The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[GaryMc93]

2 hours ago, AUFC 1910 said:

Swap deal with Clyde

Swapping a manager with a 37% Championship win rate with one that won under 35% at this level in his previous spell wouldn't be the improvement some McCall fans seem to imagine it to be.

[Richey Edwards]

4 minutes ago, Coollestersmoothe said:

Still a better option than mcallister and ahui at right back then? 

Having only one foot never held Arjen Robben back.

[Peil]

3 hours ago, Aliayr76 said:

If he was to go who would you bring in,look at the old names when there is a sacking.

Also what players need to come in winter window.

That's a pretty weak argument.

If I'm bad at my job, and fail to improve over a period of time, and my continued employment means we'll lose money, I'll get sacked.

My manager isn't going to sit there and say "well I'm not sure if we'll get a better pick right now, so we'll leave him there"

[Trogdor]

18 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

Swapping a manager with a 37% Championship win rate with one that won under 35% at this level in his previous spell wouldn't be the improvement some McCall fans seem to imagine it to be.

Careful now, we were part time for a season under McCall. That's a disingenuous comparator. Apples and pears and all that!

Edit to add - If you've stripped out that season then fair enough.

Edited December 10, 2023 by Trogdor

[D'Jaffo]

38 minutes ago, Coollestersmoothe said:

Even if we didn’t have to replace Murdoch and Dempsey, I still doubt that Bullen and Mathie would’ve brought in the quality necessary in the full back positions. Between them they are so poor at spotting a player.
 We’d have ended up with some guy who was tearing up the Isthmian league…

Maybe, maybe not. It’s worth noting that the actual identification is done by Glenndinning and Bullen will likely make a decision based off his analysis. It’s hard to know with this procedure who is actually to blame. 
 

What is blatantly obvious is that in January we need a right back and a centre back. I’d say the need for a right back is higher than the need for a left back at the moment. 

[No_Problemo]

4 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Maybe, maybe not. It’s worth noting that the actual identification is done by Glenndinning and Bullen will likely make a decision based off his analysis. It’s hard to know with this procedure who is actually to blame. 
 

What is blatantly obvious is that in January we need a right back and a centre back. I’d say the need for a right back is higher than the need for a left back at the moment. 

I think that it’s possibly a bigger worry that these players are being signed, given there are several stages of the process to go through…

I can’t even begin to understand what you would see in Rose or Ahui if you watched them live to think they could come in and be good starters at this level . 

Edited December 10, 2023 by No_Problemo

[wuffster]

3 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Maybe, maybe not. It’s worth noting that the actual identification is done by Glenndinning and Bullen will likely make a decision based off his analysis. It’s hard to know with this procedure who is actually to blame.

Yep, add in a Head Coach and you have the spiderman gif. The DoF attempted to explain it at the start of the season and no-one is any the wiser. Almost as if it was designed that way.

[Trogdor]

4 minutes ago, wuffster said:

Yep, add in a Head Coach and you have the spiderman gif. The DoF attempted to explain it at the start of the season and no-one is any the wiser. Almost as if it was designed that way.

[Richey Edwards]

16 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

I think that it’s possibly a bigger worry that these players are being signed, given there are several stages of the process to go through…

I can’t even begin to understand what you would see in Rose or Ahui if you watched them live to think they could come in and be good starters at this level . 

I suspect with Rose we were trying to replicate the signing of Dipo - failing to take into account that the likelihood of signing a player from that far down the league system who would have the impact that Dipo had is very low. Dipo really was a one-off signing and returning to the same pond to replace him at the expense of looking for players who are proven in this league was rather naive IMO. Our recruitment system seems to largely revolve around taking punts on unproven players from the English lower leagues - which has generally backfired spectacularly.

 

In short, this could end up being our Falkirk season.

[D'Jaffo]

I think the issue with Rose is that he was clearly about the fifth or sixth choice to be signed as our number 9 and thanks to Mathie everyone knows it after he reeled off the names that we wanted in the first place. Dowds was only signed after Bullen noted we needed a big target man to get any joy in games. 
 

The signing of Ahui is really baffling. We signed him early enough that it clearly wasn’t a panic signing but one we really wanted. No idea why anyone would’ve thought he was up to it. 

[AyrAtlanta]

4 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

I think the issue with Rose is that he was clearly about the fifth or sixth choice to be signed as our number 9 and thanks to Mathie everyone knows it after he reeled off the names that we wanted in the first place.

This. I also doubt they had actually done much research into him if he was that far down the list. He was probably just a name on a list until we realised pretty late that he might be required.

[Rb123]

Did Glendinning's final season at Hamilton not coincide with it being their relegation season from the premiership?

A season which they had a team full of jobbers from England

There's a theme occurring here....

[D'Jaffo]

4 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

Did Glendinning's final season at Hamilton not coincide with it being their relegation season from the premiership?

A season which they had a team full of jobbers from England

There's a theme occurring here....

Glenndinning left Accies whilst they were in the Championship.

His job isn’t actually signing players. It never has been. He’s basically just a scout and will pass on loads of players for the club to look at. 

[No_Problemo]

18 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Glenndinning left Accies whilst they were in the Championship.

His job isn’t actually signing players. It never has been. He’s basically just a scout and will pass on loads of players for the club to look at. 

Yeah, but if the majority that he is passing on are shite…

Alternatively he could be passing on good players, and we then go back to home and get the dregs as they fail with so many of them. It is hard to know who is at fault!

 

46 minutes ago, Richey Edwards said:

I suspect with Rose we were trying to replicate the signing of Dipo - failing to take into account that the likelihood of signing a player from that far down the league system who would have the impact that Dipo had is very low. Dipo really was a one-off signing and returning to the same pond to replace him at the expense of looking for players who are proven in this league was rather naive IMO. Our recruitment system seems to largely revolve around taking punts on unproven players from the English lower leagues - which has generally backfired spectacularly.

 

In short, this could end up being our Falkirk season.

We were but Rose can’t hold the ball up, has no pace so can’t run in behind, has a terrible touch, doesn’t seem to  link things up particularly well and doesn’t score very many. Absolutely no idea what type of striker he is, or what anyone would have seen in him!

[Richey Edwards]

2 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

We were but Rose can’t hold the ball up, has no pace so can’t run in behind, has a terrible touch, doesn’t seem to  link things up particularly well and doesn’t score very many. Absolutely no idea what type of striker he is, or what anyone would have seen in him!

Highlight of his time with us has been his unveiling video IMO. That made me laugh.

[GaryMc93]

50 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Careful now, we were part time for a season under McCall. That's a disingenuous comparator. Apples and pears and all that!

Edit to add - If you've stripped out that season then fair enough.

Not really we still finished below a part time Dumbarton side and it was only a couple of seasons ago Arbroath were 2nd so the PT excuse only carries so far. However my point was that Bullen isn't all that different from McCall despite the latter having lofty status among some fans.

If you want to compare McCall's 18/19 and Bullen 22/23 then it is fairly similar. A star striker helping to elevate a whole team into an over performing start followed by a post Christmas collapse, with opponents realising manager only has one tactic, including an embarrassing cup exit, fans being resigned to the playoffs being lost after the first leg followed by a squad exodus in the summer and inferior replacements brought in.

Only difference is McCall bailed out early the following season on a slight high while Bullen continues to battle on with the one step forward, two back approach.

[itzdrk]

38 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Glenndinning left Accies whilst they were in the Championship.

His job isn’t actually signing players. It never has been. He’s basically just a scout and will pass on loads of players for the club to look at. 

Yes, I'd move away from him personally as clearly his 'limited to one city only' scouting policy isn't adequate. 

[Rb123]

We should have gone for Ian Murray a couple of years ago when we were looking for someone.

The compo we'd of needed to give Airdrie would have been buttons and i'm sure we probably gave Sheffield Wednesday more for Bullen

[D'Jaffo]

10 minutes ago, itzdrk said:

Yes, I'd move away from him personally as clearly his 'limited to one city only' scouting policy isn't adequate. 

Ultimately we don’t know who he’s serving up as options though. 
 

For me, Bullen is the one who decides how he wants to play so will likely ask for players who fit a certain criteria in certain areas. You can see why Ahui in theory might’ve worked out as he adds more height to the back line and was on paper better suited to going forward than what we had last year. However it hasn’t worked out. 
 

I do think that the crux of the issue is that Bullen doesn’t really know how to win games beyond having a player who is far too good for this level. That, and there is a total lack of proven quality within our ranks. Sacking Bullen only solves one of those issues right now.

[D'Jaffo]

2 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

We should have gone for Ian Murray a couple of years ago when we were looking for someone.

The compo we'd of needed to give Airdrie would have been buttons and i'm sure we probably gave Sheffield Wednesday more for Bullen

Even then it’s taken Raith going out and signing a load of players for what I can only imagine will be pretty costly outlay. Last season Raith were hopeless and played much like we did earlier in the season when Bullen suddenly decided to play a more possession based way. 
 

There’s no doubt that Murray has his teams playing hugely exciting stuff but you need to be prepared to go out and get the right players for it to work.