Ayr United - 17-18 rumblings and mumblings

[ayrmad]

44 minutes ago, Tam_O_Shanter said:

Don't know if it's been posted already but the accounts for the year ended 30/6/2016 have been published.  A quick scan shows the club lost £281, 348 in their season  in the Championship, about £95,000 more than they lost in the previous promotion winning season. Wages for 30 playing staff and 11 Admin and support staff  was £644,369; £206,545 more than the previous season, but there were 6 more players on the books for the 15/16 season; these figures means that the  wages to turnover ratio for 15/16 is a whopping 93% up from 85% the previous year. The Club has also been named as a defender in an action for loss of wages by a former employee, any idea who that would be?

 

 

 

We could buy a season ticket for the worlds greatest baker with some of those figures Tam.

[UpInTheAyr]

Isn't wages to turnover supposed to be around 50% for a football club to be on a solid financial footing? At least it is for the big clubs, not sure how much that applies to a club like Ayr. Doesn't seem sustainable long term going by those figures anyway. The loss of wages employee might be the player (can't remember who) who couldn't play because of a development fee wrangle or some sort, sure it was at court sometime earlier this year.

[pogo1910]

11 hours ago, Tam_O_Shanter said:

Don't know if it's been posted already but the accounts for the year ended 30/6/2016 have been published.  A quick scan shows the club lost £281, 348 in their season  in the Championship, about £95,000 more than they lost in the previous promotion winning season. Wages for 30 playing staff and 11 Admin and support staff  was £644,369; £206,545 more than the previous season, but there were 6 more players on the books for the 15/16 season; these figures means that the  wages to turnover ratio for 15/16 is a whopping 93% up from 85% the previous year. The Club has also been named as a defender in an action for loss of wages by a former employee, any idea who that would be?

 

 

 

Im sure i read something a a while back about it being that wee sex pest Tiffonney 

[honestly united]

11 hours ago, UpInTheAyr said:

Isn't wages to turnover supposed to be around 50% for a football club to be on a solid financial footing? At least it is for the big clubs, not sure how much that applies to a club like Ayr. Doesn't seem sustainable long term going by those figures anyway. The loss of wages employee might be the player (can't remember who) who couldn't play because of a development fee wrangle or some sort, sure it was at court sometime earlier this year.

Tends to be about 60-70% for the big clubs (ie top leagues in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France) as they have to keep in the fair play guidelines now. However if you look at the Championship in England for 2015/16 there were only a handfull of clubs getting anywhere close to this 

https://www.insidermedia.com/insider/national/football-finance-wages-outstrip-turnover

[sci-fi]

We were in League One for season 15/16, the accounts for the Championship season of 16/17 won't be public until this time next year surely?

Not that I'm expecting better news there.

[Tam_O_Shanter]

4 hours ago, sci-fi said:

We were in League One for season 15/16, the accounts for the Championship season of 16/17 won't be public until this time next year surely?

Not that I'm expecting better news there.

Correct, brain fade is a terrible thing. It depressed me even more when I then realised that we were paying wages of 85% of out turnover for a Mark Roberts team

[rb123!]

Where exactly did this information come from?

[itzdrk]

Where exactly did this information come from?

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC005950/filing-history

[ayrunitedfw]

Banks Of Dee away in the Scottish Cup. Amazing. 

[No_Problemo]

Have been thinking about this recently.

How many players has McCall helped to improve during his time here?

Forrest has went backwards, alarmingly so. McGuffie has stalled. Docherty isn't the player he was when he first joined.

I would suggest we have seen improvements in Devlin (defensively) and Crawford but that's about it.

[Richey Edwards]

If Alan Forrest didn't have a famous brother he'd be playing Junior.

[Shibuya]

Fast Facts

Ayr United have out-shot opposition teams 82 to 50 at Somerset Park.

Ayr have had almost twice as many shots on target as the opposition at home, 37-20

Ayr have outscored opponents by 12-7 at Somerset Park.

Despite all this, in 5 home games we have already dropped 7 points. I can't even begin to explain how that has happened.

[Hursty]

It's frustrating and a bit of a worry that in 2 of the last 3 home games we have had far more possession, chances etc and yet drawn both games.  

So that's the first quarter of the season done - 5 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats. It's not too bad but on the other hand really should have been better, especially based on those 2 home draws.  Keep that up and it's 68 points. 

 

Vital that we win at Forfar on Saturday - really can't afford to lose any games between now and the home game with Raith.

[Shibuya]

Raith will have a dodgy spell at some point but we need to close that gap otherwise our season will quickly turn into a malaise, knowing we're playoff bound come February.

[pandarilla]

Killer instinct required.

That game was absolutely there to be one yesterday. We. need to be a bit more direct (not in a long ball sense, just more attacking), with one or two more committed to the attack.

[1nickydevlin]

We should have one

[waysider]

14 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

Killer instinct required.

That game was absolutely there to be one yesterday. We. need to be a bit more direct (not in a long ball sense, just more attacking), with one or two more committed to the attack.
 

You'd probably be better off with two or three.

[Mgc1910]

Anybody watching that team who thinks our problems lie in the attacking third is off their head.  Alloa were never in the game and scored 3 goals.  Airdrie were never in the game and scored twice.  Airdrie were barely over the halfway line in the first half until they won a corner.  Was anyone really surprised when they scored with a free header from 6 yards?  

To sum it up, the defence, and in particular the central defence is gash.  Throw in a bombscare goalkeeper and we are shooting ourselves in the foot on a weekly basis.  I just don't see any leadership, physical dominance  or mental strength in that defence.  What I do see is a collection of steady Eddie type defenders playing the percentages and looking decent until they are faced with some actual serious defending to do.

All that said, there is an overwhelming sense that McCall is simply not getting the best out of what we have.  How many times do we hear the "we should have won by 5 or 6 and I don't understand why we didn't" after match interview?  McGuffie showed some early promise but is crumbling before our eyes (sadly) with his inclusion yesterday inexplicable.  McCalls tactics of 4-4-2 in all circumstances no matter the players he has at his disposal is incredibly frustrating and utterly predictable.  His only thought for changing a game is swapping the wide men for 10 minutes then swapping them back.  Hooking Shankland for Moore just felt like change for the sake of it when we could have gone 4-3-3 .

[D'Jaffo]

Our problems are at both ends unfortunately. If we’re to have any chance of winning the league we need to be clinical. Moffat in particular needs to start scoring goals as does McDaid.

On the flip side I’d agree that our defence isn’t that good. Higgins is a good defender and Rose has the makings of one but lacks experience. I can’t think of any goals that either of those have been directly responsible for. However we’ve been very vulnerable from set pieces again this season. I expected the switch to full time to help this since they’d get more time working on how to defend them but every time we give a corner away I’m praying they don’t concede.

I’m a fan of Rose but if Reid is fit I’d give him a game with Higgins to see how we get on. Maybe two experienced heads at the back will help but if it doesn’t then Scally or McCall need to do better in training to get the team prepared at set pieces.

[Mgc1910]

Just now, somerset_lad00 said:

Our problems are at both ends unfortunately. If we’re to have any chance of winning the league we need to be clinical. Moffat in particular needs to start scoring goals as does McDaid.

On the flip side I’d agree that our defence isn’t that good. Higgins is a good defender and Rose has the makings of one but lacks experience. I can’t think of any goals that either of those have been directly responsible for. However we’ve been very vulnerable from set pieces again this season. I expected the switch to full time to help this since they’d get more time working on how to defend them but every time we give a corner away I’m praying they don’t concede.

I’m a fan of Rose but if Reid is fit I’d give him a game with Higgins to see how we get on. Maybe two experienced heads at the back will help but if it doesn’t then Scally or McCall need to do better in training to get the team prepared at set pieces.

We must be one of the highest scoring teams in the country.  Our problem is that we need to score 3 even 4 goals  in order to win a game, which isn't sustainable.  Higgins would probably be ok with a big stopper alongside him.  If he was fit (!) I'd probably put Adams to centre back.  Rose might be ok as a sweeper in a 3 man defence, but the jury is so far out on that one you'd need a telescope to see it.  Reid is an odd one.  Fans at his previous clubs seem to rate him, so maybe his legs have gone.