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McPherson sacked


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1 hour ago, piehutt said:

Gus had a record of solid and unspectacular from previous roles, and he was true to form. A lot of draws, narrow defeats and not enough wins. A real lack of directness about our play is probably the most frustrating part under Gus. 

When you think of our budget and the number of youngsters / loanees in the side, it is no real surprise we are where we are with the budget available. Some of the teams around us are far better resourced (Dunfermline, Hamilton) and others (Ayr, QoTS) probably similar .

Added to that the last 5 years or so of operating on year to year contracts for players and effectively rebuilding the squad every summer has taken it's toll. 

That all adds up for me that we are in a worse position than some maybe think and changing managers isn't necessarily going to help us a great deal. 

Problem I see is that there are more clubs than there are decent manager about. Rolling the dice on one of the usual suspects (probably someone who is currently out of work) is unfortunately what we can expect at this stage. 

Names.... 

Stuart Kettlewell - had a decent run with Ross County and possibly sacked a bit prematurely. 

Alan Archibald - currently assisting or coaching at Thistle. I doubt he'd leave Thistle at this stage, but could be a decent chance for him to get back to management, if that's where he wants to be.

Paul Sheerin - just dismissed by Falkrik. IMO Falkirk are a club in turmoil and so it would be harsh to judge him on less than 2 dozen games. 

Struggling to think of anyone with a Morton connection. A fair old gamble to offer Chris Millar or Weatherson the job, imo. 

Wouldn't be overly keen on Stevie Aitken, albeit could be about our level and he would probably be very interested. 

Have seen McInnes mentioned. Assuming he wants to get back into management, this would be a huge risk for him. Maybe he'll back himself to give us 6 months and get us up the table, but very little upside for him at this stage in his career when he possibly has one decent offer left from the right club. 

 

 

In a sense I get where you're coming from, but it's never, ever the job of a football club to settle for some sort of acceptable minimum. The aim should always be as high as possible. Without being unrealistic, the aim should be some form of progress with a view to some successes. 

Put it this way. In Gus's 24 league matches, we picked up 20 points. In the 24 league matches prior to Gus joining, we picked up 30 points. We've regressed. It's December, we've won one league match at Cappielow in 2021. Gus has been here since mid-March. It's regrettable in a way, but we had to do something - fans cannot accept not seeing the team win. 

And new manager appointments are always a risk. Duffy looked like a terrible appointment, but that was a relatively good one. JJ's appointment looked a bit exciting and different, but ended up being very negative and dull. It might not improve things, but that doesn't mean that it's not the right decision to make. Billy Dodds currently has ICT top, who'd have picked that out as a good appointment? Dick Campbell is doing brilliantly with Arbroath. McGlynn and McCall are the other managers up there in the league at the moment - who both had to come back from failures and time away. It's an exceptionally tough decision to make, but there will be a fair few options out there. I don't think the club did a bad thing in appointing Gus, but it wasn't working out. The two year deal was a massive mistake, and hopefully we've learned from that. 

I'd like to see us look for a manager who is genuinely excited by the opportunity. We need a manager that isn't going to talk the club down - we've had enough of that. 

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1 hour ago, SpoonTon said:

In a sense I get where you're coming from, but it's never, ever the job of a football club to settle for some sort of acceptable minimum. The aim should always be as high as possible. Without being unrealistic, the aim should be some form of progress with a view to some successes. 

Put it this way. In Gus's 24 league matches, we picked up 20 points. In the 24 league matches prior to Gus joining, we picked up 30 points. We've regressed. It's December, we've won one league match at Cappielow in 2021. Gus has been here since mid-March. It's regrettable in a way, but we had to do something - fans cannot accept not seeing the team win. 

And new manager appointments are always a risk. Duffy looked like a terrible appointment, but that was a relatively good one. JJ's appointment looked a bit exciting and different, but ended up being very negative and dull. It might not improve things, but that doesn't mean that it's not the right decision to make. Billy Dodds currently has ICT top, who'd have picked that out as a good appointment? Dick Campbell is doing brilliantly with Arbroath. McGlynn and McCall are the other managers up there in the league at the moment - who both had to come back from failures and time away. It's an exceptionally tough decision to make, but there will be a fair few options out there. I don't think the club did a bad thing in appointing Gus, but it wasn't working out. The two year deal was a massive mistake, and hopefully we've learned from that. 

I'd like to see us look for a manager who is genuinely excited by the opportunity. We need a manager that isn't going to talk the club down - we've had enough of that. 

Agree that it was time for a change. But it's never as easy a decision as some make out and there are usually a number of other factors for a teams lack of results than just the manager.

And as you've said, the club are now in the position where there is a recruitment process to be done and that becomes a situation where you can't control all of the variables. 

In the case of the examples that you've mentioned, sometimes there is just a synergy where things work out and could never be realistically predicted and there is a bit of luck involved. 

But I do agree about the hunger - ideally someone who is keen to build a CV, but isn't a Barry Ferguson type who obviously doesn't have to work for a living and will be off at the 1st phone call from an English League One or Scottish Premier club. 

 

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Would I be right in assuming by the wording of the Gus announcement - using 'relieved of duties' rather than 'sacked', 'parted company' or 'mutually agreed departure' that Gus hasn't been sacked/paid off but rather placed on gardening leave?

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47 minutes ago, irnbru said:

Anderson, Millen and Sutton in charge for the next game. 

Could it be that Millen will be staying but not being promoted to manager?

"Any nation given the opportunity to regain its national sovereignty and which then rejects it is so far beneath contempt that it is hard to put words to it."

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8 minutes ago, Jamie_M said:

Would I be right in assuming by the wording of the Gus announcement - using 'relieved of duties' rather than 'sacked', 'parted company' or 'mutually agreed departure' that Gus hasn't been sacked/paid off but rather placed on gardening leave?

I'd imagine that's the case and probably financially the best option for the board given the contract they handed him. 

Good people will do good things, bad people will do bad things, but only with religion do good people do bad things!

 

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4 minutes ago, port-ton said:

I'd imagine that's the case and probably financially the best option for the board given the contract they handed him. 

So we keep paying him and hope he gets offered another job at some point so he agrees a reduced settlement for his release.

Also seems this is the case with us keeping Millen around.

Their 'robust recruitment process' is likely to include interviewing Millen, and a desirable for external candidates will be whether they will agree to work with him rather than bringing in their own assistant.

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6 hours ago, piehutt said:

Gus had a record of solid and unspectacular from previous roles, and he was true to form. A lot of draws, narrow defeats and not enough wins. A real lack of directness about our play is probably the most frustrating part under Gus. 

When you think of our budget and the number of youngsters / loanees in the side, it is no real surprise we are where we are with the budget available. Some of the teams around us are far better resourced (Dunfermline, Hamilton) and others (Ayr, QoTS) probably similar .

Added to that the last 5 years or so of operating on year to year contracts for players and effectively rebuilding the squad every summer has taken it's toll. 

Poor wee Morton having to sign players.

Every club at this level does the same thing. 

We have a 25-man squad. Excluding those players who haven't yet appeared (Bysouth, Stafford etc.) it breaks down this way:

20 total players, of which,
5 loanees who, almost by definition, only signed this season
3 new signings (Hamilton, Ugwu, Lithgow)
12 who were here last season.

A majority, then. And several of those have been here for ages. That's nowhere near unusual. Why is it taking its toll on us and not the opposition? Hamilton, who are struggling mightily, have even more settled players than us. Why aren't they winning more than they are?

What I will say is that Inverness and to a slightly lesser extent Arbroath have pretty settled squads. Perhaps this does contribute to their success. But the alternative can be just as dangerous. Falkirk gave a three-year deal to Brad McKay only to discover he's basically a competition winner. Stability and a settled squad are great ideas on paper but, as with everything else, it comes down to execution.

There are people at the club who for years have resented having to sign players each summer. That mindset needs to go - we operate at this level of the game where one-year deals are a regular thing. (And how many of those one-year deals have been amazing players who we've lost for nothing and have gone on to bigger and better things? Remarkably few, in fact.) We need that flexibility, and we need people who view it as an inevitable thing - and perhaps even an opportunity - rather than yet another thing to feel hard-done-by about.

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I know it's a tightrope for the comms guys to walk as anything they say will be picked apart... but every bit of public engagement from the club this season has absolutely reeked of Crawford Rae-era "boo hoo, too wee, too shite" defeatism.

"This season, in the first of community ownership, the focus is undoubtedly survival in the Championship"

Raith and Arbroath are mounting a title challenge. Get in the bin.

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3 minutes ago, TopCat said:

I know it's a tightrope for the comms guys to walk as anything they say will be picked apart... but every bit of public engagement from the club this season has absolutely reeked of Crawford Rae-era "boo hoo, too wee, too shite" defeatism.

"This season, in the first of community ownership, the focus is undoubtedly survival in the Championship"

Raith and Arbroath are mounting a title challenge. Get in the bin.

I didn't say this at the time but when Chris Ross was talking about all the success stories so far he made a point of noting that hospitality at Cappielow was hard because Cappielow is small.

It's such a minor thing but it says so, so much. Why even bring that up? Was that a surprise to him, or anyone? Did he think when he took the job he was getting the capacity of the Armadillo, or perhaps a Tardis? Does he think nobody else in the world has been inconvenienced by space during this, The Age Of COVID? Is there any reason - any reason at all - to even mention that in what was supposed to be a positive message except as yet more of that same attitude that everything's shite and everything's a Sisyphean struggle because Morton are just hopeless and nobody knows the troubles I've seen?

They need to get all of this so far to fuck, I'm absolutely sick of hearing it. If they're fighting such a losing battle maybe they're the fucking losers.

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And more to the specific point: if the focus - not the requirement, not even the aim - is survival in the Championship, then sacking Gus was extremely harsh on him because too wee, too poor, too stupid Morton are currently in the lofty heights of 8th place.

These guys need to figure out what they want and sharpish.

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The “decent guy” is unfortunately irrelevant in football. While we were celebrating Our equaliser Gus ran out and signalled to Our players to sit back and hold out for a draw. The players completely disobeyed his orders and tried to get the winning goal, which ironically would probably have saved Gus’s job. It’s the first time I can remember that a Manager has actually stopped Us from winning a match. Why not approach Derek McInnes with an offer to manage Us to the end of the season, then both parties can decide what We do next?

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I would like to think that were looking at all options, very open to have a successful junior manager come in, someone line Tommy Sloan.

we really need someone that wont be scared to get stuck in and tell the diddys like Muirhead to get there boots and fuck off. 

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39 minutes ago, DreamOakTree said:

The “decent guy” is unfortunately irrelevant in football. While we were celebrating Our equaliser Gus ran out and signalled to Our players to sit back and hold out for a draw. The players completely disobeyed his orders and tried to get the winning goal, which ironically would probably have saved Gus’s job. It’s the first time I can remember that a Manager has actually stopped Us from winning a match. Why not approach Derek McInnes with an offer to manage Us to the end of the season, then both parties can decide what We do next?

Unless he’s suffered some sort of brain injury why on earth would millionaire Derek McInnes be in any way interested?  

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17 minutes ago, TheGoon said:

Unless he’s suffered some sort of brain injury why on earth would millionaire Derek McInnes be in any way interested?  

The closest analogy I can think of was ages ago now - when Craig Levein went to Raith Rovers. He'd just left Leicester and was still a big name, but he basically came in as a favor to the club since he supported them. He was there for two months or so, during which time he had an appalling record (one win in seven.) But it didn't do him any harm as they were seen as in dire straits at the time. (I'm sure we beat them at Starks while Levein was there?)

That was a long time ago, 2006. I can't think of any similar situation in Scotland since then. And at that point it was made clear that this wasn't even an end-of-the-season thing. It was basically an until-a-job-opens-up thing, and that's exactly what happened.

For McInnes the risk far outweighs the reward. I'm sure he remembers his time at Morton fondly and I'm sure he's a very decent guy but ultimately he's a professional manager and I think he'd steer well clear. It costs us nothing to make an approach, of course (except maybe a bit of credibility?) Same with Warnock. No harm really in reaching out but unless we know what we're asking him for it's a bit of a waste of time.

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