St Johnstone v Ross County - 08/04/23

[PauloPerth]

Stevie May’s great form this season has been massively linked to the arrival of Nicky Clark.  It’s as close to the May-Maclean partnership of 2013-14 that we’ve seen since.

I would say that’s an underestimated factor in May’s great form and probably a reason for the recent decline.  The injury to Clark might prove to be far more costly than anyone realised at the time.

But we definitely do need fresh options in attack next season if we’re still in the top league; Bair, Maclennan and probably Rudden need to be moved on for better quality.

 

[The Marly]

2 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Stevie May’s great form this season has been massively linked to the arrival of Nicky Clark.  It’s as close to the May-Maclean partnership of 2013-14 that we’ve seen since.

I would say that’s an underestimated factor in May’s great form and probably a reason for the recent decline.  The injury to Clark might prove to be far more costly than anyone realised at the time.

But we definitely do need fresh options in attack next season if we’re still in the top league; Bair, Maclennan and probably Rudden need to be moved on for better quality.

 

Totally agree.  There's no "probably" for me with Rudden.  He doesn't lack effort, but he does lack quality.  Clark is definitely a big miss.  If we stay up we absolutely MUST have better quality up front next season. 

[Widge]

I think the issue with May yesterday was the moment he becomes the lone striker he’s totally useless. Why we went 4411 or 433 or whatever it was meant to be, totally negates your only striker left on the pitch. Yet another reason our manager is a tactical moron. 

[PauloPerth]

16 minutes ago, The Marly said:

Totally agree.  There's no "probably" for me with Rudden.  He doesn't lack effort, but he does lack quality.  Clark is definitely a big miss.  If we stay up we absolutely MUST have better quality up front next season. 

Yeh I put probably cos I’ve not seen much of him, he’s had a couple of decent moments and scored a good goal. But agree he doesn’t look great technically.

When you look at the opportunities big Theo’s had, writing  Rudden off after about 250 minutes felt harsh!

[The Marly]

20 hours ago, PauloPerth said:

Yeh I put probably cos I’ve not seen much of him, he’s had a couple of decent moments and scored a good goal. But agree he doesn’t look great technically.

When you look at the opportunities big Theo’s had, writing  Rudden off after about 250 minutes felt harsh!

Difference is Bair is our player, Rudden isn't and hasn't shown enough to be worth pursuing. Although I agree about Bair, I'd be offering him a mutual termination in the summer. 

[RandomGuy.]

Writing off Bair, alongside Mahon and Vertainen, would see us with about a £300k output for absolutely nothing.

Youd think it would prevent the same happening again, yet they tried to sign Jordan White for £100k in January, so who knows what money theyll chuck about this Summer.

[Comrie]

I'd take Jordan White over those three anyday tbh.

[RandomGuy.]

4 minutes ago, Comrie said:

I'd take Jordan White over those three anyday tbh.

As would i, but £100k for him would make him one of our most expensive players in about 30 years and we'd never get a fee back, so add in 3 years wages and we'd probably be sinking close to half a million into Jordan White. Hes not worth that.

Combine that with the money we're spending on May/Clark, and we had Kane, Bair and Vertainen also contracted as strikers, and thats about £1m investment in a strikeforce and not one will ever earn us a fee.

Edited April 10, 2023 by RandomGuy.

[PauloPerth]

Weren’t Bair, Vertainen, Cleary and Mahon all signings recommended by our head of recruitment at the time? 

[mizfit]

3 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Weren’t Bair, Vertainen, Cleary and Mahon all signings recommended by our head of recruitment at the time? 

 

[RandomGuy.]

18 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Weren’t Bair, Vertainen, Cleary and Mahon all signings recommended by our head of recruitment at the time? 

Think that January was the first to judge him on, so yeah they wouldve been. Id say its harsh putting Cleary amongst the others, he was free, done well, and obviously underlying reasons he left. The rest have, for whatever reason, just been a total bust. Bair is genuinely one of the worst strikers we've had for such a long length of time, dross like Daal were maybe worse (genuinely debatable) but were at least short lived and free, we've spent money on Bair and tied ourselves to him for years.

The amount of money spent on the squad since the sales of Kerr/McCann is astonishing, especially considering how little we've got for it. Whatever we do going forward has to involve us not just launching money about and hoping it works.

Edited April 10, 2023 by RandomGuy.

[Savage Henry]

2 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

As would i, but £100k for him would make him one of our most expensive players in about 30 years and we'd never get a fee back, so add in 3 years wages and we'd probably be sinking close to half a million into Jordan White. Hes not worth that.

Combine that with the money we're spending on May/Clark, and we had Kane, Bair and Vertainen also contracted as strikers, and thats about £1m investment in a strikeforce and not one will ever earn us a fee.

I’m staggered we turned that down. Absolutely staggered.  That said, if we stay up and he remains our top scorer, it’ll have been the right thing to do. 

[RandomGuy.]

1 minute ago, Savage Henry said:

I’m staggered we turned that down. Absolutely staggered.  That said, if we stay up and he remains our top scorer, it’ll have been the right thing to do. 

I can see why you did, really. Hes a focal point bottom half sides need.

It makes more sense to reject it and keep him when you were in your position, than it wouldve to spend it and sign him when we were in ours (we were 3pts off the top 6 at the time of the bid).

[Savage Henry]

Just now, RandomGuy. said:

I can see why you did, really. Hes a focal point bottom half sides need.

It makes more sense to reject it and keep him when you were in your position, than it wouldve to spend it and sign him when we were in ours (we were 3pts off the top 6 at the time of the bid).

It was utterly insane, although perhaps prescient, by St Johnstone.  

[RandomGuy.]

Just now, Savage Henry said:

It was utterly insane, although perhaps prescient, by St Johnstone.  

We still dont even know who made the bid. Suggestion from the local media was it wasnt the manager.

[Matty-RCFC]

I think if you would’ve offered it in the Summer, when we would’ve had more opportunity to push the boat out and sign a similar profile player due to having more time, then we probably would’ve accepted it. However, our striking options were scarce and knowing what we get from Jordan White week in, week out it was always the safer option to keep him around and take a gamble on other strikers which, to be fair, looks to be producing dividends now. 

[Savage Henry]

7 minutes ago, Matty-RCFC said:

I think if you would’ve offered it in the Summer, when we would’ve had more opportunity to push the boat out and sign a similar profile player due to having more time, then we probably would’ve accepted it. However, our striking options were scarce and knowing what we get from Jordan White week in, week out it was always the safer option to keep him around and take a gamble on other strikers which, to be fair, looks to be producing dividends now. 

Can you imagine we were relying on Josh Stones and Alex Samuel for goals?

[PauloPerth]

3 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

Think that January was the first to judge him on, so yeah they wouldve been. Id say its harsh putting Cleary amongst the others, he was free, done well, and obviously underlying reasons he left. The rest have, for whatever reason, just been a total bust. Bair is genuinely one of the worst strikers we've had for such a long length of time, dross like Daal were maybe worse (genuinely debatable) but were at least short lived and free, we've spent money on Bair and tied ourselves to him for years.

The amount of money spent on the squad since the sales of Kerr/McCann is astonishing, especially considering how little we've got for it. Whatever we do going forward has to involve us not just launching money about and hoping it works.

Yes Cleary did okay, played Kerr’s position and maybe helped steady us after we’d struggled with Muller and Dendoncker playing there, who weren’t quite ready.  Probably rate Cleary as an average signing, but there’s not too many players who’ve actually come in and improved us over the last 2-3 years.

This year has been better in that regard, but it’s not transferred itself to much improvement on the pitch.  Drey Wright, Nicky Clark, Phillips and arguably Considine have improved us from where we were when they signed.  Matthews, Mitchell and Montgomery have done okay overall.

When you go through the players we have right now it’s ridiculous that we’re on the fringes of battling relegation.

 

[RandomGuy.]

12 minutes ago, PauloPerth said:

Yes Cleary did okay, played Kerr’s position and maybe helped steady us after we’d struggled with Muller and Dendoncker playing there, who weren’t quite ready.  Probably rate Cleary as an average signing, but there’s not too many players who’ve actually come in and improved us over the last 2-3 years.

This year has been better in that regard, but it’s not transferred itself to much improvement on the pitch.  Drey Wright, Nicky Clark, Phillips and arguably Considine have improved us from where we were when they signed.  Matthews, Mitchell and Montgomery have done okay overall.

When you go through the players we have right now it’s ridiculous that we’re on the fringes of battling relegation.

 

This Summer window was the best we've had since Davidson took charge, in terms of what theyve given us on the pitch. Id say Carey hasnt been a failure too despite recent form.

But if youre signing 4/5 proven players then thats would you should be getting, and im still worried we've spent a fortune on them all.

A good Summer window, a large adaptable squad, experience now throughout. All things that we needed after last season, yet we've lost more games after 31 games than last season. 

[djchapsticks]

On 08/04/2023 at 21:49, Radford said:

Not of the mind to criticise Bair after the past week but he shouldn't really be starting another game for us, let alone one next week.

Every game, we have about 20 minutes left and I think we should throw him on. Within a couple of minutes, I regret it.

I remember one of his first games at us last season, maybe even his debut, when you just signed him and I was thinking 'Here we go, this is written for him to come on and grab a winner'. Within a few minutes I was questioning WTF he was actually doing but was giving him a bit of slack as he was maybe still to adapt to the game here.

Interesting to see then that he doesn't really appear to have improved at all. Especially as he arrived with not a bad pedigree and plenty of upside about him being young, having MLS experience and a full internationalist.