Tigerland

I see Jamie MacDonald has left Killie. We could do a lot worse. I take him as well , but I doubt we will actually sign more than one or two players with the rest being loans. If expect an experienced centre mid and maybe a centre half will be priority . That would take up the funds freed up by Doc and Aldo going out ,...

Paul Paton ideal replacement .

Frank Ross : no thanks , too much of a risk .

I’m optimistic it’ll be business as usual by August .

I was thinking more of an experienced captain and holding midfield player like Paton . Caught my eye in the live game last season . All about opinions I suppose .

Sounds like Paton might be what we are looking for if we are replace Docherty and Kerr in the team . After all the last Pars captain that moved to us did pretty well , including the goal that knocked Killie out the Ramsdens in his first game back . Cheers ....

Is your ex captain , Paton finished or could he still do a job at Championship level ?

He got 19 goals in 26 games with Falkirk . Not too shabby . Expect Falkirk fill have first dibs on him however . What about the ex Pars captain Paton to fill the Doc/Kerr void in our midfield ?

Drinan .?

St Johnstone and Ross County have freed a bunch of players that will be of great interest to teams in our league . For example Declan McManus , anybody think we can a) afford him and b) would he be a fit for us .?

I like big Bell as well 100% professional and somebody worth keeping at the club is some role . Maybe player coach . However he’s 35 now , maybe getting a bit long in the tooth for a starting centre half .

Which brings us to a yes or no on the following : Aero ? Moff ? Belly ? Geggan ? Murdy ? Thoughts ??

Ross Docherty made a choice , he didn’t want to continue playing with Ayr United . Let’s concentrate our efforts on those that do want to play with Ayr United .

Dolan and McGuffie left for Morton sure . However McKenzie went out to Forfar , Ross went back to Aberdeen and Murdoch was out for the season . All this and our captain signed a pre contract with Thistle which rocked us a bit . Second place and a real crack in the play offs was very much on the cards if we had a good window . We had a shocker with the exception of getting Houston signed and the arrival of Drinan . The others were just jersey fillers and may well have cost us fourth if we had finished the season .

Kinda does sound like lack of ambition though ! “Plucky wee Ayr up from the seaside league” ! I don’t subscribe to that though process , not while Accies are in the Premier and Livingston are 5th top of the thing . There are opportunities to be had here ,I would be having a look at them. We didn’t have a particularly brilliant window in January, I’d say that if we repeat that in the summer then we.ll be in trouble !

I have every confidence in Mark and Mick not being asleep at the wheel ,but the bean counters maybe not so . When we get started it will be as easy this season as last to pick three of the top four : Hearts Dundee and Inverness . The other team will be from the much less resourced group (obviously) , its the one with the most fore sight and boldest approach that will grab that last slot . It’s been us for the last two years . Hopefully we will prevail again . However there is more work to be done in the market in this window than in the last two . We need to up our game . If we do , who knows , the prize might just be greater than fourth .

I’d call getting Murdy on a two year deal a great bit of business . Getting Harvie will be up there with getting LS on that extension after we won the league .... Harvie is one of the best players in the Championship only bettered by maybe LS himself ...

There will be a lot of good players looking for a wage this summer and some clubs at our level will take a punt . Won’t labour the point ,the counter narrative does hold water so fair enough ... On a separate note , of our seven out of contract players , given that Harvie will have good offers , who would we be offering to extend ? Murdoch is obvious but we may have rivals , Bell ? Moffat ? Geggan ? Aero ?

Thing is guys Paul Watson is available, he’s an experienced centre half and we may well be in the centre half recruitment business . We only have four or five players signed for next season so we do have a bit of flex in the budget . If we are bold , we can get a player who would ordinarily be bound for Falkirk , Thistle or Dundee . As they say “faint heart never won fair maiden” ! As somebody said it would only cost three or four months wages . I do understand that this is not usually the Ayr United way but we are not going to be able to sustain a top four finish by being lucky in the youth reject and loan market all the time . A serious spine in this team is needed and a quality centre half , goal scorer and rejuvenated Andy Murdock are most deffo on the shopping list . If indeed we are chasing a top four finish that is ......

I’m just a bit concerned that certain clubs will take a punt on the start time of the attended league and do some smart business for desperate out of contract players . For example , I’d be gutted if Thistle made a move for say Andy Murdoch while we were asleep at the wheel . Even if the attended games don’t start until January there will still be a season off attended football , structure the contracts accordingly . Pulling in the season ticket money might allow us to go and entice a couple of front line Championship players that ordinarily we wouldn’t have been able to get with all clubs in the market . For example Watson and Scougall ,

When do the season tickets come out .? Hopefully the club will raise the prices a little : £300 for an adult season and £20 at the gate . That would bring us in line with the rest of the division and could finance another two players on the going rate in the championship ,