Early 2023/24 predictions

[Zanetti]

Just now, Diamond1924 said:

Sounds like excuses to me 

Didn't matter in the end when we were celebrating in your dump.

 

[Diamond1924]

1 minute ago, Zanetti said:

Didn't matter in the end when we were celebrating in your dump.

 

Haha enjoy the rest of you weekend young man 

[Zanetti]

1 minute ago, Diamond1924 said:

Haha enjoy the rest of you weekend young man 

You too auld yin.

[qpfc]

25 minutes ago, Diamond1924 said:

I watched a lot of championship football last season and was totally unimpressed with some of the dross on display. As scrappy as it gets at times so it’s surprising to see other fans’ attitudes. 

I can understand that perspective watching from a neutral point of view. The games can indeed sometimes look quite dross in standard and not seeing your own team in the championship, you may tend to think Airdrie could easily do a job but until you actually watch your own team play in these matches, I think you’ll be in for a surprise the difference in standard between league 1 and championship 

Thats not to say Airdrie will stink out the championship, they may well do perfectly fine but I don’t think it’s mental for others to predict you for the drop. You’ve not added much to the team and the star signing seems to be a guy released from Dunfermline 

[Diamond1924]

6 minutes ago, qpfc said:

I can understand that perspective watching from a neutral point of view. The games can indeed sometimes look quite dross in standard and not seeing your own team in the championship, you may tend to think Airdrie could easily do a job but until you actually watch your own team play in these matches, I think you’ll be in for a surprise the difference in standard between league 1 and championship 

Thats not to say Airdrie will stink out the championship, they may well do perfectly fine but I don’t think it’s mental for others to predict you for the drop. You’ve not added much to the team and the star signing seems to be a guy released from Dunfermline 

Wow, you put your point across much better than the babbling Zanetti boy
 

I totally accept that point of view but we’re a full time team, play good stuff and have still to add some quality.  I guess we shall see in 10 months time!
 

 

[1320Lichtie]

58 minutes ago, edinburghhonestman said:

I think it's going to be even closer than last year between 2nd and 7th or 8th and on their day, every team can beat any of the others. However,

-Dundee United should win it. Even if Goodwin struggles, they can bin him and sign enough players in January to scrape over the line.

- The bottom 3 will be Arbroath as their squad is aging; Airdrie, who will shock a few but squad depth will catch up with them eventually; and Dunfermline who look to have a very young squad and few real significant signings.

I'm feeling reasonably confident that Ayr won't be as bad as many people on here have predicted.

 

Average age of squad down a couple of years after this summer 
 

Gaston - 36 

 

Steele - 21

Little - 34 

ToB - 31

Hamilton - 31

 

Slater - 29

Balde - 22

 

Stowe - 24 

McKenna - 32

Hylton - 30 

 

Bird - 22

 

Adams GK - 31 

Gold - 30

Stewart - 27

Dow - 32 

McIntosh - 30

Allan - 31

Norey - 21

Turan - 27

Jacobs - 33

 

Jacobs is done but he won’t kick a ball. I think Little will move on at the end of the year too. Gaston is 36 but he’s a keeper. I’d say most of them are at a really good age aside.
 

Don’t rate Jacobs / Norey or Turan but other than that it’s a decent group. We usually don’t get too many guys in their mid 20s as it’s usually guys calling it a day on FT to transition into work life and PT (late 20s early 30s) or guys who are young and will do well here before moving to FT if it suits. 

 

We weren’t far off it last year - we just couldn’t score goals or get up the park very well as we literally had no striker for most of the season. 6 months without one, Adarkwa for a handful of games and then Hilson saw the season out.
 

We drew nearly half our games because Ricky, ToB and Gaston were so good for us defensively. Unless they fall off a cliff (which might happen) I can’t see us getting cut adrift anyway.
 

For what it’s worth and I know it’s early days but Bird looks like the best striker we’ve had since being in this division - Nouble (and possibly Hamilton) aside. 
 

 

Edited July 30, 2023 by 1320Lichtie

[Glenmavis Diamond]

I get why fans of other teams are tipping us to be bottom. They've not seen much of us, unlike Dunfermline fans who, largely, seem to be tipping us to end up higher than the bottom 2.

Very easy to look at how many points we finished behind Dunfermline and how many goals we conceded and make judgement. But we also ended up the 2nd top scoring team in Scotland behind Rangers. McCabe also came on leaps and bounds, tactics wise, off the back of some early seasons high scoring games. If we weren't hammering teams, we were being hammered. But he managed to put a stop to that, whilst not compromising on our style of play and still banging in the goals. 

Think that's why many Airdrie fans, myself included, think we will do OK this season. Yeah it's going to be tough and yeah, we still need to add a few players to further strengthen the squads ability and depth, but I fully expect that to happen. 

What I've seen in the cup so far reinforced how I feel. We've won 4 from 4 yet I still know we can play even better. Some rusty and tired performances, missed opportunities etc. 

But what is there in abundance is confidence, team unity, a 'never say die' fighting spirit that I've not seen at Airdrie in a long time and a team fully bought into Rhys McCabe, one of the most exciting young managers in the game right now. 

So I don't mind other team's fans writing us off. Makes it all the sweeter as and when we turn some teams over. 

[Jacky1990]

Winners - Dundee United but it will be extremely close like last year with fans of all 10 teams thinking there team has been shite most the season

Relegated - Arbroath by 10+ pts. Will pick up 1 win all season away from home. Probably against Thistle.

Top scorer - Brian Graham

Sack race - Goodwin gone by Christmas 

Head gone - this will be the year Dick finally snaps. I expect to see a repeat of the march on to the pitch to confront the ref after he decides to give a throw in on the half way line to the opposition. His strop in the stands will go viral.

The "playing in exactly the standard you deserve" award - Tony Watt. The penny will finally drop that whatever potential Watt had a few years ago has all but fizzled out and he is now very much an average Championship player. He'll post some shite on social media about the perceived poor standards in the lower leagues like hes above it.

[1320Lichtie]

57 minutes ago, Glenmavis Diamond said:

I get why fans of other teams are tipping us to be bottom. They've not seen much of us, unlike Dunfermline fans who, largely, seem to be tipping us to end up higher than the bottom 2.

Very easy to look at how many points we finished behind Dunfermline and how many goals we conceded and make judgement. But we also ended up the 2nd top scoring team in Scotland behind Rangers. McCabe also came on leaps and bounds, tactics wise, off the back of some early seasons high scoring games. If we weren't hammering teams, we were being hammered. But he managed to put a stop to that, whilst not compromising on our style of play and still banging in the goals. 

Think that's why many Airdrie fans, myself included, think we will do OK this season. Yeah it's going to be tough and yeah, we still need to add a few players to further strengthen the squads ability and depth, but I fully expect that to happen. 

What I've seen in the cup so far reinforced how I feel. We've won 4 from 4 yet I still know we can play even better. Some rusty and tired performances, missed opportunities etc. 

But what is there in abundance is confidence, team unity, a 'never say die' fighting spirit that I've not seen at Airdrie in a long time and a team fully bought into Rhys McCabe, one of the most exciting young managers in the game right now. 

So I don't mind other team's fans writing us off. Makes it all the sweeter as and when we turn some teams over. 

Every time a team comes up the same thing gets said by their fans, every year - their fans are confident after obviously coming off a good season… 

 

That confidence can quickly evaporate when problems start appearing - we nearly won the league two years ago and then put out most of the exact same team last year, wee things started going wrong and next thing you know guys who looked like world beaters fell to bits 

Edited July 30, 2023 by 1320Lichtie

[Aufc]

Aye we are clearly favourites to go down which is understandable. 
 

Although I was at the Arbroath game at the weekend and they are not very good so you never know

[thisal]

1. Dundee United

2. Ayr

3. Caley Thistle

4. Rovers

5. Dunfermline

6. Thistle

7. Queens

8. Morton

9. Airdrie

10. Arbroath

I've not got a good record at this. But after a struggle United will eventually win. Arbroath seem a bit behind  the rest. Airdrie have had a good League Cup, but I let League cup form sway my forecast 2 seasons and finished last. Luck with injuries in this league can be the difference in being in the Premier or League 1 play offs. Every other team are much of a muchness and could finish 2-8 and it wouldn't be a surprise.

 

[Broken Algorithms]

If McCabe has a strong start he'll be poached by the first decent full time club who need a new manager. A strong league cup start won't have lessened that. The sad reality of football at this level is that if you're going through a good time, you've got to enjoy every moment you can as the chances are players or managers will get torn away from you very quickly if you're successful. 

[Diamonds_Are_Forever]

7 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

If McCabe has a strong start he'll be poached by the first decent full time club who need a new manager. A strong league cup start won't have lessened that. The sad reality of football at this level is that if you're going through a good time, you've got to enjoy every moment you can as the chances are players or managers will get torn away from you very quickly if you're successful. 

And for one thing a can’t see McCabe walking half way through a campaign he’s not wanting to step up to quick if he fails that his management career over already

[oneteaminglasgow]

3 minutes ago, Diamonds_Are_Forever said:

And for one thing a can’t see McCabe walking half way through a campaign he’s not wanting to step up to quick if he fails that his management career over already

It really wouldn’t be. If he went to Ross County, for example, and made an arse of it, he’d be a much wealthier man, and he’d still walk into a similar sized job to Airdrie due to what he’s already done. 

[1320Lichtie]

3 hours ago, Aufc said:

Aye we are clearly favourites to go down which is understandable. 
 

Although I was at the Arbroath game at the weekend and they are not very good so you never know

Could’ve won 5 or 6 nil against a team that’ll be comfortable in League 1. Maybe we aren’t very good but basing it off that game makes zero sense - we are a better team than the team that beat you 3-0 this time last year anyway 

[Broken Algorithms]

1 minute ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

It really wouldn’t be. If he went to Ross County, for example, and made an arse of it, he’d be a much wealthier man, and he’d still walk into a similar sized job to Airdrie due to what he’s already done. 

Ian Murray and James McPake are pretty much two examples of this. McPake had a promotion under his belt and Murray laid a groundwork at Airdrie, and did well with Dumbarton even discounting his disastrous time at St Mirren. Once you've done something, clubs will always be open to taking a gamble on you.

It's why if Dick Campbell has a nuke this season at Arbroath he'll still get offered a new job quickly at part time football if he wants it. 

 

[Diamond1924]

3 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

Ian Murray and James McPake are pretty much two examples of this. McPake had a promotion under his belt and Murray laid a groundwork at Airdrie, and did well with Dumbarton even discounting his disastrous time at St Mirren. Once you've done something, clubs will always be open to taking a gamble on you.

It's why if Dick Campbell has a nuke this season at Arbroath he'll still get offered a new job quickly at part time football if he wants it. 

 

Very true although thankfully Dick Campbell doesn’t try and kick a ball.
 

McCabe is still a player first and foremost so unless he wanted to hang up his boots  early(ish) then I can’t see him leaving Airdrie prematurely. His cousin Fordyce (also still playing) is the assistant manager so they’d need to leave as a pair which I just can’t see 
 

 

[Tattie36]

19 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Could’ve won 5 or 6 nil against a team that’ll be comfortable in League 1. Maybe we aren’t very good but basing it off that game makes zero sense - we are a better team than the team that beat you 3-0 this time last year anyway 

I was just going to say the same. To call us “not very good” after watching us comprehensively brush aside a team that will, more than likely, end up top half in L1, with our best performance in ages is odd. Perhaps he left at half time as the second half was about as one sided a game as you could get.

Also bear in mind that we kept a clean sheet (with McAllister and Hester both playing for Mo) with a threadbare and makeshift defence.

Ok, we might not be great and I do think we’ll be towards the bottom of the table come May, but at least we look dangerous and dynamic in attack… or did on Saturday anyway.

[Mr November]

I'd be surprised if McCabe wasn't on a few bigger teams radar, we got a lot of good press towards the end of last season with promotion, the style of play and the ridiculous number of goals. He seems keen to continue playing though and he knows he's got a very secure job at Airdrie. If he keeps Airdrie up and continues with the same style of play then he'll move on to a bigger club but I think he's sensible enough to not rush into something. I think his age (it's easy to forget he only turned 31 last week) might mean some bigger clubs are slightly wary of appointing him just now too.

[1320Lichtie]

6 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:

I was just going to say the same. To call us “not very good” after watching us comprehensively brush aside a team that will, more than likely, end up top half in L1, with our best performance in ages is odd. Perhaps he left at half time as the second half was about as one sided a game as you could get.

Also bear in mind that we kept a clean sheet (with McAllister and Hester both playing for Mo) with a threadbare and makeshift defence.

Ok, we might not be great and I do think we’ll be towards the bottom of the table come May, but at least we look dangerous and dynamic in attack… or did on Saturday anyway.

I think the league looks strong and there’s a few sides who have pushed the boat out this year so will definitely be in and around the bottom half, don’t think we will be cut adrift.

 

Can see why people think we will struggle this year coming off of last year though, it was the same reason why people thought we’d do well last year coming off the year previous. 

 

All in all I don’t think we will have a clearer picture until October / Novermber when the league takes shape. Also the last third of the year every year the league tends to turn into a bit of a shitfest when the stakes are higher where everyone beats everyone.