The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[D'Jaffo]

Not writing Ecrepont off but if he can't hold down a regular place in this current Albion Rovers team then he's not the answer to our current problems other than being an extra body.  Unfortunately he's not kicked on as much as Josh Doig and Josh Reid both of whom are are playing in the Premiership and are now ahead of him for the Scotland U19's LB spot.
Miller was reported as a two year deal here https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/former-celtic-youth-michael-miller-22480043 so wouldn't get your hopes up.
As for Ness I'd pass as no doubt he'd get injured in training and would never play a game.

Dunno why anyone would want Miller punted. I think he’s been absolutely fine and played well yesterday. I’d arguably have him ahead of Houston now at RB.

[Trogdor]

5 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

Not writing Ecrepont off but if he can't hold down a regular place in this current Albion Rovers team then he's not the answer to our current problems other than being an extra body.  Unfortunately he's not kicked on as much as Josh Doig and Josh Reid both of whom are are playing in the Premiership and are now ahead of him for the Scotland U19's LB spot.

Has he not been an ever present for Albion Rovers? Agree he hasn't kicked on though.

[GaryMc93]

5 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Dunno why anyone would want Miller punted. I think he’s been absolutely fine and played well yesterday. I’d arguably have him ahead of Houston now at RB.

Since I doubt he was intended to be a starter I'd agree with you. Can't be easy changing positions every couple of games although a regular run at RB could be ideal to really judge him. 

1 minute ago, Trogdor said:

Has he not been an ever present for Albion Rovers? Agree he hasn't kicked on though.

Up until last month he had been a regular, Was then benched for a game (where his replacement was sent off) and returned the next week before being benched for the Scottish Cup defeat. Seems like Reid wants 4 or 5 experienced signings for them this month so hopefully he isn't one of the ones being replaced and can kick on for the rest of the season. 

[diegomarahenry]

1 hour ago, WATTOO said:

Using the same set of calculations as yourself, that would then require under achievment by Hearts, Dundee, Dunfermline and Inverness as all these clubs would certainly expect to be above Ayr United given their budgets.

The reality is that we're a mid table Championship club who will occasionally have a really good season as our new signings will "click" and we might even unearth a "gem" or two via our own youth policy, however until we can compete financially with the likes of Dundee and Dunfermline then we certainly can't "expect" to be pushing for promotion to the Premier every season as there's really nothing between ourselves, Morton, Queens and Raith.

Based on League positions, Apart from Dundee and Inverness, we had a better squad than every other team. It up to us to build on that. Unless Someone decided to pawn the family silver and spend 7 figures on a squad, we should be competing with everyone around us minus the Rangers/Hibs/Hearts/Dundee Uniteds that drop in to the league. We knew not to rely on Forest and Harvey this year and Reading was brought in as a ready made replacement. Tom Walsh and Zanatta were obvious replacements for Forrest. 

Dundees only signing of note was Charlie Adam, he was never signing for Ayr, Inverness signed Kai Kennedy, was that a realistic target for Ayr? yes. With no massive gap in budget outwith Hearts, The obvious improvement is in league placings. 

The only team that signed more players than us was Dunfermline, so arguably they could be added to the mix this year. 

[1nickydevlin]

I think Ecrepont has started mostly every week for albion.  I would say that means he's kicking on and getting game time and experience. 

[BukyOHare]

29 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Based on League positions, Apart from Dundee and Inverness, we had a better squad than every other team. It up to us to build on that. Unless Someone decided to pawn the family silver and spend 7 figures on a squad, we should be competing with everyone around us minus the Rangers/Hibs/Hearts/Dundee Uniteds that drop in to the league. We knew not to rely on Forest and Harvey this year and Reading was brought in as a ready made replacement. Tom Walsh and Zanatta were obvious replacements for Forrest. 

Dundees only signing of note was Charlie Adam, he was never signing for Ayr, Inverness signed Kai Kennedy, was that a realistic target for Ayr? yes. With no massive gap in budget outwith Hearts, The obvious improvement is in league placings. 

The only team that signed more players than us was Dunfermline, so arguably they could be added to the mix this year. 

So cutting through all the hyperbole pish, you're indicating we should be finishing around 5th?

 

[Trogdor]

1 minute ago, BukyOHare said:

So cutting through all the hyperbole pish, you're indicating we should be finishing around 5th?

4th was the target set by the manager and the board. I'm also making a minor assumption as they said 'play offs' ergo 4th place.

Its all academic as the way we're playing we'll be struggling for 4th or 5th at present.

[diegomarahenry]

8 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

So cutting through all the hyperbole pish, you're indicating we should be finishing around 5th?

 

How did you come to that conclusion? The obvious improvement is league placings is what I said, at no point did I say we would finish fifth

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by diegomarahenry

[pandarilla]

I think a dirty b*****d midfield player and a strong striker than can hold up play would go a long way imo.

We seem to have options in defence, but they need to be covered better, and someone doing the dirty work in midfield would definitely help. If they could shout and cajole at players around them then all the better.

I'm also looking at the dundee example and hoping we can do similar. They've had a crazy turnaround, despite having no squad cohesion, and what seems like a numpty manager.

[rb123!]

58 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

Miller was reported as a two year deal here https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/former-celtic-youth-michael-miller-22480043 so wouldn't get your hopes up.

Oh my god why on earth did Kerr dish out two year deals to likes of Miller......

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Based on League positions, Apart from Dundee and Inverness, we had a better squad than every other team. It up to us to build on that. Unless Someone decided to pawn the family silver and spend 7 figures on a squad, we should be competing with everyone around us minus the Rangers/Hibs/Hearts/Dundee Uniteds that drop in to the league. We knew not to rely on Forest and Harvey this year and Reading was brought in as a ready made replacement. Tom Walsh and Zanatta were obvious replacements for Forrest. 

Dundees only signing of note was Charlie Adam, he was never signing for Ayr, Inverness signed Kai Kennedy, was that a realistic target for Ayr? yes. With no massive gap in budget outwith Hearts, The obvious improvement is in league placings. 

The only team that signed more players than us was Dunfermline, so arguably they could be added to the mix this year. 

I do agree that some of our signings could easily have been perceived as like for like, however it's not easy bedding in an almost new team and losing Bell was also an unplanned for kick in the teeth, similar to the injury to Moore, then Walsh got injured prior to kicking a ball in the league and has only just returned.

I'd also say that losing the drive and energy of Kelly has probably hit us more than we expected and his departure also appears to have adversely impacted his pal Houston as the two of them tended to link up pretty well.

Confidence is also a huge thing and that's very low at the moment, I really just hope that we can get some good news with Smith extending his contract and then a known leader being plucked from somewhere / anywhere who can come in and give us all a lift, then we might start playing some football and get back on track.

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, rb123! said:

Oh my god why on earth did Kerr dish out two year deals to likes of Miller......

After the Queens game at somerset, we all thought it was a masterstroke !

Maybe if he got a run of games in a consistent position he'd prove that he's a very decent player at this level ??

[BukyOHare]

1 hour ago, diegomarahenry said:

How did you come to that conclusion? The obvious improvement is league placings is what I said, at no point did I say we would finish fifth

 

You mentioned Dundee and Inverness in your post and then included Dunfermline towards the end of it. Although you never mentioned them directly, I assume you didn't think we'd finish above Hearts either, so by my reckoning the best we could then do is 5th.

Its alright to finish 5th. 

Edited January 3, 2021 by BukyOHare

[BukyOHare]

2 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

Based on League positions, Apart from Dundee and Inverness, we had a better squad than every other team. It up to us to build on that. Unless Someone decided to pawn the family silver and spend 7 figures on a squad, we should be competing with everyone around us minus the Rangers/Hibs/Hearts/Dundee Uniteds that drop in to the league. We knew not to rely on Forest and Harvey this year and Reading was brought in as a ready made replacement. Tom Walsh and Zanatta were obvious replacements for Forrest. 

Dundees only signing of note was Charlie Adam, he was never signing for Ayr, Inverness signed Kai Kennedy, was that a realistic target for Ayr? yes. With no massive gap in budget outwith Hearts, The obvious improvement is in league placings. 

The only team that signed more players than us was Dunfermline, so arguably they could be added to the mix this year. 

Include Hearts into the above and we should be 5th, which is about right. Give or take. 

Edited to add, if you think we have a divine right, "should be competing" were your words, with anyone bar Rangers/Hibs/Hearts/Dundee United you're backing a loser there I'm afraid. 

I suppose that explains your obsession with league placings. 

In my opinion we are not the club you think we are. We may overachieve in the short term, we may underachieve in the short term but like it or not we're an established Championship club as a par / default position. 

We don't have a home attendance that could give us a punching chance to become comfortably established in the SPL and that's before we even talk about the "facilities" of our home ground. 

We've been left behind after decades of underachieving. If we manage to bridge the gap driven by the ambition of David Smith I'll be pleasantly surprised. 

Edited January 3, 2021 by BukyOHare

[Trogdor]

14 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

You mentioned Dundee and Inverness in your post and then included Dunfermline towards the end of it. Although you never mentioned them directly, I assume you didn't think we'd finish above Hearts either, so by my reckoning the best we could then do is 5th.

Its alright to finish 5th. 

Admittedly, I would accept 5th and most of us would. If it was a 5th where we were competitive for making the playoffs in particular.

However, you're engaging in expectation management here which the club didn't. 4th is clearly the target and thats been true since the start of the season.

Diego's point which you seem hell bent on arguing is that we should be targeting to improve year on year. In principle I dont understand why you would actually argue with that.

Are you actually arguing to go back the way which seems odd to me? 5th would not be a success it would be okay. From where we are right now it would admittedly feel like a success but 4th has always been the expectation.

[BukyOHare]

2 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Admittedly, I would accept 5th and most of us would. If it was a 5th where we were competitive for making the playoffs in particular.

However, you're engaging in expectation management here which the club didn't. 4th is clearly the target and thats been true since the start of the season.

Diego's point which you seem hell bent on arguing is that we should be targeting to improve year on year. In principle I dont understand why you would actually argue with that.

Are you actually arguing to go back the way which seems odd to me? 5th would not be a success it would be okay. From where we are right now it would admittedly feel like a success but 4th has always been the expectation.

Was 4th ever an expectation? With Hearts, Dundee, ICT and strengthening Dunfermline in the league?

Ambition or hope perhaps but an expectation? 

Reality setting in. 

 

[ayrunitedfw]

3 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

Was 4th ever an expectation? With Hearts, Dundee, ICT and strengthening Dunfermline in the league?

Ambition or hope perhaps but an expectation? 

Reality setting in. 

 

Yes, 4th was the target. Not getting the big obsession with ICT. Lost a lot of players and budget won’t be much more than ours. 

[BukyOHare]

8 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Admittedly, I would accept 5th and most of us would. If it was a 5th where we were competitive for making the playoffs in particular.

However, you're engaging in expectation management here which the club didn't. 4th is clearly the target and thats been true since the start of the season.

Diego's point which you seem hell bent on arguing is that we should be targeting to improve year on year. In principle I dont understand why you would actually argue with that.

Are you actually arguing to go back the way which seems odd to me? 5th would not be a success it would be okay. From where we are right now it would admittedly feel like a success but 4th has always been the expectation.

Of course we should be looking at year on year improvement but it's not the end of the world if it doesn't happen in the short term. Our 2 seasons in the Championship have seen massive growth and unprecedented over achievement in the circumstances. 

As a result people's expectations, both supporters and within the club are perhaps ahead of where we should be. 

A season of mid table consolidation isn't the end of the world as we know it. You grow and develop things over a period of time. 

[rb123!]

Since i've got nothing better to do i decided to scour through transfermarkt to look at prem, championship and league 1 to see what options we may have for this month, based on positions, age and not much game time so far i've come up with this list, also added in couple we've been linked with before, will be a load of shite i know but still:

Defence:

Darren McGregor - Hibs

Mark Durnan - Falkirk

Corrie Ndaba - Ipswich Town

Thomas O'Ware - Partick Thistle (unsure if injured)

Midfield:

Stephen McGinn - Hibs

Keaghan Jacobs - Livingston

Forwards:

Aaron Drinan - Ipswich Town

Jamie Gullan - Hibs

Zak Rudden - Partick Thistle (clutching at straws i know)

Edited January 3, 2021 by rb123!

[D'Jaffo]

Since i've got nothing better to do i decided to scour through transfermarkt to look at prem, championship and league 1 to see what options we may have for this month, based on positions, age and not much game time so far i've come up with this list, also added in couple we've been linked with before, will be a load of shite i know but still:
Defence:
Darren McGregor - Hibs
Mark Durnan - Falkirk
Corrie Ndaba - Ipswich Town
Thomas O'Ware - Partick Thistle (unsure if injured)
Midfield:
Stephen McGinn - Hibs
Keaghan Jacobs - Livingston
Forwards:
Aaron Drinan - Ipswich Town
Jamie Gullan - Hibs

It’s a hard no on Durnan. He was gash at Dunfermline and isn’t rated particularly highly by Falkirk fans. O’Ware is an odd one given the plaudits he’s received before but even Morton fans will tell you he was overrated massively and did well playing alongside defenders like Lamie or Gunning.

I don’t really think McGinn or Jacobs are the type of midfielders we need right now but in any case I think Jacobs is out long term with an injury.