The Falkirk FC Thread

[Gaz FFC]

2 minutes ago, Grant228 said:

Well that's evidently nonsense just by looking at the highlights, he gives a foul straight away before any Inverness player gets near to him. 

He gave the goal and so did the linesman.

He only changed his mind after around 10secs

[Shodwall cat]

4 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

Jamie Maxwell at Rangers
Kieran Offord at St.Mirren
Lucas Williamson at Rangers
Kerr Robertson at Rangers
Jack Hodge at Hibs
Dominic Lavell at St.Mirren (was with Falkirk from 9 and is from Clydebank
Kenzie Nair at Hearts
Adam Laidlaw at Hearts

Hearts took around 6 players, St.Johnstone 12.

That enough for your tracker?

 

Boy Maxwell always looked a great prospect I was very disappointed to see him go and was no surprise when he ended up at the old firm. Definitely one for the future. I'd also add Daniel Baker whose now at St Mirren. Very promising right back funnily enough whose already progressed to their reserve side and is only 16/17.  The likes of Mitchell who went to Brentford and McBride who went to Celtic were also decent prospects who were still making the club something to add to the pot this season.  Frankly I'd rather have Cieran Dunne in the side before the lithuanian diddy too. He still represents Ireland on a regular basis but seems to have been dropped from the picture altogether by hartley for some reason.

[Russ]

He gave the goal and so did the linesman.
He only changed his mind after around 10secs

Nah you can clearly see in the highlights the ref blew pretty much Steichen away for a free-kick. He never once signalled for a goal.

[Shodwall cat]

10 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

In all honesty @roman_bairn after last year, yes. I think we've all been sold a bit of a pup with the talk of budgets. With the end of the academy, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the overall spend has gone down or remained even, so I'm not expecting financial doom if we don't go up. But that's me guessing, just like everyone else is. As far as Hartleys stated goals, has there ever been a manager that hasn't said we wouldn't be going up? Would we hang one on sight that said "no, we will finish fifth at best"? I think we probably would, to be honest.

 

Remember, this wasn't extra money, this was money diverted from the closure of the academy. No net increase on borrowing as fra as anyone has been made aware of.

 

A playoff berth after last season, and the volume of players that have come in would be an achievement and people can argue otherwise all they want. It is what it is. I'd love to win the league, but we wont. It's as simple as that. Playoffs are doable, but we need to start rolling over the next five or so games and that means picking a settled team and formation.

 

Over to Hartley. 

So we're basically going to be no better off and in a similar if not worse situation than we were with an academy.   What was the point then in binning the academy?

[HoBNob]

3 minutes ago, Gaz FFC said:

He gave the goal and so did the linesman.

He only changed his mind after around 10secs

Going by the highlights he absolutely didn't, the linesman may have but he wouldn't have had a good view to give a foul. 

The highlights don't give a good view, a camera from South stand would've given a far better one. 

[EdiBairn]

14 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

Anything better than 8th is a start

No wonder the team with the 8th biggest support in Scottish football has been stuck in the second tier for 9 years when not only do we have fans quite happy for us to stay here, some view 19th as an achievement.

Edited August 7, 2018 by EdiBairn

[AGPar]

27 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

Pretty much everything you mentioned there are players that moved, what, 2, 3 , 4 seasons ago? Other than the frankly bizarre Gallacher to Liverpool transfer, it was patently obvious to anyone not affected by nostalgia that the players coming through had dried up. Last couple of seasons,  who had looked like making any sort of claim to a place in the first team?  Gallacher? He wasn't even in the team when he was sold.

 

I'll sit here and wait, shall I?

 

I'll save you the bother, last genuine players we sold that had come through the Academy were McGrandles and Kingsley, for a shade over 1.3 million, which was excellent. As you say, that money went to replay the loans that were given to keep the club afloat. You can argue that was a waste if you want, most people would want that kind of money back when it's available.

 

After that? Ryan Blair and Botti Biabi, which is scraping the barrel a bit. Nothing since then, which is exactly why the academy was closed.  You could either keep the academy open, and reduce the playing budget by 100-200k, or close the academy and keep the budget. Given that, would you have kept the Academy open?

Of course I'd have kept it open. Development and progress  of young players is cyclical, the fact that nothing has come through in the past couple of years does not mean it should have been closed. Failure by those on the pitch means we have literally nothing to fall back on now. Those who took their loans back were the very people responsible for the mess  the club was in in the first place. You're deluded if you think we've taken some kind of giant leap forward by scrapping it.

[Marshmallo]

15 minutes ago, Back Post Misses said:

 

Jamie Maxwell at Rangers
Kieran Offord at St.Mirren
Lucas Williamson at Rangers
Kerr Robertson at Rangers
Jack Hodge at Hibs
Dominic Lavell at St.Mirren (was with Falkirk from 9 and is from Clydebank
Kenzie Nair at Hearts
Adam Laidlaw at Hearts

Hearts took around 6 players, St.Johnstone 12.

That enough for your tracker?

 

How many of these weans will make it to anything approaching a decent level? 

[Rocco]

Was continually cutting on to his right to cross the ball anyway.  I presumed when we signed him he was left footed but then on Saturday he favoured his right.

I'm assuming you don't watch a lot of football? Most wingers nowadays play on the opposite side from their natural side. Quite simply it's so they can cut in and create or score goals. You can still hit the byeline and cross though.

[AL-FFC]

Just now, EdiBairn said:

No wonder the team with the 8th biggest support in Scottish football has been stuck in the second tier for 9 years when we have fans quite happy for us to stay here.

Just a sense of reality of the situation Sheps.  like how you managed to start a crowd w*nk there good way to deflect.

So whats your plan to boost us to the top flight or what would it be seeing as you know what it takes sack PH, restate Houstie, put yourself as a lone striker as your goals are going to shoot us to the top ?

The board have tried a few ideas if something isnt working then you change it whats that old saying definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, if it means changing from plan a to plan b to plan c then so it it they cant just stick with the same plan  am not saying the board have got it right but ffs the knicker wetting after 1 league game.

[Shodwall cat]

1 minute ago, Marshmallo said:

How many of these weans will make it to anything approaching a decent level? 

They've all moved on to decent clubs so we must've been doing something right at academy level or these boys would simply have disappeared from the system.   St Mirren didnt bin their academy but still managed to get promotion due to correct decisions finally being made on the football side of things. Their coaches were absolutely shocked to hear we had binned our academy and were happy to pick up a number of our young players.

[EdiBairn]

6 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

Just a sense of reality of the situation Sheps.  like how you managed to start a crowd w*nk there good way to deflect.

So whats your plan to boost us to the top flight or what would it be seeing as you know what it takes sack PH, restate Houstie, put yourself as a lone striker as your goals are going to shoot us to the top ?

The board have tried a few ideas if something isnt working then you change it whats that old saying definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, if it means changing from plan a to plan b to plan c then so it it they cant just stick with the same plan  am not saying the board have got it right but ffs the knicker wetting after 1 league game.

Hartley and the BoD's original idea to follow the Brentford model of bringing in players from bigger clubs' academies accompanied by a few older heads was a great idea IMO, and it seemed that was going to happen when we brought in players like Dallison and Lewis.

Unfortunately, that seems to have come to a sudden halt and we've been bringing in players deemed not good enough for Livingston, Hartlepool, Port Vale and Newport instead.

Whether that's due to the budget not being sufficient or just players not wanting to come is debatable, but the signing policy hasn't been what was promoted(and what could've worked IMO).

Edited August 7, 2018 by EdiBairn

[Shodwall cat]

1 minute ago, Rocco said:

3 hours ago, Shodwall cat said:

Was continually cutting on to his right to cross the ball anyway.  I presumed when we signed him he was left footed but then on Saturday he favoured his right.

 

I'm assuming you don't watch a lot of football? Most wingers nowadays play on the opposite side from their natural side. Quite simply it's so they can cut in and create or score goals. You can still hit the byeline and cross though.

I watch loads of football and I've not got a problem with them doing that although to me if you play on the left you should be comfortable with your left foot even if you favour your right.  same if you play on the right and favour your left.This gives you the option to go both ways and makes defending a lot more difficult.  If you have two wingers who both need to cut back to cross its easy to defend.  Lewis on Saturday was very loathe to get to the bye line and use his left peg to cross the ball when it was crying out for someone to do that especially with a big lad like Haber in the middle. Both your wide players should be able to switch when necessary but it took until the lithuanian boy went off for Lewis to move to the right on Saturday where he looked a lot more comfortable.

[Shodwall cat]

6 minutes ago, AL-FFC said:

Just a sense of reality of the situation Sheps.  like how you managed to start a crowd w*nk there good way to deflect.

So whats your plan to boost us to the top flight or what would it be seeing as you know what it takes sack PH, restate Houstie, put yourself as a lone striker as your goals are going to shoot us to the top ?

The board have tried a few ideas if something isnt working then you change it whats that old saying definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, if it means changing from plan a to plan b to plan c then so it it they cant just stick with the same plan  am not saying the board have got it right but ffs the knicker wetting after 1 league game.

Buck stops with the bod and manager.  St Mirren didnt have the biggest budget last season but the bod made the right decisions . Get a good promising young manager in and back him as much as possible.  Question is whether our bod have made the right decision in bringing in Hartley and backing him.  We've had our fill of bad managerial appointments in May, Pressley, Holt etc so I just hope that this aint another one.

[DeeBairn]

22 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

How many of these weans will make it to anything approaching a decent level? 

None, is the answer. It's the same answer for every academy in the country. The vast bulk of players from every youth group did nothing, most of the ones that graduate end up at Stirling Albion or Unemployed. Probably one out of every two hundred ends up good. Ironically, the most promising player we've had in a decade, McGrandles, was a Rangers U-17 player.

 

Which is why we are going the route we are, namely picking up the players who have fallen through other teams set ups.

[DeeBairn]

29 minutes ago, AGPar said:

Of course I'd have kept it open. Development and progress  of young players is cyclical, the fact that nothing has come through in the past couple of years does not mean it should have been closed. Failure by those on the pitch means we have literally nothing to fall back on now. Those who took their loans back were the very people responsible for the mess  the club was in in the first place. You're deluded if you think we've taken some kind of giant leap forward by scrapping it.

Ok, so they should either has let the club die or just walk away from near £1.5 million? You're good at soundbites, but short on answers. What should they have done with regard to recouping that? What would you have done? If the answer is writing it off, you're full of shite.

 

As far as the Academy, most of the genuinely good players that we like to think of as good players that we developed have fallen through other teams U-17 setups. So why run an Academy at all? Surely better to run a Reserve teams mostly made up of young guys?

[DeeBairn]

14 minutes ago, Shodwall cat said:

Buck stops with the bod and manager.  St Mirren didnt have the biggest budget last season but the bod made the right decisions . Get a good promising young manager in and back him as much as possible.  Question is whether our bod have made the right decision in bringing in Hartley and backing him.  We've had our fill of bad managerial appointments in May, Pressley, Holt etc so I just hope that this aint another one.

Houstie was the most stable manager we have had in a long time, with good backing from the board. Didn't get us out of the league. We got two distant second place finishes and another cup final defeat, No point whatsoever repeating that. We've done experienced manager, we've done young manager. Neither worked. So, we try this. Might not work either.

 

Biggest issue with your above, is that any manager at this level that is good, young and promising won't come anywhere near us as they will be wanting to play at a higher level now.

 

We could look down a division, but who down there in League 1 or 2 fits that bill?

[Shodwall cat]

2 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

Ok, so they should either has let the club die or just walk away from near £1.5 million? You're good at soundbites, but short on answers. What should they have done with regard to recouping that? What would you have done? If the answer is writing it off, you're full of shite.

 

As far as the Academy, most of the genuinely good players that we like to think of as good players that we developed have fallen through other teams U-17 setups. So why run an Academy at all? Surely better to run a Reserve teams mostly made up of young guys?

They should have made far better decisions in the first place and then we wouldnt have needed soft loans to keep the club going.  Appointing Eddie May as manager was ludicrous as was keeping on Pressley after his feeble attempt to keep us up.  These decisions cost the club our top flight place and created a financial hole that nearly killed the club.  You look at the likes of Hamilton and St Johnstone and the bod's they have who are able to achieve success on much smaller crowds than us due to good management and decision making.

[Shodwall cat]

2 minutes ago, DeeBairn said:

Houstie was the most stable manager we have had in a long time, with good backing from the board. Didn't get us out of the league. We got two distant second place finishes and another cup final defeat, No point whatsoever repeating that. We've done experienced manager, we've done young manager. Neither worked. So, we try this. Might not work either.

 

Biggest issue with your above, is that any manager at this level that is good, young and promising won't come anywhere near us as they will be wanting to play at a higher level now.

 

We could look down a division, but who down there in League 1 or 2 fits that bill?

Houston was unfortunate in the fact that we had Rangers, Hearts, Hibs in the league at the time.  We were always going to be up against it coming top of the league with those teams about.  As it turned out coming second was a decent achievement. Unfortunately Houston's recruitment like Pressley, Holt and May before him wasnt good enough which saw a constant deterioration in the side which eventually imploded and nearly resulted in relegation.  Managers live and die on their recruitment. Ross at St Mirren last season had excellent signings whilst Houston signed duffers like Harris. We can only hope that our new found recruitment strategy is much better than the old one . We'll find out over the coming few weeks.

 

[Disco Duck]

6 minutes ago, Shodwall cat said:

They should have made far better decisions in the first place and then we wouldnt have needed soft loans to keep the club going.  Appointing Eddie May as manager was ludicrous as was keeping on Pressley after his feeble attempt to keep us up.  These decisions cost the club our top flight place and created a financial hole that nearly killed the club.  You look at the likes of Hamilton and St Johnstone and the bod's they have who are able to achieve success on much smaller crowds than us due to good management and decision making.

Jesus, are we really going back 10 years in looking at poor decisions, in response to one poor league game?

 

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