The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[D'Jaffo]

4 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

Based on what?

Based on the fact that Smith was making horrible footballing decisions and Mathie has effectively taken on that role having done it at a far bigger club. 
 

I didn’t think the point I was making was that controversial or hard to understand but fair enough. 

Just now, Trogdor said:

Comparing him to the octogenarian Lewis Grant presumably. Who was hamstrung by budgetary constraints as Lachlan ran us with one eye on minimising his contribution.

It’s nothing to do with Grant tbh. McCall was doing more of what Mathie is doing now in fairness in terms of contracts, signings etc. 

[Rb123]

1 hour ago, Thumper said:

I have no reason to doubt Smith's motives or sincerity, but having significant chunks of the club's facilities actually be privately owned by the chairman is a double-edged sword. Random example: the Hub being booked out for a private function from 6 on a home matchday. Totally within his rights, but you wouldn't see the club doing it.

As far as i'm led to believe it is the club that do bookings for the hub as a private function suite, any of these events are most likely to have been booked before this season's fixtures came out meaning that they wouldn't have known if there would be a home game on that day or not

[UpInTheAyr]

2 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

but the fact that 45 minutes can be used by the club to decide he’s not what they want is a bit worrying

If they are doing that they have lost the plot and makes me even more worried about the current predicament. If he's not being played because he's dung I assume, and it should be, because of what they've seen of him daily in training. Just another one to add to the illustrious list.

[No_Problemo]

5 minutes ago, Rb123 said:

As far as i'm led to believe it is the club that do bookings for the hub as a private function suite, any of these events are most likely to have been booked before this season's fixtures came out meaning that they wouldn't have known if there would be a home game on that day or not

Hopefully this will be less of an issue next year with the new hospitality suite, as it is quite annoying. 

[No_Problemo]

5 minutes ago, UpInTheAyr said:

If they are doing that they have lost the plot and makes me even more worried about the current predicament. If he's not being played because he's dung I assume, and it should be, because of what they've seen of him daily in training. Just another one to add to the illustrious list.

Yeah - if he is ripping it up in training he would be getting some kind of minutes. Even if that is time at the end of a game when we are losing to try and get back into it if he is good going forward etc. 

[Trogdor]

5 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

It’s nothing to do with Grant tbh. McCall was doing more of what Mathie is doing now in fairness in terms of contracts, signings etc. 

Mathie's role is more similar to Grant's than McCall's. McCall was never responsible for the off the field personnel other than the football staff. Mathie is in charge of the whole damn show. 

I'm not white knighting him nor am I calling for his head.

FWIW I don't think he is doing a great job. The season ticket debacle and social media/highlights have both been poorly managed and communicated. That's firmly on Mathie. 

The recruitment is a side issue for me. That's on Glendinning & Bullen. Mathie is in charge but he's not identifying the players. He might pick up contract negotiations but that's once the player is secured. 

He can do as many Q&As and Vision nights as he likes but we should be more professional off the park given how many staff there are now. Instead we are still being outdone by part time clubs off the field. Our social media output is crap, our highlights are mince, our ticketing system is clunky and our junior ticket pricing is bizarre. There's four things he could sort easily.

Get the basics right before going on about strategies and making Somerset the best away day in Scotland. It's birthday caird pish for me. 

[AyrAtlanta]

The Raith Rovers comparison is even more incredible when you think where they were after the Goodwillie incident. Fans saying they’d never be back, sponsors leaving, the women’s team disappearing and a general hatred between club and the outside world.

Its been said a thousand times but it’s just another piece of evidence confirming that a product on the park overrides everything. Clubs that are run like a village bowling club have been successful in the past and clubs run excellently have failed.

I’m not advocating for heads to roll at this very moment, but I really hope sentiment doesn’t delay any important personnel decisions when the time inevitably comes.

[UpInTheAyr]

Mathie is new at this kind of role so I expect him to make mistakes, hopefully he learns from it as he gains more experience. The highlights issue though is way past what's acceptable for addressing that issue though, I don't want to hear any more soundbites about that just fix the damn thing.

As for recruiting, with what folk here have commented on the issue so far, it's clear no one knows who actually is responsible, or the main man, for it.

[Peil]

4 hours ago, Shibuya said:

Just being realistic, Uncle

^

Raging he's a glorified babysitter

[GaryMc93]

1 minute ago, Trogdor said:

The recruitment is a side issue for me. That's on Glendinning & Bullen. Mathie is in charge but he's not identifying the players. He might pick up contract negotiations but that's once the player is secured. 

How are we securing players without making them an offer first? Also surely if Glendinning identifies a target, Bullen agrees and the deal is lost because Mathie doesn't want to offer an extra £50 then he's as accountable as the others?

[Caledonian]

55 minutes ago, No_Problemo said:

And your point?

My point is clear and precise.

[Trogdor]

55 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

How are we securing players without making them an offer first? Also surely if Glendinning identifies a target, Bullen agrees and the deal is lost because Mathie doesn't want to offer an extra £50 then he's as accountable as the others?

Secured should read identified.

We have a wage structure it would be remiss of Mathie not to be refusing to offer deals outwith that. That's part and parcel of the budgetary constraints of any business. I wouldn't say he's as accountable in your scenario, Glendinning and Bullen will be fully aware of the budget. If he's literally negotiating the deal for a player shortlisted and identified by the other two it's not remotely the same.

[ayrunitedfw]

The most important part of a successful football club is good recruitment and there is plenty of evidence to suggest we've failed in that department and the buck stops with Mathie for that .

[D'Jaffo]

8 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

The most important part of a successful football club is good recruitment and there is plenty of evidence to suggest we've failed in that department and the buck stops with Mathie for that .

I don’t think we have “failed” though. There’s been plenty of positives and plenty of negatives. That’s about as good as you’ll get with recruitment unless you have loads of money to throw about. 

[ayrunitedfw]

9 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

I don’t think we have “failed” though. There’s been plenty of positives and plenty of negatives. That’s about as good as you’ll get with recruitment unless you have loads of money to throw about. 

The negatives outweigh the positives for me. Just as an example Ashford, JML, Bangala, Pendlebury, O'Connor have all left prior to their contracts ending. 

[GuyIncognito]

18 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

The most important part of a successful football club is good recruitment and there is plenty of evidence to suggest we've failed in that department and the buck stops with Mathie for that .

Mathie isn't fully in charge of recruitment though. He negotiates the deals with the clubs and the players but most of it is done by Glendinning and Bullen (mainly Glendinning though). 

[diegomarahenry]

7 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

I don’t think we have “failed” though. There’s been plenty of positives and plenty of negatives. That’s about as good as you’ll get with recruitment unless you have loads of money to throw about. 

Apart from Dipo and Dempsey, You have JML, Bangala, Ashford, Gondoh, Kenyon, McAlear and McGuire off the top of my head. Thats not getting in to the players just through the door. None of them played anything other than a bit part, at best, of our fortuitous second place finish last season. 

[ComradeDiego]

6 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

I don’t think we have “failed” though. There’s been plenty of positives and plenty of negatives. That’s about as good as you’ll get with recruitment unless you have loads of money to throw about. 

True, however not addressing areas of the pitch where we've needed additions for the best part of 2 years is extremely concerning

[D'Jaffo]

1 minute ago, ayrunitedfw said:

The negatives outweigh the positives for me. Just as an example Ashford, JML, Bangala, Pendlebury, O'Connor have all left prior to their contracts ending. 

No chance. We literally signed our most valuable signing and plenty other good players for this level. There have been others that have been not so great but still contributed enough and others that have been utter shite. 

To say we have flat out “failed” in our recruitment is not true no matter how you try and spin in. 
 

Just as an aside, O’Connor wasn’t signed under the current regime and as I understand was out of contract but had an option for a further year which wasn’t taken up. 

1 minute ago, diegomarahenry said:

Apart from Dipo and Dempsey, You have JML, Bangala, Ashford, Gondoh, Kenyon, McAlear and McGuire off the top of my head. Thats not getting in to the players just through the door. None of them played anything other than a bit part, at best, of our fortuitous second place finish last season. 

Yep there have been players signed that haven’t really done anything. Gondoh and Bangala probably being the main two and it remains to be seen if Ahui is added to that list. Don’t think I’ve ever said otherwise though. 
 

Still nonsense to say that our recruitment has been a failure. 

[D'Jaffo]

Just now, ComradeDiego said:

True, however not addressing areas of the pitch where we've needed additions for the best part of 2 years is extremely concerning

Would probably argue it’s been longer than two years which is pretty damning and I’ve already said that the biggest thing so far going against Mathie and co is not getting Bullen a left back and potentially a right back if Ahui does indeed prove to be rubbish. 
 

However to play devils advocate I would also say that the emergency signings in midfield likely ate up the rest of the budget that would’ve been spent on a left back and maybe another forward. Might be wrong but the club weren’t planning on signing another three midfielders so what would they have done instead?