The Arbroath Thread

[1320Lichtie]

9 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

I’d like to point out to Dick et al that the Queens Park attack that tore us to shreds last night contained Simon Murray, Dom Thomas and Grant Savoury, all of them Scottish. We know all about Murray, Thomas was signed from a horrendous Dunfermline (although he obviously has a good pedigree) and Savoury from Peterhead… Peterhead FFS!!!

Don’t tell us that there are no (or were no in the summer) Scottish players good enough because I just watched 3 take us apart at will. You fucked up by thinking you’d be a smart arse and fill our team with “real quality” from England and, in true Dick Campbell fashion, you will never admit that it was a mistake and will plow on regardless, and blame everyone and everything else until it’s too late.

Tbf all 3 of them were out of our reach. Savoury could actually only leave for a FT club. Murray will be back one day but we couldn’t have got him this season and same goes for Thomas. We couldn’t have got him over QP and there’d have been a big queue of other FT clubs wanting him too. Overall point is correct though, saying there are not better players in Scotland within our reach than the guys we’ve ended up with is not true, it’s offensive to suggest to the fans otherwise. 

[Tattie36]

15 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Tbf all 3 of them were out of our reach. Savoury could actually only leave for a FT club. Murray will be back one day but we couldn’t have got him this season and same goes for Thomas. We couldn’t have got him over QP and there’d have been a big queue of other FT clubs wanting him too. Overall point is correct though, saying there are not better players in Scotland within our reach than the guys we’ve ended up with is not true, it’s offensive to suggest to the fans otherwise. 

Yeah, I wasn’t specifically meaning we could have signed any of those 3, just that there are Scottish players out there that could… and do, do a good job at this level.

Someone at QP had the vision and ability to see that Savoury was capable of making the step up from a poor Peterhead in League 1, to full-time in the Championship.

There must be others.

[1320Lichtie]

3 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

Yeah, I wasn’t specifically meaning we could have signed any of those 3, just that there are Scottish players out there that could… and do, do a good job at this level.

Someone at QP had the vision and ability to see that Savoury was capable of making the step up from a poor Peterhead in League 1, to full-time in the Championship.

There must be others.

Course there are!!! 
 

Whole summers business should’ve been trying to get 2/3 capable strikers and attacking players in on loan, whether it was from England or Scotland and shoring up the squad with a couple of good guys (as in good lads and good professionals) who’d had a decent season in L1 (or good experience of the Scottish lower leagues). Everything else was already in place. 

Edited December 24, 2022 by 1320Lichtie

[DUAFC]

1. Stewart Petrie

2. Ray McKinnon

3. Rab Douglas 

4. Paul Sheeran

5. Sye Webster

Happy Christmas  !!

[clashcityrocker]

Unfortunately, I think similar results like last night are coming our way - starting with Dundee next week.

We will soon be running out of games to turn things around - time is not on our side.

What has went wrong ? How did we get is so spectaculary wrong ? 

Yes, injuries have been awful this season, but it was with the summer signings where we ran out of luck, failure to recruit players to the same standard as the ones who left.

After numerous games the management were still unclear of their best starting 11 - resulting in experimental formations and substitutions  which never worked.

This season we have ran out of luck, ran out of ideas, ran out of good signings .................

The management have the month of January to fix this - get the right signings and we could have a fighting chance, get the wrong signings and we are destined for Division 1.

Our Championship years are slipping away - all eyes are on what happens in January.

[1320Lichtie]

1 hour ago, clashcityrocker said:

Unfortunately, I think similar results like last night are coming our way - starting with Dundee next week.

We will soon be running out of games to turn things around - time is not on our side.

What has went wrong ? How did we get is so spectaculary wrong ? 

Yes, injuries have been awful this season, but it was with the summer signings where we ran out of luck, failure to recruit players to the same standard as the ones who left.

After numerous games the management were still unclear of their best starting 11 - resulting in experimental formations and substitutions  which never worked.

This season we have ran out of luck, ran out of ideas, ran out of good signings .................

The management have the month of January to fix this - get the right signings and we could have a fighting chance, get the wrong signings and we are destined for Division 1.

Our Championship years are slipping away - all eyes are on what happens in January.

Was up at 5 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was that pissed off with last night and was having a good think about it and I think the better question is what has actually went right? What positive thing has Dick done this year? The signings, subs, team selections and even things like interviews, made a mess of every single one of them.
 

It’s kind of all just spiralled out of control and each passing week things get more desperate and I think it’s now utterly broken. Fixing this in January and turning things around from here would be the best achievement of his whole managerial career. 

 

Everything he’s been great at in his time with us was completely launched out of the window this summer past and I think he maybe lost sight of all that because we’d done so well. Bit of complacency there. Things haven’t went for us and we’ve not had much luck but you do make your own luck and when things haven’t gone our way he’s really not dealt with it well at all.

 

eta - it’s actually been incredibly unprofessional in hindsight, thinking about the way things have transpired and the situations we’ve been in over the course of this season

Edited December 24, 2022 by 1320Lichtie

[farflung lichtie]

Its all doom and gloom on here, some justified.    I wisnae weel so couldn't make it to Gayfield last night though watched it on streaming which was depressing.   The result may have been no different but I really dislike us willingly moving games to Friday evenings (the part-time factor, reduced attendance/revenue).    On the positive side, I thought we might succumb to heavier defeat when they went 0-4 up with 25 minutes left.  Nicking a goal at the end was unduly appreciated along with Cove's late defeat of Accies. - you have to relish the small things.   I would add that, as with the previous game at Gayfield, Queens Park play the conditions better than almost any other I've seen - quick accurate passing at speed plus Simon Murray.

The long injury list, the lack of alternatives (due to unsatisfactory signings plus unwanted departures) and relatively small squad (to fill gaps or the bench) are becoming critical.  A bit worrying that our  strongest asset, defence, are leaking a few goals of late partly due to lack of midfield cover and continuity.  That said, we had avoided defeat in 4 of the previous 5 league games...  wins needed but we were seldom blown away though if you can't score, it's always going to be an uphill battle.   Working with such a limited number of fit players plus dents to morale might start to erode confidence further.    Slight uneasy recollections of 20 years ago when, after a glorious season in the Championship we struggled/limped through the second season.  There's a role here for supporters in showing some loyalty in adversity (easy at other times).

A combination of poor signings/inadequate replacements (eg Scott Allan for Nicky Low as it has turned out), many more injuries and some suspensions compared with last season is now accepted wisdom.  I don't buy into the `change the manager' angle, at least during this season since any replacement would face the same set of challenges (and evidence of managerial change bringing positive shortterm results is tenuous at best).   We are adrift but not completely at sea.   Longterm Lichties know we travel in hope rather than expectation so let's not give up hope yet.

[1320Lichtie]

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/4006186/dick-campbell-january-transfer-window/
 

As painful as it is it’s good to see Dick actually say what we’ve all been saying and accept that. I love the guy like and really hope he can turn it around for us 

[ExiledLichtie]

It can be really difficult to recover when results have been as bad as this.  Sometimes you just need a fresh face in the dugout. 

 

 

 

[AFC360PUNK1320]

I am maybe in the minority but i think DC deserves the January transfer window and see where it takes us.

I like a bit of loyalty and what he and his backroom staff have done for the club they deserve another transfer window to try and get us out of this mess.

Has DC's signings this season been terrible = YES

Is it his fault where we are in the league = YES

Has his tactics and subs been bizarre = YES

There is no getting away from it but he is at fault for where we are but i still think he deserves one more transfer window to see if he can turn it around, we managed to do this 2 seasons ago.

His obsession on signing unknown phantom players from down south is on the back of Livi's Nouble but he is a 1 in 10 chance and as the impressive Queens Park proved there are plenty of players in the lower Scottish Leagues good enough to play in the Championship (just look at our Little/TOB/McKenna/Gold/Hammy etc).

Simon Murray is the EXACT type of player we have been missing this season, again he bullied our defence all over the place and with Thomas ran the show.

Bobby Linn again nearly scored a worldie goal them promptly gets subbed?? (one of our few players not sacred to have a shot at goal).

For 43 minutes i thought e done OK but when we went a goal down you knew what was away to happen, i also thought McKenna was looking back to his best.

But DC needs to get the new players in at the START of January.

C'MON THE RED LICHTIES - 36-0. 

Edited December 26, 2022 by AFC360PUNK1320

[RedLichtie86]

36 minutes ago, AFC360PUNK1320 said:

C'MON THE RED LICHTIES - 26-0. 

There is nae need to knock 10 goals off of our record.

[RedLichtie86]

1 hour ago, 1320Lichtie said:

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/4006186/dick-campbell-january-transfer-window/
 

As painful as it is it’s good to see Dick actually say what we’ve all been saying and accept that. I love the guy like and really hope he can turn it around for us 

That article is a very simplistic view on the problems we face.

 

Lack of firepower is just one of the issues we face. Lack of midfield presence and soliditity ageing and leaking defence, lack of creative spark and poor passing. And a bench that offers very little in cover or challenging for a place in the first team.

[Jan Vojáček]

Hi guys. Heard some talk today that you boys have signed/are signing Joao Balde from Hibs who is on-loan at East Fife at the moment. He looks a really good player and I was chuffed they kept him on the bench today.

[1320Lichtie]

3 hours ago, ExiledLichtie said:

It can be really difficult to recover when results have been as bad as this.  Sometimes you just need a fresh face in the dugout. 

 

 

 

I don’t think it would achieve anything at this stage and I think he deserves a chance. Most of the players there love the guy. The core group, the others maybe not so much but there’ll be a lot of changes in this window and I would keep him on. Even if we went down I would give him a season. I just fkn hope there’s no more of these types of signings that’s got us in this mess, Fosu the best of a very bad bunch and I include Bakare and Ford in that 

[Hammerafc]

I don't want to see another Friday night game in a long time. Seriously though from a fan and financial perspective would moving the game to a traditional Boxing Day fixture not made more sense?

[clashcityrocker]

3 minutes ago, Hammerafc said:

I don't want to see another Friday night game

Don't you like watching horror shows ?

[timlichtie]

I don’t know what the statistics say but I’ve always felt that our part time players are at a huge disadvantage in evening matches when they’ve likely been working. 
QP were excellent but they’ve spent big and recruited really well. They have a settled side and are clearly well coached. Everything has gone wrong for our squad and management. 
I’ll happily admit to being one of the senior Happy Clappers. DC and his team have brought unprecedented success over several years and it’s only recently gone wrong. He and the players will get my full backing to turn this round.

[Lichteeeeee]

On 23/12/2022 at 16:22, 1320Lichtie said:

And how is that relevant, if this was a forum solely for ex professional football players there’d be nobody on it 

Its relevant because you are the one dishing out advice on who can cut it at what level, telling people that Airdrie players can cut it in the championship if they were stronger & fitter. 

We have some pikey in the stand, with an oddball haircut and wears clobber from Sports Direct advising folk who can cut it at what level.

noone said it was a forum for professional footballers at any point did they?

I've saw you say Scott Allan isnt good enough for this level, I've saw you say the same about many others. And now you are telling Airdrie fans their players might cut it at this level, if they were fitter and stronger 

Laughable.

[1320Lichtie]

1 hour ago, Lichteeeeee said:

Its relevant because you are the one dishing out advice on who can cut it at what level, telling people that Airdrie players can cut it in the championship if they were stronger & fitter. 

We have some pikey in the stand, with an oddball haircut and wears clobber from Sports Direct advising folk who can cut it at what level.

noone said it was a forum for professional footballers at any point did they?

I've saw you say Scott Allan isnt good enough for this level, I've saw you say the same about many others. And now you are telling Airdrie fans their players might cut it at this level, if they were fitter and stronger 

Laughable.

I’ve never said Scott Allan wasn’t good enough for this level what are you on about? You are very strange sometimes.

 

And I’ll comment on what level I think players are if I want to, don’t like it, f**k off. Unless you’re a professional football player yourself your opinion has just as much weight as the rest of ours 

Edited December 24, 2022 by 1320Lichtie

[Specky Ginger]

5 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Unless you’re a professional football player yourself your opinion has just as much weight as the rest of ours 

Having had my ears assaulted with pearls of wisdom by the likes of John Hartson and Alex Rae (the ex Falkirk and Rangers player, not the ex Forfar manager) over the years, I'm not remotely convinced that the opinion of an ex professional footballer carries any more weight or credence to that of a punter on the terracing.