HMIP Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 1 hour ago, rb123! said: Latest in Scotland seems to be the Premiership could return in June behind closed doors, would image that'll enrage Scottish lower league clubs who voted to end their season on the basis of assumption that the Premiership was going to be called off in a couple of weeks and was simply just awaiting the approval from UEFA. Cameron said quite explicitly that once things go beyond the end of May, it would be logistically too difficult for lower league clubs to finish the season. I heard the Forfar chairman say the same thing. I really don’t think there is an appetite in the lower leagues to try and maintain a full squad of players beyond May given it could yet be months before we’re back playing in front of crowds. The sad thing is that it is the players who are going to take the hit when their contracts expire. Jim Duffy made the point on Sportsound that the entire Dumbarton team is out of contract and he doesn’t expect to have any budget to offer anyone new terms. I’m not really convinced there are many premier league clubs that really want to play behind closed doors - I suspect it’s every bit as unaffordable for the Hamiltons and St Mirrens as it is for us. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrunitedfw Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 2 hours ago, Pull My Strings said: Hearts and ICT, I believe. Don’t get above your station chief. Until GTF day you are still classed as a championship club. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skyline Drifter Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 1 hour ago, HMIP said: Cameron said quite explicitly that once things go beyond the end of May, it would be logistically too difficult for lower league clubs to finish the season. I heard the Forfar chairman say the same thing. I really don’t think there is an appetite in the lower leagues to try and maintain a full squad of players beyond May given it could yet be months before we’re back playing in front of crowds. The sad thing is that it is the players who are going to take the hit when their contracts expire. Jim Duffy made the point on Sportsound that the entire Dumbarton team is out of contract and he doesn’t expect to have any budget to offer anyone new terms. I’m not really convinced there are many premier league clubs that really want to play behind closed doors - I suspect it’s every bit as unaffordable for the Hamiltons and St Mirrens as it is for us. It depends what games they have left and what happens with broadcast rights. I suppose if the bigger clubs are currently paying players in full or close to it without using furlough, as the players earn too much, then right now player costs are a sunk cost and they may as well play closed doors if they could. There would need to be clarification about whether you can broadcast online in the UK to fans not allowed to attend. Pragmatism says there should be but it's against the tv deal, so would need some negotiation and presumably Sky / BT wouldn't allow it for the games they pick up to cover live. So the majority of the OF games, certainly their away ones, wouldn't be sellable online. If you aren't selling to OF fans then in reality it's unlikely even the next tier of clubs can make enough of online subscriptions to make it worthwhile. And do clubs get to keep all the online subs from their home games as they would from gate receipts or does the away team get to sell to their own fans? You of course need the whole league to do it or none of them can. Once we go beyond 31st May / 9th June and clubs are due to lose a lot of their players I can't see them being desperate to renew contracts to take them off furlough and play closed door games. That's madness. If you don't have to employ players it's not remotely advantageous to do so. The players are definitely at the rough end here more than the clubs but it will all depend on how soon we can get any certainty about a restart date with attendances. I don't see it being soon going by Scottish Govt comments. We'll be lucky if it's this year. Which in turn makes all talk of reconstruction fairly irrelevant. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftk Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Just saw that league 2 are going to block anything that’s not a 14 14 and 14 team league! Cant see many negatives with 3 leagues of 14. 10 teams does get boring and repetitive. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb123! Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 2 years ago today [emoji471] 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thereisalight.. Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 I had a tear in my eye earlier watching the videos from 2 years ago. Such a great day. On occasions like this and memories involving my late Dad, it makes me miss him even more. Little did I think 2 years ago that he’d die aged 65 in 2020, or that McCall would be relegated! 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 (edited) I was actually unwell on the days leading up to the game two years ago, but there was no way that I was going to miss it. I didn't think we were actually going to do it, but I went along anyway because if we did win the title and I had missed it then I would have never forgiven myself. I was meant to have been working that day if I hadn't been unwell, but I didn't phone to resume because I wanted to go to the game. That day is one that I will remember for the rest of my life. The anxiety, the constant checking of the Raith score, the feeling that this is actually happening, the euphoria when we were confirmed as champions. I was watching the "celebrations" video the next morning and guess who popped up in the video? Me. Off sick from work but going absolutely mental on the pitch. I was praying that my employer didn't find that video! Of course supporting Ayr United isn't always easy, but days like that make me proud to be an Ayr United supporter. My papa and my Uncle Wullie were both massive Ayr supporters and are the reason I got hooked on Ayr United. They both died a few years back, but they would have absolutely loved that title win. During the melee after the final whistle, I lost the Ayr scarf that Uncle Wullie got me for Christmas when I younger. I was gutted to lose it because he gave me it, but I'm sure that he would have approved of the circumstances in which I lost it. Edited April 28, 2020 by The Gypsy King 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
North Terrace Gazza Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 Cant see many negatives with 3 leagues of 14. 10 teams does get boring and repetitive. Far too many diddy teams, much smaller crowds for games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BukyOHare Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 5 minutes ago, North Terrace Gazza said: Far too many diddy teams, much smaller crowds for games. I assume bearing in mind that we were lucky at points to get into 4 figures for home games ourselves, that this is firmly tongue in cheek? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb123! Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/ayr-united-diehard-raffle-signed-21934719 Good chance to get your hands on a signed strip from probably the best performing season on the park this century, would be nice to know who has signed it from that year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
North Terrace Gazza Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 I assume bearing in mind that we were lucky at points to get into 4 figures for home games ourselves, that this is firmly tongue in cheek? Partly. But seriously games against Arbroath, Alloa, Airdrie, Montrose and Dumbarton do not excite. Rather play Dundee United, ICT, Partick etc. 4 times 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb123! Posted April 28, 2020 Share Posted April 28, 2020 (edited) 3 hours ago, North Terrace Gazza said: Partly. But seriously games against Arbroath, Alloa, Airdrie, Montrose and Dumbarton do not excite. Rather play Dundee United, ICT, Partick etc. 4 times Dundee Ayr Dunfermline Arbroath Morton Alloa Queen of the South Partick Thistle Raith Rovers Falkirk Airdrie Montrose East Fife Dumbarton If it went 14 in the championship that's what we'd have, you'd have Raith and Falkirk who IMO are 2 clubs of size which should be in the championship, those two clubs would bring a good competitiveness and fan base to the championship so i have no worries with them joining. The other 4 would be Airdrie, Montrose, East Fife and Dumbarton based on current standings. They're all pretty hideous teams for the second tier, Airdrie for the horrendous empty lego shell stadium.,Montrose is a long jaunt up the road meaning pretty much zero support to Somerset, East Fife is up there with as seaside league as it gets with a one stand ground that's always freezing and Dumbarton is another one stand ground which isn't much better, only benefit is it's an hour up the road. Yeah on looking at that it's an absolute heap of shite, 14 teams can GTF. I'd be willing to go for 12 at a push with Raith Rovers, Falkirk, Airdrie and Montrose but East Fife and Dumbarton too is just as step too far. I mean the gulf between Dundee and Dumbarton would just be huge, what makes the championship so good atm is that everyone can beat anyone on their day, with that 14 league i personally think there would be huge gaps right through that table with multiple mini league within it. Would ruin what has made the championship so good in the last few years IMO. Edited April 28, 2020 by rb123! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 At least with 14 teams we’d need to be truly awful to get relegated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrExile Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Our longer term average level has us somewhere between 19 and 22 in the grand scheme of things. The last two seasons were different however McCall has gone and not seen much to suggest we can keep punching above our weight. 14 teams removes some of the excitement of championship but should stop our visits to the seaside league. Think I would take it as we seemed to be heading in the direction of playing more youth players and this should allow us to do this 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlay21 Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 2 hours ago, AyrExile said: Our longer term average level has us somewhere between 19 and 22 in the grand scheme of things. The last two seasons were different however McCall has gone and not seen much to suggest we can keep punching above our weight. 14 teams removes some of the excitement of championship but should stop our visits to the seaside league. Think I would take it as we seemed to be heading in the direction of playing more youth players and this should allow us to do this Two seasons supposably punching above our weight , could that not mean we are just improving? and nothing obvious last season to show that we were any poorer than the majority of the teams in the league , we will be one of the stronger teams in any new league , I believe we will have a pool of mainly experienced players with a couple of young strong loanees , not many players will come through from Academy this coming season 2/3 at very most 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFC 1910 Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I was actually unwell on the days leading up to the game two years ago, but there was no way that I was going to miss it. I didn't think we were actually going to do it, but I went along anyway because if we did win the title and I had missed it then I would have never forgiven myself. I was meant to have been working that day if I hadn't been unwell, but I didn't phone to resume because I wanted to go to the game. That day is one that I will remember for the rest of my life. The anxiety, the constant checking of the Raith score, the feeling that this is actually happening, the euphoria when we were confirmed as champions. I was watching the "celebrations" video the next morning and guess who popped up in the video? Me. Off sick from work but going absolutely mental on the pitch. I was praying that my employer didn't find that video! Of course supporting Ayr United isn't always easy, but days like that make me proud to be an Ayr United supporter. My papa and my Uncle Wullie were both massive Ayr supporters and are the reason I got hooked on Ayr United. They both died a few years back, but they would have absolutely loved that title win. During the melee after the final whistle, I lost the Ayr scarf that Uncle Wullie got me for Christmas when I younger. I was gutted to lose it because he gave me it, but I'm sure that he would have approved of the circumstances in which I lost it.If ever there was a circumstance to lose a treasured scarf, then surely that day was it [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Jaffo Posted April 29, 2020 Author Share Posted April 29, 2020 Just going back to that game vs Albion Rovers. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a match where I’ve looked at my phone more than the actual game I was at. I missed Moore’s goal because I was scrolling through Twitter looking at a Raith Rovers journalists live updates and then later on just looked up in time to see McDaid put us 2-0 up. Without a doubt the strangest feeling was the seconds between our game ending and the Raith game ending. It felt like ages on the day and no one in the ground was sure what to do with themselves. We might go on to win another league in time but I don’t think the feeling after that game two years ago will be beaten. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honestly united Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 I started of thinking that 14-14-14 could get in the sea, however on thinking about it im coming round to the idea. Yes adding some of the seaside dross, if there is a split in the league we would only have to play them twice, one home game, then the other home games would be against a top half teams (hopefully) so potentially increasing crowds. Additionally if you are playing some teams less the crowds may increase just as its new teams. On current form we would be one of the teams going for promotion next year - (again hopefully) , if its league of 14 would there be more automatic promotion / relegation slots? Also as has been said, if we have a bad year extra teams means we have a better chance of staying up 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrExile Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 2 hours ago, Robbo63 said: Two seasons supposably punching above our weight , could that not mean we are just improving? and nothing obvious last season to show that we were any poorer than the majority of the teams in the league , we will be one of the stronger teams in any new league , I believe we will have a pool of mainly experienced players with a couple of young strong loanees , not many players will come through from Academy this coming season 2/3 at very most No doubt we have improved but things have shifted big time with our manger changing and a few of our key players about to leave. Our form also regressed as the season we went on. We will have lost Forrest, Docherty and most likely Harvey by the time we start up again. Doohan and Kelly that were also a big part of this season will probably not return. Murdoch aside I don’t see much quality at the top end like we have had. We also have a couple of others who are likely to move on so all things considered that is a massive change from the last two seasons. To compete at the top like we have will need a large number of quality signings and our management team are still quite new to this. Expect us to drop back to 17/18 place which is still above where we have been for so long 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 2 hours ago, AUFC 1910 said: If ever there was a circumstance to lose a treasured scarf, then surely that day was it Yeah that's the way I thought about it. It was one of the best days as an Ayr United fan. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.