical analysis in the modern game is just stupid.

Belittling players is stupid... However you may have a point on that.as regards opposition analysis, I'm not belittling the role, merely stating it's not up there as an essential for a club like Saints. For Chelsea (as someone posted), of course! They're playing in 5-6 competitions this season? The also have huge squads and so do their opponents. They can genuinely play a lot of tactics & systems. And they only play opponents twice in the league. Those games may be 6 months (or more) apart. A ****ing lot changes in 6 months. 

An opposition analyst is overkill for saints. Thankfully Grieve appears focused on finding players. And CD agrees too, stating that he's only interested in how his players perform, not the opposition. Makes sense. Because he already knows pretty damn well how they'll set up.

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Assuming a team will play a certain way is foolish IMO. 

Even using our own team as an example. Rooney offers a far different dynamic than MacNamara did yet they played in the same position essentially.  So much so that Livingston completely overthought and ruined their cup final chance by trying to cancel him out. 

Even a simple change can have a huge impact and I'm sure that CD and his team are thoroughly prepared for every game. What he tries to portray in the media might be very different though.

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