Hoppy interview

Nice piece about how Hopkin's sees his future:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44142998

Read a few about him this week, everyone is suddenly interested in Livi and Hoppy, pity they chose to overlook him for the MoTY nominations.

Interesting about Danny Mullen, Hoppy said he'd gone as far as he could at Livi and wasn't progressing any more, and didn't think he could get 100% out of him, so Hoppy wanted new players in and to move Mullen on, and had Miller & Hardie in his plans. That has worked out really well for both parties.

Seems a simple philosophy, bring in hungry players that will give their all and move on anyone that isn't fully committed. Certainly working wonders for Livi.

Strange really - I remember thinking Mullen has plateaued.

Whereas someone like McNulty continued to improve Mullen seemed to have gone as far as he could; or was prepared to go.

Liviforever wrote:Read a few about him this week, everyone is suddenly interested in Livi and Hoppy, pity they chose to overlook him for the MoTY nominations.

Interesting about Danny Mullen, Hoppy said he'd gone as far as he could at Livi and wasn't progressing any more, and didn't think he could get 100% out of him, so Hoppy wanted new players in and to move Mullen on, and had Miller & Hardie in his plans. That has worked out really well for both parties.

Seems a simple philosophy, bring in hungry players that will give their all and move on anyone that isn't fully committed. Certainly working wonders for Livi.

Where did you read that? I don’t see it in the link.

In here. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/football/16230631.Alan_Archibald_readies_Partick_Thistle_for_hunger_games_against_Livingston/

“In January there, we let Danny Mullen go to St Mirren,” he said. “Once players reach a level with me and don’t give me anymore they won’t be here and I thought Danny had ran his course with me and needed a change.
“He was a fantastic player and a fantastic kid but I think he’d been here too long and I had a chance to bring in Lee Miller and Ryan Hardie. I’m always the same, that if you have a player who won’t give you everything, then it’s time for them to move on.

Interesting indeed. I was getting that sort of vibe from Mullen’s demeanour, he didn’t seem to have the same spark as the previous season.

He was sat in the south stand on Thursday night though, so clearly still has some “connection”, Rafa was there too.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Interesting indeed. I was getting that sort of vibe from Mullen’s demeanour, he didn’t seem to have the same spark as the previous season.

He was sat in the south stand on Thursday night though, so clearly still has some “connection”, Rafa was there too.

Imagine he'll still be good friends with most (if not all) of the squad, and it'd probably be hard to spend so long at a club and not feel positive towards them unless it was a messy ending. Didn't always like Mullen, he always went down too easily/obviously but he eventually worked on it and at least won some fouls when we hit the deck, was a bit of a change for him going from being the guy doing the running to set up Buchanan to being expected to be our main source of goals up front. For all my doubt/negativity towards him years ago he eventually proved me wrong and won me over, bit like Hoppy has tbh. Hope he does well with St Mirren and gets far, would be good to point to another ex-Livi player getting a Scotland cap...

Yeah, I always thought he never really fulfilled his potential but when he played well so did the team & he could play very well.

Speaking of Livi players who went on to play for Scotland... how many have there been?

I can think of
Douglas
Alexander
Dorrans
Snodgrass
Griffiths

McNamee was named in a squad or two but I can’t remember if he actually played.

Always thought Murray Davidson would've made it too, think he played at U21 level for Scotland.

Wes Hoolahan plays for Ireland too, so another ex Livi international player.

Think big Marv played for Trinidad and Tobago as well.

David Xausa played for Canada.

Colin Healy ROI.

Hassan Kachloul Morocco.

Guillermo Amor Spain.

Bertie Bassett wrote:Yeah, I always thought he never really fulfilled his potential but when he played well so did the team & he could play very well.

Speaking of Livi players who went on to play for Scotland... how many have there been?

I can think of
Douglas
Alexander
Dorrans
Snodgrass
Griffiths

McNamee was named in a squad or two but I can’t remember if he actually played.

McNamee made 3 or 4 appearances in a Scotland shirt I'm sure

Jamie McAllister one appearance v Trinidad 2004.

James McPake got a cap for Northern Ireland while he was at Coventry.

Liviforever wrote:Always thought Murray Davidson would've made it too, think he played at U21 level for Scotland.

Wes Hoolahan plays for Ireland too, so another ex Livi international player.

Think big Marv played for Trinidad and Tobago as well.

David Xausa played for Canada.

Colin Healy ROI.

Hassan Kachloul Morocco.

Guillermo Amor Spain.

Aye but I only want players who have gone on to play for Scotland after playing for us.

If we are talking about players who were internationals for any country at any time in their career...

Theo Whitmore - 120 caps for Jamaica & is the current manager!!!
Gabor Vinci - Hungary
Ferenc Horvath - Hungary
Stuart Lovell - Australia
Cherif Toure Maman - Togo
Dare I mention Sergio Berti - Argentina (never played competitively for us thanks to the spitting incident)
Rolando Zarate - Argentina
Gus Bahoken - Cameroon
Mike Mampuya - DR Congo

orco wrote:Jamie McAllister one appearance v Trinidad 2004.

Was he still a Livi player at the time or had he left by then? If he was still with us was he the first/only Livi player to be capped by Scotland as a Livi player?

Just checked & it looks like he had signed for Hearts but hadn’t played for them yet.

David McNamee got his caps as a Livi player though.

cptn_hooch wrote:

Bertie Bassett wrote:Yeah, I always thought he never really fulfilled his potential but when he played well so did the team & he could play very well.

Speaking of Livi players who went on to play for Scotland... how many have there been?

I can think of
Douglas
Alexander
Dorrans
Snodgrass
Griffiths

McNamee was named in a squad or two but I can’t remember if he actually played.

McNamee made 3 or 4 appearances in a Scotland shirt I'm sure

Yeah, it was 4

Hoppy got the Bradford job, hope he doesn't make any moves for the likes of Byrne and Halkett in the Jan transfer window. Suppose that was one good thing about him not getting a job down South when it was still open. Best of luck to him anyway, hope it works out for him.

Liviforever wrote:Hoppy got the Bradford job, hope he doesn't make any moves for the likes of Byrne and Halkett in the Jan transfer window. Suppose that was one good thing about him not getting a job down South when it was still open. Best of luck to him anyway, hope it works out for him.

Couple of interesting points:

1. He will be Bradford's fourth manager in 2018
   
2. His first match in charge will be against Blackpool who now have Jordan Thompson playing for them
   

Durnford wrote:

Liviforever wrote:Hoppy got the Bradford job, hope he doesn't make any moves for the likes of Byrne and Halkett in the Jan transfer window. Suppose that was one good thing about him not getting a job down South when it was still open. Best of luck to him anyway, hope it works out for him.

Couple of interesting points:

1. He will be Bradford's fourth manager in 2018
   
2. His first match in charge will be against Blackpool who now have Jordan Thompson playing for them
   

Bloody hell, and they slag Scottish football off for us and St Mirren being quick to fire our newly appointed managers. Read some of the tweets on the article about Hoppy's appointment and their fans are getting fed up of it, looks like their chairman is interfering in the team and not allowing the manager to pick it, mad Vlad scenario down there. 2 or 3 defeats on the bounce and you're oot the door.

Good interview from Rafa talking about Hoppy. https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/play/p06k8rc9

He's spot on about us having different styles, we played a lot more of a passing game from back to front in League One, then switched to a more direct style in the Championship. To say we're just a route one team is total nonsense.

Some accent Rafa’s got...bit of Lancs & bit of Scots with just a hint of Italian