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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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Not that it’s worth dwelling on but I think Kerr McInroy might have dragged us that step further if he’d stayed. Maybe he’d have helped get us over the line against Cove and actually win the league, but even more so in these playoff games where it felt like the midfield lacked a little bit of physicality and drive at times. 

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2 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

Not that it’s worth dwelling on but I think Kerr McInroy might have dragged us that step further if he’d stayed. Maybe he’d have helped get us over the line against Cove and actually win the league, but even more so in these playoff games where it felt like the midfield lacked a little bit of physicality and drive at times. 

I agree. Frizzell and Easton are brilliant but McInroy offered something slightly different to them that we weren’t able to replicate after he left.

I think most fans would agree we had a strong 10/11, with the right wing position being the main area of concern with no obvious player for there. Gabby McGill had his moments out there but clearly isn’t a wide player and no one else seemed suited to playing there. The midfield diamond we had when McInroy was there was probably the most balanced team we had this season. 

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I was at the game on Thursday night and I didn’t hear any racist shouts or chanting but important for Airdrie fans to remember that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. There were chants of “wife beating b*stard” aimed at Quitongo and I heard someone shout “your brother’s a liar” which isn’t racist obviously but it’s not exactly enlightened either.
With incidents like these within any football club’s fanbase it’s the well-meaning fans that end up feeling guilty by association, while actual guilty parties don’t care and are fine with the club having such a reputation. I really don’t know how a club or its fans go about actually ridding themselves of such a reputation.


Yes we have idiots that follow us but I just can’t believe that they were so openly racially abused that no one called it out. Granted I may be placing too much faith in people
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1 hour ago, KD1711 said:

Will be a tough job to keep the players together as I imagine a few of them will be in demand, especially if we don't manage to keep hold of Murray.

Got to laugh at the Falkirk roasters on this thread, they will be delighted at the prospect of offering our best players a fortune then turn them into rubbish players for another season in league one, I suppose they have their days out at Dunfermline to be excited about. 

 

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In terms of next season, obviously a lot depends on keeping key players but I'm hopeful the part-time contingent will stay along with some of the better full-time players. 

Currie has his issues in goal, we've seen that in the play-offs, but he's proven himself to be a good League One keeper and given some of the jobbers we've had in goals before, I'm happy to stick with what we have rather than risk a new keeper. Cantley has been fine when he's played so while an experienced backup would be nice, I'm pretty happy with both keepers. 

Watson's had a very good season overall and while he needs competition (the rumoured Scott Taggart would be an upgrade), he's a good right-back at this level. I thought this would be a big season for Kerr but he's struggled with injuries, though I'd be inclined to keep him for another year. Fordyce is an obvious must keep. Walker and Lyons can leave, Walker tries hard but ultimately isn't at the level we need just now and Lyons just hasn't worked out. Paterson and MacDonald's loans are up but I'd be keen to keep Paterson permanently since he's leaving Celtic, he struggled in the play-offs but is a good player with potential to develop. We need to improve at centre-back even if we keep Kerr and Fordyce, playing McCabe there worked well but we can't rely on someone else filling in there all season again.

Midfield is probably the biggest concern. Easton, Frizzell and McCabe have had excellent seasons and will no doubt have a lot of interest elsewhere but obviously we'll do all we can to keep all three. Agnew struggled in the play-offs, possibly coming back from injury for important games too quickly, but he did pretty well before then. I'd rather he was a sub next season but a good option to have on the bench or to cover for injuries. Devenny and McGill's loans are up and Ritchie and McDonald have barely played. I'd happily keep McDonald as a squad filler, we need guys to pad out the squad and he's generally done well in his limited playing time. We need a couple of natural wide players this summer though. There's been plenty of times this season, the final included, where I think we lacked some pace and directness out wide from the bench.

Salim and Smith are already under contract for next season which is good news. Hopefully Salim can have a full pre-season this summer, if he's fit then as the old cliché goes he'll be like a new signing. He has his doubters but Gallagher is a very good striker at this level and an obvious keep. I'd assume that Pyott will finally be away and while I wouldn't be surprised if he left Celtic, Afolabi's loan is up and I'd rather stick to the memories of his performance against Montrose than see another season of him. Allan and McGill are two I'm uncertain on. I'd probably keep Allan, he's not quite up to it as a main striker in a game like yesterday but he's a good option as a 4th/5th choice to bring on from the bench and he's generally done well against the weaker teams in the league. Gabby McGill was pretty rubbish in the play-offs and has been unlucky with injuries but he's probably done enough over the season to show he has decent potential. I'm still not sure how good he actually is but he brings some chaos which is always fun. Salim, Smith, Gallagher, McGill and Allan would probably be our strikers sorted for the season. Is that enough for a title challenge? Possibly, if Salim can score a few. Will we find a better striker outwith getting lucky with a young guy on loan? Probably not.

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2 hours ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

It's obviously a tough league next year but in some ways it's no different than this year. Cove replaced by QOS, who will be worse (not that they'll be bad, but they wont be getting 79 points I'm pretty sure). Dunfermline replaced by Queens Park which, despite the 'big name', is like for like as the play-off result showed. At the other end Dumbarton for Edinburgh is like for like. The only real difference maker will be Kelty for East Fife which will obviously make things tougher. Although I don't know enough about Kelty to know whether they'll have Cove levels of investment or not. Falkirk should be better, but I've said that the last 2 years and they still have a lot of rubbish tied up on contracts. Overall I don't think the league will be much different to this year in terms of quality. 

I'm expecting plenty tough competition.  Logic says that Falkirk and Dunfermline will battle it out for the title - but Dunfermline would need to improve having been as poor as QOS this season, and (without knowing why) Falkirk have struggled now for a few seasons - but that will surely end soon no doubt.

Its hard to call what sort of challenge you'll get from QOS - rookie/player manager (which is always a big risk) and a substantial squad re-build required to boot, so we'll be well into June before we know how decent/poor we look.  That said I'd think (hope) that we will be capable of competing with Airdrie and Montrose for the promotion play-offs.  Kelty with their £££s should be in the mix with us too, but I don't have a feel for how big their budget will be, and I've absolutely no idea as to whether Edinburgh City have additional financial backing, so again they are an unknown for me.

That leaves Peterhead (who looked good against Dundee in the cup), Alloa (who always do well against QOS) and Clyde.  Again, I'm out of touch with things at Clyde but their off-the-field woes seem to continue on as ever so I'm guessing they may struggle.  As always with these ten team leagues (which I'm no fan of) there's little margin for error with trouble never lurking too far away.  Should be interesting though.

 

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Alright here goes, doubt there are too many surprises
 

Attempt to Keep (or sign if loanee):

Murray - Finally got the squad playing as a team, still areas to work on, but doubt anyone else would do any better.
Agnew - Mostly as assistant, but keep his playing registration valid as backup
Currie - Needs to show some development, but fine for this level.
Fordyce, Paterson, Watson
Easton (priority), Frizzell, McCabe
Afolabi - Doubt he will score a lot, but I think he brings some playing qualities that we are otherwise missing up front, Gallagher, Smith
 

Ambivalent:

Cantley
Kerr - Decent but always injured, MacDonald
McDonald, Devenny, S.McGill
G.McGill, Allan, Kouider-Aissa

 

Release:

Lyons, Walker
Ritchie
Pyott - This guy still being with the club for so long is almost meme-worthy.

 

Hope I didnt miss any.

 

Edit: If the club are able to retain the bulk of the management & squad, the aim really needs to be to win the league and not bottling the bloody playoffs again.

Edited by G_H
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6 minutes ago, G_H said:

Alright here goes, doubt there are too many surprises
 

Attempt to Keep (or sign if loanee):

Murray - Finally got the squad playing as a team, still areas to work on, but doubt anyone else would do any better.
Agnew - Mostly as assistant, but keep his playing registration valid as backup
Currie - Needs to show some development, but fine for this level.
Fordyce, Paterson, Watson
Easton (priority), Frizzell, McCabe
Afolabi - Doubt he will score a lot, but I think he brings some playing qualities that we are otherwise missing up front, Gallagher, Smith
 

Ambivalent:

Cantley
Kerr - Decent but always injured, MacDonald
McDonald, Devenny, S.McGill
G.McGill, Allan, Kouider-Aissa

 

Release:

Lyons, Walker
Ritchie
Pyott - This guy still being with the club for so long is almost meme-worthy.

 

Hope I didnt miss any.

Keep :

Mccabe ,Fordyce ,Smith,Agnew mostly coach,Watson ,salim, C.Gall ,cantley good backup same as Kyle McDonald and also get deveney back on loan also keep Scott walker good backup when needed

Currie,Easton and Frizzell are all questionable can see them all moving on

Brody is on a high wage no chance we can afford him 

To leave 

Josh Kerr not been impressed this season,Dean Ritchie,Matty McDonald,gabby not up to standards ever since his last injury,Allan would be a good impact sun but you can see he wants game time and scotty McGill has been average second half of the season 

big Johnny deserves ti stay just for his song 

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1 hour ago, G_H said:

Alright here goes, doubt there are too many surprises
 

Attempt to Keep (or sign if loanee):

Murray - Finally got the squad playing as a team, still areas to work on, but doubt anyone else would do any better.
Agnew - Mostly as assistant, but keep his playing registration valid as backup
Currie - Needs to show some development, but fine for this level.
Fordyce, Paterson, Watson
Easton (priority), Frizzell, McCabe
Afolabi - Doubt he will score a lot, but I think he brings some playing qualities that we are otherwise missing up front, Gallagher, Smith
 

Ambivalent:

Cantley
Kerr - Decent but always injured, MacDonald
McDonald, Devenny, S.McGill
G.McGill, Allan, Kouider-Aissa

 

Release:

Lyons, Walker
Ritchie
Pyott - This guy still being with the club for so long is almost meme-worthy.

 

Hope I didnt miss any.

 

Edit: If the club are able to retain the bulk of the management & squad, the aim really needs to be to win the league and not bottling the bloody playoffs again.

 

When you list names there like Kouider-Aissa, Kerr, Lyons, G McGill and Pyott you see a fair chunk of our budget has gone on guys who've barely featured through injury problems. Obviously there's an element of bad luck - like Gabby's injury ar Clyde - but from what I could tell all those guys came with bad injury records. Sometimes I guess that means you get them on a cheaper wages because others wont want them, but I don't think we can afford to waste our budget on gambles like that. When you add in Wardrop and Quitingo who both looked poor before retiring/the Firhill incident we actually wasted a fair chunk this year. Overall Murray got more right than wrong but there's still plenty room for improvement there.

Wouldn't disagree with much there, perhaps the exception of Currie. I'm probably one of the more critical fans regarding him, and I'd start by saying he pulled off some really good saves yesterday, as he is capable of. But I think he lets in a lot of soft goals, like yesterday and even on Thursday I thought he could have done better. And he is poor in terms of crosses and commanding his box, we've been dreadful from cross balls this year. A slightly more solid goalie and I think we'd have pipped Cove. He's by no means terrible and is fine for a mid-table League 1 goalie, but if the aim is to win the league we'd need better in my opinion. The risk is that you try for better and get worse, which is a possibility. Also the issue with crosses has to be partly down to us playing with one recognised centre back, if we'd had the like of Charlie Fox alongside Fordyce all season he would have been less exposed. So I guess I'd say if we were to sign 2 or 3 really solid defenders who are great in the air I'd be fine keeping him.  But otherwise I'd be looking for an improvement.

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I think Kerr will be gone. Apparently he has been quite dissapointed with his lack of game time since coming back from injury.


I feel sorry for Luke Lyons as I thought he has looked a decent when he has played. He’s not one of these players with a recurring muscle/tissue injury that keeps flaring up. He just seems really unlucky and pickups random injuries. With us a broken collar bone and then a fractured bone from sliding into the post. I think there is a player there but it would be a massive gamble keeping him.

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Sixty years of supporting Airdrieonians and I have enjoyed this season as much as any of the 20th century , and since 2003 etc , this has been so good.

However we failed again and it's not a good place to be today. But  many of us have been in worse close season prospects so I will stick to being fairly optimistic again. I have no idea what's going to happen but Pie and Bovril is my first port of call.

Now to go to the Scotland world cup game and desperate for a wee summer booster. 

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Still in the ‘doom and gloom’ phase after yesterday but moving towards the light.  Hoping the board are busy at work and trying to get the basis of a team/back room stuff secured for next season.  Undoubtedly changes coming but I’m hoping the 9 or 10 faces that can be the backbone of the team and coaching staff will be staying.  Nervy week coming up.   Not sure how much I’m looking forward to August - see what happens over the next few days.  

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I suppose the first activity this week will be the manager's position.

Loan players don't count therefore the free's for me are Pyott, Walker, Ritchie, M MacDonald, Allan, Gallagher & Agnew (no problem with him retaining assistant role)

Mibbee's: Currie, G McGill, Cantley

Keep the rest although as mentioned Josh Kerr most likely will move on but we need to sign some bigger stronger players who can head the ball as I would love us to score a header from a corner.

Current signing rumours: Scott Taggart & Grant Savoury

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7 minutes ago, KD1711 said:

Noticed John McGlynn has took over, will Falkirk replace the sex offender Griffiths with the other sex offender Goodwillie?

Can't imagine so lad! Another Rangers fan obsessed with Sex offenders! Weird bunch you lot x 

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41 minutes ago, Kenny_m said:

I suppose the first activity this week will be the manager's position.

Loan players don't count therefore the free's for me are Pyott, Walker, Ritchie, M MacDonald, Allan, Gallagher & Agnew (no problem with him retaining assistant role)

Mibbee's: Currie, G McGill, Cantley

Keep the rest although as mentioned Josh Kerr most likely will move on but we need to sign some bigger stronger players who can head the ball as I would love us to score a header from a corner.

Current signing rumours: Scott Taggart & Grant Savoury

Was Kerr the last to score from a corner at falkirk? Can’t think of another off the top of my head

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18 minutes ago, Senor Bairn said:

Can't imagine so lad! Another Rangers fan obsessed with Sex offenders! Weird bunch you lot x 

Only reason I know who you are on this forum is cause you are in this thread more than your own teams. 

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58 minutes ago, FLDiamond said:

Still in the ‘doom and gloom’ phase after yesterday but moving towards the light.  Hoping the board are busy at work and trying to get the basis of a team/back room stuff secured for next season.  Undoubtedly changes coming but I’m hoping the 9 or 10 faces that can be the backbone of the team and coaching staff will be staying.  Nervy week coming up.   Not sure how much I’m looking forward to August - see what happens over the next few days.  

I sympathize and I think the dreadful league cup begins in July but it's not regional this time? 

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