The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[Superhursty7]

Not sure how he did at Livi on trial but going by this article he impressed at Harrogate I'm not sure what their standard is though https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/sport/football/daire-oconnor-catches-the-eye-on-trial-at-harrogate-town-3317484

[North Terrace Gazza]

11 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said:

Not sure how he did at Livi on trial but going by this article he impressed at Harrogate I'm not sure what their standard is though https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/sport/football/daire-oconnor-catches-the-eye-on-trial-at-harrogate-town-3317484

So that suggests Harrogate are going to get first option on him then?

[Dauntless]

19 minutes ago, North Terrace Gazza said:

So that suggests Harrogate are going to get first option on him then?

Judging by the time line we may be beyond their option .

[diegomarahenry]

50 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said:

Not sure how he did at Livi on trial but going by this article he impressed at Harrogate I'm not sure what their standard is though https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/sport/football/daire-oconnor-catches-the-eye-on-trial-at-harrogate-town-3317484

That looks like it was written by his agent and sent to the paper along with some "incentives" 

It misleadingly calls him a former Republic of Ireland International. He has 3 under 19 caps according to Transfermarkt  from 2015.

I'm calling bullshit on that article, it may as well say "paid promotion" at the top. 

 

Daire O'Connor, Superstar

He wears red shorts and he wears a bra

Edited July 28, 2021 by diegomarahenry

[Jeff Venom]

Not sure how he did at Livi on trial but going by this article he impressed at Harrogate I'm not sure what their standard is though https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/sport/football/daire-oconnor-catches-the-eye-on-trial-at-harrogate-town-3317484

They're League 2 which is where Nicky Cadden plays with Forest Green Rovers, for example.

[vikingTON]

On 27/07/2021 at 10:37, Iain said:

Can't have too much depth. You can sign the best xi in the league but most weeks they won't all be available.

You can quite clearly have too much depth if Hopkin spunks all his budget in one position and neglects the rest of his squad. Which is why his Morton squad last season had about 11 midfielders and no backup goalkeeper or centre forward worthy of the name. 

[Hawk89]

6 minutes ago, virginton said:

You can quite clearly have too much depth if Hopkin spunks all his budget in one position and neglects the rest of his squad. Which is why his Morton squad last season had about 11 midfielders and no backup goalkeeper or centre forward worthy of the name. 

I raise you one Robbie Muirhead in the SPFL team of the week. 

[D'Jaffo]

You can quite clearly have too much depth if Hopkin spunks all his budget in one position and neglects the rest of his squad. Which is why his Morton squad last season had about 11 midfielders and no backup goalkeeper or centre forward worthy of the name. 

That isn’t an issue with us… yet. We of course need to bring players in up top but there’s no evidence of Hopkin stockpiling in any one position.

[vikingTON]

7 minutes ago, Hawk89 said:

I raise you one Robbie Muirhead in the SPFL team of the week. 

Hopkin played him at left back though.

Edited July 28, 2021 by vikingTON

[vikingTON]

1 minute ago, D'Jaffo said:

That isn’t an issue with us… yet. We of course need to bring players in up top but there’s no evidence of Hopkin stockpiling in any one position.

The discussion was literally about you stockpiling players in one position and you're now phoning Rent-a-Jobber for those players up top so yeah, that looks like the way it's going. 

[AUFC 1910]

16 minutes ago, virginton said:

You can quite clearly have too much depth if Hopkin spunks all his budget in one position and neglects the rest of his squad. Which is why his Morton squad last season had about 11 midfielders and no backup goalkeeper or centre forward worthy of the name. 

Strangely, and against previous warnings, Hopkin seems to be quite reserved in filling and overfilling specific positions.  Some of the fan base feels he is not spending anywhere close to the expected budget.

He certainly started at the back and has added from there, but quite evenly spread throughout the positions - with the exception of goal scorer.

[D'Jaffo]

The discussion was literally about you stockpiling players in one position and you're now phoning Rent-a-Jobber for those players up top so yeah, that looks like the way it's going. 

Not really though.

[D'Jaffo]

Strangely, and against previous warnings, Hopkin seems to be quite reserved in filling and overfilling specific positions.  Some of the fan base feels he is not spending anywhere close to the expected budget.
He certainly started at the back and has added from there, but quite evenly spread throughout the positions - with the exception of goal scorer.

I think the only thing that’s stopped us spending loads of cash is the fact that we’ve missed out on Todorov and Smith. Both would probably have become our top earners.

[diegomarahenry]

Just now, AUFC 1910 said:

Strangely, and against previous warnings, Hopkin seems to be quite reserved in filling and overfilling specific positions.  Some of the fan base feels he is not spending anywhere close to the expected budget.

He certainly started at the back and has added from there, but quite evenly spread throughout the positions - with the exception of goal scorer.

It looks like he shot his bolt early with the defence. We now have 4 centre half’s plus Miller. 2 left backs and 3 right backs, again counting Miller

2 full time goalkeepers 

We have 1 midfielder that is competent and proven in Murdoch. The jury is out on Salkeld. 

we have 3 forwards, one who is new, one who is in his twilight and one who is still learning. 

there is an imbalance in the squad, if you look at numbers, look at who failed last season and don’t show any signs of being allowed to develop or improve this year, these create gaps in the squad, if you look at lack of numbers, attacking options are few and far between.

Zero goals conceded in the league cup group stages and a goal a game average on the games we competed in, 2/3 against lower league opposition don’t look great stats over a season. If we lose Adeloye at any point this year, it will be like the season we had Forrest and Harkins up front. 

[callum-ayr]

I don’t think we’re stock piled in defence, we’re just under stocked in attack. There’s obviously a budget still there, it’s just about getting the right guys. 

[Jeff Venom]

The discussion was literally about you stockpiling players in one position and you're now phoning Rent-a-Jobber for those players up top so yeah, that looks like the way it's going. 

Thanks for popping by though pal.

[eez-eh]

11 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

It looks like he shot his bolt early with the defence. We now have 4 centre half’s plus Miller. 2 left backs and 3 right backs, again counting Miller

2 full time goalkeepers 

We have 1 midfielder that is competent and proven in Murdoch. The jury is out on Salkeld. 

we have 3 forwards, one who is new, one who is in his twilight and one who is still learning. 

there is an imbalance in the squad, if you look at numbers, look at who failed last season and don’t show any signs of being allowed to develop or improve this year, these create gaps in the squad, if you look at lack of numbers, attacking options are few and far between.

Zero goals conceded in the league cup group stages and a goal a game average on the games we competed in, 2/3 against lower league opposition don’t look great stats over a season. If we lose Adeloye at any point this year, it will be like the season we had Forrest and Harkins up front. 

I’m no Hopkin fanboy but you don’t half put a spin on things.

Miller doesn’t play centre back so I’m not sure why you’d include him there. He’s primarily played in midfield for us. It also seems pretty clear that Hewitt that will be used far more in midfield than defence.

Four centre backs is absolutely normal, even more so if you’re playing 3 at the back or if Muirhead spends some time in midfield, it’s the same number of them we had last season after Ndaba joined.

And heaven forbid we have two competent goalkeepers in the squad to avoid a repeat of last seasons last minute loan shambles.

We need more forwards and some creativity in midfield, absolutely. But it’s nothing like the ridiculously imbalanced squad Morton had last season.

[Trogdor]

The squad is imbalanced, that's pretty evident.

With 3/4 additions in the right places it would be fairly well balanced but we're overstocked in defence at the moment relative to the midfield and strikers.

[Dauntless]

1 minute ago, Trogdor said:

With 3/4 additions in the right places it would be fairly well balanced but we're overstocked in defence at the moment relative to the midfield and strikers

Rubbish .

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, diegomarahenry said:

It looks like he shot his bolt early with the defence. We now have 4 centre half’s plus Miller. 2 left backs and 3 right backs, again counting Miller

2 full time goalkeepers 

We have 1 midfielder that is competent and proven in Murdoch. The jury is out on Salkeld. 

we have 3 forwards, one who is new, one who is in his twilight and one who is still learning. 

there is an imbalance in the squad, if you look at numbers, look at who failed last season and don’t show any signs of being allowed to develop or improve this year, these create gaps in the squad, if you look at lack of numbers, attacking options are few and far between.

Zero goals conceded in the league cup group stages and a goal a game average on the games we competed in, 2/3 against lower league opposition don’t look great stats over a season. If we lose Adeloye at any point this year, it will be like the season we had Forrest and Harkins up front. 

The worry is that it may not even be that good !!

Moffat and McKenzie are really our only other forward options and we don't really have any midfield goalscorers either, nor do we have a creative ball player (based on last seasons evidence that isn't Chalmers), so it really is a MUST that we bring at least a couple in.

In fairness to Hopkin, he obviously appreciates this as was trying to secure Smith only recently (from what we're led to believe) so would reckon / hope that all the stops are being pulled out to get someone in.

The Burnley situation is another one which i'd like the club to clarify as this wouldn't be disadvantaging us / tipping off a rival, since it would relate to our exclusive (within Scotland) partnership agreement with them.

It would set many of our minds at rest and give a much needed boost if the club were to announce that we were even "looking" at bringing in a couple from Burnley but what do i know.