The Big Queen's Park FC Thread

[ATLIS]

2 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

Sorry, I wasn’t trying to convince you. It’s only QP fans that have a hard time grasping how they managed to end up with actually footballers playing for them instead of the amateurs they were used to. 
 

It’s not a bad thing. It’s just bizarre that the fans refuse to accept that’s what’s going on. 

They did the same thing with us for Paton too apparently. Admittedly he would've probably ended out on loan for 6 months, with no guarantee of being first choice. Everything I'd heard was that they'd basically doubled our offer to him  ~£800-£900 on our offer to £1600-£1800 at QP. No way it's sustainable long term surely. 

[Mr.Blue]

4 hours ago, ATLIS said:

They did the same thing with us for Paton too apparently. Admittedly he would've probably ended out on loan for 6 months, with no guarantee of being first choice. Everything I'd heard was that they'd basically doubled our offer to him  ~£800-£900 on our offer to £1600-£1800 at QP. No way it's sustainable long term surely. 

I'm surprised to hear that QotS are offering that much in wages.

 

[Spider1975]

Left last night after being rather impressed with what I saw.  When the dust settled on the squad list I was pretty convinced that Ferrie and Fox would be guaranteed starters but after watching McKenna, Reid and Tizzard, (who looked, sounded and played like he was ten years older than he actually is), I'm far from sure that's the case.  What impressed me most was despite some of the heart-stopping passing out from the back, none of them resorted to hoofed clearances or those bloody annoying long, floaty balls up front.

Hepburn looked lively and was usually to be found in acres of space out on the left, despite, frustratingly, nobody seeming to find him, (made more galling by watching the subs pinging pin-point passes across field during the interval.

Special mention to Louis Longridge too, an experienced head in the group, who looked pretty composed in the middle and generally didn't put a foot wrong, (other than a lunging attempt at a tackle from behind in the second half).  Watching his withering chew-out of "Rocco" was also a bit of a highlight too!

Overall, impressed, though probably should be given they're all on £5k/week

Edited July 11, 2023 by Spider1975

[Spider1975]

In other news, does anyone know how much that chandelier in the fine dining area cost?

[jagfox]

17 minutes ago, Mr.Blue said:

I'm surprised to hear that QotS are offering that much in wages.

 

He's talking about what Livingston offered.

[Dunning1874]

8 hours ago, Zanetti said:

Got a source for that?

Not one that I can share here, so fair enough if you want to file this in the category of 'someone on a forum making shit up', but I'm entirely confident it's true.

[ATLIS]

23 minutes ago, Mr.Blue said:

I'm surprised to hear that QotS are offering that much in wages.

 

QP sorry, QotS was where he came from  

[Spider1975]

5 hours ago, ATLIS said:

They did the same thing with us for Paton too apparently. Admittedly he would've probably ended out on loan for 6 months, with no guarantee of being first choice.

Yup, he'd have probably ended up at Arbroath, (at where he'd obviously have been forced to go part-time), have scored a shed-load of goals which likely would have the added benefit of keeping @ExiledLichtie away from this thread!

[ATLIS]

3 minutes ago, Spider1975 said:

Yup, he'd have probably ended up at Arbroath, (at where he'd obviously have been forced to go part-time), have scored a shed-load of goals which likely would have the added benefit of keeping @ExiledLichtie away from this thread!

To be fair, the guys that go out on loan at part time clubs still train full time with us during the week. Don't blame him for taking a settled first team spot at his parent club with double the wage over 'potential' top flight football in 12-18 months. 

Edited July 11, 2023 by ATLIS

[Dave]

It is quite pleasing to see how utterly rattled some folk are by us right now, and talking absolute shite about what we're doing or paying players. If you think QP fans are "burying their heads in the sand" about what's been going on at the club since 2020, you've clearly not read this thread at all over the last year.

Enjoyed last night at Lesser, despite the horrific weather there was some good football played at times, albeit with not much end product for QP. If we stick with this style of play I can see us conceding some stupid goals off the back of it, but when it comes off it's going to look lovely. McKenna, Tizzard and Reid played well together at the back, and once Hepburn got involved a bit more you could see his potential. 

2 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Not one that I can share here, so fair enough if you want to file this in the category of 'someone on a forum making shit up', but I'm entirely confident it's true.

You keep thinking we're paying players £100k a year for Championship football if you want. You're absolutely wrong, but whatever makes you happy I suppose.

[CathcartSkins]

31 minutes ago, Spider1975 said:

Special mention to Louis Longridge too, an experienced head in the group, who looked pretty composed in the middle and generally didn't put a foot wrong, (other than a lunging attempt at a tackle from behind in the second half).  Watching his withering chew-out of "Rocco" was also a bit of a highlight too!

I would very much agree with this; Louis's passing when taking the ball from the defenders was spot on. And I am sure he also gave Will Tizzard some enthusiastic advice near the end. 

It now looks like we have some quality in depth when only a few short weeks ago some of us were struggling to name a first eleven.

[Spider1975]

27 minutes ago, ATLIS said:

To be fair, the guys that go out on loan at part time clubs still train full time with us during the week. Don't blame him for taking a settled first team spot at his parent club with double the wage over 'potential' top flight football in 12-18 months. 

Yeah mate, it was a slightly tongue-in-cheek comment, ref a few comments made a few months ago about how Arbroath are disadvantaged by Friday night fixtures being part-time etc.  

Listened to a podcast a while back, (think it was Sacked in the Morning) where Martindale talked of what some of his individual player budgets are/were.  Livingston's budget likely larger than most in the Championship but obviously spread over a larger squad.  What Martindale's done with you has been nothing short of fantastic.  We needed a striker, that was patently obvious from about February last year, and whilst I would think we've obviously made Paton a competitive offer given his relative importance to us, as you said any offer Livvi made would have been on the basis of a squad player/potential loan out.  It may well have been the guarantee of regular first team football that swayed it.

What people tend to over-look is that we had a proven, competent striker in Simon Murray, whom, everyone assumed was on a mega-deal.  Whilst that deal was probably highly competitive compared to League 2/1 contracts, it evidently wasn't compared to Championship/Premier one's which is why he left - for a team who very nearly ended up back in the Championship and to whom he was, last year, a squad player, rather than a guaranteed first team starter.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Spider1975

[oneteaminglasgow]

11 hours ago, Zanetti said:

Feel free to have a wee read at this link, it probably explains things better than anybody on here could. I'm sure there's more to it than the club aren't keen to share publicly as well:

https://queensparkfc.co.uk/queens-park-start-with-young-team/

On top of that our u18s will be joining the CAS Elite league, while I believe the lower age groups already did this season.

There are also other factors, such as the importance of statistics and analytics when it comes to scouting players. I believe some of the guys we've signed this year have been on our radar for quite a long time, and I don't imagine we're likely to bring in (m)any new faces over the age of about 22/23.

As I stated in a previous post, you're more than welcome to be skeptical. Time will tell if all of this is likely to pay off.

Again, I’m not trying to have a go, but surely there’s nothing particularly unique about this? It’s just ‘develop young players that we can sell on’ but try to be better at it, which is the business model of about 90% of the clubs in Scotland. 

[HoBNob]

13 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

I've seen some posts about this 'model's Queen's Park have.

What actually is this model what is unique about it?

Absolutely no one has considered buying young players and selling them on! 

Well they have, where other teams fall short on this is that it's actually really fucking expensive 

11 hours ago, Zanetti said:

Feel free to have a wee read at this link, it probably explains things better than anybody on here could. I'm sure there's more to it than the club aren't keen to share publicly as well:

https://queensparkfc.co.uk/queens-park-start-with-young-team/

On top of that our u18s will be joining the CAS Elite league, while I believe the lower age groups already did this season.

There are also other factors, such as the importance of statistics and analytics when it comes to scouting players. I believe some of the guys we've signed this year have been on our radar for quite a long time, and I don't imagine we're likely to bring in (m)any new faces over the age of about 22/23.

As I stated in a previous post, you're more than welcome to be skeptical. Time will tell if all of this is likely to pay off.

Are the entry requirements for the CAS elite league not quite expensive? 

9 hours ago, Zanetti said:

Got a source for that?

It's a small world, he was one of our highest earners at over 1k a week, you then offered him a good enough deal that he was willing to drop a tier (At the time, as things worked out of course he stayed in the Championship) he was attracting interest throughout the Championship with Partick also mooted, while we were still wanting to keep him. Why would you find it so surprising that he left for more money? 

18 minutes ago, Spider1975 said:

, it evidently wasn't compared to Championship/Premier one's which is why he left - for a team who very nearly ended up back in the Championship and to whom he was, last year, a squad player, rather than a guaranteed first team starter.

Are we just going to skip over the Roy McGregor part in this equation? 

[mcjameos]

1 hour ago, Dave said:

If we stick with this style of play I can see us conceding some stupid goals off the back of it, but when it comes off it's going to look lovely.

Hope we do stick with retaining possession and playing it out from the back.  Hoofing it clear (like the tail end if last season) to only have it come straight back at you is never going to win games. As you say we'll lose some stupid goals but we will become more confident / composed and get better at it. 

[mcjameos]

7 minutes ago, HoBNob said:

Absolutely no one has considered buying young players and selling them on! 

Are the entry requirements for the CAS elite league not quite expensive? 

Don't think anyone has denied that we are spending money on a coaching infrastructure. However not sure we are "buying young players". Apart from some compensation to QotS most of the squad have either been released by other clubs or come through our youth setup. 

[Bring Your Own Socks]

Really enjoyed my first viewing of the new stadium from the east stand…football likes nice though. Looking forward to Methil. 

[Anonymous Spider]

Speculate away on the finances but the recruitment looks bang on at the moment. The Southampton boys on 3 year deals, Spong on 2, Paton on a 3 year deal (maybe length of contract blew others out the water?) - all got very good sell-on potential, especially if we can develop them via Bueker-ball. 
 

Healy, Dom, Jarrett (who I thought was class at times last night) and Savoury to come back in..

Really-really exciting attacking team shaping up here. And Barry Hepburn is going to absolutely rinse a good few full backs this year. 

[Spider1975]

50 minutes ago, HoBNob said:

Are we just going to skip over the Roy McGregor part in this equation? 

No, not at all but, (and maybe I'm new to this) I don't see Ross County getting half the stick that QP are for also having a rich benefactor, who has been involved since the early nineties and has seen them rise from the Highland League to being established in the Premier League.  I was more highlighting the fact that QP have a stated aim of acquisition, develop/rehabilitate and sell on, which is exactly what we did with Murray; acquired a player with known talent but questionable fitness from outside of the Scotland, give him a platform and then let him go when the price is right.  Had we had the massive/unlimited budget people say we had for the playing staff and being in the position we were in around December/January, it would have seemed madness to let him go unless, perhaps, say it quietly, we had to balance the books a bit?

Again, there's nothing new with this approach, perhaps what QP are doing slightly differently is to have looked outside of Scotland to find the team of people that can realise the plan., and Martin Beuker has a track record of delivery.  I have every confidence that MB is more likely to shop in Waitrose than Lidl, but high reward usually entails high risk at the start and evidently the work he is doing in scouting, data analysis etc both in Scotland and further afield on the basis of last year and this pre-season looks to be sound.

 

[The Ghost of B A R P]

1 minute ago, Spider1975 said:

I don't see Ross County getting half the stick that QP are

Some QP posters are getting stick for their bizarre denial that you're spending significant money on player wages. If you would just acknowledge that the likes of Thomas, Savoury, Paton have been acquired because you can afford to blow the competition away, a lot of it would disappear... because, if we're honest, we'd all like to be in that position.

If you're allowed to use big Hampden, tho (particularly if you get promoted)... well, at that stage the game really is a bogey.