The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[rb123!]

6 minutes ago, BukyOHare said:

Using your last post, how would you define investing? 

I'm guessing footing the bill for an attractive product on the park and relative success / over achieving, then in return get more people through the gate? Now like it or not, the first parts are happening and has been happening for the best part of three seasons, the second part sadly isn't. 

I'm definitely not a club apologist but sometimes you have to try and bring some sanity to the party. 

I'll try:

Why don't the club run a chosen fixture where every season ticket holder / au500 / lottery member is allowed to bring one, two or three other people to the game and then get a local business to put up a prize in a raffle draw for those in attendance. 

Try it, try anything, just try. 

 

Well we know Cameron is putting the bare minimum into the club now and rightly so, however it would nice to have someone who's willing to use their chequebook a bit more, i'm not talking to stupid amounts like Dundee United but even along the lines of what Weir did at Thistle, just a couple of million to even invest in a proper academy and training infrastructure would be a nice start to building a more competitive platform.

[D'Jaffo]

I’m not as concerned about the ownership now with David Smith coming on board. All we need to do is keep him happy and there’s a fair chance he’ll buy Cameron out in a year or two.

We’re going nowhere right now as a club and I think it’s down to the board not knowing where to start. Simply throwing money at the playing squad is unsustainable and in an ideal world we would grow off the pitch a bit. That was the big thing that McCall kept saying last season. The club on the pitch was way way ahead of the club off the pitch.

[BukyOHare]

You've almost got to treat a certain generation as a bonus if they ever comeback. 

You get into schools now and you make it attractive for kids to want to come along. If they come along then they bring a parent / guardian with them. 

You start them young and you keep trying to bring them. I don't know how successful our community coaching is, but getting those who attend training sessions to come along on matchdays. 

Having boys teams to have a training session in the late morning with academy coaches, a bite to eat in the Ally MacLeid suite and then entry to the game.

The next Alan Forrest or Luke McCowan might be amongst them. There's always a bigger picture. 

Build relationships with teams at all levels of the game. We all share that common passion and love for the same sport. 

Huge apologies if similar is actually and regularly going on. 

Try, fail, try again. 

In the past it seemed to be that it was done for a game, maybe two and then binned as a failure. 

Things need to change if we're going to be doing anything. 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by BukyOHare

[BukyOHare]

1 hour ago, 19QOS19 said:

Dumfries Love Island? 

[Trogdor]

Just now, BukyOHare said:

Dumfries Love Island? 

Greenie for the cheap shot.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Trogdor

[eez-eh]

49 minutes ago, Robbo63 said:

Best football for years last season and still only about 300 more than the season we were relegated ,our days of slightly  over 2000 fans has long gone , can’t say it’s down to how we are playing as last season proves 

We were up about 2,500-3,000 in the first half of last season which I think was good progress (even early this season we had a few gates like that as we were playing well). Our form as well as a bunch of rearranged midweek and Friday night games in the second half of the season saw that fall right on its arse though.

Football fans are generally fickle but I’d say ours are probably even more so. We can easily add an extra 1,000-1,500 onto the gate if we’re playing well or have a big game. As soon as we turn in a few bad performances though they all disappear.

[diegomarahenry]

I came across this tonight, former player Julian Dow wasn't particularly pleasant about his time at Ayr. 

https://www.planetfootball.com/in-depth/amazing-story-julian-dowe-career-man-utd-latvia/

[BukyOHare]

10 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

I’m not as concerned about the ownership now with David Smith coming on board. All we need to do is keep him happy and there’s a fair chance he’ll buy Cameron out in a year or two.

We’re going nowhere right now as a club and I think it’s down to the board not knowing where to start. Simply throwing money at the playing squad is unsustainable and in an ideal world we would grow off the pitch a bit. That was the big thing that McCall kept saying last season. The club on the pitch was way way ahead of the club off the pitch.

If that is indeed the case then we should genuinely be concerned and I'd take things a stage further and say if the directors don't know where to start then:

A) Shouldn't they know? 

B) Why don't they know? 

C) If they don't know after this long in charge will they ever know? 

D) Who is actually supposed to know? 

The saviour King David excepted.

If what you say is accurate, then his face during board meetings must be an absolute picture coming from a multi million pound industry into the equivalent of a schools parent council meeting. 

Penny for his real thoughts. 

[UpInTheAyr]

3 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

I came across this tonight, former player Julian Dow wasn't particularly pleasant about his time at Ayr. 

https://www.planetfootball.com/in-depth/amazing-story-julian-dowe-career-man-utd-latvia/

That was a brutal read.

Believe every word of it though.

Any idea who the sacked player would have been?

[Trogdor]

4 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

I came across this tonight, former player Julian Dow wasn't particularly pleasant about his time at Ayr. 

https://www.planetfootball.com/in-depth/amazing-story-julian-dowe-career-man-utd-latvia/

Argh

[diegomarahenry]

Just now, UpInTheAyr said:

That was a brutal read.

Believe every word of it though.

Any idea who the sacked player would have been?

No idea, with the turnover of players then, you could narrow it down to about 15. 

[D'Jaffo]

If that is indeed the case then we should genuinely be concerned and I'd take things a stage further and say if the directors don't know where to start then:
A) Shouldn't they know? 
B) Why don't they know? 
C) If they don't know after this long in charge will they ever know? 
D) Who is actually supposed to know? 
The saviour King David excepted.
If what you say is accurate, then his face during board meetings must be an absolute picture coming from a multi million pound industry into the equivalent of a schools parent council meeting. 
Penny for his real thoughts. 

I’m not concerned as I don’t think they’re so clueless that they’ll f**k the whole club up and have us in the Lowland League. The main focus is keeping a squad on the pitch that doesn’t go down. But with this board I think we’ll just be stuck where we are. Going from season to season on contracts and struggling in the market much like other clubs in this division that are of similar size. Of course this is only possible for so long before you do start to face the prospect of going down but I’m hoping there’s a change of leadership before that.

I’m not proclaiming David Smith the saviour as he has zero experience of running a football club but I’ve a bit of faith that a guy who obviously supports Ayr so isn’t likely to f**k us over and who can also bring fresh ideas and have an AMBITION (yes I said it) to progress the club. This doesn’t mean buying loads of players and winning the league but moving on from what appears from the outside to be more of a part time operation.

I’m not criticising here. I think there’s a lot of good people at the club who have the clubs best intentions at heart but the fact is a change of leadership is necessary.

[ayrunitedfw]

Far too much is made about our attendances. It’s the same across the board in Scotland mainly due to the pricing and standard of Football. We are still comfortably getting better crowd than similar sized clubs like Morton and Qots. 

[diegomarahenry]

Both Dundee clubs are now American owned, the guy that tried to buy Thistle before the Weir buy-out I am sure was American. 

How come we have the only American that doesn't want to put money in to Scottish football. 

[Finlay21]

2 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

Both Dundee clubs are now American owned, the guy that tried to buy Thistle before the Weir buy-out I am sure was American. 

How come we have the only American that doesn't want to put money in to Scottish football. 

All those guys are new to the scene , Dundee United latest figures showing a loss of £73k per WEEK , the guy can’t maintain that , Cameron been around a long time and seeing no money to be made , bet you none of those guys are still there in 10 years like Cameron has been 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Robbo63

[D'Jaffo]

Both Dundee clubs are now American owned, the guy that tried to buy Thistle before the Weir buy-out I am sure was American. 
How come we have the only American that doesn't want to put money in to Scottish football. 

The difference being the Dundee clubs were bought whereas we just landed on Cameron’s lap with him having very little interest in the club.

He’s only really kept us this far because his Dad was a supporter but I can understand why he no longer feels he can keep up the investment. All I ask is he doesn’t stand in the way of any buyers, provided they’re not trying to use us purely for their own self gain.

[BukyOHare]

3 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

I’m not concerned as I don’t think they’re so clueless that they’ll f**k the whole club up and have us in the Lowland League. The main focus is keeping a squad on the pitch that doesn’t go down. But with this board I think we’ll just be stuck where we are. Going from season to season on contracts and struggling in the market much like other clubs in this division that are of similar size. Of course this is only possible for so long before you do start to face the prospect of going down but I’m hoping there’s a change of leadership before that.

I’m not proclaiming David Smith the saviour as he has zero experience of running a football club but I’ve a bit of faith that a guy who obviously supports Ayr so isn’t likely to f**k us over and who can also bring fresh ideas and have an AMBITION (yes I said it) to progress the club. This doesn’t mean buying loads of players and winning the league but moving on from what appears from the outside to be more of a part time operation.

I’m not criticising here. I think there’s a lot of good people at the club who have the clubs best intentions at heart but the fact is a change of leadership is necessary.

Sorry but I am, if only to cling onto a hope and belief that the club, from within the boardroom, are going to try and help themselves. 

Bigger attendances, bigger budget. Easier said than done but I've not handed over a 5 figure sum just to sit in padded seats and eat vol au vents at half time every 2nd Saturday. 

 

[diegomarahenry]

2 minutes ago, Robbo63 said:

All those guys are new to the scene , Dundee United latest figures showing a loss of £73k per WEEK , the guy can’t maintain that , Cameron been around a long time and seeing no money to be made , bet you none of those guys are still there in 10 years like Cameron has been 

 

Just now, D'Jaffo said:

The difference being the Dundee clubs were bought whereas we just landed on Cameron’s lap with him having very little interest in the club.

He’s only really kept us this far because his Dad was a supporter but I can understand why he no longer feels he can keep up the investment. All I ask is he doesn’t stand in the way of any buyers, provided they’re not trying to use us purely for their own self gain.

It wasn't an entirely serious post.

If we are to progress to the premier league, we need a perfect storm like Livingston or Hamilton. It didn't happen last year, we needed investment at Christmas to keep the challenge up on Ross County and we didn't have a board willing/capable. 

A decent start after promotion can keep you in the league for a year or so as Livingston and Ross County have shown and I think we blew the chance last year, the result is we are now having the best squad assembled for 15 years plundered by teams round about us and no investment to keep the momentum up. 

When the club showed ambition, keeping Shankland etc, the fans responded and bought shirts and season tickets, put in to the 500 club....a year later the message, via McCall was, the ambition from Cameron, in particular had gone. If the club looks like it is moving forward, fans will put more money in. 

[ayrunitedfw]

Cameron has no desire (not saying the dreaded A word) to progress us as a club and is just happy to sustain us until such a time he is able to pass on the club to a new owner.  Crowds are going to continue to dwindle until such a time as this happens or Cameron does a U-Turn and puts some money in. From a business POV you would of thought we would be a much more attractive proposition as a premiership club. 
 

This league is complete dug meat and last season and this season was a perfect opportunity to give us a good chance of promotion. We still sit in a decent position this season so all is not lost but we must get a few decent players in. 

[diegomarahenry]

2 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said:

Cameron has no desire (not saying the dreaded A word) to progress us as a club and is just happy to sustain us until such a time he is able to pass on the club to a new owner.  Crowds are going to continue to dwindle until such a time as this happens or Cameron does a U-Turn and puts some money in. From a business POV you would of thought we would be a much more attractive proposition as a premiership club. 
 

This league is complete dug meat and last season and this season was a perfect opportunity to give us a good chance of promotion. We still sit in a decent position this season so all is not lost but we must get a few decent players in. 

To sustain a challenge, we need about six new players in and not lose any. We will have the budget for two, The replacement for Kerr's playing wage and the compensation from Thistle will get us two players in that won't be fit.