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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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So I’ve taken a few hours to digest the news    Think this is a BIG gamble but one that may pay off.   I think the board knew that there could possibly be a mass exodus and that securing the new management team would help keep a majority of the team together which I believe it will.  McCabe has undoubtedly learned a lot from last season but surprisingly, it was McCabe and Gallagher who were the ‘leaders’ on the field yet he has emerged as the new manager.   So I’m confident that the Board see something in him, Murray most probably gave the thumbs up when asked (I’m sure he was) and now the team get to play with the familiar faces and in a similar style while ultimately strengthening the side.   Agnew gone - good with that.   Currie out - as mentioned, interesting that our new management team wanted a change in goal.  Good with the decision.  Easton gone - even if we made the Championship there was an outside chance of him leaving.  You’d have bet the mortgage a couple of days back that he would be hooking up with Murray again.  Have no issue with this, would have preferred him to stay but I live in the real world.  Glad we’re not facing him next season.   Additions - the names mentioned are encouraging.  I guess we’ll see a couple of announcements tomorrow now the management team have been announced but suspect a couple of deals have already been done.
 

I guess as long as McCabe has the team organized in a similar fashion to last year we should be in decent shape.  I’m just worried about future recruitment which Murray demonstrated he could be very effective with.  Will we get a DOF? And will that be a good thing??  I guess we’ll get a better idea of their recruitment strengths come January but this could play a huge part in any success we have next season and one of the reasons why I preferred a more experienced manager.  But still lots to discover in how the back room team will be made up.  The guys will need help.  At 29, McCabe is probably the youngest manager ever in the history of the club.  Crazy.  I started supporting the club with Jimmy Bone and Alex macDonald at the helm and they seemed like old men to me at the time but you could see the experience at work and we punched well above our weight.  I guess the same could be said for Murray in the last year but we will undoubtedly become the learning curve for this new management team. The stakes are high - emulate the same kind of success we had last season and they will be heroes.  Finish near the bottom of the league with a similar squad and it won’t end so well.  I’ll stay positive, give my support, keep taking stock of the emerging situation and give my opinion again before the season starts properly.  As mentioned before, we can get promoted from 4th place(wish that wasn’t the case) and so who knows where we’ll be next year…. 

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It does seem a strange one in saying that he has shown tremendous leadership skills last season and has the minerals to be a manager, whether or not this set up will work time will tell,    It does seem like the cheap option unless the savings  have been put back into the budget to increase wages etc...
The main positives are he is current and has plenty contacts in the game..
 
Cammy Ballantyne is apparently a done deal. (Murray signing)
 
It continues to be a whirlwind time for the Airdrie support

Was told CB wasn’t an Ian Murray signing
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6 hours ago, Trump said:

Picking a management team with no managerial experience to try and get you promoted from the third tier. Where have I seen this before?

IMG_6624.jpg

Yes but were they not better than Sheerin & Rennie?

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1 minute ago, mo83 said:

If Cammy does sign for you lot theirs a good chance Russel McLean will too especially when he is free to find a new club.

Wouldn't be surprised, think we tried to get him last season. 

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7 hours ago, Passionate said:

It could well be a situation of the club realising that 4 years of hard graft could go straight in the bin with the High risk of McCabe, Fordyce etc leaving , which would mean a complete rebuild with a new management team and a freshly disillusioned fan base again..

 

This setup is BOLD and does keep the band together again somewhat,let's be honest we only have to finish a distant 4th to get out This League....

Exactly, as QP showed against us! 

I trust the board to bring someone with more experience on board to support / advise / guide, but without overstepping the line so to speak. A mentor if you will. Given the expectation will be for both McCabe and Fordyce to be playing, we'd need someone in the dugout anyway. So from that perspective I'd expect another backroom staff announcement at some point in the future, hopefully not too far away. 

In the meantime, I think McCabe has a good understanding of who he will want to keep and what needs added to the squad.and I'd be very surprised if those conversations and have not already happened and wheels are not already in motion to resign players and go after new targets. The rumour mill will be rampant in the coming days and weeks and I for one am excited about that. 😊♦️

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7 minutes ago, G_H said:

Not fussed at a single one of those players leaving. With the exception of Currie, the rest were just using up a wage and didn't do enough to stake a claim, or were injured far too often. Thus being passengers. Good decisions. 

Backroom staff, well there's always more changes than just a manager when the manager goes. So fair enough. Freshening things up whilst also having a familiar person leading the team seems positive to me. Especially given McCabe's interview clearly hinted at playing a similar brand of football and keeping the core of a good team. 

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13 minutes ago, Glenmavis Diamond said:

Not fussed at a single one of those players leaving. With the exception of Currie, the rest were just using up a wage and didn't do enough to stake a claim, or were injured far too often. Thus being passengers. Good decisions. 

Backroom staff, well there's always more changes than just a manager when the manager goes. So fair enough. Freshening things up whilst also having a familiar person leading the team seems positive to me. Especially given McCabe's interview clearly hinted at playing a similar brand of football and keeping the core of a good team. 

 

Agreed, every player released is someone I'd have released, and all the ones who we have been offered contracts to are ones I'd like to keep.

In fairness to the ones using up a wage you are going to need players like that in a squad in case of injuries etc. Someone like Scott Walker came in and played a few times before Christmas when we had no full-backs and did a job. We'll need new versions of these guys but I think it's in everyone's interests they move on.

Edited by Diamonds are Forever
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6 hours ago, Trump said:

Picking a management team with no managerial experience to try and get you promoted from the third tier. Where have I seen this before?

IMG_6624.jpg

The big difference is that we are realistic and know its a risk - if it works it works, if not, then its back to the drawing board. Falkirk on the other hand gave it to these boys out of desperation. A club floundering in League 1, fan base howling for success, board clueless, promotion a must because they were "too big" for this league. And the Falkirk fans sure did lap it up, the return of the boys was going to get them promotion, these boys were club legends. Play offs? Thats for the diddy teams- not for Falkirk, "we're gonna win the league." But unfortunately like McKinnon and Sheerin and Rennie it just didn't happen.  

Fortunately, there is an air of reality about Airdrie and the vast majority of their fans - if McCabe can get us into the play-offs (not relegation) then I'd for one would be delighted. If not, we feel sore for a couple of weeks, dust ourselves down and reset for the next season.  

Finally,  I am enjoying how this is all panning out. Falkirk were expecting the likes of McCabe and Fordyce to leave Airdrie at the end of this season and be available to scoop them up with the likes of Dylan Easton. You know, because Falkirk are a huge club and a huge pull, all that jazz. Well it just hasn't gone to plan. Has it. Glorious isn't it.

 

 

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Absolutely fine with the emptied list, as. I mentioned a week or so ago I would have liked to see Josh Kerr kick on and realise his potential but he could just never stay fit long enough. Good luck to them all.

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2 minutes ago, Roger Thornhill said:

The big difference is that we are realistic and know its a risk - if it works it works, if not, then its back to the drawing board. Falkirk on the other hand gave it to these boys out of desperation. A club floundering in League 1, fan base howling for success, board clueless, promotion a must because they were "too big" for this league. And the Falkirk fans sure did lap it up, the return of the boys was going to get them promotion, these boys were club legends. Play offs? Thats for the diddy teams- not for Falkirk, "we're gonna win the league." But unfortunately like McKinnon and Sheerin and Rennie it just didn't happen.  

Fortunately, there is an air of reality about Airdrie and the vast majority of their fans - if McCabe can get us into the play-offs (not relegation) then I'd for one would be delighted. If not, we feel sore for a couple of weeks, dust ourselves down and reset for the next season.  

Finally,  I am enjoying how this is all panning out. Falkirk were expecting the likes of McCabe and Fordyce to leave Airdrie at the end of this season and be available to scoop them up with the likes of Dylan Easton. You know, because Falkirk are a huge club and a huge pull, all that jazz. Well it just hasn't gone to plan. Has it. Glorious isn't it.

 

 

I believe the word used by one of their supporters on here was "gargantuan" to describe their standing in the game, ironically the week before they finished 28th out of 42 in the pyramid...

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Interesting choice of manager, a gamble as others have said but I would rather that than than someone from the list of usual suspects, it should keep the spine of the team together but we do need good additions and someone in the dugout. 

As for the list of released players they would all have been on my list. It does highlight the importance of loan players, if we can 2-3 good quality loan players in it will make all the difference. 

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1 minute ago, cb_diamond said:

I believe the word used by one of their supporters on here was "gargantuan" to describe their standing in the game, ironically the week before they finished 28th out of 42 in the pyramid...

Legends in their own minds..

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Can't argue with any of those names. Walker, McDonald and Allan were fine as squad players but as I said before if you could replace them with better you would. At the very least we can replace them with players of a similar standard. McDonald will always have the Motherwell game. A shame he never really kicked on from that point but he was clearly miles off the rest of our midfield in terms of footballing ability. Lyons and Pyott were a waste of a wage. 

Looking forward to more positive news and developments in the coming days and weeks. 

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If all players not mentioned sign up we’ve got the following foundations of a squad:

Fordyce, Watson, Frizzell, McCabe, Gallagher, Kouder-Aissa, McGill & Smith

I’d be delighted with that. Gives McCabe plenty room to bring in his own players to improve the team.

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