Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[Mr November]

Thinking back to his first summer, McCabe barely signed anyone, I think for a while we were running with 14 outfielders and 4 keepers (after the panic signing of Lyness). Ballantyne was already signed but him, Rae, Devenny, Telfer, McMaster, Jamieson and even ATS was a pretty successful first summer. The only disasters were the Northern Irish boys and Wylie but they were at least quite funny. The glut of January signings (McGregor, Byrd, Stanway, Dixon) were a mixed bag but overall it was decent signings to add depth and complement a strong core.

We kept the same core team last season, with Smith and Devenny the only notable losses. Megwa, Hancock, Todorov and McStravick were all successful signings, as well as a few loans which were mixed due to injuries/ability (Lyall, Aiken, Donnell, O’Connor). The same core team but with some quality young players added as well as a forward who knows the division well.

McCabe’s recruitment has always tended towards younger players but this summer has been extreme. It’s fine doing that when you’ve got that spine of players who’ve been at the club for a couple of seasons, have played a couple of hundred games and know the level, but you can’t rely solely on inexperienced players with no leadership around them.

[Diamond8]

15 minutes ago, Mr November said:

Thinking back to his first summer, McCabe barely signed anyone, I think for a while we were running with 14 outfielders and 4 keepers (after the panic signing of Lyness). Ballantyne was already signed but him, Rae, Devenny, Telfer, McMaster, Jamieson and even ATS was a pretty successful first summer. The only disasters were the Northern Irish boys and Wylie but they were at least quite funny. The glut of January signings (McGregor, Byrd, Stanway, Dixon) were a mixed bag but overall it was decent signings to add depth and complement a strong core.

We kept the same core team last season, with Smith and Devenny the only notable losses. Megwa, Hancock, Todorov and McStravick were all successful signings, as well as a few loans which were mixed due to injuries/ability (Lyall, Aiken, Donnell, O’Connor). The same core team but with some quality young players added as well as a forward who knows the division well.

McCabe’s recruitment has always tended towards younger players but this summer has been extreme. It’s fine doing that when you’ve got that spine of players who’ve been at the club for a couple of seasons, have played a couple of hundred games and know the level, but you can’t rely solely on inexperienced players with no leadership around them.

Exactly this. We play like a team that has little to bugger all experience of football without ramifications. Not quite hitting the panic button yet but if the next 2 league games come without any result then the situation will need to be addressed I think. Everyone around us has strengthened this week which tells its own story on our recruitment- get the finger out.

[???]

Alot of folk were getting over excited during summer, particularly after the 8 0 vs EK. I personally felt folk were going over the top with the expectation of challenging for the league. Letting Toddy Ballantyne and Telfer go without having real experienced replacements was ridiculous. Toddy inparticular along with McGill and Gallacher. 3 strikers who scored the most goals for us combined last season out with youngsters in to replace. Wilson looked good 1st few games but the fact he has nobody around to help him or create is alarming. As alluded to earlier in thread it's poor to be so reliant on his goals as they are not guaranteed. Livi away is a hard game to go to imo with how things have been as they'll most likely bully this team.  This is followed by Pars away and Thistle at home, there is a real concern for me that we finish the 1st round of fixtures rooted bottom with a terrible goal difference. GD is -10 just now I wouldn't be surprised to lose next 3 and not score many, if any at all. Hopefully it can be turned around but not confident right now.

[Mingus2000]

1 hour ago, Bairn in Exile said:

What did he say bud?

That the Falkirk fans being in the corner, and making noise (as Airdrie used to do in the 90's) made it "quite difficult".

[Bairn in Exile]

2 minutes ago, Mingus2000 said:

That the Falkirk fans being in the corner, and making noise (as Airdrie used to do in the 90's) made it "quite difficult".

Thanks mate.

I seem to remember your fans making plenty of noise when you gubbed us in the play offs!

Edited 12 hours ago by Bairn in Exile

[Jack Reed]

26 minutes ago, ??? said:

Alot of folk were getting over excited during summer, particularly after the 8 0 vs EK. I personally felt folk were going over the top with the expectation of challenging for the league. Letting Toddy Ballantyne and Telfer go without having real experienced replacements was ridiculous. Toddy inparticular along with McGill and Gallacher. 3 strikers who scored the most goals for us combined last season out with youngsters in to replace. Wilson looked good 1st few games but the fact he has nobody around to help him or create is alarming. As alluded to earlier in thread it's poor to be so reliant on his goals as they are not guaranteed. Livi away is a hard game to go to imo with how things have been as they'll most likely bully this team.  This is followed by Pars away and Thistle at home, there is a real concern for me that we finish the 1st round of fixtures rooted bottom with a terrible goal difference. GD is -10 just now I wouldn't be surprised to lose next 3 and not score many, if any at all. Hopefully it can be turned around but not confident right now.

Aye,then there's EK see how it goes this time,

[Chapelhall chap]

Thanks for reminding us of Ben Wylie. 

[Mr November]

2 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

Thanks for reminding us of Ben Wylie. 

I try to forget his (lack of) footballing ability and instead remember him bamming up Montrose fans in the play-off game the season before he even signed.

[Chapelhall chap]

16 minutes ago, Mr November said:

I try to forget his (lack of) footballing ability and instead remember him bamming up Montrose fans in the play-off game the season before he even signed.

That's a great tale and it's a measure of how many so called talents have passed on to obscurity. 

[FLDiamond]

It’s not ideal that we are conceding the goals that we do, but obviously the main issue is that we’re six games in and we’ve only scored 3 league goals. Or put a different way, four league games without scoring. Pathetic.  Most games we’ve not conceded more than 2 so last season you’d expect those games to be at least a draw, maybe a win.  If we don’t address the striker situation ASAP we’re going to find ourselves in an impossible situation come end of October.  I have tons of respect for Rhys and his abilities as a coach but the ins/outs this summer have put us in a truly weakened position.  For me, Telfer, Ballantyne and Toddy leaving put us at a huge disadvantage.  I know Telfer wanted the move up so fair enough but he created so much last season it was obvious we needed to address this.  Toddy didn’t score a ton but held the ball up, hassled defenders and helped create for others.  That’s gone too.  What are we left with? 3 goals in 6 league games 

I’m not a fan of ‘sack the manager’ but the performance yesterday was well below standard at best. The current squad need to pull the finger out or by the time we get injuries back and this team start performing it might be too late. If we don’t add to the squad, I’m praying the return of McStravick sparks something and we go on a run. 

 

[Mr November]

29 minutes ago, FLDiamond said:

It’s not ideal that we are conceding the goals that we do, but obviously the main issue is that we’re six games in and we’ve only scored 3 league goals. Or put a different way, four league games without scoring. Pathetic.  Most games we’ve not conceded more than 2 so last season you’d expect those games to be at least a draw, maybe a win.  If we don’t address the striker situation ASAP we’re going to find ourselves in an impossible situation come end of October.  I have tons of respect for Rhys and his abilities as a coach but the ins/outs this summer have put us in a truly weakened position.  For me, Telfer, Ballantyne and Toddy leaving put us at a huge disadvantage.  I know Telfer wanted the move up so fair enough but he created so much last season it was obvious we needed to address this.  Toddy didn’t score a ton but held the ball up, hassled defenders and helped create for others.  That’s gone too.  What are we left with? 3 goals in 6 league games 

I’m not a fan of ‘sack the manager’ but the performance yesterday was well below standard at best. The current squad need to pull the finger out or by the time we get injuries back and this team start performing it might be too late. If we don’t add to the squad, I’m praying the return of McStravick sparks something and we go on a run. 

 

For all his faults, Calum Gallagher had three league goals himself after six games last season!

[airdrieman]

Wouldn’t have had MacDonald, Reid and Aiken down to be our joint top goal scorers 6 games in anyway. 

[Jack Reed]

40 minutes ago, airdrieman said:

Wouldn’t have had MacDonald, Reid and Aiken down to be our joint top goal scorers 6 games in anyway. 

If we don't get a couple of players  in and change the style of play we won't change the results , Rhys has got to see that most of his  new signings can't cut it ,at least one level above them,

[airdrieman]

18 minutes ago, Jack Reed said:

If we don't get a couple of players  in and change the style of play we won't change the results , Rhys has got to see that most of his  new signings can't cut it ,at least one level above them,

Hard to disagree atm. I think most of them are probably decent enough footballers. And put them in last season’s team and they’d have done okay. But the lack of experience, balance and the gaps in the squad are killing us. Hopefully a midfielder and striker in this week!

[Jack Reed]

16 minutes ago, airdrieman said:

Hard to disagree atm. I think most of them are probably decent enough footballers. And put them in last season’s team and they’d have done okay. But the lack of experience, balance and the gaps in the squad are killing us. Hopefully a midfielder and striker in this week!

That would be good,do you know if HANCOCK was carrying a knock that he was on bench ,

[Mingus2000]

2 hours ago, Mr November said:

For all his faults, Calum Gallagher had three league goals himself after six games last season!

Plus an assist and a perfectly good goal at Arbroath that was ruled offside.

[airdrieman]

2 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

That would be good,do you know if HANCOCK was carrying a knock that he was on bench ,

I believe that was the case. 

[Jack Reed]

1 hour ago, airdrieman said:

I believe that was the case. 

Thanks,another injury we could have done without ,hope no further damage ,

[cb_diamond]

Have chewed things over in the last 24 hours. 

I've always been on the Rhys McCabe bandwagon and still think he's a very good manager, however, his absolute intransigence about his philosophy is at risk of being his and our undoing.

We currently, for a variety of reasons, don't have the team to carry out his way of playing to enough of a degree where it will be effective. That will likely change between most of a team worth of players out injured and people gelling as a team. However, the real danger is that we will very likely be adrift at the bottom by then if he does not make a significant shift in our methods and style of play over the next month or so.

I'm going to be honest and say that I fully expect him to dig his heels in and continue as he is. If that happens then as the weeks go by it will likely cost us our place in the championship and him his job.

Not having a regular "best 11" in mind by this stage of the season is massively tinpot.

Edited 2 hours ago by cb_diamond

[Diamonds are Forever]

12 hours ago, Mr November said:

Thinking back to his first summer, McCabe barely signed anyone, I think for a while we were running with 14 outfielders and 4 keepers (after the panic signing of Lyness). Ballantyne was already signed but him, Rae, Devenny, Telfer, McMaster, Jamieson and even ATS was a pretty successful first summer. The only disasters were the Northern Irish boys and Wylie but they were at least quite funny. The glut of January signings (McGregor, Byrd, Stanway, Dixon) were a mixed bag but overall it was decent signings to add depth and complement a strong core.

We kept the same core team last season, with Smith and Devenny the only notable losses. Megwa, Hancock, Todorov and McStravick were all successful signings, as well as a few loans which were mixed due to injuries/ability (Lyall, Aiken, Donnell, O’Connor). The same core team but with some quality young players added as well as a forward who knows the division well.

McCabe’s recruitment has always tended towards younger players but this summer has been extreme. It’s fine doing that when you’ve got that spine of players who’ve been at the club for a couple of seasons, have played a couple of hundred games and know the level, but you can’t rely solely on inexperienced players with no leadership around them.

 

I find this really interesting. Basically in 3 summers McCabe has signed 3 players I'd class as experienced - Telfer, ATS and Todorov, I've discounted Wyness as he was geniunely a bargain bin signing to fill a position in an emergency and was binned asap. Even then Telfer and Todorov were 27/28, hardly old men. Which raises the question of why we sign so few experienced players. The obvious answer is money, they cost more and the good ones are taken by other clubs in our leagues, which is undoubtedly true. And we know the club are big on signing young players to sell-on. But I just can't believe the club and McCabe are that naive to think you can get away with running a first team with an average age of 22, as it was yesterday. Is there also an element of it being a way for McCabe to ensure his authority, despite only being 32 he's 10 years older than the average player. Is he wanting to sign guys he can mould into his style of play, and/or wanting players who might not challenge him too much?

The lack of signing experience didn't matter too much in the last 2 seasons because McCabe inherited Gal, Fordyce, Watson, Ballantyne, Frizz and of course himself who had all played 100s of senior games. And then signed Telfer, ATS and Todorov. But with 5 of them leaving, ATS basically retiring (seemingly) and McCabe being injured all the time we're left with nothing in the way of experience and have replaced them with youngsters. Surely he and the club can see that for young players to thrive they need a solid core of players to hold things together and guide them? In terms of this season even if they do recognise it now it's hard to see who can really be brought in at this stage, which is my worry.

Edited 1 hour ago by Diamonds are Forever