diegomarahenry

Shite Christmas? Bad mood? Raging at an Ayr win? he’s not local, he’s from Ayr. Regardless of where he lives now, he was at Ayr boys club, his family are Ayr fans. You’ve got to be raging at the possibility of Ayr improving to describe that as not local. Ayr could comfortably pay £30k for a player if they feel like it, could Thistle pay more to outbid Ayr? Probably, will they? I doubt any club would want to get in to a bidding war. What are you basing the “comfortably” on ?

Whyte’s post match comment. I picked the team that trained the best this week. not sure if it was a dig but the players that came in have been bit part players all season without doing much wrong.

On Maxwell, if he is for sale. He’s local and his family are Ayr fans. We also have a chairman willing to invest in the team. I think we are in a better position to sign him than Thistle if it comes down to It, I don’t think Thistle or Ayr are going to splash £30k+ on a player. It may come down to wages but I doubt Thistle will be paying a huge wage either.

I said after Duffy left, he can blame the squad but he never fixed any of the issues that were obvious to everyone. Today, playing on the front foot and trying to retain the ball, we looked 10 times the team that played last week. We were still suspect out of possession, which can be blamed on the squad. The players brought in showed more energy to chase things down. it’s only one game, We had a go at Raith previously and should have got more from the game so it’s hard to say how much simply binning Duffy had an effect. But that is the best performance of the season by a mile. A 3 rare points and a clean sheet. Many good performances.

I'm a season ticket holder, none of the folk I go with are going due to family commitments or don't have a season ticket and I don't want to sit in the stand. If the terrace had been opened, I'd have gone along on my own. Be interesting to see how they play under almost completely different coaching staff for the first time this season.

I always get them mixed up, Same with Andy Murdoch and Paul Agnew. f**k knows why. I see we have recalled Paul Smith from Cumnock. I hope there isn't a Covid crisis looming at the club but Smith is a ball player so hopefully it is a good sign.

I don't think we'll shift players out, unless Falkirk or Airdrie are looking for a couple of bombscare centre halfs, or we can loan them out to a part time team then we will most likely be stuck with them. Afolabi will go back to Celtic, surely. Maybe Whyte will play Bradley more than Duffy and he's worth keeping. Maxwell, depends on the Thistle thing. The players we own, There may be a chance of loaning them out, Maybe Dumbarton would take McCallister. McKenzie isn't getting much game time, Cardle could probably thrive under someone like McGlynn. I think it will be more about replacing attitudes rather than ability this window, listening to Mathies interview, it sounds like there is something rotten at the core in the squad when he talks about speaking to the players, addressing the accountability.

St Mirren did it the season we went down

The talk of a "progressive" appointment like Bartley or Thompson makes me nervous, I would like an appointment where the pressure is on the whole club to take a step forward without taking a step back first, Best case scenario - A decent appointment and 6-8 decent players in and we could be looking at a promotion play-off place in the late stages of the season. Worst case - we hire a diddy manager that takes us down without touching the sides, October, it is clear we need a change and another season is lost. It will be interesting to find out if we have players that are genuinely un-coachable or the previous managers just weren't up to it.

I would like to think we have the ability to make an offer on him.

Or the tax payer

It depends on the threshold they set, most teams at the top end of Scottish football have pitch protection. Having a Winter shutdown would partially solve the problem of games being called off due to weather. If they limit crowds to a decent level, the teams without pitch protection could continue to play through the break with supporters in attendance. the issue is 500. Had it been 1000, most clubs in the championship would have sold to home fans only and and got by ok.

If they postpone the next 3 weeks and then start again mid-January, there is a risk of a lot of games being off due to weather. It could end up being a farce. mid they had put the limit at 1000 or 10% capacity up to 1000 then most clubs without undersoil heating would almost be able to operate as normal.

If they shut down for 3 weeks and restrictions aren’t lifted, they can still play the games anyway. The fixtures aren’t the issue. it depends if it makes sense to the clubs to delay the fixtures in the hope things are lifted. I don’t get the figure of 500, it just seems that it is a figure that will impact almost every club rather than just the premier league to make it more palatable. 10% again would have made more sense. if Duffy had still been in charge the 500 would have been plenty for Sunday.

From that list, I would expect O’Dea, Bartley, McManus, Kettlewell and Thompson to be in the frame, the rest I’d doubt/hope weren’t. These would fit the “head coach” role. Ross has ruled himself out of the Kilmarnock job. But not out of the Ayr job..Unless he’s already accepted it, which there is no indication of, then he is aiming higher than the Scottish Championship and won’t be coming to Ayr.

I think this will be a case of extremes. It will either be a top end appointment, one of the decent names currently out a job, or it'll be a left field appointment, potentially unmentioned so far. I think that will be why they keep saying head coach...........or manager. If a decent established manager is interested and wants the title, it's not a problem, but if it is an almost unknown, head coach will fit better. I don't think it will be an Ian Murray or Hartley or anyone like that.

Watched the Mathie interview, sounds like he had 4 names he took to the board, a couple more have been mentioned, maybe more decision will be with the board ultimately. think it is still wide open though. Any of the 4 might not be interested or priced out the market. He didn’t give much away but he might not have much to give away just now.

He is either an opportunist who sensed Hopkin was due the sack, or he was just grateful for the full time job. He probably didn’t expect another managers job after being below average at Morton and continuing his downward trend at Dumbarton. So it was easy for him to retire. if he hadn’t taken the job, he may well be assistant or coach to whoever became the Ayr manager but it didn’t work out for him.

Pound for pound it’s not as straightforward. You pay peanuts you get monkeys. You pay decent championship wages you get that shower of shite. Worst? Probably not, worst full time team ? 100%

Whoever he is politically is irrelevant in terms of their employment at the club. The only difference with Stillie and anyone else on the payroll is you know his leanings. This pish of hounding someone out of a job because you support a different political party is childish nonsense. (I’m not a Tory)

I think the reason Timmins is being kept on is because he does the goalkeeping coaching Monday to Friday.

Gus McPherson to Kilmarnock and Jim Duffy to Morton would make up for 10 months of Duffy and Hopkin.

I don't care if Guardiola visited Greenock on a school trip in 1981, Any association with Greenock should automatically bar any applicant an interview.

Duffy was the wrong man at the right place at the right time. A safe pair of hand turned to shit pretty quickly. No doubt, the failure of Kerr to sign a decent midfield was the start of the process, followed by Hopkin signing THIS defence has led us to this point. The lack of confidence seemed to improve under Duffy but his strange team selections and insisting on playing defensively when we have a shocking defence is what cost him another 6 months in the job. We need a manager that will have a personality to lift the club, we need to fill holes in the squad and we need it quickly.

I wasn’t meaning McGinty, no one can polish that turd.