The Big Queen's Park FC Thread

[Bring Your Own Socks]

2 hours ago, Hampden Diehard said:

I think we need to sort out the men's team before we tackle any professional status for the women's team. It's a tad challenging at the moment, and that's without considering the potential loss of Beuker. Let's not forget, we're running a fully professional first team squad and a massive youth set up via one man's philanthropy on a home support of about 700.

Unless someone comes in with a big wad of cash to fund the women's team and that allows us to support them adequately to compete with, at least, the semi-professional sides, I can't see us going down that road. I'm not being all "yer da" here, I'm just trying to be realistic. It would be absolutely terrific if we could try to emulate what we're doing with the men's side, and this would complement that setup beautifully, but we would need another Willie Haughey to do that.

For a team only in their second season of the Elite SWPL, it looks like their’s already an investment. Nine coaches! Presumably all in it for the sake of the game? If no-one’s being paid then they must see us as a good bet for improvement, just like the day’s of amateur men teams.

Haughey has always been clear about wanting his money to go to youth development I.e. what we call Young QP. The obvious person to be asking “what’s the plan for the women” would be Dempster.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Bring Your Own Socks

[Byekick]

No mention of Beuker in this Guardian piece on Ajax (though I guess this fits with its apparent belief that Scottish football doesn’t exist). It’s instead linking Marc Overmars with a return as director of football

 

[Ben Reilly]

3 hours ago, Hampden Diehard said:

I think we need to sort out the men's team before we tackle any professional status for the women's team. It's a tad challenging at the moment, and that's without considering the potential loss of Beuker. Let's not forget, we're running a fully professional first team squad and a massive youth set up via one man's philanthropy on a home support of about 700.

Unless someone comes in with a big wad of cash to fund the women's team and that allows us to support them adequately to compete with, at least, the semi-professional sides, I can't see us going down that road. I'm not being all "yer da" here, I'm just trying to be realistic. It would be absolutely terrific if we could try to emulate what we're doing with the men's side, and this would complement that setup beautifully, but we would need another Willie Haughey to do that.

While I agree that we're not in a position to move to a full time professional women's team in the foreseeable future (though hopefully that should be a long term goal), there are still plenty of opportunities to raise the profile, success and profitability of the women's team fairly quickly.

To me it seems the easiest way to do this would be to have them play at Lesser, and promote it heavily. I'm sure they could get a decent turnout (relatively) if playing locally, and even with low priced adult tickets and free kids tickets, some income can be brought in via the (overpriced) food kiosk and by opening the bar pre and post game. In turn hopefully a bigger support can spur the team on to greater success.

Ideally all the women's home games would be at Lesser (which apparantly is what the team were told would happen this season) but even one or two 'special' games there, such as a potential top of the table clash with Kilmarnock, would be a start and might encourage a few more folk along to New Tinto.

Obviously the story is that the deal with the SFA is restricting this, but it's possible that there are other reasons for resistance to this behind the scenes that we're not being told about. It seems to me that the club want to play at Hampden for the foreseeable future, and Lesser is their bargaining chip, so they don't want to upset the SFA. However, given that the SFA are now doing a pretty good job of promoting the SWNT almost equal to the men's team, I would like to think that we can get them onside with further promoting the women's game at club level.

[PossilYM]

1 hour ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

For a team only in their second season of the Elite SWPL, it looks like their’s already an investment. Nine coaches! Presumably all in it for the sake of the game? If no-one’s being paid then they must see us as a good bet for improvement, just like the day’s of amateur men teams.

Haughey has always been clear about wanting his money to go to youth development I.e. what we call Young QP. The obvious person to be asking “what’s the plan for the women” would be Dempster.

Long term a campaign in England that's gathering pace is the "Bring them Home" shout out to get Women's teams playing in the home ground.

Couple of recent attendances, yes i know England has nine times the population.

Arsenal v Liverpool 54,000

Liverpool v Everton 23 000

Only a matter of time before Bring them Home reaches Scotland.

[Ben Reilly]

4 hours ago, Bring Your Own Socks said:

I’m impressed we have an organisational structure.

 According to the website, the men and women first teams are now the only teams on the Squad page. Young Queen’s Park has very recently been moved to the Foundation page where, oddly, the Men’s and Women’s squads are also listed. 

On the Fixtures page they show the Men, Women and Young all listed which is inconsistent with the Squads.

On the Community tab they have changed things around and it’s not as obvious that this is the Foundation page but if you scroll to the bottom you can see the banner showing it is the Foundation. Within that is the various levels of Community football for both adults and children. Whilst it’s generally believed that “community” is entry level and part of the stream to academy/first team, it’s not. Community, at all clubs, is a revenue stream. The Women’s team is not Community football but the girl’s teams are, ergo the Women’s team shouldn’t be under the Foundation organisation. 

I’d make an educated guess that they are on the same fixture/squad pages as the men because the SWPL is a subsidiary company of the SPFL. But again, this is at odds with the Young team as they too play in an SPFL league. 

I’d love to see an organisation chart but if the structure of the website - which is our window to the world - is to be believed then I imagine the organisation chart is like one of this pinboards you see in crime drama movies with random pictures and bits of string everywhere.

Not to nit pick, but to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding by anyone reading the above post, the Young QP info is under the Academy tab on the website, rather than the Commuinty/Foundation page.

Young QP and the U18 team are part of the club rather than the Foundation. I dont know why the squad lists have disappeared from the website, but it would be good to have these back to put faces to the names mentioned in match reports etc.

The women's team and the kids (boys and girls) Community teams are all part of the Foundation. There is no pathway from the Community teams to the Academy (which has caused some confusion amongst poorly informed parents on more than one occasion) and its open to all regardless of ability etc. This is indeed a way of bringing in income for the Fundation.

I believe at least some of the staff/coaches for the woman's team are employed by the Foundation, as are some of the Community team coaches. So not all are doing it for free.

I assume that the women's team players are all amateur (on expenses) but I don't know for sure.

I agree that there is a fair bit of confusion with this setup, and it would make far more sense for the Women's team to be part of the club rather than the Foundation.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Ben Reilly
Spolling ain't my string pint

[Bring Your Own Socks]

2 hours ago, Ben Reilly said:

Not to nit pick, but to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding by anyone reading the above post, the Young QP info is under the Academy tab on the website, rather than the Commuinty/Foundation page.

Young QP and the U18 team are part of the club rather than the Foundation. I don't know why the squad lists have disappeared from the website, but it would be good to have these back to put faces to the names mentioned in match reports etc.

 

My bad, got myself confused. But the bit about having the men and women teams in the Academy page then, still bizarre. My general point is due to my paranoia now that any discrete changes means something bad is about to happen. Or persistent incompetence, either of the two. Or sometimes maybe both.

[spiders4ever]

Clearly  Barry Robson didn't learn anything from Veldman's making ill advised substitutions at Raith.

Or do experienced managers make rookie mistakes.

 

[Zanetti]

3 minutes ago, spiders4ever said:

Clearly  Barry Robson didn't learn anything from Veldman's making ill advised substitutions at Raith.

Or do experienced managers make rookie mistakes.

 

Barry Robson isn't much more experienced than Veldman to be fair!

[Hampden Diehard]

11 hours ago, Ben Reilly said:

 there are still plenty of opportunities to raise the profile, success and profitability of the women's team fairly quickly.

To me it seems the easiest way to do this would be to have them play at Lesser, and promote it heavily. 

No argument from me there.

Edited October 26, 2023 by Hampden Diehard

[Cyclops van Gogh 1867]

On 25/10/2023 at 12:12, an86 said:

We’re probably still negotiating with Ajax tbf. Will be announced as soon as the shipment of magic beans are delivered to the JB McAlpine. 

Given the 'silent routine ' from the club on this one I'm thinking (hoping) it's all just been ' paper talk '

If it is, as the journalists claim, a done deal, then I suppose there's always the chance that MB has committed to some sort of pre-contract agreement with Ajax and that he's not going anywhere anytime soon. 

It's been a hell of a ride so far.

For what it's worth, l really hope he stays on and that his visionary 'process' succeeds.

'mon the Spiders! 

[Bring Your Own Socks]

I hope more than just “someone” is checking the team lines tonight. Beuker story a big distraction.

[pmonigatti]

Absolutely delighted with Lewis Reid’s performance tonight. Thought he handled pretty much everything thrown his way well. Mindful that he is going to make mistakes but I wouldn’t be looking to drop him anytime soon if his performances stay the same. 
Thought we controlled the game today, i think Paton missed a hattrick of chances which was a shame as any other day he’d take them.

Hard to feel positive about dropping two points but Dom’s comments about Veldman after the game i feel should be heeded by some of the support.

[CathcartSkins]

On 26/10/2023 at 07:27, Hampden Diehard said:

I think we need to sort out the men's team before we tackle any professional status for the women's team. It's a tad challenging at the moment, and that's without considering the potential loss of Beuker. Let's not forget, we're running a fully professional first team squad and a massive youth set up via one man's philanthropy on a home support of about 700.

Unless someone comes in with a big wad of cash to fund the women's team and that allows us to support them adequately to compete with, at least, the semi-professional sides, I can't see us going down that road. I'm not being all "yer da" here, I'm just trying to be realistic. It would be absolutely terrific if we could try to emulate what we're doing with the men's side, and this would complement that setup beautifully, but we would need another Willie Haughey to do that.

If the women's team played at Lesser, am sure plenty folk would turn up to support and this would generate income.

And would playing at our own ground cost less than paying to play at someone else's ground,?

[CathcartSkins]

5 hours ago, pmonigatti said:

Absolutely delighted with Lewis Reid’s performance tonight. Thought he handled pretty much everything thrown his way well. Mindful that he is going to make mistakes but I wouldn’t be looking to drop him anytime soon if his performances stay the same. 
Thought we controlled the game today, i think Paton missed a hattrick of chances which was a shame as any other day he’d take them.

Hard to feel positive about dropping two points but Dom’s comments about Veldman after the game i feel should be heeded by some of the support.

Agreed. 

This young squad - whilst acknowledging a month of poor performances - have shown resilience and fortitude in recent weeks.

Am encouraged by their attitude and do not doubt that they are up for the challenges ahead. 

Also, whilst I have questioned past substitutions, Robin continues to trust the Young team, not many managers in similar situations would do so.

[behindthelens]

[Alan Twelve]

I hope the club are already working on extending Spong's contract. I've only seen the highlights from last night, but jeezo, that turn on the edge of the box to start the move that leads to Turner's goal was great stuff. He looks like a shite Billy Gilmour, and I mean that as a compliment!

I'm really warming to Turner too. It's taken a while to find an effective role for him, and I wonder how he fits in once McKinstry and Savoury are fit, but he's looking like our most productive attacking player at the moment.

[Spider1975]

Spong has probably been, (along with Longridge) the most consistent performer so far this season.  Turner has been a bit of a slow burner, but was excellent last night.  

 

[an86]

Don’t know about anyone else, but last night felt like we were properly back home for the first time. All been a bit flat since we returned. Good support, decent atmosphere, good performance. 

[Stuntiethumper]

Not a great set of results today with Morton and Inverness both winning. Sharpens the mind a bit about turning draws into wins.  Good thing is the league is still tight. The bad thing is the league is still tight!  Here's hoping there are more favourable results on Tuesday and that we pick up points at Somerset Park.

[an86]

 

A not so thinly veiled dig from Marijn Beuker. Don’t know about anyone else, but I feel that outcomes are quite important if you don’t want to be relegated.

When you play shite, you’ll be criticised. When you play well, you’ll be praised. That’s football. Results are important at first team level, with a good number of our fans spending probably literally into the thousands of pounds travelling up and down the country every season. Maybe save the victory laps for when we actually win a game, which will hopefully be next Saturday.