The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Iain]

The team had to outplay their budget last season to finish where they did. It stands to reason this year would be the same. With two part time teams in the league and QoS seemingly floundering a little it makes sense to roll back the investment for twelve months when the risk of relegation is low. Maybe they get lucky again as well. 

[Superhursty7]

The more I think of it the more this full reduced budget thing makes no sence. 1 when Shankland signed on last year no one could have imagined the start to the season he would have and only a few months later we would be rejecting bids of hundreds of thousands for him, if I'm not wrong was it not reported a bit like Dobbie one of the director's were funding his wages? So we don't have a black hole there from a potential transfer fee because we never anticipated one in the first place. 2 the £100,000 we apparently lost by being knocked out of the Scottish cup by Talbot how would anybody know what team we would have got in the cup at the start of the season we could have easily got a team in our league like Queens etc and been knocked out without it being sone big shock and let's be honest our Scottish cup record has not been great recently so why would we expect some great run. 3 The prize money we lost for losing out on 3rd the main aim at the start of the season was 8th surely we smashed the prize money that we assumed we would get anything above the £200,000 for 8th place was a bonus. 4 We didn't exactly go out and break the bank to try and get promoted Muirhead was our only permanent signing and I can't see us putting a lot of money to the wages of either Miller or Cadden. 5 according to Wikipedia our attendance went up by 35% last season that long with whatever TV money we got must have been a good deal more than what we got in league 1. So in conclusion either McCall is bluffing so agents/players aren't holding out for silly money or their is something very wrong behind the scenes

 

 

[Iain]

This is fantasy stuff. Any 'extra' money raised last year was spent last year. The club doesn't run at a profit.

[itzdrk]

6 hours ago, Superhursy7 said:

The more I think of it the more this full reduced budget thing makes no sence. 1 when Shankland signed on last year no one could have imagined the start to the season he would have and only a few months later we would be rejecting bids of hundreds of thousands for him, if I'm not wrong was it not reported a bit like Dobbie one of the director's were funding his wages? So we don't have a black hole there from a potential transfer fee because we never anticipated one in the first place. 2 the £100,000 we apparently lost by being knocked out of the Scottish cup by Talbot how would anybody know what team we would have got in the cup at the start of the season we could have easily got a team in our league like Queens etc and been knocked out without it being sone big shock and let's be honest our Scottish cup record has not been great recently so why would we expect some great run. 3 The prize money we lost for losing out on 3rd the main aim at the start of the season was 8th surely we smashed the prize money that we assumed we would get anything above the £200,000 for 8th place was a bonus. 4 We didn't exactly go out and break the bank to try and get promoted Muirhead was our only permanent signing and I can't see us putting a lot of money to the wages of either Miller or Cadden. 5 according to Wikipedia our attendance went up by 35% last season that long with whatever TV money we got must have been a good deal more than what we got in league 1. So in conclusion either McCall is bluffing so agents/players aren't holding out for silly money or their is something very wrong behind the scenes

 

 

The club also spent a lot more on doing up the ground than any other period of time I can remember, new PA system, #thenewwall and new electronic scanner gates.  All to make the ground Premiership compliant.  There was a cost to our overachieving. 

[D'Jaffo]

This is fantasy stuff. Any 'extra' money raised last year was spent last year. The club doesn't run at a profit.

This is a point that I don’t think enough people realise.

It’s not a case of at the end of the season the club are handed the £325,000 and Cameron just gives it all to McCall. The money is fished out over the season so most of it is probably spent already.

Add that to the fact that the club pushed the boat out last summer to hold onto Shankland, Crawford and McDaid etc so it wasn’t going to be a case of those 3 leave and all their money suddenly goes on new players.

As itzdrk says the stuff that the club have done for the ground is probably more expensive than people realise as well.

[Superhursty7]

I'm not not thinking we should be be flush and throwing money about but you would think we would have a similar budget to last season.

[pandarilla]

I go back to our disappointing attendance. We were top for ages but we didn't see any great improvement.

The town just isn't backing the team enough unfortunately, as infuriating as that is.

[Hawk89]

5 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said:

I'm not not thinking we should be be flush and throwing money about but you would think we would have a similar budget to last season.

It would be pure lunacy to give us a similar budget to last season, which will have increased as the season went on through a variety of factors. I have a feeling that if we put together a decent cup run and are sitting relatively close to 4th in January then we'll see some decent reinforcements coming in. 

The teams* who should  be at the top end of this league have budgets that will dwarf ours given their general size. It is going to be a slow burn to get Ayr up to that level and won't happen in the space of 1 season. The sensible thing to do this season is stay within our means, remain competitive and if the opportunity presents itself have a crack at the playoffs. 

The best teams like Ayr / Morton / QotS can reasonably expect this season is mid table with a good cup run, we had the added bonus last year of a blistering start. Alloa arguably overachieved last term and will probably have a similar showing mixing it up with any FT team that struggles. I wouldn't be too disappointed with P5-8 as long as we compete, have a solid cup run to fill up the coffers a little and build a foundation for next season where we can hopefully push for the playoffs again. 

* Partick / Dundee United / Dundee and to an extent ICT & Dunfermline with their new found millions from selling Longridge. 

[ayrunitedfw]

3 minutes ago, Hawk89 said:

It would be pure lunacy to give us a similar budget to last season, which will have increased as the season went on through a variety of factors. I have a feeling that if we put together a decent cup run and are sitting relatively close to 4th in January then we'll see some decent reinforcements coming in. 

The teams* who should  be at the top end of this league have budgets that will dwarf ours given their general size. It is going to be a slow burn to get Ayr up to that level and won't happen in the space of 1 season. The sensible thing to do this season is stay within our means, remain competitive and if the opportunity presents itself have a crack at the playoffs. 

The best teams like Ayr / Morton / QotS can reasonably expect this season is mid table with a good cup run, we had the added bonus last year of a blistering start. Alloa arguably overachieved last term and will probably have a similar showing mixing it up with any FT team that struggles. I wouldn't be too disappointed with P5-8 as long as we compete, have a solid cup run to fill up the coffers a little and build a foundation for next season where we can hopefully push for the playoffs again. 

* Partick / Dundee United / Dundee and to an extent ICT & Dunfermline with their new found millions from selling Longridge. 

With the budget we’ve been allegedly given the only place we’ll be finishing is 10th. 

[ftk]

With the budget we’ve been allegedly given the only place we’ll be finishing is 10th. 

But we wont have the lowest budget? Maybe 7th or 8th lowest budget. Last season we were 9th lowest I think?

I do find it strange why the budget has been cut though. Thought it would have stayed similar or slightly more than last season.

[Honest_Ally]

We spent a fortune on our new sign for Somerset, that's why we have a reduced budget.

[callum-ayr]

2 hours ago, itzdrk said:

The club also spent a lot more on doing up the ground than any other period of time I can remember, new PA system, #thenewwall and new electronic scanner gates.  All to make the ground Premiership compliant.  There was a cost to our overachieving. 

The new PA system and wall was coveted by the lottery I’m sure.

[Superhursty7]

Maybe the new online/electronic ticketing has cost a lot more than you would think, any way as I said tonight with the chairman will be interesting as we all know Lachlan is no shrinking violet and will call bullshit if he hears it.

[Superhursty7]

Just seen the post McCall is not quoted saying has vastly reduced budget he's says we are competing with teams with bigger budgets, the person writing the article says it's reduced, don't know if the post is adding 2+2 and getting 5

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Superhursy7 said:

The more I think of it the more this full reduced budget thing makes no sence. 1 when Shankland signed on last year no one could have imagined the start to the season he would have and only a few months later we would be rejecting bids of hundreds of thousands for him, if I'm not wrong was it not reported a bit like Dobbie one of the director's were funding his wages? So we don't have a black hole there from a potential transfer fee because we never anticipated one in the first place. 2 the £100,000 we apparently lost by being knocked out of the Scottish cup by Talbot how would anybody know what team we would have got in the cup at the start of the season we could have easily got a team in our league like Queens etc and been knocked out without it being sone big shock and let's be honest our Scottish cup record has not been great recently so why would we expect some great run. 3 The prize money we lost for losing out on 3rd the main aim at the start of the season was 8th surely we smashed the prize money that we assumed we would get anything above the £200,000 for 8th place was a bonus. 4 We didn't exactly go out and break the bank to try and get promoted Muirhead was our only permanent signing and I can't see us putting a lot of money to the wages of either Miller or Cadden. 5 according to Wikipedia our attendance went up by 35% last season that long with whatever TV money we got must have been a good deal more than what we got in league 1. So in conclusion either McCall is bluffing so agents/players aren't holding out for silly money or their is something very wrong behind the scenes

 

 

100% MY OWN VIEWS ON THIS.

[Honest_Man#1]

1 hour ago, ayrunitedfw said:

With the budget we’ve been allegedly given the only place we’ll be finishing is 10th. 

You'll need to give more time between each boxers-soaking heads gone to let them dry out or you’ll end up with trench cock.

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said:

Just seen the post McCall is not quoted saying has vastly reduced budget he's says we are competing with teams with bigger budgets, the person writing the article says it's reduced, don't know if the post is adding 2+2 and getting 5

Hopefully this is correct.

On the other point of us spending lots last season,well again, I'm just not buying this.

McDaid, Crawford and even Shankland were all League 1 players, they weren't proven Championship standard and prior to our good run clubs weren't exactly falling over themselves to offer them deals so I don't believe for one minute that they were all on crazy wages.

Smith possibly, as he was highly regarded, however without knowing budgets it could easily be argued that the four mentioned above were among our highest earners and all have now departed the club, so the way I see it is we MUST have money available as we surely find ourselves in a better financial position after a good season in the Championship than we did after our title winning season in League 1 ??

 

[Superhursty7]

Hopefully this is correct.
On the other point of us spending lots last season,well again, I'm just not buying this.
McDaid, Crawford and even Shankland were all League 1 players, they weren't proven Championship standard and prior to our good run clubs weren't exactly falling over themselves to offer them deals so I don't believe for one minute that they were all on crazy wages.
Smith possibly, as he was highly regarded, however without knowing budgets it could easily be argued that the four mentioned above were among our highest earners and all have now departed the club, so the way I see it is we MUST have money available as we surely find ourselves in a better financial position after a good season in the Championship than we did after our title winning season in League 1 ??
 

I really think McCall is using the media and the fans to put pressure on the board, if he seriously thought after last season he would be back to fighting for the players no one wants and fighting relegation again I think he would have ridden off into the sunset after Inverness, by that time he will have known what the budget for this season was and have targets in mind.

[Dunning1874]

29 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said:

Just seen the post McCall is not quoted saying has vastly reduced budget he's says we are competing with teams with bigger budgets, the person writing the article says it's reduced, don't know if the post is adding 2+2 and getting 5

Quite: it’s perfectly feasible that if you’re in competition with any of Partick, Dunfermline, Dundee and Dundee Utd for the same players, those clubs could all still offer substantially more money than Ayr even if your budget had increased.

I find the idea that Ayr have cut their budget to be the smallest in the league more than a bit fanciful, when you consider that there’s an additional part-time team in the league and Morton, who at an educated guess probably had the 8th biggest budget ahead of Ayr in 9th last season, are making enormous cuts.

[Kitty_Boy]

The last 20-odd pages are symptomatic of the club's biggest single failing: communication. 

Lachlan's Facebook Q&A is a) a month overdue and b) the wrong format. He's already lost control of the narrative to Ian McCall, the Ayrshire Post and - worse - the Somerset Road End. 

Like Dunfermline do (https://dafc.co.uk/story.php?t=DAFC_Board_Statement:_End_of_season_2018/19&ID=11232), and I'm sure many other clubs, the club needs to be a lot more transparent about its financial position, ambition and approach to budgeting.