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The Official Airdrieonians Thread - 2019/20 and beyond


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Watched Murray’s interview on Raith’s YouTube strange seeing him in another clubs gear. 

Alludes they’ll probably have to send players out the door or on loan at some stage, could do worse than seeing who’s available there. Sure Murray would be keen to do us a turn if possible.

Noticed they’ve sold over 1,000 season tickets already, we’ll be lucky to get half that by the time the season kicks off sadly. If half the 4,000 odd that turned up for the QP game every week we’d have some team. 
 

On a side note Raith’s social media coverage is excellent.

Edited by Diamond10
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6 minutes ago, Diamond10 said:

Ah was forgetting they’ve not moved to full time yet.

I dunno if they will. I don’t know if it would be worth it for them. Time will tell 

 

On the part time thing, we will be very flush, the last few years have been very kind to us as the end of year accounts will show soon. Next years will be even better with the second place finish prize money, the 1200 season tickets sold and averaging about 2000 home fans a game
 

I’d like to think we’d be able to offer the best PT deals going forward. Deals that could match or better FT deals but also give players the opportunity to pursue a second income away from football 

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I think the best realistic shout I’ve seen on here so far is Jamie Barjonas. By all accounts done well last season with Kelty and was highly rated at Rangers as a young player. Seems like he would suit our style of play from last season too and could effectively replace Easton even if he’s not the exact same type of player (not many are). That’s the kind of signing that’d excite me.

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17 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:

I think the best realistic shout I’ve seen on here so far is Jamie Barjonas. By all accounts done well last season with Kelty and was highly rated at Rangers as a young player. Seems like he would suit our style of play from last season too and could effectively replace Easton even if he’s not the exact same type of player (not many are). That’s the kind of signing that’d excite me.

Yeh definitely the type we should be interested in but suggested on Kelty forum that he's champioship bound.

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It’s gotten to the point now that I’m looking on the archived news on the website of old signing announcements. Just to remember what it feels like to see a new signing 😂 

 

Trusting the process though. Would rather wait on good signings than have loads of early average signings, like the preseason of the 18/19 season! 

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34 minutes ago, GoalForAirdrie said:

It’s gotten to the point now that I’m looking on the archived news on the website of old signing announcements. Just to remember what it feels like to see a new signing 😂 

 

Trusting the process though. Would rather wait on good signings than have loads of early average signings, like the preseason of the 18/19 season! 

I suspect with training starting next Saturday there will be some announced then, perhaps before.  

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On 11/06/2022 at 09:43, Passionate said:

The loan system has a bit of Russian roulette about it,  to be fair Murray worked it pretty well, over the years we have had a fair few duds via this system also,  if loanees are taking up 25% of your squad they really need o be on point..

 

another bug bear of mine (not another one you say) is our reluctance to give out 2 year deals to players and Manager,  alright I know we signed CB,  have CS and SAL on 2 year deals from last year.....that's the reason we are in this state(what state) Easton who was and is the best player to play for ourselves in a generation  walk off into the sunset with Murray just ahead of him,   let's be blunt we have given 2 year deals to players not due them,  Conroy and Page the worst , Keiran MacD was decent enough though...

 

looking at our rivals Falkirk, Dunfermline and QOS are signing well  mostly on 2 year deals we must have ambition and match them it is the only way to get the extra quality to compete , the League is stronger this year....

 

I think the second part here answers the first part. It's always in hindsight that we look back and regret not giving players who leave for a better team a 2 year contract. But as you point out there is a big risk with 2 year contracts that the player you've signed is hopeless and/or injury prone and you are stuck with them for a 2nd year. I worry this might be the case with Salim (in terms of injuries, not being hopeless). What if we'd given Luke Lyons on a 2 year deal? Or Ally Roy, Paul McKay etc from previous seasons. Look at the mess Falkirk got themselves into giving 2 and 3 year deals out. If you take someone like Easton, we signed him from the Lowland League and there wasn't much to suggest from previous seasons that he'd be as good as he was, there was no reason to give him 2 years any more than there was the previous players mentioned. If you gave every signing like him 2 years you'd have far more misses than hits and it would cripple the club.

Even with the manager, go and look back at the posts this time last year and I'd bet the majority of Airdrie fans wanted Murray out. So we can hardly blame them for not giving him a 2 year deal.

It's even more difficult if you are a side aiming for promotion because often players that you sign in League 1 wouldn't be good enough if you got promoted. If you don't go up it's probably because the players haven't been good enough in which case you'd want to release most, if you do go up you'd want to replace and strengthen. Either way most would probably go. We had a really good season last year but even then the majority of the squad have moved on through the choice of the club, it's only Easton and Murray that we lost due to contract situations which have been explained already.

It is frustrating when you lose a player due to expiry of contract but I think that is just a fact of life for clubs like us. Signings like Ballantyne make sense for 2 years because we know from his performances over a few seasons he is good at this level and could do a job in the league above, but it's rare that you'll get such a known quantity.

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On 10/06/2022 at 17:20, Kenny_m said:

The league is far stronger this year than last and we need to aim higher with the quality of signings.  need to try.

 

I don't dispute the league will be very tough, but the 'league is far stronger than last year's' thing is being way over played. It's really not.

Cove have switched with QOS, I will eat my hat if QOS get anywhere near Cove's total.

Dunfermline replace Queens Park, who despite being average last year turned it on in the play-offs blocking off that promotion route for us. And they obviously beat Dunfermline who will hope to be better but is an unknown.

Edinburgh City replace Dumbarton which I'd assume will be much of a muchness.

Kelty for East Fife is the obvious (probable) upgrade, but they are an unknown quantity so will have to wait and see.

Montrose will hopefully be worse with us taking one of their best players, I'd imagine they'll be their usual though.

All that considered the league will be similar, the basis for the whole 'league will be far tougher' comes down to the expected improvement in Falkirk. Which I'd also expect, but given the last 3 years I'll wait and see before predicting that they'll be high flying title challengers.

Not for a second saying the league wont be difficult, but I don't think it will be much worse overall than last year. I'd expect the points tally required to win it will be lower which means we wont have to go on a 20 game unbeaten run to get close, but will certainly need to get results against the other challenging sides - something we normally don't do.

 

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1 hour ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:


Training could just be eight boys (manager and assistant included) kicking shots into Davie Hutton

Possibly not, unless we can get a physio in by then.....

 

I know a lot of comments are tongue in cheek,    but admittedly we do have time, not a lot though, Pre seasons are getting shorter especially if you are involved in latter stages of playoffs,   that  is the trade off,   could be well in hand, although something tells me it is the opposite...

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1 hour ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

 

I don't dispute the league will be very tough, but the 'league is far stronger than last year's' thing is being way over played. It's really not.

Cove have switched with QOS, I will eat my hat if QOS get anywhere near Cove's total.

Dunfermline replace Queens Park, who despite being average last year turned it on in the play-offs blocking off that promotion route for us. And they obviously beat Dunfermline who will hope to be better but is an unknown.

Edinburgh City replace Dumbarton which I'd assume will be much of a muchness.

Kelty for East Fife is the obvious (probable) upgrade, but they are an unknown quantity so will have to wait and see.

Montrose will hopefully be worse with us taking one of their best players, I'd imagine they'll be their usual though.

All that considered the league will be similar, the basis for the whole 'league will be far tougher' comes down to the expected improvement in Falkirk. Which I'd also expect, but given the last 3 years I'll wait and see before predicting that they'll be high flying title challengers.

Not for a second saying the league wont be difficult, but I don't think it will be much worse overall than last year. I'd expect the points tally required to win it will be lower which means we wont have to go on a 20 game unbeaten run to get close, but will certainly need to get results against the other challenging sides - something we normally don't do.

 

It will be an interesting season and I full expect Dunfermline and Falkirk to contest the title, where we end up I think 3rd would be a successful season, by no means guaranteed, not ideal. But.....  We will be fishing in different pools, would not be surprised if we sign a couple of Alloa and QOS players they would probably be in our wage range,  we signed a couple of gems last season Frizzell from Dumarton showed no real form prior to joining us and we don't need to talk about Dylan Easton..

 

we need to build interest and expectation that is down to the club though, Season will be on us before we know it...

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6 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

Cove have switched with QOS, I will eat my hat if QOS get anywhere near Cove's total.

I wouldn't say that has any relevance to the league's strength. Of course QOS or anyone else for that matter will probably not get near Cove's total but that will be due to the league overall being stronger.

 

8 minutes ago, Diamonds are Forever said:

Dunfermline replace Queens Park, who despite being average last year turned it on in the play-offs blocking off that promotion route for us. And they obviously beat Dunfermline who will hope to be better but is an unknown.

QP beating Dunfermline in effectively a cup game again has no real significance when comparing to a league campaign which of course we Airdrie fans are also well aware of.

The combined budgets of Dunfermline & QOS alone would be significantly more than the 4 teams that have left the league. Dunfermline's alone will probably be in excess of £1,000,000. Money generally talks in football and there is undoubtebly a lot more of it sloshing around League 1 next season which in my mind makes it stronger.

I do wonder where we are budget wise though £350K??????? Higher/Lower anyone?

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There is no doubt League 1 will be much stronger next season but also potentially far more interesting that it has been for years.  It's no longer the seaside league of visits to Forfar, Brechin, Arbroath & East Fife.  IF we get recruitment right (and yes I would like to have seen at least 2-3 more by this stage) and can continue to play with the style that has been developing over the last 2 years and continue to push at the top end of the table then perhaps this year could even be a better division to play in than the Championship.    Our budget is probably only middle of the pack, but the increased competition as well as drawing larger crowds might also benefit us.   I doubt we will be going on any 20 game unbeaten runs and we set a record points total last season and yet still didn't go up...why? Well partly whilst we ourselves failed to take points from Cove, so did everyone else.  There is a line of thinking that says if Falkirk and Montrose or QP had been a little more consistent then perhaps when we hit that fantastic run of form we might actually have caught and over-taken Cove.      Our most realistic route to promotion next season is a much closer title race where Dunfermline, Falkirk & QOS are all strong but all take points from each other and somehow we squeeze through.  It would be great to have some big title deciders next season particularly with Dunfermline & Falkirk...when the fixtures come out this week I'm hoping we end up with those two at home over the last few weeks of the season.   All depends on how good our recruitment is but I believe we can compete but need others to also ensure it doesn't become another one horse race. 

Now we just need some signing news to cheers us all up 

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5 hours ago, Kenny_m said:

I suspect with training starting next Saturday there will be some announced then, perhaps before.  

Yeah I think there will be a few announcements when the players check in later this week. 

Think my guesses of potential moves for Broadfoot or Burke were well wide of the mark. 

Club seem pleased with the players they're bringing in. They think this squad is an upgrade on last year's and are hopeful of going one better and winning the league. 

 

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2 hours ago, CJB said:

There is no doubt League 1 will be much stronger next season but also potentially far more interesting that it has been for years.  It's no longer the seaside league of visits to Forfar, Brechin, Arbroath & East Fife.  IF we get recruitment right (and yes I would like to have seen at least 2-3 more by this stage) and can continue to play with the style that has been developing over the last 2 years and continue to push at the top end of the table then perhaps this year could even be a better division to play in than the Championship.    Our budget is probably only middle of the pack, but the increased competition as well as drawing larger crowds might also benefit us.   I doubt we will be going on any 20 game unbeaten runs and we set a record points total last season and yet still didn't go up...why? Well partly whilst we ourselves failed to take points from Cove, so did everyone else.  There is a line of thinking that says if Falkirk and Montrose or QP had been a little more consistent then perhaps when we hit that fantastic run of form we might actually have caught and over-taken Cove.      Our most realistic route to promotion next season is a much closer title race where Dunfermline, Falkirk & QOS are all strong but all take points from each other and somehow we squeeze through.  It would be great to have some big title deciders next season particularly with Dunfermline & Falkirk...when the fixtures come out this week I'm hoping we end up with those two at home over the last few weeks of the season.   All depends on how good our recruitment is but I believe we can compete but need others to also ensure it doesn't become another one horse race. 

Now we just need some signing news to cheers us all up 

Got one, announced  on Facebook, 

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Yeah I think there will be a few announcements when the players check in later this week. 
Think my guesses of potential moves for Broadfoot or Burke were well wide of the mark. 
Club seem pleased with the players they're bringing in. They think this squad is an upgrade on last year's and are hopeful of going one better and winning the league. 
 

Is this implying that other deals are basically done and just not announced? Because realistically the “player brought in” so far is Ballantyne and even though I’m very happy with his signature and the players we’ve kept from last season, it’s not really much of a squad yet from what’s been officially announced.
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5 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said:


Is this implying that other deals are basically done and just not announced? Because realistically the “player brought in” so far is Ballantyne and even though I’m very happy with his signature and the players we’ve kept from last season, it’s not really much of a squad yet from what’s been officially announced.

Afolabi not true then?? 

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