10 Years


Aitchy
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If someone had told me 10 years ago that we would go on to win three major trophies and have numerous European adventures, I would never have believed them. So, where do you see St Johnstone 10 years from now?

I think it will become more difficult for us to achieve top 6 finishes. There is no doubt we have benefited from the so called “bigger clubs” such as Hearts, Rangers and Hibs being so chaotic over the past ten years. With the finances that are on offer for qualifying for the European group stages, I do worry that a gap will open up whereby the likes of Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen pull away from others in the league.

I hope that we continue to invest in our youth teams and that some succession planning is put in place for when Alistair Stevenson decides to call it a day.

Obviously the major change could be a change in ownership. I have faith that Geoff will sell to the right people, if or when it happens, I would like to see the new owners try and build closer links with Perthshire as a whole. I still think the club could do more to promote itself and build the fan base.

What are your thoughts?

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Like you, I see everything evolving around new ownership, and also how quickly this gets done.

The longer we hang out there as a club for sale, with no buyer, the more concerned I would be for the future. We really need someone truly steering the ship with a vision and purpose for our club and community.

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3 hours ago, Cagey said:

A montage of all Saints goals in the Scottish cup winning season 2014 appeared on my you tube.

What a striker that number 17 was. Whatever happened to him ?.

Some horrendous injuries. He's not the first and won't be the last to come back a different player after rehabilitation.

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23 hours ago, Aitchy said:

If someone had told me 10 years ago that we would go on to win three major trophies and have numerous European adventures, I would never have believed them. So, where do you see St Johnstone 10 years from now?

I think it will become more difficult for us to achieve top 6 finishes. There is no doubt we have benefited from the so called “bigger clubs” such as Hearts, Rangers and Hibs being so chaotic over the past ten years. With the finances that are on offer for qualifying for the European group stages, I do worry that a gap will open up whereby the likes of Hibs, Hearts and Aberdeen pull away from others in the league.

I hope that we continue to invest in our youth teams and that some succession planning is put in place for when Alistair Stevenson decides to call it a day.

Obviously the major change could be a change in ownership. I have faith that Geoff will sell to the right people, if or when it happens, I would like to see the new owners try and build closer links with Perthshire as a whole. I still think the club could do more to promote itself and build the fan base.

What are your thoughts?

Next 10 years….

1 relegation

1 promotion

3 managers

1 losing cup final

0 games in Europe

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I honestly think this club's next 10 years could hinge on the next few months or so.

If we start to get it right on the pitch and pull a few good results together, we'll be in a position to stay up and will hopefully be able to build on that and gradually improve to be able to get back closer to where we were pre-Davidson.

But if the next few months bring a losing run, then we probably get relegated at the end of this season and I can see a lot of the next few years after that being dedicated to scrabbling around in the Championship, trying to rebuild from scratch and probably having a few false starts along the way (similar to what we had last time we were down, with the Stark/Connolly/Coyle eras).

I think we desperately need to stay up this season, whatever it takes, and try to build from that.

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With our wage structure in place, if we do go down I can imagine we will be having a fire sale to slash as many costs as possible.

Our form on the pitch whilst looking for an owner off the pitch has our club in a precarious situation that we haven’t been in a very long time. The stability of our club whilst frustrating when we have stayed to our budget is one of success which other clubs could only dream about.

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Interesting topic for the lull of the international break, Aitchy. 

Despite the poor start, I can't help but be optimistic for us to stay up this season - just. 

As for the next 10 years I think a lot hinges on management/coaching.  I remember Geoff Brown saying that a club like Saints, run in a prudent way, can be successful enough utilising "70% players". I think he may be right but it requires skillful, motivational coaching.  I don't think we've seen that that since Tommy Wright's time. 

 

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