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St Mirren's New Manager Is Tommy Craig


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Our board are desperate to protect their investment and keep costs as low as possible prior to any sale of the club so today's move just goes to show that cost cutting is their core motive. I didn't rate Danny as a manager but the board, on the face of it, appear to have royally f**ked him over.

Are any of us truly surprised at what's happened? I'm not, it's been apparent for a number of years that the culture has been to be as frugal as possible, hoping that we retain our top league status. It's just about worked so far but I'm not sure whether we'll be saying that this time next year. I hope I am proved wrong.

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Dont suppose it REALLY matters. Just was trying to work out the thought process.

I think from the comments from Gilmour last week the BOD were clearly split on this. That, IMO, is why he was allowed to see out his contract. I tell you this, if we'd finished out the season by beating Killie and Hearts it would have been very difficult to let him go and those on the BOD that wanted to keep him would have the upper hand in the debate that ensued on Monday.

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Our board are desperate to protect their investment and keep costs as low as possible prior to any sale of the club so today's move just goes to show that cost cutting is their core motive. I didn't rate Danny as a manager but the board, on the face of it, appear to have royally f**ked him over.

Are any of us truly surprised at what's happened? I'm not, it's been apparent for a number of years that the culture has been to be as frugal as possible, hoping that we retain our top league status. It's just about worked so far but I'm not sure whether we'll be saying that this time next year. I hope I am proved wrong.

I don't get why people think he's been f**ked over, shafted, stabbed in back etc. He's had 4 years at a top flight club but couldn't delver the consistency of performance the BOD was looking for, aligned to some very poor transfer dealings and associated dodgy personnel decisions. The BOD decide to go in another direction and don't renew his contract. The final act could have been handled with more grace, for sure, but we've given Lennon a platform for the last 4 years, now let's see if he's as highly regarded by the football world as some of our fans and watch where he lands next. Edited by DLBud
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Also worth bearing in mind how long ago this was:

"We have been successful in making sure St Mirren is one of the very few teams in the country with the financial stability to progress in the future. We believe it is now an appropriate time for us to move on, for someone else to take St Mirren forward and for the club to benefit from an injection of new energy, new ideas and new expertise. As individuals and board members, we recognise we couldn't go on forever and we want to make an orderly transition to having new people in charge who can make sure St Mirren continues to develop as a successful football club and business. We expect a significant amount of interest in this controlling block of shares. We won't necessarily accept the highest offer. Before we sell to anyone, we will make sure the people buying a controlling interest have the good of St Mirren at heart and the resources and expertise to take the club forward. We would hope to conclude the sale of shares by the opening of the next transfer window at the beginning of January 2010." SG, September '09.

Coming up to 5 years ago that the club was put up for sale. The board thought they would be well out of it now and although delighted by the cup win, the Richard Atkinson business and other failed takeover bids will have taken their toll. I suppose there must be a point where you stop caring so much, decision-making falters, etc.

SG and co. could not have done any more for the club, but a fresh start is desperately needed now for all parties.

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I think from the comments from Gilmour last week the BOD were clearly split on this. That, IMO, is why he was allowed to see out his contract. I tell you this, if we'd finished out the season by beating Killie and Hearts it would have been very difficult to let him go and those on the BOD that wanted to keep him would have the upper hand in the debate that ensued on Monday.

It seems very much like it. Not really sure what happened between the two board meetings in that case? Unless they DID make the decision before the Hearts game and just let him get on with it. In which case it all rode on the Killie result and the Hearts game was incidental.

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Unlike most of contributors to this site, the Board have a comprehensive understanding detailed knowledge of where the strengths and weaknesses in the management of the Club have been in recent months. Clearly the results on the park have been less than satisfactory and it is generally recognised that with the squad of players we have, the team under performed. In the circumstances, the Board had little choice but to change things. The retention of TC and recognition given tho GT and JG along with the head of youth development indicates that the Board believes that a combination of their talents will preserve the strengths of the player development structure that has been seen to deliver results in recent seasons and hopefully bring an approach to the management of the first team that will improve results.

In which case as line manager, the General manager or BoD should have been taking supportive action to help their employee work to the best of his ability rather than hiding in the fine-dining room of the ground and maintaining a silence until inappropriately undermining their employee on National radio!

Can we sack the board for making an arse of the deal with Provans; not updating the Hall of Fame boards 18 months after new additions; not utilising the dead space in the main stand to maximise income... etc?

Maybe we should bump them and promote from within! Tommy the groundsman is well qualified... he could step up and maybe have Linda from the ticket office as his number two! Between them I'm sure they could do a better job and actually attend to the parts of their job I'm complaining about, improving results!

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It seems very much like it. Not really sure what happened between the two board meetings in that case? Unless they DID make the decision before the Hearts game and just let him get on with it. In which case it all rode on the Killie result and the Hearts game was incidental.

I think I'd prefer to think they were a shower of cunts rather than the alternative which is that Lennon's job hinged on two virtually meaningless games at the arse end of the season.

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Aye.... I'm waiting....

That's the longest, most ineffective edit in this forum's history.

What has changed for ST MIRREN?

You don't really want me to state the obvious.

To state that nothing has changed is even more ridiculous than your usual drivel.

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Now we have a manager with very limited managerial experience and two coaches in their first appointments. All appointed the day after Danny is relieved of his duties. Our board are now showing a total lack of ambition and direction.

Until the club is sold I don't see there being much ambition. The objective will be to maintain top flight status while maintaining healthy finances to attract potential buyers. Even if that means treading water at the bottom of the league.

Aside from the potential unrest. I think the BOD have looked at last season as a relative success and reckon we can have a similar season with the resources we have, potentially on a reduced budget. SG must have choked on his steak & gravy pie a couple of time after seeing how wasteful Danny was with the wage budget.

I doubt there will be a transformation and next seasons not going to be any prettier than the one just passed. Not great from a fans POV, but from a business perspective; remove a wage, remove the pish signings, finish 10th or above, and mission accomplished. I think that's the harsh reality.

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So no surprises there then!

As previously posted Saints often look to within to appoint a new manager, and they have done so again.

There have been numerous posts saying that this is a cost cutting exercise and that DL has had a bad deal...................... sorry I don't get that argument. DL proved time and again that whilst he had many qualities they were limited in terms of being able to take the team forward and his signing policies left huge amounts of question marks. If you want to talk about wasting money, then look no further than many of the players that have been signed then very quickly shown the door without doing any worthwhile work for the club.

If you think back to the era of Ricky McFarlane............... who would ever have thought that we would appoint our Club physiotherapist as the manager, but that is what we did............. can you imagine the vitriol if the BoD's had done the same today? Just as an added bit of interest here is a summary of the 1982/83 season during his term of office:

1982-83

Saints visited the Isle of Man prior to the start of the season and played a glamour friendly against Sunderland. Goals from Lex Richardson and Frank McAvennie gave Saints a great 2-1 win.
Richardson continued his scoring exploits when the competitive action started with a hat-trick in the opening League Cup tie against Ayr United in a 3-1 win. That set Saints up for anther crack at a quarter final, but after a 1-1 draw in the first leg they lost 2-1 to Hearts in the return.
Again it was the Scottish Cup that kept the interest going through the season with Dundee United, Morton and Airdrie knocked out, setting up a semi final with Rangers. For the second season in a row a replay was needed following a 1-1 draw. In the replay Rangers were awarded a very controversial goal when it was not clear if the ball had actually crossed the line. Saints players on the line claim it was cleared and TV pictures appear to back up that argument. However saints were out again in controversial circumstances!
League form remained unspectacular and again a top five finish was achieved.

The final sentence sums it up rather well - a TOP 5 finish but the league form was unspectacular yet by August '83 we had yet another manager - even a top 5 finish isn't good enough it seems! - I seem to remember that Ricky also had his profession to fall back on and that in many ways he didn't mind going back to that as opposed to managing a football team - even tho' it was a successful team at the time.

No DL had his chance, he provided a fantastic day at Hampden but ultimately his inability to take the team onwards in the league and his errant policy in signings have been his undoing. I do not like some sections of the press saying that we have been harsh or dealt with DL shabbily. It wasn't as tho' we cut his contract from under his feet, it wasn't as tho' we didn't give him the chance, - in this day of football manager's being binned at every opportunity (e.g. Fulham or Tottenham Hotspur's approach) we actually gave him 4 years to progress the team - I would argue that in overall terms we have made limited progress in that time.

I'll support the team no matter who is manager - I don't forget the dark days of the 60's and 70's when we had a variety of manager's, crappy teams and floundered in the 2nd tier of Scottish football, but I still supported them throughout and still do fervently to this day. So good luck Tommy, Jim & Gary, enjoy the roller coaster! thumbup2.gif

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At the end of the day, every member of the Board is a FAN of the football club... now that cant be said for many other club owners...

Vincent Tan wasn't a Cardiff fan when he was a boy... Fact

Glazers weren't sleeping in Man Utd bed sheets every night ... Fact

Craig Whyte went in and ruined rangers... No fan would do that... Fact

SG, BM, GC... All St Mirren fans from young boys... All former season ticket holders at the club and bleed black and white. To say that the decision was a cheaper option is poor.

The men at the helm obviously will look for the best interest for the club, selling up or not.

If they were trying to "cut costs" then why offer Kenny McLean a new "Super Deal" why not let him go and take the compensation that is due.

I think TC will do well as out manager.

Top 6 here we come... or at least a cup..

COYS

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I questioned the ambition of our BOD and this firmly proves there is none. Surely TC was part of DLs management team and equally as responsible?

Surely a successful team high in the league and still in competitions after January is a better selling prospect than another similar season?

Lack of ambition of the Board to stay or go it reeks of apathy. And its the fans paying the price. Time to fall on your sword SG once you pull it put Dannys back.

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Watch yir back Tam..!

Remember how they told the media Danny was Toast months ago.....

Professional,forward thinking.... My arse.

Their doing a better job of punting Kenny McLean than his agent has done to date.

Facts are,

Danny went after a long campaign of shit stirring by the people that should have backed him, or been open and honest with him Alone.

A wage has been saved by promoting Tommy and making Goody and Tealy player coaches.

I dare say Tommy is on less than Danny was, Goody and Tealy would either have had new contract offers, or been replaced in the squad anyway so the saving is less money for Tommy, no assistant manager, and a reduced wages budget fir Tommy to work with.

Read the piece on the BBC website from our chairman, there ain't no money being spent, we must develop through the youth set up. No problem with that but for FFS chairman you make yourself look daft trying to sell us this isn,t the Cheap Option...

Question is what will the Bod do next ends of season if the new incumbents don,t generate the cup income and league place payouts that Danny did???

Tell the media yet again that another guy is toast, while publicly saying you support him?

This is what gets me, yeah Danny didn,t deliver a better level of results and performances. But he did deliver a higher income than has been achieved recently... So why brief against him, then fail to renew his contract if you aren,t looking to go cheap?

They did the Sam e with Gus, only difference was he told them to stick it when they offered him a reduced wage and budget.

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The only way this makes sense is if there was tension between DL and TC or DL and the BoD or DL and the players and the BoD have decided that removing DL removes the source of the problem. The signing of Campbell might be one example - the link with Newcastle coming through Craig's contacts, I thought Campbell made a reasonable impact for a young loanee in his first month and then he seemed to fall completely out the picture. Perhaps TC was all for choosing Campbell more regularly?

Tom English's article on the BBC website mentions that the club had briefed the media mid-season that DL was finished:

"Lennon has shown great strength this season. He has been pelted with flak for much of it.

Some of it he has deserved, but credit to him, he has never once responded to it. Never once shown anger or resentment. He has been dignified amid a maelstrom and part of the maelstrom was set in motion by folk from within his own club.

This is where you have sympathy for Lennon. Earlier in the season, people in power at St Mirren let it be known to journalists that Lennon was finished - or as good as finished.

The information was that he might not last another game. Lennon had to put up with leaks and reading and hearing about how he was a dead man walking.

He never griped at the disloyalty from within. He kept at it and got St Mirren safe. He has a right to leave the club with his head held high.

His remit was to keep St Mirren in the Premiership and to keep producing young talent. He succeeded. But the goalposts in football management change all the time. That is the reality of this world."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27385424

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I thought this quote from Stewart Gilmour was interesting:

"There is a big picture here. I want to be in the position where we can sit down with a talented young player's parents and convince them that St Mirren is the place for him to be."

I'm not sure if this is meant to imply that there was a problem with Danny's dealings with young player's parents. "I want to be in the position..." surely implies that he's not in that position now.

This, allied with the facts that Danny was allowed to see out the full season, and that the board are happy to keep a continuity with Tommy Craig, suggests to me that the decision to allow Danny to go was more about off-field matters than on-field.

Complete speculation of course.

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