CapitalDiamond

It’s not so much precious losses, last few years have been break even/small profit, but there is a large debt owed to the owner which I assume is the money put in initially to buy out Wotherspoon. Bit of a stick or twist decision for PH, do you take money out while it’s there, or reinvest it in the hope of making your investment even better. If we did manage a promotion then he’s bought a stadium that no o e could make work as a business and an ailing part time league 1 team and managed to get the operation to the level where that Stadium becomes a massive asset. Not by throwing cash at it Willie Haughey style, but by solidly improving things year on year. There’s been very little luck come our way between the Covid season (where we were right in the mix) and the agony of 2 play off final losses.

It’s another feather in McCabe’s cap how he’s managed to bridge the gap to the Pars from last season. Incredible run of form since the Ayr defeat and particularly beating Morton, Raith and Dunfermline within a week and being considerably the better team in each game.

Brilliant Episode guys. Weird hearing so much positive chat on Airdrie - it will never catch on!!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6i43ZNFgt25i7iRiDy0xDj?si=OBjBAZyTQDO32Hi8WuEHO given the title, I’m sure we wouldn’t be rushing towards this!! It’s a really good listen though. Craig Ireland and Craig Easton contributing, summary of every championship club and chat on Airdrie 1 hour in.

You’re closer to 9th than to Airdrie now. Don’t Look Down!

Found the money. Half a million pounds pumped into Raith in January. I’m not jealous It’s gone in as shares which means it can’t come back out and so a real good news story for Raith fans.

I don’t think Raith are awash with cash incidentally, it does feel as if you have had investment from new owners since the summer? Lots of talk about infrastructure changes, new deal for Ian Murray, exorbitant amounts on Social Media artwork etc. There seems to be an almost Monty Pythonesque fight to claim the smallest budget in the Championship this year. Got up at 4 in the mornin’, were murdered in cold blood, didn’t have a manager, didn’t have an assistant manager, didn’t have a sub keeper etc. I think we’re doing very well on limited resources, equally I think Raith are doing better £ for £ than United, but none of that really matters!

I would doubt that, especially when you fold in the coaching teams: I don’t think we could have spent much less. Typical Starting 11 Robbie Hemfrey (signed as a free agent with 1 senior game) Mason Hancock (released by Aberdeen) Kanayo Megwa (young Loanee from Hibs) Callum Fordyce (assistant manager, deal expired at QotS) Rhys McCabe (Manager, deal expired at QotS) Charlie Telfer (released by Falkirk) Adam Frizzell (deal expired at Dumbarton) Dean McMaster (deal expired at St Mirren B) Lewis McGregor (released by Morton) Nikolai Todorov (released by Dunfermline) I don’t think that you’ll be multiples of what we pay, but I’d guess you’d have significantly more in the way of spending power. In recent years Raith have been able to entice Murray, Easton and Smith from us and that isn’t really a surprise when you’ve been a league up and had higher attendances.

Kelty!

No idea on budgets but Raith were able to take players and the manager from us even before they had money!

It was the late Jade Goody who the press had reported on! Prize money has become a bit of an obsession of mine when I look at the league table. Jumps £75k between 3rd and 4th and 4th and 5th so it could make a big difference. I think last year we would only have had about £87.5k and no cup runs so hopefully this all really helps in tying down Rhys and giving him a budget to try and make the top 6 and hopefully Europe next year!!!

How do we define cult hero though? I’d have it for players who are loved even though their football doesn’t neccessarily merit it e.g. Wullie Wilson Toddy’s been really good since the QP comeback. He’s more of a straight up Bulgarian Andy Smith for me!!! Can look awkward but big, powerful, a nightmare for defences and can finish. A hero.

Good game I thought. Muirhead’s chance first half was a better opportunity than either of our goals. For those questioning the over-reaction, there was always going to be needle in the game. Imrie made some comments which felt like digs about Airdrie/Rhys (I think in response to style of play/Lewis McGregor comments from Rhys) when he’d got Morton into a strong position. Imrie also loves a comment about having the lowest budget in the league which I’d be stunned if it was true given our player manager/player assistant and not signing anyone other than Toddy as a big name to bolster our squad. A lot made by Morton fans about Airdrie being hatchet men at Cappielow, press ahead of this game was pretty pointed from Oakley and Imrie. The claims on this thread about the Ton being hammered because ref’s buy into the narrative was entertaining. Throw in Quitongo and Milne who have wound Airdrie fans up before and I think any gloating on our part is understandable. Both clubs have had successful seasons. Morton have sandwiched league winning form with relegation form And need to snap out of that to stop falling further down the table. Not seen a collapse in form like it since……… well Morton aabout 20 years ago! We need to try and keep our run going through some very tricky fixtures if we want to get 4th. You could yet finish above us with how this league goes, but we’ll savour tonight and how triggered Imrie seemed to be by it all.

Latest Podcast is Up https://on.soundcloud.com/EnigeNb7zRrVi1F1A

https://on.soundcloud.com/SmjLK6FgiaWU7AaL7 Cup Final preview is up. Thanks to @emmaq1983 @IdlehandsDuffy @modernw0rld @AlanPorteous @RSMStats for contributing and to @RedactedBrands for the brilliant Art Work

Latest podcast is up. Thanks to Colin Campbell, Andro Sneddon and David Roxburgh for coming on and to Stuart Dalzell for the excellent photo. What a month that’s been! https://on.soundcloud.com/3PCbt7iCnYhCWJGCA

Airdrie Fan My main ambition would be for the club to survive in the Championship and be able to grow home attendances. If Airdrie could always be in the top 18 for home attendances then the board would have an income they could work with. The club changed ownership 4/5 years ago and has had some terrible luck since (COVID/Play Off Final losses). It’s hard to argue with any of their big decisions. Appointing McCabe has been a master stroke. With where the players have come from and where they are in the league we are massively over achieving. Anything 8th or above would cap off our best season in 20 years and pair that with the SPFL trust trophy it’ll be the best since liquidation. And on that note…. we know why we can’t have owners flying too close to the sun. I can see the temptation, get Airdrie into the Premiership and suddenly that white elephant of a stadium makes perfect sense. Fall short and you are never making a loss of say half a million back. What I think would really help all of us is league reconstruction. I’ve given up on the Premiership rejigging, they want the 4 OF games. But I don’t see why a 2nd tier of 16 or even 20 wouldn’t work. I think a lot of clubs (Airdrie included) have been harmed by how competitive the top of the Championship is and the inherently unfair playoffs (think we were 22 points ahead of QP only for Simon Murray to return from injury and fire them to play off victory. We did similar to Falkirk last year). 20 team league playing each other twice would do for me and would allow clubs to plan longer term/recover from a bad season more easily.

He also had some pretty horrendous luck given the Covid season we were well placed and it was a harsh [Murrayball] Loss and No show at Broadwood just before the music stopped. Then coming up against Cove and the QP heart break. Brilliant to see it going our way since then and as much as I pointed to that internal debt figure finishing 4th rather than 8th would potentially wipe out a massive amount of that

I’m not so sure. We’ve not had it this good for a very long time. Next year Rhys and Dycey will be a year older (very obvious I know) but at some point we won’t get away with having 2 key players also being the management team. That will hit the playing budget. A lot of bigger teams are having issues this year. Thistle with a need to rebuild last summer, Pars spending on infrastructure and then suffering injuries, Raith trusting Ian Murray to out attacker other teams I agree finishing 8th or above is a brilliant achievement. IF we somehow get 3rd or 4th, it might be a one off and so I wouldn’t be seeing it as a free hit but more as a once in a generation opportunity to sneak a promotion into the top tier. The last accounts I saw (to end of June 2022) had us showing about £360K of debt and the club technically insolvent and so dependent on money from PH to keep us going. We’ve had a really good run since then, play offs, big increases in prize money through league position and cups this year, Devenney to CP etc. but if we could sneak even one season in the top league would be massive financially - debt free and better placed to compete even if we come straight back down. In the past Livi and Accies have done it, so I’d be hoping we could hit form at the perfect time and a bit gutted if the chance passed us by. Next season could be tricky if we lose the loanees and some of our top performers (Hancock, Telfer, Frizz etc.). I’ve thought that every year since the takeover and it hasn’t happened so hopefully if we are in the Championship again next year we can continue to build. Wild to at this stage that League 1 and the Premiership are probably equally likely outcomes! 80% chance it will be the Championship I reckon!

Don’t understand that conclusion. We are supposed to believe that your USH failed, blew a hole in the turf, discharged all of it’s water onto the pitch….. but was fully repaired by the next Thursday without the need to dig up the pitch to replace a ruptured bitch. Let’s say in an alternate universe you just flooded it to get the game off and got the groundsman to dug a wee hole. You’d still have a flooded pitch in the middle of winter. The following week had sub zero temps so it would have been a very wet and frozen pitch for over a week and the main stand means it hardly gets any sun. That would be awful for your pitch. i think your pitch being in a state doesn’t remove any notion that your club were bullshitting at all. The fact that it was never stated to be anything other than a “suspected failure” and all hunky dory within a week is the main reason I’ve made a hat out of tinfoil and made a long overdue victory all the sweeter!!

He just turned round and shushed the Pars fans. He loves doing that to all opposition fans.

Latest pod is up thanks to Emma Quigley, David Quigley, Barry Davies and Ross Mitchell (RSM stats) for discussing the recent Airdrie brilliance. Thanks also to Joel Sked of Hearts Standard for coming on and giving us A View from the Tynecastle Terrace Enjoy

When Airdrie went to the wall, the directors left one by one until only Joey Rowan remained. He died during the Administration and I’m sure the stress was a factor. He never had any issues with the fans giving him grief as he was very well known to the fans and very well liked, but another cautionary tale of what it can lead to.

£1,500 TV money There’s a TV on the John Lewis website that costs £7,999.99 Prize money is very useful though. Where did you find it? Google wasn’t getting me an answer.