1320Lichtie
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Posts posted by 1320Lichtie
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1 hour ago, Ivo den Bieman said:
Been strong rumours for weeks he's Montrose-bound but we'll see.
Would imagine so - Petrie probably be a good manager for a player like that to play for stepping up. Also Dundee and Perth would be extremely handy for a Dundee based player.
Gallagher and McIntosh are a brilliant start for us and don’t think you could get much better for L1 so not a problem area but the thought of McGrath does intrigue me a wee bit.
Anyway…. If I had to put money on it I would say Montrose
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10 hours ago, C_titz said:
Well we certainly could do with a goal scorer
Where do Forfar train?
He is a Dundee lad. We train at the Oriam two nights so it would be a bit more of a slog than it would be for him if he went to Montrose, think they’re one night Dundee and one night Perth.
Or he might go where he thinks he’d play the most.
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Got Leighton McIntosh and Calum Gallagher signed for next season but be a decent option and maybe one for the future
Wonder where he’ll go
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26 minutes ago, Ivo den Bieman said:
It's been like that for as long as I can remember. Meadowbank Thistle in the second half of the 80s survived as long as they did in the second tier- nearly making it to the Premier in 88/89, because they were able to get the best of the part time players in the country; guys who had a good job outside of football who didn't want / need to give that up for sport, or who didn't fancy playing full time for some other reason. They played in the capital so travel not an issue and Terry Christie inspired loyalty in his team.
Players like Stevie Logan, Dave Roseburgh, Walter Boyd would easily have been full time in our present era. They were an awful side to play against- ultra defensive, and they had virtually no fans, but purely on the park they were very, very effective and kept a core of players with them for a long time.
Arbroath, Alloa and Dumbarton within the last 15 years have all done well to give a good showing in the Championship over a few seasons. The first two also kept a solid core of players with them for a long time.
The old Scots first division-pre the 1994 reconstruction into four leagues of ten, which I cheerfully detest-was a mixture of eight or nine full time teams and the best four or five part timers- back then three of the four Angus clubs (Arbraoth were in long term doldrums back then), Clyde, Stirling Albion- and it was such a great league. The current Championship is good, too, but the variety of grounds and teams was better in the old system, at least for the fans. You could go from a home fixture in front of 5000 with Falkirk or Dunfermline one week to a trip to Glebe Park or Meadowbank the next. A slightly bigger tier also gave part time teams the chance to grow and properly establish themselves without the near-certainty of an instant relegation the following season. Plus there was always the occasional hilarious result as the poart time diddies sworded a hungover Chic Charnley and his mates.
I can well remember Kilmarnock being at least partially part-time at the end of the 80s, for example, Dunfermline a bit earlier. Nowadays it's near on impossible for a part time club to establish themselves in the second tier without serious, long term money behind them. In 2024 access to that kind of funding is getting scarcer.
That said I'd be delighted if our squad somehow made it up this season. It's a very long shot but I hope we get the chance. Regardless of going up or staying put the sqaud needs major surgery over the next 2-3 windows, as long standing successful careers come to an inevitable end.
All good comments - I think if a Part Time team makes it into the Championship then they need to try and capitalise on it off the park with their support and infrastructure - that would set them in good stead going forward. I think it is fair to say that we have done that.
I would never want to see us move away from just being a part time club either though, for what? I don’t see what’s wrong about being happy with that. We will never be a Premiership club so if we can go up and compete in the Championship during our more successful seasons, which we and others can - then why change your entire set up. A lot of these FT clubs are financially a mess.
It is not about being unambitious or anything like that which are comments I read sometimes it is just that everyone has their place in the pyramid. In the same way there are several Championship clubs who at their peak may be lower half Prem teams and at their lowest may be L1 teams.
To be honest after this and last season, you quickly come to realise that the only thing that matters is enjoying watching your team and being happy on Saturday afternoons more often than not regardless of what division you are in. Never take that for granted
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19 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:
One thing that’s never sat comfortably with me is this idea that half of our squad are chomping at the bit to go and join the Campbells at East Fife.
I got the impression that the players were just as scunnered with Dick as the fans were towards the end. Pretty common knowledge (isn’t it?) that he was a big part of Bobby and others leaving?
I had these fears
But Hamilton staying has made me change my mind
I don’t think it’s anything to do with money either it seems a bit far fetched for me to think EF couldn’t match or atleast get very close to the wages we could give certain players especially with the Campbells there
I feel like a lot of them probably feel similarly to us, love the guy but he had turned into an absolute gobshite and had seriously lost the plot by the end
The Bobby comments never sat well with me at all and can’t imagine the players would’ve been too fond of them either. The fact that the fans singing a players name was ‘getting on the managers tits’ is just a bizarre thing to sayIt’ll be interesting to see how he gets on next year
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25 minutes ago, AFC360PUNK1320 said:
Heard that also but hopefully that does not happen.
Mikey McKenna is ONE player i would hope we would push the boat out for even at 33 years old, he is a massive player for the Red Lichties and yes he has not had a great season but which (apart from Scottie Stewart) AFC player has had a good season?
Anybody that read his article in yesterday's Courier could feel his love for Arbroath FC and everybody connected with the club.
McKenna would be a stand out in a decent team in Division 1 and good be the difference of us having a good season or a great season that is how much i would be pushing to get him re-signed at Gayfield.
I would be amazed if at 33 years old he would sign a part-time contract to go to full-time Falkirk, i have no doubt he could hold his own with any of their players but it must be strange if your fellow full-time team mates get dropped for a part-time player so not sure how that would work or might cause hassle in the dressing room??
AND if he ends up at East Fife i will just shake my head in disbelief.
Smokies & Wine 36-0.
I think he would see it as one last chance to maybe play in the Premiership, Falkirk a big club too - it would be appealing but like you I would love to see him stay another couple years.
Also the Courier seem to have stopped putting articles online, cannot find this one either.
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3 hours ago, Brummo said:
Listening to BBC Radio Scotland and the pundit was ecstatic at the prospect of having an all full-time Championship. He inflated Falkirk's crowds to 5000-6000, so it seemed that as is par for the course, he was clueless about football in Leagues One and below.
It is unsurprising but annoying nonetheless that there is no acknowledgement that part-time clubs can compete with full-time ones. The accepted "wisdom" is that any player who is half decent will want to play full-time football and I get that but it ignores the fact that going full-time may not make sense for everyone. Why shouldn't talented part-time players have the opportunity to play in the Championship if their fitness and skills are good enough?
Someone recently said to me something along the lines of the Championship should be full-time clubs and Leagues One and below, part-time.
It annoys me that clubs from smaller towns away from big centres of population seem to be discouraged from aspiring to success because they are expected to remain at "their level". It's this kind of negativity which no doubt contributes to the bus loads of glory hunters heading down from smaller towns to watch the ugly sisters rather than support their local team.
People point to Brechin's spectacular tail spin as though that were the expected fate of a part-time club in the Championship, when clearly that example is an anomaly rather than being the rule.
I am not saying that a part-time club could necessarily maintain a permanent presence in the Championship. That would probably require at least a hybrid of full-time and part-time players. I would however prefer to have a season or two in the Championship or even to be a yo-yo club than to have no higher aspiration than League One.
I like to think that we're we to be in a promotion playoff, the Mo would be in it to win it and if we did get promoted, that we would be in a position to strengthen the squad to be able to compete in the Championship.
That is all wishful thinking for now but I hope it isn't always going to be the case.
In thinking about Brechin's current sorry plight, I am also very thankful that the Mo are in the position they are.
You are spot on.
I think the biggest hurdle, in my opinion, is that it is incredibly hard to turn over players and continue to be decent when you are part time. There is zero let up in the Championship every week is a battle.
If you are slightly off it you will struggle. The pool of part time players good enough to compete in the Championships a lot smaller in comparison to the large amount of Full Time players good enough to play in the division. I also think there is a noticeable difference in intensity in the Championship.
We have been absolutely riddled with injuries all season. 8-12 players out some weeks. The strength of our squad just could not compete but the teams above us are hardly world beaters either. It is just hard to build up a very good squad of part time players, all the best part time players will not want to come to your club to sit on the bench.
It’s a much harder job to stay in the league for a prolonged period of time when you’re part time but there’s no reason why well run and well organised part time clubs and teams cannot go up and do well.
I actually think we ruined every good thing we had going when we attempted to go hybrid at the beginning of last season (22/23) and I think we’ve not really recovered from it even now. We have signed 13 ‘Full Time’ players and the only good one has been Jay Bird. They also were only ever going to be here for a season at most so you kind of lose all the benefit of a team and squad unit when you start going down that road.
We’d have been much better off staying fully part time.
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1 hour ago, Cambuslang Fifer said:
1320 litchie did Luke Donnelly not join you guys then we to to Alloa I'll take him if he's not signing for Alloa. There's probably guys that have we to other clubs from arbroath as well.
LD is at Alloa yeah. He was at Arbroath but he left last season.
We signed some absolutely hopeless Full Time players who come and stayed in the town, they seemed to be the way Dick was trying to go at the start of last year ( start of 2022/23 ) and guys like LD were allowed to leave by Dick.
I think Gaston could be a shout for you especially if Rab Douglas is returning as a keeper coach. I would happily still have him around next season for us but not sure if McIntyre is keen he’s not been playing him.
He would be such a safe and simple signing for McIntyre so it kind of feels like McIntyre has another keeper lined up.
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2 hours ago, SmokeyJoe said:
Steele tob hammy hopefully Delaney would be a cracking back 4 for league 1
Maybe depends on what Delaney is doing outside of football just now. If he’s managed to get himself a decent job doing whatever and is settled in Scotland maybe we could pull that off. That seems too good to be true though.1 -
3 minutes ago, AFC360PUNK1320 said:
Superb getting Hammy to stay for another season well done JMc and the AFC Board.
I disagree with some AFC fans on here who do not seem bothered if we lose our "old guard" i think the opposite and getting Scott Stewart/Hammy to join TOB and Goldie is a great move and i would welcome Gats/Ricky/McKenna to also get re-signed up.
Having that core of players who know the club inside out could only be a good thing to add to the decent squad we already have plus a great signing in striker Gallagher.
Remember we are DOWN a league playing against fellow part-time players so the "older" players who have maybe lost a yard in pace should now be on a level playing field after pitting their wits against full time players over the last 5 seasons.
C'Mon the Red Lichties 36-0.
After double checking Hammy is not even that old. 32 next month. He could still be here for years.
I am not too sure over him at left back long term but like you say he will not be up against young Full Time flying machines this season and he will have had a full pre season to recover from his injury.
I think he’s a cracking centre half though and would love to see him play in there with Tam.
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3 hours ago, Cambuslang Fifer said:
McKenna will do well with Falkirk back in championship so no surprise there.
Steele been seen at a couple games weeks before there with his son at Bayview but has managed to get back into arbroath team so was keen on both but looks like their already signed up with yous.
Hammy would of solve our left back that we have failed to replace since we had naysmith/penrice and it's been our major problem that and centre back since our decline so gutted he's turn down us. Would definitely have Thomas O'Brien as well but I'm not so sure we will pay for players and last time we paid for a player was indeed Ryan Wallace from yourselfs.
Jacobs I dunno what about slater, McIntosh, Gaston, Murray or Lyon they signed up? The rest of your players no can't see us sign English, irish or German players you have there.
ToB signed for another 3 years, to be honest I was absolutely certain Hammy would be away back to join Dick but him staying has made me think that even the players were maybe fed up of his pish.
If Hammy, Stewart, Goldie all here then imagine ToB would probably want to stay too regardless. He’d get a testimonial if he did too which is another incentive.
Slater is signed. Murray is signed and was a McIntyre signing. McIntosh signed already. Lyon hasn’t signed and I would be happy to see him sign too.
I don’t think Gaston will be getting offered a deal so maybe him. McIntyre doesn’t seem to fancy him
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As it stands - updated -
Keeper
Steele
ToB
Hammy
Left Back
Stewart / Stowe
Slater
Gold
Dow / Murray
McIntosh
Gallagher
Would love it if we somehow managed to get Delaney signed. Would imagine he will get a good FT gig though.
Think Gaston would be a smart signing although not sure what McIntyre will do there.
Then would love it if Lyon signed as a squad player.
Kind of resigned to losing McKenna but maybe we will end up surprised like we are with Hammy.
It is a very good start
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4 minutes ago, lichtiekev said:
Surely been signed as a centre half?
Maybe it's Little and ToB who will be at East Fife,
Really can't see Mckenna being at East Fife
ToB and Hammy as a centre half pairing would be fantastic
If Hammy has not went then not sure who would
Think this might’ve taken Dick by surprise a wee bit. Maybe the players were even a wee bitty fed up of his pish
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47 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:
Yeah I have a feeling that will happen as well. Big Dick's Last Dance getting the old band back together. Gold, McKenna, Gaston, Hamilton, Little, Jacobs and potentially even Aaron Steele (though, its not clear how long his contract is any he might well be able to get a L1 club). Only thing is I remember Arbroath fans saying things turned a bit sour towards the end of the Campbell's time with them - I know it was mainly with the fans but no idea if it was with the players as well.
McKenna is going to Falkirk*
Gold / Steele were already signed
However East Fife were absolutely in for Hammy and he has turned it down to stay here. I think this will have been a bit of a surprise for Dick and if Hammy has not went to EF then I’m not sure who will be going
I mean you can have Jacobs if you want him - he’ll not be getting another contract here
Eta - I think he’s going to Falkirk*
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He could’ve easily went and played for Dick again. Heard Dick had openly been saying he was going to raid Arbroath… for who? Who could he even really get now
If anything is a big show of support for McIntyre then it is this he could’ve easily been away
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4 minutes ago, RedLichtie86 said:
Hammy for another year
Well I am massively wrong again - shock horror!!!!!!
However that surely shows that players want to be here. He could’ve easily been away. Very very very promising
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2 minutes ago, Blawin a Hoolie said:
Mostly covered by others to be fair.
However the meeting isn’t the start and end of it.For example sure I heard Gats dropped because he let a few in and vice versa…yet our loan goalie is the No 1 despite shipping 5 the game before….maybe picked that up wrong as well
….ps ST will be renewed and pies bought next year etc..!
’mon the Lichties
All change coming this close season - been lucky to not have to deal with it for a long time cause we’ve been so settled but it needs to happen and every club has these periods of transition.
Personally really looking forward to next season, think we’ve got a really solid start to our team and squad building and we will be in a much more forgiving league. There will be new grounds to visit, more than likely a derby with Montrose again to look forward to and I imagine there’ll be plenty more happy Saturday afternoons than there has been this season or last.
On McIntyre, no over the moon with it but it doesn’t take much to change my mind or anyone else’s minds. If he signs well and we get a few positive performances and results then it all changes quite quickly
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37 minutes ago, Blawin a Hoolie said:
All said and done JM seems to have zero support amongst the fans which means his support is from the Board clearly.
Clearly they are not listening to their customers.
Crowds are down and I imagine so are merch sales.
but aye give him the close season and a (nother) good slug of games in his pursuit of “top 4” in the lower league.
a’body together aye
I mean the crowd yesterday was really really good considering we are relegated and have been fkn honking forever with nothing to play for - 1200 (over 1k home support) - would be pushed to get that back in the day for the bigger games.
I think we will sell 1k minimum season tickets again next year. 1600 and 1300 or whatever the last 2 seasons, you get the bug for going when you start
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1 hour ago, ExiledLichtie said:
Obviously, some dramatic license was employed, but clearly I'm not the only one to see the immediate vibe shift after we announced the shiny shiny new striker and a couple renewals. It takes more than that to make me go full Clashy! I think having him in place going into the new season is an absolute disaster, and makes things needlessly difficult. I've seen some people saying that we don't want to start being a revolving door club of sacking managers....we have *never* been a revolving door club.
Had a look at arbroatharchive:
Dick - Resigned
Lumsden - Sacked, long long, long after we should have
Sheerin - Resigned
Moore - Sacked
Sheerin - Resigned
Weir - Resigned
McGlashan - Resigned
Cairney - Resigned
Kirk - Resigned
Brownlie - Resigned
If I've got that correct, that's two sacked managers in 24 years. If anything, that is an absurdly low number of sacked managers. Note also Brownlie, got us relegated, arguably not all his fault, got the summer, had a terrible start. Also Steve Kirk had a terrible start, kept us up by the skin of our teeth arguably not all his fault got the summer, and naturally enough, had a terrible start to the next season and resigned.I was fine with us being relegated, but knowing that we're going to be stuck with McIntyre has absolutely stripped any optimism out of me. We've all seen this story before, we all know how it always ends. If McIntyre makes a success of things after the start he's had, then he could probably get a documentary made. Its that unlikely. So I'm afraid I'm not willing to join the "well, its happened now, might as well clap happily along at the shiny new signings" crowd.
Absolutely none of this is relevant - that is all in the past, they are all different people and the club is in a different place - there is no exact like for like situation or right or wrong answer here. A decisions been made by the club and they will either get praise for it or fall on their sword. Simple as that
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5 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:
I agree with every single word you say.
However all Exile did was express an opinion that many of us probably share.
But saying people have been ‘bought off by the board’ re McIntyre because we have announced a signing.
They’ve probably, even though they don’t particularly like the decision, just come to terms with it and are getting on with it like adults
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6 minutes ago, Tattie36 said:
Easy to laugh but I kind of agree with the sentiment.
A decent signing and some players re-signing and suddenly everyone seems to be happy to give McIntyre more time.
Even if all of our out of contract players re-sign and we bring in a few more players that doesn’t take away from the fact that McIntyre has been a disaster for us with not one iota of noticeable improvement. He’s been incapable of getting anything out of a squad containing (allegedly) some of the best part time players in Scotland and a load of his own signings, and I fail to see how that will change.
I’ve never seen a manager, any manager, turn this kind of situation around in all my years of watching football and I’d be astonished if McIntyre was the one to buck that trend.
Look...
The club have said what's happening, they gave everyone an opportunity to hear what's happening live and in person and the facility to ask any question you wanted if you needed to
It's not what you want, it's not what I want, it's not what a lot of people want, but it's the reality - the board have made a tough decision and they think that's what is best for the club
They know what the plans are and what McIntyre wants to put in place... we don't, none of us do. So I'm not going to personally sit and be arrogant enough to think that I know best and any other decision is flat out wrong
So people might not like it, I don't like it. But are folk really going to bang on every day until next season starts like stroppy children not getting their own way because I don't know why anyone would want to do that. They'd maybe be better off screaming it into a cushion instead. What is anyone gonna get out of constantly repeating themselves about wanting him sacked after it's all been addressed by the club and the decision has been made
McIntyre might not be a success next year. I lean that way with my thinking too but he is here to stay, the board like his plans for next season and going forward that's all he can be judged on, maybe just maybe it will work...
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Just now, ExiledLichtie said:
I'm not going to be bought off by our board announcing a signing.
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2 minutes ago, SmokeyJoe said:
Jmac obviously not getting binned off so no point repeating yourselves.
tbh today i thought we were a lot better. Apart from 5-10 min cluster f**k. Didn’t really see 1st goal but I thought boruc could easily swept up the 2nd by coming out to it.
clear to see who’s in managers plans by players selected from start and subs imo
Aye what’s the point banging on about McIntytre leaving now - meaningless football match for us playing against a team trying to secure their safety. He’s here to stay next year so give him a chance to build his team
His summer signings and the competitive games next year when they start are the only important things going forward now after Wednesday
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The Arbroath Thread
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
Few of my dads mates kicking about in there
Also proper good scenes behind the goals for all 3 second half goal’s especially the Tosh goal