Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[Mr Heliums]

1 hour ago, The Woolshed said:

 Midge was arguably our best player over the two legs and I personally thought he was done, delighted to be proved wrong.

Millar's a great player and was definitely a standout in the first leg. He isn't done unless the continual injuries that plague him resurface. But MacLean I don't think is much of a plus any more. I'll be delighted to be proved wrong though.

[The Woolshed]

Millar's a great player and was definitely a standout in the first leg. He isn't done unless the continual injuries that plague him resurface. But MacLean I don't think is much of a plus any more. I'll be delighted to be proved wrong though.

I don't get to as many as I used to. But he seems to be adopting more of the Rooney role in his latter career at United and dropping deeper and deeper rather than sticking to his bread and butter box stuff and holding up. I still think there's a role this season for him but he can't be the main guy himself with very limited back up from the other pair.

[Ramagamma]

Hate to say it but this so called Golden Age that Saints have experienced in the past decade or so feels like it could start to crumble this season. As a team we have always seemed to have a core group of players to build around, Mannus, Anderson, Davidson, Millar, Craig, Mclean have all been our most reliable and consistent players but we can't rely on them indefinitely.

I'm just not convinced by what we have this season, big Zander is certainly a prospect, Shaughnessy is excellent but other than that it's looking grim, Scougall is kind of untested at this level, Wotherspoons a trier but not outstanding, Kane doesn't look a natural striker. All-in-all I'm not feeling that we will be a strong team in the league this season.

[RandomGuy.]

Clark, Foster, Anderson, Shaughnessy, Easton, Davidson, Craig, Wotherspoon, Scougall, Alston are all 31 or under, which means they should all last another couple of seasons.

Ideally we'd discover a right back, centre back, central midfielder, wingers and a striker within the next three years.

Still a question mark about whether Comrie and the centre backs can be counted amongst the future players but I'm hopeful that at least two of those four can make the step up. Never seen anything of Hendry, and not much of Hurst, but I doubt they'll be top flight strikers. Same with the midfielders we have like McLean and Thomson.

[perthsaint1977]

Same posts every single preseason. And we know how they all turn out. Two more additions say like ohalloran and Chris McGuire or something like those players and all of a sudden we have 5 decent options up top. I can understand why other fans are desperate for us to falter ( to be fair it's the only way the likes of Dundee will better us ) but for saints fans to hit the panic button already is bewildering but not surprising. Have some faith boys and girls ....

[RandomGuy.]

Two more additions say like ohalloran and Chris McGuire

You have me semi-erect already. Don't play games with me now.

[perthsaint1977]

You have me semi-erect already. Don't play games with me now.

Just first names that sprang to mind but you catch my drift, we are a couple of good additions from being a really solid top 6 outfit again.

[Center half]

Lets face it, the best we can hope for is Aberdeen to sign some new striker( The Bristol city Reject is not what I meant), and we end up with Heavyweight Storie or Ritchie Foran comes out of retirement . Kane it is then.

 

[Radford]

Tommy Wright hasn't helped quell things with his post-match comments but a lot of panicking in the heat of the moment. Everyone was disappointed and gutted on Thursday evening but it wasn't the time to make judgements. My line has always been to judge the summer business come the end of August. Every club wants their signings in as quickly as possible but it's clearly not that simple.

There has to be money available. If you remove the young players that Wright is shoehorning into the squad and will be earning a pittance in budgetary terms (three or four probably the equivalent of one older player), you are left with 15/16 senior pros. Passing up the chance to sign Dayton and the lack of trialists generally points to a manager who knows what/who he wants.

I'm by no means the biggest fan of Steve Brown but he's acknowledged he's prepared to back Wright this summer so deserves the opportunity to deliver. Wright needs to behave himself. It's fine having the odd moan about budgets but it's becoming far too regular an occurrence.

[Ludo*1]

To be fair, Wright brings a lot of this on himself. He consistently uses the board as a shield for his own misgivings. Very successful manager but I'd be pissed off with him if he managed my club that way. He's obviously entitled to an extreme amount of leeway considering the success he has brought you but I wouldn't be entirely surprised if Brown eventually got fed up of him.

[The Marly]

14 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Clark, Foster, Anderson, Shaughnessy, Easton, Davidson, Craig, Wotherspoon, Scougall, Alston are all 31 or under, which means they should all last another couple of seasons.

Ideally we'd discover a right back, centre back, central midfielder, wingers and a striker within the next three years.

Still a question mark about whether Comrie and the centre backs can be counted amongst the future players but I'm hopeful that at least two of those four can make the step up. Never seen anything of Hendry, and not much of Hurst, but I doubt they'll be top flight strikers. Same with the midfielders we have like McLean and Thomson.

Having watched Comrie at Hamilton last season, I'm very excited by him.  If just one of the 3 centre backs reaches their potential I'd be happy.  

And you shouldn't judge players who, by your own admission, you haven't seen Bawb.

[7-2]

It'll all be water off a duck's back to young Brown. You've got to have a soul to let it get to you. I'm sure it's all done with his full approval to deflect from poor performances and tactical non-masterclasses like the last two weeks. It's textbook PR stuff.

[RandomGuy.]

Having watched Comrie at Hamilton last season, I'm very excited by him.  If just one of the 3 centre backs reaches their potential I'd be happy.  
And you shouldn't judge players who, by your own admission, you haven't seen Bawb.

Yeah Ive real idea about McLean, Hendry and Hurst aswell really. I just don't get a good feeling about them though.

Worth noting I said similar about Comrie last Summer, so it's more than likely they'll all be stars in the waiting.

[PauloPerth]

15 hours ago, perthsaint1977 said:

Same posts every single preseason. And we know how they all turn out. Two more additions say like ohalloran and Chris McGuire or something like those players and all of a sudden we have 5 decent options up top. I can understand why other fans are desperate for us to falter ( to be fair it's the only way the likes of Dundee will better us ) but for saints fans to hit the panic button already is bewildering but not surprising. Have some faith boys and girls ....

I was thinking the same, we've had this every season since the Cup win. Everyone was saying Frazer Wright was finished, he then went on to have a great season, Maclean as well after his second serious injury with us in two seasons.  Thought Murray and Millar looked fit against Trakai, so could get a couple of seasons out of them if they can stay injury free.

One year it'll probably come true and we will fall back a bit, hopefully not for a good while yet..

[PauloPerth]

2 hours ago, Radford said:

Wright needs to behave himself. It's fine having the odd moan about budgets but it's becoming far too regular an occurrence.

Yes it's got a bit of the Steve Lomas about it. I got fed up hearing how we had the lowest budget in the league after every single game under Lomas.

However, I think Tommy Wright has just got a bit of the Alex Ferguson mentality about him. A bit old school, who will possibly not admit to something being his own fault. 

Its probably what makes him a winner, a real single mindedness.

We definitely do lack creativity and a forward, but we still have a squad comfortably good enough to have beaten Trakai.

[Dee Bliss]

6 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

We definitely do lack creativity and a forward, but we still have a squad comfortably good enough to have beaten Trakai.

^^^^^^^

Heads gone. 

Pumped home and away. 

[PauloPerth]

47 minutes ago, Yenitit said:

^^^^^^^

Heads gone. 

Pumped home and away. 

 Keep trying!!

 

[Mr Heliums]

4 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

We definitely do lack creativity and a forward, but we still have a squad comfortably good enough to have beaten Trakai.

Hard to make that argument when Liam Craig is on the team sheet. You can't fault his effort, but he's a shocking footballer.

[RandomGuy.]

Craig is limited by his lack of pace, he's been a top six midfielder for the majority of his career though. I'm meant to be the "DOOM" Saints fan, yet even I'm getting scunnered with the amount of folk who have spent the last few days going person by person around the club saying how utterly shite they are.

[PauloPerth]

25 minutes ago, Mr Heliums said:

Hard to make that argument when Liam Craig is on the team sheet. You can't fault his effort, but he's a shocking footballer.

For the final two months or so of last season he partnered Paul Paton in centre midfield in a team which finished 4th. They out performed Hearts, Aberdeen, Partick Thistle and many of the bottom six sides in various matches in the closing stages of the season.

On paper, I wouldn't get excited about either of those players, but we've always been more about the sum of the parts, and it got results.

I don't think he's mobile enough to play wide left anymore though, so he's another in the long list of centre midfielders we have.

 

Its been said before, but a decent amount of our wage bill must go on providing cover for Millar and Davidson. It's a tough one, because when fit and on their day they are both excellent, but you have to provide cover for them as both are also injury prone.