VictorOnopko

The club will definitely get Fitzpatrick tied down. We're brilliantly run, have a highly competitive budget, a squad full of competition for places, and we're especially good at basics like always getting the right clauses into all player contracts.

Did he definitely sign for them prior to their demotion? If so that's a fair point, although it should also be noted that he failed to find a club for quite a while after exiting Caley Thistle. Like you said, I wasn't really using the 3rd div thing to criticise him. I'd still be (pleasantly) surprised if he makes much of an impact tho. Nice to have something to be optimistic about having picked up 3 points against Falkirk, although a) they seem to be in even more disarray than us; and b) I wish, just for once, that we could cruise to the end of a game rather than enduring an agonising last few minutes of clinging onto a narrow win. Not least because we usually fail to manage it.

I hope Mutombo is absolutely brilliant and scores (or creates) loads of goals for us this season. He seems to be in the Erskine mould of being very unpredictable as he doesn't know himself what he's going to do next. I'm also glad we got someone (anyone!) in. Given that he's been plucked from the 3rd division in Croatia well after the season has started here, and comes with dire warnings from Caley fans (who were spot on about Devine), expectations obviously have to be kept pretty low - but who knows, maybe he'll surprise the gloomier among us.

Rubbish. He does find it it hard sometimes to hide his (justifiable) contempt for the "ongoing situation" at your stadium though, where a reporter was banned from reporting.

I may have completely misunderstood you or perhaps am being whooshed, but I think Richard Gordon's an excellent presenter who is both calm and competent in the midst of a team of drivel-spouting idiots who are barely able to communicate or describe basic football action (most notably Pat Bonner, 'Biscuits', and the single worst "journalist" working in Scottish football, Mr. Chick Young). To claim that RG is angry is a very odd accusation. He usually sounds quite cheerful to me, even when his team are losing. Sportsound has many faults - the continued presence of allegedly retired Chick being the worst - but Richard Gordon really isn't one of them.

Partick Threadbare

I couldn't agree with this post more. It's beyond belief that our management team think that we have a competitive midfield in place for the coming season, with or without (and let's face it, it's 95% certain it will be without) a fully fit Bannigan. They have apparently learned nothing whatsoever from the absolute shambles of last season, where we put teams out week after week who were absolutely steamrollered in midfield - and nothing from the failed policy of "our injured player will be back soon to save us". We are, at the very, very least, short of a right back, two holding/tackling midfielders, and a striker. Our squad - both team and bench - on Day 1 of the league campaign was a complete burach. They've had months to get targets in (and rather than sobbing about "knockbacks" like a teenager at a school disco, to have multiple alternatives lined up). It really does look like the club decided not to compete for promotion this season in order to severely cut squad costs - but pretended otherwise after our ignominous relegation, to sell season books.

That's all extremely laudable but personally I'd rather the club donated the money directly to a charity to actively help refugees with legal fees, living costs etc. and/or gave out free tickets again, rather than the same amount of money being spent on a large flag saying we're a friendly club. The latter is fine, in a try-hard "wha's like us" Celtic kinda way, but then the question arises: why don't we have other flags in support of other good causes and against other political injustices? If we're using news headlines as flag-motivators, should we have one in support of abuse survivors in football, given our old MD has messed up the PR on that at the SFA already?

He certainly does. If I recall right, McCall signed Doolan and Erskine for us - possibly our two most important players of the last ten years - and is an all round good manager who can spot a player and motivate and organise a team. AA, on the other hand, has a pretty poor record in spotting players and organising teams, which makes it unfortunate for us that he's been kept on to rebuild 80% of the squad for a promotion challenge. He also apparently couldn't motivate our players (including our then-captain) in the closing stages of last season.

To be fair, Morton have won pure hunners of leagues and cups, including a crucial bottom tier championship which, as was explained to us earlier in this very thread, casts a long shadow over the likes of Ayr.

Still very hard to predict as I am sure Archibald still has some cracking signings up his sleeve for us to fill the glaringly obvious weaknesses all over the pitch* having had since May to hone his masterplan, and everyone else is still bringing folk in too, but I'll revise my prediction to the following, based on the assumption that Ross County will be nudged towards the top by their sugar uncle. *Actually, I'm sure he doesn't.

I would be absolutely astonished if Archibald steers this rabble into a play-off spot, never mind somehow achieving promotion out of a tough league. Happy to be proved wrong, but I said at the time he should have had the decency to step down at the end of last season, which was an absolute shambles, as he looked completely out of ideas. Everything about him as a manager has long since become deeply depressing and frustrating - his (in-)ability to change a game, baffling substitutions, persistence with hugely out of form players, excuses and platitudes after the latest embarrassing loss, apparent inability to coach defenders, and generally shit signings which - again - look set to leave us with a weak as f*ck midfield with no fight or creativity. Bossed at home by Ayr yesterday - this season could be a real slog.

Rahman isquite funnytowatch in his daily....STV.... OldFirmnewsflash slot, as he seemsincapable of know... ing when his autocue is telling himtoleavespacesbetweenwords ... and... when... toleavepauses.

Confused as to why you have now introduced Aberdeen into this bizarre argument.

I see. So results between the teams don't count, and the single fourth tier title is your crucial tie-breaker. Fine; we'll leave it there. A multi-clause sentence with a word combination you don't like does not equal a "word salad" . As you are demonstrating very well, it's more than possible to gloat in a bitter (and misinformed) way. It's also interesting to see your deflection tactics in attempting to shift the focus onto vocabulary rather than football - particularly since your claim of "far" more league titles was either a lie which you hoped no one would check, or a very poorly chosen word. Thanks for playing. Unlucky. Ainsley picture, etcetera, etcetera.

I don't think I was "unlucky" to look up the stats you were skewing and to be able to establish that your claim that Morton had won " far more league titles" was entirely false, unless you meant to say "one more league title... in the fouth tier". Was that a typo? I presume it must have been, as only a fantasist would believe that a fourth tier title, along with some nonsense about who has spent less time in the third tier (who cares?) and a pile of pre-season local cups - which no one in Scotland even realises are being played except fans of the couple of league teams contesting them - makes one team a laughing stock and the other far superior to them and in a position to bitterly gloat. But, if it makes you feel better to fire out wonky salvos at Ayr United fans, then carry on. My point - which believe remains a strong one - is that it is an odd fight to pick given the rather similar records your teams have. An Ayr fan also mentioned that they have the superior head to head over time which, given that you are counting up everything the clubs have ever done in the history of the game, must be quite disappointing for you. Maybe we simply have to agree to disagree on Morton being much bigger and less of a "point and laugh" outfit than Ayr. All I (and, I suspect many other fans of other clubs) recall from recent years was a tragi-comic relegation from tier 2 to the "seaside league" you so disdain, having conceded ten goals in a final league game. Clue: it wasn't Ayr who suffered it.

Why do you bother to repeatedly post on this thread to tell us how pointless it is? Isn't that quite... pointless?

I don't have an iron in the fire in this argument/ odd wind up attempt, but I had a spare 5 mins there so looked up Ayr and Morton's relative successes. I read that Morton have won the 2nd tier 6 times, as have Ayr. They've won the third tier 3 times, as, again, have Ayr. Perhaps Morton's single 4th tier championship gives them the edge in league wins...? Morton also have a Scottish cup to their name, while Ayr do not - however, Ayr were in a major final (League Cup) in 2001. Morton were last in one in 1964. Morton appear to have won loads of Renfrewshire Cups... which is good for the 'trophies won' stat, but not much else. As a Thistle fan, I genuinely haven't heard anyone treating Ayr as a laughing stock, as you claim here. I do remember a few sad shakes of the head when Morton got beaten 10-2 and relegated by a country mile the season after Thistle eased away to win the Championship against you though. No "pointing and laughing"; just disappointment for you that you had been so embarrassed. All in all, it seems an odd fight to pick.

On the one hand, he's apparently scored a grand total of 8 goals in an 11 year career. On the other hand, he's only 28, which is the same age Neil Alexander was when he was 28.

Like everyone else, I'm very pleased about Storey's revised contract. He's shown commitment to the club, (presumably) saved us money, and has the pace to cause problems in this division. That said, does Archibald have the gumption to regularly play him as a forward, where he has a good chance of scoring goals, or will he stubbornly stick to last season's failed tactic of putting him out on the wing, which everyone could see was a complete waste of time?

A fit Welsh wouldn't have done us any harm at all last season. Given that Haccies beat us by 0 points and we were in the play offs spot on GD, having lacked any semblance of a competent midfield all season, with Osman and Barton both forgetting how to play football, it's not a huge leap to think we may have stayed up if we'd had a midfielder in there who had previously been tidy and committed for us (in spells, at least). I know... if my auntie had baws, etc... but last season's relegation was down to very small margins. In other news, it seems from the St Murn board this morning that "there is nothing in the Doolan story" - who'd have thunk it??

Terrific news that we've offloaded Barton to DUFC. He had one great season with us, followed immediately by an absolute stinker where he downed tools and hid for about 6 months. Fantastic to get his inflated wages off the books. He doesn't like football, or teammates, so good to get rid.

Or, looks like there are three handy silos already in situ. Once the Overpaid Three have dug some drainage ditches, they can be stored in those. I imagine that's why we chose this particular field.

I for one am shocked - shocked - to learn that Adam Barton doesn't want his teammates to do well, and doesn't love football. Football doesn't love him, either. I wonder how his "self pride" is doing after last season?

I think he was our joint worst player last season (based on the games I managed to get to, anyway), along with Devine. His attitude stank and he was one of the main reasons we were overrun game after game by poor teams; he looked absolutely clueless and afraid of getting involved. He might be better this season in a lower league if no one else will take him, or if he stays, he might continue to dial in his halfarsed performances (on premiership wages), as he clearly thinks he's better than he is. Is he worth keeping on and throwing money at in the hope that he suddenly finds focus, determination and motivation again? In my opinion - no.