CoF
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Posts posted by CoF
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2 hours ago, Spiderpig said:
Mid table English championship is still a decent level, re quality of football and financially.
Yep, found an article with Luton Town's managing director from last year - they have a playing budget of £7m a year and operate a £6k per week salary cap and that's one of the lowest in the league. Our total staff budget in May 2019 was £4m (no idea what the playing budget is).
Going to a lower / mid table championship side will still see a player multiply their wages quite a few times over.
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46 minutes ago, steelman1991 said:
Certainly looks like someone who has had second thoughts
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkWhere'd you get that impression?
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14 minutes ago, bobbybingo said:
Serious question - is he actually here?
Official site has him out with a calf injury - wouldn't make much sense to be up here, away from family and teammates etc when he can get treatment at his parent club. There's every chance the loan deal is signed but crewe are the ones getting him fit.
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On 4/17/2021 at 9:26 AM, wellsince75 said:
This feels very similar to the Barraclough era for me.
GA has come in and helped us to safety - snap
Needs time to replace some of the squad - snap
Talks about the need to work hard, blah blah - snaplack of willingness to change the formation or adjust during the game - snap
Bit like when we stayed up people are happy to give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he does next seasonThe major difference is both joined us when we were 11th - Alexander now has us sitting comfortably in 9th with 4 games to go and we're 5th place in the form guides. Barraclough took us to rock bottom at one point then scraped into the play-off spot.
Different squads with different problems, but I have far more faith in Alexander than I ever did in Barraclough.
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21 hours ago, 0Neils40yarder said:
Just think it must've been a very difficult thing to actually prove
Maybe, but they were satisfied with Kamara's account and not Kudela's. I doubt they operate some sliding scale of punishment based on the probability of the offence having happened. Uefa are satisfied it happened yet only banned the guy for 6 weeks. That's poor.
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8 hours ago, fizoxy said:
I can see why Alexander keeps talking about mentality, as they just strolled about for the majority of that game like it was an inter squad match. I wonder if the lack of fans has caused some this drop off, but the lack of any urgency was frustrating. Even Longy was pissed off and he's Mr Motivator.
I think we need to accept that from now to the end of the season, when there's an injury there will be players forced into our starting 11 whose heart simply isn't in it.
Alexander said in this weeks press conference that when he joined, half the squad wanted to leave. Derek Ferguson on sportsound (for what his opinion is worth) kept describing last nights game as 'weird', commented quite a few times on the lack of urgency and application from us and felt it looked like a squad with big problems.
Alexander looks like he's got a ruthless streak, hopefully he's astute enough to get the right players out the door and the right players in this summer.
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9 hours ago, 0Neils40yarder said:
Did they have much in the way of evidence? Genuine question
No idea - Kamara's solicitor said they submitted a dossier of evidence.
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There's definitely a direct correlation between how shite we're playing and how annoying that constant noise of someone fannying about with the mic is.
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On 3/26/2021 at 6:10 PM, texanwellfan said:
Agree it’s a problem that society needs to address but at the same time if the governing football bodies are serious about stamping it out within the game then they need to have some severe consequences to punish offending clubs and that goes for religious crap as well. Football is not responsible for educating society on this but it can try to eradicate from the game and lead by example that it is not acceptable.
Massive opportunity missed this week with what amounts to a 6 week ban. Poor from UEFA.
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3 hours ago, Neilwell86 said:
Well well well...
That's incorrect.
Alexander has said he's free to leave in the summer. Nothing more, nothing less. The fact there isn't a clause, doesn't mean there wasn't a clause. That's the rumour, and the club and player have been vague in their response to it. Alexander's comments today doesn't offer any further clarity. If anything, his vague comment about being not being privy to "something" at the start of the season just adds a bit more fuel to the rumour.
Personally, I'm indifferent to it all now. Given the club, manager nor the player have been completely transparent suggests there was some contract wrangling, yet they all remained on good terms which suggests it's nowhere near as sinister or underhanded as some seem to believe. The board have proved in recent years that they're no mugs so if they're happy, I'm happy.
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A few posters have covered my thoughts already already.
Given Alexander's comments when he first came in that there we do have a decent squad but it's fuckin massive, and the fact he's got us sitting 5th in the form table tells me we'll keep the core of this squad, reduce numbers and try bolster with some quality instead of quantity.
How the academy fits into this I don't know.
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Fair play, that's a really good signing. We all know we've not seen O'Donnell at his best for us but you can say the same for just about every player in the last 16 months. Looking forward to seeing his performances in an Alexander styled team.
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It's been going this way for years, but it's definitely a loss to the game that the preferred model for players and clubs is now short term contracts / make a few quid along the way. We've been lucky enough in recent years to have had 3 players who immersed themselves in the club - Craigan, Lasley and Hammell - who had something like 1300 appearances between them. The club were criticised by a few on here for what they saw as the 'jobs for the boys' mentality when they were each offered positions after hanging up their boots, however I don't think we can underestimate the importance of having people around who have a genuine affection for the place. Hopefully the club continue to find ways to keep the heart of the club alive - I expect the academy is going to be one way to do it.
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19 minutes ago, C&A not the shop said:
46% win ratio so far (played 15, won 7, 3 draws, 5 losses).
Its a good record, especially when its not his team and with the injuries at the start of his reign.
I know you can use the old Ebbe Skohvdal statistics line but in a results business its a stretch to argue against him having done a good job.
Exactly. And behind those stats is a much improved defensive setup even when it's with makeshift personnel, and a striker who is now scoring goals (9 of Coles 10 goals this season have come since Alexander came in).
Those changes don't happen by chance.
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I see someone enquired about safe standing in the twitter replies - Alan Burrows has replied saying it's not possible to install safe standing in the Hunter due to the narrow rows however they are looking at installing it elsewhere in the stadium.
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32 minutes ago, Yorkyred said:
It’s something that’s grown arms and legs on here and seems to grow further limbs on a weekly basis based on what appears to be zero evidence. At times I think people pick and choose what they want to believe in the media, at times they seem to be complete frauds and then the next the fountain of all knowledge. The club and player have absolutely no obligation to make any comment on a contract and I would be furious if my employers did so with mine. I don’t believe it’s as simple as denying or confirming anything, everyone has a right to confidentiality. My staff team are constantly making things up and when anyone asks about another individual I always say the same thing ( in a very polite and carefully worded way) that it’s none of their business and remind them they would not want me discussing their life to others. I’m in the position of being aware of details others are not aware of and that comes with a responsibility, that exactly the same with those running the club.
I get what your saying, but we're not talking about gossip among co-workers. The fans are the backbone of the club and we're talking about an initial allegation that the club captain wasn't happy with his contract situation, then the bizarre theories about him faking an injury right in the middle of a relegation fight. Taking aside the injury nonsense, the allegations about the contract and all the rumour surrounding it go right to the heart of the captains commitment and / or the clubs competence to make watertight contracts and / or competence in dealing with 'difficult' players. Either that or the clause has never existed or it's been a simple renegotiation which has left both the club and player happy, which I'm sure most the fans would be content with. Personally, I've got confidence in those that run the club and I think it's likely the situation is nowhere near as complex as folk are making out, so I'm not sure why the club or player don't quash those rumours.
Your right that club are under no obligation to make any comment, yet they regularly do. Contracts are made public when players are first signed, often with details of extension options. The club regularly release statements via the site or via the manager that a player has been offered a new contract, or is in talks about an extension, or that the manager is going to speak to them about an extension. Let's not pretend contracts are top secret.
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10 hours ago, David said:
He was pretending to be injured while he held the club to ransom until they removed the trigger from his contract without telling anyone! Keep up!
I think the faking an injury stuff is nonsense, however it seems highly likely that there was a clause and now there's not. You just need to look at Alexander's comments when he first came in "I’ve read about Declan’s situation and we’ll assess it." Then when asked about the extension clause in February "I’m not going to get into details of contracts". The club was vague in their response at the AGM and the player has been vague in his responses on social media.
They've all had ample opportunity to provide clarity and for some reason have preferred to let bizarre rumours do the rounds instead. Fans don't expect to see contract fineprint, but a simple statement saying a "mutually beneficial deal has been agreed" would put an end to the idea that our club captain has shafted the club during a relegation fight.
Its a strange situation.
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On 3/28/2021 at 3:54 PM, Shaka said:
Crazy to think, but for a tickbox sheet, it couldve been us who enjoyed him in his prime rather than the blue side.
What's this story?
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7 hours ago, David said:
Then why hasn't the Record mentioned that the trigger stipulation has supposedly been quietly removed from his contract? That latest article they haven't even referred to the same thing they made a big deal of claiming would scupper his move to his boyhood club!
The Record are at it!
That's my thoughts. There's hasn't been a mention of the clause removal in any article since - only statements that he's out of contract in the summer. There also seemed to be some back-tracking by the record in an article mid-January - "Reports suggesting that Gallagher has been reluctant to trigger this clause appear to be inaccurate with the Scotland international displaying admirable professionalism despite the rumours."
However, and this is the weird bit for me. - both the club and the player have responded directly to the rumours, the club at the AGM and the player on twitter quite a few times, and at no point have the actually stated the clause didn't exist. They've chosen instead to give vague answers. I don't think he's been faking an injury, but I think there is more to this situation than just a newspaper making shit up.
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Curtis Main, Shea Gordon and Joe Chalmers all hitting the net last night for Shrewsbury, Partick and Ayr.
Bigiramana with a man of the match performance for Glentorran.
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2 hours ago, wellsince75 said:
I'm not sure why S'OD is so unpopular with fans.
Personal view is he's as strong a right back as I can remember for some time. I much prefer him to Carrol on the left - who get's less stick from the well faithful.
Suspect it's something to do with him being in the national team, thus having big expectations.
In my very long and extensive list of players who I'd like to leave SOD isn't one of them, albeit it's unlikely we'll be able to keep him.I'll start by saying I've no problem with O'Donnell - I think he's been mostly good and I've never doubted his commitment on the pitch.
However I think for many, including myself a wee bit here, it all comes down to perceptions about commitment and attitude towards the club. There's a perception, rightly or wrongly, that O'Donnell signed for us in the summer window because we were a last resort. He wanted a bigger club, it didn't happen and settled for Motherwell. He was then offered an extension in December and didn't sign it till the last day of the window - again, the perception was that he was expecting something bigger then had to settle for us.
We all know that players come here with aspirations and no-one would begrudge a player weighing up options first, but I think if you give the impression that you were expecting bigger things to come your way, as opposed to just hoping they would, then you better show on the pitch why you had those grand ideas in the first place. Unfortunately O'Donnell hasn't really done that.
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2 minutes ago, mfc88 said:
Would love to see a fully fit dunne of the 17/18 season play for us again. Sadly I don't see that happening after the length of time he's been out. I hope I'm wrong.
When did he last play for us out of interest? Must be well over a year - year and a half?
Last game was 24th August 2019. 19th months ago.
He had his operation in September 2019 - I can't recall if there's been further setbacks, or what the current position is now.
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20 minutes ago, Spiderpig said:
When we get rid of the loans and dross we will still have a good core of players to build a team around, so there will be cash available for players maybe even some extra from the board.
Developing our own players and recruiring from the lower English and Scottish leagues is our market, so given GA's contacts and experience I am confident we can identify decent players to bring in.
Over the years we have brought in some good players, as well as some utter dross but every signing from those leagues is a punt so hopefully GA can find some gems that fit our club and style, as always time will tell.
Alexander has commented on the size of our squad so I anticipate he'll be looking at improving the quality over quantity next transfer window.
He's hardly covered himself in glory with the his signings so far however managers frequently talk of how difficult it is finding quality in the January window and I can only assume the signings of Smith, Nolan and Foley were desperate measures due to the injury situation at the time. He needs a decent shot at building a squad.
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3 hours ago, Andy_P said:
Not much in it for the remainder of the first half and I'd even go so far as to say we started the second half marginally the brighter but losing two in quick succession just took it completely away (not to discount the poor defending in both cases) and there was an element of being caught chasing things when they added their fourth.
That can happen at times.
That's it for me. Definitely not as shambolic a performance as the St Johnstone and Hamilton games. In those games we looked completely clueless whereas yesterday Killie at least had to play their part in nullifying everything we tried.
Season 2020’21: Game 35: Hamilton (A)
in Club Chat
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I'll take a guess at Roberts. A late fitness test less than a fortnight after what looked like a horrendous injury sounds too good to be true for the player and the club.