Airdrieonians 23/24 Championship Thread♦️

[David Fernández]

1 hour ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

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.

Probably unrealistic but I find it strange that Kerr McInroy still doesn't have a club yet. He's experienced enough at Championship level and I thought he would've signed for the likes of Raith or Thistle permanently.

With McCabe and McMaster put long term we are badly missing a defensive midfielder, McInroy has also played in the diamond formation with us previously so would be perfect.

Another one is Stevie Warnock, we don't actually have any wingers and I'm surprised he doesn't have a club yet either, not someone with a lot of experience but he could offer us something different to what we already have.

Other than that we'd probably need to have a look at the loan market and I genuinely don't know who we could realistically bring in.

Edited 2 hours ago by David Fernández

[Mr November]

48 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

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.

Even then Todorov has the Consilium caveat. I’m absolutely fine with mostly signing younger players while we have that solid core setting standards on and off the pitch. Once that goes though you can’t expect a bunch of guys in their early 20s to be able to do that on their own. We’ve said it before but the 11 that went on to win us promotion had a very experienced back four and a front three with plenty of games between them. A great mix of experience, energy and pace. Last season we stumbled upon a system that gave us plenty of experience right down the spine of the team and some youthful energy out wide.

It’s a shame to sound so defeatist so early into the season but ultimately it’s just so like Queen’s Park under Veldman last season. I genuinely don’t think we’re a million miles away but as you say, it’s hard to see where the players who could fix the obvious gaps will come from. Realistically I’m hoping we can scrape together enough points (probably at home) to still be in the mix at Christmas, where we can hopefully fix things in January.

[airdrieman]

1 hour ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

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.

I’m not an expert in which players were available or the economics of it all. But, given the fact we signed Telfer and ATS in League 1 and Todorov from a League 1 club, it does make me assume that there would have been experienced players available within our budget. I appreciate that we’ll be at the lower end of the budget scale in the league. So I don’t blame the club for losing the likes of Ballantyne and Lyall. I do wonder if the budget could have been used better though. Cammy Bruce for instance was contracted to another club, so we presumably paid at least a development fee and competitive wage for a guy who doesn’t get a start and doesn’t look all that good whenever he does play. Would we have signed him if he wasn’t on Consillium’s books? Not convinced we would have, and if a back-up left-back was deemed essential, we probably could have got a better one or one just as good on loan. Lewis McGrattan - I think he’s ‘fine’ as a player and gets an overly hard time of things. He’s one of our most experienced players and was signed from another Championship team, so presumably will be on a relatively decent wage. Could that have been better spent on a centre-half, forward or a different type of midfielder? Undoubtedly. Where’s Todorov’s presumably good wage went? If we’d signed a centre-half at the start of the season in place of one less midfielder, would that have been more cost effective than bringing Graham and Badley-Morgan up from England? Again, probably and, as good as they’ve been (especially the latter) it might have prevented some of the debacles in previous games. 

Even the loan spots I think could have been used better. Do we need both Aiken and Agyemang? Or two loanee goalkeepers? I think we still have a couple of loan spots left so it’s potentially not a huge issue in that regard. But immediately, if we’d used a loan spot to sign a different type of midfielder instead of one of the former and a striker instead of goalkeeper it’s hard not to think we wouldn’t be in a better place right now. 

Edited 2 hours ago by airdrieman

[ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds]

I think we have to be trying a back 5 next week if we have the players available to do it. We’d maybe have done it yesterday if Badley-Morgan had been fit with Watson coming back in. An extra body back there should help us retain some possession and take the pressure of everyone trying to play it out the back. For similar reasons I’d like to see Frizz play deeper just to give us a bit more experience and quality in bringing the ball out of defence. As long as we look like a competent Championship side that would be a massive improvement.

Ideally we really should be trying to bring a player or two in. With the poor run and poor performances and us now sitting bottom of the league surely the club and McCabe must be considering something before the loan window closes in case we end up in an unsalvageable position by January. As much as we have numbers in midfield, we really do want a more physical and more experienced midfielder in, and even though McInroy might not be that type of player by most standards, he certainly is compared to what we have. I’d love to have him back and he’d probably be our best player instantly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he has better offers, even if he’s still without a club (not sure how nobody’s signed him yet). A forward is also essential, and ideally one with some aerial presence. Someone like Nikolay Todorov would be ideal, I wonder if he’s available?