Diamonds are Forever Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Now that Ayr are safe, Roberts' stupidity at not playing Crawford, and Forrest being injured for chunks of the season, has probably helped as it means they'll still be at Ayr next season. They need a goalscoring striker (don't we all) but more importantly a decent defence. The majority of goals we scored against Ayr this season were total gifts. What the likes of Stranraer, Forfar and ourselves (since October) showed is that all you need is a solid defence in this league and you'll do well as you'll always get chances at the other end. People often say you need a manager who 'knows the league' and it's very true in this case. Unless you have lots of money to throw at quality strikers like Morton then you need a manager who knows that firstly you need to set up to be solid and hard to beat. If you're a clown like Scott Booth trying to implement some footballing philosophy then you'll have a soft centre and end up failing. I think McCall knows this and will sort it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheldonCooper Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 McCall has probably being working over the last couple of weeks identifying what type of player he needs. Crawford, Forrest and Donald are contracted for next season already. I would also like to keep Murphy (in a player/coach role), JP, Blakeman and Devin (he is a must). Hutton, Bobo, Robertson and Gilmour will all be released I think. Beattie will prob go too as it never really worked out for him, he did however care about the club. With regards to the loanees would love to keep McKenna and Preston as there's so much potential there and both players have progressed well during their time at the club. Murray fell out of favour and never really impressed and Morgyn Neill was a stop gap who really just warmed the bench. There are some decent youngsters at U20 level and it was interesting to hear McCall say he was off to the game at Ibrox today so he will run the rule over them again today. What Diamonds said is spot on. We need another decent centre half who will make us tough to get through and a decent left back. A gritty hard centre mid that will complement what we have and a must is a right mid. If Blakeman stays we will have two left midfielders which is unknown for Ayr. Ideally we need to look at what Stranraer have done on a smaller budget. Aitken has picked up some decent players on frees and got them playing well and hard to breakdown. He complimented a decent side form 2013/14 and turned them into serious title winners. Hopefully without the Roberts effect and the rumour that McCall will be taking training in Glasgow and a couple of times in Ayr a week we should be able to start attracting decent players at this level and build a team similar to what Reid had and be challenging up the top end again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diegomarahenry Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Probably the time from March to September will have a baring on McCalls future in management, Ayr took a chance on him returning himself and the club to former "glory" Keeping Ayr up was step one, step two has to be putting a team together to mount a challenge to the league, failure to do this would be horrific for both parties. Cameron needs to be a bit more adventurous this year and gamble on the fact McCall knows what he is doing by giving him a decent wage budget to bring in a decent spine of a team because if we get to September and a McCall GTF thread is required then the club is truly fcuked, we need a winning team to get crowds back over the 1000/1500 mark regularly. With the sponsorship tied up and the strips on sale hopefully McCall knows what he has to work with next season and has already spoken to one or two. Regardless of Hutton staying or not we need a new keeper, someone told me we were signing Scott Fox from Partick and for a few hours I thought this was a decent signing until I checked and he is still first choice at Thistle so this will be bollocks. Assuming we keep Campbell through his testimonial year (on the pay per play deal) and if Murphy stays, we probably need a left back, right back (Muir?) and another center half at least. Midfield, I wouldn't be heartbroken if they all left but wouldn't be annoyed if they kept McGovern and Blakeman, need to sign a ball winner Marvin Wilson/Duncan George type Forwards, With Nisbet, Forrest and McKenzie, potentially Preston and maybe Beattie I'd like to see one more, there were times it just wasn't happening for Preston, Forrest and Beattie and bringing on an 18 year old wasn't the answer so McCall seemed to take ages to make the change Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Probably the time from March to September will have a baring on McCalls future in management, Ayr took a chance on him returning himself and the club to former "glory" Keeping Ayr up was step one, step two has to be putting a team together to mount a challenge to the league, failure to do this would be horrific for both parties. Cameron needs to be a bit more adventurous this year and gamble on the fact McCall knows what he is doing by giving him a decent wage budget to bring in a decent spine of a team because if we get to September and a McCall GTF thread is required then the club is truly fcuked, we need a winning team to get crowds back over the 1000/1500 mark regularly. With the sponsorship tied up and the strips on sale hopefully McCall knows what he has to work with next season and has already spoken to one or two. Regardless of Hutton staying or not we need a new keeper, someone told me we were signing Scott Fox from Partick and for a few hours I thought this was a decent signing until I checked and he is still first choice at Thistle so this will be bollocks. Assuming we keep Campbell through his testimonial year (on the pay per play deal) and if Murphy stays, we probably need a left back, right back (Muir?) and another center half at least. Midfield, I wouldn't be heartbroken if they all left but wouldn't be annoyed if they kept McGovern and Blakeman, need to sign a ball winner Marvin Wilson/Duncan George type Forwards, With Nisbet, Forrest and McKenzie, potentially Preston and maybe Beattie I'd like to see one more, there were times it just wasn't happening for Preston, Forrest and Beattie and bringing on an 18 year old wasn't the answer so McCall seemed to take ages to make the change Johnny Tuffey is the name I've heard. Think his contracts up with Linfield and has played under McCall at Partick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk89 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Firstly shouldn't this be the Ayr United promotion thread 2015/16? (Sorry still buzzing from yesterday) In all seriousness I'd say next seasons target at minimum should be playoffs, I'd like to think that every club in this league would have that as their minimum target. Anyone know whats going on with McGurn? Switched over to Sportsound last weekend when AU Media died to hear he was on the bench for Raith. He's 34 but as Rab Douglas has proved keepers in this league can keep going for a couple of years over 35. I agree mostly with people everyone is saying to keep etc, however Beattie is one I'd like to see back for a "proper" pre season, to see if McCall can get his fitness back. I'd also like to see Campbell back next year one an appearance based wage as cover rather than starting centre half, he'd probably be a decent guy to have around the academy as a defensive coach given his experience and quality in his younger days. Preston looked to me still pretty raw, but he's had a really tough gig at Ayr this season and very much has been thrown in at the deep end. Only managed to see him play twice since he joined and he's certainly come on a fair bit between the start of his tenure and yesterday. With a decent strike partner he'll be lethal at this level with a bit more experience under his belt, certainly a player in there. Had a good chat yesterday about JP and Devlin post match for me Devlin shaded him by the finest of margins but can see exactly why other would have said he was Motm. Both put in absolutely immense performances and are musts for next season. Get the feeling Devlin will be happy to stay (fingers crossed) by his tweets yesterday, really hope we'll retain them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Firstly shouldn't this be the Ayr United promotion thread 2015/16? (Sorry still buzzing from yesterday) In all seriousness I'd say next seasons target at minimum should be playoffs, I'd like to think that every club in this league would have that as their minimum target. Anyone know whats going on with McGurn? Switched over to Sportsound last weekend when AU Media died to hear he was on the bench for Raith. He's 34 but as Rab Douglas has proved keepers in this league can keep going for a couple of years over 35. I agree mostly with people everyone is saying to keep etc, however Beattie is one I'd like to see back for a "proper" pre season, to see if McCall can get his fitness back. I'd also like to see Campbell back next year one an appearance based wage as cover rather than starting centre half, he'd probably be a decent guy to have around the academy as a defensive coach given his experience and quality in his younger days. Preston looked to me still pretty raw, but he's had a really tough gig at Ayr this season and very much has been thrown in at the deep end. Only managed to see him play twice since he joined and he's certainly come on a fair bit between the start of his tenure and yesterday. With a decent strike partner he'll be lethal at this level with a bit more experience under his belt, certainly a player in there. Had a good chat yesterday about JP and Devlin post match for me Devlin shaded him by the finest of margins but can see exactly why other would have said he was Motm. Both put in absolutely immense performances and are musts for next season. Get the feeling Devlin will be happy to stay (fingers crossed) by his tweets yesterday, really hope we'll retain them. 5 goals in 14 games for an 18 year old playing senior football for the first time is a really good return I think. He's grown into the team the longer he's been here and I expect/hope he's here next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thumper Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Fifteen defenders. Fifteen. Spend all of the money on all of the defenders. And Michael Moffat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 At the very least we need a new goalkeeper, two centre backs, a left back, two central midfielders and a striker. Tuffey would be an excellent signing. Always rated him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honestmen Posted May 3, 2015 Author Share Posted May 3, 2015 Tuffey would be a fantastic start to our rebuilding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strolling Frank Rolling Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 McCall has always talked about knowing what type of player is needed to get out of this league. I'm sure a couple of good early signings and a couple of loans and we won't be far away. I think McCall will go with experience first and foremost. Expect us to be top 4 all year. Would love to see Moffat and Preston up front next year!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk89 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Really depends how McCall feels we'll line up next season, if its 3-5-2 again then I'd want 5 players that can play at centre half four of them natural centre halves. On top of that 2 that can play on each side of the three, would probably decimate our budget but atleast we'd have defensive cover for once which would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibuya Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Please God no more Martyn Campbell, that ship sailed about three years ago! Sounds like Preston will be back and possibly McKenna too. Have heard the Tuffey rumour myself but who knows if it'll happen. Honestly think the back four will be transformed with a decent goalie, whoever it is. Would like to see us sign some proper experienced pros who are still capable of playing a bit and can support the younger players coming through. Going to be an interesting few weeks for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperShug1910 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 When do teams usually start signing players up for next season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest honestrae95 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Awww. Quite sweet you've turned out again, after so much time biting your wrists. Been really busy pretending to be a lawyer mate, it's hard work. Which reminds me I better be off, got lots of work to pretend to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Been really busy pretending to be a lawyer mate, it's hard work. Which reminds me I better be off, got lots of work to pretend to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk89 Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Been really busy pretending to be a lawyer mate, it's hard work. Which reminds me I better be off, got lots of work to pretend to do. To be honest teams have probably started approaching targets already, wouldn't be surprised if we hear within the next fortnight about signings from outside of clubs once the playoffs are over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrunitedfw Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Looking forward to next season already. Hopefully we can have the core of our squad signed up and they can get a decent pre-season behind them Under- contract we have: Crawford Forrest Donald Plus a few youngsters who haven't featured much in the first team Keep(in order of importance) Devlin- hopefully on a long-term deal Murphy McGovern Blakeman Hope also to see Preston and McKenna return on loan, looks pretty certain that Preston will be back. Release: Hutton Donald- although is under-contract Gilmour Beattie Robertson Campbell Neil- loan end Murray- loan end Regarding signings I heard the Tuffey rumour but he has signed a two year deal with Glenavon. Maybe after about 3 years of chasing, Bobby Barr might finally put pen to paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whistle Blower Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Anyone know whats going on with McGurn? Switched over to Sportsound last weekend when AU Media died to hear he was on the bench for Raith. He's 34 but as Rab Douglas has proved keepers in this league can keep going for a couple of years over 35. Signed a 2 year contract last week, with an option for a 3rd year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrunitedfw Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Signed a 2 year contract last week, with an option for a 3rd year. Cuthbert likely to be released? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawk89 Posted May 4, 2015 Share Posted May 4, 2015 Signed a 2 year contract last week, with an option for a 3rd year. Guessing he'll see out his career at Raith then. Cuthbert likely to be released? Would take him back in a heart beat, cracking keeper especially for this level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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