diegomarahenry

Worth a listen, Spiers got more out of him than BNWTV would. Didn’t commit to much but was fairly open. Wants a new manager to be involved in the community which was missing from Hopkin. Harness the academy. Has focus on training facilities, Plans underway for “enhanced hospitality offering and fan experience” with the land at the north terrace. His comments on Hopkin and around the fans might annoy some folk but he’s maybe just playing politics. £1.99 to listen.

I’m listening to it now. about 10 minutes in. Worryingly he thought Hopkin wasn’t far away. Likes Duffy. Asked about Hughes, loves Hughes, was one of his hero’s. Not ruling anything out at the moment.

I have no massive gripe with Duffy being appointed. There is the potential for something grubby going on in the background though. Either his coaching staff were complicit. Doing as they were told, knowing it wasn’t working and secretly hoping it would fail, or just keeping quiet because either way, they got paid. If things got so bad, they would shaft him and stay at the club. Or, they spent months trying and failing to show Hopkin what was apparent to everyone but him, that he was making a colossal James Hunt of everything. But he was too stubborn to see it. While being forced, North Korean style, to declare love and adoration for the deal leader. At the end of the day, if Duffy does a job then the majority of fans, me included don’t give a f**k. I have no sympathy for Hopkin. Had McCardle hung about after Kerr was sacked, snaking about telling Smith that he had great ideas and Kerr ignored him, he should be made manager, the majority of fans would have been against it. McCall was all about ego, if the team succeeds then he looks good. It works well. if Duffy has done the dirty on Hopkin (I’m not ITK) to get a full time gig and kick start his career and it works for both parties……..

Not much has changed since Hopkin was hired other than Barry Ferguson, Billy Dossd and Paul Sheerin have been hired from the previous reported applicants. Asking for CVs again is a bit of a waste of time. Unless there is someone kicking their heels, coaching at an English club wanting to come back to Scotland, it’ll be Duffy or someone that has applied before.

I hope this is the case, give Duffy a chance, sound out replacements, the job has been advertised twice in the last 18 months so the interested people should be well vetted so there isn’t any real need to advertise it this soon. Giving Duffy a chance, leaving it 6 weeks and then advertising it would be, in short, a massive riddy

Whyte would have been in the dugout with Stillie. Getting a new manager in may have been more urgent but we’d have been far from fucked

As I said, I’d have preferred if a failed coaching team to have left as one. They didn’t and that’s fine, there is no obligation to keep them on and a change can happen if it doesn’t work in the short to medium term.

If I remember correctly he was a coach who specialises in the mental health aspect of coaching as well as physical coaching.

Or maybe it was getting scudded in almost every game and getting hounded on Tuesday that did it

And we are sure that them now absolving themselves of any blame in Hopkins term isn’t ?

Joyce and Timmons have worked with him before, Duffy hasn't so none of the others should be surprised if Hopkin is a stubborn individual that likes to fail while playing brutal football. He signed several players that played for him before and said he was a great guy to play for. All of a sudden he leaves and all these people are supposed to have been suffering Stockholm syndrome or tried their best to convince him but he just wouldn't listen?

There may be a touch of the redemption in Duffy, Much the same as there was in McCall. Gone from a credible coaching career to a fairly below average showing at Dumbarton. Part time and drifting out of football. Health suffering, it was probably time to bow out of front line football. Today he has the chance to be a manager of a full time Championship team, back in the limelight and a chance to prove he wasn’t washed up after all.

In real life, no. In football, it happens all the time to the point it is expected.

That suggests that they stood back and didn't offer criticism, constructive or otherwise. They watched Hopkin fail catastrophically, be sacked 4 games in to the season and then step in to his shoes. That doesn't chime right with me.

Its hard to tell how good a result yesterday was. Dunfermline are currently a basketcase, we play Rangers Kids on Tuesday and then Hamilton, still a basketcase after the switch of manager. After that we have a run of games that will show how good our team is against others in the league. A win yesterday, and then Tuesday and Saturday may build confidence or it may paper over cracks. Morton, Thistle, QOTS then Arbroath and Kilmarnock, Anything over 10 points out of that run would show that we were a very capable team in this league. Do we give that run of games to Duffy to show he can compete in this league or risk upheaval midway though it because it doesn't work, and then change. potentially missing out on managerial targets? Giving Duffy the run of games will be the safest option, may allow the directors to look at potential replacements or structures. I'd personally prefer a new manager, I think that Duffy failed with Hopkin and the whole management team should have done the honourable thing and walked. However, I am willing to give Duffy a chance to prove he is the man for the job. His experience, like McCalls will hopefully mean that there is less drama at the club and we can be competing for a promotion play off place rather than looking over our shoulder with 6 weeks to go of the season.

Dunfermline looked nervous today, credit to Grant for trying to play football. Dorrans dictates games and is what Ayr are missing in the middle of the park. I don’t know if it is nervousness that was causing the mistakes at the back or your defence is just mince but Ayr had 3 shots on target and scored 3 goals. 2 very well worked and one defensive shambles and hard work from Bradley. the wide players for Dunfermline were really poor, Dorrans needs to find guys out wide to spread the play but they were almost hiding. I think Dunfermline will be ok this season if they can sort themselves out at the back and calm down a bit. Dunfermline are where Ayr were on Tuesday, angry, just waiting on mistakes to shout at.

That performance was never happening under Hopkin. we defended less compact, used width and scored 2 goals from passing play and crosses in to the box. we were struggling in midfield and Dunfermline dominated spells in the middle of the park and created a few chances, but never looked like taking any of them. Against a different team it might not have been as comfortable but it was night and day from Tuesday. The players looked more relaxed which, considering they have played one way all season, they could be forgiven if they were cautious and uptight. Bradley and O’Conner were ok in spells, neither looked like they were willing to beat a man but took up good positions and were involved in all the goals. MOM was Adeloye, the big man was outstanding, drifted out of things late on but put in some shift. ironically. Dorrans is exactly what we need in midfield. Dictated the game for Dunfermline, fortunately the rest were poor.

Murdoch Chalmers Maxwell Moffat McKenzie Adeloye Bradley and O'Conner to replace Moffat and McKenzie if required.

If we lose easily on Saturday, lose on Tuesday, Duffy will not be the manager. Like when Millen took over from Roberts, it moved quickly from give Millen a chance to get Millen to f**k. I'm willing to give Duffy a chance, however, They all came and failed and should all have left as failures. Duffy retired from management, he said he wanted to give up that side and concentrate on coaching. Unless he has changed his mind then it won't be Duffy. The club needs a massive lift after the last 18 months, promoting a coach to manager, who stood side by side with the worst manager in the clubs history and didn't manage to effect positive change isn't in the category of massive lift. A new manager coming in will have a grace period while his ability becomes apparent. If we concede a cheap goal first against Dunfermline on Saturday, Duffys grace period will be up with a lot of fans.

Worse ? yes, weaker? No Take Shankland out the mix, is signing youth players from Aberdeen and Hearts better or worse than folk playing for premier league clubs regularly? Is signing a left back in the Scotland under 21s to replace a Scottish under 21 international a weaker option? Same with out right backs. is signing a 33 year old Geggan and part time Bell better signing Aaron Muirhead and Joe Chalmers? we didn’t weaken the squad other than Shankland, who no club could replace. Have we got worse, 100% but it’s not because we haven’t invested in players, our own chairman said it was the most expensive squad we have had for years. Which returns us to your point about Ayr fans expectations which I see you have downgraded from winning the league to 4th place……when you spend more on a squad than the one that finished 4th, you don’t expect to be at the arse end of the league. you really are trying hard and failing here

There is a practical cooking section of the interview so that’s him fucked

Name one

It made us realise that we don't need to accept yoyo, seaside football and we don't need to spend millions to lift us out of it. The infrastructure has been improved to make us at least a top 6 Championship team. That is not ridiculous for a club and town the size of Ayr. The ridiculous part is that it took a lot of people a lot of time to realise it. The 2018/19 season was what we expected, getting to the play-offs with the team we had. No one thought we were going to finish above Dundee United or Ross County at the start of the season and the fact we pushed as long as we did was a bonus. But apart from that, your patronising summing up of Ayr is spot on.

What about someone who got Falkirk promoted to the Premier,, took hibs to Europe and won the Scottish Cup with Inverness. Who was also club captain ad lead the team out at its only cup final?

We waited to long to sack Kerr and missed out on Hughes who went to County and Wright who went to Kilmarnock. There could be at least one job in the Championship coming up, 4 teams at the bottom of the premier have had stinking starts so some of them could change soon. I'm not saying we need to necessarily appoint someone this week but if there are quality candidates available now then we should at least see if they are interested.