Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[7-2]

I hope for Stevie's sake Neil gets the job and he stays at Preston to give it a proper go this season. If he has to go to any other club in Scotland than us I'm glad it would be Aberdeen but if he comes back now it'll be as the guy whose career was wrecked by injury so had to head back to Scotland. At least have one full, post-injury season before risking that.

[Center half]

1 hour ago, steviemay17 said:

Maybe a bit unrelated, but I see Alex Neil has been interviewed for the Preston Job, was he manager when Stevie May was on loan at Hamilton? hopefully he would give him a chance and tell Aberdeen to gtf

Del will be in with a shout for the Preston Job as well I would imagine.

[Kyle]

3 hours ago, Mr Heliums said:

We know Tommy's strengths, but it's a fair comment on his unstrategic approach to signings and the annual complaints about budget. From Coulson to Clive Smith, it's often hard to see the problems Tommy's addressing, while the major weaknesses (eg striker) go unaddressed.

100% agree. Rhys Evans, Alex Kitchen, Mark Davies, Wade Joyce and Eoghan McCawl all immediately spring to mind as well and that's before mentioning the Scottish youngsters (George Hunter, Neil Martinyuk, Dylan Easton, Kyle Lander, Jordan Millar and I'm sure there's countless more) who have been 19 or 20 when they've been signed and never remotely threatened the first team.  Not one of those players has managed a single minute of first team action and every window Wright complains about not being able to sign players because he's not got any money left in his budget. Stop making pointless signings, Thomas, and that may not be an issue. 

 

Im obviously delighted with him being in charge generally, just find his chat about budgets really tedious. 

 

 

[RandomGuy.]

Tbf I can sort of see why he does it, you just need one gem to appear from them to make your money back. He identified Marcus Maddison, who if he'd been more mature at the time, wouldve been a tremendous signing based on what he's gone on to become

[Kyle]

9 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Tbf I can sort of see why he does it, you just need one gem to appear from them to make your money back. He identified Marcus Maddison, who if he'd been more mature at the time, wouldve been a tremendous signing based on what he's gone on to become

That was Lomas. He signed on the same day as Abeid et al. 

[Fifespud]

Tommy has a habit of getting Saints into the top 6 every year.

^^^ this.

The basic problem is the budget. He's producing a top 5 or even 4 side with a bottom 5, or 4 budget. He hasn't done it just once, but repeatedly. I understand the frustration but from the outside looking in, and no trolling intended, one day this era will end and it might be fucking difficult to get back to.

How is it the Brown's escape the wrath? They've done a great job too - nobody is saying go into the red - but there's money in the bank. I'm not saying 'speculate to accumulate' but sometimes you've got to 'prime the pump' - if that's not too many cliches.

[Broon_100]

Its a fair criticism of Tommy that his signing record has been questionable. Granted hes plucked a few gems out over the years but much of our success has been built around a solid group of professionals who have each earned 250+ apearances for Saints.  

We tend to sign players then fall back and rely on Millar, Davidson, Craig, Maclean, Easton et al to carry us through. 

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by Broon_100

[Kyle]

9 hours ago, Fifespud said:

 

^^^ this.

The basic problem is the budget. He's producing a top 5 or even 4 side with a bottom 5, or 4 budget. He hasn't done it just once, but repeatedly. I understand the frustration but from the outside looking in, and no trolling intended, one day this era will end and it might be fucking difficult to get back to.

How is it the Brown's escape the wrath? They've done a great job too - nobody is saying go into the red - but there's money in the bank. I'm not saying 'speculate to accumulate' but sometimes you've got to 'prime the pump' - if that's not too many cliches.

 

He does a great job, no doubt about that, but he does have a tendency to spend his budget on players we don't necessarily need (quite a few have been highlighted on this thread already, but there are so many more examples of senior players as well as the young guys posted) and then moan that he's still short of a winger, a striker, a defender... you get the idea.

Brown tends to get his fair of criticisms too. If you want a laugh, have a look on WAP - there's a thread about how the club has no ambition or direction. I'd argue that he's less inclined to take a chance on a player than his dad was, although he has pushed the boat out for a few players over his chairmanship. Swanson x 2, Scougall and he offered Sandaza and May contracts that would've made each player the highest paid in our history. The Scobbie saga highlights the problem he has. His moves are usually logical and when he explains them he tends to get people on side, but moves like that show that he's perhaps lacking in either man management or media handling. Another example - the summer immediately after we won the cup - we released 5 players and he refused to sanction any signings which led him to do an interview explaining that he wasn't allowing signings because he was fed up of seeing players sitting in the stands. We went into the ridiculous position of having something like 12 senior players in our European matches.

Truth be told, we're incredibly lucky to have Brown and Wright at the club and we're also lucky our previous managers (McInnes in particular) have put such a strong spine of a squad together that we supplement year on year.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Kyle

[PauloPerth]

1 hour ago, Fifespud said:

 

^^^ this.

The basic problem is the budget. He's producing a top 5 or even 4 side with a bottom 5, or 4 budget. He hasn't done it just once, but repeatedly. I understand the frustration but from the outside looking in, and no trolling intended, one day this era will end and it might be fucking difficult to get back to.

How is it the Brown's escape the wrath? They've done a great job too - nobody is saying go into the red - but there's money in the bank. I'm not saying 'speculate to accumulate' but sometimes you've got to 'prime the pump' - if that's not too many cliches.

 

Some fair points.

I don't think many Saints fans doubt that one day we'll slide back down the table, and at some point in the future we'll get relegated. This could well turn out to be the most successful period in our history or future, which is a depressing thought in a way.

Tommy Wright has been brilliant, and the club is really well run, with long term sustainability always the priority as it should be.

However positive the overall picture is though, smaller issues can still be highlighted at the manager and chairman where we could do better:

the number of players signed who barely play for us, going into a big European game without an experienced left sided centre half, a fortnight after letting one go who played the last 10 games or so of the previous season, the lack of a striker to partner Maclean for a couple of seasons now, despite there being a couple of million in the bank.

In the grand scheme of things though we do great.

[Mr Heliums]

Tommy gets a lot out of what's available and other teams are envious of our stability.

But in 2017 we can still argue that 34-year-old Millar and Murray Davidson (signed by McInnes) is our best centre-mid pairing,  35-year-old Steven MacLean (signed by Lomas) is an immovable fixture in the team and we panic about replacements for Steven Anderson (signed by John Connolly). That's the spine of the team, signed by other managers, that Tommy hasn't yet been able to replace. We've done fine with that approach so far – it's brought us incredible success. But we all know Tommy needs to address this in the next year. That's where his dilettantish record in the transfer market – spending money on players that he has no intention of playing or in positions that don't need filled – is fair criticism, especially when he continually talks about his limited budget.

Edited July 4, 2017 by Mr Heliums

[RandomGuy.]

That was Lomas. He signed on the same day as Abeid et al. 

Aye, but I'm sure it was the TW link with Newcastle that identified him.

[Radford]

Saints fans shouldn't feel the need to defend their right to criticise Tommy Wright. Every supporter (bar one notable exception) thinks he's doing a very good job I'm sure but that doesn't mean he's infallible and, as mentioned, he does make too many "just in case" signings that almost invariably aren't required. I hope we'll see the end of those days when he fully trusts the young guys breaking into the squad though.

On the summer transfer policy generally, I'm not going to make any overall judgement until the window closes. His comments when he didn't sign Dayton were encouraging and he and the chairman promised the fans some real quality so they deserve the opportunity to deliver it. Obviously it would have been great to have everyone in by the European deadline but a lot of that would be out of Saints' hands. The end of August is judgement time.

[PauloPerth]

52 minutes ago, Mr Heliums said:

Tommy gets a lot out of what's available and other teams are envious of our stability.

But in 2017 we can still argue that 34-year-old Millar and Murray Davidson (signed by McInnes) is our best centre-mid pairing,  35-year-old Steven MacLean (signed by Lomas) is an immovable fixture in the team and we panic about replacements for Steven Anderson (signed by John Connolly). That's the spine of the team, signed by other managers, that Tommy hasn't yet been able to replace. We've done fine with that approach so far – it's brought us incredible success. But we all know Tommy needs to address this in the next year. That's where his dilettantish record in the transfer market – spending money on players that he has no intention of playing or in positions that don't need filled – is fair criticism, especially when he continually talks about his limited budget.

It does feel like we've all been talking about the need to replace our 'veterans', who have been brilliant for us, for the past 3 years or so!

We've done okay in defence, with Shaughnessy and Foster being good replacements for Wright and Mackay, but you do feel the players further forward can't go on forever sadly.  

[RandomGuy.]

Wonder if theres any chance the result tonight could affect any deal for MOH. They'll maybe be wanting cash money now they've no real income, or they might just be desperate to get him off the books.

[dafcburty]

"Reaching the Group Stage would be unbelievable" says Saints' Chris Millar

https://jordanburtfootball.com/2017/07/06/reaching-group-stages-would-be-unbelievable-says-saints-chris-millar/

[PauloPerth]

44 minutes ago, dafcburty said:

"Reaching the Group Stage would be unbelievable" says Saints' Chris Millar

https://jordanburtfootball.com/2017/07/06/reaching-group-stages-would-be-unbelievable-says-saints-chris-millar/

I'd be happy just to get through the first round right now! 

[DEEJANGO]

What Channels the game on if any?

[RawB93]

What Channels the game on if any?

Check cricfree.
I've got one without commentary but a mic positioned nice and close to Tommy Wright, I guess the broadcasters don't know what he's saying

[perthsaint1977]

Big few weeks coming up. Must get a forward and left winger in asap and now arrange extra friendlies.

[vikingTON]

Beaten home and away by a bunch of beetroot howkers. Just let that sink in.