Where should Saints spend the millions?

[Sweeper07]

1 minute ago, St.Ricky said:

There's our neighbours just a few miles to the east at Ibrox who seem to be a source that keeps giving who might cover that....for now at least.

It would be great if we took points off them... even though they are way off where they once were, I fear that they still have a much better squad that we do...

As long as we take the majority of points from Hamilton, Livi, Dundee and pick up good points against a number of others like St, J's, Motherwell, Hearts and Killie, with some surprise points from the rest, then that will be success next season... it is going to be tough (another reason for JR to bail on us - as well as the opportunity to grasp at Sunderland)

[StanleySaint]

We need a manager, a squad, investment in infrastructure and a rainy day fund, that would allow us to continue to be managed (financially) responsibly, so I hope we can do all this on the income we are anticipating.

[pozbaird]

We lost Morgan and our manager, we have let several players go, we are talking about the Sunderland manager possibly nicking our next-in-line young talented player, and we are about to face top flight football against teams like Celtic, Sevco, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, and hardened outfits like St Johnstone, Motherwell, Killie....

Where should we spend our ‘millions’.

Hmm... how about a manager and some players. Either that, or spunk it on hookers and White Lightning cider, might as well,  because if we don’t get a good manager and some good new players, we’re going to get fcuked up the ass every week and suffer instant relegation. Next question please.

FFS.

Edited May 28, 2018 by pozbaird

[St.Ricky]

Just now, pozbaird said:

We lost Morgan and our manager, we have let several players go, we are talking about the Sunderland manager possibly nicking our next-in-line young talented player, and we are about to face top flight football against teams like Celtic, Sevco, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hins, and hardened outfits like St Johnstone, Motherwell, Killie....

Where should we spend our ‘millions’.

Hmm... how about a manager and some players. Either that, or spunk it on hookers and White Lightning cider.

FFS.

Hasn't the cost of White Lightening Cider gone up under mimimum pricing? Can't comment on the cost of hookers

[jaybee]

2 hours ago, magnus said:

Pretty sure Saints Academy had achieved the highest ranking possible before Project Brave and the Board decided on cost grounds not to go for it under the new criteria (which would have involved more full time coaching staff)

That jogs my memory, wasn't it that we decided (quite sensibly IMO) not to spend the extra to achieve said status,  I approve of striving to be the best or as best as you are able . but I loathe elitism

[SaintGlenburn]

We lost Morgan and our manager, we have let several players go, we are talking about the Sunderland manager possibly nicking our next-in-line young talented player, and we are about to face top flight football against teams like Celtic, Sevco, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, and hardened outfits like St Johnstone, Motherwell, Killie....
Where should we spend our ‘millions’.
Hmm... how about a manager and some players. Either that, or spunk it on hookers and White Lightning cider, might as well,  because if we don’t get a good manager and some good new players, we’re going to get fcuked up the ass every week and suffer instant relegation. Next question please.
FFS.

At least you suggested spunking ON hookers. IN would just be irresponsible. )

Agree on all points

[djchapsticks]

It does pose a decent question, though.

If we do rake in £2m in transfer fees this summer, what proportion of that should be immediately reinvested in strengthening?

Do we take, say, a fifth of that and say 'that's for any transfer fees for players we may need' or do we take it and add it to the wage budget to attract a higher calibre or volume of player?

Personally, it's easy to say, 'well, take £500k and reinvest immediately' but that sort of money can be spunked away very, very easily on daft transfer fees for absolutely shite players with no sell on value. I'd like to see us take a part of any money made and actually invest it in a wage for one or two good scouts (something we've never really had) who can broaden our scope and reach of transfer targets long term whilst in the short term,  continuing to work in the market we are in at present - players who are out of contract or no longer required at their current clubs.

[LargsBud]

We should be looking at bringing Mallan home if we get a bit of cash. I see Hibs are interested at the moment.

Edited May 28, 2018 by LargsBud

[mad saint 2]

i would keep some aside for jan window

 

or get in good quality loan players  in short term deals

[pozbaird]

So, hookers and White Lightning cider it is then.

[St.Ricky]

16 minutes ago, pozbaird said:

So, hookers and White Lightning cider it is then.

As George Best might have said.. we can waste the rest. 

[Drew]

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

It does pose a decent question, though.

If we do rake in £2m in transfer fees this summer, what proportion of that should be immediately reinvested in strengthening?

Do we take, say, a fifth of that and say 'that's for any transfer fees for players we may need' or do we take it and add it to the wage budget to attract a higher calibre or volume of player?

Personally, it's easy to say, 'well, take £500k and reinvest immediately' but that sort of money can be spunked away very, very easily on daft transfer fees for absolutely shite players with no sell on value. I'd like to see us take a part of any money made and actually invest it in a wage for one or two good scouts (something we've never really had) who can broaden our scope and reach of transfer targets long term whilst in the short term,  continuing to work in the market we are in at present - players who are out of contract or no longer required at their current clubs.

Was Kellerman not reported to have been sourced via a scout of some description?

ETA: 'head of recruitment', seemingly. Hands up if you knew that we had such a thing....

https://www.stmirren.com/news/club/all-news/1885-kellerman-joins-on-with-buddies

Martin Christie's LinkedIn profile:

"Head of Player Recruitment at St Mirren FC
Responsibilities include:
Build and manage scouting department.
Ensure scheduling allows club targets to be watched and reported on sufficiently.
Regular meetings with 1st team coaching staff to update on player recruitment progress.
To have a good understanding of the best players being released from academy's north and south of the border supplement 1st team or Under 20 playing squad.
Have awareness of the best players playing in Scottish Championship, League 1 and 2 and for them to be monitored over a period of a minimum 5/6 games with different eyes on them.
Good relationship with agents and ability to get ahead of the game with players who may be available for loan and find out if financially viable.
Database where information can be stored and viewed showing KPI's of potential signings.
Having a good and trustful relationship with all club staff so everyone working together to help achieve our targets and goals with discretion."

Edited May 28, 2018 by Drew

[Bud the Baker]

1 minute ago, Drew said:

Was Kellerman not reported to have been sourced via a scout of some description?

It's been said before but I'll repeat it - there's no room on this forum for facts!

[St.Ricky]

13 minutes ago, Drew said:

Was Kellerman not reported to have been sourced via a scout of some description?

ETA: 'head of recruitment', seemingly. Hands up if you knew that we had such a thing....

https://www.stmirren.com/news/club/all-news/1885-kellerman-joins-on-with-buddies

Martin Christie's LinkedIn profile:

"Head of Player Recruitment at St Mirren FC
Responsibilities include:
Build and manage scouting department.
Ensure scheduling allows club targets to be watched and reported on sufficiently.
Regular meetings with 1st team coaching staff to update on player recruitment progress.
To have a good understanding of the best players being released from academy's north and south of the border supplement 1st team or Under 20 playing squad.
Have awareness of the best players playing in Scottish Championship, League 1 and 2 and for them to be monitored over a period of a minimum 5/6 games with different eyes on them.
Good relationship with agents and ability to get ahead of the game with players who may be available for loan and find out if financially viable.
Database where information can be stored and viewed showing KPI's of potential signings.
Having a good and trustful relationship with all club staff so everyone working together to help achieve our targets and goals with discretion."

Turns out that he and I share 16 connections on LinkedIn.  Thanks Drew. 

[djchapsticks]

26 minutes ago, Drew said:

Was Kellerman not reported to have been sourced via a scout of some description?

ETA: 'head of recruitment', seemingly. Hands up if you knew that we had such a thing....

https://www.stmirren.com/news/club/all-news/1885-kellerman-joins-on-with-buddies

Martin Christie's LinkedIn profile:

"Head of Player Recruitment at St Mirren FC
Responsibilities include:
Build and manage scouting department.
Ensure scheduling allows club targets to be watched and reported on sufficiently.
Regular meetings with 1st team coaching staff to update on player recruitment progress.
To have a good understanding of the best players being released from academy's north and south of the border supplement 1st team or Under 20 playing squad.
Have awareness of the best players playing in Scottish Championship, League 1 and 2 and for them to be monitored over a period of a minimum 5/6 games with different eyes on them.
Good relationship with agents and ability to get ahead of the game with players who may be available for loan and find out if financially viable.
Database where information can be stored and viewed showing KPI's of potential signings.
Having a good and trustful relationship with all club staff so everyone working together to help achieve our targets and goals with discretion."

I had no idea but it's good to see that we are now going down this route rather than relying on external recommendations.

Edited May 28, 2018 by djchapsticks

[David Mc]

I suspect he is not going to recommend St Mirren sign you. I wouldn’t get your hopes up. But you never know. [emoji4]

[Drew]

1 minute ago, djchapsticks said:

I had no idea but it's good to see that we are now going down this route rather than relying on external recommendations.

It's also positive in terms of there presumably being some level of activity despite the currently vacant manager's position. I'm not sure how that would work, right enough, other than Christie keeping abreast of players that might have been released, etc.

He was appointed in December 2017, so a relatively new post (I can't recall us having a head of recruitment previously, as it tended to be Brian Caldwell who took to do with that side of things prior to his departure, and that maybe left a hole to be filled)?

[Bud the Baker]

13 minutes ago, Drew said:

It's also positive in terms of there presumably being some level of activity despite the currently vacant manager's position. I'm not sure how that would work, right enough, other than Christie keeping abreast of players that might have been released, etc.

He was appointed in December 2017, so a relatively new post (I can't recall us having a head of recruitment previously, as it tended to be Brian Caldwell who took to do with that side of things prior to his departure, and that maybe left a hole to be filled)?

There's no room on this forum for being positive either!  

[Hambud]

I wasn't aware we had it
 

We didn't. The 'elite' status has only just been introduced. We can still bring through 'elite' players without said status.

[DougJamie]

How about filling in the corners .make us a lovely wee stadia about 11 k. Or just wait a couple of years and buy ibrox off the liquidators

[Kemp]

We need to stick to a policy of not paying transfer fees other than very small fees to bring young players in from smaller clubs.  A football club could burn through 2m quid very easily and the entire decade of the 90s was a nightmare due to the stupid spending at the end of the 80s.

Would putting more money in to scouting lead to better results and finding players we can actually sell on at a profit?  I'm not too sure it would, you would need quite a strong network to get ahead of all the other clubs looking to do the same.  It is certainly worth investigating though and looking in to clubs who have succesfully implemented this approach.

Bringing resellable players from overseas is going to be quite difficult in the current political climate.

Certainly a good percentage should be put aside to ensure the academy is well funded and remains attractive to the best young players.  We need to be selling the club to young players off the back of McLean, McGinn and Morgan making the Scotland squad, and Mallan, McAllister and Magennis possibly not far behind.  It's our best hope for return on investment.

A few experienced heads on a decent wage should be allowed for our first couple seasons back in the Premiership, particularly with us now being a time of transition.  The budget should still be controlled very tightly, even our lord and saviour Jack Ross started making some bizzare signings like Duffy and Donati once the purse strings were released a bit.  Complete wasted wages and money which could be used towards bringing in the type of players we need this season.  (I very much doubt Donati was here for free / next to nothing as some reported).

[Jack the lad]

3 hours ago, Kemp said:

We need to stick to a policy of not paying transfer fees other than very small fees to bring young players in from smaller clubs.  A football club could burn through 2m quid very easily and the entire decade of the 90s was a nightmare due to the stupid spending at the end of the 80s.

Would putting more money in to scouting lead to better results and finding players we can actually sell on at a profit?  I'm not too sure it would, you would need quite a strong network to get ahead of all the other clubs looking to do the same.  It is certainly worth investigating though and looking in to clubs who have succesfully implemented this approach.

Bringing resellable players from overseas is going to be quite difficult in the current political climate.

Certainly a good percentage should be put aside to ensure the academy is well funded and remains attractive to the best young players.  We need to be selling the club to young players off the back of McLean, McGinn and Morgan making the Scotland squad, and Mallan, McAllister and Magennis possibly not far behind.  It's our best hope for return on investment.

A few experienced heads on a decent wage should be allowed for our first couple seasons back in the Premiership, particularly with us now being a time of transition.  The budget should still be controlled very tightly, even our lord and saviour Jack Ross started making some bizzare signings like Duffy and Donati once the purse strings were released a bit.  Complete wasted wages and money which could be used towards bringing in the type of players we need this season.  (I very much doubt Donati was here for free / next to nothing as some reported).

Probably needed a grand a week just to keep the huge motor he drove fuelled up and on the road!

[Maboza]

If we're talking about 'investing' then the concept of signing players on the hope of selling them on for profit is unfortunately a very risky business. No matter how good our recruitment is, the ability to get a good transfer fee on a player requires us to realistically have 12-24 months left on their contract at the point we're selling. That pushes us into the situation of having to sign players on 3-4 year deals when we factor in that we'd actually need a season or two for them to actually play for us and put themselves in the shop window. There's not many players in Scotland on 3-4 year deals. When you look at how many transfers don't work out for us then you can see why. 

Off of the top of my head, and without much thought, I would like us to look at avenues to make the club more professional in terms of the business and marketing operations. Everything from the matchday experience, merchandise, ticketing, social media, TV channel improvements and partnerships in the community. I'm sure we could maybe learn something from Glasgow Warriors. They used to have pitiful attendances but over the space of 10 years have progressed to being close to sell-out attendances at Scotstoun for nearly every game. Granted there are a number of factors there, increasing success for GW, an improving national team and a less competitive market than football in the west of Scotland.  Nevertheless, adding 2000 to our gates could be a long-term, considered strategy - rather than rolling the dice in the transfer market.  

Edited May 29, 2018 by Maboza

[TediousTom]

With the monies raised from Jack Buying John Mcginn and Kyle Magennis I think we should add a bit to it and try and buy John Mcginn and Kyle Magennis 

[jaybee]

5 hours ago, Hambud said:

We didn't. The 'elite' status has only just been introduced. We can still bring through 'elite' players without said status.

Thanks for that, but erm why then would anyone spend money on attaining Elite status; seems mighty odd