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Ayr United, What now 2016/17


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Speaking of money, I was actually thinking about this the other day. If we think back to the admission prices in the super Ally and Burley era we were looking at around £6 - £8 as opposed to an eye watering £17 nowadays which is of course a 100%+ increase. We also paid transfer fees for players and as far as I'm aware players wages now aren't much different from back then and in some cases are actually lower. Add to that increased prize money nowadays plus more efficient floodlights and one could wonder why clubs are all supposedly broke ? Our average attendances this season in the championship compared with the old Div 1 while slightly down aren't that much different if I'm remembering correctly.

I've intentionally ignored the Barr / Dalziel era as that was a false economy with the silly money we were throwing around, so was it just a case of everyone living way above their means in the past or are there other factors I'm missing ??

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Speaking of money, I was actually thinking about this the other day. If we think back to the admission prices in the super Ally and Burley era we were looking at around £6 - £8 as opposed to an eye watering £17 nowadays which is of course a 100%+ increase. We also paid transfer fees for players and as far as I'm aware players wages now aren't much different from back then and in some cases are actually lower. Add to that increased prize money nowadays plus more efficient floodlights and one could wonder why clubs are all supposedly broke ? Our average attendances this season in the championship compared with the old Div 1 while slightly down aren't that much different if I'm remembering correctly.
I've intentionally ignored the Barr / Dalziel era as that was a false economy with the silly money we were throwing around, so was it just a case of everyone living way above their means in the past or are there other factors I'm missing ??

Could there have been other income streams that were better then, like advertising, shirt sponsorship, player sponsorship, club shop, programme sales, food sales? I remember always buying a programme as a youngster but never do now.
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1 hour ago, Kitty_Boy said:

 

 

 

 


Get a grip of yersel's ffs.

I'm not blind to McCall's shortcomings as a manager but his track record over the last two years with regards to bringing players in warrants a little bit of patience here.

I would imagine Loy is still a realistic target, Nisbet will stay if required (McCall has a habit of overreacting in post-match interviews) and that there will be plenty other irons in the fire we don't know about.

 

 

 

 

I think the fans have shown remarkable patience towards McCall, we've went more than half the season without a striker worth talking about, I can't honestly name another Ayr manager in the last 25 years who'd have been afforded the time McCall has to find and sign the player/players required while still retaining the support of the vast majority of the fanbase, I think that points to a fanbase that knows McCall  might be the right guy for us. 

Knocking back the offer for Balatoni is probably one of the best onfield decisions this club has made in a very long time.

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5 minutes ago, ayrmad said:

I think the fans have shown remarkable patience towards McCall, we've went more than half the season without a striker worth talking about, I can't honestly name another Ayr manager in the last 25 years who'd have been afforded the time McCall has to find and sign the player/players required while still retaining the support of the vast majority of the fanbase, I think that points to a fanbase that knows McCall  might be the right guy for us. 

Knocking back the offer for Balatoni is probably one of the best onfield decisions this club has made in a very long time.

Maybe folk just recognise that: 1) strikers are difficult to come by; 2) that the injury to Craig Moore was unforeseen, and at the point where the seriousness of it emerged the transfer window had closed; 3) that we have been competitive in the majority of fixtures we have played; and 4) getting on McCall's back - in this context - for not having "a striker worth talking about" would achieve nothing. Save your energy for something other than telling McCall something he already knows.  

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As great as it is to keep Balatoni for the rest of the season, it's a bit of a financial false flag. Say he's on £350/400 a week i.e £1500 pcm for 5 months or £7500 til the end of his contract. The "five figure sum" could genuinely be £10000 or £15000 therefore "selling" him for potentially as little as £2500.

Fair fucks if we've turned down £50k, but would be mightily surprised.

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According to the official site it was the upper end of 5 figures so I'm thinking 60k+. It does show ambition though as we're obviously going to do our damndest to stay in this division. As for McCall, he more than anyone will be trying to get us a striker and it's obviously a fine balancing act trying to get someone who will add to the team within our budget and at the same time fit into our setup and not be a disruptive influence on what's seen as a pretty good dressing room.

 

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If we sell Balatoni, we are basically accepting relegation as I don't see how we replace him mid-way through the season.  Brave move from the chairman, though I hope the players motivation doesn't slip.  Not surprised to see O'Connell depart - must be one of the oddest signings I can remember.  As best I can tell, the guy has been floating around Irish football not really making the grade anywhere, before playing for us as a striker in a pre-season game despite, it would appear, never playing in that position before.. Good luck to the guy, but I just can't see any reason why he was ever signed in the first place.

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21 minutes ago, Kitty_Boy said:

Maybe folk just recognise that: 1) strikers are difficult to come by; 2) that the injury to Craig Moore was unforeseen, and at the point where the seriousness of it emerged the transfer window had closed; 3) that we have been competitive in the majority of fixtures we have played; and 4) getting on McCall's back - in this context - for not having "a striker worth talking about" would achieve nothing. Save your energy for something other than telling McCall something he already knows.  

I think I'll choose how I use my energy thanks.

1) Suitable players for any position are difficult to come by, that's not changed in recent years.

2) Others in less need appear to have utilised the Emergency Loan system.

3) No argument there although we're now regularly leaving points on the park that might come back to bite us.

4) I've not heard anyone getting on his back at the games I've attended and I think he's big enough and ugly enough to handle anything posted on here.

 

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27 minutes ago, sci-fi said:

As great as it is to keep Balatoni for the rest of the season, it's a bit of a financial false flag. Say he's on £350/400 a week i.e £1500 pcm for 5 months or £7500 til the end of his contract. The "five figure sum" could genuinely be £10000 or £15000 therefore "selling" him for potentially as little as £2500.

Fair fucks if we've turned down £50k, but would be mightily surprised.

It's not a false flag to me, it's an educated gamble, relegation comes with a six figure price tag in year 1 alone.

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2 minutes ago, ayrmad said:

I think I'll choose how I use my energy thanks.

1) Suitable players for any position are difficult to come by, that's not changed in recent years.

2) Others in less need appear to have utilised the Emergency Loan system.

3) No argument there although we're now regularly leaving points on the park that might come back to bite us.

4) I've not heard anyone getting on his back at the games I've attended and I think he's big enough and ugly enough to handle anything posted on here.

 

I've not seen too many clubs at our level pick up strikers worth talking about on development loans since the start of September.

Thankfully, McCall's focus seems to be signing a proven goalscorer - hopefully this doesn't mean a wet-behind-the-ears boy who's never seen a first team dressing-room.

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12 minutes ago, Kitty_Boy said:

I've not seen too many clubs at our level pick up strikers worth talking about on development loans since the start of September.

Thankfully, McCall's focus seems to be signing a proven goalscorer - hopefully this doesn't mean a wet-behind-the-ears boy who's never seen a first team dressing-room.

Signing a proven goalscorer in the window and signing a striker on an emergency loan earlier on are mutually exclusive.

I'm quite sure there were players recuperating,out of favour etc somewhere, I think we chose to rest on our good early points tally and hope for the best as we are competitive, we'll not know if this was the correct decision until the season is over, as it is, we're still in there pitching big style after a bad run that's got to end sometime.

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My only gripe is that we never seem to have a plan ahead of the transfer window, few that come to fruition anyway. As of today every other team in the league have already signed at least one player this window. Whether they're any good or not remains to be seen however everyone else seems to have their targets well in advance of being able to take action on it. We regularly seem to be waiting on these proven players/whoever's left for them to ultimately knock us back.

I'll be gobsmacked if Nisbet stays after his performance on Xmas eve and McCalls reaction.

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2 hours ago, ayrmad said:

It's not a false flag to me, it's an educated gamble, relegation comes with a six figure price tag in year 1 alone.

More like a substantial five-figure price tag....

Again, brave decision which I'm delighted with. No doubt he's been excellent.

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6 hours ago, WATTOO said:

Speaking of money, I was actually thinking about this the other day. If we think back to the admission prices in the super Ally and Burley era we were looking at around £6 - £8 as opposed to an eye watering £17 nowadays which is of course a 100%+ increase. We also paid transfer fees for players and as far as I'm aware players wages now aren't much different from back then and in some cases are actually lower. Add to that increased prize money nowadays plus more efficient floodlights and one could wonder why clubs are all supposedly broke ? Our average attendances this season in the championship compared with the old Div 1 while slightly down aren't that much different if I'm remembering correctly.

I've intentionally ignored the Barr / Dalziel era as that was a false economy with the silly money we were throwing around, so was it just a case of everyone living way above their means in the past or are there other factors I'm missing ??

This era was pre Bosman so as well as paying transfer fees, you received them. Can't remember the exact figure but we received a big chunk of cash from Motherwell for Ally Graham, which in this day and age you wouldn't get.. Factor in things like inflation as well. But even back then we very nearly went to the wall.

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