the_bully_wee
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Posts posted by the_bully_wee
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Two years for Howie is a tad surprising, although with a full pre-season with a settled squad I expect that he'll be a more reliable performer. I did have a feeling that McCall would've been targeting a bigger central defender to complement Hamilton, though.
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A scarecrow would've been a cheaper upgrade on Leighfield, but Kinnear made a few big saves in the run-in and is young enough that he has plenty of improvement in him if he knuckles down. Good enough 'keeper for our ambitions I'd say.
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Definitely felt like more, but Cuddihy only missed 3 of our last 21 league games following the injury that kept him out for 9 in a row earlier in the season. If we add a bit more depth in midfield then his niggling injuries aren't such an issue, imo.
Glad to have that trio signed up; Lyon will split opinion as always and (hopefully) won't be a starter, but it's great to have a little core like that who are good pros, have each made a barrel load of appearances for the club and clearly have some affection for it.
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19 minutes ago, FifeSons said:
I take it Edinburgh buses have joined the 21st Century and take contactless?
Yes.
Spartans toiled in the last few months of the season so I'm fairly surprised by how easily they dispatched Peterhead. They'll definitely represent a much sterner test for Dumbarton than a Stirling side that absolutely crumbled in the last quarter. It's a hard one to call if both teams show up, but I just can't shake the feeling that Farrell is fated to have some kind of a disaster here. My preference would probably be a Spartans win to get another shite away trip out of the league.
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Nothing quite like drawing attention to a non-issue with a club statement, is there?
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Sula being binned while Hynes gets an offer is a bit of a head scratcher, but it's hard to complain about anything else there. Just tell us now whether it's McCall or Maitland making these decisions...
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49 minutes ago, Brian Carrigan said:
I agree, but one of the main issues with Danny Lennon’s time in charge was allowing players to outstay their welcome. You need to be more ruthless at this level so it’s really important that we have a big clearout this summer. I have no doubt McCall, if staying, will have the wherewithal to be able to say “thanks, you’ve done well for me, but it’s time to go”.
I'd say this was only really a problem because Lennon stayed (overly) loyal to players who weren't good enough to get us kicking on and established in League One, though; your McNiffs, Rumsbys, Loves. If the guys he had clung on to for dear life were instead the likes of Grant and McStay, then it wouldn't have been a problem. McCall is clearly not as stupid or lazy (take your pick) as that and won't oversee Mark Docherty/Steven Thicot/Kevin Nicoll return-esque recruitment. You don't need a great deal in League Two to succeed, as Stenny have shown, and we'll have a considerably larger budget than the one they enjoyed this year.
The progressive and staggered approach to squad building that Maitland has said he wants to adopt should see us handing out one-year deals to guys like Lyon and Rennie who'd be squad players, who we could then (if things go as hoped) wave goodbye to next season and replace with guys we'd want to strengthen the first XI, with a few guys initially on two-year deals then dropping from first-teamers to squad players and such. It's the kind of thing which Stewart Petrie has managed to do really well at Montrose in taking them from the dark depths up to a side regularly getting into the L1 playoffs and we'd do well to replicate it here.
Part of what concerns me about McCall's chat is that it reads somewhat like he wants to eschew any kind of mid-term planning along those lines and go all-out to win the title next year, and perhaps do the same in League One afterwards. That's all sounds exciting but it's a bit of a boom or bust strategy, particularly with a lot of big-spending full-time clubs finding themselves in the third tier nowadays. I'd rather see us build more solid foundations over the coming years and try to manage the growth a bit, without skimping on forward progress on the park. I've got no doubt that Maitland will go as far as he possibly can to keep McCall on board, but doing so shouldn't be at the cost of whatever his own vision is for the club across the next five to ten years.
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There are real parallels to the beginning of Lennon's time in charge here, with a handful of solid existing players markedly improving across his first half-season and going on to be varying levels of contributors to our promotion the next year (Currie, McNiff, Cuddihy, Duffie, Lamont, Nicoll). I'd say that Dunachie, Lyon, Sula, Cuddihy, Grant and Rennie all fit that billing. The six of those would be a fine and, I surmise, fairly inexpensive start to the summer's squad building endeavours. It's unrealistic (not just from a financial perspective) to expect us to put together a brand new squad of players that consists exclusively of improvements on what we've already got, and yet another massive churn will do us no favours when we've ultimately sustained decent form with a hodge-podge gaggle of strangers in the last few months. That said, I don't think any of them are necessarily must-signs; the only player who is for me is Liam Scullion, who's improved drastically and is at an age where he can continue to do so.
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The only problem is that they don't have a market for 6-0, which I'd put 50 on.
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You've never failed me before, Stevie. Don't start now.
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A truly barnstorming five minutes of work from the boy McCall. It's great to hear the extent of his ambition for the club, but my only concern is that I'd rather see us try and grow a bit more sustainably than he seems to be intimating. It shouldn't be too hard to put in place the resources for building a squad that can win this division, but we've seen first-hand that the step up to League One presents a different kettle of fish, financially more than anything. The good news for us is that even if the visions of Maitland and McCall don't align, we can trust the former to recruit a good new manager.
Reading between the lines, it doesn't seem that McCall is too keen on Craig Howie which isn't any great surprise. I don't think we've seen the best of Cammy Ballantyne at all but he's clearly capable of much more and his subdued form for us may give us a bit of a free run at signing him. It's good to see he recognises the importance of Cuddihy but also the necessity to try and help him to get and stay a bit fitter. Ray Grant has been a bit up and down, but it must be a nightmare coming back from a serious injury mid-season and with the club and squad in the nick it was in. I suspect we'd see even more from him with a proper pre-season behind him.
There aren't many guys in the squad I would be chasing to be honest, obvious candidates aside (P. Grant, Hynes, Cameron, C. Scullion). As ever, much depends on the squad status and wages guys are willing to accept. You won't get a back-up full-back who can cover both sides as well as Ross Lyon has done since January, and I would be more than happy to keep him as a squad player. Rennie is a bit of an awkward type and his lack of standout attributes renders it difficult to make the case for him being a key player in a side with title ambitions but, again, as a squad player you won't get a lot better at this level.
Hopefully noises start coming out from the club in the next few days as it's important we act quickly and decisively over the break. To that end, an interview or meeting with Maitland would be just the ticket.
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13 minutes ago, Bring Back Paddy Flannery said:
And without that daft bugger Kennedy’s cash what would EK be? I’m all for natural order but not when it involves daft clubs like East Kilbride (who are quite clearly spending WELL outwith their means)
That's my point, though. I'd love for them to see off EK, who are a complete nothing outfit and whose most hardcore of fans appear to be OF fans without the bus fare, but it feels like with their current level of attendances Stranraer are always going to be susceptible to suffering the drop. Albion Rovers, Cowdenbeath, East Stirlingshire have already endured it, with Berwick and Brechin perhaps slightly outliers fanbase-wise but it feels like this is the equilibrium of a pyramid properly in action. Stranraer surviving would be great - despite the shithousery of them and some of their fans against Clyde a few months ago - but clubs like them are pissing against the wind of the Old Firm scourge when it comes to harbouring a regular and committed support. As the years wear on, I wouldn't bet against yours or ours going that way too, unfortunately.
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It pains me to say it but, if we're being serious about the pyramid functioning in an authentic manner, then lesser-supporter parochial teams like Stranraer need to be flushed like the stubborn floaters they are. On this occasion I'd be backing them against EK, but there's no doubt that they are the kind of club that will perpetually circle the drain in their current guise. As with most teams, you just wish the locals would bother with something other than watching the OF on the telly.
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Whether McCall fancies hanging around or not, the key thing is that we've now got a guy as chairman who is a football man and won't oversee the kind of insanity that was Duffy in his de facto overlord position at the start of this season. I'm very keen to hear more about his vision for the club and how he plans to achieve it over the coming months. If McCall is to depart, then it is obviously with everyone's best wishes given the magnitude of the task he inherited, but my preference would most likely be for him to stay if you pushed me for the sake of continuity. If he doesn't, though, then we've got the perfect guy as chairman to identify a successor, and that's the key thing for me. Hopefully there's been work going on in the background with regards to identifying targets for next season's squad, as a few teams will have had a jump on us in the last couple of weeks.
Today's was an enormously gutsy display from all and, although part of me is disappointed that I didn't have the minerals to make the trek up there, I'm extremely relieved that it's all over. Better times lie ahead and hopefully everyone at the club capitalises on the mood around the place over the coming days and weeks, ahead of what should be a much more auspicious season following a richly-earned summer de-stress.
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Should've been more than just the one, but we did what we had to and it's in our hands on the last day. If you said to me after our defeat down at Stair Park that that would be the case, I'd have called you absolutely insane. No idea how Lee Hamilton lasted the ninety minutes but he did and showed yet another reason why he's the worthy POTY. Praying he's fit for another massive one up at Elgin.
It's an ideal opportunity next week for the club to lay on some buses from Glasgow and I hope they do so, as I think plenty will go up there.
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Makes a mockery of the entire thing, really, a club deciding that it simply can't be arsed getting promoted. In an ideal world the play-off spot would go to the next highest ranking club that meets the entry requirements.
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Come what may, it's obvious that the club needs a full reset in the summer and we can only hope and pray that these twerps can carry us over the line to ensure that Maitland can oversee it with us still in League Two. Over the piece, I haven't been impressed by McCall or several of the players he's brought in, so I wouldn't say that he should automatically be immune from that reset either. Today felt like a massive missed opportunity against a Stenhousemuir team experimenting with a new formation and six starters missing, their two goals (and several other situations) a very familiar tale this season of a jittery defence handing out freebies in most games.
Rennie's been murder for a while now, since every left-back in the league cottoned on to the fact that they can afford to get very tight to him since he lacks any kind of turn of pace to get beyond them. There are a good few I'd immediately parachute Scullion in for next week and he'd be one of them, as the only thing he's offering at the moment is a bit of height. Sula didn't do enough wrong to deserve his dropping for me and if we are looking to offer more of a threat in both boxes then I'd bring he and Dunachie back in, as much as I'm not a big fan of the latter at right-back. Leitch showed once again why he's been a big flop despite his early goal, Kabia makes some hilariously bad decisions at times and it beggars belief that Cammy Ballantyne perpetually manages to be so anonymous. It all just feels so cursed and, as a result, it's impossible to have any belief that we will achieve the results necessary to scrape safety.
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Another two points chucked away. Unreal.
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Seriously poor. Chris McGinn
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Not ideal with the other sides picking up points, in fact that result for Bonnyrigg means they're probably only a couple of points off being safe. Really need to win next week.
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Clyde Season 23/24
in Scottish League 2 General Chatter
Posted
Ian McCall commented after watching the players put pen to paper:-
“I’m delighted that eight of the squad have signed on again for the new season. They are all good players and their form in the second half of the season has been up there with the best in the league. It’s really important to get a strong core of the squad in place at this stage in our preparations for the new campaign and it gives us a good base to build upon.”