Thumper

Rudden being a striker who has scored against Ayr at will at every single club he's been at would undoubtedly follow all other banter years examples by signing for Ayr for six months and scoring zero goals in all competitions. Then fucking off to Airdrie or something for a free and scoring for fun against Ayr again.

Unsourced random ITK said it was Brown, everyone agreed to accept this. Robbo posted genuine ITK that interviews have probably concluded. Nobody has apparently seen Jose Mourinho in Paterson Stores this week inquiring as to whether they have gotten any more Spring Onion Taytos from the cash and carry (sadly they have not).

The thing that stuck out for me was him mentioning twenty or thirty times that failing to progress to the later stages of the Scottish Cup is simply unthinkable at Ayr right now. Sounds as if the very possibility of yet another embarrassing cup exit might have been the tipping point. Also hints that the owner is not made of money and that the club is factoring in lucrative cup ties.

The stand out options were "guy who left Dundee under mysterious circumstances and oddly hasn't surfaced elsewhere" and "guy who left Dundee United under mysterious circumstances and oddly hasn't surfaced elsewhere", plus the manager of Clyde. Worst case he'll be Kerr 2.0, which at least would be better on the eyes than Duffy 2.0.

Also seven years past the cut-off date for assistants.

I'm struggling to understand why anyone who supports the Kilmarnock Veterans Rehabilitation Program would have come out with this tbh. Have you by any chance had a gander at the (very very short) history of Fleetwood Town?

More importantly the Jewsons on McCall Avenue is shut on Sundays.

The most dubious thing about this is the notion that the club would announce something on a Monday morning.

Late McKenzie sub goal. It's what the great man would have wanted.

He's said naw chaps.

In fairness this gobbling was followed up by McCall singing the club's praises. Not in a way that screams "considering coming back" admittedly.

Out of respect for Lee Bullen the club will be retaining his team sheet in perpetuity.

Conspiracy theories are not opinions. "I think team results mean Mathie should consider his position" is an opinion. "I think Mathie declined to interview Gary Bowyer because he wants a head coach who will play the team that the MD selects for him" is a conspiracy theory. Too many people on here have invented several facts that get them from point A to B.

Speculation is one thing. Building on layers and layers of speculation to invent a whole new reality is another. Every bullet point there is a wild conspiracy theory which requires someone to have accepted as truth a whole bunch of deeply counterfactual arguments. If you look at any of them and don't immediately laugh then you're in too deep. By far the most likely scenario is: Bullen talks the talk but ultimately lacked in several key areas. He leant on, and was in turn carried by, several strong signings until opponents saw through his reliance on them. He was sacked because there was no excuse to get a drab scoreless draw against an injury-plagued team who had been bottom of the league for most of it. The club's recruitment program has some serious flaws, but these are due to inexperience or a lack of money as opposed to a sinister conspiracy by Mathie and Glendinning to repopulate Ayr entirely with inner-city London wingers. The lack of transparency in the last week is par for the course. The number of managers to have actually sat down with the board so far is zero. It is rare for mis-season sackings to result in immediate long-term replacements, and the appeal of Ayr as a job is a bit indirect. There is absolutely no factual basis to believe that Bullen calling himself "head coach" and not "manager" has anything to do with his role being restricted from the traditional scope, and any time he or the club has been asked they have said the opposite.

Very clever. Right now, a sizeable chunk of people on here believe most, if not all of the following: Graeme Mathie is a control freak who demands complete control of Ayr United from signings to tactics to substitutions. He hired Lee Bullen specifically to nod and smile and visit nursing homes. Lee Bullen, who left Sheffield Wednesday and travelled hundreds of miles up north to join Ayr without his family because he wasn't given the control he wanted at Wednesday, happily agreed with this. Mathie is unhappy that the fanbase forced Lee Bullen out by calling him bald. This forced the managing director to sack him. Otherwise he would happily have allowed the club to be relegated because it meant he could keep telling Bullen to bring on Mark McKenzie after 75 minutes. Mathie will only accept as a replacement another yes man, who will want no control whatsoever. This includes none of his own staff, no control over signings, and to do whatever Mathie says. Tam Courts, Gary Bowyer, Ian McCall, Scott Brown and Jose Mourinho have all been interviewed for the job already and immediately turned down because they did not agree to the above. If he can't get his choice of manager, Mathie will either take the job himself or deliberately see the club run into the ground to spite the fans. I call this Operation Head Coach, much like Operation 15-Minute Cities, another thing that retired people are mad about on Facebook.

The biggest problem Mathie has is that current communications are so poor that the dimmest bulbs in the support have decided he was leaving wee notes for Bullen in the dressing room saying "mind and get your boy to miss his penalty today Lee, you know I want Ayr United to lose" and the club is doing nothing to contradict it.

What pub? How's the food?

Also Smith, Mathie, Glendinning, Davie White, Voice of Reason, and the one random guy on Facebook who predicted Bullen's departure.

It's almost as if, as usual, people who left school at 16 and 40 years later are becoming the Unabomber through Facebook posts are somewhat misinformed as to the current state of Ayr United Football Club!

I know it's a low bar but compare the club's media output under McCall to that under the next two managers. I'd argue that it was better than Bullen's as well for that matter. But my main beef was with the idea that McCall somehow didn't care or put in the effort. His problem is the exact opposite.

This is just absolute nonsense. McCall might not have been touring every assisted living facility in the country but he is famous for getting involved in everything possible regarding running a club. As already mentioned, one very specific example of this in managing to hunt the media-starved clown that is currently serving as stadium announcer. When he was at Partick my mate called the ticket office one day to find out where his Ayr ticket had gone and it was McCall that answered it. He now has a signed envelope.

Forty minutes down the motorway from Glasgow, versus fucking Kirkcaldy. I wish this myth would die.

It genuinely is curious how many people on this football forum absolutely fucking hate Ian McCall.

The notion that employers should not be reluctant to sack their employees (or indeed, as more than half a dozen people have suggested on here, that the owner of a football club should not seek to somehow sack his entire board and staff when a manager does not work out) would seem odd if expressed to real people not on a football forum.