David Hopkin

Can I just take this moment to say a big thank you and well done to our manager David Hopkin.

He took over a club in a complete mess. Turmoil in the boardroom, a manager who'd left an ill-disciplined squad with a lack of quality and inflated egos, and large amounts of (rightly so) abuse and anger from the supporters. Despite this, he's recruited well by the looks of things, and has formed a squad of players who believe and give their all. Not getting carried away, but so far he's turned it around very nicely. This team deserves to be watched by far more supporters.

Well done David Hopkin!

To say i had my doubts about him last season would be putting it mildly. The season we were relegated he made some mind boggling team selections, playing a clearly unfit Cole at Dumbarton (playing Cole at all in fact), Hippo as a FB, big White being put as a winger crossing high balls into a short arsed striker. I could go on....... I was even still a bit unconvinced he'd be able to have us competing in the Championship this season, but he's completely won me over now.

He made some mistakes last season but you could see he learnt from them, by the end of the season he'd got our defence sorted out and we've become a solid looking team that is hard to score against never mind beat.
He didn't have a lot of money to strengthen the team this season with the new guy in charge being all sensible about throwing money around (damn him for his good business sense) and we lost Buchanan, but Robinson and Alexander were fantastic signings. Hopkin also said he didn't want any players that didn't want to be here and fighting for the jersey, and you can see that on the pitch this season.

We'll be punching well above our weight this season compared to the other FT clubs, but our team spirit and work rate/fitness is certainly a leveller when playing teams with bigger finances, as Falkirk just found out.
Have to say this is the best looking Livi team we've had for many a season, no superstars just hard working individuals that are all playing as a team and that is down to the manager and his backroom staff. So aye, well done Hoppy, keep up the good work, cause you're only as good as your last result and fans are hell of a fickle. .

Congrats Hoppy.

We've already won our first game in Oct, keep it going and win one for this month too.

Oh bu@@er

And it always works out so well for us doesn't it.

Aye, congrats Hoppy.... Pity we'll now lose to United under the terms of the award... Must be under the terms of the award cos I don't believe in curses

Where can I find odds on him being sacked before the new year?

Asking for a friend.

At a bookies or online betting site. They pretty much allow anyone to bet on anything these days, so you probably only have to ask.

Looks like Hoppy is up for the Scotland job: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/david-hopkin-it-s-time-for-scotland-to-go-for-youth-1-4584501

Dundee Courier saying he's a favourite to take the United job. Hope not.

In terms of stepping up a club it would be a good move for him, like it or not United are a bigger club than us, even if he beat them easily enough. Currently I think there is more potential here, so if he did go I'd expect a few attempts to sign some of our players in January. So all in all, I hope they look elsewhere.

It would be another manager who has done well in his first job at a smaller club but a gamble taking him at Utd, don't think they want to go down that route again. Plus I think they're looking at offering a short term deal to the end of this season for promotion or bust, Hoppy would be a more long term project, looking to bring in his own players to play how he wants them, don't think this would end well for either of them.
I think they'll go for someone with more experience like McIntyre (hope so anyway).

I hope the go for Hughes....

They got a decent result today. Good to see Falkirk still struggling though.

Dunfermline losing at Caley was a wee bit of a surprise given we won up there but lost in Fife.

Dunfermline did well against us last week because we were set up wrong and their winger had a field day, Aird wouldn't get that much joy against a normal back 4. Didn't surprise me that they lost to ICT, Caley jags look a tougher team to play against now too.

Think we're safe, some saying they've offered the job to Alan Stubbs but he's denied any interest last week, and they've also interviewed Csaba Laszlo and John Hughes.

Would absolutely love it if it was John Hughes.

Looks like the Tayside Tangerine Tits are going for Laszlo. Disappointed at that, reckon he'll do a turn for them and they'll probably raise their game a bit. Yogi would've been absolute scenes.

Delighted it's not Hopkin, but if we continue our form, it's only a matter of time before he moves on to bigger and better things. Christ, the way Crystal Palace are going he might be a Championship manager next season still...

Aye Laszlo might just sort them out.

The biggest challenge here would be United's own expectations. They seem to believe they should already be running away with the league - and looking at their potential budget there might just be some justification for that.

More to a winning team than a budget though, just look at ours. Utd have journeymen that have been in successful teams but it isn't happening for them, certainly not enough for them to be running away with it. Maybe a new manager can gel them into a well organised machine. Willo Flood is no Shaun Byrne/Scott Pittman/Keaghan Jacobs and he's played in that role, he just runs about a lot kicking opposition players, same with Briels.

A ink to talkSPORT to hear Hoppy talking about Livi last night, courtesy of LiviLion on P&B. Just move along till there is 34 mins showing on the counter to get to Hoppy talking.

https://talksport.com/football/scottish-football-show-ally-mccoist-and-gordon-strachan-podcast-180323276562

I listened for a minute after Hoppy was away as they were still discussing him and the remarkable job he was doing at Livi, and was pleasantly surprised to hear Strachan talking sense on people's perception of how football should be played, saying only 2 teams really play passing football well, Man City and Barca, the rest play a variation of styles or passing it around without actually going anywhere.

At last someone coming out on radio who isn't blindly taken in by the John Hughes bullshit of there is only one way to play football, and that is playing out from the back and pass, pass, pass, pass, pass without actually going anywhere and allowing opposition players time to drop into a defensive formation.

David Hopkin for this season's Manager of the Year award, it would be very well deserved Hoppy, mon SPFL, make it happen.

Two outstanding candidates are Ross for turning St Midden around from looking like relegation certainties to keeping them up & turning them into champions & Hoppy for turning us into a serious contender for back to back promotions.

Hopkin should win it purely based on the seethe it would generate from Paisley. Some of them already getting upset on P&B when someone suggests getting us 2nd is a better achievement than them winning the league.

Whits that all about, Hoppy not even nominated, fecking arse!!

Stevie Clark has done a great job at Killie but ,c'mon tae feck, they're 5th in the league, just how low down the table can you be and still get nominated? And Lennon for Hibs on the budget he has, that's around where they should be, and they're still behind a shite Sevco. Rodgers at Celtic, huge resources compared to the rest, yawn, load of bollox. Hope Jack Ross wins it but Hoppy has still done a better job at Livi than he has at St Mirren, surely budgets have to come into it when making these nominations?

Mon Hoppy, lets win promotion and get it right up em.

There should be divisional awards not entire spfl - that is not an apples to apples camparison

Getting a wee bit worried now that he will leave. Lots of talk on P&B about him going to Morton. Seems it's the team he supported. It would look like a sideways move but maybe he feels he's gone as far as he can with Livi. He seems to have his own philosophy on things anyway.
Hope my fears are unfounded. If he goes players will likely go too.