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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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10 hours ago, Passionate said:

Very quiet the last couple of weeks as a sceptical Airdrie can (aren't we all) that means either good or bad news is going to break.....   Even ITK types are quiet either that or Prunty has been told to zip it.

The squads are beginning to take shape throughout the division,  as starting 11s go we look decent enough,  no squad although signInge  still to come,   looking forward to seeing Easton in action and he seems a goalscorer as well,   although another striker is required, we are not nearly in as bad shape as some teams who appear in dire straits on the striker front.

 

hopefully some news soon, but it may depend on what trialist s Falkirk don't want ,  Paul McKay came that way...

 

league looks tighter and with more quality this year.....

We have Gallagher, Pyott and Allan, who do you think is in dire straits, Allan could not get a start for Forfar, Pyott  has no experience at this level, and although Gallagher will get us goals if given the service, he needs a player to play off him, 

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1 hour ago, Jack Reed said:

We have Gallagher, Pyott and Allan, who do you think is in dire straits, Allan could not get a start for Forfar, Pyott  has no experience at this level, and although Gallagher will get us goals if given the service, he needs a player to play off him, 

No disrespect to the teams mentioned, but  Peter head and Dumbarton have virtually no forward players.   I would say we are on a par with Falkirk, East Fife, Montrose in the striking dept,  Clyde have Goodwillie who in normal years would get 20 easy, is surrounded by some horrific signings,  it I s still relatively early to finalise squads..   I think we have a much better balanced midfield on paper, which will help to create chances for the strikers, Do you think Gal could get 15 to 20 this season...???

 

We have Motherwell in less than 3 weeks in the cup,   ' Whit Cip"

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Near enough every team in the league will be looking for a proven striker but unfortunately there just aren’t many of them around these days. I think we will bring in another striker but probably someone on loan. I’d be delighted if we were able to bring Kyle Connell back as we need someone like him who’s tall, decent in the air and can also score a few goals. I’m not saying we couldn’t do with improving that area but Gallagher, loan striker, Allan and Pyott isn’t too different to what we had last season. I think 15 goals is a reasonable aim for Gallagher this season, assuming he gets better service, and I don’t think we’ll find better than that within our budget.

Given Murray’s comments on quality over quantity I reckon we will be going with a smaller squad this year. We finished last season with 27 players and the year before had about 35 including the reserves, which is ridiculous at this level. We have 17 players listed on the website at the moment, albeit one is Thomas Robert. I reckon we’re another defender (someone who can cover centre back and maybe left back), a defensive midfielder (an alternative to Paul Paton), a wide player (a replacement for Robert when he inevitably goes) and a striker away from the squad being finished. At least a couple of those signings will be loans so it makes sense why we haven’t heard much for a couple of weeks.

The squad so far seems quite well suited to the 3-5-2 system we had success with towards the end of last season. Currie will remain in goals, Wardrop and Quitongo coming in as full backs and a back three of Watson, Kerr and Fordyce is pretty similar to what we had last year. We know the club tried to sign Paul Paton again, so are presumably still looking for a holding midfielder, with McCabe and Agnew as the more attacking midfielders in front of him. I reckon Easton will play quite high up the pitch, probably alongside Gallagher but given a bit more freedom to create things. 

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7 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

Did Ritchie possibly sign a two year deal last summer as well as Robert? Certainly seems that way.

Yeah it does seem like he was already under contract. Giving him a two year deal seems quite strange. I remember Kyle MacDonald initially signed a one year deal which was extended to two after he played a certain number of games, I suppose it could be something like that. 

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6 hours ago, Mr November said:

Near enough every team in the league will be looking for a proven striker but unfortunately there just aren’t many of them around these days. I think we will bring in another striker but probably someone on loan. I’d be delighted if we were able to bring Kyle Connell back as we need someone like him who’s tall, decent in the air and can also score a few goals. I’m not saying we couldn’t do with improving that area but Gallagher, loan striker, Allan and Pyott isn’t too different to what we had last season. I think 15 goals is a reasonable aim for Gallagher this season, assuming he gets better service, and I don’t think we’ll find better than that within our budget.

Given Murray’s comments on quality over quantity I reckon we will be going with a smaller squad this year. We finished last season with 27 players and the year before had about 35 including the reserves, which is ridiculous at this level. We have 17 players listed on the website at the moment, albeit one is Thomas Robert. I reckon we’re another defender (someone who can cover centre back and maybe left back), a defensive midfielder (an alternative to Paul Paton), a wide player (a replacement for Robert when he inevitably goes) and a striker away from the squad being finished. At least a couple of those signings will be loans so it makes sense why we haven’t heard much for a couple of weeks.

The squad so far seems quite well suited to the 3-5-2 system we had success with towards the end of last season. Currie will remain in goals, Wardrop and Quitongo coming in as full backs and a back three of Watson, Kerr and Fordyce is pretty similar to what we had last year. We know the club tried to sign Paul Paton again, so are presumably still looking for a holding midfielder, with McCabe and Agnew as the more attacking midfielders in front of him. I reckon Easton will play quite high up the pitch, probably alongside Gallagher but given a bit more freedom to create things. 

Kyle Connell  would be a good signing, here's hoping, 

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7 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

Has Connell signed a new deal with Killie? I know he was offered one and I'd be surprised if he didn't accept it but I'd love to have him back either as our player or another year on loan.

Signed a new deal last week. I doubt he’ll get too many games at Killie so another loan would make sense for him and he certainly seemed to enjoy his time here. 

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10 hours ago, Passionate said:

No disrespect to the teams mentioned, but  Peter head and Dumbarton have virtually no forward players.   I would say we are on a par with Falkirk, East Fife, Montrose in the striking dept,  Clyde have Goodwillie who in normal years would get 20 easy, is surrounded by some horrific signings,  it I s still relatively early to finalise squads..   I think we have a much better balanced midfield on paper, which will help to create chances for the strikers, Do you think Gal could get 15 to 20 this season...???

 

We have Motherwell in less than 3 weeks in the cup,   ' Whit Cip"

Yes, Gallagher could score more this season with a bit of service from midfield, 

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23 hours ago, Passionate said:

Very quiet the last couple of weeks as a sceptical Airdrie can (aren't we all) that means either good or bad news is going to break.....   Even ITK types are quiet either that or Prunty has been told to zip it.

The squads are beginning to take shape throughout the division,  as starting 11s go we look decent enough,  no squad although signInge  still to come,   looking forward to seeing Easton in action and he seems a goalscorer as well,   although another striker is required, we are not nearly in as bad shape as some teams who appear in dire straits on the striker front.

 

hopefully some news soon, but it may depend on what trialist s Falkirk don't want ,  Paul McKay came that way...

 

league looks tighter and with more quality this year.....

We had a trialist striker score a Hat-trick in our closed doors 5-0 win against Irvine Meadow today. No official name as yet but I think maybe Jaime Wilson who was at Dumbarton last season. Time will tell if he gets offered a deal, Akeel Francis scored in last pre season and he turned out to be gash. We had four or five trialists listed today with two starting so you never know you may yet get some of those. 

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I’ve never trusted trialist strikers since the time Kevin Schmidt scored twice against us for Annan, only for us to sign him purely based on that 45 minutes. He looked like a competition winner anytime he played. In hindsight, scoring against that defence wasn’t much of an achievement.

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Disappointed there were no trialists or players we don't recognise in amongst the photos yesterday! Nevertheless I think we're in a relatively decent position squad wise albeit we're still short in a couple of positions. We've got a defence that IMO is at least as good as last season's with Wardrop and Walker both being capable right-backs and Fordyce, Kerr and Watson very good centre-halves and decent on the ball which should make the spine of our team a bit more cohesive. Quitongo is obviously a downgrade on McCann at left-back but, as good as McCann is, I'm not sure how detrimental that really is. It's not as if Quitongo is some Chris Malone or Mick O'Byrne type jobber. Our midfield is immediately better than the midfield we started last season with. I don't think any of them individually are as good as Turner but hopefully Agnew, Easton and McCabe can add that bit of quality in the centre of the park. I'm excited to see what Easton can do in particular. We definitely need a defensive mid in there as well though but I assume, since we were after Paton, this is being looked at. I wouldn't mind an additional #6 type player in there as well as I don't think Dean Ritchie is ultimately good enough but he'll most likely be the back-up in that position. It's great that Gallagher has signed-on again. He can be a frustrating player but he's good for 10-15 goals at this level and, aside from Megginson and Goodwillie who are in a league of their own, he's one of the best/better strikers at this level. Upfront is definitely where we're lacking most IMO but, apart from the aforementioned Cove and Clyde, I think that's the same for every team. I don't recall many (if any) decent strikers who were released or otherwise available this summer so it might well be a loanee who fills that position. I'd be more than happy to see Kyle Connell back as others have mentioned. Easton will presumably play quite high up the park and so will hopefully be amongst the goals. Will Allan and/or Pyott move the needle? I'm not convinced although we've got to hope that Allan has enough about him he'll do well playing in a (presumably!) better team with better service. And, while we saw him yesterday, I'd be surprised if Robert is still around come the start of the season. Having said that, it seems to have gone deadly silent around him so perhaps he will be. I'd probably rather sell him and take whatever offer we get but I'd be happy enough for him to stick around. He's not an Ian Murray sort of player but he's got enough quality and a bit of a spark that he's more than capable of playing his part in a successful team over the course of a season. 

Just under two weeks until our first competitive game. Hopefully we'll see some more business (and season tickets?) done in that time! Also looking forward to the over-reactions whichever way the friendlies go next weekend. 

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1 hour ago, airdrieman said:

Disappointed there were no trialists or players we don't recognise in amongst the photos yesterday! Nevertheless I think we're in a relatively decent position squad wise albeit we're still short in a couple of positions. We've got a defence that IMO is at least as good as last season's with Wardrop and Walker both being capable right-backs and Fordyce, Kerr and Watson very good centre-halves and decent on the ball which should make the spine of our team a bit more cohesive. Quitongo is obviously a downgrade on McCann at left-back but, as good as McCann is, I'm not sure how detrimental that really is. It's not as if Quitongo is some Chris Malone or Mick O'Byrne type jobber. Our midfield is immediately better than the midfield we started last season with. I don't think any of them individually are as good as Turner but hopefully Agnew, Easton and McCabe can add that bit of quality in the centre of the park. I'm excited to see what Easton can do in particular. We definitely need a defensive mid in there as well though but I assume, since we were after Paton, this is being looked at. I wouldn't mind an additional #6 type player in there as well as I don't think Dean Ritchie is ultimately good enough but he'll most likely be the back-up in that position. It's great that Gallagher has signed-on again. He can be a frustrating player but he's good for 10-15 goals at this level and, aside from Megginson and Goodwillie who are in a league of their own, he's one of the best/better strikers at this level. Upfront is definitely where we're lacking most IMO but, apart from the aforementioned Cove and Clyde, I think that's the same for every team. I don't recall many (if any) decent strikers who were released or otherwise available this summer so it might well be a loanee who fills that position. I'd be more than happy to see Kyle Connell back as others have mentioned. Easton will presumably play quite high up the park and so will hopefully be amongst the goals. Will Allan and/or Pyott move the needle? I'm not convinced although we've got to hope that Allan has enough about him he'll do well playing in a (presumably!) better team with better service. And, while we saw him yesterday, I'd be surprised if Robert is still around come the start of the season. Having said that, it seems to have gone deadly silent around him so perhaps he will be. I'd probably rather sell him and take whatever offer we get but I'd be happy enough for him to stick around. He's not an Ian Murray sort of player but he's got enough quality and a bit of a spark that he's more than capable of playing his part in a successful team over the course of a season. 

Just under two weeks until our first competitive game. Hopefully we'll see some more business (and season tickets?) done in that time! Also looking forward to the over-reactions whichever way the friendlies go next weekend. 

Scott Walker has it all to prove to me as I only seen an average hard working player but perhaps he will improve.

Squad looks to be short on pace too which is a big problem.

Agreed that we are desperate up front although Gal is a handy player to have around with a decent goal scoring record, but definitely a penalty box striker. We need to push the boat out for better though if we have any ambition for promotion.

Edited by Kenny_m
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2 hours ago, Kenny_m said:

Scott Walker has it all to prove to me as I only seen an average hard working player but perhaps he will improve.

Squad looks to be short on pace too which is a big problem.

Agreed that we are desperate up front although Gal is a handy player to have around with a decent goal scoring record, but definitely a penalty box striker. We need to push the boat out for better though if we have any ambition for promotion.

Agreed, it has to be a priority now. Like I said though I can't even think of many strikers who were released let alone good ones. Only ones who come to mind that you'd think are realistic possibilities are Blair Henderson and Russell McLean and neither of them exactly excite! Perhaps I just lack imagination. Hopefully we'll pull something better out the bag in the coming days and weeks. 

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Just now, airdrieman said:

Agreed, it has to be a priority now. Like I said though I can't even think of many strikers who were released let alone good ones. Only ones who come to mind that you'd think are realistic possibilities are Blair Henderson and Russell McLean and neither of them exactly excite! Perhaps I just lack imagination. Hopefully we'll pull something better out the bag in the coming days and weeks. 

Didn't Blair Henderson sign for Spartans?

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19 minutes ago, Chapelhall chap said:

Chris Malone/Mick O'Byrne: That's enough of a timely reminder of how scary some of our past squads were! The rest of Airdrieman's post  is well worth reading and agreeing with.

I remember Chris Malone put in a particularly rage-inducing performance at Methil. I've had rotten luck watching Airdrie there, including last season's effort on the stream. Should probably just avoid it next season...

2 minutes ago, lionel wickson said:

Didn't Blair Henderson sign for Spartans?

You're probably right! 

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