Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[airdrieman]

4 minutes ago, cb_diamond said:

Have we actually signed/resigned anyone not represented by Jackie Mac yet? The reliance on one not very big or quality laden agency is a huge concern for me.

Not sure about Hutton, Ballantyne, ATS, Watson, Telfer, McGregor and Gal although all of them bar maybe Ballantyne and McGregor will I assume have been playing football since before McNamara became an agent. 

[AJ77]

1 minute ago, airdrieman said:

Not sure about Hutton, Ballantyne, ATS, Watson, Telfer, McGregor and Gal although all of them bar maybe Ballantyne and McGregor will I assume have been playing football since before McNamara became an agent. 

Just double checked, we've got 10 players signed from Consilium.

Rae, McCabe. Frizzell, McGill. Devenny, O'Connor, Aitken, Todorov, McMaster and McGregor.

Although it seems to be we're fishing out a small pond probably went in our favour that Frizz and McGill are represented by McNamara, may have played a small part into why they've signed on again.

[Diamonds are Forever]

11 minutes ago, Rossm25 said:

Aye I'm hopeful they will be. First message I got from a hibbee was that they would be comfortable starters regardless of what league we ended up in. 

Probably do need a another midfielder, but that left back position gives me the fear , and a CB with a bit of pace would be my priority. 

 

There's really no way of knowing that though, their combined first team appearances are 3 sub appearances. Every youth team in the country has these 'highly rated' types and most never make it, the jump from youth football to senior Championship football is huge.

It will be really interesting to see how they do, with almost every other player we have we know pretty much what we're going to get. Whereas the 2 Hibs boys could be brilliant, or they could really struggle. A gamble to some extent but it's a route we have to go down to make up for our smaller budget.

[Passionate]

1 minute ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

There's really no way of knowing that though, their combined first team appearances are 3 sub appearances. Every youth team in the country has these 'highly rated' types and most never make it, the jump from youth football to senior Championship football is huge.

It will be really interesting to see how they do, with almost every other player we have we know pretty much what we're going to get. Whereas the 2 Hibs boys could be brilliant, or they could really struggle. A gamble to some extent but it's a route we have to go down to make up for our smaller budget.

We are now in the same league as teams who would not blink twice at losing 500k a season in this league,  therein lies the difference in ourselves....  The riches of promotion to the Premiership are huge, we as a club cannot play Russian roulette with our future,  sticking to the plan and budget although frustrating is the correct road to go down.

[Rossm25]

1 minute ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

There's really no way of knowing that though, their combined first team appearances are 3 sub appearances. Every youth team in the country has these 'highly rated' types and most never make it, the jump from youth football to senior Championship football is huge.

It will be really interesting to see how they do, with almost every other player we have we know pretty much what we're going to get. Whereas the 2 Hibs boys could be brilliant, or they could really struggle. A gamble to some extent but it's a route we have to go down to make up for our smaller budget.

Pretty sure he was watching them play in that European youth Cup run they had. Again it might be difficult to compare but I'd reckon that tournament would have a decent standard. I'm not saying they will be absolute world beaters, just that I don't think they will be here to make up the numbers. 

[Rossm25]

1 minute ago, Passionate said:

We are now in the same league as teams who would not blink twice at losing 500k a season in this league,  therein lies the difference in ourselves....  The riches of promotion to the Premiership are huge, we as a club cannot play Russian roulette with our future,  sticking to the plan and budget although frustrating is the correct road to go down.

100 percent this. 

 

Thistle and ICT both lost a tonne of money this year but were bailed out by cup games. 

[Diamonds are Forever]

6 minutes ago, Rossm25 said:

Pretty sure he was watching them play in that European youth Cup run they had. Again it might be difficult to compare but I'd reckon that tournament would have a decent standard. I'm not saying they will be absolute world beaters, just that I don't think they will be here to make up the numbers. 

 

Not doubting he's seen them play and looked good (which will be why McCabe has signed them) but just saying that looking good in development focused games against 18 year olds is not necessarily immediately transferable to looking good against (and with) hardened, experienced pros playing for win bonuses and contracts.

As I said, I'm 100% for signing them and they could take to it brilliantly, but there is always that extra risk with young guys stepping up to senior football. I'm sure Rhys will be able to get a good indication in training and in the friendlies before the League starts though.

Edited June 29, 2023 by Diamonds are Forever

[Kenny_m]

7 minutes ago, Rossm25 said:

Pretty sure he was watching them play in that European youth Cup run they had. Again it might be difficult to compare but I'd reckon that tournament would have a decent standard. I'm not saying they will be absolute world beaters, just that I don't think they will be here to make up the numbers. 

Definitely difficult to compare as I do remember a clip of Montpellier's Thomas Robert gliding by Chelsea players in said tourney.

[airdrieman]

14 minutes ago, AJ77 said:

Just double checked, we've got 10 players signed from Consilium.

Rae, McCabe. Frizzell, McGill. Devenny, O'Connor, Aitken, Todorov, McMaster and McGregor.

Although it seems to be we're fishing out a small pond probably went in our favour that Frizz and McGill are represented by McNamara, may have played a small part into why they've signed on again.

I think Dunlop is Consillium too although questionable how much first team football he'll actually play. 

[Diamonds are Forever]

8 minutes ago, Passionate said:

We are now in the same league as teams who would not blink twice at losing 500k a season in this league,  therein lies the difference in ourselves....  The riches of promotion to the Premiership are huge, we as a club cannot play Russian roulette with our future,  sticking to the plan and budget although frustrating is the correct road to go down.

 

Plus Hamilton are clearly chucking good money at League 1. No way the likes of Martin and Tumilty are staying otherwise, plus being able to attract some of their other signings. They'll be offering more than us. Plus Falkirk too. We are alongside QOS as the lowest paying full-time side so it's still going to be challenging getting good players in. Yes our budget has increased, but so is the standard of player we need, so it's all relative.

[Kenny_m]

11 minutes ago, Passionate said:

We are now in the same league as teams who would not blink twice at losing 500k a season in this league,  therein lies the difference in ourselves....  The riches of promotion to the Premiership are huge, we as a club cannot play Russian roulette with our future,  sticking to the plan and budget although frustrating is the correct road to go down.

I'm not sure teams don't blink twice at a loss of 500K but of course the other side of the coin would be Brechin who stuck to their budget when they went up and got 4 points and the rest is history. Ok, we're in a far better place but it's fine lines but we might need to speculate a tad.

[Diamonds are Forever]

7 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

I'm not sure teams don't blink twice at a loss of 500K but of course the other side of the coin would be Brechin who stuck to their budget when they went up and got 4 points and the rest is history. Ok, we're in a far better place but it's fine lines but we might need to speculate a tad.

 

The problem is we are miles behind almost all of these clubs financially, probably more than we realise at first glance. Dundee Utd, ICT, QP, Raith, Dunfermline and Partick (despite financial worries) will be offering wages we couldn't possibly offer. We could maybe offer more than Arbroath (although even that's doubtful), plus we are shopping in a different market to them anyway as I presume Rhys is wanting full-time players. That just leaves Ayr and Morton. Both well established Championship clubs with bigger fanbases, Ayr are about to sell a player for £200k odd and have signed a player like Murphy, and the chat is maybe McKay too, so can obviously offer big salaries. Morton will be in a similar boat I'd imagine.

Therefore even 'speculating to accumulate' is probably still not going to allow is to compete financially, so it's maybe not worth the risk. We're going to need to use strong management, coaching and being smart in the transfer market, and get thr best players we can within our budget.

[Kenny_m]

3 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

The problem is we are miles behind almost all of these clubs financially, probably more than we realise at first glance. Dundee Utd, ICT, QP, Raith, Dunfermline and Partick (despite financial worries) will be offering wages we couldn't possibly offer. We could maybe offer more than Arbroath (although even that's doubtful), plus we are shopping in a different market to them anyway as I presume Rhys is wanting full-time players. That just leaves Ayr and Morton. Both well established Championship clubs with bigger fanbases, Ayr are about to sell a player for £200k odd and have signed a player like Murphy, and the chat is maybe McKay too, so can obviously offer big salaries. Morton will be in a similar boat I'd imagine.

Therefore even 'speculating to accumulate' is probably still not going to allow is to compete financially, so it's maybe not worth the risk. We're going to need to use strong management, coaching and being smart in the transfer market, and get thr best players we can within our budget.

Yeh understand but the pond we are fishing in very very small and whilst I have full confidence in the management to improve players tactics etc, the best players will normally rise to the top.

To be clear I'm not suggesting we break the bank, if our average full time wage for the established players is £500 per week perhaps we can pay 3 or 4 of them £750 to get that added little quality.

[Diamonds are Forever]

5 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Yeh understand but the pond we are fishing in very very small and whilst I have full confidence in the management to improve players tactics etc, the best players will normally rise to the top.

To be clear I'm not suggesting we break the bank, if our average full time wage for the established players is £500 per week perhaps we can pay 3 or 4 of them £750 to get that added little quality.

 

That's kind of what I'm saying though, the gap is so big that even offering that bit extra would be no guarantee of getting the player, if the player was any good it might just mean Ayr, Morton or whoever just up their offer further and we still don't get them.

It would only work if the other clubs didn't deem them good enough to be worth that much (like if they were only wanting them as a squad player), but that would probably just mean we'd have overpaid for average players.

Of course I'm saying all this without really knowing what we are offering and who we will sign. But I think some fans think because we have a bigger budget than last year that it will be easier to sign players, when actually I think it will be harder because we need better players and we have much bigger clubs in competition for those players.

[DiamondDownSouth]

Fixtures for the new season will be released tomorrow at 09:00

https://spfl.co.uk/news/fixture-release-day-202324

[Kenny_m]

20 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

That's kind of what I'm saying though, the gap is so big that even offering that bit extra would be no guarantee of getting the player, if the player was any good it might just mean Ayr, Morton or whoever just up their offer further and we still don't get them.

It would only work if the other clubs didn't deem them good enough to be worth that much (like if they were only wanting them as a squad player), but that would probably just mean we'd have overpaid for average players.

Of course I'm saying all this without really knowing what we are offering and who we will sign. But I think some fans think because we have a bigger budget than last year that it will be easier to sign players, when actually I think it will be harder because we need better players and we have much bigger clubs in competition for those players.

Again, understood but more often than not the clubs with the biggest budgets win and for that reason alone lump on East Kilbride to win the Lowland this season.

[Mr November]

One of our big successes in the last few years has been signing guys who’ve done ok elsewhere at similar level clubs but have went on to become key players. I’d say Frizzell, Easton, McCabe, ATS and even Watson all broadly fit that. Guys who’ve played a decent number of games, career isn’t really going anywhere but we’ve been able to get the best out of them. I think we might need another couple of players like that because competing for quality Championship players is always going to be a struggle. 

[Diamond1924]

I’d take a player like Michael Gardyne. I think that’s the experience and quality we need 

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

49 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Again, understood but more often than not the clubs with the biggest budgets win and for that reason alone lump on East Kilbride to win the Lowland this season.

that was why I lumped on Darvel to win the WOSFL Prem 

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

1 minute ago, Diamond1924 said:

I’d take a player like Michael Gardyne. I think that’s the experience and quality we need 

You'll need to bait up a bit more than that