Hank von Hell

Great news indeed. “Falkirk has had an excellent reputation and track record for youth development and this latest appointment is an important step in building a new system that gives young and talented players a future pathway into the Falkirk first-team.” You wonder if MR & SA (and lifelong fan ML for that matter) are embarrassed about this statement since they signed off on the destruction of the previous youth system. I wonder if we will ever get an apology. Anyway moving onwards , a very positive first step back on the journey to getting our own youth players our football infrastructure, & our identity back. Good stuff!

At least Levein is quite witty at times. Collins is what everyone that played with him said - an arrogant twat. Pressley is bonkers.

To be fair Cracks, you and big Lee are doing your best to make it happen.

I think that fanny was Lex Miller. I said at the time it was a huge risk appointing 2 untested untried rookie managers at one of the most crucial periods in our history, but I was told it's okay they have Falkirk blood. And of course history tells us joint managers very rarely if ever work. Just another f*ck up in a long list of them.

And Solskjaer at Man U.

To give him one bit of credit at least Craig Campbell admitted when he arrived that he didn't have a clue how to run a football club them proceeded to show us exactly what he meant. Who appointed him......who?........oh....of course.

But but but....they have Falkirk blood! And the fans will soon be back in the stands to tell them what to do.

Well I watched 4 EPL games over the weekend on TV and they were all very enjoyable. Chelsea v WBA, Leeds v Sheff U, Southampton v Burnley & Newcastle v Spurs. Of course the spectacle would be better with fans in the stadiums at these games but I doubt the football could be. I do agree that Falkirk are close to being unwatchable on TV but that's got more to do with the standard of player and awful tactics. At the same time 4000 Falkirk fans in TFS probably shouting abuse at the managers & players won't change much on the park either. How exactly would that make the managers better tactically?

I cannot think of a worse set of stats either, as someone else said at least San Marino have a shot. That's an utter embarrassment and a insult to past Falkirk teams who have taken on & beat Celtic or at least had a go. We used to be known as an attacking team with flair players. I didn't want to get through to play Celtic but since we did at least have a shot on goal or else what's the point. It was painful for me thinking about any neutrals who might have tuned in and hadn't seen Falkirk for a while & must have thought Jesus what the hell happened to them.

I haven't been back there after they all ganged up on me for suggesting Mark Campbell was a conman. In times past fans who loved the club protested and saved us from the likes of the Deans and John Lambie. THE TOWN WITH NO PITY was the headline in one newspaper with pictures of the baying mob outside Brockville waiting to tell Lambie what they thought of him. Fast forward to today with these clueless blind happy clapping idiots on COYB - it's like the polar opposite.

Yes he was a c#nt, I'm not disputing that. What I am saying is the Busted Brentford Model wasn't his idea. There's a big difference between using a scout for the odd player and taking a full team of his players off him. And as I have said he hasn't done it before or since. Of course he is going to TOE (pun intended) the party line at the fans meetings in the pub, you know what a megalomaniac Campbell was. It was well mentioned at the time Hartley never travelled to see these players in the flesh, I'm sure he said as much in an interview - he wasn't going to be spending a lot of time travelling to see players. If you think about it when we are signing 8 or 9 players from England it means we are looking at probably 3 times that and it makes no sense for Hartley to go see them all or even just the 9 - he would be constantly down there (the days of Jeffries sleeping in his car are well gone). Hartley okayed these signings based on Superscout/agent and the YouTube clips which can make Aaron Muirhead look like Messi.

This was our CEO at the time Craig Campbell's great idea , his horrendously executed version of the Brentford Model. Hartley hadn't even seen these duds play. The fact that Hartley hasn't done anything like this before or since speaks volumes - it wasn't his idea.

True. If you watch Leeds Utd in the EPL this season they effectively play with one striker - Bamford - but both wingers are constantly in close support when they have the ball providing "the third man" strategy and then both full backs bomb forward also. I recall them being 5-0 up vs Newcastle and all 5 players were in the opposition's box in the 85th minute. You cannot get any more attacking than that yet they have only one striker. You need superior fitness and technical ability ,however we don't have the players or management to achieve this. And we are in League One, but imagine though if you took the chance to take young pacey players and mould them into something like this - would be great to watch rather than this turgid sh*t.

I recall an interview with Hartley at the time when he said he was surprised at the decision to close it. Also recall Lang stating we'd go out of business if we didn't shut it , conveniently ignoring the offer to fund it of course. Wonder how Thistle, Inverness, Ayr etc managed to stay afloat with academies at progressive level where we'd have been - must just be better run clubs. People need to realize who the real villains were/are.

I was wondering about this claim it was discussed in great detail at the AGM. As far as I recall they pulled the plug just before Christmas (heartless as well as incompetent) and no one had a scooby it was coming , well apart from Gordon Waddell who the news was leaked to the day before. Have I got this wrong?

Yes Project Brave is bollocks but we could have continued to have an academy outside "Elite" status. Like Ayr and St Mirren and other similar clubs to us we could have carried on at "Progressive" level. Pre- Project Brave you could argue Rangers, Celtic, Dundee Utd were at an "elite level" of youth development but they can't hold onto every player as we found out by taking the likes of Murray Wallace from the Rangers academy. Indeed when we had Yogi and Ross Wilson, young players were sold on having more of a chance at Falkirk. As it was Project Brave was a very convenient excuse for Craig Campbell who was already determined to push through his Project Premiership plan and the Brentford Model. As regards your second question I really don't know either - I would doubt we would get to the level again where we are competing in Scottish Cup semi-finals and finals with half the team made up of ex-academy players, but having 2 or 3 would be nice.

Absolutely , I'd go further and say Margaret Lang should get a lifetime ban for her exaggerated costs to push her & Campbell's agenda. I wonder how much it's going to cost to set up again and get back to somewhere near the standard it was. What we will never know is the lost revenue from sales of players such as Kai now roped in from another club on loan to help get us out of the 3rd tier where we languish as a result of "Project Premiership" - what a colossal irony. These people in charge were/are only current custodians of our club and an "act of vandalism" is exactly the right description. For being part of the decision Alexander has to lose his (self titled?) "Superfan" moniker once and for all as he clearly isn't. Or were they all just duped by Campbell , a guy who when he came to FFC admitted he knew nothing about running a football club.

It's a classic risk v reward situation for me , and 20K is not a big enough reward if the risk is an injury to one of our "stars" (yes I know) in a very condensed 2nd half of the season where promotion should be the only priority. How much would we lose if not promoted? We are only really an injured Morrison away from that scenario. As has been said , play some fringe players and do not risk the main men.......not this season.

For this strange season I couldn't give a toss about the Cup , we won't win it and we won't make any real money progressing a round or two (and fans can't go) - but we do risk injury to our better players. Maybe the fear of going to Celtic has a wee bit to do with it, could be a serious blow to morale & confidence that we don't need at a crucial time. Arbroath can do what they want, I only care about Falkirk getting out of this shit league we are in. Next season when it's hopefully a full season and crowds are back we can look at the Cup again.

So what if Keena & Morrison get injured in a 6-0 drubbing at an empty Celtic Park. Worth the pittance we will get for getting past Arbroath ? Not worth the risk this season of all seasons.

There has to be some form of reserve football for players coming back from injury or players trying to break into the first team. How FFC can expect these players to go straight into the 1st team with no match fitness is beyond me - that said we are playing in Div 3 so maybe not that essential for this crap standard. I like the U23 set up in England where you can play up to 3 over age outfield players, perfect number for ensuring youth development plus getting injured players match fit. I know they had this in the SPFL Development League but it was 5 over age players which was too much. Nowadays we have the SPFL Reserve Leagues and it saddens me to see clubs like Alloa, Queens Park & Airdrie participle with their reserve teams whilst we don't even have one. Was this just a cost decision?

Surely using Brentford B as an example of how it works & to back up this plan when they don't actually play in any league is a complete contradiction. Also BBC Sportsound gave open forum to superdick John Collins who told us the colts inclusion was necessary to develop elite players for Celtic, Rangers & Scotland.......no mention of the lower league clubs.....oh wait there was .......he said the lower leagues should not get a say on what happens in their leagues. Absolute fud.

Gary Deans is a populist and says whatever he perceives the fans want him to say. Not tooo much wrong with that I suppose but the message has to be made clear to him & the BOD that it is not wanted.

Happens all over, not just Falkirk. Usually down to different (inferior) coaching and tactics. You just have to look at all the superstars that have went to Man U for instance (post Ferguson) and been rank rotten suddenly. Pogba was astonishingly good at Juventus, and still is for France.

I only moan about the culprits on the BOD past and present that got us into this horrendous state , not just that we are in Div 3 but with absolutely no football infrastructure outside the first team. Most fans just want to move on and I understand that, but I won't until we are back in the Championship (at least) and have our own academy once more , righting all the wrongs. I never moan about the players or management, they are just a consequence of where we are right now - I do believe M&M however are not the men to take us forward but I hope they prove me wrong.