Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[cb_diamond]

12 minutes ago, Passionate said:

Agree far too much was looked into the early season League Cup tournament which appeared to paper over the cracks..  

 

All your points are totally relevant and true....

I'll maintain that there are a number of players in the squad who can absolutely cut it, and 2/3 of the Hibs link up have been an improvement. But yeah, agree about our great start. 

Biggest mistake with hindsight was not ponying up for weatherspoon.

[Mr November]

I’m not sure Wotherspoon was ever a realistic option. From reading the Dunfermline thread it seems like they made him a very good offer which would have made him one of their highest earners, which is presumably well beyond our limits. McPake mentioned that Wotherspoon seemed keen to try for a move to Canada/USA again in January too, so Inverness might not have him for much longer anyway. 

Overall though, as @Kenny_m says I feel like most fans on here were a bit concerned at the lack of recruitment in the summer? Yes some were a bit more negative about it but I don’t remember many posts on here with people particularly delighted at our recruitment.

[Rhys McCabe Hype Train]

1 hour ago, cb_diamond said:

So just to be clear. The new consensus is now:

We did not sign genuine championship quality players, which is hurting us.

The squad being filled with young boys without the requisite quality is problematic.

This tie in with consilium seems to be a big negative.

I'll just leave this here...

 

 

There’s no revisionism about this. There has always been concerns about the recruitment and Consilium link up. Up until now it’s worked (to a degree) which has quelled those concerns.

Ultimately though, the policy got us out of League One after a decade of absolute dross which is why it has been afforded some leeway.

Hopefully some of Uncle Jackie’s links are able to dredge up some gems in January.

[Diamonds_Are_Forever]

23 hours ago, Passionate said:

Agree with most of this,  just listened to the Post match interviews Gallagher spoke well and you can relate to what he was saying and feeling, McCabe comes on and was his usual wishy washy pish ... 

 

The whole signing structure and reserve team should be questioned....  There are a lot of moving parts , how much clout does Consilium have ,  Dunlop and Gavin Gall now signed up as well , as the numerous others,  it seems to be a prequisite when players sign for the club now, is Rhys feathering his own nest to the detriment of the team.....

Don’t see why du lip doesn’t get a chance been subbed on twice recently and ran his socks off plunging balls into the box every time then we have no c**t in the the box to finish the chances

[Diamonds are Forever]

4 hours ago, Kenny_m said:

That's not my recollection of it. Vast majority of posters on here pretty much had concerns about the "quality" of the squad.

 

Yeah that's my thoughts. The general consensus was that we needed to add quality, but we were limited by the budget and saying we need better signings is easier said than done. When the signings didn't really materialise I said I was willing to wait and see and judge by the results. What else can fans do anyway? We started to the season well and were promoted for the first time in a decade, it's hardly beneficial to go slating the club/signings from the off. The top end of the pitch is where we are being found out and that is where you need to spend a lot of money to get the quality players. Without knowing the budget and who was available it's hard to judge what we could have done in that area.

I do think a legitimate question is were we perhaps too focused on having another League 1 campaign. The 2 Hibs boys were surely signed for League 1. Aiken has done well but not convinced we'd have signed him in the summer if we'd already been promoted. Same for O'Connor. And sounds like a few of the others were already signed up (or at least had agreed to) before we got promoted. It's difficult because promotion was decided almost on the toss of a coin with penalties so you are having to plan for 2 eventualities. Plus just being in the play-offs means you are 2 weeks behind everyone else in terms of planning. But like I said up the thread, the Hibs boys, McGregor, McStravick and McMaster all seem like signings for League 1. It may just be that is our market, but was it that we were planning for League 1 and then had to change course after promotion, but had already accounted for a chunk of the budget with signing these guys up (or being in the pipeline in the case of McStravick)?

Edited December 17, 2023 by Diamonds are Forever

[Mybitchunderprotest]

5 hours ago, Passionate said:

What a lot of hypocritical pish,   it is ok for you to criticise Telfer and still be far from convinced, but it's not acceptable for anybody else to criticise McMaster. ...

Spare me he is only a young lad that needs supported drivel..

Well if that's what you took from the post so be it.

[Sage Monkey]

It seems to me that we have 3 main topics here and I'll throe in my tuppenceworth on all three.

1) It is obligatory to criticise one of our players, and I'll go for Lewis McGregor, great pace, decent dribbling skills and zero end product, there is no point in beating 2 or 3 opponents if you then balloon a cross way past the far post.

2) Team tactics, here I feel we are criticising the high press, but I don't believe that is our problem, I feel that the issue is with our mentality when in possession. When we have the ball just inside the opposition half we often have two options, a risky pass forward to an attacker on the edge of the area, or a safe pass back to the defence. The priority would appear to be to keep possession, and the ball goes backwards. We need to accept that to get chances you have to risk losing the ball. I think this is where McMaster is let down, I don't feel he has the confidence to take that risk, and that might be due to Rhys demanding the we keep possession, higher risk for higher gain can apply here too.

3) Incoming players in the transfer window. It seems to me that we have youth up front and in midfield, and also at full back, so hopefully those positions will improve over time with experience. It is at centre back that we have an ageing team, and could do with a youngster with a bit of pace to learn from playing alongside Fordyce.

I suppose that I am probably regarded as a "Happy Clapper" as I like the way we play, and can see a lot of youth in the squad with potential to improve into very good players, nobody looks a class above us in this league, so we just need to grit our teeth and hang on for 8th.

[Kenny_m]

1 hour ago, Sage Monkey said:

It seems to me that we have 3 main topics here and I'll throe in my tuppenceworth on all three.

1) It is obligatory to criticise one of our players, and I'll go for Lewis McGregor, great pace, decent dribbling skills and zero end product, there is no point in beating 2 or 3 opponents if you then balloon a cross way past the far post.

2) Team tactics, here I feel we are criticising the high press, but I don't believe that is our problem, I feel that the issue is with our mentality when in possession. When we have the ball just inside the opposition half we often have two options, a risky pass forward to an attacker on the edge of the area, or a safe pass back to the defence. The priority would appear to be to keep possession, and the ball goes backwards. We need to accept that to get chances you have to risk losing the ball. I think this is where McMaster is let down, I don't feel he has the confidence to take that risk, and that might be due to Rhys demanding the we keep possession, higher risk for higher gain can apply here too.

3) Incoming players in the transfer window. It seems to me that we have youth up front and in midfield, and also at full back, so hopefully those positions will improve over time with experience. It is at centre back that we have an ageing team, and could do with a youngster with a bit of pace to learn from playing alongside Fordyce.

I suppose that I am probably regarded as a "Happy Clapper" as I like the way we play, and can see a lot of youth in the squad with potential to improve into very good players, nobody looks a class above us in this league, so we just need to grit our teeth and hang on for 8th.

Whilst agreed that Lewis McGregor's end product could be better, I do believe he's improving and with our only other pacey forward, Josh O'Connor seemingly not ready for this level yet then I think he's very useful.  

Agree totally with the pace issue at the back although with Aiken missing it's also an issue in midfield.

[Diamonds02]

22 hours ago, Diamond8 said:

We've got to be looking to bring 3 experienced championship level players at a minimum, preferably one for each part of the pitch.

Think we need to be realistic here, what is the likelihood that 3 championship level players are without a club in January?

[AJ77]

15 minutes ago, Diamonds02 said:

Think we need to be realistic here, what is the likelihood that 3 championship level players are without a club in January?

There was 2 available until a couple of weeks ago who've to Raith and Morton, both we could've been doing with.

[Kenny_m]

17 minutes ago, Diamonds02 said:

Think we need to be realistic here, what is the likelihood that 3 championship level players are without a club in January?

They don't need to be without a club and it's no different from the summer window albeit the player pool is smaller. Loanees from a higher level would seem the most likely option.

[Passionate]

Just now, Kenny_m said:

They don't need to be without a club and it's no different from the summer window albeit the player pool is smaller. Loanees from a higher level would seem the most likely option.

Quite a lot of the time in the January window it is loanees from the Premier as you stated,  a lot of these players will be out of our range wage wise, crazy but true..  more than likely it will be players that are not getting a game and want a fresh start that will nbe available,  The club and directors know we have got one shot at getting this right,   The prize money and gate money in this League is night and day compared to League 1, so hopefully established players get signed for the run in,  it will be touch and go whatever happens...

Talking of finances it makes the decision to go with a reserve team this season, very strange, no doubt if things go Pete tong, that will get scrapped at season end anyway,  maybe in hindsight that could have happened when or if we became a more established championship club ..  

[Diamonds02]

9 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

They don't need to be without a club and it's no different from the summer window albeit the player pool is smaller. Loanees from a higher level would seem the most likely option.

I would say if we are talking about experienced players then they would need to be a free agent as I can’t see us paying for someone.

But yeah we’re going to have to gamble on loanees from the premiership I think.

[Kenny_m]

23 minutes ago, Passionate said:

Quite a lot of the time in the January window it is loanees from the Premier as you stated,  a lot of these players will be out of our range wage wise, crazy but true..  more than likely it will be players that are not getting a game and want a fresh start that will nbe available,  The club and directors know we have got one shot at getting this right,   The prize money and gate money in this League is night and day compared to League 1, so hopefully established players get signed for the run in,  it will be touch and go whatever happens...

Talking of finances it makes the decision to go with a reserve team this season, very strange, no doubt if things go Pete tong, that will get scrapped at season end anyway,  maybe in hindsight that could have happened when or if we became a more established championship club ..  

Yes, big decisions to be made. If we believe signing a player or 2 on 30% more than anyone else will help secure our status in the championship then we need to do our sums of which our Chairman is excellent at!

And a bigger yes on the reserve team. I initially thought it was linked to the SFA club licensing issue that we have, but apparently not.

[Diamond8]

2 hours ago, Diamonds02 said:

Think we need to be realistic here, what is the likelihood that 3 championship level players are without a club in January?

As quoted above there's at least 2 players I can think of that we should've been in for. Not saying we haven't tried to bring either of these guys in but our signing policy is that of 'highly rated' unknowns and these guys weren't that. The reason we need at least 3 in is because if we want to the a championship club next season then we need to be realistic about our squad and our targets, both of which are pretty inadequate for where we are.

[Diamond1924]

Who would you be happy to see go in January if it meant freeing up some cash (hypothetical of course)?

I would let McGill, Todorov and O’Connor go

 

 

[RRFC_Liam]

8 minutes ago, Diamond1924 said:

Who would you be happy to see go in January if it meant freeing up some cash (hypothetical of course)?

I would let McGill, Todorov and O’Connor go

 

 

Someone came into our thread earlier and said McGill has been linked with us (probably bullshit) but I don’t see where he gets in that front 3/5 I think it would be a waste of cash imo we need more an attacking full back or a CM if Byrne goes back to Dundee I can’t see it being a forward 

[Mr November]

8 hours ago, Diamond1924 said:

Who would you be happy to see go in January if it meant freeing up some cash (hypothetical of course)?

I would let McGill, Todorov and O’Connor go

 

 

I think those are the obvious three. I don’t think there’s too much wrong with the rest of the squad, just lacks a bit of quality overall.

McGill to Raith would be a bizarre move, he just hasn’t got going at this level and Murray seemed to suggest he wanted pace out wide which he doesn’t really bring. I think he’d be a better fit in Murrayball than our patient style at this level but even so, it would be a strange signing. I’ll always be fond of him for last season but he must be on a very good wage and he hasn’t justified it unfortunately.

I do think Todorov hasn’t been helped by our style of play but even then, he hasn’t really taken his chances when he’s had them. Another probably on a decent wage who hasn’t justified it. 

I doubt O’Connor is costing us too much but probably best for everyone that he goes out on loan to a League One/League Two team. 

[Passionate]

12 minutes ago, Mr November said:

I think those are the obvious three. I don’t think there’s too much wrong with the rest of the squad, just lacks a bit of quality overall.

McGill to Raith would be a bizarre move, he just hasn’t got going at this level and Murray seemed to suggest he wanted pace out wide which he doesn’t really bring. I think he’d be a better fit in Murrayball than our patient style at this level but even so, it would be a strange signing. I’ll always be fond of him for last season but he must be on a very good wage and he hasn’t justified it unfortunately.

I do think Todorov hasn’t been helped by our style of play but even then, he hasn’t really taken his chances when he’s had them. Another probably on a decent wage who hasn’t justified it. 

I doubt O’Connor is costing us too much but probably best for everyone that he goes out on loan to a League One/League Two team. 

MCgill I agree , he was very effective in the last 2 seasons,  Technically a mess, but his reckless direct style seemed to work in League 1,   he would probably do a turn for Raith due to their open attacking style..

 

Todorov is proven he can get goals,  he has been unlucky,  what do you want him to do in 8minutes or whatever at Ayr,  a more positive attacking approach to scoring goals is required and a physical midfield player to give us a different option than the dot to dot safety first passing...

O Connor has pace to burn, which we need, but little else,  probably League 2 is his level at this moment in time..

 

Falkirk signed the lad Shanley from troubled Edinburgh,  he is a good forward player that was available,  hopefully we can get some business done, although recruitment is still a major issue under this regime...

[Jack Reed]

37 minutes ago, Passionate said:

MCgill I agree , he was very effective in the last 2 seasons,  Technically a mess, but his reckless direct style seemed to work in League 1,   he would probably do a turn for Raith due to their open attacking style..

 

Todorov is proven he can get goals,  he has been unlucky,  what do you want him to do in 8minutes or whatever at Ayr,  a more positive attacking approach to scoring goals is required and a physical midfield player to give us a different option than the dot to dot safety first passing...

O Connor has pace to burn, which we need, but little else,  probably League 2 is his level at this moment in time..

 

Falkirk signed the lad Shanley from troubled Edinburgh,  he is a good forward player that was available,  hopefully we can get some business done, although recruitment is still a major issue under this regime...

Jackie will come up with something,