The Jim Goodwin and Lee Sharp Appreciation Thread

[Cumbriansaint72]

4 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Wait a wee minute mate, you never seen you saying anything like that previously.

While I understand a slight disappointment when a manager leaves it's less than fair to describe his as self centred.

His record is more than decent, sure there's more than a few games/situations we felt let down, but, as much as I was on the fence about him, his record is better than most.

He had some very poor runs and some pretty decent/brilliant runs, none less than the 3-2 victory over Rangers. 

He's gone, no need to slag him off, he's done what most of us would have done, move to a financially better position and much better prospects of success. 

It's up to him, and the Aberdeen board, to see if it happens, time will tell.

As I said, I'm neither his greatest supporter or critic, let's wait and see.

The most important thing is WE continue to improve. 

 

The big issue for JG at his new club is something I picked up on sportsound today at work was a lot of the Aberdeen team are ageing, on longer contracts and no doubt of reasonably higher wages thus harder to shift on or come to an agreement to  cancel in order to rebuild unlike us with a more sustainable turnover. Also the panel did point out that with 1 player being potentially sold in summer that COULD bring in much need funds.

The bigger picture being not the smartest decision by JG imo.

 

[faraway saint]

1 minute ago, Cumbriansaint72 said:

The bigger picture being not the smartest decision by JG imo.

 

Well, I disagree, all the other stuff is fluff and easily overcome, players will come and go, and Aberdeen certainly have, comparatively speaking, a more than decent budget.

Time will tell, in Scotland, outwith, although not explicitly, the OF, any managers job is precarious. 

I suppose it's 50/50 is he will do well as a manager but he's certainly got a better chance at Aberdeen than St Mirren.

Some people are getting carried away with the current snapshot of our position and Aberdeen.

I'd suggest 99% of the time Aberdeen will be in a higher league position than us, in recent history. 

Sure he's got more pressure as the expectation is higher but that's what drives some managers, not accepting a fairly easy ride. 

[pod]

23 minutes ago, Cumbriansaint72 said:

The big issue for JG at his new club is something I picked up on sportsound today at work was a lot of the Aberdeen team are ageing, on longer contracts and no doubt of reasonably higher wages thus harder to shift on or come to an agreement to  cancel in order to rebuild unlike us with a more sustainable turnover. Also the panel did point out that with 1 player being potentially sold in summer that COULD bring in much need funds.

The bigger picture being not the smartest decision by JG imo.

 

Well that Jim's and Aberdeen's problem. Good luck Jim, you may need it.

Edited February 19, 2022 by pod

[Cumbriansaint72]

9 minutes ago, faraway saint said:

Well, I disagree, all the other stuff is fluff and easily overcome, players will come and go, and Aberdeen certainly have, comparatively speaking, a more than decent budget.

Time will tell, in Scotland, outwith, although not explicitly, the OF, any managers job is precarious. 

I suppose it's 50/50 is he will do well as a manager but he's certainly got a better chance at Aberdeen than St Mirren.

Some people are getting carried away with the current snapshot of our position and Aberdeen.

I'd suggest 99% of the time Aberdeen will be in a higher league position than us, in recent history. 

Sure he's got more pressure as the expectation is higher but that's what drives some managers, not accepting a fairly easy ride. 

For me anyway I think he is going to find it harder when the honeymoon period is over and the pressure is on to what they think they are AND where they actually are. 

[faraway saint]

8 minutes ago, Cumbriansaint72 said:

For me anyway I think he is going to find it harder when the honeymoon period is over and the pressure is on to what they think they are AND where they actually are. 

I agree, to a certain extent, Aberdeen, mainly fans, still think they are the force they were back in the day, but anyway you want to paint it they are a much bigger club than we are.

[Cumbriansaint72]

1 minute ago, pod said:

Well that Jim's and Aberdeen's problem. Good luck Jim, you may need it.

Agree with you on that and I've got to say a big well done to the board for swift action by puting Langfield and McManus in charge as soon as JG was willing to talk to the dons.

[munoz]

My perfect ending to this season is, piping the sheep to a top 6 finish. 

[linwood buddie]

Jim won’t get a lot of time from the fans if he’s not getting points on the board , his three at the back long ball carry on will bore the fans to death. I don’t like the fact he left us for a direct opponent would have been better in another league ,so wish you only bad luck and hope we finish higher than Aberdeen.

[faraway saint]

Just now, munoz said:

My perfect ending to this season is, piping the sheep to a top 6 finish. 

We have it in our hands, as you know, a long way to go, we've been so erratic, before the first Dundee game we were flying, then, well, it all went to shit, since the break, we're back.

I certainly wouldn't back us, at the minute to be in the top 6. 

As for Aberdeen, they are in the same erratic boat. 

Exciting right enough. 

[eastlandssaint]

At the end of the day, i think Jim may miss us more than we miss him, time will tell?

[Rascal]

32 minutes ago, munoz said:

My perfect ending to this season is, piping the sheep to a top 6 finish. 

Now you are talking.

[northstbuddie]

34 minutes ago, munoz said:

My perfect ending to this season is, piping the sheep to a top 6 finish. 

Have you given up on 4th or 5th already?

[munoz]

Just now, northstbuddie said:

Have you given up on 4th or 5th already?

Im still thinking of 3rd place. 

[faraway saint]

Just now, munoz said:

Im still thinking of 3rd place. 

But you are half pished. 

[munoz]

6 minutes ago, eastlandssaint said:

At the end of the day, i think Jim may miss us more than we miss him, time will tell?

I don't think we'll miss him.

[portmahomack saint]

7 hours ago, Tommy said:

Had Goodwin actually thanks Saints for the start of his career in full time management ?

All i have read up to now is him saying how big a club the Dons are, but haven't see anything about his thought about us. 

Fuk him no interested in his bullshite 

[stlucifer]

At the end of the day Jim did what most managers would do. No more, no less. My surprise is not that he went. It was that the sheep offered him a chance to do so. Given they had to part with, allegedly, near the 400,000 mark for our management team, I can't understand why they appeared to have made their decision on this year's results. Up until the break we couldn't buy a win and since we've come back, though the results have been encouraging, some of the performances have been less than good.

Moving forward, it's important to get a manger who can utilise the personnel  we have which is a really good crop of players who could play well on the front foot. 

I'm sure any good manager looking at us would see the potential of this squad and the batch of really promising youngsters.

[Rascal]

4 minutes ago, stlucifer said:

At the end of the day Jim did what most managers would do. No more, no less. My surprise is not that he went. It was that the sheep offered him a chance to do so. Given they had to part with, allegedly, near the 400,000 mark for our management team, I can't understand why they appeared to have made their decision on this year's results. Up until the break we couldn't buy a win and since we've come back, though the results have been encouraging, some of the performances have been less than good.

Moving forward, it's important to get a manger who can utilise the personnel  we have which is a really good crop of players who could play well on the front foot. 

I'm sure any good manager looking at us would see the potential of this squad and the batch of really promising youngsters.

Best Squad for years imo

[TopCat]

21 hours ago, stlucifer said:

At the end of the day Jim did what most managers would do. No more, no less. My surprise is not that he went. It was that the sheep offered him a chance to do so. Given they had to part with, allegedly, near the 400,000 mark for our management team, I can't understand why they appeared to have made their decision on this year's results. Up until the break we couldn't buy a win and since we've come back, though the results have been encouraging, some of the performances have been less than good.

Moving forward, it's important to get a manger who can utilise the personnel  we have which is a really good crop of players who could play well on the front foot. 

I'm sure any good manager looking at us would see the potential of this squad and the batch of really promising youngsters.

 

Well i imagine it wasn't on this years results. Jim took over us in 11th, finished 9th in his first season, 7th in his second and left us in 4th based on PPG. He's improved us every year he's been here and he did the same with Alloa. Good and bad runs happen, but the long term trajectory of clubs managed by Jim Goodwin is always upwards and that's why Aberdeen appointed him.

He was the comfortably the best Saints manager in my lifetime,, it should be a surprise to no one that a bigger club has taken him on. He's moved on and so must we. 

End of an era and end of thread

[stlucifer]

43 minutes ago, TopCat said:

 

Well i imagine it wasn't on this years results. Jim took over us in 11th, finished 9th in his first season, 7th in his second and left us in 4th based on PPG. He's improved us every year he's been here and he did the same with Alloa. Good and bad runs happen, but the long term trajectory of clubs managed by Jim Goodwin is always upwards and that's why Aberdeen appointed him.

He was the comfortably the best Saints manager in my lifetime,, it should be a surprise to no one that a bigger club has taken him on. He's moved on and so must we. 

End of an era and end of thread

While I appreciated the uneventfulness of last season's end and believe we had a relatively successful year, I would suggest that Jim's team bottled the big occasions. Two semi finals against neither big clubs and failure to secure a top six finish against the weakest team in the league. If there ever was a definition of the "nearly man" that was it. If Aberdeen truly think themselves a massive club then it's those facts that make me  surprised they chose JG.

[The Original 59er]

On 2/20/2022 at 2:09 AM, portmahomack saint said:

Fuk him no interested in his bullshite 

He actually did go on record on Saturday on Radio Scotland pre-match against Motherwell and thanked Saints. He was really quite fulsome in his praise and thanks.

He also said he has left many friends here but he would probably have regretted and questioned himself if he had passed up the opportunity to manage at a higher level.

All perfectly sane, sensible and I think genuine.

[TopCat]

1 hour ago, stlucifer said:

While I appreciated the uneventfulness of last season's end and believe we had a relatively successful year, I would suggest that Jim's team bottled the big occasions. Two semi finals against neither big clubs and failure to secure a top six finish against the weakest team in the league. If there ever was a definition of the "nearly man" that was it. If Aberdeen truly think themselves a massive club then it's those facts that make me  surprised they chose JG.

I don't think we bottled them at all, both Livingston and St Johnstone finished above us in the league and they were favourites going into both games. Can you bottle a game in which you are the underdog?  Had we been knocked out by Aberdeen, Killie or Rangers in the earlier rounds of those cups (we beat all of them) would you accuse the team of bottling?

We missed out on top six due to our COVID issues and cup runs forcing us to play about 10 games in four weeks. Understandably the team fatigued, and even then we just missed out on goal difference. Still, even with all these off field issues going against us, we still secured our highest finish for over 30 years. The fact that some fans seem to want to paint our best finish in a generation as some kind of failure is pretty bizarre, but here we are. 

 

[stlucifer]

1 hour ago, TopCat said:

I don't think we bottled them at all, both Livingston and St Johnstone finished above us in the league and they were favourites going into both games. Can you bottle a game in which you are the underdog?  Had we been knocked out by Aberdeen, Killie or Rangers in the earlier rounds of those cups (we beat all of them) would you accuse the team of bottling?

We missed out on top six due to our COVID issues and cup runs forcing us to play about 10 games in four weeks. Understandably the team fatigued, and even then we just missed out on goal difference. Still, even with all these off field issues going against us, we still secured our highest finish for over 30 years. The fact that some fans seem to want to paint our best finish in a generation as some kind of failure is pretty bizarre, but here we are. 

 

I quite clearly Didn't say it was some kind of failure. Just not the sort of success that would cause the wow factor from a truly massive club that the sheep seem to think themselves. Saintees only finished above us BECAUSE we failed to win against the weakest team in the league and, in the other semi against Livi, we played as if for a draw. It was a dreadful performance. But you dress it up as you see fit.

[TPAFKA Jersey 2]

2 hours ago, TopCat said:

I don't think we bottled them at all, both Livingston and St Johnstone finished above us in the league and they were favourites going into both games. Can you bottle a game in which you are the underdog?  Had we been knocked out by Aberdeen, Killie or Rangers in the earlier rounds of those cups (we beat all of them) would you accuse the team of bottling?

We missed out on top six due to our COVID issues and cup runs forcing us to play about 10 games in four weeks. Understandably the team fatigued, and even then we just missed out on goal difference. Still, even with all these off field issues going against us, we still secured our highest finish for over 30 years. The fact that some fans seem to want to paint our best finish in a generation as some kind of failure is pretty bizarre, but here we are. 

 

 

58 minutes ago, stlucifer said:

I quite clearly Didn't say it was some kind of failure. Just not the sort of success that would cause the wow factor from a truly massive club that the sheep seem to think themselves. Saintees only finished above us BECAUSE we failed to win against the weakest team in the league and, in the other semi against Livi, we played as if for a draw. It was a dreadful performance. But you dress it up as you see fit.

I think the truth probably lies somewhere in between both your posts, although I lean more towards Top Cat’s than yours. He might be over egging the pudding a wee bit, but I think you are being way too critical. The league cup semi performance was a shocker it can’t be denied and Goodwin needs to shoulder a fair proportion of blame on that one as it did on the face of it appear to be tactics driven. The Scottish cup semi was a different kettle of fish. We just lost to a better team on the day.

As for the Hamilton game, FFS, you can’t lay the blame for a last 5 minutes capitulation in the last match before the split, at the door of the manager. If anybody shat it, it was the players. Does that undo all the previous good work and that fact that we still finished in a record 7th place? Of course it doesn’t. 
 

Anyway the whole thrust of this debate was can we or can we not see why Aberdeen went for JG. 
I most certainly can. 
 

[David Boyd]

On 2/19/2022 at 10:54 AM, TPAFKA Jersey 2 said:

I thank Jim for what he has done for the club and I’m very sad to see him go.

The one thing  don’t do is wish him well. Had he gone to England or somewhere else I would have. However, he has moved to one of our competitors so I hope he loses every single game and gets sacked before the start of next season. 

Why on earth would you wish he loses every single game. Surely that only gives points to our nearest rivals? 

 

Aberdeen are very unlikely to be our nearest rivals for long so I'm not sure you've thought this one out tbh. 

 

That's like saying you want to see Rangers and Celtic getting beat every week. 

 

Makes no sense