The St. Mirren FC 2023/24 thread

[Billy Jean King]

2 minutes ago, GAD said:

Anyone still think we should budget for 11th next season?

Probably a few in the various "boards" bit it's been debunked now. The difference in quality that little bit of ambition gets you is glaringly obvious despite us not showing up yesterday.

[FTOF]

56 minutes ago, GAD said:

Anyone still think we should budget for 11th next season?

Whiny Glen on B&W army no doubt.

Edited April 23, 2023 by FTOF

[btb]

The cliche about this division is that outwith the OF any team can beat any other - yesterday was disappointing but over the 33 games the real Saints^TM  have turned up far more often than not.

Edited April 23, 2023 by btb

[Buttocks Brown]

If for the rest of the 2020s, an exceptional St Mirren season is 6th and a poor season is 10th then I'll take that gladly. The stars have to align for a top 6 finish: someone with a higher budget must underperform and we have to do better than all the other teams on our financial level. 

The main thing we need is stability and continuity. If the board had listened to the eejits who wanted Robinson out in July then we wouldn't be where we are now. The next poor run of games and no doubt we'll hear similar again. Fingers crossed the board keeps the head.

The seasons of Motherwell and Dundee Utd should be cautionary tales. Both qualified for Europe last season but top 6 financial gains wiped out by paying off 4 sacked managers between them. They'll probably both stay up but, given time, G. Alexander and J. Ross might have guided them to safety anyway.

Hopefully, Robinson signs a new contract and we can cruise on away from the relegation zone for a few seasons.

[djchapsticks]

I am all on board for this level of absolute pettiness and shithousing. This is what Twitter was made for.

Complete with a couple of rather daft looking tweets from @craigkillie in amongst those pearlers as well.

[pozbaird]

2 hours ago, GAD said:

Anyone still think we should budget for 11th next season?

Depends on how much we rake in from our European campaign. We’ve got a spare flagpole for the UEFA flag and the Buddie Good Food van double burger & chips has been awarded five star status. Bring it on.

[Stu]

More than happy I to admit I was wrong about Robinson. A year ago we'd just had a dire loss to Hibs after the split and looked like sleepwalking our way to relegation. We'd managed just one win under him and even though it wasn't his squad of players, they'd been doing OK before he arrived and we should have been in far better shape. We then ended the season on a decent run but I still wouldn't have been too fussed if he'd taken a job elsewhere.

I wasn't overly concerned about the League Cup form as it's not really been a great barometer of where we are - we won three of our four games under Rae, getting to within a goal of qualifying, and got gubbed by Thistle under Ross yet look how those seasons went. I wasn't too concerned after the first two games either as we should have beaten Motherwell and Pittodrie is often a hard place to go, especially for us - and especially after we go down to 10 men.

Things have turned out alright since then, eh? The only real issue has been the away form but in the end we've managed three away wins (so far), and the home form has been tremendous (we'll just ignore yesterday). The majority of Robinson's signings have been good and the improvement from some of the existing players - particularly Main - has been phenomenal.

Anything now is a bonus. Europe would be fantastic (and avoid the League Cup group stage)

Part of me wonders if he fancies moving on in the summer and his stuff of the last few months about how amazing it would be to make the top six after all the budget cuts is to highlight to other chairmen how great a job he's done with one arm tied behind his back. Or maybe he's doing it to get more money out of our board - either for himself or his playing budget, in a "If you think what I've done this year is good, wait until you see what I can do with a proper budget".

Maybe over-reading things and if he does end up going - probably down south - then I've no problem with that as he's earned it off the back of this season.

[sergie's no1 fan]

4 hours ago, GAD said:

Anyone still think we should budget for 11th next season?

Speculate to accumulate.

To attract better players you need to pay that bit extra. We have got some real assets in the squad now.

I don't want us spending wrecklessly though, it appears Robinson has worked wonders with cut backs and having to sell players in January, that could easily have cost us top 6 this season. 

Expecting Motherwell and United to be better next season, so we will need to improve if we want to challenge again.

No chance of 3rd place now, some turn around from Aberdeen. Got to begrudgingly respect that, sadly.

[Norrie82]

When he talks about there being no structure in place what does he mean? Did Jim not leave the foundation to build on after all he came in after Kearney and appeared to improve us year on year. Or was the foundations cut away with cuts?Where the cuts done last summer and as a result of covid or overspending or both. Sorry if this is answered elsewhere. I would like to know what the chances are now if progressing and becoming the side that’s regular in the top six and that is confidently a premier league team each year. We have the chance now to grow? If we don’t capitalise on this we will regret it . Let’s see if we can grow. Do you think we can give the manager a chance to grow this club

[medals]

1 hour ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

Speculate to accumulate.

To attract better players you need to pay that bit extra. We have got some real assets in the squad now.

I don't want us spending wrecklessly though, it appears Robinson has worked wonders with cut backs and having to sell players in January, that could easily have cost us top 6 this season. 

Expecting Motherwell and United to be better next season, so we will need to improve if we want to challenge again.

No chance of 3rd place now, some turn around from Aberdeen. Got to begrudgingly respect that, sadly.

Chances of 4th very slim now too.

Bottom line is we need to make more progress. The squad has been thin at times.

Got to bring in guys who are an improvement to kick on and we need better plan b an c options - especially away from home.

Bringing in more goals is what everyone wants but we could lose both Main and Watt - not that they have scored that many, but we need striker (s) to score more than them surely? I don't see Brophy as a solution either. If he's away we should have more money to play with though.

Possibly 2 new fullbacks too if Strain and Small are gone.

And a Dunne replacement if he is away too.

Likely then a number of changes to bed in... next season will test SR more as expectations have grown and the starting point is higher.

Nevertheless it's a great time for us.

[capt_oats]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Part of me wonders if he fancies moving on in the summer and his stuff of the last few months about how amazing it would be to make the top six after all the budget cuts is to highlight to other chairmen how great a job he's done with one arm tied behind his back. Or maybe he's doing it to get more money out of our board - either for himself or his playing budget, in a "If you think what I've done this year is good, wait until you see what I can do with a proper budget".

Maybe over-reading things and if he does end up going - probably down south - then I've no problem with that as he's earned it off the back of this season.

I've posted this before but if you like listening to Robinson's chat then the interview he did with a Bournemouth podcast is an interesting watch and he kind of addresses a couple of questions you've asked.

TL,DR - in hindsight he felt that he should probably have left us the summer before he did as his stock was at its highest at that point and also that he found out that getting to 2 cup finals and into Europe with Motherwell didn't give him the clout he thought it would when he was applying for jobs.

As the video title says he applied for the Bournemouth job twice - once while he was at Motherwell and the 2nd time after he'd' left and was patched on both occasions. You'd imagine he may have adjusted his expectations accordingly.

As I say, it's worth a watch if you've a spare hour and half.

[Captain_Sensible]

10 hours ago, sergie's no1 fan said:

I meant we'll somehow end up with 1 home and 4 away to appease some old firm nonsense .

So we have played Hibs and Celtic twice at home.

Rangers, Hearts, Aberdeen all once at home? We will have to play one of them away, ideally take the hit and go to Ibrox again?

 

 

 

The league rules state max 3 at home and min 2 away post split

 

[Dirty Sanchez]

2 hours ago, capt_oats said:

I've posted this before but if you like listening to Robinson's chat then the interview he did with a Bournemouth podcast is an interesting watch and he kind of addresses a couple of questions you've asked.

TL,DR - in hindsight he felt that he should probably have left us the summer before he did as his stock was at its highest at that point and also that he found out that getting to 2 cup finals and into Europe with Motherwell didn't give him the clout he thought it would when he was applying for jobs.

As the video title says he applied for the Bournemouth job twice - once while he was at Motherwell and the 2nd time after he'd' left and was patched on both occasions. You'd imagine he may have adjusted his expectations accordingly.

As I say, it's worth a watch if you've a spare hour and half.

I've just sat throught this and can confirm it's a good watch.

It got me looking up his playing career while I was watching. Although he operated mostly in the lower leagues, he was on the park with a lot of the top guys of that generation at one time or another. He played against the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Shearer and the Arsenal team with the likes of Seaman, Adams, Ian Wright and co and also played agaisnt the Spain team of the Iniesta and Xavi era. He must also be at least an acquaintance of Rio Ferdinand given their history at Bournemouth.

I also cheked out whether he played in the Bournemouth team that came to Love Street for a friendly in 1998, and it turns out that, not only did he play, but he also scored the winning goal.

http://www.stmirrenprogrammes.co.uk/StMirren/STM_Match_Details.php?Season=1998&GameID=199807220

[GAD]

5 minutes ago, Dirty Sanchez said:

I've just sat throught this and can confirm it's a good watch.

It got me looking up his playing career while I was watching. Although he operated mostly in the lower leagues, he was on the park with a lot of the top guys of that generation at one time or another. He played against the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Shearer and the Arsenal team with the likes of Seaman, Adams, Ian Wright and co and also played agaisnt the Spain team of the Iniesta and Xavi era. He must also be at least an acquaintance of Rio Ferdinand given their history at Bournemouth.

I also cheked out whether he played in the Bournemouth team that came to Love Street for a friendly in 1998, and it turns out that, not only did he play, but he also scored the winning goal.

http://www.stmirrenprogrammes.co.uk/StMirren/STM_Match_Details.php?Season=1998&GameID=199807220

I can't even begin to guess what kind of formation that was meant to be. Classic 90s St Mirren, four centre backs, two right backs, a left back, two strikers and whatever the f**k Andy Roddie was supposed to be.

[Dirty Sanchez]

6 minutes ago, GAD said:

I can't even begin to guess what kind of formation that was meant to be. Classic 90s St Mirren, four centre backs, two right backs, a left back, two strikers and whatever the f**k Andy Roddie was supposed to be.

Very true. We'll have to assume Andy Roddie was operating in midfield given that there aren't any other midfielders in the line-up.

I remember this game. I think it was night time game with only one or two stands open.

I notice a certain Eddie Howe is in the Bournemouth side. Whatever happened to him?

[pozbaird]

Still, looking at the team and subs, five bona-fide St Mirren legends in the squad. Has the feel of a squad in transition from shite 90s St Mirren to ‘the bubble didnae’ burst’ St Mirren.

Also looks like the Bournemouth line up had two guys in it who are doing not too bad at the management lark.

[Jacksgranda]

12 hours ago, Dirty Sanchez said:

I've just sat throught this and can confirm it's a good watch.

It got me looking up his playing career while I was watching. Although he operated mostly in the lower leagues, he was on the park with a lot of the top guys of that generation at one time or another. He played against the likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Shearer and the Arsenal team with the likes of Seaman, Adams, Ian Wright and co and also played agaisnt the Spain team of the Iniesta and Xavi era. He must also be at least an acquaintance of Rio Ferdinand given their history at Bournemouth.

I also cheked out whether he played in the Bournemouth team that came to Love Street for a friendly in 1998, and it turns out that, not only did he play, but he also scored the winning goal.

http://www.stmirrenprogrammes.co.uk/StMirren/STM_Match_Details.php?Season=1998&GameID=199807220

The own goal obviously doesn't deserve a specific time, just a generic "second half".

[Stu]

I thought Andy Roddie had left us by that point. No idea who the trialist or the Inglis guy is either. Future Saint John O'Neill on the Bournemouth bench.

[djchapsticks]

27 minutes ago, Stu said:

I thought Andy Roddie had left us by that point. No idea who the trialist or the Inglis guy is either. Future Saint John O'Neill on the Bournemouth bench.

I just assumed Grant Inglis but never heard of Neil Inglis.

I'm assuming he might have been a trialist as well as there was a Goalie Neil Inglis kicking about at the same time who would have just left Morton. He's never showing as signed for us, moving onto Clydebank, so it surely must be him on trial.

Andy Newman was a Hibs youth who went onto play for Morton.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

I just assumed Grant Inglis but never heard of Neil Inglis.

I'm assuming he might have been a trialist as well as there was a Goalie Neil Inglis kicking about at the same time who would have just left Morton. He's never showing as signed for us, moving onto Clydebank, so it surely must be him on trial.

Andy Newman was a Hibs youth who went onto play for Morton.

Yeah Grant Inglis was the only one I could think of too. A goalie makes sense as we were hunting around for one that summer after Combe left and before we signed Ludo.