Hank Scorpio Posted March 14, 2018 Author Share Posted March 14, 2018 Three wins in the last ten games - unacceptable for a team looking to return to the Championship at the first attempt. I made a lot of noise in the heat of the moment last night about how we should dispense of Smith, but i've woken up and feel exactly the same. Many will point to us being unable to afford to sack him - a point I understand - but there was a figure of £350,000 quoted as the amount of income we are down by being in this division compared to the Championship. Can we afford that for another season? If we stay down we should absolutely go back to part time, it's clear there's barely any playing advantage to be had anyway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALDERON Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 The Leagues gone regardless of what we do now, Ayr have too much breathing space. I'm not entirely sure what benefits we are seeing to full time football. Fitness should be the main one, but that's three games against part time teams in a month where we have looked far less sharp towards the end of the game. Attitude of the players is also horrific. When we got to 2-1, we gave away three petulant and needless fouls straight after to kill any hint of momentum. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy85 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 3 hours ago, baillieinleeds said: The reality might be we can’t afford to go up, I know that might be a bit silly. 1 hour ago, baillieinleeds said: Read it again, we MIGHT not be able to afford to go up. And I also said that might be silly. Anything to have a go eh!! 1 hour ago, baillieinleeds said: Of course we can’t afford to stay down. But what are the club doing about it? What a fucking simpleton. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renton Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 33 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said: Three wins in the last ten games - unacceptable for a team looking to return to the Championship at the first attempt. I made a lot of noise in the heat of the moment last night about how we should dispense of Smith, but i've woken up and feel exactly the same. Many will point to us being unable to afford to sack him - a point I understand - but there was a figure of £350,000 quoted as the amount of income we are down by being in this division compared to the Championship. Can we afford that for another season? If we stay down we should absolutely go back to part time, it's clear there's barely any playing advantage to be had anyway. I agree with this. We're a fucking shambles right now. Best case scenario is we go up via the play offs but given Smith's record to date you wouldn't fancy us to stay up anyway so with that likelihood we'd end up sacking him down the line. He seems very much a broken reed who's been unable to figure out our problems post Callachan sale to any permanent degree. Playing the majority of the season with Vaughan in centre midfield is a bad joke, insisting on Buchanan even worse. On top of that you've got his predilection on playing Barr and McHattie on the rare occasions he's been fit and it's a wonder we've stayed in it as long as we have. We've been treading water for weeks. You might point to the fact that he couldn't clear out many of the failures from last season as a defence. McGlynn understood very well the man management side of things and his teams, stodgy as they were often could grind out wins because he understood that a mentally strong, physically fit percentage based team would prevail more often than not. None of his successors, save McKinnon seem to get that. More generally we've squandered both a tonne of goodwill after McKinnon's season as well as the best crop of youngsters to come through the system since the 90s. It's fucking depressing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyrTroopMajor Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 52 minutes ago, CALDERON said: The Leagues gone regardless of what we do now, Ayr have too much breathing space. I'm not entirely sure what benefits we are seeing to full time football. Fitness should be the main one, but that's three games against part time teams in a month where we have looked far less sharp towards the end of the game. Attitude of the players is also horrific. When we got to 2-1, we gave away three petulant and needless fouls straight after to kill any hint of momentum. We're still second... Title is very much still up for grabs, although we are of course now favourites. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALDERON Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 7 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said: We're still second... Title is very much still up for grabs, although we are of course now favourites. My point is a free scoring side with no signs of letting up need to pick up one point in two games to go top. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastie Russell Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 5 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said: We're still second... Title is very much still up for grabs, although we are of course now favourites. Signed sealed and delivered, straight to your door last Saturday. We have no one with the guile of ‘The Moff’ who I think is oneof the most under rated players in the league, your January signings (helped by the cup draw) have been very shrewd. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rover the Moon Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 You might point to the fact that he couldn't clear out many of the failures from last season as a defence. McGlynn understood very well the man management side of things and his teams, stodgy as they were often could grind out wins because he understood that a mentally strong, physically fit percentage based team would prevail more often than not. None of his successors, save McKinnon seem to get that. Totally agree. On paper, this squad is more talented than the one that won this league in 2009. But who wouldn't prefer the often limited Ferry, Sloan, Walker, Simmons, Wilson and Weir over Barr, Zanatta, Robertson, Matthews, Thomson and Buchanan? And then there were outstanding part-timers like McGurn and Campbell.It was a fairly basic set of principles which succeeded. Frustrating we haven't replicated it this year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
printer Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 The reality might be we can’t afford to go up, I know that might be a bit silly. How the f**k does that work? [emoji15] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hank Scorpio Posted March 14, 2018 Author Share Posted March 14, 2018 How the f**k does that work? [emoji15] It’s a classic older person thing to say. I hear it in pubs every time I’m in Kirkcaldy. Zero basis or logic to it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael W Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 (edited) We can't afford to go up because we'll get an extra £350k and are better off without that money whilst sustaining a full time team. Stephen Hawking said that on his deathbed, so he did. Edited March 14, 2018 by Michael W 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastie Russell Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 9 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said: It’s a classic older person thing to say. I hear it in pubs every time I’m in Kirkcaldy. Zero basis or logic to it. Was used as a widely held reason, during the massive end of season slump in 1981 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rover the Moon Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Was used as a widely held reason, during the massive end of season slump in 1981 Massive difference between being ready for the Premier in 1981 and getting out of the Seaside League in 2018. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roverthemoon Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Sacking Smith whilst we are still top of the league seems like a ridiculous suggestion, but I can actually see the merit in it. We’ve picked up 2 points from the last 12 available and watching the team play the last two months there’s something evidently wrong in that squad. The play-offs are a certainty and if you asked me whether I trusted Barry Smith to steer us through those then the honest answer is no. Sacking him and replacing him is a gamble, but if it reversed our decline and gained us promotion then it would be worth it. Even if we failed and faced another season in League One then we’d be starting afresh with a new manager not responsible for that failure who people could get behind. If Smith fails to get us up then his credit is spent and much like Grant Murray, he’ll be living on borrowed time. And even if he stays and we somehow steered a path through the play-offs, I'd have no confidence at all that he could cut it in the Championship based on this season 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALDERON Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Flip side we hire another Hughes, fail, bin him, and end up having had 6 managers in 3 years, sacking 5 of them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Kebab Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 5 hours ago, whereismillar said: Ha Ha that is the alloa stand in the background you aint kidding anyone ! Perhaps that's how long the game has been??? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roverthemoon Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 7 minutes ago, CALDERON said: Flip side we hire another Hughes, fail, bin him, and end up having had 6 managers in 3 years, sacking 5 of them. Very true, but then we aren’t really any worse off. The key thing is appointing the right person to come in. Easier said than done 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roverthemoon Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Hughes was always a temporary thing so with hindsight he wasn’t that invested in the place and probably deep down didn’t really care whether we stayed up or not. If we appointed someone now and said, get us up and the jobs definitely yours then we’d probably avoid another Hughes situation. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paco Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Smith will get the play-offs. He probably deserves to as well, his remit is to win promotion, not the title. I have little confidence in winning the play-offs either but the reality is we gave him a two-year deal. Even if we fail to go up, I’d be surprised to see him sacked. We can’t afford it. Maybe eventually we’ll start offering our new managers a one-year deal with certain clauses guaranteeing a second year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McGuigan1978 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 I don’t think there’s any chance the board would pay off a manager who’s top of the table and has over a year left on their current contract. However, if they do, fingers crossed they search for someone whose achievements are slightly grander than, ‘Would have finished above Hibs if only we had more points than them’ or, ‘Once went on an unbeaten run years ago’ 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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