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The Tommy Craig Must Go Thread


Flareybob

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But I went to matches expecting a good evenly contested game with a reasonable hope of obtaining a result. More often than not we did not do too well but the hope and expectation was there.

However this season I think we have the poorest squad we have had in a league battle for many a year and no longer expect to get anything from a game. Getting rid of decent players and replacing them with untried players did not help.

But football for me is about expectation and enjoyment. And will do so more often until there is a change of some description which gives me some expectation of being able to compete against the opposition.

I still hope we do well on Sat but no longer expect it.

You use a variation of the word 'expect' six times in that post, and I have to say, as a Saints fan, I find that quite unusual. After, as you say, 40 years supporting Saints, to expect anything from football whatsoever, is a touch bizarre.

In fact, I always think that's what separates proper football supporters like you and I from fans of clubs like Chelsea, Man Utd, the Old Firm, etc. We have no expectation, only hope. That's why the victories feel sweeter - it's the lack of expectation success that makes us all generally nicer human beings.

I'm not having a dig at you at all, and of course, I'm not defending the current shambles at the club.

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Will be there on Saturday come what may. By then, I hope that the BoD have made some worthwhile announcements and that one or two players return from injury. As a long time fan, this is certainly not the worst position we have been in, but the reaction to the situation is stronger than I recall in previous slumps. Time to get behind the players, and at the same time, let the Board know that things aren't good enough.

The Eternal Optimist

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You use a variation of the word 'expect' six times in that post, and I have to say, as a Saints fan, I find that quite unusual. After, as you say, 40 years supporting Saints, to expect anything from football whatsoever, is a touch bizarre.

In fact, I always think that's what separates proper football supporters like you and I from fans of clubs like Chelsea, Man Utd, the Old Firm, etc. We have no expectation, only hope. That's why the victories feel sweeter - it's the lack of expectation success that makes us all generally nicer human beings.

I'm not having a dig at you at all, and of course, I'm not defending the current shambles at the club.

Good summation of expect and hope, you're 100 % correct we do go in hope. The thing for me is I have lost all hope at present. That has helped me realise why I'm so fed up with the entire situation at present.

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Good summation of expect and hope, you're 100 % correct we do go in hope. The thing for me is I have lost all hope at present. That has helped me realise why I'm so fed up with the entire situation at present.

Yeah, that's the distinction I would make. When the hope goes - and for everyone bar Top Cat, apparently, it pretty much has now - what have we got left? Blind optimism? Great. I actually admire Lex's ability to remain optimistic and positive, and I'm generally right there with him in those terms. But this is tragic at the minute.

People have compared the current situation to Coughlin's reign, but I think this is worse because we have more to lose. Coughlin took over a D1 side that had very little going for it - and he left a D1 side that had little going for it. No great loss.

Tommy Craig looks set to be taking an established top-flight side (for that is what we are now, thanks to Gus and Danny) and relegate us at the first time of asking.

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You use a variation of the word 'expect' ... I'm not having a dig at you at all, and of course, I'm not defending the current shambles at the club.

Maybe this is a game of semantics now.

I always hope for a victory but never expect one. My expectation is for a half-decent display. A bit of effort. Some skill. Maybe a few shots on target. A squad that looks capable of at least making a game of it. Usually more often than not my expectations are not met and my hope of a victory is not met.

However this season my expectations are not being met before I even leave the house in Ayrshire to travel to Paisley. I do not expect anything from the team and hope of a victory is a bit of a dream as our last League victory at home was at the beginning of May - nearly 8 months ago.

You say tomato and I say tomato but it amounts to the same thing. My enthusiasm for now has gone. smile.png

Edited by Sonny
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The blame has so far been passed to 1.The manager 2. The board of Directors.3. The Players .Could it we have missed the main reason i.e. The crappy new strips this season

Did man it'd not ditch that grey strip half way through the season years ago for making them shite hahaha. They couldn't see the goals or some other such nonsense.

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Maybe this is a game of semantics now.

I always hope for a victory but never expect one. My expectation is for a half-decent display. A bit of effort. Some skill. Maybe a few shots on target. A squad that looks capable of at least making a game of it. Usually more often than not my expectations are not met and my hope of a victory is not met.

However this season my expectations are not being met before I even leave the house in Ayrshire to travel to Paisley. I do not expect anything from the team and hope of a victory is a bit of a dream as our last League victory at home was at the beginning of May - nearly 8 months ago.

You say tomato and I say tomato but it amounts to the same thing. My enthusiasm for now has gone. smile.png

Yeah, I suspected it might have been a touch of semantics. I can totally see where you're coming from now, and I think everyone's enthusiasm has left the building. thumbdown.gif

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Club lost significant money last year. They tried to save costs by reducing budget further by removing the manager and not replacing his post.

They assumed we would be OK with no Hearts, Hibs and The Rangers.

I did not agree with that, but you can understand why they made that decision.

They OWN the club and have a major financial and emotional investment.

Harsh financial climate. Club is stale from top to bottom.

A relegation may fast track changes that have been needed in the club for many years.

I don't think they can continue with that management team in place. But at what price to the club?

Can they not afford to sack him? Only they will know.

I get the logic from a cost point of view, however if we finished on 41 points would we have made a loss?

I also don't agree with the decision and looking at quality of SPFL would have thought that investing in the right manager who would have made better choices with the budget could have had us further up the table and into bigger prize money, not to mention the income of a few decent cup runs.

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Yeah, that's the distinction I would make. When the hope goes - and for everyone bar Top Cat, apparently, it pretty much has now - what have we got left? Blind optimism? Great. I actually admire Lex's ability to remain optimistic and positive, and I'm generally right there with him in those terms. But this is tragic at the minute.

.

I don't see myself as optimistic, more realistic.

The fact is we are 11th and 2 points from 10th. The situation is far from terminal, it's not even critical. You'd think by some of the rhetoric on here that relegation was a mathematical inevitability. The fact is we are 2 points from clear safety with 24 games to go.

We've been in a far worse position than this on numerous occasions since we've been promoted. We've also had the worst player availability crisis I can remember in 20 years.

In saying that, it's not been good at all, it's been a terrible start to the season. TC's made several mistakes both on the park and off it. In a sense though, we've got away with it. We aren't 7 points or so adrift at the bottom, indeed we aren't even bottom at all.

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I don't see myself as optimistic, more realistic.

The fact is we are 11th and 2 points from 10th. The situation is far from terminal, it's not even critical. You'd think by some of the rhetoric on here that relegation was a mathematical inevitability. The fact is we are 2 points from clear safety with 24 games to go.

We've been in a far worse position than this on numerous occasions since we've been promoted. We've also had the worst player availability crisis I can remember in 20 years.

In saying that, it's not been good at all, it's been a terrible start to the season. TC's made several mistakes both on the park and off it. In a sense though, we've got away with it. We aren't 7 points or so adrift at the bottom, indeed we aren't even bottom at all.

The situation is that while we are not yet cut adrft with a measely 8 points, the main issue is where are the results going to come from? We are leaking goals, we cannot score and the performance of the team is worrying. Other than our first game against Motherwell (and we lost), we have been shocking on the pitch. Craig is not a manager and while his summer signings have largely failed spectacularly, some others appear to have downed tools or nowhere near the quality of last season. His tactics are as baffling as his post match statements.

Optimism is fine but at this time I see no shoots of recovery and we are so one dimensional and insipid I would wager any senior football club in Scotland would fancy their chances against us. We may strengthen defensively when our key defenders come back but at this time if you cannot score and we cannot keep a clean sheet then it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know we will struggle all season.

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The situation is that while we are not yet cut adrft with a measely 8 points, the main issue is where are the results going to come from? We are leaking goals, we cannot score and the performance of the team is worrying. Other than our first game against Motherwell (and we lost), we have been shocking on the pitch. Craig is not a manager and while his summer signings have largely failed spectacularly, some others appear to have downed tools or nowhere near the quality of last season. His tactics are as baffling as his post match statements.

Optimism is fine but at this time I see no shoots of recovery and we are so one dimensional and insipid I would wager any senior football club in Scotland would fancy their chances against us. We may strengthen defensively when our key defenders come back but at this time if you cannot score and we cannot keep a clean sheet then it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know we will struggle all season.

You could say that for the teams around us.

The difference is the teams around us aren't missing 6 first picks, whereas we are.

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You could say that for the teams around us.

The difference is the teams around us aren't missing 6 first picks, whereas we are.

Other than Thompson these 'first picks' we're same players who led us to 5 straight defeats at the start of the season, our worst start in club history. The whole Craig experiment has been a disaster and needs to end........NOW!!

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