The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[D'Jaffo]

Which brings us to a yes or no on the following : Aero ? Moff ? Belly ? Geggan ? Murdy ?  Thoughts ??

Yes to all. Simply because of the current circumstances.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, Rudolph Hucker said:

.......apart from Arbroath and Morton, both of whom were in considerably better form than Ayr. Arbroath were just 4 points behind you with a game in hand.

It’s by no means certain that Ayr would have finished fourth had the league been played to its conclusion.

I can't argue with anything you've stated here, however as someone who regularly watched the team I had very high hopes of us finishing at least 4th given the fixtures that we had coming up.

What many are forgetting is that we'd just come off a very difficult run of games and were due to play a woefully out of form Queens side, a poor and confidence shot Partick plus 2 matches against Arbroath and another against Alloa, who were teams that while doing well on their own right, seemed to hold little fear for ourselves.

I also don't think we were actually playing that badly either, although in fairness the match against yourselves we were far from good.

As you say though, we could have finished second or just as easily finished 7th but of course we'll just never know !!

[Thereisalight..]

6 minutes ago, Tigerland said:

Which brings us to a yes or no on the following : Aero ? Moff ? Belly ? Geggan ? Murdy ?  Thoughts ??

As much as I appreciate all Moff has done for us, he was pretty poor last season. Various one on ones with the keeper that could have changed the dynamic of games we ultimately drew or lost. 

[Guest]

15 hours ago, THEHonestman1910 said:

I can imagine he would, a slow 35 year on a full time contract knowing that he would get no better than us. I would too. 

Bell seems to divide our support for some reason that I can never quite understand, to me the guy is a 7 out of 10 performer most weeks and sometimes better. He brings a calmness and a bit of class to our defence, starts off moves from the back and even pops up with odd goal. He's also a very good leader, has an excellent disciplinary record for his position and ultimately is very reliable and a complete professional.

I'd certainly keep him.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, callum-ayr said:

Partick will be doing that, not us. As said above, had we signed someone on a pre contract, come the start date they would be our responsibility. Maybe negotiate a wage deferral to begin with if both parties agreed which I imagine would happen. You’re also under the assumption that we can offer a contract extension that would interfere with the start date of his Partick contract, which I would imagine would not be allowed. He can’t be under contract at both Ayr United and Thistle. 

The Doc situation is a difficult one given the circumstances.

From my own perspective I'd say that he played well for us last season (and arguably even better after the PCA was signed), he's also been a great servant to the club, however it was a bit disappointing in the manner in which he left, however that's just it, he's left us, so while I would happily re-sign him I certainly wouldn't be happy to provide him with a salary or do him any sort of great favour (at the taxpayers expense) prior to joining Partick and in fact I'd be shocked if we did.

[THEHonestman1910]

17 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Bell seems to divide our support for some reason that I can never quite understand, to me the guy is a 7 out of 10 performer most weeks and sometimes better. He brings a calmness and a bit of class to our defence, starts off moves from the back and even pops up with odd goal. He's also a very good leader, has an excellent disciplinary record for his position and ultimately is very reliable and a complete professional.

I'd certainly keep him.

I disagree with the dividing with support. Most of our fanbase seem to have a love affair towards him. I wouldn't call him reliable last season, looked rather clumsy on the ball and got robbed a few times. I don't really recalling him having any standout games either.

Truth be told, i would've loved it if we signed him around 2015 time and to possibly get a couple of more years from him. But, i think his time has come to an end now. 

[Tigerland]

35 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Bell seems to divide our support for some reason that I can never quite understand, to me the guy is a 7 out of 10 performer most weeks and sometimes better. He brings a calmness and a bit of class to our defence, starts off moves from the back and even pops up with odd goal. He's also a very good leader, has an excellent disciplinary record for his position and ultimately is very reliable and a complete professional.

I'd certainly keep him.

 I like big Bell as well 100% professional and somebody worth keeping at the club is some role . Maybe player coach . However he’s 35 now , maybe getting a bit long in the tooth for a starting centre half . 

[THEHonestman1910]

46 minutes ago, Tigerland said:

Which brings us to a yes or no on the following : Aero ? Moff ? Belly ? Geggan ? Murdy ?  Thoughts ??

Going by performances...Bin Muirhead, Geggan and Bell and keep Moffat and Murdoch.

Obviously, in the current situation, it's not going to be as easy as that and maybe only getting rid on 1 might be the only option. 

[HMIP]

On our budget, we’ll struggle to do better than Docherty.  If there is a chance of retaining him, we’d be nuts to knock it back.
 

 As far as I can see, he was a total professional after the announcement he was leaving as he has been throughout his time at Ayr.  It was clear at the time that Partick offered him crazy money to sign - not sure how he could turn it down, particularly given his injury record which I suppose could shorten his career.

 I think a few fans were and are just treating him as a useful punchbag because of their ill feeling towards McCall.  I suspect if Doc was due to head down south like Rose and the move had fallen apart due to covid, we’d have been only too happy to retain him.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, THEHonestman1910 said:

Going by performances...Bin Muirhead, Geggan and Bell and keep Moffat and Murdoch.

Obviously, in the current situation, it's not going to be as easy as that and maybe only getting rid on 1 might be the only option. 

I'd keep Muirhead as apart from his odd moment of madness he actually played pretty well for us last season and Bell is definitely worth a contract extension.

Moffat, similar to the season before, looked as though he ran out of steam and playing on heavy bobbly pitches does him no favours at all. again, he's worth another contract as a squad player at least.

Geggan is probably the one that I'd release. He's a guy that I've always liked and gives his all for the jersey, however it looks like age and injuries have finally caught up with him and it's increasingly looked like last season is most probably his last at this level.

Forgot about Murdoch, potentially the most difficult choice due to his injury. There's no doubt that he's one of our best players but will he be the same player after his cruciate ??

Edited May 20, 2020 by WATTOO

[diegomarahenry]

Bell must have given away a goal a game last year getting caught under high balls. 

I would keep him though, when you have an absence of height or dig against teams like Inverness and Arbroath, these are the types of players you need. 

Moffat went from average to amazing last season and probably should have been used more sparingly, But when you take in to account the cover was an almost always injured Moore, an inconsistent Forrest, McCowan, who faded around Christmas and Kris Doolan, I think we leaned on him far to heavily. Malley being in the squad from the start of the season might have helped.

I would keep him next year 100% but plan to use others first

 

Edited May 20, 2020 by diegomarahenry
Doolan spells his name with a K

[BukyOHare]

46 minutes ago, HMIP said:

On our budget, we’ll struggle to do better than Docherty.  If there is a chance of retaining him, we’d be nuts to knock it back.
 

 As far as I can see, he was a total professional after the announcement he was leaving as he has been throughout his time at Ayr.  It was clear at the time that Partick offered him crazy money to sign - not sure how he could turn it down, particularly given his injury record which I suppose could shorten his career.

 I think a few fans were and are just treating him as a useful punchbag because of their ill feeling towards McCall.  I suspect if Doc was due to head down south like Rose and the move had fallen apart due to covid, we’d have been only too happy to retain him.

Totally agree with your thoughts on Doc's attitude after it became official that the Thistle offer was on the table. 

It could be that the uncertainty over the ongoing covid restrictions, possible legal action involving Hearts, Thistle and Stranraer delaying the start of the new season and an urge to stay and keep playing in the Championship, works in our favour and like Harvie he actually stays with us when in all likelihood if it had been a "normal" season end, they would have left for pastures new by now. 

Talk about should we retain this player or that player is a futile exercise in the current climate, not least that we don't know the wage demands of the players, we won't want to pay them if we don't have a model of what income we'll have coming in or more importantly the quality of players out there who might be available and interested in joining us is still unknown. 

Edited May 20, 2020 by BukyOHare

[eez-eh]

If we can afford to have 4 centre-halves in the first team I’d be fine with keeping both Bell and Muirhead. If not I’d maybe consider letting one of them go - I’m sure Roscoe is signed up for next season and I wouldn’t be that confident going into next season with the same 3 centre-backs unless Roscoe was to really step up in a similar way to how Rose did.

I love Geggan but I think he spends far too much time injured to be justified. Murdoch is a no brainier to keep though.

[Jazzar]

Having met the guy and chatted to him at length in the HS in recent times, I'd have absolutely no problem in having the Doc back if Thistle implode or renege on the PCA. He's an excellent professional and intelligent with it (not something you find a lot of in football). I didn't get the chance to speak to him again after he signed his PCA but if I had I would have wished him all the best for the future. He's a top guy and deserves our best wishes. 

[rb123!]

When we are on the talk of CB's remember the boy Ndaba from Ipswich has probably stayed on the the clubs radar. By all accounts in January he was a done deal until the amount of clubs he had played for became the stumbling block.

Who knows how loans will work next season though.

[THEHonestman1910]

Funny how Docherty has became world class on here now we've got a chance of keeping him despite when he signed a PCA with partick it was all "we've got Murdoch".

[D'Jaffo]

Funny how Docherty has became world class on here now we've got a chance of keeping him despite when he signed a PCA with partick it was all "we've got Murdoch".

It’s more to do with the fact that recruiting players for next season is going to be tricky. If we can cut down on the amount of positions needing attention then the easier it’ll be.

Keeping Docherty means the only midfielder we need is a replacement for Kelly unless we manage to keep him.

[ayrunitedfw]

4 minutes ago, THEHonestman1910 said:

Funny how Docherty has became world class on here now we've got a chance of keeping him despite when he signed a PCA with partick it was all "we've got Murdoch".

Murdoch is a far superior footballer than Docherty regardless of whether he stays or not. 

[UpInTheAyr]

4 minutes ago, THEHonestman1910 said:

Funny how Docherty has became world class on here now we've got a chance of keeping him despite when he signed a PCA with partick it was all "we've got Murdoch".

Aye, usually that's only reserved for when a player is injured.

[UpInTheAyr]

Just now, ayrunitedfw said:

Murdoch is a far superior footballer than Docherty regardless of whether he stays or not. 

The longer a player is out the better he is.