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Maboza

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Posts posted by Maboza

  1. Speculation Thread

    in The Rumour Mill

    Posted

    Did Doolan not struggle to get in to a failing Partick team last season as well as having diminishing game time over the last couple of seasons? 

    I'd be surprised if we were interested. 

    Maybe some would fancy him as a decent standard squad player. 

  3. 4 told they can leave

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    One thing is for sure - Stubbs will have a decent budget to work with given all the players that have moved on and there's more still to go if he can get rid of McShane, McKenzie, Eck and presumably Kirkpatrick & Stewart.  

    A lot of work to do. 

    Could really do with some re-assuring signings now. 

  4. 4 told they can leave

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    I thought Hippolyte would have been a good signing but you could quickly see that he doesn't have the desire to make it as a top footballer. His workrate, decision-making and attitude all looked like they fell short of what is required.  It didn't fit in with the team last year so is no surprise that we're getting rid of him. 

    Good decision in my opinion. 

  5. John McGinn

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, nedflanders123 said:

    If Celtic have offered £2m then it would be utter folly for Hibs to turn it down knowing they will lose him for nothing at the end of his contract. He maybe worth more but he is only worth what clubs are willing to bid. Perhaps the reason there appears to be no other buds is simply because a top club will get him on a pre contract and use transfer money to boost his contract (wages etc)?

    Entering an interesting phase now... 

    For all the talk of West Ham, Leeds, etc. there doesn't seem to be any English clubs at the table - at least yet! 

    Lennon & Hibs have been talking to build up McGinn's value for well over a year now. 

    If Celtic is the only genuine interest - or the only club he's interested in going to - then that's a very bad position for Hibs and for us. Celtic can get through this season without McGinn so can happily await a PCA. It will come down to how much Hibs place value on having McGinn for the season and losing him for nothing. I think when you look at it like that then Celtic's £2m is probably getting pretty close to the mark. 

     

  6. John McGinn

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Maboza

    23 minutes ago, MenstrieSaint said:

    What I can't understand is why English teams a quite happy to pay Celtic over the odds for a player , but won't compete with Celtic to sign a player for a fraction of the price .

    I just don't agree with this view at all. 

    I think it's pretty straightforward why there's such a vast difference in the prices of Armstrong and McGinn - and it's merited. 

    Celtic took Armstrong and improved him to a different level. He experienced better coaching, better training facilities, improved personal fitness and played at a higher standard winning trophies and playing in the Champions League. I also think that Brendan Rodgers being Celtic manager gains them a lot more credibility. They now effectively have the management, facilities and structure of a EPL club and English clubs are assured by that. That pushes up the value of a player like Armstrong going from Celtic, compared to a player like McGinn going from Hibs. More expensive and Less risk ,  is the way the English clubs see it. 

    It's the exact same reason why a player like van Dijk ends up at Southampton as a stepping stone to Liverpool. Similar with Andy Robertson via Hull to Liverpool.  

    The bigger the club, the more they want to see that a target player can cut it at what they deem to be an appropriate level. It doesn't matter if Liverpool paid £75m for van Dijk when they could have had him for £12m. They're quite happy to do that and get the finished article. 

    All the clubs are stepping stones in this system. 

    St.Mirren -> Hibs -> Celtic -> Southampton -> Liverpool -> Barcelona...    it just goes on that way. 

    No matter what people may think of McGinn's ability, it's ridiculous to say that he's close to the level of Armstrong at this moment in his career or should be anywhere close in value. The value of McGinn at the end of the day will simply be whatever someone is willing to pay. It doesn't come down to Celtic being tight. I think they're an exceptionally well run club at the moment and are dealing very shrewdly in the transfer market. 

     

     

     

     

  7. John McGinn

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Isle Of Bute Saint said:

    When Scott talks about filling in ( a corner) it's about the stadium generating money for the club for me that's the right way to go. 

    Only if the money it will generate is likely to outweigh the expenditure.  Something that many people are rightly sceptical about.

  8. John McGinn

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    If Celtic's opening bid is £1.5m then I'd be absolutely shocked if they were likely to go anywhere close to paying £3m. 

    I can imagine that their upper limit would be something like £2.5m with Scott Allan maybe reducing that down by £300k or something. 

    Chances are that this will flush out the competition so more chance of Hibs getting the money they want from an English club I reckon. The danger is that if McGinn really wants to go to Celtic he can just run down his deal if it gets messy. 

     

     

     

  10. Paisley Saint Mirren

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    I dare say that there may be some potential gains from incorporating 'Paisley' into the name of the club - such as Paisley St. Mirren.

    It could be argued that it puts the club on the map a bit more to an extent and could potentially attract the people of Paisley to have more of an emotional attachment to the club. 

    Despite that, on balance, I would not vote for such a change as I'm more of a traditionalist and wouldn't like to see our club name changed after all these years. 

    What I would like to see is us to get our old badge back. It seemed to be changed in the 90's without as much as a whimper when Lord Lyon took us to task for daring to have castellations on our crest. That sort of pompous crap is an absolute shambles in this day and age and they should never have got away with making us change without a fight. 

  11. John McGinn

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, magnus said:

    I agree but the reduced cash transfer price because of the  swap of players that is likely is bad for Saints so I am still rooting for a £3m offer from Jack.

    How much could Celtic realistically value Scott Allan at?  

    £250-300k?   

    He's not really done much other than have some decent form at Hibs and Dundee. 

  12. Where should Saints spend the millions?

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted · Edited by 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.  

  15. The 3 Monthly Spend

    in SMiSA

    Posted

    3 hours ago, TPAFKATS said:

    A few thoughts.
    1. We seem to have smisa changing the T&C of the £10 spend.
    2. There is no guarantee that this won't happen again, particularly when the reason in support is that it will benefit the playing budget in our return to the top flight.
    3. The club need to start living within its means and not looking for handouts from a supporters group whenever a need to spend arises.
    4. The above is particularly concerning given that we are in a period of pretty much unprecedented additional income for the club - transfer fees, additional attendance, upcoming league postion money.
    5. These additional monies can't be relied upon and we need to start saving for rainy days. IMO, Smisa should be doing this now as they will (relatively) soon find themselves as the major shareholder of the club and won't be able to turn to members for 'bailouts' so readily as now. Particularly as the membership will in all probability drop off once the club is purchased.

    As good and clear a summary as you will find amongst the extensive debate on this thread.  Well done! 

    My own simple thoughts are that St. Mirren FC should always be run as a break even club. This should take into account player budgets and club running costs. Something like a 4G training pitch has a lifespan and cost associated with it and is therefore a planned spend. So are things like training balls.  This is the clubs responsibility to budget for these. 

    Any additional revenue boosts (player sales, cup runs, higher league finish than budgeted, etc.)  should primarily be banked into the club accounts to cover tougher times but may also allow for a very modest loosening of the playing budget to provide opportunity for improvement. 

    Here we have a situation where we have received the most transfer income in many years and cup revenue last season. None of which budgeted for.  We're looking at winning the league now and coming out on top for revenue for the league this season alongside increased attendances. 

    Still, we're being told that finances aren't sufficiently rosy.

    If that's the case then it's indicative that the spending on the player budget this season has been a gamble. It may have worked out but I don't like that precedent. 

    Already we have someone saying that this £50k is needed as it will indirectly support that playing budget next season. The figures for league placings were dropped in to show the huge financial disadvantage from 1st in Championship vs the SPL teams who will be our competitors next season.  I'm sorry but the recent transfer revenues received more than make up that difference and could have been the springboard for providing a comparable playing budget for Year 1 in the SPL if we really want to get involved in that game.

    If the money is needed for playing budget then ask the members to vote based on that. The whole approach to this from SMISA seems a bit of a mess.

    I don't blame Gordon in asking for the cash and other proposals but I do question how wise it is to respond so favourably. The extent of this SMISA cash (cow) resource wasn't so readily available to the previous board. Had it been available previously it would have made their job as Chairman/Board considerably easier and  easier to get a more expensive and higher quality product on the pitch. 

    We've got an ambitious chairman but  I think the SMISA group need to tread very carefully. 

     

    2 hours ago, smcc said:

    Why should the membership drop off once the fans are the club owners?

     

    As far as I understand I don't think SMISA has marketed itself (to date) as anything other than a vehicle for the takeover. 

    I think it's fully expected that members will drop off as others have also said. SMISA should be making an effort in my opinion to push the vision of the benefits to the club for continuing membership beyond the 10 year period. I think this should have been promoted from the outset. 

     

  18. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    1 minute ago, shull said:

    When was he written of by St Mirren fans ? 

    Why mention it now ? 

    Maybe to help some morons think twice about slating a young kid who is trying to make it in the game?

    He managed to overcome that.

    Some players that have the ability but aren't mentally as strong or don't have the same strong support network around them, might not have managed to succeed in the way Lewis has. 

    Then again.... some morons will just continue to be morons. 

     

  19. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Maboza

    "I got written off here by St Mirren fans when I was coming through - that's part and parcel of football," Morgan said.

    "People want big names and I think any player in Scotland maybe doesn't get the credit they deserve, the level of football is better than most people give credit for.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42563192

     

    Interesting comments from Lewis.

    The young man deserves even more respect for his loyalty and willingness to repay the club through performances, transfer fee and desire to help win the league. 

    All of that despite being on the receiving end of abuse from some of the numpties in our support. 

     

  20. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    23 minutes ago, bazil85 said:

    The comp is based on first team appearances as well man, it will be very close to £300k, if it's only £100k or so why wouldn't Celtic just wait 10 days and sign him on a pre-contract? they'd save themselves £200k, he'd still be a St Mirren player like a loan back deal and they could use the money saved to sweeten the deal for Morgan.

    The example someone used on Facebook last night was how much we were owed for McGinn and how much Rangers were owed for Telfor. Both at respective clubs since youth for roughly same time, both compensation values. Only difference was McGinn first team appearances and we were owed more than double. 

    Not sure on the accuracy of this site but by my calculations on dates it equates to €210,000 compensation. 

    He signed in Sept 2013. (so was with us for 2 seasons as a Premiership club)

    By the time his contract expires in the summer it would be an additional 3 years at Championship level. 

    http://trainingcompensationcalculator.com

     

     

    St. Mirren Football Club
    Scottish Premiership - 2 years Compensation: 120 000 EUR

    St. Mirren Football Club
    Scottish Championship - 3 years Compensation: 90 000 EUR

    Total: 210 000 EUR

     

     

     

  21. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Maboza

    4 minutes ago, bazil85 said:

    He couldn't go for £0 we'd still be owed comp. The £300k figure we're getting quoted is around about the comp we're owed. 

    The comp is nothing near £300k. 

    He's only been with us since he was 15. Think closer to £100k/£150k. 

     

  22. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    13 hours ago, faraway saint said:

    I don't agree.

    I think Celtic like a winger who can give them a real attacking option and Morgan, IMO, fits the bill.

    Too many people jumping aboard the "Hell be warming the bench" bus, I think he's got more than that and Rodgers will utilise this. 

    I'd also like to think that he'll get a fair crack at the first team. 

    You only have to watch our games to see teams attempts at stifling Morgan, doubling and sometimes trebling up on him. 

    That won't happen at Celtic as they have threats throughout the team. Even when teams clock on and he is doubled up on, you'd expect Celtic to work better as a team at exploiting the space that it creates around the rest of the park. 

    I really hope he gets a good chance for them. I'm no great fan of James Forrest for Scotland but he seems to do well for Celtic. I think Morgan has more of an end product even at such a young age. 

     

     

  23. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, foxbar_bud said:

     


    That’s not the same though.

    We done that to help Clyde out (supposedly) but it was because we were signing two players from one team

    It would only work if Celtic are signing two Hibs player

    If they inflate Henderson’s ‘value’ then it’s less cash going into Hibs bank....

    If they bring in £3.5m but tel us it was only £2m then surely that’s fraud?

     

    Of course!  Silly me!! 

  24. Lewis Morgan

    in General St. Mirren Discussion

    Posted

    19 hours ago, bud84 said:

    Some apparently 'ITK' Celtic fan on twitter claiming they've agreed deals for 2 players in January worth 4m quid. 1 of which will involve a loan back for the rest of the season. 

    John Mcginn and Lewis Morgan being the names suggested by just about everyone.  ( He gave a clue, both surnames begin with M) 

    If true, this would be some bit of business for St mirren with McGinns sell on clause. 

    4m does seem a bit much right enough.

     

    If McGinn does go to Celtic the big danger to our chunk of the transfer fee will be if there's some sort of swap involved (i.e. Liam Henderson going to Hibs). 

    This would give Hibs the opportunity to agree to inflate the value of the incoming player in order to reduce what we would then be due for McGinn. 

    Similar to what we did with Clyde when we signed O'Donnell / Malone and twisted the figures so that one of them cost £2k and the other £28k. If I remember correctly! 

     

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