During the segment on Alfie Mawson on Football Focus I was surprised to hear Danny Murphy say that when Alfie left Brentford and joined Wycombe Wanderers he was at a point that he was seriously thinking about jacking football in. What do Reds fans think might have changed his mind to see him eventually decide not to go from Wycombe back to Brentford opting to join us instead.? Also given that the majority acknowledge we are unable to pay top whack what do you think the motivating factor(s) might be for young Mallan or any other talent for that matter that we are hopefully looking to recruit in time for the new season to join us in deference to other Clubs who might be able to pay them more (providing they show interest of course.) ?
Genuine prospect of playing every week Genuine prospect of improving Using the club as a step ladder to further, bigger moves We pay relatively low compared to other championship clubs - but fortunes compared to league two and the Scottish championship, even the Scottish premier league aside from the old firm. More than the majority of league one, and I dare say more for certain players than other championship clubs. We won't have the lowest budget next season. Bottom four or five maybe, but not the lowest. Young impressive head coach Good training and coaching facilities The reputation the club has for increasing player's value They buy into what the club is trying to achieve Barnsley is a big football club compared to where they are coming from They fancy becoming a big fish in a small pond The wages we are offering this summer might not be as low as some assume given the money the club has accumulated Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The motivation for Mallan is that as outlined above, Barnsley can pay wages far greater than my club. Also, Mallan is moving to a league only one step below the English Premier League. Instead of going to Brechin, Livingston and Dumbarton next season, he will be going to the likes of the Stadium of Light, The Riverside and Hillsborough etc. Thirdly, he will likely get a shot at Barnsley of establishing himself in your first team. Given the opportunity, if he delivers, he'll get a crack at becoming a regular. A no-brainer move for Mallan at this stage in his career. We wish him well.
I agree with the points Scoff makes above. With regards to "young impressive coach", I would expand that to say coaches. Stevie will come into contact with Jamie Clapham who played close on 450 games as a defender. Hecky played some 418 competitive games. He could well also get valuable pointers from Bobby Hassell with 381 games and Martin. " Dancer" Devaney who played 410 games. Collectively with an average age of 38 years and 33 different clubs between them that's a lot of experience to draw upon. Young Stevie will not regret joining Barnsley. The fans will welcome him especially if he starts scoring goals similar to those we've been watching on You Tube.? We are truly a family Club with in the Main a loyal and appreciative support. As Scoff says we might be a step ladder to bigger things. He's only got to look at Holgate, Bree, Hourihane and John Stones to appreciate that. The latter is still only 22 years old and has played in only 127 games and has changed hands for £50.5 million . With signing on fees, sponsorship , wages etc the lad must be a millionaire.? Incidentally POZ in a separate posting on our board I mentioned a lad I played football with in the 70's. Played in the Yorkshire League for Thorne Colliery on a Saturday and Greenfield United in the Sunday League in Doncaster. He joined Leeds United in around 1978 and signed for Heart of Midlothian in 1982. His name Henry Smith. He made around 476 appearances over 15 years for "the Jambos " and was capped for Scotland three times and was in the squad in Euro 92 I believe. Would have played more if Goram and Leighton hadn't been around. Don't know how old you are bud but do you remember him.? Thanks for your comments and hope the Saints have a good season next term. As a Barnsley fan we know what it's like to be looking over our shoulders all the time. That is why I personally was so chuffed with how our boys played last season. Tailed off towards the end but for my money never looked in much danger of going down. Finally why are the Saints known as the Buddies.?
Yes, I remember Henry Smith. My favourite memory was when we beat Hearts 6-2 at Love Street in 1985. The footage of which is available through our main fan forum 'Black and White Army' and is well worth watching! People who are from Paisley are called Paisley Buddies. The widely accepted reason is that way back in the day, people were called 'bodies' - if you were telling someone you were from Paisley for example, you'd say "I'm a Paisley body"... the way the word 'body' was pronounced sounded like 'buddy' and through time, it became 'Buddie'. While I'm on a roll... the reason we play in black and white stripes is unknown exactly, but there's two widely accepted explanations. There are two rivers running through Paisley - the Black Cart and the White Cart. The other reason is that the Cleriac Monks who resided in the ancient Paisley Abbey (a magnificent building well worth a visit), wore robes that were black and white. Finally, the Irish Monk we were named after was called St Mirin. No-one seems to know how the spelling went from 'Mirin' to 'Mirren'.
Didnt you have a player called Neale Cooper at St Mirren in the early-mid 80s ? I think he was still with us when we came up from the 3rd Division in 80-81. Also, I was chatting with some Queen of the South fans this weekend about Steve Mallan, apparently his dad used to be a top goalscorer as well did he ?
Cheers POZ. Henry was almost unbeatable at Amateur level . He seemed to have an uncanny knack of being able to narrow the angle which for a young lad was a useful attribute. I recall a quarter final in the West Riding County Cup . We played the holders Magnet Joinery who were based in Keighley West Yorkshire. Trevor Hockey ex- Sheffield United and Wales played for them. As such he managed to get a lot of experienced players to play alongside him. One of them hit a shot which was heading for the top corner. Smithy leapt to his left and was parallel with the crossbar and not only stopped it but caught it. Everybody on the ground including all the players clapped him. Sadly during a five a side game in 1987 Trevor went to tackle a lad and with his socks rolled down was accidentally kicked on the shin. He sat down on a bench at the side of the pitch and suffered a massive embolism which killed him. He was 47. It was very sad. Interesting about the Clubs name and colours. I've got one of your beanie hats. It was given to me by my mate who was Chief Scout for Wigan Rugby League Football Club. Can't think how he happened on it. Didn't you leave Love Street for your new ground around 18 years ago.? Read somewhere youve had six grounds since the Club was formed. Why was that.?
Most of our early ground moves were when the club was founded in 1877 - three moves in three years. The new stadium we moved to in 2009, after 115 years at our famous Love Street ground. In fact, when we moved, myself and three friends produced the official club publication - Love Street, The Final Chapter. I suppose our move is very similar to, let's say, Sunderland going from Roker Park, Middlesborough going from Ayresome, or Bolton going from Burnden... traditional old school stadiums no longer fit for purpose? The directors of St Mirren never received any grief for moving, even though we loved Love Street. It was falling to bits, we had debt issues... all fixed with selling the old place to Tesco. We got a dedicated new training complex out of it too. My understanding is that only Celtic, The Rangers 2012 Franchise, Hibs and St Mirren own their own dedicated training grounds. Clubs like Hearts and others share with universities and suchlike.
I've given you a 'like' for this post because your likes per message ratio is off the scale. Good man. Regards Nicola Sturgeon. Xx
Let's not go there... UK politics / Scottish politics.... sheesh! Anyway, Julian Broddle... we loved him when he was with St Mirren! Very popular player here.
Fully agree. Politics on a football forum... No!!! Yes, regards Julian, I was still residing on his head when he played for your boys. Happy days too. I even once scored one against Dundee (I think) went in off my fringe. Gone downhill now though, has the man Broddle. If you don't know his recent story, find him on Wiki. Sad times. Should've kept the perm and the stability that came with it.
Aye, was discussed on our own forum. Loved the accuracy of the Star reporter... "Broddle played for St Mirren for three years before moving North to Scotland..." FFS! http://www.blackandwhitearmy.com/fo...n-broddle-its-the-real-thing/#comment-1411684
There was 2 Neale/Neil Cooper's about at the same time, both came from Aberdeen.. One... Neil we had. And the other Neale.. went to Villa (Said in a high pitched voice while pocking glasses back on nose with index finger) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neale_Cooper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Cooper_(footballer)