The Ultimate Super Ayr Thread

[ryanayr1987]

8 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

All people will see is that we finished second and decided to sack him off. He’s being rightly praised by everyone outside the club for his efforts. 
 

At the end of the day he’ll be judged on his remit to keep us comfortably safe in the league and he surpassed that. Football wasn’t great post January but that’s the reality of this league. It’s a slog for the second half and we did it having lost a huge player in Chalmers.

I can see your point of view, but I also believe that any manager worth their salt would look at the club and go oh they finished second playing complete dog shit  for half a season, I can go there and improve them. 
 

Next season will be tough anyway but with bullen in charge and no dipo I fear  that we will be flirting heavily with relegation 

[AyrAtlanta]

34 minutes ago, D'Jaffo said:

But he didn’t get injured. As I said earlier the style of play was bad but at the end of the day it got us second place so there’s an argument to say that Bullen made the most with what he had after January. 
 

If we had finished way off it then yeah you can have a go but at the end of the day he set out what was achieved. He just did it in a not very exciting way. 

Over the last few weeks I’ve started to move towards this point of view.

For most of the season I had it down to Bullen being tactically inept and not extracting the best from our squad. But now I’m of the view that what we’ve seen is the best. Our squad is largely utter shite. Hardly any of them have a slither of football ability. And it’s mostly stuff you just can’t teach. Like Reading being dragged to the ball and leaving his man for example.

Maybe Bullen should be given more praise for getting us to 2nd with this squad. But then can he also take part of the blame for assembling it in the first place.

I’m done with the fitba anyway until the league cup group stage draw is made and then I’ll be dying for it to come back again.

[Iain]

The teams finishing first and third are looking for new managers, I don't think Ayr would stand out as a basket case if they decided to make a change. That said, nothing coming from the club has given any indication they're anything but pleased with Bullen's work, so it would be a surprise.

[eez-eh]

6 minutes ago, ryanayr1987 said:

I can see your point of view, but I also believe that any manager worth their salt would look at the club and go oh they finished second playing complete dog shit  for half a season, I can go there and improve them. 
 

Next season will be tough anyway but with bullen in charge and no dipo I fear  that we will be flirting heavily with relegation 

No they won’t. No one outside of us fans will actually have paid any attention to how bad the football was at times.

[GaryMc93]

13 minutes ago, Trogdor said:

He knows more than anyone that expectations for next season have been raised. He made reference to it being twice as hard next season and creating a rod for their own backs. 

Seems unrealistic if any fans expectation for next season is now 2nd and a play-off final as with the current squad they'll be left disappointed.

Think it's inevitable next season will be a step backwards but said it before I don't think it's the biggest issue as an overhaul is needed to make the next step so a 4th/5th/6th place next season with Ecrepont, Smith etc. getting more opportunities to try and develop isn't the worse thing. 

Mathie spoke previously about bringing in players, developing them and selling them on but outside of Akinyemi and Dempsey our next most valuable players are probably two 16 y/o with no first team starts so if that's the model then we need to move towards it. Most of the current squad next destination is more likely to be a club such as Morton or Chester rather than a step up.  

[Iain]

2 minutes ago, GaryMc93 said:

Seems unrealistic if any fans expectation for next season is now 2nd and a play-off final as with the current squad they'll be left disappointed.

Think it's inevitable next season will be a step backwards but said it before I don't think it's the biggest issue as an overhaul is needed to make the next step so a 4th/5th/6th place next season with Ecrepont, Smith etc. getting more opportunities to try and develop isn't the worse thing. 

Mathie spoke previously about bringing in players, developing them and selling them on but outside of Akinyemi and Dempsey our next most valuable players are probably two 16 y/o with no first team starts so if that's the model then we need to move towards it. Most of the current squad next destination is more likely to be a club such as Morton or Chester rather than a step up.  

But what about the huge warchest from selling Dipo and finishing second? Surely they can use that to raise the level?

[Aliayr76]

If you look at the players in the championship apart from some of them the majority of players go on the merry go round from club to club,not getting the probably step up which thay might think they should have.

[rb123!]

1 hour ago, D'Jaffo said:

Yes

The playoffs and Falkirk game aside it’s been a very good season. It’s just annoying that those sticking points were our biggest games in years. 

And probably how the season is going to be remembered for those moments instead of how the rest of it went. 

[AyrExile]

1 hour ago, Trogdor said:

This something special chat needs fired into the sea.  Getting to the play off final would be something. Getting promoted would be something special. Finishing 2nd by virtue of goal difference and when 2 points covered 5 teams is something.

That's not a criticism, you can only play what's in front of you and it was some last day, winning up in Inverness.

It's night and day compared to last season that's irrefutable but the something special patter is really annoying me.

We need to aim higher, I'm a firm believer in the standard you accept becoming the standard you expect. It was interesting to hear Bullen say that it showed how far we'd come but how far we are away from taking the next step. I think that's a good way to look at it!

I'm mellowing a bit but that 8-0 aggregate defeat will live long in the memory. That is utterly embarassing and I'm pretty sure it is a record defeat in such a scenario. 

I was encouraged by another thing he said which was that our players didn't have enough professional games under their belt. If you added up the appearances our players had made half the number of Partick's over their career. I think that bodes well in terms of signings, in that we'll be signing experienced players. Hopefully starting with a left and right back!

If you'd have said to me at the end of the league cup games we would finish second then i might well view that as being special 

[diegomarahenry]

11 hours ago, itzdrk said:

Quite possibly, seems like a fragile ego'd wee guy tbh 

I'm not so sure. When he had a bitch at you, he was responsible for the fuckup and fixing it, which he didn't seem likely to do. I imagine he was under immense pressure, buying the club you have supported s a boy, investing a small fortune in to it and immediately making a James Hunt of your second big decision after sacking Kerr. I am sure Smith would have felt hugely embarrassed at the impact Hopkin had. That being said, with every owner or chairman, they should be accountable and every decision scrutinised or you end up like Clyde, Hamilton, Airdrie, Clydebank. Morton, Inverness, Gretna, Dundee, Livingston, Motherwell,  Rangers, Raith, Kilmarnock....... 

He now has Mathie in between him and the football bit and I would hope Smith has had a chat with him over the last couple of days about how shite that was on Friday.
Mathie can conger up all the hashtags he wants (Smith had a dig at it after the Inverness game) and project charters but losing 5-0 at home in a vital game, where players were hiding and did not compete at all is a major failing that reflects badly on the club.
Smith had done his bit, Mathie has made changes to things that should benefit the club in the medium and long term but on the park needs major surgery and thats up to Mathie, through Bullen to fix. 

[diegomarahenry]

11 hours ago, rb123! said:

Muirhead was targeted with chants of “cheat” by sections of the home ground following his reaction to Akinyemi’s petulant striking out in the 25th minute, but the former Honest Man insists the brickbats were water off a duck’s back in the heat of battle at his former home ground and says the English forward only has himself to blame for being ordered off after connecting with his face.

“I knew I would get a bit of stick when I came back to Somerset,” he said. “It was just handbags really, but he shouldn’t have raised his hands like that. 
“I was getting called a cheat. But if you raise your hands, you give the referee a decision to make.
“His hand hit me in the face. It wasn’t a punch, but he still raised his hand and hit me in the face. 
“He never said anything to me afterwards, but I think he knew himself what the decision would be.
“Every time I touched the ball after that the fans were giving me stick and calling me a cheat. 
“It’s part and parcel of it. But I don’t want that to take away from what a good performance it was from us as a team.”

 

For Ayr’s Josh Mullin, meanwhile, it was a bitter end to a season once so full of promise for the Ayrshire side. 
“Yeah, look, I think it’s been a massive season for the club,” Mullin said. “I’m hearing it’s the highest Championship finish in our history.
“But it’s frustrating when you go on your holidays off the back of two results like that.
“It’s hard to then look at it as a positive, but you always try to pick out the positives and that’s what we need to do.
“It’s been a magnificent season, and it will just need to go one better next season.”

 

 

I spoke to a couple of Thistle fans I know and they were incredibly butthurt about anyone suggesting that Muirhead was cheating. Despite -

anyone with a working set of eyes seeing what happened.  
anyone who has seen or hear of Aaron Muirhead knowing what he is like. 

 

It is maybe a "Glasgow club" thing

[diegomarahenry]

Whoever is in charge of the club twitter should log out for a few hours, they are trying too hard. 

[Mod1967]

3 hours ago, WATTOO said:

Give it a rest

Got to agree with Wattoo here, it's blown out of all proportion now, I was angry when I saw it happening at the time, but I was in the hub and in hindsight it wasn't a celebration my take was it was defiance. 

The lads had been singing since the thistle fans walked past singing at the end of the game the pub was singing in defiance as they did in the Killie 1-3 defeat last season, what were they supposed to do shut up and greet.

Bullen doesn't always come into the hub he did last game last year to celebrate, I think he showed character to come in again, I personally don't think he should have sang, but after the anger and alcohol has worn off I'm sure he did it in solidarity and defiance more than celebrating. 

I never spoke to him but some in my company did and they said he was under no illusion how poor we were and how gutted he was.

I'm not sure on Bullen if I'm honest but he is a  hard working, decent individual who has improved the club as a whole, the worry is when it matters on match days that could be helped by a decent experienced coach, which they have definitely tried to get and I would imagine are still after. 

Our season absolutely fell flat, for me it started with injuries to the then excellent Musonda and Kirk followed by the loss of the best creative attacking player in the league Chalmers and the fall off of Mullin, non of which were anybody's fault, the recruitment however was poor but that's with the luxury of hindsight, I've saw Maguire down at Sheffield Wednesday and he was by a mile the best player on the pitch, but it didn't work out, McAlear looked a good signing he turned out a poor man's Joe Chalmers. 

A decent creative wide player wasn't replaced, definate mistake, a left back not brought in catastrophic mistake, but who knows we may have tried and failed, remember when all 3 CBs were fit Bullen dropped Reading, only Musonda's injury got him back in. Lessons to be learned from Bullen and for me recruitment must improve dramatically, a lot of that is tied to budget, remember we got 3rd bottom money last year, we will now get 2nd top plus Dipo transfer, huge difference. 

I did speak to someone in the know and apparently 3 signings are already all but tied up, no idea who or what positions, also a number of people stating that the left back problem hasn't been ignored. 

The club for the first time in my following them is moving in the right direction especially off the pitch, Smith has made mistakes, social media interest being one, but he is miles in front of the previous lying charlatans who went before and did nothing, absolutely nothing for the club, don't buy into their "I saved the club pish " It also went with "we're only wee Ayr" pish aswell. 

Friday showed the size of our club, imagine Thistles turn out for a second leg 3nil down. 

The club will go up I'm sure of it and It will now go up with an infrastructure and  connected to it's community (I'm not Graeme Mathie BTW ) and with proper ambition. 

Whether that's with Bullen or our current recruitment team I don't know, we'll know by October time I'd imagine and if not it's time to think again, but we will go, it's coming. 

Sorry for being long winded, but finally FFS no more Ashford that's just ridiculous. 

[AyrExile]

1 hour ago, ryanayr1987 said:

I can see your point of view, but I also believe that any manager worth their salt would look at the club and go oh they finished second playing complete dog shit  for half a season, I can go there and improve them. 
 

Next season will be tough anyway but with bullen in charge and no dipo I fear  that we will be flirting heavily with relegation 

Far too internally focused. Irrespective of our own performances a big reason for us being anywhere near the top was due to the inconsistency of the league. A few teams put little runs together but couldn't sustain it. What happens next year if some of the bigger teams get their act together?

Would the fans really be happy with a good passing game , some wins against the top teams and then finishing fourth or fifth? I guess there are a few who can find enough positives in any season but on paper its a tough season to beat.

2nd could be very hard for Bullen or any new person unless some serious cash is thrown at it. Bullen has earned the right to have a crack at it anyway. Reckon he will move though as the travelling lifestyle isn't great and probably this season has got his cv into shape.

Edited May 28, 2023 by AyrExile

[Guest]

3 hours ago, AnHonestMan said:

It's not a page I can stomach going on too often, but really been enjoying playing the best type of bingo on the SRE, while looking at what's been posted since Friday. 

"Look where we were last season"
"Shut up and just get behind the team"
"If you're not happy, go and support .........."
"Stop complaining about results/performance/anything because you don't go to enough games/I'm a bigger fan than you"
"It's only a game anyway"
"Support the club through tH1cK aNd th1N!!!!"

Full house?

Painful.

Yes, where as on here we've got the opposite as there's a group with an agenda who've done nothing but whine like spoiled little children or gossip and tell tales like the school clipe in order to try and talk down Bullen, Smith or anyone else in authority.

I can only assume they feel rejected or screwed over by something that's happened to them personally and are now intent on causing as much trouble as they can.

Thankfully most of the support base don't think like that and couldn't care less about the personal gripes of some of our "fans" as ultimately the club is moving forward, the matchday experience is as good as it's ever been and the team are getting results that are better than anything we've had in living memory so all good for me 

[D'Jaffo]

24 minutes ago, rb123! said:

And probably how the season is going to be remembered for those moments instead of how the rest of it went. 

And that’s up to them. Personally that’s not how I’ll remember it but fair dos. 

[GaryMc93]

1 hour ago, Iain said:

But what about the huge warchest from selling Dipo and finishing second? Surely they can use that to raise the level?

Well hopefully the club are more difficult to deal with than just rolling over and accepting any bid simply because Dipo is missing his family or we'll be lucky to get the 250k Burton offered in January.

Extra money for 2nd is useful but still limited in what we can do due to address certain areas due to players being under contract for next season without moving them on first.

[ayrunitedfw]

Think this is our situation squad wise for next season:

Under Contract: Charlie Albinson (2024), Ollie Ecrepont. (2025), Paddy Reading (2024)*, Frankie Musonda (2024), Sean McGinty (2025), Finn Ecrepont (2024) , Dylan Watreat (2025), Andy Murdoch (2024), Ben Dempsey (2025),David Bangala (2024)*,  Jayden Mitchell Lawson (2024)*, Michael Hewitt (2025), Paul Smith (2024), Carter Jenkins (2024), Dipo Akinyemi (2024), Sam Ashford (2024)*,  Mark McKenzie (2025), Fraser Bryden (2024), Max Guthrie (2025), Dario Vivianni (2024)

Out out of contract/End of Loans- Aidan McAdams , Jordan Houston, Alex Kirk, Nicholas McAllister, Daire O'Connor, Josh Mullin, Reece McAlear, Kinlay Bilham, Chris Maguire, Alex Jeanes, Kinlay Bilham,  Michael Moffat

* Indicates I wouldn't be averse to them moving on if a deal could be struck. 
 

Out of the out of contract lot I'd be only looking to offer deals to Josh Mullin and Nicholas McAllister. The rest can move on. I don't know enough about Jeanes or Bilham to really judge in fairness. 

[Trogdor]

WATTOO needs to log off. That's an absolute minter of a post.

[Sortmeout]

13 hours ago, Jeff Venom said:

And yet there's only one team in Ayrshire who's had a poverty porn TV show made there. What a town. 

Spot the conservative voter.

 

what is your problem with people in poverty? Do you not respect poor people? 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Sortmeout