The Airdrieonians Off Season Thread 2015

[airdrieman]

Pleased about Gilfillan. Solid and adds grit to the midfield. Versatile too. Hopefully we'll start to hear more about who's staying and who's going this week.

Buchanan greatly improved under Bollan and became one of the best centre - halves in the league; both at the back and going forward.

Didn't see him much for Dunfermline this year but was by all accounts one of their best players until the whole team chucked it in the 2nd half of the season. Think he'll make the step up no problem. He is better than Milojevic but I think it really helped improve Milojevic's game having someone so confident and reliable beside him.

Haven't seen Crighton play so unfair to comment but he doesn't come with high regards from Morton fans.

[Diamond120593]

Buchanan signing for Morton apparently. Hope he's better than Milojevic. He was poor. I hear that Crighton is signing for Airdrie! I think he pulled Mlojevic down! Lamie is better than both IMHO.

Take someone who rejected us in the first place? No thanks

[RAPID BENANO]

Any news on Jim lister?

[AJ77]

Any news on Jim lister?

Nothing yet, only watt and gils signed on for next season so far

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[AFC1878]

Lister will not be signed until pre-season is well underway. This will allow him to get his fitness back and to be assessed by the club accordingly. I don't believe he wants to go anywhere else anyway.

I understand John Boyle has been asked to report for pre-season training as well.

Would I be right in saying Prunty was only signed up to the end of the season. If this is the case, you would think he would be happy to sign on again.

[Diamonds are Forever]

If John Boyle could re-capture the form he was in before his knee injury he'd be a good signing. However we haven't seen it since he returned, mainly because he only gets 5 minutes at the end of the game but you'd think if Bollan had faith in him he'd have given him more of a chance. I certainly don't think there's any point in keeping him if he's only going to be getting 5-10 minutes at the end of a game like this season, doesn't do either him or us any good. If he reckons he'll be fit and good enough to be a regular striker then good, if not then let him go and play elsewhere.

[airdrieman]

Boyle's finished. Can't rely on him to have an extended run in the team as he's more than likely to get injured again, as happened at the start of the season. I'd rather have someone we can rely on to play regularly and make an impact off the bench.

I assume/hope Prunty will be staying. 14 goals was an impressive return and no reason why he can't get that or more again next season.

We should look to try and bring in a younger replacement for Lister (Kirwan?) as even if he does play this season he's not going to make it much further beyond that.

[Tulloch Gorum]

Blockley, Gray and Kirway away.

Would have liked to have kept Blockley - despite his often careless passing he always give 100%, even when the team is playing badly, and can break up play in the middle quite well. Limited, but does a job at his level. Good luck to him and other others finding a new club this summer.
http://airdriefc.com/news/2015/05/departures

[AJ77]

As far as I'm aware, no decisions have been made yet, and will not be made until after the manager has met with the chairman which to my knowledge hasn't happened either.

Told you

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[airdrieman]

Can't argue about the other two. Gray was disappointing, when we signed him I thought he was going to be good, but contributed nothing and missed an alarming amount of one on ones and Kirwan wasn't seen for virtually the whole year.

Blockley's a funny one. I'm not too disappointed to see him go providing Bollan can bring in someone better. His passing is awful and his positional sense left a lot to be desired but he was excellent at breaking up the play and winning the ball. Chipped in with the odd goal too. I think he'll find another club at this level no bother.

[WeeDiamond90]

Kind of disappointed we let Blockley go, if we can find a better player to replace him with then fair enough, but last year we brought in Hamill who was going to solve all our midfield issues and look what happened there...

Not to shocked to see Gray and Kirwan go to be honest, made nearly no impact during their time at the club

Would be happy enough to offer Boyle one more year to try and recapture his form from a few seasons back, especially if there are doubts over Listers fitness for the start of the new season

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Wha's the deal with Blockley? I remember him being excellent about 3 or 4 years ago.

[glesgadiamond]

Wha's the deal with Blockley? I remember him being excellent about 3 or 4 years ago.

Think its a combination of both bollan doesnt fancy him and hasnt really progressed in 3 years. Showed massive potential when came in to team but lately been on fringes of first team.

[Diamonds are Forever]

Wha's the deal with Blockley? I remember him being excellent about 3 or 4 years ago.

He may have had the odd excellent game, not sure any Airdrie fan would have described him as an excellent player/prospect though. He's pretty much the same player now as he was 4 years ago, mainly due to his lack of technical ability (although in fairness he has scored a few crackers). To be honest I think he's done very well to get to this level given his ability. He can definetely fit into a certain system and do a good job at this level though. However he's not a player that you could build a team around.

I wouldn't have minded him staying as he can do a job, chips in with a few goals every season and is pretty versatile, and presumably he isn't a big earner. As is mentioned above with Joe Hamill, somtimes you're maybe better sticking with what you know than taking a risk with an unknown, suppose Bollan gets paid to make these decisions though.

[thediamonddude]

Blockley's replacement is already there - Bryan Gilfillan. Gilfillan is very similar to Blockley in my view, except he is much more rounded due to his experience. He's tough in the tackle just like Nathan, but his passing is much better & he can organise.

I'm not surprised that Nathan is gone and not too disappointed either. If this had happened last summer I would have been concerned, but he really had to make strides forward this season, and he hasn't.

He's got the potential but just hasn't pushed on at all. I can think of maybe 2 or 3 excellent performances from Blockley this year but he never followed them up. He came in for the injured Gilfillan in the home game against Morton toward the end of the season & was inspirational, yet started next week against Stranraer and was non-existent. He did that far too often for me.

I know Bollan almost let him go last January and that he's had his injury problems along with fitness issues, so it's probably for the best.

Just hoping we get the rest signed up ASAP as with those players on board, we could build on what would be a very good spine for our squad.

[Diamond120593]

Ayr interested in Paddy Boyle according to the Tiser

[kerrdavidson95]

Ayr interested in Paddy Boyle according to the Tiser

I would like to say no, but what are the chances of Ayr splashing about silly money again?

[Shibuya]

We don't have silly money so pretty much zero chance.

Saying that, I do feel we are giving McCall a bit more financial backing than Roberts got last year. I have nothing to back that up, just appears that way to me.

[Diamonds are Forever]

They will be paying more money than us, that's for sure. Boyle will be away, as will a couple of others.

[thediamonddude]

They will be paying more money than us, that's for sure. Boyle will be away, as will a couple of others.

As I said in the Ayr thread though, surely whatever they are offering, we could at least match it? The guy is our captain, player of the year and in the League 1 team of the year!

Every summer we get told that we've offered players outstanding deals to stay but when teams with a huge difference in budgets or full time status come in - you can't compete. Ayr aren't full time and as others have said, they don't have silly money. It just doesn't add up to me.

You can't argue with players going full time or moving to 'better things' but if we start losing our best players to teams on our level, we'll never have a remotely successful team.

This season in particular, it's crucial we make a good go of this league. It's the last year of Bollan's deal & the league sponsor has increased the pay day depending on your position in the table. It's very much in our chairman's interest that we finish fairly high up.