The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[AsimButtHitsASix]

34 minutes ago, North British said:

 

This is pretty much concurring with what a Morton shareholder told me . He told be he wasn’t allowed to get the players he wanted at Morton  due to cost , and had to go with the downgraded version . Time will tell . 

Every manager in the world has a moan about not having money they want but it was Hopkin who signed a grand total of 20 wingers in his short time at Cappielow and started the season with one keeper, three defenders and no right backs. He might have had a small budget but he spunked it all by himself

ETA: The more annoyed I get at Hopkin's time at Cappielow the more certain I am he'll end up getting you lot promoted. 

Edited March 15, 2021 by AsimButtHitsASix

[Superhursty7]

I'll admit that Hopkin was not my first choice but he wasn't my last choice either but not even giving the guy a week in the job before turning on him is a joke, I'm very confident we will stay up and then we can judge him and his backroom staff next season on recruitment and how we are doing, as for Morton fans on here ripping him to shreds it's a prime example why a home town hero should never take over as manager it always be ends in tears.

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said:

I'll admit that Hopkin was not my first choice but he wasn't my last choice either but not even giving the guy a week in the job before turning on him is a joke, I'm very confident we will stay up and then we can judge him and his background staff next season on recruitment and how we are doing, as for Morton fans on here ripping him to shreds it's a prime example why a home town hero should never take over as manager it always be ends in tears.

Strangely enough, much of the criticism I've read of Hopkin centres around poor football, "hoof ball", "defensive set up" etc, however at the same time he's being pilloried for signing an abundance of wingers and forward type players ?

Surely the two don't add up ??

[UpInTheAyr]

Just get this season in the bin. As long as Hopkin keeps us up then he's accomplished his short term goal. Doesn't really matter how he does it but if he didn't like his budget at Morton then he isn't going to like his one at Ayr if we finish 8th.

[D'Jaffo]

Just get this season in the bin. As long as Hopkin keeps us up then he's accomplished his short term goal. Doesn't really matter how he does it but if he didn't like his budget at Morton then he isn't going to like his one at Ayr if we finish 8th.

Even if we finish 8th Smith has got to give Hopkin enough funds to begin the rebuild of what will hopefully end up being a promotion winning team. We need a good enough team to challenge for the playoffs and given the chairman’s comments about a plan for promotion he can’t then use the excuse of finishing 8th as a reason for a low budget.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Even if we finish 8th Smith has got to give Hopkin enough funds to begin the rebuild of what will hopefully end up being a promotion winning team. We need a good enough team to challenge for the playoffs and given the chairman’s comments about a plan for promotion he can’t then use the excuse of finishing 8th as a reason for a low budget.

In a nutshell.

Smith has put pressure on himself by talking big and raising the fans expectations so he can only now expect for the same supporters to hold him to his word.

[D'Jaffo]

In a nutshell.
Smith has put pressure on himself by talking big and raising the fans expectations so he can only now expect for the same supporters to hold him to his word.

Exactly

If we finish as low as 8th then it’s largely due to the squad Hopkin inherited so he can’t hamstring the guy next season because of the poor job his predecessor did. I’m not expecting a fortune spent but we need to be replacing certain guys and adding players on long term contracts to plan for the next few seasons.

[Trogdor]

47 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Just get this season in the bin. 

^This. The sooner we crawl over the line the better. This season has been p1sh. Watching streams on the telly ain't a patch on the real thing.

[UpInTheAyr]

^This. The sooner we crawl over the line the better. This season has been p1sh. Watching streams on the telly ain't a patch on the real thing.

Probably a good thing fans haven't been there with this team. I can only imagine how much worse things would have been.

[Trogdor]

3 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Probably a good thing fans haven't been there with this team. I can only imagine how much worse things would have been.

I'm not sure I totally subscribe to that theory. I've seen the fans in the SRE pull the ball into that net in the second half many a time. Also, away from home our fans are so vocal and supportive.

I do accept that when things don't go well it can get hostile at Somerset.

I think we'd have performed better if fans were there but we'll never know. 

[mugen_power]

33 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

 players on long term contracts to plan for the next few seasons.

He said this in his interview didn't he? Didn't want to keep losing promising guys on free transfers

[UpInTheAyr]

I'm not sure I totally subscribe to that theory. I've seen the fans in the SRE pull the ball into that net in the second half many a time. Also, away from home our fans are so vocal and supportive.
I do accept that when things don't go well it can get hostile at Somerset.
I think we'd have performed better if fans were there but we'll never know. [emoji2369]

I don't think this team have shown they can handle pressure well, or just about anything in fact. I can only see them buckling even more than usual with fans around them. I just don't see enough players in the team who would respond to the type of thing you mention

[North British]

It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out in the summer , I mean if he has a guy scouting players in England then I’m guessing the salary bar at Ayr will have to be raised . Unlikely to find anybody down there who could impact the Championship , willing to come up here for £400/£500 a week  . Same rules apply if your wanting to compete for guys like Doohan , White , Sibald etc should they become available.  .

 

[Stevie Aitken's Love Child]

2 hours ago, WATTOO said:

Strangely enough, much of the criticism I've read of Hopkin centres around poor football, "hoof ball", "defensive set up" etc, however at the same time he's being pilloried for signing an abundance of wingers and forward type players ?

Surely the two don't add up ??

You're absolutely right, they don't add up whatsoever, and yet he continued to persist with that tactic when the team he had put together were in no way suited to it. 

What I will say is that for the 6-8 weeks before the season was curtailed by the pandemic last season, he seemed to have got the team playing to the system as he wanted them to, and I genuinely believe we'd have made a big push towards the play-offs if we were allowed to keep playing. 

His complaints about the budget this season however are crazy given the squad he built, as plenty of others have said above. I would absolutely have my concerns over giving him free reign to build a squad next season.

[D'Jaffo]

His complaints about the budget this season however are crazy given the squad he built, as plenty of others have said above. I would absolutely have my concerns over giving him free reign to build a squad next season.

When you look at Morton’s squad he clearly wasn’t short of bodies so he had the budget to bring guys in but when you look at the actual quality of players he signed in the summer it really does look like he was offering peanuts to whoever would listen. I fully agree that his decision to fill the squad with attacking midfielders is a bizarre one but if the guy thought that was the best quality he could attract then I don’t blame him.

I really do not have the same concerns as I don’t doubt that he’ll be well backed by our chairman and will be able to bring in the necessary quality in all areas of our team. Starting with Kyle Jacobs and Aidan McAdams of course.

[madton]

23 hours ago, madton said:

Dave Timmons must be a possibility. Was our goalkeeping/recruitment coach that Hopkin brought in.

Think he's at Rochdale.

 

23 hours ago, D'Jaffo said:

We’ve already got a goalkeeping coach so unless he’s just bringing him in to help with overall training and recruitment then I’m not sure. He signed a fair amount of shite for you lot as well so I’d rather it wasn’t him.

Sorry.

[ayrunitedfw]

I’m a bit worried at the lack of talk about a Striker coming in. If we are relying on Moffat, McKenzie and Wright to fire us to safety we could be in bother. 

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Stevie Aitken's Love Child said:

You're absolutely right, they don't add up whatsoever, and yet he continued to persist with that tactic when the team he had put together were in no way suited to it. 

What I will say is that for the 6-8 weeks before the season was curtailed by the pandemic last season, he seemed to have got the team playing to the system as he wanted them to, and I genuinely believe we'd have made a big push towards the play-offs if we were allowed to keep playing. 

His complaints about the budget this season however are crazy given the squad he built, as plenty of others have said above. I would absolutely have my concerns over giving him free reign to build a squad next season.

Ironically that was the main criticism of our football under Kerr, we had McCowan, Cammy Smith, Moffat, Walsh and Bruce Anderson, yet we would persist in punting high balls over the top of them which was just crazy.

Some of us put this down to the poor pitches not allowing us to play the ball on the deck, others put it down to the left peg of Joe Chalmers playing his quarterback roll  but God knows, it may have been a mixture of the two or just poor tactics, I just hope it's not going to be the second installment of this story under Hoppy.......

[Trogdor]

2 hours ago, ayrunitedfw said:

I’m a bit worried at the lack of talk about a Striker coming in. If we are relying on Moffat, McKenzie and Wright to fire us to safety we could be in bother. 

You're reveting to type. 

[UpInTheAyr]

2 hours ago, ayrunitedfw said:

I’m a bit worried at the lack of talk about a Striker coming in. If we are relying on Moffat, McKenzie and Wright to fire us to safety we could be in bother. 

Hate to break this to you but we've been in bother for a while.