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The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread


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So drop one and (hopefullyj play Bangala with Murdoch.  The other can provide cover.  The only real alternative we have at the moment Is Smith - I wish the lad nothing but good things, but he hasn’t done enough yet to suggest we can really depend on him if the likes of Murdoch gets injured - same goes for Hewitt and Bryden.  
The problem we have is that most teams are playing 3 in the middle at the moment, so Murdoch and Dempsey are often being outnumbered.  On top of that, the options we’ve tried wide of a 4-4-2 have thus far proven to be pretty ineffective.  Hopefully the 3-5-2 experiment from the league cup has been consigned to the tactical dustbin.  As I say, I really thought the “plan” was to transition us to a 4-3-3 setup, hence the signing of JML and Dipo and the retention of O’Connor and Ashford.
I take the point that I don’t know what is going on behind the scenes, but I’m not sure what would be more concerning - a) that our coaching team looked at Allan and Crawford and genuinely thought they wouldn’t improve us or b) we did go for them and lost out to Morton and Arbroath - would make the talk of signing mcinroy and Sibbald look even more unrealistic.

Idk why we’d drop Dempsey for Crawford when the former gives us so much more. I love Rab but he wouldn’t start for us. He’s not the kind of midfielder we need.
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14 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

Anyone who thinks that Dempsey isn't up to it is obviously watching different football matches to me.

 

 

Agreed, seemed like the only player pressing and trying to get forward from the middle at the weekend, before Murdoch's belter.

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I'm not sure what some are thinking or insinuating here but it seems rather bizarre.

Is it that,

A) Our recruitment team and Manager don't know about players that we all know about ?

B) They do know of these players but are either incompetent or just out of pure badness aren't signing players that might improve us ?

C) The talk of having a good budget is a lie and we don't really have any money for signing new players or aren't prepared to offer the going rate ?

I'm not buying any of the above and would expect us to still be making a couple of good signings and I'm sure there are very good reasons why we haven't approached certain players despite what some seem to think.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, WATTOO said:

I'm not sure what some are thinking or insinuating here but it seems rather bizarre.

Is it that,

A) Our recruitment team and Manager don't know about players that we all know about ?

B) They do know of these players but are either incompetent or just out of pure badness aren't signing players that might improve us ?

C) The talk of having a good budget is a lie and we don't really have any money for signing new players or aren't prepared to offer the going rate ?

I'm not buying any of the above and would expect us to still be making a couple of good signings and I'm sure there are very good reasons why we haven't approached certain players despite what some seem to think.

 

 

What you have said is speculation.

The reality is, we have signed 4 players in 4 months and have 2 weeks left of the window. The majority of players capable of putting a shift in at this level have been signed up by other clubs.

We were told that plenty of players have been identified, spoken to “ambitious” targets and failed and spoken to players who weren’t the right fit. We also apparently made big offers for players we didn’t get like Adeloye, Maxwell and McInroy. 
 

Now we are being told we made offers for players and we were always looking at the loan market anyway. 
 

Something has gone wrong this window and they have 2 weeks to prove they are capable of fixing it.

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Both Murdoch and Dempsey are similar (and far superior) players to Crawford. We didn’t/don’t need him.

it’s blatantly obvious we’re crying out for a creative, attacking midfielder. A replacement for McInroy essentially. A guy who will chip in with 5+ goals. Stephen Kelly is the standout player and if he’s even slightly interested I’d be pushing the boat out to secure him. 
 

Were also in need of another striker to help out Dipo. Ugwu or Chalmers would both be acceptable options there. 
 

Think it was @WATTOO who mentioned how we tried to keep Adeloye and McInroy while offering Sibbald a deal so I’d be surprised if we still didn’t have a decent sized budget there. Certainly enough to get the required quality in. 

Edited by ayrunitedfw
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1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:


Idk why we’d drop Dempsey for Crawford when the former gives us so much more. I love Rab but he wouldn’t start for us. He’s not the kind of midfielder we need.

Struggling to see that if I’m honest.  I think they’ve very similar players doing a very similar job - neither scores goals or creates chances, but both are mobile energetic types who will press the ball,  scrap for 2nd balls and generally look to recycle possession.  Finding out which one was better would have been a good problem to have, though I still think moving to a 3 man midfield is the way to go for Ayr, so there could easily have been a place for both, particularly if Bangala is stuck in visa purgatory for the foreseeable future.  Would also have added a bit of depth if and when we hit injuries.  

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20 minutes ago, rb123! said:

They'll be no new signings before Saturday as i'd imagine the team will be travelling up to Aberdeen tomorrow and staying over

Think I’ve accepted there won’t be anyone in before the Dundee game tbh, never mind Saturday!

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Both Murdoch and Dempsey are similar (and far superior) players to Crawford. We didn’t/don’t need him.
it’s blatantly obvious we’re crying out for a creative, attacking midfielder. A replacement for McInroy essentially. A guy who will chip in with 5+ goals. Stephen Kelly is the standout player and if he’s even slightly interested I’d be pushing the boat out to secure him. 
 
Were also in need of another striker to help out Dipo. Ugwu or Chalmers would both be acceptable options there. 
 
Think it was [mention=39137]WATTOO[/mention] who mentioned how we tried to keep Adeloye and McInroy while offering Sibbald a deal so I’d be surprised if we still didn’t have a decent sized budget there. Certainly enough to get the required quality in. 

Chalmers is a winger iirc. I’d still take him though. Ugwu would be decent but won’t score that many.
Struggling to see that if I’m honest.  I think they’ve very similar players doing a very similar job - neither scores goals or creates chances, but both are mobile energetic types who will press the ball,  scrap for 2nd balls and generally look to recycle possession.  Finding out which one was better would have been a good problem to have, though I still think moving to a 3 man midfield is the way to go for Ayr, so there could easily have been a place for both, particularly if Bangala is stuck in visa purgatory for the foreseeable future.  Would also have added a bit of depth if and when we hit injuries.  

If they’re similar players then why would we sign Crawford? I think Dempsey is hugely underrated by our support but he’s a fantastic midfielder.
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8 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:


Chalmers is a winger iirc. I’d still take him though. Ugwu would be decent but won’t score that many.

If they’re similar players then why would we sign Crawford? I think Dempsey is hugely underrated by our support but he’s a fantastic midfielder.

Because we need a squad of players.  It’s not that long ago that we had Ross Docherty, Andy Murdoch, Robbie Crawford, Jamie Adams, Mark Kerr and Andy Geggan on our books at the same time, all capable of playing midfield for us.  Now we have 2 midfielders in Dempsey and Murdoch who basically need to play ever week, backed up by a French guy that no one at the club has ever seen play football, and who can’t get into the country anyway,  plus a couple of players breaking through from the youth team.  Crawford would have been a worthwhile addition to a wafer thin squad.  

The kind of attacking midfielder we really need are rare finds at out level.  Prior to Mcinroy, I think you’d have to go back to Ryan Stevenson to find a midfielder who could create and score from the middle of the park.  We’re kidding ourselves on if we think Stephen Kelly is coming to Ayr.

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Because we need a squad of players.  It’s not that long ago that we had Ross Docherty, Andy Murdoch, Robbie Crawford, Jamie Adams, Mark Kerr and Andy Geggan on our books at the same time, all capable of playing midfield for us.  Now we have 2 midfielders in Dempsey and Murdoch who basically need to play ever week, backed up by a French guy that no one at the club has ever seen play football, and who can’t get into the country anyway,  plus a couple of players breaking through from the youth team.  Crawford would have been a worthwhile addition to a wafer thin squad.  
The kind of attacking midfielder we really need are rare finds at out level.  Prior to Mcinroy, I think you’d have to go back to Ryan Stevenson to find a midfielder who could create and score from the middle of the park.  We’re kidding ourselves on if we think Stephen Kelly is coming to Ayr.

Adding depth is fine once you’ve got all the players together that are going to be starting matches. Robbie Crawford wouldn’t start for us and even if he did he wouldn’t offer anything different to what we have just now. If we had the type of midfielder we need and with plenty to cash to spare then aye I’d love Crawford back. We aren’t a club that can afford to have someone like him as back up. We’ve got Hewitt and Smith for that role. Whether they’re young players or not they are now a big part of the squad. It’s up to them to improve and get into the team this season. I think both of them are ready to play for us.
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15 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:


Adding depth is fine once you’ve got all the players together that are going to be starting matches. Robbie Crawford wouldn’t start for us and even if he did he wouldn’t offer anything different to what we have just now. If we had the type of midfielder we need and with plenty to cash to spare then aye I’d love Crawford back. We aren’t a club that can afford to have someone like him as back up. We’ve got Hewitt and Smith for that role. Whether they’re young players or not they are now a big part of the squad. It’s up to them to improve and get into the team this season. I think both of them are ready to play for us.

Depends how you set up.  If we went to a 3 man midfield, Crawford would start every week.  That would only change if Bangala turns out to be good and/or gets his visa in which case Dempsey, Murdoch or Crawford would drop out.  You obviously rate Dempsey highly so it would be Crawford who would miss out.  I’m personally not convinced on the basis that I think Crawford uses the ball better, but as I say, figuring that out would be a nice problem to have.  Dempsey has bags of potential but has started barely a dozen games for Ayr, if that.  Crawford played over 200 games for Ayr and was a key part of the teams that got promoted and won the league under McCall.  His finest hour was probably the 5-0 game against Dundee Utd.  Shankland got the plaudits, but Murdoch and Crawford were outstanding that night in the middle of the park - I’ve rarely seen Ayr go away from home to a place like Tannadice and dominate a midfield like that.  Since then he’s spent 3 years in the premier league so would likely be coming back to us as a more rounded and experienced player.  

The idea that a team that has finished 8th in the championship for the last 2 years couldn’t make use of BOTH players is just crazy.  Our whole thinking seems to be based on a Stephen Kelly type player falling out of the sky into our laps, which is even crazier.

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I love both Dempsey and Crawford as players. 

I would suggest that Crawford is more skilful and better on the ball but Dempsey adds something completely different to our midfield that we haven’t had in a long time - intensity, drive, aggression and an ability to drive forward with the ball while still able to do the basics. 

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