Good summary of where we will be at. The money from Nads will probably be used to pay off more of the soft loans.

Looking purely at results, since GMS and Armstrong left we have played 14 league games and achieved 2 wins and 2 draws. That's averaging 0.57 points a game, or 22 points in a 38 game season. If we continue like this next season, we'll be relegated before the split. Bearing in  mind, the opposition will be stronger next season with hearts and likely hibs promoted.

I really want Jackie to turn this around but he doesn't convince, he is the longest serving manager in SPL and still talking as though it's someone else's fault for all the soft goals we lose. For all his talk of "mentality", we were stronger at the mental side of the game under Levein and Houston than we are now.

Winning individual battles early, communication, organization, concentration (how many times do we concede at start of second half), reading the game, resilience during tough spells (Levein was very strong on reacting when you concede, keep posession, keep your shape, show the opposition you haven't folded), dictating the game (Inverness away, they hadn't won in ages, we get an early goal, don't push on and end up losing). We have  gone backwards in all of these areas.

I worry we need to make a big change in the summer, not just a few players, or we risk losing a lot of sustained progress. 





 

Tangy wrote:

Lifesanocean - this is my worry but realistically, i think ST will have been sent a very big message in the next few weeks when he looks at Season Ticket sales and will (hopefully) be forced into giving the money over to the manager, whoever that is..... on the other hand, a budget deficit might lead him to keep the cash to pay off the debt - not a good circumstance.

Foo - i think he is but the pressure must be enormous on the chairman to keep this young laddie - even if just on a 1 year extension. Souttar seems to have a handle on what is good for his development - so fingers crossed he will sign a 2 year deal soon.(1 year extension)

Mental toughness? I wish. Without bad mouthing individuals, we are severely lacking in that area. I always think John Rankin shows this - but never seems to rub off on others.Again without being critical, JMac is well known for not giving players abuse if they screw up - maybe giving them the oppertunity to express themselves has a detrimental effect on their will to win? Again, not a critisicm - just a thought.


McGowan, i think with a good break and good pre-season behind him, will be an outstanding player but needs a defensive system that the rest of the defence (none of which are bad players, individually) can all follow and make work. I've blabbered on about Jmac being a celtic and scotland defender but then maybe celtic teams don't NEED to place too much emphasis on defence and as such he hasn't actually learned that much during his playing career - outside of celtic, he has not shown up too well as a defender (THough you could argue he did at dunfermline)

Midfield-wise, i think we need to get away from the idea of playing 3 defenisve midfielders - we have 4 - pick 2 from rankin, paton, butcher and souttar (if still here). Train the midfielders to play with their heads up, increase levels of movement and increase fitness levels so they can keep going for 90 minutes. Its well documented that we wilt in the second half.

Up front - we will have 5 options - moore, murray, bilate, anier and muirhead. JMac is only going to play 1 so i guess we could do our best to get shot of 2 - Bilate, might have something but doubtful he fits into the system and anier seems like a desperate waste of money....

Maybe we need to change the system - but jmac seems quite set on it, or slight variations of it.
Maybe we need to change the manager? I've got to the point where i wouldn't be too disapointed
Do we give Jmac 400K to spend? Its a big gamble either way

 

Where are we getting £400k to give him?

Tangy wrote:

bowers, at rough guesses of what will be left after ciftci is sold...

 
Cant see it happening if im honest.

Tangy wrote:

I would add that a statement from the chairman about how the club is to progress next season would be v worthwhile - currently nobody knows what they are buying into. I'd guess that maybe ST doesn't know either.

Maybe at the end of the season is a better time for this to come.

 
Agree.

He has never been a stranger to a statement usually lapping up media attention... time to crawl out from under your rock and face the music.