Fortunately neither one recognised me or linked me with the interesting “encouragement” I post or shout J Anyway, here's a brief rundown of what I discovered at Love Street. Seeing as we (we being myself and Gazette series sports editor Paul Behan) talked (well I sat there and Paul asked the questions) to Junior first, I'll post what I found out from him first.
The first thing he was asked about was his ingrowing toe nail. We had learnt from TH downstairs that he was away seeing a doctor about it that morning, and it seems to have gotten pretty painful over the last few days. He's hoping to delay any operation on it for two months so as to be able to take part in pre season training.
He claimed his move to Dunfermline was purely for a new challenge, and that he was only getting an extra £50-£75 a week there than if he'd signed a new contract with us in 2000. He also said that if he'd gone for such a small amount he believed his motivation would have been all wrong, and it would have made him a bad person.
In the last year, moves to Liberia (I think, it was some country in that area anyway) and to the champions elect of the Cyprus first division fell through. Pre season a move to QPR had also gone wrong.
He came back as he always loved playing at Love Street (compare this with the comments on TheBuds!) and he feels we can mount a pretty strong challenge for the title with the players we have, many of whom were here in 1999/2000, and the new ones. He felt the division was weaker than when we won it, but from the lads in the dressing room (he had no idea on the Scottish scene last season) had learnt that Falkirk, Ayr United and St. Johnstone would be the main threats.
He finished by saying that the world cup had been great for neutrals, and it was good to see the underdogs come through.
There was a lot more he mentioned that I can't remember/don't think relevant/will be in the Black and White magazine and the Gazette.
Personally I felt it was strange he didn't get the operation now, as it would be better missing training than games. While I accept his argument about needing a new challenge, I'm annoyed he went to Dunfermline when he said he'd only leave to go down south. He left on a high I suppose, and it's for the same reason I'm surprised TT didn't retire at that time.
When Junior mentioned Ayr United Paul had good fun telling him Iain Nicolson had just signed for them, but Junior's reaction was an extremely boring “Oh really?”. I'd half been hoping for an “Oh crap that's us fecked” or something similar!
With half of our mission done, we went back downstairs to wait on Tom Hendrie. It was at this point Barry McLaughlin made an appearance, but if you want to find out what he said buy the Gazette! I'm not telling you everything. I also got to have a good laugh at Paul Rudden's haircut, which truly is a shocker. If you haven't seen it, it's like Freddie Ljunberg's at Arsenal. It looks worse up close than in the papers. At this point Tom Hendrie appeared and we grabbed a few words with him. Here's what we got in no particular order.
The first thing we discovered was that there won't be another defender coming in. When asked how he replaces Scott Walker and Barry McLaughlin he said that Greg Denham was very similar to Walker (hopefully not too similar!) and that Jamie McGowan had resigned. The other position in defence would be open for someone such as Paul Rudden, Sergei Baltacha, Graham Guy or David Lowing to try and win, though now it could also be the guy from Hibs (can't remember his name!).
On the subject of the defence, TH said we weren't trying hard in training to eliminate the individual errors which plagued last season as two of the three defenders have now gone!
Last Friday was the day when all the Shuggy Murray stuff broke out, so TH gave some info on that. He'd been given until the previous night to sign the contract, which would have left him as the highest paid player at the club and NOT as a lowly paid player, as he claims. He'd rejected that so had officially left the club. Hendrie seemed disappointed about that as while Shuggy would have been taking a pay cut, he was still on SPL wages last season so was returning to division 1 levels. With McGowan going from SPL wages as he'd been signed from an SPL club to division 1 wages, Denham willing to sign for that and Mendes coming up from London to sign for division 1 wages, it seemed Hendrie felt Shuggy could at least have made the effort. The search for a new midfielder would now begin, but no names were forthcoming. He wouldn't rule out a move in the foreign market however did say he'd have to be careful with that as he doesn't know the players quality and had to go on recommendations, compared to if the player was in Scotland he'd know about them. Seems fair enough.
Another player who won't be back it seems is John Hillcoat. Hendrie said that Ludo Roy was undoubtedly our best goalie and that Kris Robertson knew he'd be first choice. The club are now trying to bring in a young goalie as cover, but no mention was made of bringing Hilly back.
Hendrie also mentioned Saints new approach to signing youth players. Previously we, along with other clubs, had encouraged the young players to go to college to try and become qualified in something, as it wasn't fair pulling someone out of a good education then two years down the line telling them they aren't good enough to play football. That would have left them untrained and jobless. Now it will be compulsory for all youth players to attend college at least three days a week. It seems to be the first time a club in Scotland has done this, and it is an excellent idea.
No new captain has been announced and Tom didn't give us any clues as to who it was. All he said was it would be rotated around a few players in the pre season friendlies and he would figure out from that who would be given the role full time. Also, a new physio hasn't been appointed yet as the club are looking for someone with knowledge of sports injuries and not a normal physio.
On the subject of pre season friendlies, Hendrie said a friendly would soon be announced with Motherwell, all that was needed was for Terry Butcher to come back from Japan and confirm it. I wasn't going to publish this as it seemed an “off the record” style comment but as the PDE had it a few days ago it's already common knowledge.
Tom also said Mark Yardley has lost weight, however when he walked past me he looked a little bit heavier! I suppose it's all relative with the big man J
One thing that was interesting compared to what Mendes said was that Hendrie thinks the league is very strong this year. He seemed to single out the same teams for success though, and seemed quite puzzled as to where Falkirk were getting all their cash from.
As with the Mendes interview we finished by asking for his views on the world cup. He felt the same as Mendes, but when asked who would win Sunday's final, said “If I knew that I wouldn't be manager of St. Mirren.”
There's probably more I've missed but it can't have been that important. Both Junior and Tom seem like good guys and it was quality getting to listen to what they were saying and if you want to see actual quotes, buy this weeks Gazette. While at Love Street just about everyone walked past at some point, the only people I didn't see being Kris Robertson, Jamie McGowan, Greg Denham (though I'm not sure what he looks like) and obviously Hugh Murray. Pretty sure I saw Liam Keogh at some point as well.
Finally, if Paul is reading this, cheers for letting me annoy you for a week at the Gazette.