Airdrieonians vs. Peterhead

[Diamonds are Forever]

1 hour ago, DestroyedByMadness said:

Bollan is a manager not a teacher.   Lamie, O'Neill, Watt, Cadden all playing above our level were good enough.

 

Was Lamie even at the club when Bollan arrived? I'm sure he was out on loan and by the time he came back we had the centre back positions sorted. The other 3 all played under him, they weren't the players people were calling for anyway when fans were talking about promoting youth players. It was the guys playing Under 20s every week like Kyle Richford who some fans thought would be world beaters and that Bollan was a dinosaur for not playing.

Even the names you mention (apart from Lamie who rightly wasn't starting) who you probably feel should have played more, 2 years later they are still playing League One football and are hardly setting the place alight. If they are the best of the players that Bollan held back (although as I said, they still played a lot of games) then that says it all.

[DestroyedByMadness]

1 hour ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

Was Lamie even at the club when Bollan arrived? I'm sure he was out on loan and by the time he came back we had the centre back positions sorted. The other 3 all played under him, they weren't the players people were calling for anyway when fans were talking about promoting youth players. It was the guys playing Under 20s every week like Kyle Richford who some fans thought would be world beaters and that Bollan was a dinosaur for not playing.

Even the names you mention (apart from Lamie who rightly wasn't starting) who you probably feel should have played more, 2 years later they are still playing League One football and are hardly setting the place alight. If they are the best of the players that Bollan held back (although as I said, they still played a lot of games) then that says it all.

I've forgotten what we're debating here and whether I have any interest in keeping this going but a few things about Bollan.   You're right that he didn't want to play kids much at all but he was only interested in his next job and taking a hit to get players experience wasn't in his plans.

Of the kids he did play during his reign...

Scott Stewart:   Now just establishing as a first team player and at only 20y/o, has potential to play higher than L1,  debut under Boyle,  Bollan messed him around a lot and exposed him to failure. 

Liam Watt:   Debut under Boyle,  in and around team under Bollan, breakthrough last year and seemed to have potential to play higher.  Not sure what's going on at Livi under a terrible manager.

Chris O'Neill:  Debut under Boyle,   messed around a bit by Bollan but still played a lot of games.   Now sickened and off to Brechin and has potential to play at higher level

Coogans:  Debut under Boyle,   Airdrie rejected an £80k bid from Celtic before Bollan,  had a trial down south after Bollan took over and Bollan restricted his appearances till we accepted a bid of only £20k.   Has played at a higher level and not yet turned 20 still has potential to bounce back.

Grant Drummond:   Debut under Boyle,  Bollan did play him but he suffered a career ending/ruining injury.

Nathan Blockley:   Debut under Boyle, Bollan did play him, now at Peterhead but seems to be a L1 player.

Nicky Cadden:   Debut under Boyle,  Bollan hated him and was forced to play him last season.  Seems a cert to play at a higher level.

Ricky Lamie:  Debut under Boyle,   Bollan didn't play him,   he's since won L1 at Morton and played at Championship level

 

Of the other applicable candidates from that era we had the following players involved in or around the 1st team:  Jamie Barclay, Jonny Grier, Andy Duncan, Aiden Ward, Reece Glackin, Kyle Richford, Mickey Wilson and Jack Haggerty that I'm aware of.     Of that lot,  I think Richford is the only one that folk may have thought worth pushing for.    I'm not sure why he left like he did, the 20s manager at the time left and there was definitely an air of resentment around.   Richford did have a bit of an injury at one point where he could have had a push.    I've seen him play this season and he seems the kind of player you'd want around,  tbh, a bit like a young Jim Lister.

I think conventional wisdom suggests a player isn't "experienced" till they play around 100 games.   Unfortunately,  like McIntosh and McLaughlin are doing at the moment,  you can't do that sitting on a bench.  I think before a youngster is promoted you need to ask if you're prepared to give them that level of experience, are they going to become a player and be worth developing.   Now and again you need to bite the bullet and get that experience into young players if you think they're worth it.

Your points about experience are totally valid.    The only way to play this amount of young inexperienced players was to have a larger core of good experienced players around them to lead them and develop them properly.   I don't think we have that, especially at the back.

 

[Pesadilla]

4 hours ago, DestroyedByMadness said:

  The only way to play this amount of young inexperienced players was to have a larger core of good experienced players around them to lead them and develop them properly.   I don't think we have that, especially at the back.

 

Never mind a larger core of "good experienced" players. we need some good experienced players. Our real experienced heads are Faria, Fitzpartick and Russell.

Faria has seemingly gone for the very Portuguese option of fucking off to find the edge of the earth. I'd not be at all bothered by that if he wasn't an utter wage thief.

Fitzpatrick has been with us for a couple of seasons now and despite his experience at higher levels cannot control a game in a very poor league. I don't think he or anyone associated with the club knows his best position, or if he even has one. Genuinely can't conceive the panic in the boardroom if we're handing out long deals to this pair.

Russell. Our marquee signing and certainly got the fans onside with his backstory. However, he's been worse than average. We really need better leadership from the likes of him rather than the petty jibes at refs and clearly diving/cheating.

I don't know if the club maybe stuck all their eggs in the Gow basket pre-season, but it's clear that there was coherent signing policy, no selling the club and it's vision to players who'd bring value and not just on the field. 

Where do we go? We've put probably our highest earners of long deals, so unless somebody has extra money to throw at it, we're fucked unless these guys get their act together. I hope they can but I think realistically we're going to need  some quality in the January window. 

[DestroyedByMadness]

31 minutes ago, Pesadilla said:

Never mind a larger core of "good experienced" players. we need some good experienced players. Our real experienced heads are Faria, Fitzpartick and Russell.

Faria has seemingly gone for the very Portuguese option of fucking off to find the edge of the earth. I'd not be at all bothered by that if he wasn't an utter wage thief.

Fitzpatrick has been with us for a couple of seasons now and despite his experience at higher levels cannot control a game in a very poor league. I don't think he or anyone associated with the club knows his best position, or if he even has one. Genuinely can't conceive the panic in the boardroom if we're handing out long deals to this pair.

Russell. Our marquee signing and certainly got the fans onside with his backstory. However, he's been worse than average. We really need better leadership from the likes of him rather than the petty jibes at refs and clearly diving/cheating.

I don't know if the club maybe stuck all their eggs in the Gow basket pre-season, but it's clear that there was coherent signing policy, no selling the club and it's vision to players who'd bring value and not just on the field. 

Where do we go? We've put probably our highest earners of long deals, so unless somebody has extra money to throw at it, we're fucked unless these guys get their act together. I hope they can but I think realistically we're going to need  some quality in the January window. 

Great post mate.   Dont think gow was wanted at all though.