Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[Rossm25]

15 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

 

Defence definitely the priority and note that another who has been mentioned, Darren Brownlie has signed with Dundalk.

Mentioned by us though so it means nothing.

We did this last year where folk would post a name , they would sign for another club and then folk would come on raging that "thats another one missed". The club will have targets , they won't be advertising them. Just got to trust the process we want players that fit into our system not players who have experience but need to be shoehorned into a system they aren't built for, you end up with Harry Maguire being a bombscare at Man United, obviously we aren't Man United but you get the analogy.

[Kenny_m]

9 minutes ago, Rossm25 said:

Mentioned by us though so it means nothing.

We did this last year where folk would post a name , they would sign for another club and then folk would come on raging that "thats another one missed". The club will have targets , they won't be advertising them. Just got to trust the process we want players that fit into our system not players who have experience but need to be shoehorned into a system they aren't built for, you end up with Harry Maguire being a bombscare at Man United, obviously we aren't Man United but you get the analogy.

Yes, but interesting nonetheless as it seems there's quite a few clubs looking for centre backs and it seems there's a very small pool available. Also looks like the Irish League is paying more than ours.

[Rossm25]

57 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Yes, but interesting nonetheless as it seems there's quite a few clubs looking for centre backs and it seems there's a very small pool available. Also looks like the Irish League is paying more than ours.

Aye , it will deffo be slim pickings this season

[Kenny_m]

26 minutes ago, Rossm25 said:

Aye , it will deffo be slim pickings this season

Or take the leftfield Arbroath approach searching the English non league's albeit it's not been a huge success to date and their fans don't seem optimistic about their current crop of trialists.

[Rossm25]

42 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Or take the leftfield Arbroath approach searching the English non league's albeit it's not been a huge success to date and their fans don't seem optimistic about their current crop of trialists.

What I do like about our current set up is that you can see the team are all together in this. They all seem to have bought into this project and Mccabe which is good to see. 

Either that or consilium are holding them all hostage...

[Mr November]

I think it’s probably worth comparing last seasons squad with what we have so far

We’ve lost Byrd, Deveney, Stanway, Smith, Salim and Dixon, plus arguably Riley and Prince who were out on loan anyway. We’ve brought in Aiken, O’Connor, Todorov and Dunlop who presumably replace Stanway, Smith, Salim and Dixon respectively, with Fellows and Kavanagh taking up Riley and Prince’s roles. That leaves Byrd and Deveney as the two we’ve still to replace, which I think we all know anyway and those are the positions where we could do with quality additions. 

While we won’t be quite as free scoring as we were last season, I do fancy McGill, Todorov and Gallagher to all chip in with a decent number of goals over the season. We did improve defensively as the season went on but we do need to bring in a centre back and left back capable of starting every week. I think centre back would be my priority, as much as I admire ATS I do worry about his lack of pace at a higher level. A younger, quicker centre back to play beside Fordyce would be ideal.

[Diamond1924]

14 hours ago, Mr November said:

I think it’s probably worth comparing last seasons squad with what we have so far

We’ve lost Byrd, Deveney, Stanway, Smith, Salim and Dixon, plus arguably Riley and Prince who were out on loan anyway. We’ve brought in Aiken, O’Connor, Todorov and Dunlop who presumably replace Stanway, Smith, Salim and Dixon respectively, with Fellows and Kavanagh taking up Riley and Prince’s roles. That leaves Byrd and Deveney as the two we’ve still to replace, which I think we all know anyway and those are the positions where we could do with quality additions. 

While we won’t be quite as free scoring as we were last season, I do fancy McGill, Todorov and Gallagher to all chip in with a decent number of goals over the season. We did improve defensively as the season went on but we do need to bring in a centre back and left back capable of starting every week. I think centre back would be my priority, as much as I admire ATS I do worry about his lack of pace at a higher level. A younger, quicker centre back to play beside Fordyce would be ideal.

I think that’s a spot on assessment. The only thing that worries me is that we’ve let squad/fringe players go (Byrde, Stanway, Deveny etc) and brought in some more squad/fringe players in Aitken, Fellows and Dunlop to replace them. In my eyes, this is where we should have strengthened. 
 

It would be really naive to think that we will stay afloat in the championship with the signings we’ve made so far. As I have said, we scraped past a terrible Hamilton in the playoffs with arguably our best squad in years. 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Diamond1924

[Diamond Oracle]

I don’t quite buy into this “scraped past Hamilton” narrative that I’ve read a few times now on here. While I acknowledge it was a very close, nervy two legs against Hamilton, people are choosing to ignore we competed well with eventual champions Dundee in the Scottish Cup and we beat Premiership top-6 St Mirren in the Premier Cup. 
 

I agree we need to strengthen but I don’t think a close two legs against Hamilton mean we’re automatically going to struggle with the squad we’ve got.

[pantene proV]

I think you'll do ok. You've a better squad than Arbroath but whether McCabe can outwit DC is another matter. There will be an unexpected struggler too - maybe Ayr if they lose Dipo. Hopefully not us though!

[Diamonds_Are_Forever]

1 hour ago, Diamond1924 said:

I think that’s a spot on assessment. The only thing that worries me is that we’ve let squad/fringe players go (Byrde, Stanway, Deveny etc) and brought in some more squad/fringe players in Aitken, Fellows and Dunlop to replace them. In my eyes, this is where we should have strengthened. 
 

It would be really naive to think that we will stay afloat in the championship with the signings we’ve made so far. As I have said, we scraped past a terrible Hamilton in the playoffs with arguably our best squad in years. 

There’s no chance that Aitken has been brought into to be a fringe player he’s been brought in to fight for a first team spot 

hibs knocked back a 600k bid for him in January from Hull city he’s massively rated at hibs t

[Diamonds are Forever]

1 hour ago, Diamond Oracle said:

I don’t quite buy into this “scraped past Hamilton” narrative that I’ve read a few times now on here. While I acknowledge it was a very close, nervy two legs against Hamilton, people are choosing to ignore we competed well with eventual champions Dundee in the Scottish Cup and we beat Premiership top-6 St Mirren in the Premier Cup. 
 

I agree we need to strengthen but I don’t think a close two legs against Hamilton mean we’re automatically going to struggle with the squad we’ve got.

 

I agree that it doesn't mean a huge amount, but it is a fact that we scraped past Hamilton. The fact that we also did quite well against other higher ranked teams is encouraging, but it's irrelevant to the Hamilton result.

In a strange way I thought the Hamilton result was encouraging. If our team from last season was already as good as the 9th placed Championship side then I assumed that with 3 or 4 good additions that would mean we'd be very competitive this season. I still think that will be the case if we get another couple of players in.

[Diamond1924]

1 hour ago, Diamond Oracle said:

I don’t quite buy into this “scraped past Hamilton” narrative that I’ve read a few times now on here. While I acknowledge it was a very close, nervy two legs against Hamilton, people are choosing to ignore we competed well with eventual champions Dundee in the Scottish Cup and we beat Premiership top-6 St Mirren in the Premier Cup. 
 

I agree we need to strengthen but I don’t think a close two legs against Hamilton mean we’re automatically going to struggle with the squad we’ve got.

If you watch both games back you’ll see that Hamilton were always a yard ahead of us. Much sharper off the ball and with a little luck we would’ve been well beaten in extra time of the second leg. 

[Diamond1924]

29 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

I agree that it doesn't mean a huge amount, but it is a fact that we scraped past Hamilton. The fact that we also did quite well against other higher ranked teams is encouraging, but it's irrelevant to the Hamilton result.

In a strange way I thought the Hamilton result was encouraging. If our team from last season was already as good as the 9th placed Championship side then I assumed that with 3 or 4 good additions that would mean we'd be very competitive this season. I still think that will be the case if we get another couple of players in.

Well that’s my point… we need 3 or 4 GOOD additions and not just taking punts on unproven youngsters 

[Mr November]

I think we also need to consider that the budget probably hasn’t drastically increased despite promotion given the cost of everything else just now. We’ve probably also had to offer Frizzell, McGill etc. decent wage increases to get them signed up for another year. 

It’s been mentioned before but the last few years we’ve had 14-16 first team players and then some jobbers on low wages supplementing the squad. I’m expecting the same thing this year. It’s not ideal, we’d all like a squad full of quality players, but I think it is the situation we’re in.

[Diamonds are Forever]

45 minutes ago, Mr November said:

I think we also need to consider that the budget probably hasn’t drastically increased despite promotion given the cost of everything else just now. We’ve probably also had to offer Frizzell, McGill etc. decent wage increases to get them signed up for another year. 

It’s been mentioned before but the last few years we’ve had 14-16 first team players and then some jobbers on low wages supplementing the squad. I’m expecting the same thing this year. It’s not ideal, we’d all like a squad full of quality players, but I think it is the situation we’re in.

 

I'm all for this strategy as I think it's the only way we can get a quality first 11 on the park. The Stevie Findlay era was a harsh lesson in what happens when you spread your resources too thinly and end up with a bloated squad of bang average players.

The key to our strategy has to be that the cheap squad filler has to be young guys with geniune potential, on long enough contracts to make it worth our while investing time and effort into them. My only criticism of last year was that the squad filler (Jay Riley anyone?) was clearly miles off the standard and therefore is a total waste of money. Getting talented young guys in is easier said than done but hopefully the young guys getting promoted can fill that role.

[CapitalDiamond]

4 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:

If you watch both games back you’ll see that Hamilton were always a yard ahead of us. Much sharper off the ball and with a little luck we would’ve been well beaten in extra time of the second leg. 

Accies were on decent form though. If you look at their run in they weren’t losing all that often. They weren’t cannon fodder and we were scrambling to come up with a back 4 after Janny’s Red card.

I think we’re a bit weak but there’s still time and the play off games are a very small sample size. 

[Passionate]

6 minutes ago, CapitalDiamond said:

Accies were on decent form though. If you look at their run in they weren’t losing all that often. They weren’t cannon fodder and we were scrambling to come up with a back 4 after Janny’s Red card.

I think we’re a bit weak but there’s still time and the play off games are a very small sample size. 

Agree,  when you watch back the accies games, the one thing that stood out for me, was situational game management, (the dark arts in other words).  The lad Martin commited numerous fouls, off the ball confrontation multiple times and more often than not conned the ref,  Connor Smith was the same, big Watson's red card perfect example, and basically going to ground to get the foul in both legs of the final,  this is an important part of the modern game that we lack,  The championship is full of teams with these type of players,  it is not for the purist though.   Players we require for this with more physicality and experience cost the money,  I am not of the belief the budget is done, the club know what they want,  although it's alright knowing what you want delivering it is the difficult part..

[cb_diamond]

It's getting s bit grim now...

[She who dares gins]

Anyone know about home and away kits and if there’s a date for launch? Seem to be last in the league again - although I’m hardly surprised. Same every season. 

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

10 minutes ago, She who dares gins said:

Anyone know about home and away kits and if there’s a date for launch? Seem to be last in the league again - although I’m hardly surprised. Same every season. 

Anything pre-October is usually seen as a bonus.

I'd say I'm shocked, but.....