The Arbroath Thread

[Broken Algorithms]

18 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

The big concern from an Arbroath perspective/big hope as a fan of a relegation rival is the job McIntyre did taking over a Dundee team already in a relegation mess, and questions over whether he's got it in him to turn it round when he inherits a team in that situation. Even in the jobs he's done well in overall, getting teams out of a rut has generally been a weakness.

However he did a perfectly good job at Cove last season, with his sacking there being total madness which relegated them. They were staying up comfortably if they stuck with him, and he's done a good job with every club he's managed in this division. Aside from Cove he turned round Dunfermline from Stephen Kenny's mess and went on to win them the title, then took a newly promoted Queen of the South into the playoffs and had them sitting fourth again when he left for Ross County the following season.

While Petrie would have been more exciting, there aren't any other realistic appointments that would have been better on paper.

Wee bit of caveat to that in that they were picking up players they couldn't afford before it all came tumbling down a few seasons later... 

[lichtie23]

Just now, RedLichtie86 said:

Dodds might come in as his Assistant.....

Jimmy Boyle announced as assistant 

[RedLichtie86]

Just now, lichtie23 said:

Jimmy Boyle announced as assistant 

missed that.

[Savage Henry]

14 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

Worth remembering Dundee fans never wanted him and made it pretty obvious, along with the whole Billy Dodds situation there too.

His time there was destined to fail the moment it began.

Yup.  This is absolutely the case.  He’s nowhere near as bad as would appear from that in isolation.  That said, he did sign Andrew Davies - who was amazing but only had one functioning leg by that stage in his career. 

edit: TL;DR Ross Draper incoming. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Savage Henry

[1320Lichtie]

In regards to potential signings in January - would love to see us get Jack Sanders for second half of the season.

[D'Jaffo]

I think it’s a fairly solid appointment. We should’ve went for him when we appointed Kerr after McCall left and again when we appointed Hopkin as he was apparently close to the Ayr job both times. I thought he was treated harshly by Cove and they became so much worse when Hartley returned. 
 

It’ll be interesting to see how the relegation battle plays out. Both yourselves and Caley have played the sacking the manager card and it’s highly unlikely either team will play it again. Seems to have worked so far for them so you might also get a lift from it. Will wait and see when/if Morton, Queens Park and ourselves decide to throw the dice in that regard and how that affects things. 

[SmokeyJoe]

Decent appointment wasn’t sure what to expect tbh. Like the thought of 442 will need a few wide players in I’d imagine along with defensive cover which is obvious 

[Smokerson]

4-4-2 with our current players with wide men would be suicidal, would maybe work in some sort of diamond

[lichtiekev]

I'm just looking forward to a change, 

The football we have played over the last 18 months has been very poor, few boys need shown the door and hopefully a more balanced squad come January,

Could maybe been a better appointment but could of been a lot worse, 

 

 

[an86]

As a direct competitor, I’m not disappointed with this. Looks a huge downgrade. 

[Girth]

The is back in a job!

[1320Lichtie]

3 minutes ago, an86 said:

As a direct competitor, I’m not disappointed with this. Looks a huge downgrade. 

Maybe a DC in his prime or even a good version.
 

Dick Campbell of 2023 is not the same guy or manager he once was though. Nowhere near it 

[clashcityrocker]

Can't imagine there will be many changes between now and the new year - new coaching style , man management  and maybe a little tweak with formations, until he gets to know the players better.

Hopefully the players will get the new manger bounce vibe and rediscover their form.

 

[RedLichtie86]

12 minutes ago, an86 said:

As a direct competitor, I’m not disappointed with this. Looks a huge downgrade. 

Another one who has not watched our dire football over the past 18 months.

[Tattie36]

9 minutes ago, clashcityrocker said:

Can't imagine there will be many changes between now and the new year - new coaching style , man management  and maybe a little tweak with formations, until he gets to know the players better.

Hopefully the players will get the new manger bounce vibe and rediscover their form.

 

I was nodding with agreement with everything you wrote here…. And then you had to spoil it with the last 4 words.

What form are you hoping to rediscover exactly?

Season 21/22? obviously not as that’s ancient history and it’s largely a different squad.

Season 22/23 again, obviously not as, aside from the odd game, we were rotten.

Or, as I suspect, you’re talking about a minuscule 4 game window that happened during September this season? That was not “our form”, the bulk of the last 18 months had been “our form” so we certainly don’t want to stay or return to that.

Hopefully a fresh start, new ideas and some new players. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by Tattie36

[Watson Nimrod]

Wow, didn’t seen that coming.

He was awful for us (Cove), didn’t have confidence in our HL players who were clearly better than the ones he brought in and managed to destroy any spirit we had in the dressing room from the promotion up to the Championship by getting rid of of 20 goal a season striker over a petty squabble then the team fell apart. The only plus side is that he picked up a few decent loaners but whether that was by luck or judgement I’ve no idea. 

Good luck staying up, he wasn’t totally to blame for us going down last season but if he hadn’t fallen out with most of the players before he had to be got rid of I think we would have stayed up. 

 

[an86]

17 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Maybe a DC in his prime or even a good version.
 

Dick Campbell of 2023 is not the same guy or manager he once was though. Nowhere near it 

 

8 minutes ago, RedLichtie86 said:

Another one who has not watched our dire football over the past 18 months.

Not saying Campbell hasn’t run his course. In retrospect, it might have been best to bow out after *that* season. The very definition of taken the club as far as it can go. I do, though, think McIntyre is rubbish and will be surprised if he gets a better tune out of that squad. Surely there has to have been better out there? 

[1320Lichtie]

On 26/11/2023 at 14:05, 1320Lichtie said:

Of course you have hit a nerve. Arbroath fans and the club have been extremely patient with Dick Campbell - to the point where I’ve not seen anything else like it in football. I can’t remember a manager getting the backing and support DC has when he had done such a terrible job over such a long period of time. 
 

 

Summer 2022 we were in an incredible position. Had a solid squad of players. 
 

Then the fallouts and dressing room bust ups came. James Craigen, Nicky Low and Jason Thomson all left the club after starting the season off with us.
 

Craigen who would still be a good player for us right now and who scored against us yesterday left because he could not get a game in central midfield. At one point Luke Donnelly and a man named Daniel Fosu (will get on to that later) played centre midfield over the guy. 
 

Then Luke Donnelly left. Dylan Patterson left. Hilson was injured and Keiran Shanks could barely get on the park. We were left with a young striker we’d signed from the Highland League and Dale Hilson, a guy who worked his socks off but rarely ever scored. 
 

We signed the likes of Daniel Fosu, Kareem Isiaka and Deri Corfe to replace the guys that had left. These 3 were absolutely nowhere near it. Daniel Fosu by far the best of the 3. Deri Corfe is easily up there with one of the worst players I’ve ever seen play. 
 

These kind of signings had been the new way forward for Dick, we had already had a wee taste of them when we brought in Sam Ford and Michael Bakare. It was as clear as day Dick Campbell was on a mission to find his own Nouble. 
 

6/7 of the signings we made in the first half of the season were moved on in January 2023. They all got given a chance against Dunfermline in the Challenge Cup and they were 4-0 down at half time. Dick slaughtered them all after and that was that. The club actually had to put a recruitment team in place because of how shambolic Summer 2022 was.
 

Throughout last season, on plenty of occasions we played without a striker on the park. For the majority of the season we had no wingers or strikers except Bobby Linn. Bobby was put upfront on several occasions while we played 5 central players across the midfield. Bobby was by far and away our best player and biggest goal threat yet Dick Campbell did his best to try and not play him. He commented on how the fans singing his name when he was on the bench ‘got on his tits’ and that we should get a grip. I know fine well that Bobby would’ve been terribly upset with the way he was treated. It really was a joke and showed Dick at his stubborn best. 
 

Anyway as RL86 has mentioned we were not a functioning football team as we had no attack, we scored the least amount of goals out of the 42 teams. Kieran Shanks was moved on in January after rarely getting a chance and we were left with Dale Hilson and Sean Adarkwa. Adarkwa was a handy player but he was injured for the majority of the time so we were left with wee Dale Hilson chasing long balls and punts up the park. 
 

In the end Derek Gaston, Ricky Little and Tam O’Brien were standouts and we managed to grind out enough draws to finish above 2 terrible teams. 

Despite all of that, myself and so many others said we achieved our goal and it was a success to stay up. I have mentioned how I had said that if we had got relegated last year I would still want Dick to stay. 
 

Then in we go to this year. 
 

First thing’s first, we started off the season with the news Keaghan Jacobs had re signed. A guy who was clearly absolutely finished and still plays no real part. 
 

Then the trialists started rolling in, I have lost count of how many we had. But we were told that they’d been extensively scouted and that they’d all be good enough to play for Arbroath. Wow. What an absolute embarrassment some of them were. It was as clear as day Dick was still trying to find his Nouble. 
 

Every single one of them bar a young lad Jess Norey and Turan were moved on. A total waste of time. 
 

We signed well in certain areas and we have built up a good group of players but if you read this thread back everyone was saying we needed a left back, a holding midfielder and some defensive cover. 
 

This has not happened. We have been scrambling about like a pub team in an effort to put together something that resembles a football team on several occasions already this year, players playing out of position because of how unbalanced the squad is. 
 

Im not sure how well you know these players but for one of our League Cup games we had a back 4 of

 

Keaghan Jacobs - RB

David Gold - CH

Ricky Little - CH

Scott Stewart - LB

 

It has been embarrassing. In recent weeks we’ve had a tiny squad with injuries yet Dick still sent Joao Balde on loan, a guy who has shown some promise, because he wanted to play more. There are so many cases of things like this. It’s bad bad bad management. 

The team do not resemble a football team. They do not look like they’re playing for Dick one little bit. It looks like a very bad environment to be in. You will have seen your team in a similar state at some point you know what I mean. 

Do not sit there and say that this is anything to do with us being too big for our boots, I was extremely upset at seeing them leave I wanted them to do well and I’ve backed them as much as I possibly can along with so many others. 
 

But their race was run and things needed to change. 

 

4 minutes ago, an86 said:

 

Not saying Campbell hasn’t run his course. In retrospect, it might have been best to bow out after *that* season. The very definition of taken the club as far as it can go. I do, though, think McIntyre is rubbish and will be surprised if he gets a better tune out of that squad. Surely there has to have been better out there? 

I realise you probably can’t be arsed reading it but Dick absolutely took us as far as we can go as a club and that’s widely accepted.
 

The things mentioned above is what contributed to his downfall and in the here and now making a change is definitely not a downgrade. The DC everyone knew and loved and respected as a football manager was long gone before he left.
 

It will be up to McIntyre to overhaul the squad, we need a clear out in certain areas of the park and a lot more brought in in other areas. 
 

Actual personnel wise the squad is decent enough but it is all over the gaff in regards to depth in certain areas / diversity of player types.

[TheRoundO]

Can we recall Balde from loan immediately?  We do have a bit of a squad emergency.

[Tattie36]

13 minutes ago, Watson Nimrod said:

Wow, didn’t seen that coming.

He was awful for us (Cove), didn’t have confidence in our HL players who were clearly better than the ones he brought in and managed to destroy any spirit we had in the dressing room from the promotion up to the Championship by getting rid of of 20 goal a season striker over a petty squabble then the team fell apart. The only plus side is that he picked up a few decent loaners but whether that was by luck or judgement I’ve no idea. 

Good luck staying up, he wasn’t totally to blame for us going down last season but if he hadn’t fallen out with most of the players before he had to be got rid of I think we would have stayed up. 

 

Was he that bad at Cove? Yes you had some scuddings towards the end of his management but how much of that was down to him probably knowing that Hartley was coming back?

I suspect that a combination of Cove not winning most weeks, as they had become accustomed to since being in the league, and the prospect of the return of the hairy messiah tainted the fans view more than a touch.

The Cove I saw, in person and on TV, with McIntyre as manager was light years ahead of the Cove that got relegated.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Tattie36