Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[jamamafegan]

Unless we get liquidated in the next year from now, that is now officially 10 years of consecutive top flight football for St Johnstone Football Club. Glorious. What a journey it has been.

 

Tayside’s number one.

 

[Kyle]

Yeah I think Willock has looked the better player over the last 2 games, but Williams has been out of position. Williams is an entertaining player to watch but agree he’s need to dramatically improve his tangible output to justify what would be a big wage. 

[RandomGuy.]

3 minutes ago, Radford said:

I don't see it with Williams yet. So much seemed to bounce off him, especially early on. Appreciate he's not a striker. I'm wary of paying big wages to another player that doesn't score or create goals. Window dressing doesn't keep you up.

Tbf in the second half alone he set up MacLean for a relatively simple chance from sixteen yards, and I think he also set up Wotherspoon and Craig in similar situations. Harsh to blame him for the rest of the team being embarrassingly shite at shooting from sixteen yards. 

[tree house tam]

2 minutes ago, Radford said:

I don't see it with Williams yet. So much seemed to bounce off him, especially early on. Appreciate he's not a striker. I'm wary of paying big wages to another player that doesn't score or create goals. Window dressing doesn't keep you up.

I'd agree to an extent but imagine good technical players like Scougall and Williams feeding or playing off McMillan. It's a gamble I think is worth trying, there's been too many seasons where we've plodded along(to good effect by the way) and that's fine but the league is stronger and quicker now, time for change in style.

[The Woolshed]

Could Williams and Scougall operate in tandom behind a lone striker like McMillan?

[RandomGuy.]

8 minutes ago, tree house tam said:

I'd agree to an extent but imagine good technical players like Scougall and Williams feeding or playing off McMillan. It's a gamble I think is worth trying, there's been too many seasons where we've plodded along(to good effect by the way) and that's fine but the league is stronger and quicker now, time for change in style.

Far too early to be thinking much about McMillan tbh, he could be absolutely fucking dreadful. 

 

[tree house tam]

4 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Far too early to be thinking much about McMillan tbh, he could be absolutely fucking dreadful. 

 

I'm just pinning my hopes on him being different to what we have tbh

 

[PauloPerth]

Just come here after posting on the match thread similar to what Radford and Kyle say about Williams. He looks a very good player in terms of pace, technique etc but so often you end up thinking if only he'd got the break of the ball there or that pass very nearly came off..

I still think he'll come good but I agree there has to be some end product over the next few weeks  otherwise you wonder if this nearly but not quite thing is going to be the norm.  

And you could argue we already have Scougall who at times might also fit that description and be on a reasonable wage.

Willock is looking more impressive the past two games, hopefully over the next few games with more playing time we get to see him really impose himself on a match for the full 90 minutes.

[Radford]

Next week is big for Willock. After a promising debut at Tynecastle, he was swallowed up after coming in as an early sub at Fir Park in the midweek.

If Motherwell play with their usual intensity, he has to show he can adapt to that pace. Also has to show he can play alongside Davidson; his last two performances have been with him missing.

The absent players are an issue for us at the moment as it's leaving us without a real style of play, not that it's always easy to identify one when everyone is fit!

[RandomGuy.]

Interesting to read we'll be seeing "progress on contract extensions over the next couple of days", seems like every three days we get told that there'll be "movement in the coming week" or "deals are close" before absolutely nothing happens.

Gets pretty boring.

[Kyle]

I don’t think that’s come out of Saints - the St Johnstone 1884 twitter page is making an assumption that will be the case I’d imagine. This is the last week without a midweek game this season and there’s every chance a lot of our players will be off on holidays as soon as the season is finished. Back page of the courier hasn’t been released yet but there could be clues there once it is. 

[Stelling]

12 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Interesting to read we'll be seeing "progress on contract extensions over the next couple of days", seems like every three days we get told that there'll be "movement in the coming week" or "deals are close" before absolutely nothing happens.

Gets pretty boring.

No contract or signing news  -  poor communication.
Comments from the manager specifically naming targets, who we then miss out on  -  criticised for showing hands too early.
Vague yet positive updates to let fans know talks are taking place  -  boring.

Is there a point on that scale where the club can get it right?

[RandomGuy.]

17 minutes ago, Stelling said:

No contract or signing news  -  poor communication.
Comments from the manager specifically naming targets, who we then miss out on  -  criticised for showing hands too early.
Vague yet positive updates to let fans know talks are taking place  -  boring.

Is there a point on that scale where the club can get it right?

I'm not criticising the club, although TWs constant "we're close to signing *insert player here*" for three months before the agree a deal elsewhere is equally tedious.

I know its a complicated affair contracts and I understand its never going to be 100% accurate, but its this that gets fans on the clubs back. Its been at least a week since there was mention of two pre-contracts being "very close" and in the past week talk of seven player signing new deals. And yet after that its just complete radio silence until we're all told it'll be happening in the next week, again.

[Kyle]

Again, the most recent post on twitter didn’t come from the club. It’s an assumption. Wright mentioned 3 young players were close to signing last week which is probably still true. I wish he’d shut up about ‘agreements in principle’ with players though because he’s been shown up on numerous occasions after saying it, and not just this season. 

[Stelling]

1 minute ago, RandomGuy. said:

I'm not criticising the club, although TWs constant "we're close to signing *insert player here*" for three months before the agree a deal elsewhere is equally tedious.

I know its a complicated affair contracts and I understand its never going to be 100% accurate, but its this that gets fans on the clubs back. Its been at least a week since there was mention of two pre-contracts being "very close" and in the past week talk of seven player signing new deals. And yet after that its just complete radio silence until we're all told it'll be happening in the next week, again.

I'm not necessarily trying to stick up for the club here - if there's an opportunity to get the comms wrong Saints mostly will - but I can appreciate the difficulty when it comes to juggling the need to keep fans informed along with the sensitivity of contract talks.

I've always got the impression that Wright is maybe still a bit naive and gets ahead of himself when it comes to this part of the job. Like you say, we hear quite regularly that talks are "close" or things will happen "this week" or "in a few days", and then nothing materialises, or we get left with egg on our face like the recent pre-contract rumblings or the Brian Graham situation. But then again, perhaps as far as Tommy is concerned deals are close to being done, only for negotiations to get held up because they have to fight past Frugal Broon like the boss at the end of a level. Or maybe they're just teasing b*****ds. Who knows.

[RandomGuy.]

21 minutes ago, Kyle said:

Again, the most recent post on twitter didn’t come from the club. It’s an assumption. Wright mentioned 3 young players were close to signing last week which is probably still true. I wish he’d shut up about ‘agreements in principle’ with players though because he’s been shown up on numerous occasions after saying it, and not just this season. 

I know, I'm not criticising him, as without that account we'd literally know nothing. It was just an observation that its getting pretty tedious to never actually hear about any concrete progress

[Tibbermoresaint]

Jack Hamilton incoming?

[Radford]

28 minutes ago, Tibbermoresaint said:

Jack Hamilton incoming?

Manager obviously feels he needs two strong goalkeepers over saving money from the budget. It's hardly the guaranteed shirt that you'd have imagined Hamilton is looking for.

My feeling is that he's as good as Saints will get without assuring a player of the number one shirt. And even if they did, you aren't looking around at a plethora of Scottish options.

What are the four outfield positions folk feel the manager will be looking to strengthen?

[The Saintee]

5 minutes ago, Radford said:

 

What are the four outfield positions folk feel the manager will be looking to strengthen?

Has to be midfield, out wide and up front.

Desperately need some pace and a bit of creativity going forward.

Ideally I'd like a very physical CH but it doesn't seem to be an issue for TW how many pishy goals we've conceded this year.

[Radford]

Totally agree about a centre back but don't think the manager will. I find that a bit strange when he's complaining about us losing up to 20 points this season through poor defending. Is he really that confident the same group will serve us better next season? 

The glaring gap in the squad is a left-footed wide player and although he was billed as having pace, haven't seen much evidence of Williams being able to carry the ball past players at speed.