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St Mirren Squad 2014/2015


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You are easy pleased if you think we will not be trying to escape relagation with this sqaud need a couple more players

The quality of our starting 11 has been pretty good for the past couple of season. Lennon's problem was getting them to play consistently well. If you look at the team who beat Ross County to keep us up:

Dilo

Naismith McAusland McGregor Kelly

Newton McGinn Goodwin McGowan McLean

Thompson

Kello in for Dilo, Plummer in for McGregor, Wylde in for McLean, Teale in for Newton.....

Kello

Naismith McAusland Plummer Kelly

Teale McGinn Goodwin McLean Wylde

Thompson

Clearly we could do with a few more signings, but It's not a bad looking side and I don't think TC's starting 11 will be all that different from DL's. As I said before, the key is getting them to produce week in week out what they're capable of.

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To be fair its not just about getting the players to be consistant, its about having enough depth in the squad to cover injuries and suspensions. We would have missed Goodwin big time if his sending of had stood, We also missed Teale, MCLean and McGowan at various points in the season and it cost us points.

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To be fair its not just about getting the players to be consistant, its about having enough depth in the squad to cover injuries and suspensions. We would have missed Goodwin big time if his sending of had stood, We also missed Teale, MCLean and McGowan at various points in the season and it cost us points.

Would be great to have strength in depth but it's difficult to find good players who will sign when you can't guarantee them a starting place. I'm inclined to think we should spend our budget on a quality core of maybe 15 or 16 and then have youngsters fill in the gaps. Last season we wasted a lot of money on players like Bahoken, Caprice, Campbell and Djemba-Djemba.

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It would seem our transfer activity is about average for this stage of pre-season / transfer window when we compare ourselves with other SPL clubs. Even Dundee (who have signed 9 players so far) have released more players than they have signed (Dundee released 14 players). Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, and Ross County (our relegation play-off place opponents last year) have all released 12 or 13 players and in Thistle's case only 1 signing has been made so far (Ryan Stevenson). Celtic have made 1 signing so far, a goalkeeper who hasn't played for 2 years due to injury problems. Only Inverness, Motherwell, Hamilton and Celtic look to have settled squads with few players going out the door.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/27793736

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The quality of our starting 11 has been pretty good for the past couple of season. Lennon's problem was getting them to play consistently well. If you look at the team who beat Ross County to keep us up:

Dilo

Naismith McAusland McGregor Kelly

Newton McGinn Goodwin McGowan McLean

Thompson

Kello in for Dilo, Plummer in for McGregor, Wylde in for McLean, Teale in for Newton.....

Kello

Naismith McAusland Plummer Kelly

Teale McGinn Goodwin McLean Wylde

Thompson

Clearly we could do with a few more signings, but It's not a bad looking side and I don't think TC's starting 11 will be all that different from DL's. As I said before, the key is getting them to produce week in week out what they're capable of.

This, once DL got the selection & balance right last Autumn we went on a good run, dicking about with things and some injuries then cost us our momentum but once we got back to our strongest 11 we finished the season strongly. Statin' the bleedin' obvious I suppose but had DL been able to mould a stronger squad last season coulda been a helluva good one!

Still think we're a couple of players light at present and obviously it'd be better to get players in before the season starts but sometimes options don't open up until later on in August when some of the bigger teams are trying to trim their squads.........

As you say probably the main task this season is to get the first eleven playing well on a more consistent basis.

Edited by Bud the Baker
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I'm hoping that we still have a few decent signings and loan deals to announce, given that we were waiting until English contracts expired at the end of June for some of our transfer targets, and in terms of last year's wage bill Danny Lennon, Lee Mair, Danny Grainger, David Barron, David Van Zanten, Gary Harkins, Paul McGowan most of whom were on well paid contracts have left the club. I am sure pay rises will have been given to Tommy Craig, Jim Goodwin and Gary Teale for their new promoted positions at the club and McLean as well will now be on good money for a club like us. When you factor in the number of loan signings who have gone as well as players who had permanent deals I would expect another 3 or 4 signings before the season starts even allowing for youth team players being promoted into the first team squad. I'm willing to give Reilly a chance this season, he looked decent in his first season in the top team before his injury and seemed highly regarded as a good prospect by the senior players. He didn't really get any games in his best position last year and even his subs appearances were short and few and far between. I think if he regains his fitness and confidence he could be decent if he gets a run in the team.

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I dont think Teale and Goodwin would have got much off a wage hike, players in their primes command higher salary than the managers, Goodwin's last contract was a decent one, it is probably just a continuation - I suspect Teale's will be matched to Goodwins or vice versa so that they are on the same.

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It would seem our transfer activity is about average for this stage of pre-season / transfer window when we compare ourselves with other SPL clubs. Even Dundee (who have signed 9 players so far) have released more players than they have signed (Dundee released 14 players). Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, and Ross County (our relegation play-off place opponents last year) have all released 12 or 13 players and in Thistle's case only 1 signing has been made so far (Ryan Stevenson). Celtic have made 1 signing so far, a goalkeeper who hasn't played for 2 years due to injury problems. Only Inverness, Motherwell, Hamilton and Celtic look to have settled squads with few players going out the door.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/27793736

Very true. St Johnstone seem to be having a whine about 'where has the cup money gone' and haven't signed anyone to replace Cregg and Hasselbaink who featured in many games. Seems awful familiar!

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St Johnstone boss has said he doesn't expect to sign anyone so that shows you how tight cash is without the Edinburgh sides and sevco.

Bizarre set of circumstances there. They win the cup, get to a semi and their gates are up.

They lose 3 of their top earners and have signed nobody, now their manager says it's likely no one will come in.

Makes our transfer activity seem seismic. I think we will finish above St Johnstone this season.

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St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright admits he expects the club to make no new signings

The frustrated St Johnstone manager says he had hoped to add three new players to his squad but expects to make no new signings this summer. He’s been told he will receive no funds from chairman Steve Brown and now reckons he will have to start next season with a squad of just thirteen senior players. The Northern Irishman said: “I spoke to the chairman this morning and he reiterated that we can’t do anything.” (Sun)

Strange one. Wright may be exaggerating a bit of pressure on Brown. Apparently they've got a guy in on trial at the moment. I guess we'll find out for sure in the next few weeks how the loss of the Edinburgh teams has affected team's budgets. For St Johnstone though you would think that would be balanced by Dundee's return.

Edited by Julian Banjos
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I think all Tommy Wright said was he didn't think St Johnstone would sign anybody before next week's first leg of their European campaign. Which is different from they have no plans to sign anyone this summer. They had Goodwillie training with them and wanted to offer him a deal so clearly they plan to bring some players in.

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While I firmly believe we need decent players in, to put things into perspective,

In: Mark Ridges, (Goalie) James Marwood, (forward), and Ellis Plummer, (Defender)

Out: Djemba Djemba, (non starter), DVZ, (hardly used), Gary Hrakins, (sent to Coventry Oldham), Adam Campbell, (WHO?).

We also lost Josh Magennis, (only there for a few games)Darren McGregor, (Ellis as replacement), Paul McGowan, (arguably Marwood covers this and Magennis) and Dilo, (replaced by Ridges and with Kello signed up perhaps not to terrible given he wasn't interested enough to get back to the club)

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On P&B there is a hell of a lot of moaning on the Fakes thread due to severe staff budget cuts. Wright has allegedly been told to promote more youths. Looks like they will be weaker this season however they still have a decent squad.

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Wright: We couldn't offer a contract to Goodwillie

Staff Writer

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Tommy Wright was left frustrated in his pursuit of David Goodwillie when the striker agreed a one-year contract with SPFL Premiership rivals Aberdeen.

The St Johnstone manager had a verbal agreement with Goodwillie that he would continue to train with the Perth side this week but a firm contract offer caused him to instead travel to Pittodrie, where he signed a deal yesterday.

Wright had been informed of the offer by Goodwillie's agent and was invited to make an offer too. However, the Northern Irishman has acknowledged that his club is not yet in a position to sign new players and so he was unable to tempt Goodwillie to remain among his squad. Wright does not expect to add to his team before they take on Swiss side Luzern in a Europa League qualifier next week.

"I'm disappointed because I spoke to David on Friday and at that stage he was coming back in this week," said Wright, who has offered training facilities to 22-year-old striker Tomas Tisas, of Greek side Niki Volous. "The Aberdeen thing happened over the weekend. I got a call from his agent while I was in Switzerland asking if we could make an offer. But we couldn't. We are not in a position to make any offers at the minute to any player.

"I still think we could have got Goodwillie. We were asked to make a reasonable offer and we could have got him but we couldn't make any offer. At the moment we can't add to the squad. That might disappoint fans but that is the reality.

"Just because we won the [scottish Cup] I'm not all of a sudden going to see a massive change in my budget. I am comfortable with that but I have told the chairman I will keep banging on his door and he will keep trying hard to find me money for a player or two."

Wright is at least in talks to extend his own contract and remains confident that an agreement will be reached. "I want to stay. The chairman I believe wants me to stay so I don't think there's going to be a problem. It hasn't happened yet but there hasn't been any fall out. It just requires a bit of toing and froing."

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Bizarre set of circumstances there. They win the cup, get to a semi and their gates are up.

They lose 3 of their top earners and have signed nobody, now their manager says it's likely no one will come in.

Makes our transfer activity seem seismic. I think we will finish above St Johnstone this season.

St.johnstone have a very decent squad, they will be fine.

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