The Falkirk FC Thread

[Shodwall cat]

9 hours ago, Duncan Freemason said:

For some of the English lads, it might well end up with “contract terminated by mutual agreement”. For a few, being “in another country” while everything around them goes to hell in a hand basket might be too much to take.

For our sakes and theirs, that might be the best possible outcome.

Depends on whether they have a mortgage to pay etc.

[faedenny]

getting stuff off my chest.

i cant see hartley being sacked, the bod have commited to him by getting rid of academy and investing in first team. allowing him to dismantle existing first team and bringing in his own players for promotion. (spectacular own goal in my opinion as well as others). as it stands we have been giving the team time to gel but after so many pre season games and the 3 league games i still do not see any improvement. the bod must be having sleepless nights over their decision. because ultimately this falls back on them, and if not why not, this is their mess.

hartley has lost the fans already and some could say the team as well, his tactics, playing players out of position and his signings all look suspect at this time and unless there is a vast improvement in next game surely discussions will be taking place behind the scenes if he has to go. telling the fans to be patient is nonsense there was NO positives on saturday, not one glimmer of hope for the future except fasan, if it wasnt for him we would have lost easily 7 or 8 nil. no shots on target ffs.

there has been talk of who we would get to replace him but as noted because the bod have invested so heavily in hartley i cant see them sacking him yet, only other option would be for him to walk and if he believes he can turn it around, again cant see him doing so. his ego wont let him.

so talk of new manager is premature. we are stuck with him for now and the players he has brought in.

that said unless team performance changes dramatically  soon i wont be back. some might say this is not right and should suport the team good or bad , thats their opinion.  the club have my season ticket money so club doesnt lose out. i just feel so disconnected from the team now. i sat in south stand on saturday in disbelief at how bad we were, leaving frustrated and angry, maybe i had bought in to the positive optimism over the summer too much and with signings like nelson and jak last season i really thought we would be a force to be reckoned with this year...how reality kicks you in the balls when unexpected.

i often wonder if any of the club staff or players frequent this forum if they do they must be cringing reading all the comments, because im not alone in my anger and confusion. we let guys like miller, tawio, longridge go, and replaced with guys no better and a few a lot worse.

thankfully i dont work with any fifers, just a hearts and fernabache supporter, always nice to hear how well they are doing....

rant over - would apologise but feck it. its how i feel.

 

[Bairn Necessities]

Anyone saying"I can't see Hartley being sacked" is deluded. It's always just a matter of how long.

If we have zero points from 9 games are you saying he wouldn't be sacked? 

He'll go. Its just how long the board leave it. Sooner he goes the better, obviously.

Edited August 27, 2018 by Bairn Necessities

[Fae_the_'briggs]

None of my business but Hartley deserves to go as he improved the team last season ( if not in actual finishing league pisition)  and now seems to have taken it backwards again to actually being worse than under Houston. 

[faedenny]

13 minutes ago, Bairn Necessities said:

Anyone saying"I can't see Hartley being sacked" is deluded. It's always just a matter of how long.

If we have zero points from 9 games are you saying he wouldn't be sacked? 

He'll go. Its just how long the board leave it. Sooner he goes the better, obviously.

okay maybe should say cant see hartley getting sacked soon, bod will want to give him as long as they can get away with.... better?

[Marshmallo]

16 hours ago, come on shire said:

Yesterday I went to see Shire down at Dalbeattie Star. 

I was talking to a Queens fan who finishes on a Sat at 2pm, so if they're away he goes to watch the Star. 

He was predicting that Dobbie would get a hat-trick, but also told me that his gaffer at work is Aaron Muirhead's dad. He was telling me that he hears that Hartley has lost the dressing room, and that Muirhead's fancying the exit door these days.

This would be great news if true. Hopefully he makes moves to negotiate his release this week.

11 hours ago, BendtnerBairn said:

I’ve got a mate who plays CB for Pollok who is probably better than Dallison.

In all seriousness, our squad would cack themselves at Newlandsfield. Pollok would give us a game there.

1 hour ago, TheScarf said:

Paul Paton is probably in the top 5 worst players in the whole of the SPFL.  An absolute haddie.

Worst player in the league easily IMO. He's a disgrace.

[Shodwall cat]

14 minutes ago, Bairn Necessities said:

Anyone saying"I can't see Hartley being sacked" is deluded. It's always just a matter of how long.

If we have zero points from 9 games are you saying he wouldn't be sacked? 

He'll go. Its just how long the board leave it. Sooner he goes the better, obviously.

Darren Dods went a whole season plus without a win and is still managing brechin so anythings possible.

[bridge of allan bairn]

According to the official website:
 
Fasan, Brough, Mackin, Lewis, Owen-Evans,  Greenwood, Sammut (loan) , Haber (loan) - One year deals. Froxylias too is a one year deal but club has option to extend for another year.
Turner (who?) and Irving (loans) are here till January.  Mark Russell is also only here till January.
 
Website states McGhee, O'Hara, Kidd, Robson and Muirhead all signed one year extensions at the start of the season, whilst Mutch signed on until 2021.
 
Harrison, Paton, Petravicius (), Dallison - Two year deals
From the rest, David Mitchell, Alex Harris and Joe McKee all signed two-year contracts last summer so theirs will expire at the end of this season too.
Interesting too to note that Cieran Dunne (who was included on the first-team page last season) has been taken off, even though he's still at the club. No idea when his contract runs until right enough.

thanks for compiling that 1876.

it makes truly horrific reading though. we cleared out all the wrong players. so much dead wood in there.

[MetalWolf]

I suspect we will see Hartley being given the last roll of the dice this week to sign a few players to patch up the squads issues in the same way that houston signed McGhee and Balatoni. Beyond that, no idea how long he'll be given.

Personally I'd want a player to replace paton in the holding role and a right back(!), but anticipate a striker and another left back will be incoming.

[Falkirk_Bairn_1983]

6 minutes ago, bridge of allan bairn said:

thanks for compiling that 1876.

it makes truly horrific reading though. we cleared out all the wrong players. so much dead wood in there.

It could have been a lot worse. At least only a handful are on 2 year deals although they have all been dreadful so far.

 

[bridge of allan bairn]

Robson was motm v rangers but didn't get a game versus queens in our next game?

[Marshmallo]

9 minutes ago, MetalWolf said:

I suspect we will see Hartley being given the last roll of the dice this week to sign a few players to patch up the squads issues in the same way that houston signed McGhee and Balatoni. Beyond that, no idea how long he'll be given.

Personally I'd want a player to replace paton in the holding role and a right back(!), but anticipate a striker and another left back will be incoming.

Right back has to be the priority. Lewis Kidd or Joe McKee can go into the centre of midfield and do a steady-ish job for us.

[MetalWolf]

10 minutes ago, Marshmallo said:

Right back has to be the priority. Lewis Kidd or Joe McKee can go into the centre of midfield and do a steady-ish job for us.

Not sure either of them could play as a solo holding midfielder.

[Reggie Perrin]

Saw my first game at Brockville when I was 5, can now add another 50 years onto that and I can genuinely say that this last week has been without any doubt the low point of my almost lifelong support of the Bairns.

The dross of the late 70's seems like a happy memory compared to this shambles.

Make no mistake we are in a critical condition here, dreadful squad, manager is a dead man walking, huge overheads, no youngsters to bring through or sell on, hapless BOD and all the other teams in our league at least looking like they are competitive.

The alarm bells really became deafening for me last Monday with the Reserve "team" debacle against Morton, 12 players available many of whom, including a trialist, were having to play out of position and another two who have been told to find other clubs.

An utter embarrassment.

Saturday has been exhaustively covered on here already and it really was every bit as bad as the stats indicate.

I have no idea where our first point is likely to come from and I have little faith that the necessary hard decisions will be taken in the Boardroom, we are on the way to becoming another Airdrie.

 

[Marshmallo]

1 minute ago, MetalWolf said:

Not sure either of them could play as a solo holding midfielder.

I'd be looking at putting one of them next to Irving with Greenwood and Dunne on the wings.

[faedenny]

1 minute ago, Marshmallo said:

I'd be looking at putting one of them next to Irving with Greenwood and Dunne on the wings.

why isnt dunne getting a game? or robson? or mckee? surely these guys must be chapping hartleys door asking why not, since first team players are woeful.

[lanky_ffc]

Robson has his limitations (as with any player at this level), but at least he has pace, energy and looks like he gives a f***. Bizarre that he's barely played this season and when he has, it's been as a winger.

[Rocco]

Robson has his limitations (as with any player at this level), but at least he has pace, energy and looks like he gives a f***. Bizarre that he's barely played this season and when he has, it's been as a winger.

To be fair Russell looked quite good on Saturday. Personally id like to see him start the next game with Russell RB and Robson LB

[Rocco]

My biggest issue regarding Paton is that I'd happily have him out the team but who do we currently have that you could put in place? None of our other midfielders are physical enough and as shite as he was on Saturday I think we'd get destroyed by RC if you played a midfield two of Sammut and Irving.

If he is allowed to bring in a couple of more players then a commanding midfielder has to be one of them. I think we'd look a much better team just now if we had Harkins instead of Paton

[BendtnerBairn]

I'd be looking at putting one of them next to Irving with Greenwood and Dunne on the wings.

That’s what we all want but there’s every chance PH will play 0 of that 4 after subbing Irving at HT.