I posted this on the Facebook page and felt it was relevant here too.

I've come to the conclusion tonight that the issue isn't with the management (don't dare criticise me Rig or Highland Capital!!), its with a small number of players who just aren't good enough to play for us, it's time they had a hard look at themselves and started improving if they want to stay at the club.

It's a well known phrase in football that no player is irreplaceable so I'd quite happily let these players go and either replace them with youngsters (I've said numerous times that some are capable of the step up to the first team) or with affordable players out of contract at other clubs.

Imho we need to look at Dundee Utd who at the start of this season and especially in January started signing quality players rather than quantity and look at them now.

 

Now I know that means selling our best players in order to get in the said quality players but imho we need to start rebuilding the squad anyway so it's about time Mr Gardiner started to back the manager in the transfer market because its now about time we got out this league, we've been in it far too long which is unacceptable in itself.

Rant over 😁.

So, let me get this right.  Some of our players aren't good enough. Your solution is to sell our best players!

 

8 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

it's time they had a hard look at themselves and started improving

If you ever write a book on football management, I’d buy it!

9 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

I posted this on the Facebook page and felt it was relevant here too.

I've come to the conclusion tonight that the issue isn't with the management (don't dare criticise me Rig or Highland Capital!!), its with a small number of players who just aren't good enough to play for us, it's time they had a hard look at themselves and started improving if they want to stay at the club.

It's a well known phrase in football that no player is irreplaceable so I'd quite happily let these players go and either replace them with youngsters (I've said numerous times that some are capable of the step up to the first team) or with affordable players out of contract at other clubs.

Imho we need to look at Dundee Utd who at the start of this season and especially in January started signing quality players rather than quantity and look at them now.

 

Now I know that means selling our best players in order to get in the said quality players but imho we need to start rebuilding the squad anyway so it's about time Mr Gardiner started to back the manager in the transfer market because its now about time we got out this league, we've been in it far too long which is unacceptable in itself.

Rant over 😁.

So who are the good players you would sell and who are the rubbish players you would *checks notes* keep...?

9 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

its now about time we got out this league, we've been in it far too long which is unacceptable in itself.

I assume you weren't a supporter when both teams spent nearly 110 years in the Highland League? 

2 hours ago, RiG said:

So who are the good players you would sell and who are the rubbish players you would *checks notes* keep...?

Did you not read the post? You are one of those forbidden from criticism of it 😁

Its so easy to manage a team in Football Manager ... the real world - not so much! 

The reality is that you are dealing with personalities, conflicts, real world stuff ... and employees (players) who will have a good day at the office or a bad one, just like us. Throw in a business operating on a shoestring, and an entire  industry operating in a fishbowl, that has a customer base with very strong opinions based on emotions and tribalism, where today's heroes are tomorrow's villains and once again next week's heroes, and its literally impossible to please everyone, or at times, anyone.   

You don't just throw out the baby with the bath water. There may be a few players who will or need to move on come the end of the season, but moving on an entire team of players is neither practical or sensible. Quite apart from the fact that we cant force players who are in contract out the door, nor can we necessarily afford to terminate contracts, replacing all of these players with youngsters is also at best risky, and at worst disastrous. While I believe in the mantra that if you are good enough, you are old enough, the simple fact is that younger players are neither physically or mentally prepared to play 40+ games in a season and I very much doubt we have 18 youngsters ready to make the step up to first team + subs bench. The best managers have traditionally had a blend of youth and experience and rotated those youngsters in and out of their sides so they gain experience but don't get burned out so that then means you may need 25 of a squad to rotate the 11+7 matchday squad ... we do not have that.     

I think certain people need to read properly before being critical!!

 

where did I say I'd keep the players not classed as top players, if you READ paragraph one you'd see that clearly.

 

I don't know why I bother posting sometimes because I clearly feel unwelcome and not allowed an opinion :(, sorry mods but that's my opinion, clearly one or two posters are waiting to pounce every post I make!

Ps, good post Scotty, very valid points made and not once did you slam me in the post unlike the others :).

Edited April 20, 20224 yr by CaleyTennis
Adding to post

1 hour ago, CaleyTennis said:

I think certain people need to read properly before being critical!!

 

where did I say I'd keep the players not classed as top players, if you READ paragraph one you'd see that clearly.

 

I don't know why I bother posting sometimes because I clearly feel unwelcome and not allowed an opinion :(, sorry mods but that's my opinion, clearly one or two posters are waiting to pounce every post I make!

Ps, good post Scotty, very valid points made and not once did you slam me in the post unlike the others :).

Who would you get rid of and who would you keep?

25 minutes ago, RiG said:

Who would you get rid of and who would you keep?

I'll answer that later but only if you stop being so bloody critical of everything I say 😁.

56 minutes ago, CaleyTennis said:

I'll answer that later but only if you stop being so bloody critical of everything I say 😁.

It's a discussion forum designed for fans to respectfully disagree with one another.

CaleyTennis, if you start a thread you can expect people to pass comment or ask you to clarify what you are saying.  If you carefully read what you have written, you might understand why people are responding as they are.  You start by saying that the issue is "with a small number of players who just aren't good enough to play for us", but later say that part of the solution "means selling our best players".  Presumably players who are not good enough to play for us need to be off-loaded, so that would leave us with a middling group of players who, in your opinion are good enough to play for us but are not the best players.  In that context, it is perfectly reasonable to expect you to clarify who you feel we should keep and who you think we should off-load.

Personally, I think it is a good idea to try to keep our best players.  I also don't think there is an "issue".  Given where we were financially pre-Covid, the management team and the players have done a great job to get us where we are.  Of course there have been games where we have underperformed, but on balance, we've done pretty well to sit 3rd in the table with just a couple of games to go.  We may not be where we want to be, but we are heading in the right direction.  If some people started supporting the club rather than constantly criticising it, we might be a little closer to where we want to be.

 

Both RIG and DD have made very fair and valid points.

Rather than taking umbrage, why don't you respond and positively contribute to the thread that you started ? 

You are as entitled as anyone to your views but others are equally entitled to challenge you or seek clarification.

Well here goes 😁.

The players I'd sell would be Robbie Deas and Roddy MacGregor if we get reasonable offers for them (and it has to be reasonable otherwise the club are well within their rights to reject the offers). 

Then I'd look at offloading Wallace Duffy (Itrulybelievewe can attract better plus he's been criticised a lot), Aaron Doran and Kirk Broadfoot (these 2 because they aren't getting younger).

Then there's the loanees going back to their parent clubs so that would leave plenty of wages available to get in replacements.

That leaves us with a squad of:-

GK: Mark Ridgers and Cameron Mackay 

LB: Cameron Harper, Aly Riddle and Lewis Nicolson. 

RB: Ryan Fyffe (can also play CB)

CB: Daniel Devine and Harry Nicolson 

Attacking Midfielders: Tom Walsh, Robbie Thompson and Harry Hennem 

Defensive Midfielders: Scott Allardice, Sean Welsh and Lewis Hyde 

Central Midfielders: David Carson (can also play RB) and Reece McAlear (if he signs permanently)

Strikers/Forwards: Billy McKay, Austin Samuels, Ethan Cairns and Shane Sutherland. 

Imho our first priority for next season would be to get Reece McAlear and possibly Logan Chalmers (though he's unlikely as I see him getting more games at Dundee Utd) signed up permanently. 

And yes I agree that DoofersDad makes a valid post but it doesn't make me feel any more welcome here, I can't help feeling that way.

No wonder I don't post very often 😞 😞 😞.

Edited April 20, 20224 yr by CaleyTennis

10 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

Well here goes 😁.

The players I'd sell would be Robbie Deas and Roddy MacGregor if we get reasonable offers for them (and it has to be reasonable otherwise the club are well within their rights to reject the offers). 

Then I'd look at offloading Wallace Duffy (Itrulybelievewe can attract better plus he's been criticised a lot), Aaron Doran and Kirk Broadfoot (these 2 because they aren't getting younger).

Then there's the loanees going back to their parent clubs so that would leave plenty of wages available to get in replacements.

That leaves us with a squad of:-

GK: Mark Ridgers and Cameron Mackay 

LB: Cameron Harper, Aly Riddle and Lewis Nicolson. 

RB: Ryan Fyffe (can also play CB)

CB: Daniel Devine and Harry Nicolson 

Attacking Midfielders: Tom Walsh, Robbie Thompson and Harry Hennem 

Defensive Midfielders: Scott Allardice, Sean Welsh and Lewis Hyde 

Central Midfielders: David Carson (can also play RB) and Reece McAlear (if he signs permanently)

Strikers/Forwards: Billy McKay, Austin Samuels, Ethan Cairns and Shane Sutherland. 

Imho our first priority for next season would be to get Reece McAlear and possibly Logan Chalmers (though he's unlikely as I see him getting more games at Dundee Utd) signed up permanently. 

And yes I agree that DoofersDad makes a valid post but it doesn't make me feel any more welcome here, I can't help feeling that way.

No wonder I don't post very often 😞 😞 😞.

If you feel as badly treated you should stop reading and posting. 

Well I enjoy your contributions CaleyTennis. Even if they overreact somewhat to disappointing results, they certainly entertain and spark debate!

Hi CaleyTennis

Think your being a bit harsh on some of our players, let's face it if they were that good they'd be playing elsewhere [as I often say at Palace about players costing a lot more]

I understand your basic premise of selling a quality player in order to fund several quality players. That could work in the EPL where a really decent player could command a very big fee, and clever  recruitment can find 2-3 decent players to come  in [I'll ignore the sky high wages for mundane players bit for now] Unfortunately the Scottish leagues don't command such fees, I think we just about got 500k for Ryan Christie and he was a top prospect, Daniel Mackay I suspect went for quite a bit less, and I can hardly see MacGregor funding any sort of spending spree. Deas might well be off at the end of the season but if we got £100k I'd be surprised. Likewise any players who might be on decent wages are on those because we are trying to retain them.  Your list of players to be retained does seem to rely on an awful lot of our young inexperienced players. As a club with  a small average attendance , bugger all TV money, and few lucrative sponsorships we are pretty constrained, as to what we can afford. I also watch Sutton United who got promoted to the English League 2 last season from the National league, and there are several players there that would cost more than Ryan Christie to obtain for us  [David Ajiboye would be one I'd love up here} 

So in reality when we lose one of our better players, it's quite a hard job just to replace them let alone achieve a 2-1  replacement ratio

One priority this summer [assuming we don't get promoted] has to be to secure a decent pacy right back that allows Dave Carson to stay in midfield and not rely on Wallace Duffy who I think is better at CB [he certainly looked good there against Arbroath] this would offset Deas' exit if he went with us then relying on Harper at LB and he's decent enough there. That we still leave us short on CB cover, I'd actually keep Broadfoot, and then look to find a young CB prospect.

If I won the lottery I'd certainly fund Logan Chalmers, but I reckon he'll go back to his parent club with reputation enhanced more likely to play for them. Norwich are going down so I expect Reece McAlear to get more chances in the English Championship [but I'd certainly keep him if I could]

I like Tom Walsh, but in reality has he contributed that much? I'd keep Doran over him, either way we will want a winger who can stick a decent cross in on a regular basis. Samuels I think will come good next year, and a retained fully fit MacGregor will be an asset that would ortherwise cost more to replace. Welsh migh be the guy to move on if Allardice is fully fit.

So my outs are Walsh, Welsh, perhaps Doran, Deas [only if hand is forced] Hardy [loan finished] along with McAlear and Chalmers unlikey to extend loans.  In's would be  a) a RB  b) a winger c) a CB   d) a holding midfielder.   as an aside I wonder if we can get Scott Banks on loan from Crystal Palace, he'd slot in nicely in midfield [he's highly regarded at CPFC but chances are few in the PL]  meanwhile does Lawrence Shankland want to come back to the UK? [although that would need real money not luncheon vouchers!]]

 

You want rid of Bradford and Doran as they are aging, yet keep Mckay & Sutherland?

TBH, there probably is a case that the squad needs a bit of an overhaul and certainly hasn't got the strength and depth for Premiership football with certain players probably not able to compete at that level, but much will depend on what league we are in.

15 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

Well here goes 😁.

The players I'd sell would be Robbie Deas and Roddy MacGregor if we get reasonable offers for them (and it has to be reasonable otherwise the club are well within their rights to reject the offers). 

Then I'd look at offloading Wallace Duffy (Itrulybelievewe can attract better plus he's been criticised a lot), Aaron Doran and Kirk Broadfoot (these 2 because they aren't getting younger).

Then there's the loanees going back to their parent clubs so that would leave plenty of wages available to get in replacements.

That leaves us with a squad of:-

GK: Mark Ridgers and Cameron Mackay 

LB: Cameron Harper, Aly Riddle and Lewis Nicolson. 

RB: Ryan Fyffe (can also play CB)

CB: Daniel Devine and Harry Nicolson 

Attacking Midfielders: Tom Walsh, Robbie Thompson and Harry Hennem 

Defensive Midfielders: Scott Allardice, Sean Welsh and Lewis Hyde 

Central Midfielders: David Carson (can also play RB) and Reece McAlear (if he signs permanently)

Strikers/Forwards: Billy McKay, Austin Samuels, Ethan Cairns and Shane Sutherland. 

Imho our first priority for next season would be to get Reece McAlear and possibly Logan Chalmers (though he's unlikely as I see him getting more games at Dundee Utd) signed up permanently. 

And yes I agree that DoofersDad makes a valid post but it doesn't make me feel any more welcome here, I can't help feeling that way.

No wonder I don't post very often 😞 😞 😞.

I think that would be quite a big turnover of players. We've tended to do best when the turnover in the summer is kept to a minimum and most of the arrivals are just to pad out the squad. That said, I do think that we will see Deas depart and possibly MacGregor (though his time out with an injury has curtailed his production and there is less talk about him as a result which might be to our benefit). Doran has looked much more useful as a 10 so I'd be inclined to hold onto him for another season but I do see Broadfoot retiring.

I'd be wary about relying on youth players too much. We'd need them to be firing on all cylinders from the word go and I am not sure many of them are ready yet. Harper, who had looked promising in the odd cup match, has looked poor on too many occasions for me to see him as a first choice and I feel that would be applicable to a lot of the youth players you'd like to see step up. No issue with seeing some more of them coming through but we need to strike a balance between that and having players featuring who are doing stuff for us right away.

McAlear will likely get released by Norwich but I can see other sides in for him and if we don't get promoted then we would likely lose out to a team like Killie (if they go up), Saint Mirren or Saint Johnstone type (i.e. bottom half of the Premiership). Wouldn't mind seeing Chalmers back though. There's a lot to be said for these kinds of players maybe "sacrificing" a year or two of their careers to get regular football with us then going onto something bigger and better.

I’m asking myself the question “which players are Premier League standard” in our squad, but also under contract next season. In the eventuality we were promoted via the playoffs that is. 
 

In the context of where the squad is I think it would be one of our greatest achievements to date if we were to get promoted and stay up if I’m honest. 

2 hours ago, RiG said:

I do see Broadfoot retiring.

Having heard reports of him mentoring other players, being a model professional, and being a stabilising and organising influence on the pitch, I wonder whether there could be a role for him as a defensive coach, whilst retaining his player's registration in case of emergency.

21 hours ago, CaleyTennis said:

Well here goes 😁.

The players I'd sell would be Robbie Deas and Roddy MacGregor if we get reasonable offers for them (and it has to be reasonable otherwise the club are well within their rights to reject the offers). 

Then I'd look at offloading Wallace Duffy (Itrulybelievewe can attract better plus he's been criticised a lot), Aaron Doran and Kirk Broadfoot (these 2 because they aren't getting younger).

Then there's the loanees going back to their parent clubs so that would leave plenty of wages available to get in replacements.

That leaves us with a squad of:-

GK: Mark Ridgers and Cameron Mackay 

LB: Cameron Harper, Aly Riddle and Lewis Nicolson. 

RB: Ryan Fyffe (can also play CB)

CB: Daniel Devine and Harry Nicolson 

Attacking Midfielders: Tom Walsh, Robbie Thompson and Harry Hennem 

Defensive Midfielders: Scott Allardice, Sean Welsh and Lewis Hyde 

Central Midfielders: David Carson (can also play RB) and Reece McAlear (if he signs permanently)

Strikers/Forwards: Billy McKay, Austin Samuels, Ethan Cairns and Shane Sutherland. 

Imho our first priority for next season would be to get Reece McAlear and possibly Logan Chalmers (though he's unlikely as I see him getting more games at Dundee Utd) signed up permanently. 

And yes I agree that DoofersDad makes a valid post but it doesn't make me feel any more welcome here, I can't help feeling that way.

No wonder I don't post very often 😞 😞 

I say, get rid of Aaron Doran?

Off with your head, that's Treason!!!

11 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Well I enjoy your contributions CaleyTennis. Even if they overreact somewhat to disappointing results, they certainly entertain and spark debate!

I'll take that 😁😁😀😀😀.

 

Anyway it doesn't matter what I think because I can't see many guys leaving anyway :).

I do think that the summer transfer window is going to be crucial but I'd like us to have a good league cup campaign and then make another early statement in the league and this time keep up the momentum because I really can't see anyone that we should fear bar St J, even  Dundee doesn't faze me.

 

I still stand by this statement though lol: It's about time we got out this league once and for all!

 

Oh and in addition to who you'd like us to look at @Eagle4Caley, I'll add Craig Sibbald as I see he's out of contract at the end of the season

Edited April 21, 20224 yr by CaleyTennis
Adding players to the wishlist 🤣

8 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

You want rid of Bradford and Doran as they are aging, yet keep Mckay & Sutherland?

TBH, there probably is a case that the squad needs a bit of an overhaul and certainly hasn't got the strength and depth for Premiership football with certain players probably not able to compete at that level, but much will depend on what league we are in.

The first time we went up, we had a solid squad with Wilson, McBain, Tokely, Golabek, Munro, McCaffrey, Mikey Fraser, Duncan, Brown and Proctor while we added a few such as Juanjo, Black, Bayne & Dods. The squad we have now would need a lot more work.

12 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Well I enjoy your contributions CaleyTennis. Even if they overreact somewhat to disappointing results, they certainly entertain and spark debate!

Me too. Keep at it. Just try to be just a little less sensitive.

1 minute ago, TheMantis said:

The first time we went up, we had a solid squad with Wilson, McBain, Tokely, Golabek, Munro, McCaffrey, Mikey Fraser, Duncan, Brown and Proctor while we added a few such as Juanjo, Black, Bayne & Dods. The squad we have now would need a lot more work.

I agree. We might need to look at the coaching set up too.

However, first we need to negotiate the still extremely difficult task of getting there before we seriously consider what we might require to stay there.