The Alloa Athletic Thread

[Oweny]

Hey don't expect any loans in January or indeed the current loan players to stay . This COVID situation as we have seen recently has seen teams struggling to put a team out . St Mirren had to recall loan players from lower league teams . 

We will be down to the stars that we have signed already. 

[Oweny]

3 hours ago, Vegetableman said:

he was hunted out , the fans really turned on him 

Aberdeen were top of the pile then. Not a bad gig to land being Ferguson's assistant back then. He had ran out of gas at Alloa but he was nowhere near as bad as we have things now . Players are totally devoid of confidence. 

[Vegetableman]

26 minutes ago, Oweny said:

Hey don't expect any loans in January or indeed the current loan players to stay . This COVID situation as we have seen recently has seen teams struggling to put a team out . St Mirren had to recall loan players from lower league teams . 

We will be down to the stars that we have signed already. 

Stars ! see what you did there , wont make much difference to us  losing gilmour henderson niang , we will just lose by a bigger margin than we might have . 

As for garner , yes good player ,  went on  to manage Huntly after Aberdeen stint , disappeared afterwards as far as i know .

Edited December 29, 2021 by Vegetableman

[Oweny]

3 hours ago, Vegetableman said:

Stars ! see what you did there , wont make much difference to us  losing gilmour henderson niang , we will just lose by a bigger margin than we might have . 

As for garner , yes good player ,  went on  to manage Huntly after Aberdeen stint , disappeared afterwards as far as i know .

Henderson will be a loss . The other two are one good game in four at best . Nowhere near in terms of The quality we have had in the recent past in the middle of the park . 

[laughing gravie]

I hate to say it, not so much stars as stars in their eyes it's been a good number of years since we were in the 5yh tier

[Taylstheref]

So Laurie Ellis gets sacked at Queens who are above us and have a better results record. 

Unbelievable that our current incumbent seems so secure in his role. 

[OldCrabbitWasp]

I think it is good to give loyalty where it's deserved but if we lose on Sunday he has to go. The results have been poor this season but what worries me most is we don't appear to have any style of play, there isn't a stable starting 11 and there hasn't been any game this season when we have comfortably won the game.

[BFTD]

44 minutes ago, McCulloch No.5 said:

So Laurie Ellis gets sacked at Queens who are above us and have a better results record. 

Unbelievable that our current incumbent seems so secure in his role. 

Presumably they started the season with the aim of winning the title, and that's very much sliding away from them now.

Surely none of us thought we'd be in with a title shot once the new manager had been announced. If the board did, that's worrying.

[Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)]

Presumably they started the season with the aim of winning the title, and that's very much sliding away from them now.
Surely none of us thought we'd be in with a title shot once the new manager had been announced. If the board did, that's worrying.

The budget given to the manager definitely suggests we held similar ambitions to either win the league or qualify for promotion playoffs at minimum.

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, Father Barrys Sign (Top Half) said:

The budget given to the manager definitely suggests we held similar ambitions to either win the league or qualify for promotion playoffs at minimum.

Yeah, which makes it even more worrying. I can still only think that the board were hoping that having Barry Ferguson at the club would increase attendances.

I know your attitude at the start of the season was that, if we do well then who cares who's in charge, but you can't really have been thinking that it was likely to happen.

[Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)]

No I genuinely suspected even after the appointment that due to the existing squad still present at the club, that we would challenge in promotion play-off positions with an outside chance of going for the league.

Promotion play-offs still definitely attainable, although not looking likely at all on current form.

Also would have taken a season of transition had they appointed a guy like Andy Graham at the time.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)

[BFTD]

52 minutes ago, Father Barrys Sign (Top Half) said:

No I genuinely suspected even after the appointment that due to the existing squad still present at the club, that we would challenge in promotion play-off positions with an outside chance of going for the league.

Promotion play-offs still definitely attainable, although not looking likely at all on current form.

Also would have taken a season of transition had they appointed a guy like Andy Graham at the time.

All the more impressive, isn't it. The opposite of the Midas touch.

I think it's fair to say that most folk would have been a lot more understanding if we were in this position with Big Andy in charge, but he'd also have struggled to have made quite such a bizarre series of decisions, with no signs of learning anything from it. Unfortunately, we were well warned that this was likely to happen; it appears we're transitioning into Clyde.

[Father Barrys Sign (Top Half)]

9 minutes ago, BFTD said:

All the more impressive, isn't it. The opposite of the Midas touch.

I think it's fair to say that most folk would have been a lot more understanding if we were in this position with Big Andy in charge, but he'd also have struggled to have made quite such a bizarre series of decisions, with no signs of learning anything from it. Unfortunately, we were well warned that this was likely to happen; it appears we're transitioning into Clyde.

I think youre right in terms of supporters theoretically having more patience with Andy. Had results not been brilliant but we were heading in the right direction in terms of rebuild- Id like to think that would be a circumstance that would buy the club time in the supporters eyes. Sadly we currently look opposite from the outside looking in- the excellent team we had looks to be diminishing, in terms of individuals and the sum of its parts. 

There were changes made in the midfield against Airdrie, which didnt have any effect positively (albeit against the most well organised team in the league to Airdries credit). So lets see what the manager comes up with this weekend- because we need solutions and fast- this falls on him. Its a broken record I know, but that midfield has quality players right through it. Its taking something really special to have them performing way below their potential as they have as a unit in recent weeks.

 

 

 

[Vegetableman]

The difference here is that Ferguson has now managed 3 clubs ,  some experience (allegedly )., Whereas Andy would have been a new manager completely and for that would have been given more time by us no mistake .

Most of us here reckoned a shot at the playoffs (champs not league 2 ) were a reasonable target all things considered

and anything less is not acceptable , This was alluded to by MM and BF when he signed on as far as i can see .

so something has to give at some point , I will bet  MM knows exactly how the fans feel by word of mouth  so we shall see 

the breaking point to anyone with some sense surely ! will be when we get past the point of making the top four

this to me will be what MM has in mind IMO ,  I might be wrong but  sooner rather than later please !! .

[printer]

I think the club will give Barry F several more weeks at least, in particular I think they will give him the January transfer window to bring in a couple of players and see it that improves things results wise.

I think that is a fairly reasonable thing to do, but I'm well aware that there is a very real danger of finishing ninth or tenth if things don't improve.

 

[Tamhain]

1 hour ago, printer said:

I think the club will give Barry F several more weeks at least, in particular I think they will give him the January transfer window to bring in a couple of players and see it that improves things results wise.

I think that is a fairly reasonable thing to do, but I'm well aware that there is a very real danger of finishing ninth or tenth if things don't improve.

 

I would think that going by the absolute disaster he made of the last transfer window and the number of wasted wages we are paying for his non-playing signings, then giving him another window is the worst move possible for the club. The focus now should be on bringing in a manager that can steady the ship before it sinks, then build for next season. 

[printer]

1 minute ago, Tamhain said:

I would think that going by the absolute disaster he made of the last transfer window and the number of wasted wages we are paying for his non-playing signings, then giving him another window is the worst move possible for the club. The focus now should be on bringing in a manager that can steady the ship before it sinks, then build for next season. 

I have a deal of sympathy with your view, but I think he will still be manager during January at least.

[Taylstheref]

4 hours ago, Father Barrys Sign (Top Half) said:

I think youre right in terms of supporters theoretically having more patience with Andy. Had results not been brilliant but we were heading in the right direction in terms of rebuild- Id like to think that would be a circumstance that would buy the club time in the supporters eyes. Sadly we currently look opposite from the outside looking in- the excellent team we had looks to be diminishing, in terms of individuals and the sum of its parts. 

There were changes made in the midfield against Airdrie, which didnt have any effect positively (albeit against the most well organised team in the league to Airdries credit). So lets see what the manager comes up with this weekend- because we need solutions and fast- this falls on him. Its a broken record I know, but that midfield has quality players right through it. Its taking something really special to have them performing way below their potential as they have as a unit in recent weeks.

 

 

 

Cos the vast majority have no respect for the manager, dont want to play for him and think he's a end. Simples!

[Taylstheref]

3 hours ago, printer said:

I think the club will give Barry F several more weeks at least, in particular I think they will give him the January transfer window to bring in a couple of players and see it that improves things results wise.

I think that is a fairly reasonable thing to do, but I'm well aware that there is a very real danger of finishing ninth or tenth if things don't improve.

 

A couple! I expect wholesale change and a transfer window like we've never seen before 

[laughing gravie]

3 hours ago, printer said:

I think the club will give Barry F several more weeks at least, in particular I think they will give him the January transfer window to bring in a couple of players and see it that improves things results wise.

 

I doubt if any player with half a brain would waste his time coming to Alloa to have any skill they may have untapped.

If we were the only club looking during the transfer window there's an outside chance we may get a few loans, but in the harsh light of reality, we'll be lucky to get lower league players.

And just when we thought 2022 couldn't get any worse.