The Original 59er

Getting back on track, may I suggest that it is appropriate to separate out all academy players and analyse how many become professionals, rather than just pick the easy Premier League stat. The analysis — of players born from 1 September 1995 to 31 August 2000 — includes 4,109 players who were registered at Category One academies. Of the 4,109 former academy footballers, 70 per cent were not even handed a professional contract at a Premier League or English Football League club. And only one in 10 has gone on to make more than 20 league appearances in the top four tiers of English football. I agree that the percentages are really low still, however you would have to agree that making it into the Premier League is well beyond almost any child's abilities unless they stand out from almost day one. The i newspaper did a pretty revealing piece about the whole academy system and it's worth reading. It highlights all the failings and the indescribable pressure for kids and parents alike. Yes the academies are there to create money for their clubs and you can't knock them for that, but they could go an awful lot further in ensuring that the education provided to them along with developing their skills on the football pitch will give them a good chance of achieving something outside of football should they not succeed.

Good news if it's true............ Call me a fake news cynic!

For all he knows I might be a smout, or a 6'4" antogonistic bas*ard, ................obviously thinks the former, but some others have alternative opinions (including my long-suffering wife )

Agreed (for one of the first times in your short posting career! )

At least it a change (slightly) from the JG standard interviews. Accepting blame is understandable as the buck stops with him, but I haven't see any cohesion and dominence at any point so far which is worrying. Unable to beat part-time lower league teams puts our current form into perspective and more worryingly doesn't auger well for the League in 10 days time. I agree some bite and creativeity in mid-field is lacking and not sure where it's going to come from. 😬

From what I've seen, he may have been carrying injuries since he started with us, none of the performances so far have been inspiring, so maybe that's the reason. Chance for Urminsky to step up.

Having watched our friendly disaster on Wednesday then witnessed a really poor showing yesterday, I would make these comments on the new players as it relates to their efforts so far. I'm not saying that this is what they will always be like, as hopefully they will improve with good coaching, but these are my current opinions: Carson - Not as good as Alnwick from what I've seen. Not commanding in his box and seems nervous at corners / cross balls. Wednesday was a good example of the chaos that ensued. Gallagher - ok, but he has a tendency to try and weave or jink his way out of trouble. He will get caught by sharp Premier Division opponents and he will get found out if that continues. He needs to sharpen up his passing out of defence also. O'Hara - So far the best of the bunch, but got dragged down yesterday to an ok standard. Looks as though he could add to the team, given the right support in the middle of the field. Olusanya - Fast but forgets to take the ball with him(!) He shows that he can be occasionally tricky but it's almost as if he is acting faster than his brain and gets the ball taken from him relatively easily. Also goes to ground a little to easily as well. Ayunga - He is a bit of a handful at times and has the ability to beat players, but then tries too hard to take them all on. He needs to just slow down that little bit, look up and pick a pass. Also cut out the petulance - it will only get himself booked. As I've said elsewhere we desperately need to find a goal scorer, Grieve has the ability, but the support isn't there in abundance and the weight on his shoulders might eventually weigh him down. Finding someone who can give you a season or two, scoring 12 to 15 goals a season shouldn't be impossible, finding two is a dream which I think is beyond us!

Seen it all before. We huffed and we puffed and the closest we came to a goal came from the two central defenders. All I can hope for is that it gets better, but I do have to say not overly impressed from what I've seen of the new signings so far, and the forwards look lightweight. Arbroath took the game by the scruff of the neck in the last 5 minutes and you just had that sneaky feeling it was going to end that way. Difficult to enthuse myself for any upcoming games unless we can find someone who can put the ball in the net!

Been to 4 finals: - Scottish Cup '62, '87, then the disastrous League Cup final against the Blue meanies in 2010, and the glorious Hearts victory in '13. So two Scottish Cup finals and 2 league cup finals - EUFA can say what they like, we fans love to get to any final and because we are St Mirren and that we don't necessarily expect to win everything that we enter, when we do get a shot at it we soak it all in and love every second of it, losses even taken into account. As said above F**k em.

As a generality I thought they brought on their first team at the break as opposed to ourselves, we introduced many of the youngsters who may get a chance in the odd game in the League Cup. One point I would just like to make is that there needs to be a good management policy in place to try to keep Murray Campbell's feet on the ground. Last night was my first sight of this much-vaunted player (if you believe the Press), and I came away with the general thought that maybe he has got a bit caught up in his own hype. He was petulant, more aggressive than necessary and gave away a cast iron penalty, which wasn't necessary. On the plus side he showed long diagonal searching passes that nearly came off. I liked that aspect, but not much of the rest. So hopefully the right kind of worldly advice from the experienced players and SR will help calm him down (15 or not) and help him mature into as good a prospect as someone like Bobby Reid.

Actually saw him and his family in a town relatively close to Paisley a short time ago............ Not that necessarily means anything other than being back in the west looking around facilities, housing, schools etc

I thought Tait had dipped in form maybe two or three months ago, but I don't doubt his bravery and his commitment to the cause. Maybe with Robinson re-appearing in his life it has given him an added spring in his step................................... but I do think also that he is getting to that point where he is good to have on the sidelines as a sub to bolster the team when needed.

I agree that overall we matched Hearts in most respects. It was great to see the ball played along the ground and the inter-passing and movement were good. Where we differed from Hearts was down the flanks, especially the left flank (Jones has his fans and detractors and I fall into the area of not convinced as yet- he can score the odd goal, but he is a bit predictable in how he tries to get to the goal line), but also we miss players with an eye for goal. We have lacked that all season, especially a front runner with the ability to stick the ball in the net. Yes, Brophy's goal was clever and good and everything has been said about Ronan's, but we miss a poacher. It has been our failing for at least 4 or 5 years. That having been said we are virtually safe and we could (with a wee bit of luck) finish in the top 6, tho' our three last games before the break are tough, especially the last one with the Blue ones determined to run it all the way to the end with the Glasgow cousins, so I won't predict 9 points out of 9, but 6 would be a good target, and possible................. 4th place is I think beyond us however. (P.S. On the subject of wingers, I really like Livingston's Forrest, fast tricky and he has a good shot on him, - I'd take him over Jones if I had a choice of either)

Like others, probably a bit underwhelmed by this move, but as with all other Saints Managers I will reserve judgement and form a better understanding of him and his abilities as the season pans out. I wish him the best of luck.

I do actually, but it seems you choose to ignore the positives in people as opposed to using your carthorse approach of castigating someone simply because he wound you up as an opposition player over the years.

Sorry, don't think you quite have your figures correct there. Yes Tesco wanted into Paisley and they had been thwarted quite a few times and along came the opportunity wrapped up in Love St and a way out of a financial crises for the Club. The club convinced the Council to consider granting them consent for a supermarket knowing full well that Tesco would take it, but the only thing was that as far as the retail giants were concerned, yes it was a consent for a store of the right size, but it was in totally the wrong location. So they bargained on buying Love St and then trading the consent onto a better located site. However along the way came a complete C (or sea) change in how the supermarket operators developed their sites and how much they could afford. They made the decision not to pursue a store in Paisley as they could not find a suitable enough site at the price level that would make it all worthwhile, so they held the site until they could find the best way out to a housing development value. Tesco probably lost a good couple of £m but my informed sources at the time suggested £7m is roughly what they paid and sold for no more than £5m. Figures can be clarified through the Register of Sasines if you are really that interested. Your thought that Sainsbury's offered £15m+ is also an interesting but I think flawed angle.

Sorry, don't see your logic there? I have supported Saints through thick and thin from 1959, yes the year of our Cup success. In these days crowds of 12 to 15,000 were regular and a quiet day was around 8,000. On OF visits it was packed to the rafters with 20,000+ numbers. Throughout the 70's and 80's we all saw reduction in our support other than the terrible twins and even in Fergie's days we flirted with crowds of 6 to 10,000 but never regular repeats of the late 50's early 60's. So we then entered our real doldrum days of crowds of 2,500 to 3,500 and some longish periods in the second tier of Scottish football. From that period we have never really recovered and now here we are in the next century and we had less than 4,000 at our cup game and just over that for the previous league game. If we filled our stadium with 10,000 people each time we played, I would agree with you, but the reality of Scottish football, (and it is endemic) that you have to fight really hard to get above 6,000 unless you are the OF, Hearts, Hibs or Aberdeen. Hence you build a stadium to meet your projected requirements. We can fill in the corners if we ever get to a point that might match your hoped for aspirations.

He actually did go on record on Saturday on Radio Scotland pre-match against Motherwell and thanked Saints. He was really quite fulsome in his praise and thanks. He also said he has left many friends here but he would probably have regretted and questioned himself if he had passed up the opportunity to manage at a higher level. All perfectly sane, sensible and I think genuine.

Pretty self evident. If you heard his interview on Radio Scotland pre-match at Motherwell on Saturday, he said it all and it's been said numerous times in the various posts re him leaving. Sad but true, we will always be a good stepping stone for a good manager, player or coach if they are seen as being successful.

Interesting times, yet again in the magic roundabout of Scottish soccer management and the actions taken by their respective Boards. The only slight saving grace for us this time round is that it wasn't a push from above, but a reasonably well performing manager that has left us in this state again. Having read copious posts in at least three articles on this subject in B&WA it is both mind boggling and amusing to read many of the views of our disparate group of fans. There are many who seem to wish for the old tried and tested (and frequently failed) route of a Manager who quite bluntly is either past his best, never had his best, or shone briefly at some club or other a year or two ago........................ please oh please let's not go down that route. The only candidate I can think of that suits that description might be Derek McInnes, and even then I'm not entirely happy in my own mind that he is the answer. Then there is the JR group of supporters, and even I have been on record to say that he wouldn't be the worst appointment, but I do understand 'Tedious Tom's' point of view, and maybe it is wrong to look back, as his move away at the time it happened was a real blow and I don't think for one second he gave Saints a second thought (just think of the poaching of Saints staff and players subsequently and you might see that point). So where next? There has been vitriol about Brown (99% of which is misplaced) and real doubts about Naismith, this being his first appointment and he will be off to Hearts as their next Manager etc. etc on the first bus available when they have a vacancy. It would be a gutsy decision by the Board to go with either, but I do think that's where we lie in this small goldfish bowl of Scottish Football. We like to think we are a big club, but we can't really compete financially with at least 4 or maybe as much as 6 teams in Scotland, so we have to cut our cloth accordingly. I would welcome either of these people into the Club. We are generally seen as a well run stepping stone club and with both of these candidates they may be untested, but we may also get a gem for a year or three. If you put me in a corner and put a gun to my head and say who would you chose?:.................... Brown. He is committed, forceful, intelligent, a winner (no matter how well you think of Celtic over these years), and he knows a lot about the game and players and how to get the best out of them. Now you can fire the bullet!💥

Having just read through the last 5 pages of this subject, it's a pretty interesting cross section of opinion. To a large extent I can see the ambivalence about Scott Brown within the supporters, however I also think a number of comments have been pretty crass. To say he has more moving limbs than brain cells is an insult and I will give you my opinion as to why I believe that. A couple of years ago I happened to pick up an interview he had done in the Celtic changing room as to his position in the club, his aspirations and his continuing drive as a footballer. To my complete surprise it was one of the most enlightening interviews I have heard from any footballer over many years. He was articulate, committed to his beliefs (to achieve the best he could at what he did), intelligent on many things related to football and also it lifted my estimation of him to a much higher level. Now I'm not saying that it should make him a sure fire shoe in for JG, and maybe it has come too early, but mark my words, he will be successful as a coach come manager eventually. He has drive, commitment and focus and he takes few prisoners. Just because you didn't like him as an opponent against us, shouldn't necessarily colour your judgement of him as a person.

Personally, I am slightly surprised with the Aberdeen interest. As others have stated 7 games ago, would he have been in the mix........ I really doubt it. Yes, it's all about timing and in that respect another Saints manager (JG) has had a semi-reasonable run of results (not dissimilar to Ross at the time when he went to Sunderland) and is hyped up as being the next best thing since sliced bread. As I said in a previous post, he will go if offered the post, if for no other reason his stock right now is pretty high in Scottish terms, but Aberdeen are taking another financial gamble and their patience may not be that long if it takes two to three years to sort out their basic problems. As for the knicker wetters out there, there are quite a number of good people who would be interested in the Paisley job right now. Yes it's disruptive, but we certainly shouldn't be pessimistic, nor fatalistic that we still can make the top 6.

Two pictures taken probably in the 50's judging by the cars and the apparel of the pedestrians. I can't quite believe the crowds on Moss St and the people idly reading papers and chatting standing in the middle of the road leading down into County Sq. Maybe there was a "No Entry" sign there in these days

Two good photos of the Town Hall as you cross the bridge over the Cart. The first in the 19th Century and the second one almost up to date. The 19th century picture is a gem and shows the extension of the old line that Gauze Street took, and the buildings on the right hand side of the road which would have obliterated the views of the Abbey from the road. At first I had to check it was a photo of Paisley, but on closer inspection you can see all the similar features of the Town Hall building on both pictures.

There won't be many on this forum who (if they were truthful) wouldn't take the opportunity if it was offered to them. Just imagine you are very good at your job in a fairly small and tightly run company and as a company you punch above your weight. You moved to this job as you had done this before at a really small company and you took them to standards that they hadn't seen for a long time. So you work hard for your employers you get pretty well remunerated (probably the same as a consultant surgeon at the top of their trade [who train something like 16 years to get to that level]!), and you know that if you continue doing this, there is nowhere really that the company can go - they are constrained by the market that they operate in! So now apply this logic to JG. He brought Alloa on, he got poached by us, he has brought us on and he knows he is probably close to the point where he can't take us much further, so what's his ambition, obviously to be as good as he can in his chosen precarious profession. I would take it and I'm a died in the wool Saint's man, Aberdeen are a good club, a great stepping stone, and if it doesn't work out then it's a financial gamble worth taking even for a short(ish) period. On a slightly different question: Would I take JR back if he was interested(?), yes I would, as he too is a good man manager and he may have worked his ambitions out and realised that the higher you go, the more rarefied the atmosphere!