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Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2016


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Goram will struggle to get in at a top club as he refuses to go for his licence which is a requirement for working within Club Academy Scotland. As I said at the time, I regularly watched Rohan playing with the 20s and there was certain elements of his game that I believe Goram coached out of him - coming for cross balls for instance.

There is a good coach working with the goalkeepers at Ravenscraig. The biggest problem is the defence. A young goalkeeper learning his trade needs a good defence in front of him - something we don't have.

Similarly, a rookie manager needs an experienced assistant alongside him - again something we don't have.

Personally, I wouldn't have signed McKay on the basis that we already have 3 strikers at the club. Different if we had to got rid of Schmidt but we haven't (yet?) Even then, Schmidt is adequate back-up to Russell and Ryan IMO but the fact that we are shoe-horning McKay in and pushing Russell onto the wing kind of defeats the purpose. 

Basically we need 2 experienced centre halfs and an experienced assistant manager (or failing that an experienced manager) and to get rid of Dalziel.

 

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Schmidt has done nothing to suggest he is good enough for this level so I think we did need to bring another striker into the club as cover for Ryan and Russell. I do agree however that bringing in a couple of new defenders is the priority though. 

As for Ferguson, I think he is a great prospect and will improve with experience. Unfortunately I think his confidence has taken a knock playing behind our back 4. 

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If it's in the Sun it must be true. Joking apart I almost don't care who we sign. It would be an improvement. I am disappointed in Gorman who appeared to improve the defence when he came back in to the team but he has fallen away in the last few weeks.

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2 hours ago, carlukediamond said:

Simon mensing training with us

Ooft, he was a total bombscare at Livi before going over to America. Scored a couple of OG's too when he got in a mix up with our keeper, and passed back towards our empty goal when our keeper had come out to get the ball. Him and Boateng together would be top notch entertainment for the opposition fans though, well worth the £16 entrance money. He'd be giving Beany a run for his money in the red card sweepie too.

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16 hours ago, LIVIFOREVER said:

Ooft, he was a total bombscare at Livi before going over to America. Scored a couple of OG's too when he got in a mix up with our keeper, and passed back towards our empty goal when our keeper had come out to get the ball. Him and Boateng together would be top notch entertainment for the opposition fans though, well worth the £16 entrance money. He'd be giving Beany a run for his money in the red card sweepie too.

One of my most hated opponents ever.   Absolute animal at times.

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2 hours ago, el Gringo said:

As was Walter Kidd! Could Mensing be the old head we need to guide these youngsters?

Actually,   he maybe could but like the Clyde fan above alludes to, is he that same player as 10 years ago?   

We need to assess what the current issues are and what outcomes we're looking for.   

Problems:

  • Defence is conceding too many goals through basic preventable mistakes
  • Defence is lacking in organisation and direction - needs an experienced leader, maybe a player/coach
  • Inexperienced defenders have issues with technique and strategy

Required Outcomes:

  • We need to concede far less than the current ridiculous 34 goals in 20 game ratio
  • Younger defenders need on-field guidance to improve their own individual performance
  • Defence need a more co-ordinated approach via an experienced on-pitch leader

Can Mensing be that man?   You could only really tell in training and possibly in trial game/s.    Mensing was never an "athlete" of a player and at 34y/o you'd need to see if he's still capable of playing 16-20 games between now and May, and, if he's capable of being that leader/mentor type character.  

We have potentially a really good central defence for the future who could do with this few months of specialist mentoring in much the same way as Sandison, Stewart and Jack needed Kidd,  and Smith and Lawrence needed Fash and Davenport,  Marv needed Kenny Black, etc.

You could see all through the years young players improving for playing beside seasoned pros.

This is definitely what we need.

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30 minutes ago, Evil Jim Fenner said:

If he signs, hopefully he doesn't turn into another David Lilley.

Even at his worst Lilley was 10x the player BoDiddy is.   That's really scary.

16 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

I'm pushing on a bit these days, but was he not a midfielder for most of his career?

  He was originally a right back at Clyde and played a lot in central defence as he got older.   I remember him in midfield on a few occassions too.   He was just a right dirty basturd everywhere he played.    How many times did he take out guys like Gow and Coyle?

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12 minutes ago, DestroyedByMadness said:

Even at his worst Lilley was 10x the player BoDiddy is.   That's really scary.

  He was originally a right back at Clyde and played a lot in central defence as he got older.   I remember him in midfield on a few occassions too.   He was just a right dirty basturd everywhere he played.    How many times did he take out guys like Gow and Coyle?

Whilst i'm firmly in "big Bo is a diddy camp", not sure Mensing can add much. The Chris Higgins rumour was much more appealing although that appeared to be poo pooed by Stuart Millar on facebook.

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Is he training with us with a view of signing or is he just using our training facilities until pre - season/the start of the season in the US? Looking at his social media profiles it appears, on the face of it at least, that he is still based in the US. 

He was always a bit of a haddy back in the day but is he still a useful haddy or a past - it haddy?

 

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On 09/01/2017 at 21:23, DestroyedByMadness said:

A proper goalie coach works with Rohan, Matthew Kerr and Calum Kinvig through the week.

Can we drop this ill informed nonsense?

 

I did not know that but good to hear. Will only do them good in the long run and seems to be doing a better job than Goram anyway.

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9 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

Whilst i'm firmly in "big Bo is a diddy camp", not sure Mensing can add much. The Chris Higgins rumour was much more appealing although that appeared to be poo pooed by Stuart Millar on facebook.

Me neither Kenny.   

I can see us end up signing the young Hamilton fullback and pushing McIntosh f/t into centre of defence but that doesnt address the issues with constant rookie mistakes.

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