Double Winning St Johnstone FC Thread

[djchapsticks]

Interesting piece and interview by Jim Weir.

Not sure how his memory is from the Saints pre season game but it's a weird claim to say Paul Ritchie was involved in the bad blood. Ritchie wasn't with us the season before and in fact was a passing through trialist on his way to Inverness (a mental decision we made not to sign him as he was too old at 33 and went went to score 21 goals that season for Caley) so I'm not sure he'd have harboured any ill will from the season before.

 

[PauloPerth]

33 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Interesting piece and interview by Jim Weir.

Not sure how his memory is from the Saints pre season game but it's a weird claim to say Paul Ritchie was involved in the bad blood. Ritchie wasn't with us the season before and in fact was a passing through trialist on his way to Inverness (a mental decision we made not to sign him as he was too old at 33 and went went to score 21 goals that season for Caley) so I'm not sure he'd have harboured any ill will from the season before.

 

Can’t remember the pre-season game, but here’s highlights of the last game of the season at McDiarmid.

Great midfield options for us back then;  Dasovic, Sylla, Hartley.

[CoveRangers1922]

How's Connor McLennan been for you? Almost a nailed on certainty he leaves the Dons this summer. Would you take him, would he find another SPL club or is his level more the Championship?

MOH sadly has been utter pathetic for us. Granted we're in turmoil but he looked so disinterested from almost day one.

You guys likely to offload Gilmour? 

[RandomGuy.]

8 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

How's Connor McLennan been for you? Almost a nailed on certainty he leaves the Dons this summer. Would you take him, would he find another SPL club or is his level more the Championship?

MOH sadly has been utter pathetic for us. Granted we're in turmoil but he looked so disinterested from almost day one.

You guys likely to offload Gilmour? 

McLennans been sort of there. Hes very similar to O'Halloran in that you play him as a winger or you accept yes doing nothing. He probably needs a Championship move where he plays every week. 

Think MOH chucked it a while back, tbh. Hearts not in it anymore. 

Gilmour might depend on his injury. He might get a deal so hes not just dumped. If hes fit then no deal.

[SJFCtheTeamForMe]

15 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

How's Connor McLennan been for you? Almost a nailed on certainty he leaves the Dons this summer. Would you take him, would he find another SPL club or is his level more the Championship?

MOH sadly has been utter pathetic for us. Granted we're in turmoil but he looked so disinterested from almost day one.

You guys likely to offload Gilmour? 

For me Mcleannan is nowhere near good enough to play at this level. Mostly a passenger and for me has shown very little quality as well. Puts effort in but I'll be very frustrated if we sign him. (He was a certainty to be signed by Davidson though). For me his career is at best going to be at a part time level. 

MOH... I've always said if he didn't have the pace he'd be playing amateurs. For a period he played wide right for us, would use the pace keep it simple get a yard on the man and fire it across. He started trying to be clever, cutting inside etc... Useless. 

Gilmour definitely has no long term future at Saints unless the new manager somehow fancies him. In his limited opportunities he looked incredibly uncomfortable and out his depth. Caveat to that as well that Davidson tried playing him as a wing back?!!! At the start of the season (Another example of Davidson forcing that formation). 

[CoveRangers1922]

23 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

McLennans been sort of there. Hes very similar to O'Halloran in that you play him as a winger or you accept yes doing nothing. He probably needs a Championship move where he plays every week. 

Think MOH chucked it a while back, tbh. Hearts not in it anymore. 

Gilmour might depend on his injury. He might get a deal so hes not just dumped. If hes fit then no deal.

IF we stay up and go hybrid I wonder if McLennan would be an option us. Clearly if you offered him a contract he'd likely take it as he would want to continue in the SPL. Do feel also he probably needs to drop down to get a run of games and prove his worth.

Definitely MOH has chucked it. More time training and less time on the sun bed might do him the world of good! Don't know who would take him next. Wouldn't have him with us and we're a gang at the moment.

Gilmour looked really good for us, gutted he got injured prior to Christmas. Gulf in class between the Championship and SPL so I suspect he'd be a bit part player for you if you kept him but you never know.

With CD away it'll likely be a busy window for you lads I'd imagine. All the best for the split. Another couple of wins should guarantee safety

Edited May 4, 2023 by CoveRangers1922

[PauloPerth]

57 minutes ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

How's Connor McLennan been for you? Almost a nailed on certainty he leaves the Dons this summer. Would you take him, would he find another SPL club or is his level more the Championship?

MOH sadly has been utter pathetic for us. Granted we're in turmoil but he looked so disinterested from almost day one.

You guys likely to offload Gilmour? 

McLennan a definite no for me. A nearly man every week, in that something nearly comes off for him but rarely does.  He probably can play, and maybe in a team that was playing well and full of confidence he’d do much better. As others say, drop down a league and play every week to get some form going is the best option for him.

Gilmour has barely played for us, and didn’t play well when he did. But it’s hard to judge as he’s never had a run of games.

The fact that he’s 24 and only played about 50 senior games says a lot; he desperately needs to be playing somewhere to see what he’s capable of.

[The Saintee]

McLennan is a no from me. Might be a different story down the league...so maybe he does have a future with us ! 

MOH has chucked it. He's won 3 trophies, realised his pace is going and he's going through the motions now. 

Gilmour is one of those guys that's had potential at one point but his body isn't up to the task of being an athlete.

[RandomGuy.]

9 hours ago, CoveRangers1922 said:

Definitely MOH has chucked it. More time training and less time on the sun bed might do him the world of good! Don't know who would take him next. Wouldn't have him with us and we're a gang at the moment.

Aye its a shame, not really sure what the future holds for him tbh.

Wont get a top flight side, probably struggle for a Championship side. Maybe Falkirk if they stay down? Simply because theyll sign him as a former Premiership player rather than his ability. 

Cant see him going into coaching or anything once he retires either.

[Radford]

I've always felt our fans have been harsh on Connor McLennan but someone made a good point a few weeks ago that rang true, he always wants 4 or 5 touches and you don't really get away with that in the Premiership. I'm still open about his future though. I like his versatility, especially if we are are, rightly, going to run with a smaller squad.

That desire to take touches was probably true of O'Halloran but absolutely nothing should he rewritten about this guy's contribution to our club. He got away with it because he was supremely talented at his peak. Undoubtedly would he in strong contention for a place in our strongest team since promotion when he was at the top of his game.

Why it's all gone wrong is obviously a question. Maybe (as someone said) the pace has gone, maybe he's completed-it-mate or maybe the previous manager just drained all confidence from him. A shame, whatever it was.

It's also a shame we've never had a proper look at Gilmour but you can say the same about plenty of players down the years, or even currently with the likes of Ballantyne as well. They've never even been given a chance in the first team.

[Widge]

Prime O’Halloran was a different animal to anything we’ve seen at saints. He was head down, run and folk for 90 minutes and generally terrified defences. Even if he was playing badly he created space by virtue of teams doubling and tripling up on him. For 6-9 months, he was easily the best winger in the league. I don’t think he’s ever had an elite mentality though, his time at Rangers did him no favours and as others have said, pace is going and that means his game becomes obsolete as he’s not technical enough to change his style. He’ll go down in the saints history books as a mercurial talent though and one who was incredibly successful with us. There was a period in his career where he was essentially winning games for us single handedly and for that saints fans shouldn’t have a bad word to say about him. 

[RandomGuy.]

He needed to try and do other things rather just running down the wing, as just doing that would become predictable, and before the Rangers move was figuring it out i think. Im sure he was off the left, and fairly central, the day he obliterated Hamilton at their ground.

Rangers just had no idea how to use him and tried to make him a possession player, which he just couldnt pick up.

Much like May i think he returned from a spell away a better all round footballer, but less effective.

If someone could reignite his passion for the game he could have another purple patch, for me. I dont think his pace is gone yet. I think he just got bogged down sitting on the bench and only ever playing a way he doesnt want to play.

[mizfit]

I honestly cannot remember who it was he came on against, maybe Aberdeen start of the season and he looked like he couldn’t be fucked even walking on the pitch. 

[tree house tam]

No sentiment in football,  thanks for your efforts Mikey, you've been well recompensed,  now off you pop. No effort=No contract.

Tbh I'd be inclined to say the same to Spoony as well, which leaves a bitter taste, mainly due to Davidson not giving him a proper chance after the world cup. Gilmour, Maclennan, Crawford and about 20 others can also gtf. The only good thing about being relegated, if there is such a thing,  is that most of these charlatans would want to leave anyway due to them believing they're the next Messi.

[PSJ.84]

I’ve always wondered if something happened after Kelty with O’Halloran as he’d played the majority of games up until that point - including an excellent performance in Austria and against Rangers - but was given the Davidson treatment and we barely saw him after it. Have in my head that he was a doubt for the Kelty game then ended up coming on in extra time before going back off injured after 15 mins, so that maybe played a part. Either way sad to see him leave with a bit of a whimper. 

[mizfit]

13 minutes ago, PSJ.84 said:

I’ve always wondered if something happened after Kelty with O’Halloran as he’d played the majority of games up until that point - including an excellent performance in Austria and against Rangers - but was given the Davidson treatment and we barely saw him after it. Have in my head that he was a doubt for the Kelty game then ended up coming on in extra time before going back off injured after 15 mins, so that maybe played a part. Either way sad to see him leave with a bit of a whimper. 

I’d heard he had a really bad niggle he couldn’t over come. Was also apparently looking at a loan as early as July. Wether that’s just terrace chatter we’ll never know. 

[PSJ.84]

10 minutes ago, mizfit said:

I’d heard he had a really bad niggle he couldn’t over come. Was also apparently looking at a loan as early as July. Wether that’s just terrace chatter we’ll never know. 

The loan in July is one I’d heard too. The two year contract seemed bizarre at the time, looks even more bizarre now

[PauloPerth]

I remember before Davidson’s first match in charge, he’d been talking O’Halloran up in the press saying how big a player he was going to be in our new system.

He got MOH to play in a way which was completely outwith his skill set; charging around closing down, and the thing everyone saw coming watching that match, apart from the manager,  was a red card for Mikey. Bizarre that he wasn’t subbed earlier when he was on a yellow and had been spoken to.  

Apart from a couple of flurries where he did okay as a RWB, it never got going for him under Davidson.  Don’t think he ever played in his best position over the 2-3 years, a wide player in a 4-4-2 with a strong right back behind him.

Definitely a legend, and given us some great moments.  There were times when our attacking gameplan was simply get the ball to O’Halloran and try to keep up.

At the Hibs game I thought we could have done with some different attacking options to come on and help us grab a goal. He and Crawford are not long term solutions for us, but in a team that badly struggles for goals you wonder if we’d have loaned them out if we knew the way the second half of this season was going to nose dive the way it has.

[tree house tam]

Are you mad Paulo? Crawford and MOH being brought on to be invisible in the second half of this season was exactly not what we needed. It tells you all you need to know about these players that they're currently being ridiculed by Cove and Morton fans. It also tells us how out of their depth Flax and Davidson were by giving them long term deals. 

Make no bones about it Flax has done just as much damage by aiding and abetting Davidson and is very very lucky that bulletproof has given up. If Roddy could turn on a PC I reckon he'd be running the show just as well as Flax.

[RandomGuy.]

Do U12s need a ticket tomorrow or can they get in without one as long as theyre with a paying adult?