The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, rb123! said:

Think the main problem was January, didn't do good enough business because we simply didn't have the funds to compete. I mean look at the players we got and who McCall actually wanted.

He wanted Scougall, Erskine and Wright who were three players who would have took us up a level.

Instead we got Cadden and Miller who yes have been quite impressive but they've not come in and taken the team to the next level.

It's a strange one, a few months back I wouldn't have let any of our players go as thought they were all excellent at this level, however at the moment I'd only keep Liam & Rossco and wouldn't care if the rest walked. Cadden also doesn't do enough for my liking which may just be down to how the team are playing as he undoubtedly has pace, talent and a decent cross on him. Miller flatters to deceive as he runs around like mad but ultimately his end product is poor, his shooting isn't great and he's never a lone Centre Forward but again not all his fault.

Strangely I'd say Bell was our most reliable player at the moment and possibly the one we miss most when he's not playing (with the exception of a fit Shankland of course) as he seems to bring a bit of calm and composure to our defence and lets us build from the back better when he's alongside Rose. 

As I've said though, I really have no idea what's happened to us and it could be a combination of many things such as small squad long season, players unsettled and moving on, poor playing surface at Somerset for our favoured style of play, lack of drive due to making the play offs.

Who knows ???

[Dunning1874]

2 hours ago, Lochwood said:

Agree with most posters McCall has run his course and needs to move on, apart from his tactics the fitness of the team has been a major concern for me, theammount of teams coming to Somerset and running us off the park is there to see. If we had signed a couple of good centre half’s in January we would have went really close.

For me the guy who nearly got the job before him Steve Aitken would be my choice done a brilliant job at Dumbarton until they pulled the budget from under him does really well in the loan market which we need.

@Ross Forbes

Could have tagged any number of Dumbarton fans as I’m sure you’d all love to see this post, but thought I’d bring it to the attention of one of you.

[Honest_Ally]

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

@Ross Forbes

Could have tagged any number of Dumbarton fans as I’m sure you’d all love to see this post, but thought I’d bring it to the attention of one of you.

We're all a fickle bunch as you know. Jim Duffy from yourselves seemed to seriously split opinion and even Solskjaer at Man Utd was a messiah 2 months back but is currently a waste of space who's level is the Scandinavian leagues.

As they say, you're only as good as your past couple of results and performances................

[UpInTheAyr]

Let's hope next season half the clubs in the Championship make an absolute riddy of their recruitment again and we can take advantage of it until the end of the year. Either that or three part time clubs being in the division would be good.

[D'Jaffo]

Ma heid’s in bits.

This is pretty much how I’m feeling.

I’d hate to see him go but I feel like it’s going to happen and it’s probably time. There’s obvious risks attached but keeping isn’t a risk free scenario either. He’s not going to be sacked that much is clear and he doesn’t deserve to be hounded out of the job but it’s perhaps time to look somewhere else. I really believe that if the Thistle job became available he’d take it. There was always a rift between McCall and a lot of our fans and I think it’s at the case he’s only doing the job out of loyalty to Cameron. I don’t think that’s a healthy situation to be in.

The other side to it is we’ve got a massive rebuilding job in the summer and McCall leaving will only add to the upheaval. His recruitment is one of his stronger areas so do you give him a summer to bring replacements in?

[D'Jaffo]

Yeah sack McCall bring back Mark Roberts. Ayr fans are unbelievable 🤣

So any replacement would suddenly be of the same standard as Mark Roberts? Are we not allowed to discuss the benefits of McCall leaving without previous dud managers like Roberts, Shanks or Watt thrown at us as if we’re supposed to feel lucky that we’ve finally got one better than them?

[D'Jaffo]

Agree with most posters McCall has run his course and needs to move on, apart from his tactics the fitness of the team has been a major concern for me, theammount of teams coming to Somerset and running us off the park is there to see. If we had signed a couple of good centre half’s in January we would have went really close.
For me the guy who nearly got the job before him Steve Aitken would be my choice done a brilliant job at Dumbarton until they pulled the budget from under him does really well in the loan market which we need.

[mention=33799]Ross Forbes[/mention]
Could have tagged any number of Dumbarton fans as I’m sure you’d all love to see this post, but thought I’d bring it to the attention of one of you.

Please ignore Lochwood gentleman.

Stevie Aitken is an awful manager. He built a good side at Stranraer but his last couple of years at Dumbarton (especially his last one) were complete disasters. We also shouldn’t be relying on loan players. Not if we want to sustain ourselves in this league. Most of them have one eye on getting back to their parent clubs whilst you may get the odd one that is actually good but you’ve only got him for a year. Also the comment about signing centre half’s and teams out running us is just bizarre.

[Jan Vojáček]

7 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

@Ross Forbes

Could have tagged any number of Dumbarton fans as I’m sure you’d all love to see this post, but thought I’d bring it to the attention of one of you.

 Thank you.

@Boghead ranter Come on up.

9 hours ago, Lochwood said:

Agree with most posters McCall has run his course and needs to move on, apart from his tactics the fitness of the team has been a major concern for me, theammount of teams coming to Somerset and running us off the park is there to see. If we had signed a couple of good centre half’s in January we would have went really close.

For me the guy who nearly got the job before him Steve Aitken would be my choice done a brilliant job at Dumbarton until they pulled the budget from under him does really well in the loan market which we need.

I mean, where to start.  I could just say hiya Stevie, hiya pal...But that would be too easy.

Stevie Aitken was given a far higher budget than Ian Murray during his time with DFC, and still managed to produce some of the worst football I've ever seen. Last season we spent the year trying not to lose by too many goals, and he drove a lot of fans away with his negative style of play. We gave him a 'top four' League One budget this season (look at our squad, Rory Loy, Ross Forbes, Craig Barr et al won't be on pennies) and he built a hilarious badly balance squad that left us ninth in League One with relegation looking a formality. He then went crying onto the radio, singling out fans he didn't like (one of whom may or may not be a mate of mine...) and explaining how unfair everything was.

If you want to find out, in detail, about his time with us, then I wrote this when he was sacked.

He did bring in some very good loan players (Jamie Lindsay, Sam Stanton, Joe Thomson, Daniel Harvie), but when Stuart Millar left he brought in some howlers like Ally Roy, Greg Morrison and Aiden Wilson.

I don't want to totally assassinate his character. He achieved some notable results with us, and nobody could deny that he put everything he had into being manager of DFC. He did an excellent job at Stranraer too, so maybe it would work out. If I was an Ayr fan and wanted rid of McCall though, then I'd be keen to look at a former player who is doing a very, very good job at Annan Athletic this season.

Edited April 24, 2019 by Ross Forbes

[Dunning1874]

7 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

We're all a fickle bunch as you know. Jim Duffy from yourselves seemed to seriously split opinion and even Solskjaer at Man Utd was a messiah 2 months back but is currently a waste of space who's level is the Scandinavian leagues.

As they say, you're only as good as your past couple of results and performances................

Yeah I did naturally think of Duffy seeing this discussion, and knowing how much it boiled my piss when people - pundits who are mates with Jim Duffy, mostly - told us we should be happy with what we had while we collapsed was a reason for refraining from commenting.

However, I would point out that there was never a serious consideration of sacking Duffy on the club’s part after one end of season collapse saw us go from clear favourites for second to finishing fourth. He was actually given a new contract despite having no wins in the last 11 games of the season, including the playoff. It was only when he presided over yet another collapse the following season, which saw us going from breathing down Livingston’s neck to falling out of the playoffs altogether and finishing 7th, that he was sacked. He was given another chance after the first collapse.

In that case as well you could clearly trace the second decline in results pretty much directly to the point where Duffy deviated from a winning team to shoehorn in his favourites out of position. While I know McCall is fond of players out of position, particularly central midfielders out wide, can you say the same thing of Ayr’s loss of form this season? I know not many of you are keen on for example Crawford playing so regularly, but this isn’t something which has only started once your form collapsed is it? Could you credibly argue that this is a team simply running out of steam after a magnificent first half of the season as much as it’s McCall getting things wrong? Whether that is the case or not, it’s an argument people can make in favour of letting McCall build again in the summer.

Last note on that comparison, at risk of starting of an eye-bleedingly awful debate about relative expectations of clubs. While we had people praising Duffy to the heavens for his fantastic, unprecedented over-achievement, as you’re getting with McCall now, he was actually only taking us to our highest league finish in a grand total of 4 years, which he didn’t manage to match. McCall is taking you to your highest in 17.

[rb123!]

Dundalk now trying to sign Shankland apparantly. 

[UpInTheAyr]

3 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Yeah I did naturally think of Duffy seeing this discussion, and knowing how much it boiled my piss when people - pundits who are mates with Jim Duffy, mostly - told us we should be happy with what we had while we collapsed was a reason for refraining from commenting.

However, I would point out that there was never a serious consideration of sacking Duffy on the club’s part after one end of season collapse saw us go from clear favourites for second to finishing fourth. He was actually given a new contract despite having no wins in the last 11 games of the season, including the playoff. It was only when he presided over yet another collapse the following season, which saw us going from breathing down Livingston’s neck to falling out of the playoffs altogether and finishing 7th, that he was sacked. He was given another chance after the first collapse.

In that case as well you could clearly trace the second decline in results pretty much directly to the point where Duffy deviated from a winning team to shoehorn in his favourites out of position. While I know McCall is fond of players out of position, particularly central midfielders out wide, can you say the same thing of Ayr’s loss of form this season? I know not many of you are keen on for example Crawford playing so regularly, but this isn’t something which has only started once your form collapsed is it? Could you credibly argue that this is a team simply running out of steam after a magnificent first half of the season as much as it’s McCall getting things wrong? Whether that is the case or not, it’s an argument people can make in favour of letting McCall build again in the summer.

Last note on that comparison, at risk of starting of an eye-bleedingly awful debate about relative expectations of clubs. While we had people praising Duffy to the heavens for his fantastic, unprecedented over-achievement, as you’re getting with McCall now, he was actually only taking us to our highest league finish in a grand total of 4 years, which he didn’t manage to match. McCall is taking you to your highest in 17.

That doesn't  clear anything up. I want answers goddammit!

[D'Jaffo]

I mean, where to start.  I could just say hiya Stevie, hiya pal...But that would be too easy.
Stevie Aitken was given a far higher budget than Ian Murray during his time with DFC, and still manage to produce some of the worst football I've ever seen. Last season we spent the year trying not to lose by too many goals, and he drove a lot of fans away with his negative style of play. We gave him a 'top four' League One budget this season (look at our squad, Rory Loy, Ross Forbes, Craig Barr et al won't be on pennies) and he built a hilarious badly balance squad that left us ninth in League One with relegation looking a formality. He then went crying onto the radio, singling out fans he didn't like (one of whom may or may not be a mate of mine...) and explaining how unfair everything was.
If you want to find out, in detail, about his time with us, then I wrote this when he was sacked.
He did have bring in some very good loan players (Jamie Lindsay, Sam Stanton, Joe Thomson, Daniel Harvie), but when Stuart Millar left he brought in some howlers like Ally Roy, Greg Morrison and Aiden Wilson.
I don't want to totally assassinate his character. He achieved some notable results with us, and nobody could deny that he put everything he had into being manager of DFC. He did an excellent job at Stranraer too, so maybe it would work out. If I was an Ayr fan and wanted rid of McCall though, then I'd be keen to look at a former player who is doing a very, very good job at Annan Athletic this season.

Good post and a good summary on the blog.

I remember his Stranraer team being pretty good. Gibson, Bell, Robertson, Malcom, Mitchell, Dick were all great in that team and constantly had the better of us. I’d probably have gambled on him had we been in League One but never in the Championship.

I’d love to see Murphy back at Somerset but I’m unsure whether it’s too big a jump at the moment from Annan to Ayr.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Dunning1874 said:

Yeah I did naturally think of Duffy seeing this discussion, and knowing how much it boiled my piss when people - pundits who are mates with Jim Duffy, mostly - told us we should be happy with what we had while we collapsed was a reason for refraining from commenting.

However, I would point out that there was never a serious consideration of sacking Duffy on the club’s part after one end of season collapse saw us go from clear favourites for second to finishing fourth. He was actually given a new contract despite having no wins in the last 11 games of the season, including the playoff. It was only when he presided over yet another collapse the following season, which saw us going from breathing down Livingston’s neck to falling out of the playoffs altogether and finishing 7th, that he was sacked. He was given another chance after the first collapse.

In that case as well you could clearly trace the second decline in results pretty much directly to the point where Duffy deviated from a winning team to shoehorn in his favourites out of position. While I know McCall is fond of players out of position, particularly central midfielders out wide, can you say the same thing of Ayr’s loss of form this season? I know not many of you are keen on for example Crawford playing so regularly, but this isn’t something which has only started once your form collapsed is it? Could you credibly argue that this is a team simply running out of steam after a magnificent first half of the season as much as it’s McCall getting things wrong? Whether that is the case or not, it’s an argument people can make in favour of letting McCall build again in the summer.

Last note on that comparison, at risk of starting of an eye-bleedingly awful debate about relative expectations of clubs. While we had people praising Duffy to the heavens for his fantastic, unprecedented over-achievement, as you’re getting with McCall now, he was actually only taking us to our highest league finish in a grand total of 4 years, which he didn’t manage to match. McCall is taking you to your highest in 17.

Good post and personally I think we all need to be more realistic and in control of our expectations. Our respective clubs are what they are and the fact that we all support our local provincial teams says as much about ourselves as anything regarding expectations etc.

I do believe though that all any of us ask is that our players give their all for that shirt when they enter the pitch, we also ask that our Manager has a grip of basic tactics and can see when things are going wrong and react to that. We all know that we're going to lose games and draw games but again it's the manner that our team approach this, if our players do try their best and come up short then we can accept that but sadly that's not the case for us at the moment and as I say, it may or may not be just the culmination of a long hard season.

Anyway, McCall has made mistakes like they all do but as a realist looking at Ayr's level, support size and budget, do I think we could seriously improve on him if we made a change ?

That would be a resounding No and I do think that now is the time to try and consolidate and build on this season rather than make any rash decisions and risk bringing the whole thing tumbling down...........

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, Ross Forbes said:

 Thank you.

@Boghead ranter Come on up.

I mean, where to start.  I could just say hiya Stevie, hiya pal...But that would be too easy.

Stevie Aitken was given a far higher budget than Ian Murray during his time with DFC, and still manage to produce some of the worst football I've ever seen. Last season we spent the year trying not to lose by too many goals, and he drove a lot of fans away with his negative style of play. We gave him a 'top four' League One budget this season (look at our squad, Rory Loy, Ross Forbes, Craig Barr et al won't be on pennies) and he built a hilarious badly balance squad that left us ninth in League One with relegation looking a formality. He then went crying onto the radio, singling out fans he didn't like (one of whom may or may not be a mate of mine...) and explaining how unfair everything was.

If you want to find out, in detail, about his time with us, then I wrote this when he was sacked.

He did have bring in some very good loan players (Jamie Lindsay, Sam Stanton, Joe Thomson, Daniel Harvie), but when Stuart Millar left he brought in some howlers like Ally Roy, Greg Morrison and Aiden Wilson.

I don't want to totally assassinate his character. He achieved some notable results with us, and nobody could deny that he put everything he had into being manager of DFC. He did an excellent job at Stranraer too, so maybe it would work out. If I was an Ayr fan and wanted rid of McCall though, then I'd be keen to look at a former player who is doing a very, very good job at Annan Athletic this season.

Again, good post and is probably the exact way some of us seem to be feeling about McCall at the moment.

[UpInTheAyr]

Goodwin Manager, Murphy Assistant Manager, McCall  Technical Director.

[THEHonestman1910]

I still want to see Ian McCall as manager for next season. I know at times he can be found out with his 4-4-2 and the Murdoch out wide option does annoy me. But is there really anyone out there who can get better from the second lowest budget in the league. Being in the play offs was a massive achivement this season and we've came on leaps and bounds since the last time we were in this league.

[Jan Vojáček]

5 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

Good post and a good summary on the blog.

I remember his Stranraer team being pretty good. Gibson, Bell, Robertson, Malcom, Mitchell, Dick were all great in that team and constantly had the better of us. I’d probably have gambled on him had we been in League One but never in the Championship.

I’d love to see Murphy back at Somerset but I’m unsure whether it’s too big a jump at the moment from Annan to Ayr.

Cheers, his time with us was a mixture of incredible highs and ridiculously long, depressing lows. I don't think I can ever remember having a manager who could beat the Scottish Cup winners one week, and then go on about a six game losing run.

I'm guessing he must've had a decent budget during his time at Stranraer too. Certainly better than they have at the moment, where they're running a very young squad with a lot of players taking their first steps in senior football. Brian Reid managed to get them to the playoff final the following year too, so that maybe hints that things were as much of a miracle as they looked. Maybe I'm being harsh on him there though, I'm not really ITK enough to comment.

As a total outsider I've been massively impressed with Peter Murphy, and if Jim Duffy does move on from us in the summer I'd be delighted if we could find a way to convince him to G82. It would be a big gamble to take get him to rebuild an Ayr side in a highly competitive Championship though, but he'd be a more attractive option than Aitken imo.

[D'Jaffo]

Cheers, his time with us was a mixture of incredible highs and ridiculously long, depressing lows. I don't think I can ever remember having a manager who could beat the Scottish Cup winners one week, and then go on about a six game losing run.
I'm guessing he must've had a decent budget during his time at Stranraer too. Certainly better than they have at the moment, where they're running a very young squad with a lot of players taking their first steps in senior football. Brian Reid managed to get them to the playoff final the following year too, so that maybe hints that things were as much of a miracle as they looked. Maybe I'm being harsh on him there though, I'm not really ITK enough to comment.
As a total outsider I've been massively impressed with Peter Murphy, and if Jim Duffy does move on from us in the summer I'd be delighted if we could find a way to convince him to G82. It would be a big gamble to take get him to rebuild an Ayr side in a highly competitive Championship though, but he'd be a more attractive option than Aitken imo.

The spending under Aitken and Reid probably played a part in them almost going out the game last season under Farrell. They’ve no money now so in a way Farrell is doing a better job than Aitken ever did given the circumstances.

Getting ex players as managers is a big risk as they can quite easily ruin any good reputation they had as a player much like Mark Roberts did with us.

[ftk]

So any replacement would suddenly be of the same standard as Mark Roberts? Are we not allowed to discuss the benefits of McCall leaving without previous dud managers like Roberts, Shanks or Watt thrown at us as if we’re supposed to feel lucky that we’ve finally got one better than them?

Our target was 8th. McCall got us 3rd or 4th. 2nd lowest budget in the league. That is all!

There is no way he will be sacked anyway pointless discussion.