Dibbles old paperboy Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 While some posters on here are obviously losing sleep over St Mirren's current predicament, it doesn't take an Albert Einstein to work out how we got into this position - step forward Messrs Lennon, Craig and Gilmour & cronies. The drastic annual cull of our playing resources over the past few years has left us in a decidedly weaker position and the accumulative effect of this is to leave us with a pool of players that was always going to struggle to survive in the top league. Meanwhile clubs with similar financial resources to us are building up their player pools wisely and gradually and are now reaping the benefits - eg. ICT, Hamilton Accies, St Johnstone and Motherwell (until recently). What we have lacked since Gus McPherson's time is a manager who can get the best out of the players we have albeit McPherson's team was not the most entertaining to watch. Both Lennon and Craig, with a few exceptions, bought badly and did not seem to be able to set up an effective defence. We are paying dearly for that now. It's very harsh to include Danny Lennon as one of the main culprits for having us in our current position. During his 4 year tenure the budget for the squad was dramatically reduced when he took over and then cut every year since then. The signing policy changed under his tenure from his predecessor who generally signed out of contract SPL journeymen from Dunfermline, Kilmarnock, Falkirk or ICT plus loan signings from Celtic or Rangers youth development squads. Under Danny Lennon we took a gamble on rearing our own young players and promoting them into the first team and went from having 1 youth team player in the first team squad in his first season to a situation in his final year where half the first team regularly were from our youth set up. We generally stopped signing older / journeymen type players and took a punt on players from the lower leagues and young up and coming players. It was a riskier policy than McPherson's policy of signing old experienced pros towards the end of their career. During the first 2 seasons Danny Lennon had to manage the complete break up of McPherson's squad: goodbye to Andy Dorman, Craig Dargo, Garry Brady, Steven Thomson the 1st, Michael Higdon, Jack Ross, Jim Hamilton, Paul Gallacher, Mark Howard, John Potter, Dennis Wyness etc. Given the riskier transfer policy there were always likely to have signings who didn't make the step up or take the chance they were given, and in some cases it looked like Lennon signed some players as first team first picks and others as lower budget squad filler as well as a few youth team players with a view to stepping up to the first team. While there is a long list of signings which didn't work out from Lennon's era and a short list of signings who were expensive and should have worked out but didn't (Imrie, Carey, Granger, Harkins) you can make a case for saying that in signing the following players Danny Lennon found enough players who did a decent enough job to earn us a League Cup win, decent cup runs in other seasons, and 2 8th placed league finishes which while unspectacular still represent our highest league position in 25 years: Craig Samson, Chris Dillo, Marian Kello, David Van Zanten, Marc McAusland, Darren McGregor, Jure Travner, Jeroen Tesselaar, Paul Dummet, Jim Goodwin, Paul McGowan, Gary Teale, Connor Newton, Nigel Hasselbaink, Sam Parkin, Steven Thompson, Isma Goncalves. I make that 16 decent signings on our limited budget who could be considered a success or having done a job for us even if the anticipated job may have been a squad player or cover / back up (Parkin). Lennon also showed he could be ruthless when required when it came to freeing up wages in transfer windows: Gareth Wardlaw (arguably he did a job for us), Hugh Murray, Lee Mair, DVZ were all pointed in the direction of the exit door when there were declining returns for the club as older players reached the end of their SPL shelf life. Across Lennon's 4 seasons in charge his average league position was 10th or 9th - good enough to keep us in the SPL and avoid the play off place and average points total was 39 points. I reckon that had Lennon been given a 1 year deal for this season he would have been determined to get tings right in the summer transfer window this year after suffering for large spells of last season as a result of most of last summer's transfer punts going pear shaped. As I have said elsewhere he had paid a price last year to begin the first stage of a defensive overhaul by freezing out Lee Mair, David Van Zanten so that their contract could not roll over for another extension and David Barron was released. I also suspect that with Goodwin and Teale out of contract last summer and after a season of rumours about the dressing room DL may have thought it was the end of the line for 1 or both of them as players and decided it was time to find some new guys in their early 30s to take on the mantle of being the old experienced pros in the squad. We now find ourselves on 11 points after 20 league games, almost half the return we could have expected in an average season under Danny Lennon - despite last year's transfer mess we still achieved 39 points and 8th place under the supposedly clueless Danny Lennon and had a few shut outs with more or less the same defensive options available to Craig and Teale this season and he also had guys like Kello, Naismith, Kelly McAusland, McLean and McGinn all looked much better players under DL's reign than TC's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
northstbuddie Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) As you have conceded in your lengthy post, there was a long list of signings which didn't work out in Lennon's time, including a number of players who hardly saw first team football at all and many of them went on to better things with their next club. If financial resources are so limited it is all the more important to wheel and deal wisely. Whilst I feel Lennon did ok initially with St Mirren, ironically it wasn't until he took on TC as his assistant that performances and results started to improve. However both of these gents along with the BOD then oversaw the chronic decline which has now hit our club. For a club with the potential and tradition of St Mirren, we should be able to expect that occasionally we can do as well in the SPL as the likes of Hamilton Accies, ICT, Ross County, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle. I did not state that Lennon was solely to blame for our current plight but he certainly has to shoulder a good part of the blame. Dibbles old Paperboy said: While there is a long list of signings which didn't work out from Lennon's era and a short list of signings who were expensive and should have worked out but didn't (Imrie, Carey, Granger, Harkins) you can make a case for saying that in signing the following players Danny Lennon found enough players who did a decent enough job to earn us a League Cup win, decent cup runs in other seasons, and 2 8th placed league finishes which while unspectacular still represent our highest league position in 25 years: Edited January 5, 2015 by northstbuddie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibbles old paperboy Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 As you have conceded in your lengthy post, there was a long list of signings which didn't work out in Lennon's time, including a number of players who hardly saw first team football at all and many of them went on to better things with their next club. If financial resources are so limited it is all the more important to wheel and deal wisely. Whilst I feel Lennon did ok initially with St Mirren, ironically it wasn't until he took on TC as his assistant that performances and results started to improve. However both of these gents along with the BOD then oversaw the chronic decline which has now hit our club. For a club with the potential and tradition of St Mirren, we should be able to expect that occasionally we can do as well in the SPL as the likes of Hamilton Accies, ICT, Ross County, St Johnstone, Kilmarnock and Partick Thistle. I did not state that Lennon was solely to blame for our current plight but he certainly has to shoulder a good part of the blame. Dibbles old Paperboy said: While there is a long list of signings which didn't work out from Lennon's era and a short list of signings who were expensive and should have worked out but didn't (Imrie, Carey, Granger, Harkins) you can make a case for saying that in signing the following players Danny Lennon found enough players who did a decent enough job to earn us a League Cup win, decent cup runs in other seasons, and 2 8th placed league finishes which while unspectacular still represent our highest league position in 25 years: If you factor in youth players who progressed and came in and did a job for the first team Lennon probably brought in about 6 signings on average each year who were up to scratch and who did OK or did well for us. I'm not sure there are many players who Lennon signed who bombed at St Mirren before doing a great job elsewhere. Accies fans are currently enjoying a lively debate about Imrie's contribution to the team with many feeling he is a fringe player there despite starting most weeks, has Carey set the heather on fire at Ross County and how have Ross County performed since he signed for them (about the same as St Mirren). Does anyone know where Danny Grainger is now or what he is up to? Only Harkins has fulfilled the kind of potential you would have expected - inconsistent and frustrating but an occasional genius and matchwinner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shull Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 A lot of Novels on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insaintee Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) A lot of Novels on here. How's the gas? Edited January 6, 2015 by insaintee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shull Posted January 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Whit ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud the Baker Posted January 5, 2015 Report Share Posted January 5, 2015 Whit ? A novel by Iain Banks, sadly deceased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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