The Original 59er

Let's put this all in context........................... What is the likelihood of the current management deciding to read a post in a fans' website when the title is: "Contempt for buddies fans or the arrogance of the man STUBBS!" So as much as you might regard AS as a poor appointment, or you assess that he should be completely judged on the form up to this point in the new pre-season, basically this post is simply a medium for armchair warriors of a negative disposition or those with an agenda that is slightly deeper than just belly-aching before the season even truly begins. I might see the logic of the post if we were 10 games into the season, sitting bottom of the league and with maybe one point to our name AND AS makes arrogant comments or has simple disregard for the paying public, i.e. telling them that they know nothing and he knows all, but (a) we aren't there (yet) and (b) I suspect he wouldn't go down that route, pressure or no pressure. Football management is a strange occupation. Generally it has a shortage of tenure, it is constantly in the public eye and you are the subject of some pretty vile vitriol if you don't fit the fan's desires, or that you fail to ignite the passions of the players. They are reasonably well paid for what they do, but so are many managers in public and private companies and they don't get anything like the verbal attacks on a forum such as this, or the pressure applied by a 'fake news' press. So why would you take the job, unless you, and those that appoint you, think that you can make a success of it. I don't blame JR for going. We are a provincial club which lives in the shadow of two of the best supported football clubs in the UK. The result of that, successful or not, is that we have a relatively small fan base which is generally centred around the town of Paisley or has links to the town. We have spawned many good footballers (and managers) who have gone on to greater heights than they ever could in Paisley and that, like it or not, will always continue. If you take a team like Mechelen in Belgium as an example, the town has a population of 84,000 and KV Mechelen had an average crowd last season of 13,209 yet got relegated, the two teams above them in the league had average crowds of between 3,000 and 5,500. Located halfway between Brussels and Antwerp, each with 1.2m of a population you might suspect Mechelen get over-shadowed as we do, but they are roughly 40 km away from each, so stand alone. In fact they have a higher average attendance than Royal Antwerp! I suspect that if Paisley stood alone, physically well divorced from Glasgow, we too might see crowds of between 5,000 and 10,000 if we were doing well. I remember the 'good old days' when 8,000 was a pretty average attendance at Love Street! So we have our provincial ups and our downs with both players and managers (and BoD's) - that simply won't change. We are far too close to our ugly neighbours and the shadow of these draws make us what we are and we have to live with that. So please accept that you aren't always going to get an Alex Ferguson (who was sacked by the Board) or a Ricky McFarlane, a Danny Lennon or a Jack Ross every time an appointment is made and learn to live and accept the ups and downs in our constant roller coaster, that is St Mirren.

Technically, Dumbarton isn't in Helensburgh or Milngavie, the last time I looked, but I take your point.

" a couple of marquee signings" the last time I looked the meaning of "marquee" was a tent like structure capable of holding many people! So maybe that's what he meant, we are getting a couple of large tents where the fans can gather before and after each game and logically discuss his 4-4-2, 3-1-3-1-2 formations and maybe with a little luck it will sell good beverages for the good fans to consume. A little word of advice to anyone who is a manager of any organisation; don't make public announcements unless you are absolutely confident they are happening! That having all been said, I always retain the faith, not in the context of the transient managers that we go through, but in the whole structure that is St Mirren. JR was always going to use Saints as a stepping stone and his stock was never higher than taking a team from relegation to promotion in 16 months, so whilst he can be called a turncoat or that the club should have paid him some ridiculous amount of money to retain him (which would never happen in this day and age), he was always going to move on. So we have AS who has my support and will do, as long as he can get the players to put in the effort that is necessary for the supporters to see that they have the club at heart. As for signings today, perhaps we shouldn't hold our breaths, but we will have to add to the squad as it is far too shallow for the Premier League and even if AS can presently field a team that maybe has the capability of holding their own against some other teams in the league, any injuries / suspensions will expose the shallow nature of the squad and the overall inability to put the ball in the net often enough.

I hadn't realised he had gone AWOL!

I would have called Victor and Archibald 'marquee signings' but that was at a time when we thought we could spend above our weight and the banks would support that approach. Nowadays, I agree it would be someone who both other teams and Managers worry about if they are in our team.

Whilst I believe that many of the players we have been letting go were great for the Championship and more than did a job for us, the step up is significant and I think that a number let go by AS would also have gone under JR, maybe not all, but quite a few. Hyppolite hasn't really been given a chance and I thought that with the right management he could be one of these players that becomes really difficult to play. Awkward, good ball control and slightly aggressive. As I recall we always had a good howl at him when he was playing against us, which says much for what we thought of him. I will reserve judgement on AS until we get a good bit more into the season. He had what it took with Hibs and knows the standard that is necessary to survive in the league, so it doesn't really surprise me that he wants to build a squad that he is happy with and he thinks can do a job for him at this level. I personally wouldn't read too much into the result at Killie tonight, win or lose. I would rather re-visit this subject at the end of August or the middle of September.

In overall football parlance, the Scottish Biscuit Vault, is a tin the size of a sleeve of golf balls..........................

The background approach to any political correctness changes with the climate. You can no longer refer to a certain person by the colour of their skin, their gender leaning tendencies nor can you call someone 'disabled', yet in the not too distant past it was the norm. Pick your subject and I bet today's acceptable terminology will be tomorrow's bete noir.

Just Google him and basically you get a fairly negative first page of reviews..................... Not that the 'Scottish Sun' is much to be believed under any circumstances, but it does appear as though he carries a little baggage!

Nice to see a positive response and presumably you might find which of the 4 sides of the bed is the best one to alight from..................................... Good luck with that one!

Try getting out of bed on the other side tomorrow!

Yup every post is in Chinese on my screen, except two or three recently posted topics.................. maybe there is a new owner on the horizon, over the Great Wall?

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." I liked Reilly and he had an eye for goal, but I too formed the view that he perhaps was best suited to the Championship level as he had both more time (as he was quick) and skill than most of the defenders. In the Premier League you don't have that time luxury and the defenders are quicker and harder. I grew to like Mullen and by the end of the season I could see why JR preferred him to Reilly. He is one of these players that is constantly in your face and he chases lost causes. I think he could be a right pain in the ar*e to defenders at Premier level as well as in the Championship. I wish Reilly luck and I think someone like ICT, Ross County or Partick would be his likely stopping off place and he would be successful again. Time will tell!

I have always taken the view that I won't commit to liking a player until I have seen them play and even more importantly, several times. The post here reeks of medical experts who have had a cold at some time in their life and expect the next cold to be the flu!!!!!!! For god's sake give every player and the manager a chance and then when they have failed miserably or been a raging success by all means take to the keyboard and express your expert opinion. It seems that the trend now is to post negatively, so that you can be a smart-ass when they don't fit into the team or aren't capable of cutting the mustard at your desired level.

Living in Bute he's bound to go far every time he leaves the island and heads off to university / the big bad world that is outside Rothesay!

The planning and political background here was that Braehead was originally approved by Glasgow planning authority and they enjoyed a few years of business rates at the expense of the crumbling business shopping precinct that was Paisley High Street. Renfrewshire Council were rightly miffed and pursued the historic boundary delineation of Renfrewshire / Glasgow as it ran through the Hillington / Braehead area and made a claim to the boundary commission, who came out on Renfrewshire's side of the argument. Glasgow were so pi**ed off they set about using the Pollok retail centre as an argument that the south side of Glasgow required more retail and granted themselves consent for Silverburn to be this new mega-centre that would then draw on the public from the south side and those to the east of Paisley who might historically have found their way to Paisley town centre or even Braehead! Meanwhile your Pension Fund which always had its funds spread across High street shops and conventional retail locations was quickly eroded as values in the High Streets / Argyle St began to react negatively to these new out of town draws........................................ Well that's my twist on the politics and retail shenanigans of the west of Scotland exposed to the public!!

Indeed I am, and very astute parents they were!

The only difference between this site and the facebook site is that the protagonists are at least revealed in FB whilst here they hide behind their nom de plumes ! Anyway none of this surprises me in that all these experts who berate either a managerial or coaching appointment are all full SFA approved coaches and they all have personal associations with the appointed person to the extent that they know every flaw that they have. They post in this fashion in order to be able to say 18 months down the line that they were right at the outset and that the Manager and the coach were crap and they knew it. Life's too short!

You would have to go back to the late 60's to see regular crowds above 8,000. Yes when the Glasgow twins turn up, they bring with them their pretty mindless followers who aren't allowed season tickets at their own grounds, and we might then see capacity, but even on a good run and Aberdeen, Hibs, Hearts or whoever come to play, 6,000 would be a pretty good crowd. Average attendances for 2017/18 show that for smaller clubs 6,000 would be a pretty good gate size. No. Club Average Games vs '17 Highest 1 Celtic FC 58.083 10 6,1% 59.259 2 Rangers FC 49.097 10 -0,1% 50.116 3 Heart of Midlothian FC 19.379 10 18,8% 32.852 4 Hibernian FC Edinburgh 17.634 9 14,6% 20.193 5 Aberdeen FC 15.577 10 25,1% 18.983 6 Dundee FC 6.407 10 0,0% 9.193 7 Motherwell FC 5.857 10 30,6% 9.974 8 Kilmarnock FC 5.344 11 5,5% 11.490 9 Ross County FC 4.667 10 13,7% 6.590 10 St. Johnstone FC 4.641 9 4,7% 6.887 11 Partick Thistle FC 4.641 10 11,7% 8.264 12 Hamilton Academical FC 3.140 9 28,7% 5.400

My view of him was that he was born with a negative blood group and every post had to be based on that physical element of his being. The result was enough (on a regular basis) to p*ss off a large section of the group who regularly visit this site. Yes a pest, but then as I tend to say, you can't chose your neighbours or your relatives and there is always someone worse just around the corner.

I'd take it a step further and say it has become a cosy group for a small number of regular posters to slag off the various parties they either know and like to have banter with, or dislike because their views don't marry in with their own. The nett result is that new or interested parties with a view or a post they would like to have discussed, get slagged off and decide to dump the site or wander off to another portal that offers an opportunity to discuss it openly. I don't get easily offended, so with my relatively thick skin I can take the brickbats, but the desktop warriors of the B&W site, can and do offend new members pretty regularly so it is little wonder that the site can appear too cosy and insular.

Not our BoDs' finest hour

Yes I'm aware of the number of teams in both England and Scotland. Assuming he doesn't want to step down too far in the order of things, that brings the number down to a maximum of 44 in the top two leagues in England, of which he won't get a sniff, at present, for the top 16 in the Premier league, so you are then down to 28 of which a large number have a happy relationship with their present Manager. So allowing for say another 10 in the third tier of England you might hazard a guess that there might be a list of say 20 clubs in England that might consider a Scottish second tier Manager as a risk that is worth taking. Yes he will be considered fair game for the ten top spots in Scotland, but I would hazard a guess that neither of the Glasgow twins would take him from Paisley (at present). So to summarise your post maybe 28 clubs might consider him, but in that 28 he will be up against quite a number of well established Managers who know both the players and the system in England, so going there is less likely at present. The most likely move would be to a bigger club in Scotland, and I might even include Dundee Utd in that number, just as many of our players are targeted by bigger Scottish Clubs so might JR. Once he has proved himself on that stage, then yes the opportunities will arise from a broader field. Just saying................. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

A mixture of disillusionment with the BoDs and also general disquiet with the product on the park............................. I wonder where I've heard that before? They haven't had the best of luck with keeping their key players fit, and they do rely on Dobbie to such an extent that if he is off his game or unavailable then they struggle. As I said, I think they tend to punch a little above their weight and that means that they have to perform to the best of their abilities consistently. They have an average home crowd this year of 1400+, which is better than a few teams in this league, but I wonder what it would be if they were really challenging for the top 4? I made my comments based on what I've seen and heard from GN in after match interviews. As you know, as a manager of any business you either have to motivate the poor staff you have and get them to perform for you, or replace them and ship them out (if you can)! I'm not saying he would be my first pick in an interview, but i would at least give him consideration. Hopkin has been mentioned fairly frequently, personally from what I've seen of Livingston, they are pretty one dimensional and not that inspirational in how they play. Yes he will be making the most of what he has available, but I would hate to go and watch that trend of football on a weekly basis!

If, as and when and with a heavy heart, we have to look for a replacement, the more I've watched and heard Gary Naysmith he isn't that bad an outside bet. I tend to think that QotS punch a little above their weight and he has helped them this year push a lot of the more fancied teams with just about every match. They have had a bad run of injuries, but still put in reasonable performances. I'm not a betting man, but he would certainly be in my 'consideration list'.