The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[diegomarahenry]

11 hours ago, Finlay21 said:

That’s the same Hub that fans have been asking for for years , the only owner we have had that is willing to invest in the long term planning of the club , yes we are going through a tough spell but the investment is needed to secure the future of the club , the manager has a very decent playing  budget and the Hub profits are to enhance that budget , don’t get the negativity about the Hub ,the Hub is not getting any money from the playing side of the club 

The issue isn’t with the Hub at all, but it has became a focus of all that is wrong with the club just now.

As mentioned before, the output from the club has dried up almost completely. The website doesn’t work, b&w tv started with additional output and a free introductory period and appears to have been shelved without any communication. 
The details of season tickets and strips in the summer had to be dragged out of the club. Even telling people there is no update is better than no update. 

No Updates on summer signings and the path the club was going to take. 
 

the only updates fans got was from you on here.

Now, when fan engagement is at an all time low in the social media era, the only tweets are about Honestmen picks and the Hub. 
Match previews are either absent or don’t have any bearing on who is actually fit and available. Pre and post match interviews are a bawtickling exercise and it looks like the club has put up barriers and everything is a big secret. Apart from, you can spend your money down at the Somerset hub. We can be active on social media and give updates on this and this only. 
It gives the impression that the Hub is all that anyone is interested in. 
 

McCall was criticised when he left for being a fraud and everything was done to make him look good. The club is now doing the reverse of that.

The McCall era was a rally to fans, buy season tickets and shirts, invest in the AU500 and we can keep guys like Shankland. If you do your part, we can do better at ours. You want your home shirt for your holidays, no problem. You finish a season on a high, get your season tickets on sale and say you need high numbers to continue the high next season. McLeod was a master at positive PR and spin.
 

Now we have silence and occasional pictures of a building site. 

If you have a manager willing to engage with fans and build a togetherness, it takes the pressure off of the chairman. A manager giving regular, candid interviews about what is going on, hopes and concerns etc it builds trust and a togetherness. Kerr did it and didn’t come across well. Hopkin and Duffy just haven’t bothered. There is absolutely no personality or character evident in the board, management or playing staff that is likeable and that is largely down to the way the club is presenting its self. 

[Hawk89]

1 hour ago, diegomarahenry said:

If you have a manager willing to engage with fans and build a togetherness, it takes the pressure off of the chairman. A manager giving regular, candid interviews about what is going on, hopes and concerns etc it builds trust and a togetherness. Kerr did it and didn’t come across well. Hopkin and Duffy just haven’t bothered. There is absolutely no personality or character evident in the board, management or playing staff that is likeable and that is largely down to the way the club is presenting its self. 

Lachlan had a very easy ride in his last couple of years of ownership, you correctly state that McCall was very good at the rallying call to fans. This is the sort of thing that would galvanize the fans right now. If there is a plan and the person in question is working their notice then it is only right the club don't unsettle their position. However, a statement or interview of some sort would help settle some nerves.

The interview Smith took with Graeme Spiers was an excellent opportunity to sell the vision, sadly it was behind a paywall. I mostly felt at ease with how he came across, the only point that concerned me was being perplexed as to why Hopkin wanted to go. The rest of the interview though was very articulate. No disrespect to Callum but, he falls into the trap of being part of the internal setup and isn't a professional interviewer like a veteran journalist. He would be fine as an MC for a Q&A for example where he could ask a couple of questions then hand over to the floor but, I don't think he's the man to ask the questions we want to hear in an interview that a seasoned pro like Spiers would. 

Hopefully the new commercial manager will hit the ground running and bring in some fresh ideas, it feels like it may be a thankless task for his first season at the club. As Miller mentioned in one of his commercial updates, it is an easy sell when things are going well. The Hub is obviously a step forwards off the park, the problem for the average football fan is that it is hard to visualise what it brings in the short term. Once it is a couple of seasons in it will be easy for a manager to say the budget was tight but thanks to the Hub we could sign X, thanks to the AU500 club we were able to secure Y, etc. 

[ComradeDiego]

2 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

The issue isn’t with the Hub at all, but it has became a focus of all that is wrong with the club just now.

As mentioned before, the output from the club has dried up almost completely. The website doesn’t work, b&w tv started with additional output and a free introductory period and appears to have been shelved without any communication. 
The details of season tickets and strips in the summer had to be dragged out of the club. Even telling people there is no update is better than no update. 

No Updates on summer signings and the path the club was going to take. 
 

the only updates fans got was from you on here.

Now, when fan engagement is at an all time low in the social media era, the only tweets are about Honestmen picks and the Hub. 
Match previews are either absent or don’t have any bearing on who is actually fit and available. Pre and post match interviews are a bawtickling exercise and it looks like the club has put up barriers and everything is a big secret. Apart from, you can spend your money down at the Somerset hub. We can be active on social media and give updates on this and this only. 
It gives the impression that the Hub is all that anyone is interested in. 
 

McCall was criticised when he left for being a fraud and everything was done to make him look good. The club is now doing the reverse of that.

The McCall era was a rally to fans, buy season tickets and shirts, invest in the AU500 and we can keep guys like Shankland. If you do your part, we can do better at ours. You want your home shirt for your holidays, no problem. You finish a season on a high, get your season tickets on sale and say you need high numbers to continue the high next season. McLeod was a master at positive PR and spin.
 

Now we have silence and occasional pictures of a building site. 

If you have a manager willing to engage with fans and build a togetherness, it takes the pressure off of the chairman. A manager giving regular, candid interviews about what is going on, hopes and concerns etc it builds trust and a togetherness. Kerr did it and didn’t come across well. Hopkin and Duffy just haven’t bothered. There is absolutely no personality or character evident in the board, management or playing staff that is likeable and that is largely down to the way the club is presenting its self. 

 

[Mod1967]

2 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

The issue isn’t with the Hub at all, but it has became a focus of all that is wrong with the club just now.

As mentioned before, the output from the club has dried up almost completely. The website doesn’t work, b&w tv started with additional output and a free introductory period and appears to have been shelved without any communication. 
The details of season tickets and strips in the summer had to be dragged out of the club. Even telling people there is no update is better than no update. 

No Updates on summer signings and the path the club was going to take. 
 

the only updates fans got was from you on here.

Now, when fan engagement is at an all time low in the social media era, the only tweets are about Honestmen picks and the Hub. 
Match previews are either absent or don’t have any bearing on who is actually fit and available. Pre and post match interviews are a bawtickling exercise and it looks like the club has put up barriers and everything is a big secret. Apart from, you can spend your money down at the Somerset hub. We can be active on social media and give updates on this and this only. 
It gives the impression that the Hub is all that anyone is interested in. 
 

McCall was criticised when he left for being a fraud and everything was done to make him look good. The club is now doing the reverse of that.

The McCall era was a rally to fans, buy season tickets and shirts, invest in the AU500 and we can keep guys like Shankland. If you do your part, we can do better at ours. You want your home shirt for your holidays, no problem. You finish a season on a high, get your season tickets on sale and say you need high numbers to continue the high next season. McLeod was a master at positive PR and spin.
 

Now we have silence and occasional pictures of a building site. 

If you have a manager willing to engage with fans and build a togetherness, it takes the pressure off of the chairman. A manager giving regular, candid interviews about what is going on, hopes and concerns etc it builds trust and a togetherness. Kerr did it and didn’t come across well. Hopkin and Duffy just haven’t bothered. There is absolutely no personality or character evident in the board, management or playing staff that is likeable and that is largely down to the way the club is presenting its self. 

[Thumper]

2 hours ago, Hawk89 said:

Lachlan had a very easy ride in his last couple of years of ownership

This is probably because he brought in the best manager the club have had in 20+ years and managed to hold onto him for long enough to get fans used to the idea of actually getting promoted from the second tier rather than relegated from it, rather than due to some incredible PR.

That Hollywood superstar Ian McCall wowed fans with his incredible showbiz talents of "occasionally talk about the club" and "care in the fucking slightest about things other than bibs and cones" unlike his successors was also part of it, but you'd like to think this was learnable by others.

For what it's worth he's still doing it even at megabucks Partick: he was answering the phones prior to the Firhill game and personally put aside tickets for one of my mates who had some mail mixup.

For what it's worth I don't even really blame Smith for any of this: you do what you're good at, so as a builder he's concentrating on building. If the pandemic ever ends then the club will be on a firmer footing going forward assuming that the Hub is profitable. But it's no surprise that fans do not suddenly stop caring about impending relegation when shown some photos of scaffolding.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Thumper

[Trogdor]

Some post by deigomarahenry. I hope Dave Smith reads it.

[Trogdor]

Has there been anything more on what's happening with Moffat?

If Duffy has frozen him out then we can just sack Duffman now. The fact he didn't even name Moffat on the bench is an aberration. Moffat's legs might not be what they used to but he's got more technical ability than the rest of the squad combined.

Everyone else has been given a run in the team other than Moffat. I can understand why he would be frustrated. I'm frustrated for him.

[North British]

53 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

Has there been anything more on what's happening with Moffat?

 

Watched them train on Monday for a little while at Cambusdoon . Looked to me like Moff was training on his own . Team we’re doing shuttles at the clubhouse end , keepers were at the other end goals , Moff was in the middle going through a routine with one off the coaches . There might have been a perfectly good reason for this , but that’s what I saw .

Im not in the camp that says  Moff is the answer to all our Championship woes , but against Albion Rovers on Saturday I’d play him up top with Tomi all day long .

On all the flack getting dished out in the direction of Smith , give it a rest . He’s in the early days of his tenure , he’s here for the long haul . Plenty of good times ahead .

[rb123!]

12 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

The issue isn’t with the Hub at all, but it has became a focus of all that is wrong with the club just now.

As mentioned before, the output from the club has dried up almost completely. The website doesn’t work, b&w tv started with additional output and a free introductory period and appears to have been shelved without any communication. 
The details of season tickets and strips in the summer had to be dragged out of the club. Even telling people there is no update is better than no update. 

No Updates on summer signings and the path the club was going to take. 
 

the only updates fans got was from you on here.

Now, when fan engagement is at an all time low in the social media era, the only tweets are about Honestmen picks and the Hub. 
Match previews are either absent or don’t have any bearing on who is actually fit and available. Pre and post match interviews are a bawtickling exercise and it looks like the club has put up barriers and everything is a big secret. Apart from, you can spend your money down at the Somerset hub. We can be active on social media and give updates on this and this only. 
It gives the impression that the Hub is all that anyone is interested in. 
 

McCall was criticised when he left for being a fraud and everything was done to make him look good. The club is now doing the reverse of that.

The McCall era was a rally to fans, buy season tickets and shirts, invest in the AU500 and we can keep guys like Shankland. If you do your part, we can do better at ours. You want your home shirt for your holidays, no problem. You finish a season on a high, get your season tickets on sale and say you need high numbers to continue the high next season. McLeod was a master at positive PR and spin.
 

Now we have silence and occasional pictures of a building site. 

If you have a manager willing to engage with fans and build a togetherness, it takes the pressure off of the chairman. A manager giving regular, candid interviews about what is going on, hopes and concerns etc it builds trust and a togetherness. Kerr did it and didn’t come across well. Hopkin and Duffy just haven’t bothered. There is absolutely no personality or character evident in the board, management or playing staff that is likeable and that is largely down to the way the club is presenting its self. 

Think that's how McCall and Cameron worked so well, cause Lauchlan was in the states and knew he could oversee the business side of things in terms of finances etc, meanwhile McCall would take care of the PR side of things as he has such good links with the media. He's one of a few managers who can actually be bothered with the media too which helped. 

[diegomarahenry]

9 hours ago, rb123! said:

Think that's how McCall and Cameron worked so well, cause Lauchlan was in the states and knew he could oversee the business side of things in terms of finances etc, meanwhile McCall would take care of the PR side of things as he has such good links with the media. He's one of a few managers who can actually be bothered with the media too which helped. 

The media that Ayr managers have to deal with are the club propaganda which asks questions in a style of Jim Whyte asking Brian Laudrup why he's so good. Also the voice of reason who has to be in the clubs pocket to be able to get any content for the Ayrshire post at all. 

McCall more or less had his own Youtube channel where he could speak directly to fans and have them think exactly what he wanted them to. This worked well right up until he left. It helped calm situations at times or distract supporters long enough that they didn't turn on the team. 

If you look at comparisons with McCall and Hopkin, they both took over a team on the slide, neither had a new manager bounce, they both signed former players and struggled to attract players that didn't play for him before. They both signed imbalanced teams and had to play players out of position. One managed the situation with confidence and that filtered through to supporters, there was a sense that McCall knew what he was doing and everything would be ok. Both Hopkin and Duffy have said after a bad result that the players have to show a reaction or it is now must win and the team have been scudded the following week, properly hammered. That looks like the players have either no respect for what they are told or there is no weight behind what either of them said in the interview. 

I remember a story about MacLeod, Ayr lost 4 games in a row from the new years day game, he was asked what the problem was and he said that Ayr traditionally don't start the year well, a Hogmanay hoodoo. This was all made up. From then on, any bad results in January weren't his or the teams fault. 

The current situation leads to speculation and gossip, a feeling that all is not right at the club. a relatively high turnover of full time staff, rumours of a split in the dressing room, not so much a run of bad results as an occasional positive result in a normality of draws and defeats in the last 18 months. A growing ambivalence amongst supporters. It really needs to be managed better and will get worse the longer it goes on. They don't need to go in to detail on every issue, they only need to give the impression that they are working to improve things and everyone is trying their best. Which isn't hugely apparent at the moment on the pitch.     

[HMIP]

People sometimes seem to have lost sight of the fact that it took McCall 2 and a half seasons to get it right at Ayr with some really bad times early on - even then the transformation of his own fortunes at Ayr was triggered by Cameron’s decision to back him with full time football. There was no quick fix.  It feels like that’s what we’re now looking for now and we simply don’t have the financial resources to make that a realistic strategy.  We need to make a commitment to somebody and allow them to begin the process of trying to build something at Ayr.  If the club truly believe Duffy is the future, then back him.  If they don’t, they need to identify a preferred candidate and attempt to get him appointed.  

As things stand, we’re just drifting on the wind.  Paying off Hopkin’s bloated coaching team still looks like a serious impediment to moving on with someone new.
 

[Caledonian]

On 23/11/2021 at 11:43, diegomarahenry said:

The issue isn’t with the Hub at all, but it has became a focus of all that is wrong with the club just now.

As mentioned before, the output from the club has dried up almost completely. The website doesn’t work, b&w tv started with additional output and a free introductory period and appears to have been shelved without any communication. 
The details of season tickets and strips in the summer had to be dragged out of the club. Even telling people there is no update is better than no update. 

No Updates on summer signings and the path the club was going to take. 
 

the only updates fans got was from you on here.

Now, when fan engagement is at an all time low in the social media era, the only tweets are about Honestmen picks and the Hub. 
Match previews are either absent or don’t have any bearing on who is actually fit and available. Pre and post match interviews are a bawtickling exercise and it looks like the club has put up barriers and everything is a big secret. Apart from, you can spend your money down at the Somerset hub. We can be active on social media and give updates on this and this only. 
It gives the impression that the Hub is all that anyone is interested in. 
 

McCall was criticised when he left for being a fraud and everything was done to make him look good. The club is now doing the reverse of that.

The McCall era was a rally to fans, buy season tickets and shirts, invest in the AU500 and we can keep guys like Shankland. If you do your part, we can do better at ours. You want your home shirt for your holidays, no problem. You finish a season on a high, get your season tickets on sale and say you need high numbers to continue the high next season. McLeod was a master at positive PR and spin.
 

Now we have silence and occasional pictures of a building site. 

If you have a manager willing to engage with fans and build a togetherness, it takes the pressure off of the chairman. A manager giving regular, candid interviews about what is going on, hopes and concerns etc it builds trust and a togetherness. Kerr did it and didn’t come across well. Hopkin and Duffy just haven’t bothered. There is absolutely no personality or character evident in the board, management or playing staff that is likeable and that is largely down to the way the club is presenting its self. 

You omitted the programme getting dropped. 

[wullieaufc]

Whens this social club opening then?

[Finlay21]

1 hour ago, Caledonian said:

You omitted the programme getting dropped. 

The sales of the programme prior to Covid had dropped to a level that was not cost effective to publish , only around 8% of fans attending games were buying one 

 

[diegomarahenry]

28 minutes ago, Finlay21 said:

The sales of the programme prior to Covid had dropped to a level that was not cost effective to publish , only around 8% of fans attending games were buying one 

 

I'm not sure how much advertising revenue was generated from it. But having a free to download version where the advertising revenue is generated but there is no physical printing required might be more cost effective. Most folk will be more likely to fanny about on their phones before the game and at half time anyway. 

Maybe a suggestion for the new commercial manager.  

I am sure there are people in the support that would be willing to help, including Duncan C I'd imagine as he still creates one anyway but I don't imagine there is much advertising sold for it, if any. They just need to ask. 

[rgreig]

21 hours ago, diegomarahenry said:

I'm not sure how much advertising revenue was generated from it. But having a free to download version where the advertising revenue is generated but there is no physical printing required might be more cost effective. Most folk will be more likely to fanny about on their phones before the game and at half time anyway. 

Maybe a suggestion for the new commercial manager.  

I am sure there are people in the support that would be willing to help, including Duncan C I'd imagine as he still creates one anyway but I don't imagine there is much advertising sold for it, if any. They just need to ask. 

I would be more inclined to publish all the content to the website, to try to drive more traffic to that - and hopefully attract advertisers to the website. Having roughly the same set of content that was previously published in the programme going on the web channel would inject some much needed life into the website.

[diegomarahenry]

26 minutes ago, rgreig said:

I would be more inclined to publish all the content to the website, to try to drive more traffic to that - and hopefully attract advertisers to the website. Having roughly the same set of content that was previously published in the programme going on the web channel would inject some much needed life into the website.

I think the two are the same but separate issues. The Website needs to be a lot better. Again I would think there is someone who supports the club that does web design that could assist. Or someone who would be willing to sponsor it to cover the creation and hosting by a third party.

The Queens Park program is free to download

 https://queensparkfc.co.uk/match-day-programme-queens-park-v-clyde/

and can be viewed on a mobile device. Even a pdf link on match day would be good. With an updated team line after 2pm

once a template is set up, it would be a case of adding the managers comments, the pen pics and all the other submissions like Duncan and Alistair provided. 
you have Izdrk with the podcast and that lad who does the vlogs creating more content than the club currently so there will be people willing to give input for free. 

[stevep56]

The web site certainly needs some work.  Just looked under player news and the latest info there is from Jan/Feb 2021 and shows us signing Brett McGavin, Andre Wright and keeping Cammy Smith until the end of last season. The squad list does not show any shirt sponsors and asks if you are interested in sponsoring the players.  I know that some of these players already have shirt sponsors.

The directions to the club is blank and one of the B&W TV links thanks folk for buying the link to the Annan cup game.  I think that game. was over a year ago.

 When things get so out of date like this, websites tend to get ignored.

When you look on these "Championship" pages on P&B,  it seems that Ayr fans are some of the most active in our division.  Part of the reason for this is that the current club web page does not really provide much interest to the fans.

Agree with DMH that there will be folk that would be willing to help to make the site better.  

Edited November 25, 2021 by stevep56

[rgreig]

1 hour ago, diegomarahenry said:

I think the two are the same but separate issues. The Website needs to be a lot better. Again I would think there is someone who supports the club that does web design that could assist. Or someone who would be willing to sponsor it to cover the creation and hosting by a third party.

The Queens Park program is free to download

 https://queensparkfc.co.uk/match-day-programme-queens-park-v-clyde/

and can be viewed on a mobile device. Even a pdf link on match day would be good. With an updated team line after 2pm

once a template is set up, it would be a case of adding the managers comments, the pen pics and all the other submissions like Duncan and Alistair provided. 
you have Izdrk with the podcast and that lad who does the vlogs creating more content than the club currently so there will be people willing to give input for free. 

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree the website needs significant work. But my point remains - invest in that channel and then ensure it gets sufficient content to increase fan engagement and perhaps get some advertising revenue. Maintaining that is not a one-off task, it would need ongoing commitment hence it needs a partner who can be relied upon to be available - tricky with volunteers I think.

People will have their own views on the fliphtml5 approach that Queen's Park have gone with, I am personally not a fan of that kind of skeuomorphic design but it is certainly better than nothing and is cost effective.

 

[rb123!]

What did the AP say this week?