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Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2016


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With the diamonds narrowly missing the playoffs after a brilliant final three games, what are everyone's hopes for the new season? Who would you like to see brought in the door in terms of experienced players who would help mould the youth players into first team football?

Also what could be done differently from last season?

Personally I believe the background transition has been fairly smooth and its encouraging to have more fan interaction from the chairman.

 

Finally, I wish a speedy recovery for EWB and hopefully he can get back into the driving seat sooner rather than later.

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Heard the two fell out and Wotherspoon didn't want him at the club anymore, something to do with his dad aswell, not entirely sure might be more rumour than fact

Cox was promised a full time deal by EWB, the chairman/Iain King renaged on that and informed Cox on the Wednesday night prior to the Forfar game where David was on then bench. His dad confronted the chairman and IK at said game and Cox was subsequently told he that he had played his last game for the club and need not bother turning up for training. For the record, his dad apologised to Iain King at the POTY dinner.

Anyway that was discussed in last seasons thread so why not leave it there and move on?

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Cox was promised a full time deal by EWB, the chairman/Iain King renaged on that and informed Cox on the Wednesday night prior to the Forfar game where David was on then bench. His dad confronted the chairman and IK at said game and Cox was subsequently told he that he had played his last game for the club and need not bother turning up for training. For the record, his dad apologised to Iain King at the POTY dinner.

Anyway that was discussed in last seasons thread so why not leave it there and move on?

At the start I asked questions which no one gave opinions or answers to
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Guest LonglivetheKING

Scott Stewart has played out of his skin the last few games. Credit to Lennon

Really? Some on here have championed Scott Stewart for a long time. Why credit Lennon, what is your agenda? I'm sure you should be crediting Steve Findlay and Jimmy Boyle more than Lennon.

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Really? Some on here have championed Scott Stewart for a long time. Why credit Lennon, what is your agenda? I'm sure you should be crediting Steve Findlay and Jimmy Boyle more than Lennon.

Under bollan he never looked like he'd make it with a run of poor games. Since Lennon has came in he's looked a totally different player. I'm not denying that he isn't a good player, but over the past few games his performances have gotten a lot better
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Stewart has done better out wide, at the moment he's still not physical enough for the centre, but out wide you're always going to be up against a physically weak winger who's not interested in a physical contest, and in the last 3 games he's dominated his counterpart for that reason. In the long run he's not going to be wide player, he doesn't have the turn of pace or the game for that, but once he gets a bit stronger he certainly has the engine to be a good box to box midfielder. I'd be wary of reading too much into 3 games at the end of the season - 2 of which were essentially friendlies for the opposition - but he's probably shown enough in his limited opportunities this season to suggest he's someone who would benefit from a full-time deal. He's someone I'd take a chance on.

 

Cadden I'd obviously keep, I think he would benefit hugely from a full year of regular football at this level with full-time training. From the rest, it's hard to say when we don't know their circumstances regarding whether they'd even want to go full-time or not, or whether we are going to be making exceptions to the full-time rule. Cox's effort and commitment are great and nothing but admiration for that, but I agree with the decision to let him go, if we are looking to win promotion he's not really good enough unfortunately, the same with Chris O'Neil. With everyone else it also depends on who we think we can bring in, I made the point on the other thread that we need to look carefully at the players we are capable of attracting on our wages before shipping everyone out the door.

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The goal has to be and is promotion. 

 

The players we bring in need to not only be good enough to be playing every week at this level but need to be better than the other teams week in week out.

 

Most of us are assuming, based on what we've been told, that the team will be largely made up of young players released from other clubs. This strategy, if it works, could be very successful and very prosperous for us. However, it also carries risks. There's plenty of talented young players who are more than good enough for this level. But for every Scott Fraser, Bob McHugh or Ryan McCord there's a Scott Gray, Dylan Mackin or Graeme Watson. This is why our recruitment has to be spot on and much better than who we brought in, in January.

 

Even the best young players though have their off days which is why it's essential we bring in some good, experienced players. Again, though, we need to make sure we're bringing in much better experienced players than we did this season. McBride and Faria were woefully inadequate. Hopefully Faria will be doing more coaching than playing next season.

 

But I have my doubts. I'm not convinced we'll get a good enough calibre of player, either young or experienced, to play full - time at this level based on the wages we'll be paying. I hope to be proved wrong.

 

Essentially though this just shows we're going into the complete unknown. We don't really know anything about who we're bringing in and what the composition of the team will be. We don't even know who the manager will be (hopefully, we'll hear about that soon).

 

Presumably we'll be playing the passing out from the back style EWB tried to introduce. I'm not convinced this is the best style to play at this level. Players who are capable of doing this are unlikely to drop down to this level although you never know, we might be able to pick up a couple of gems from somewhere. Maybe Gorman is a 'baller'. Often at this level, it's most effective just to play a simple, direct style of football. We saw this at the end of this season and throughout the best part of Bollan's reign. 

 

In terms of David Cox, it sounds like he was treated pretty shabbily by the club but at the end of the day, despite his endeavour, we need to be looking to bring in someone better if we want to get promoted. Whether we do or not though is the question. 

 

I'd be hoping to keep O'Neil, MacDonald, Stewart and Cadden out of the current squad. I wouldn't be completely averse to one of Lithgow or Crighton staying on as backup or Lister staying on although that seems unlikely given his job and occupation. 

 

Ideally, we'll keep them and bring in a commanding, experienced and organised centre - half (if he can play a bit then even better), another winger to match Cadden who'll be pacy, direct, have a good final ball and create the majority of our chances/goals. Centre mid is the area we need to make the most improvement. Faria will hopefully be nowhere near the matchday squad ever and Stewart, while he has vastly improved, isn't ready yet to start centre mid in a promotion winning team. Two players who can both win the ball in midfield and also play a bit and be creative lynchpins would be ideal although one midfielder to do each role would obviously be fine. And then upfront we really need to be looking to bring in at least one striker who'll score 20 - 25 and another who'll score 10 - 15. 

 

I realise that most of that is the ideal scenario. We'll just have to wait and hope. Hopefully we'll at least get updates on the current squad and manager soon. 

 

Next season could be a very good season for us. It could also be a disaster. 

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