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The graveyard of Scottish football


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Listening to a podcast with ex-Celtic right-back Mark Wilson (who I completely forgot had played for us eight times in 2012-13).

The topic of conversation was Derek McInnes and how he has excelled everywhere… except Bristol City.

Wilson’s comment on that time:”It was the graveyard of Scottish football. No wonder it failed”.

In my opinion, that makes it sound worse than I remember… but I can see his point.

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Or…maybe the players we signed under McInnes from Scotland confirmed that the general quality of players in the SPL was below that needed for Championship standard? Richard Foster springs to mind and let’s not forget Jody Morris was his captain who came with him!

McInnes looked a good appointment at the time but the level was too much for him. And his comments since about it being like Rourkes Drift with the number of players we had (then adding more quantity not quality) just smacked of excuses.

It’ll always be a graveyard if you’re not good enough. Thats the story Mr Wilson.

(NB hoping Ross McCrorie breaks the trend!)

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9 hours ago, SydneyCity said:

Listening to a podcast with ex-Celtic right-back Mark Wilson (who I completely forgot had played for us eight times in 2012-13).

The topic of conversation was Derek McInnes and how he has excelled everywhere… except Bristol City.

Wilson’s comment on that time:”It was the graveyard of Scottish football. No wonder it failed”.

In my opinion, that makes it sound worse than I remember… but I can see his point.

I remember him.

Absolute dogshit, couldn’t run.

When SOD took over he wanted to immediately release him but found his mate Derek had inserted a clause that meant he couldn’t.

As has already been pointed out McInnes signed some right rubbish from up there.

It isn’t a graveyard, it’s a higher standard that these players.

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1 hour ago, 22A said:

Fifty years ago; Don Gillies, Gerry Gow, who came from Scots non league, Billy Menmuir and the others; their careers did OK at the gate.

 

41 minutes ago, Aberdeen Pete's Dad said:

Gerry Sweeney , Tom Ritchie

Is Wilson not saying that the players we signed were poor players from Scotland rather than all Scottish based players are poor?

Edited by And Its Smith
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1 hour ago, 22A said:

Fifty years ago; Don Gillies, Gerry Gow, who came from Scots non league, Billy Menmuir and the others; their careers did OK at the gate.

Can't include this guy. 2 appearances for us in 2 years.

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1 hour ago, 22A said:

Fifty years ago; Don Gillies, Gerry Gow, who came from Scots non league, Billy Menmuir and the others; their careers did OK at the gate.

Much more recently a certain Scott Murray & Jamie McAllister had excellent careers with us, too.

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14 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

 

Is Wilson not saying that the players we signed were poor players from Scotland rather than all Scottish based players are poor?

But wouldn’t that mean he’s including himself?

Completely true but a rare amount of self awareness, I’d suggest.

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3 minutes ago, And Its Smith said:

What do you think he’s saying then? 

That it was a club where you didn’t get a fair chance to succeed?

That we were a mess?

Certainly that’s been McInnes’ version of events, back to his time at Aberdeen.

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54 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

But wouldn’t that mean he’s including himself?

Completely true but a rare amount of self awareness, I’d suggest.

The way he said it, yes he was including himself.

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49 minutes ago, GrahamC said:

That it was a club where you didn’t get a fair chance to succeed?

That we were a mess?

Certainly that’s been McInnes’ version of events, back to his time at Aberdeen.

He described a graveyard of Scottish football and I believe he was including himself in that. He would know he wasn’t good enough 

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McInnes was basically given the same job as Pearson. Cut the wage bill but keep us competitive in the Championship. Obviously he couldn’t manage what Nige could…

I always felt a bit sorry for McInnes. Seemed like a decent guy (remember the Birmingham minibus incident) but was given a task that required someone with a bit more experience. Plus he did keep us up that first part season, but the wheels came off in 2012/13, with a 10 match winless streak (including losing 7 in a row!) after a decent start to the season, including those first 2 four goal victories against Palace and Cardiff, both of which were promoted at the end of the season. It was the time of the Liam Fontaine confidence implosion at the back and despite Tom Heaton as goalkeeper we were leaking goals. We hadn’t kept a clean sheet in the League by the time McInnes was sacked which was January!

Did ok at Aberdeen without being spectacular (certainly better than another ex-City manager subsequently achieved at Hibs) and is doing ok at Kilmarnock. However outside the top 2 in the SPL, the rest is either lower Championship or League 1 level at best.

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McInnes wasn't helped by his Chief Scout being removed on the recommendation of the Consultant who was working with the club at the time, so had to go with players he knew.

Of course, that Consultant would return a few years later in a much more senior role...

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It's a bit of a 3rd hand story (but genuine, none the less). One of McInnes's traits was not to announce the team until really late - much later than the players were accustomed to & lots of them really struggled with that.

I had high hopes for him, & whilst he did inherit a mess, he made it worse. Saying we've got too many players is fine, but buying inferior players isn't really the solution.  I always thought he might get the WBA job as he was a bit of a legend there, but I think that ship has sailed.

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Wilson’s point was that McInnes signed players he knew about from Scotland, players that had largely decent careers, but they were all way past their best by the time they got to City.

I can understand why McInnes went down that route - he had to slash the wage bill and hoped they had enough left in the tank to help him get through for a period, but they were all pretty poor.

Most disappointing thing is that plenty of other clubs around our level (and above) have picked up decent acquisitions from Scotland over the years, and English clubs now regularly raid really decent youth talent from Scottish clubs.

Hopefully our scouting north of the border has improved since then.

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