thisGRAEME Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Be handy, that, having a left back. Novelty. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) A bit harsh that, Greame. For the last decade and more (taking away 18 months) we've had one of the most consistent top flight left backs playing for us in Stevie Hammell. Granted, he's done now but it's not an easy task to try and replace him. Some of our most recent attempts have been Danny Murphy, Zaine-Francis Angol, Tony Straker and Joe Chalmers... Edit - The last year or so is also the first time we've had to worry about our left-back position since about 1992. We've had some run from McKinnon through McMillan and onto Hammell. Edited January 16, 2017 by Desp 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 18 minutes ago, Desp said: A bit harsh that, Greame. For the last decade and more (taking away 18 months) we've had one of the most consistent top flight left backs playing for us in Stevie Hammell. Granted, he's done now but it's not an easy task to try and replace him. Some of our most recent attempts have been Danny Murphy, Zaine-Francis Angol, Tony Straker and Joe Chalmers... Edit - The last year or so is also the first time we've had to worry about our left-back position since about 1992. We've had some run from McKinnon through McMillan and onto Hammell. Blasphemer. Don't ever take the Straker's name in vain. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 7 hours ago, capt_oats said: Beyond the 'Project Brave' stuff it was interesting to hear that there's been a decision made to try and get some of the best of the u20s who haven't broken into the 1st team out on loan in the next couple of weeks. The podcast is excellent and we are lucky that the in Alan Burrows, we have someone who will engage like that - so well done to the podcast lads for one of the most interesting ones that they've done. Amongst the discussion on project brave, the bit that jumped out for me was that under the current system of assessing youth academies, "points" are given for the number of players that a club loans out, regardless of reason. I find that utterly bizarre because (a) it greatly favours the largest clubs who will always have a surplus of youth players and (b) it effectively incentivises a failure to provide a path into the first team. So in that system Rangers and Celtic, who farm out a huge number of players, are being marked positively despite a decades long failure to bring their own players into the first team. A club like Motherwell or similar, who promote players directly to the first team could in effect be punished for not loaning them out first. One of the contributory factors of the national team's decline has been the fact that Rangers and Celtic would always prefer to import foreign players, often of dubious quality, over developing their own players - and yet both are stick-ons for the "elite 8", based on a system that effectively encourages behaviour that harms the national team. If points were given for loaning out players who subsequently played X number of games in their club's first team when they return, that would demonstrate that the loan was a legitimate player development step and would indicate that a club was serious about developing players by giving them 1st team games as opposed to simply offloading them while their contract ran down in return for points. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Following from Swello's point re young players getting a chance in the first team. Dundee, Kilmarnock and Motherwell are three of the clubs believed to not be in the "elite 8" 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 That's interesting - the main one that jumps out is the pitiful stats from Ross County who (in the guise of the Highland Academy setup) will be involved in the Elite 8 - and their owner is on the working party. I think we are currently playing a lot of young boys but I wonder if our stats are skewed upwards by playing the likes of Lasley and Hammell who are youth products but not exactly youths 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 39 minutes ago, Desp said: A bit harsh that, Greame. For the last decade and more (taking away 18 months) we've had one of the most consistent top flight left backs playing for us in Stevie Hammell. Granted, he's done now but it's not an easy task to try and replace him. Some of our most recent attempts have been Danny Murphy, Zaine-Francis Angol, Tony Straker and Joe Chalmers... Edit - The last year or so is also the first time we've had to worry about our left-back position since about 1992. We've had some run from McKinnon through McMillan and onto Hammell. Ach, I know. This season we've had what, five players playing there, though? Hammell, Chalmers, Ferguson, McMillan, Tait? I really enjoyed that thread on Steelmen that highlighted we've had something like four left backs in 30 years or something daft. As I've said before, having a right-back playing at right-back has been a revelation for us, if we had someone consistently performing at left-back, not even to Tait's level, but just someone there every week, I think we'd be magic. Even more so if we added this lad Frear and Pearson. From front to back, that's a good team. Samson, Tait, Heneghan, McManus, xLEFT BACKx, McHugh, Pearson, Frear, Cadden, Moult, McDonald. Supplemented by Ainsworth, Bowman, Lasley, Clay, Lucas, MacLean, Hastie, Ferguson, Campbell and McMillan, we should be able to kick on and start looking up the league. Not a massive gripe, but with the squad as it is, we're so close to being a properly good team. That's an interesting table, re: youth as well. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 13 minutes ago, Swello said: That's interesting - the main one that jumps out is the pitiful stats from Ross County who (in the guise of the Highland Academy setup) will be involved in the Elite 8 - and their owner is on the working party. I think we are currently playing a lot of young boys but I wonder if our stats are skewed upwards by playing the likes of Lasley and Hammell who are youth products but not exactly youths They'll be responsible for the difference between the 25% and 14.8% stats. Going back to the "Highland Academy" thing, the stats for U21 Scottish players are 0.5% for Inverness and 0.8% for Ross County. Shambolic. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 41 minutes ago, well fan for life said: Blasphemer. Don't ever take the Straker's name in vain. Looking back, it's clear Tony has become a cult hero amongst 'Well fans, simply for being 'laugh out loud' shite. I mean, the time he sauntered down the East Stand side, beating four men, before fucking the ball into Row Z will live with me until my dying day. Have we ever had any other 'laugh out loud' shite players? The name Bobby Donnelly came up on SO the other day, but i'd stick him in the 'watch through the gaps in your fingers' shite, whereas for me, Casagolda was simply 'what the actual f**k is this?' shite. Your nominations please... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Just now, Desp said: Looking back, it's clear Tony has become a cult hero amongst 'Well fans, simply for being 'laugh out loud' shite. I mean, the time he sauntered down the East Stand side, beating four men, before fucking the ball into Row Z will live with me until my dying day. Have we ever had any other 'laugh out loud' shite players? The name Bobby Donnelly came up on SO the other day, but i'd stick him in the 'watch through the gaps in your fingers' shite, whereas for me, Casagolda was simply 'what the actual f**k is this?' shite. Your nominations please... I'll always remember Straker's first touch on his debut. Straight off the top of his foot right into his coupon. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swello Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 1 minute ago, Desp said: They'll be responsible for the difference between the 25% and 14.8% stats. Going back to the "Highland Academy" thing, the stats for U21 Scottish players are 0.5% for Inverness and 0.8% for Ross County. Shambolic. I kind of agree with Burrows' point that the U21 thing is tricky as you are at the mercy of the U21 manager of the day - and for example, a 20 year old doing well at Rangers will always be in the U21 team, while for a similar player at Killie or Dundee, it's not so clear cut. The stats on actually playing your academy players at least shows your intent regardless of being picked for the U21s. Even on the first measure, I wonder why the County total is so low compared even to ICT who are also involved in the highland academy as I understand it. County have been bringing in grab bags of players in various transfer windows over the past years, it may be simply that they are going down the path of experienced journeyman players over youth - but it's a bit of a minter if that being the case, you have the guy responsible for the policy on the project brave board. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) 15 minutes ago, Desp said: Looking back, it's clear Tony has become a cult hero amongst 'Well fans, simply for being 'laugh out loud' shite. I mean, the time he sauntered down the East Stand side, beating four men, before fucking the ball into Row Z will live with me until my dying day. Have we ever had any other 'laugh out loud' shite players? The name Bobby Donnelly came up on SO the other day, but i'd stick him in the 'watch through the gaps in your fingers' shite, whereas for me, Casagolda was simply 'what the actual f**k is this?' shite. Your nominations please... I was always a big fan of Andy Smith for being totally shite. He thought he was an absolute superstar, but did precisely f**k all. Fully agree on Donnelly not being funny, just terrifying. Big Maros Klimpl was pretty entertaining, despite being an absolute bombscare. Paul Keegan I genuinely felt a bit bad for, because he was so far above his level, and looked so hilariously far out of his depth. Omar Daley probably the best example of shite and funny, though. Falling over the ball in Perth was a particular highlight of his. Still laugh whenever I see the 'One Love Omar Daley' flag, or the Jamaican one that got a run out at Tannadice. The bold Yassin as well. Fast as f**k, shite as f**k. Edited January 16, 2017 by thisGRAEME Forgetting the bold Yassin. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madwullie Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Roy Essandoh. Abysmal 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capt_oats Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 The part about the points metric that kind of blew my mind was Burrows indicating that Regan had admitted himself that it's flawed, for the reasons being discussed. It's pretty wild to think that they're actually aware that one of their criteria is at best skewed but are seemingly fine with just ignoring that fact. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desp Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Paul Keegan is a great shout and I'd happily include him alongside Straker. The boy came over to Scotland to run a Domino's Pizza shop, and ended up being given a contract to play centre forward for an SPL side. Maurice Malpas, eh? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Honourable mention to Steve Jones for having a shit haircut to match his absolute shit footballing ability. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Aldo Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 I say this every time his name comes up but I don't think Tony Straker is quite as bad as he's made out to be. I've heard he had a nightmare against Dundee that season but I missed that game so can comment and, at that time, the whole team was shite. My nomination is the bold Jake Taylor. He goes into the category of "I'm actually raging at how shite you are." Honorable mention for Stuart Carswell who goes into the same category. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
well fan for life Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 I say this every time his name comes up but I don't think Tony Straker is quite as bad as he's made out to be. I've heard he had a nightmare against Dundee that season but I missed that game so can comment and, at that time, the whole team was shite. My nomination is the bold Jake Taylor. He goes into the category of "I'm actually raging at how shite you are." Honorable mention for Stuart Carswell who goes into the same category. Don't think Taylor is eligible because nobody's seen him. For all we know he might actually still be at the club hiding in a cupboard in the main stand. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisGRAEME Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Ach, I never thought Steve Jones was all that bad. Was a bit shite, but was just here because we needed a body. Didn't score at Stranraer as well? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamdunk Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 23 minutes ago, well fan for life said: Don't think Taylor is eligible because nobody's seen him. For all we know he might actually still be at the club hiding in a cupboard in the main stand. I specifically decided to watch him vs st johnstone one game. I believe he made 3 sideway passes in the whole game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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