POLL: Should Craig Levein be sacked?

[Gekko]

1 hour ago, Strawman said:

If anyone wanted to start a fundraiser though for a Statue of him holding Scottish Cup somewhere outside ground, maybe where the Cow is just now, £100 from me straight away.

 

 

Join us on the Tommy bus! The tickets are free!!!

[GORDON76]

Great days. Aberdeen game was sublime. Remember the promotion winning teams under Alex Totten. 4 3 3 formation every week. If we were chasing the game, Kenny Ward on changing to  4 2 4. Now we get excited if we play 2 up front. 

[Graeme S]

8 hours ago, GORDON76 said:

Great days. Aberdeen game was sublime. Remember the promotion winning teams under Alex Totten. 4 3 3 formation every week. If we were chasing the game, Kenny Ward on changing to  4 2 4. Now we get excited if we play 2 up front. 

I did recently suggest to Mr Webb that he get THE Airdrie game from the archive and watch it to see what this club is capable of. To be fair, he did say he'd "get the tape". 

[Graeme S]

9 hours ago, Strawman said:

If anyone wanted to start a fundraiser though for a Statue of him holding Scottish Cup somewhere outside ground, maybe where the Cow is just now, £100 from me straight away.

What? No "The Tommy Wright Stand" ? 😇

[blueheaven]

13 hours ago, R.B.B:- Adz said:

Tommy Wright era was a total freak. Right man, right place, right time. Nothing revolutionary, nothing groundbreaking but worked every hour god gave and devoted it to building his worth as a manager. He managed to assemble a freak squad of likeminded players who just wanted to prove they were worthy of being a professional footballer, experience success and upset the apple cart as a collective force. Simply a thing of beauty! 

Apologies if you don't mean it this way but I think the word "freak" implies that he somehow got lucky or some of his achievements were one-offs? But he didn't assemble only one good squad, or have one good season. He did it year after year, and built several different generations of squad. His ability to replace people at the right time and build new teams, yet still keep the standards so high, was almost reminiscent of what Alex Ferguson used to do at Man Utd - but it's even more impressive than that because he had barely any money to spend and did it almost entirely using the free transfer market and with very little recruitment or scouting infrastructure to help him. And not only that but many of the players he left us with were either from our own youth set-up, originally from Perthshire or even Saints fans themselves. That's incredibly rare for any football club at our level.

Among all of his achievements, the thing that possibly stands out most for me was the way that whenever he had a poor run of form or any sort of bad patch where people (ridiculously) started getting on his back, he would always turn it round and bring us out the other side of it looking even stronger. It always amazed me when people started having a go at him after three or four bad results, as if they hadn't realised he would do that.

If handled properly, Tommy should have had a job for life here. He should have been our Fergie. If only the club had done more to keep him happy, I firmly believe we'd still be around the top six and going on decent cup runs every year and playing in Europe every few seasons. I think that's partly why I just find it so depressing that we've ended up with someone like Levein, who gives me the impression of being pretty clueless, a bit of a grifter, playing at being a manager again until he gets bored, messing around with his budget, and showing no passion or understanding for our club, or ability to connect with the supporters. I don't know if bringing back Tommy is the answer, but I'm certain that getting rid of Levein is.

[Cagey]

Should we go for Steve Clark if he becomes available?.

[Gekko]

One of my biggest criticisms of Levein is his strange decision making. Substitutions, tactics etc.

The "just chuck a lot of strikers on" mindset particularly annoys me. Jimmy Calderwood used to do that years ago and it very rarely worked.

Also his favouritism of some players, and the opposite view he seems to have for Sprangler, May etc. Now Keltjens seems to have joined that list.

If he would explain some of those decisions in pre and post match interviews, it might be easier to understand his logic.

But then on a bit of a different topic, I suppose the questions he's asked never give him the opportunity to do so.

That's down to the media team and the press crew in general.

With power comes responsibility. And he should be be able to be held to account.

The interviewers should also be aware of the questions they should ask, and be able to ask them without fear of being frozen out.

It just frustrates me sometimes that he's never asked any relevant and searching questions.

Maybe you need a lot of front to do that to managers in general.

You just need to notice how Steve Clarke responds to critical questions.

[garydavidson]

1 hour ago, Cagey said:

Should we go for Steve Clark if he becomes available?.

I would not back that. We don't need another pig headed manager.

[Linky]

The idea that Clarke would come to us is hilarious 

[Northern saint]

Levein and Kirk will see out their contracts.

[garydavidson]

2 hours ago, Linky said:

The idea that Clarke would come to us is hilarious 

I really hope he wouldn't. 

[Linky]

10 hours ago, garydavidson said:

I really hope he wouldn't. 

Ah yes, the manager who took Kilmarnock from bottom of the league to a third place finish, then took Scotland to their first back to back Euro tournaments for 28 years isn’t good enough for the likes of us

[garydavidson]

8 minutes ago, Linky said:

Ah yes, the manager who took Kilmarnock from bottom of the league to a third place finish, then took Scotland to their first back to back Euro tournaments for 18 years isn’t good enough for the likes of us

If qualification had been as accessible as it now is I am sure many others would have achieved that. What has always concerned me is his continued selection of players who aren't actually performing or playing. It all sounds very familiar. I also can't stand his manor and attitude in press conferences. 

Edited September 8, 2024 by garydavidson

[pezza70]

3 hours ago, Linky said:

Ah yes, the manager who took Kilmarnock from bottom of the league to a third place finish, then took Scotland to their first back to back Euro tournaments for 18 years isn’t good enough for the likes of us

No way we could afford him for starters I would think

[RandomGuy]

10 hours ago, Linky said:

The idea that Clarke would come to us is hilarious 

I think you've taken a joke a bit too seriously tbh.

[Cagey]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy said:

I think you've taken a joke a bit too seriously tbh.

Thanks Random , you saw it.

[Aitchy]

Levein was on Sportsound on Saturday. He talked about Saints for a bit. Said he is really happy with his squad and feels we are in a better position than last season. Discussed Adama and said that he needs to become more streetwise and not getting drawn into situations like the one he did against Dundee United. Said he has never seen a player that works as hard as Adama does, but that he can be emotional. Also discussed the qualities that he believes that Uche will bring to the team on his return from injury.

More interesting he talked about us having the potential to have a good season if him and our new owners can get "on the same wavelength". Between the Sky Sports interview before the season started and the comment he made on Saturday, I think it would be fair to assume that Levein and Webb dont have the strongest working relationship. 

[rik2304]

Incumbent managers don't usually last long under new owners. 

Especially when they're not super popular amongst the fans anyway.

[Linky]

I would be careful what we wish for if Webb does decide to sack Levein. He doesn’t know the Scottish game very well and I could either see him bringing in someone he knows from the US, or just going for a name he’s heard of like Lennon.

[Cagey]

19 minutes ago, Linky said:

I would be careful what we wish for if Webb does decide to sack Levein. He doesn’t know the Scottish game very well and I could either see him bringing in someone he knows from the US, or just going for a name he’s heard of like Lennon.

Whoever came in can't be worse than Levein. It's impossible.

[rik2304]

46 minutes ago, Linky said:

I would be careful what we wish for if Webb does decide to sack Levein. He doesn’t know the Scottish game very well and I could either see him bringing in someone he knows from the US, or just going for a name he’s heard of like Lennon.

Personally I'd like them to actually see who applies and have some interviews etc.

[blueheaven]

30 minutes ago, rik2304 said:

Personally I'd like them to actually see who applies and have some interviews etc.

Yep - I mean, the process couldn't be any worse than the one that saw us decide we wanted either Martindale or Levein. Or whatever the process was that saw us appoint Macca, if there even was any process. Any managerial change has the potential to go badly but I'd pretty much lost faith in the Browns' ability to pick the right manager over the last few years anyway.

Webb's knowledge of Scottish football probably isn't great but perhaps his contacts through Cambridge might produce a few different names? And I'm sure he'd take input from people at the club who have been around the Scottish football scene for a while, like Gus MacPherson and Alec Cleland.

 

[rik2304]

1 hour ago, blueheaven said:

Yep - I mean, the process couldn't be any worse than the one that saw us decide we wanted either Martindale or Levein. Or whatever the process was that saw us appoint Macca, if there even was any process. Any managerial change has the potential to go badly but I'd pretty much lost faith in the Browns' ability to pick the right manager over the last few years anyway.

Webb's knowledge of Scottish football probably isn't great but perhaps his contacts through Cambridge might produce a few different names? And I'm sure he'd take input from people at the club who have been around the Scottish football scene for a while, like Gus MacPherson and Alec Cleland.

 

Said it before but it was mentioned by Gus MacPherson that from the minute Davidson was bulleted the club and he personally were inundated with calls from interested parties. But what do they do? Take the easy option. I don't even think that Macca beat a team in the league with 11 men in the park? 

[Gekko]

2 hours ago, rik2304 said:

Said it before but it was mentioned by Gus MacPherson that from the minute Davidson was bulleted the club and he personally were inundated with calls from interested parties. But what do they do? Take the easy option. I don't even think that Macca beat a team in the league with 11 men in the park? 

That's all down to the ex chairman though.

He admitted himself that he didn't, nor wanted to work hard at the job.

I think I've said this before, but when you think about it, every managerial appointment he made was either a previous, or current assistant.

It would be interesting to know some the names who applied.

[Willie Peat]

19 minutes ago, Gekko said:

 

It would be interesting to know some the names who applied.

I bet John Hughes was one of them!