ExiledLichtie

It is indeed good news, and a better manager will get more out of him. Jim McIntyre not being the manager doesnt change that.

This is absolutely delusional thinking. This idea that unless we have McIntyre, pre-season will be a "clusterfuck" is just nonsense. The idea that we need a complete squad clearout, but at the same time that we need consistency so these players will re-sign. We haven't seen a single sign that McIntyre is the right man. Not one single sign. After a promising beginning, he's made things worse. First it was an injury crisis (which was fair, and also where he was best), then he didnt know his best team yet after all the new signings, then our players needed time to get match fit...now they are dead rubbers so it doesn't matter anyway. Is there no end to the excuses that people will make? Its not a team in flux, he's been playing a settled team for weeks now. Its getting worse. They are not terrible players either. McKenna is not a terrible player. Bird is not a terrible player. Slater is not a terrible player. Steele is not a terrible player. Delaney is not a terrible player. Gaston is not a terrible player. They might not be the best squad in the championship, but they are better than the results in recent weeks. I have absolutely no doubt that come next summer, the same people will be coming up with new excuses for our no doubt terrible start to the season.

Not the league cup games surely? They are effectively pre-season friendlies.

Start of next season won't be important either, as we'll all be counting down to when McIntyre leaves. Then caretaker matches can't be judged fairly. Then we need to give any new manager time, so we can't judge his first few games. Then its too early to judge as the manager hasn't had the summer to get his own players in, and we'll be back to dead rubbers as we head down to league 2.

And what did we do the following season? Fresh start or continuity? And how did that work?

I'm already looking forward to the start of season dead rubbers later in the summer. Presumably the logic is that every match is a dead rubber until McIntyre resigns?

Is that the latest excuse? It doesn't matter because its a dead rubber? That's 9 dead rubbers that don't matter in a row.

You would think, but our board have only sacked 2 managers in 24 years, and are totally sack averse, so they are apparently backing him. Some of our fans have also decided to shrug their shoulders and accept it.

Our centre halves never had a problem punting the ball before, so is McIntyre coaching the team to pass the ball about? So yes, coaching is part of it, as are tactics. Defensive organisation too. He has to go. We cannot go into a new season with him as our manager. Still no doubt the club will announce a shiny shiny contract renewal or a shiny shiny new signing soon.

Coaching? Tactics?

https://arbroatharchive.co.uk/matches.php? Thankfully, all our misery has been exhaustively collated so we can learn absolutely nothing from it.

John Brownlie, 2002/2003. Relegation from div 1 wasn't all his fault, his hands were tied, budget meant we couldn't sign good players etc etc. Oh, and we kept him over the summer to make a fresh start at division 2 until he eventually resigned in October.

Looking forward to the next shiny shiny new signing or contract extension our club announces.

What is this lunacy? So Brechin are arguing that because Strathspey conceded 133 goals this season, they shouldn't have played Buckie? So should the season have finished with Buckie playing less games than Brechin? Whit?

In fairness, if Haughey walked away, QP should have no problems finding a new benefactor. There isn't any other club in Scotland that has a directors box like that QP evil overlord lair. That's got to be appealing to a certain type of sponsor!

I reckon that rather than "taking a punt" on a highland league goalscorer, we should be looking at a young striker who scored goals by the hatful in the highland league, but who has also shown he can also score goals reliably in league 2. There's some guy called Kieran Shanks at Peterhead who fits the profile nicely.

That was absolutely glorious, the highlight of our season. My personal highlight of the season is going to be when game 36 finishes and this ordeal is finally over. I expect nothing from this game. Question, if you do somehow get relegated, will you play at your teeny tiny stadium next season?

Just read a reliable source saying that the club is moving to Methil, pending naming rights. Bit disappointed we're no longer Arbroath, but clearly the board have made their decision, so there's no point in complaining or objecting. Lets hope the club announce some new signings!

He's become a very dependable centre back, possibly might lack of a bit of pace at full back these days, but I'm really pleased to see him signing despite him being 100% away to East Fife!

Aye, if we sack McIntyre then we'll be unique in Scottish football in being unable to attract a single applicant for a managerial vacancy, and the club will fold.

Shame to see Lochee end their season with such a whimper. 148 goals, 28 wins, only 3 defeats, and they might still somehow only finish third. A real shame to see the one licensed team losing out like that.

When did "going forwards" become a buzzword? Did I miss a meeting?

Obviously, some dramatic license was employed, but clearly I'm not the only one to see the immediate vibe shift after we announced the shiny shiny new striker and a couple renewals. It takes more than that to make me go full Clashy! I think having him in place going into the new season is an absolute disaster, and makes things needlessly difficult. I've seen some people saying that we don't want to start being a revolving door club of sacking managers....we have *never* been a revolving door club. Had a look at arbroatharchive: Dick - Resigned Lumsden - Sacked, long long, long after we should have Sheerin - Resigned Moore - Sacked Sheerin - Resigned Weir - Resigned McGlashan - Resigned Cairney - Resigned Kirk - Resigned Brownlie - Resigned If I've got that correct, that's two sacked managers in 24 years. If anything, that is an absurdly low number of sacked managers. Note also Brownlie, got us relegated, arguably not all his fault, got the summer, had a terrible start. Also Steve Kirk had a terrible start, kept us up by the skin of our teeth arguably not all his fault got the summer, and naturally enough, had a terrible start to the next season and resigned. I was fine with us being relegated, but knowing that we're going to be stuck with McIntyre has absolutely stripped any optimism out of me. We've all seen this story before, we all know how it always ends. If McIntyre makes a success of things after the start he's had, then he could probably get a documentary made. Its that unlikely. So I'm afraid I'm not willing to join the "well, its happened now, might as well clap happily along at the shiny new signings" crowd.

I think when he came to us, it felt like he hadn't played much football in his career, maybe hadn't been used to being a regular starter, so he struggled to get through games at first. He is without a doubt a natural goalscorer though, he has a real eye for it, and as SmokeyJoe says, in the right team could score a lot of goals. He doesn't have the greatest workrate at times though, and he can disappear for chunks of a game, but I'd absolutely love it if we were able to keep hold of him next year. I think its vanishingly unlikely though, he can do better than league one, and I don't think our manager fancies him.