Mr November Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 Just now, Passionate said: Another player we have signed who is no worse than Craig Thomson but debatable how much of an improvement.. numbers slow!y creeping up. We still need a minimum of 7 players to still get signed up... Yeah that’s us at 11 now I think, excluding Robert who could be under contract but will no doubt be away anyway. It’s hard to judge these signings too much until we have a full squad. We’re pretty much building a full squad from scratch and we don’t have the budget to sign a full team of Championship level players, we’re going to have to pad it out with a fair number of League One players. We know Currie is a good keeper at this level and I think our starting defence will include Wardrop, Fordyce and Quitongo, possibly Watson too. Assuming we move back to a back four we’re probably a backup keeper and a centre back away from the defence being sorted now that Walker’s signed up. It’s not as good as the defence we started last season with but it still looks like a solid enough League One defence. Admittedly it was due to the system we played but Murray made Chris O’Neil look like a good League One centre back so I reckon we’ll be ok defensively next season with some proven League One defenders. Midfield is a bigger issue, with only Agnew and Frizzell as starters so far. I think the rest of our signings here will make or break the season. We need to bring in at least one winger and two central midfielders good enough to start for a team aiming for promotion, which won’t be easy to do. I suspect these signings might take a bit longer to come in, as we’re probably competing with bigger clubs for these sorts of players and we might have to wait until later in the month. Murray keeps stressing the importance of Turner and Paton fixing the midfield issue we’ve had for a few years now so he is at least aware of it. Given that Gallagher Is now vice captain I think he’ll be the main striker again, which I’m fine with assuming we bring in a good midfield who can create chances for him. We definitely need at least one more quality striker as I don’t think Allan or Pyott will be anything more than subs but again, we might have to wait a bit longer for this sort of player to come in. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airdrieman Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 15 minutes ago, Passionate said: Another player we have signed who is no worse than Craig Thomson but debatable how much of an improvement.. numbers slow!y creeping up. We still need a minimum of 7 players to still get signed up... I agree. As you say we’ve done a decent enough job replacing the defence and the squad or more League 1 calibre players like Thomson, O’Reilly and Roy. We do need to start replacing the better quality players like Turner, Paton and Carrick soon though. We haven’t really done that even positionally yet so I assume they’re still working on that. Still need three or four good quality midfielders and another couple of strikers IMO. Along with another centre-half and back-up goalie. 13 minutes ago, DobbiesAgent said: Unless that long throw in goes to feet lol cause he’ll not win you any headers genuinely hope it works out for him. Flashes of brilliance and incompetence, all the best to him Hopefully full-time football will get more and playing in a non Duffyball team will get more out of him than Dumbarton did. I’m a bit meh on him but he’s obviously got some ability. 13 minutes ago, ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds said: I think he was signed while Findlay was still at the club. Yeah that rings a bell, they might well have been at Fauldhouse together. He’s the new Robbie Leighton - hangs around forever on the edges of the first team squad but never actually plays. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airdrie76 Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 I never said that he was a tactical genius, or that he always got his team selection spot on. What I said was that he has gotten a tune out of his squads for three years, which has brought us results. The rest of it, I couldn’t really care less about - I want my team to win. I’ve said it before, of course I’d love us to be playing exciting, attacking free-flowing football, but I’m a realist and like I say, to me that’s secondary. It’s like the way everyone fawns over Archibald’s team - you cannot deny there were some wonderful players there and it was exciting. But our results were pretty disastrous, people forget that.The point about the Archibald team is that they took time to settle and needed to get the blend right (Craig Ireland made a huge difference for instance). We could all see how technically good they were and I think it was 7 games unbeaten when it imploded. I get for a lot of the season results weren’t great but for me they’d begun to click. Agree with Murray, results wise on paper he’s been successful. However the footballs been dire and ultimately we’ve not achieved promotion - which is how success should be measured. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G_H Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 To call the latest new signings underwhelming would be a gross overstatement. It's a mystery to me as to how Murray thinks we are challenging for the title with this lot. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb_diamond Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Diamond8 said: Very, very underwhelming. All of them. Better watch out with those negative statements or you'll get a telling off for making them while not having your UEFA "A" licence!!! Albeit everyone really knows you're bang on. Edited June 5, 2021 by cb_diamond 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 19 minutes ago, G_H said: To call the latest new signings underwhelming would be a gross overstatement. It's a mystery to me as to how Murray thinks we are challenging for the title with this lot. We certainly need some pace in midfield and upfront, but I am one of the Airdrie fans that have not a clue how to manage, so for what it is worth Agnew is the best signing we have made, the rest may be as good as what we had but I would have thought the trick would have been to get better players, 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond8 Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 3 minutes ago, Jack Reed said: We certainly need some pace in midfield and upfront, but I am one of the Airdrie fans that have not a clue how to manage, so for what it is worth Agnew is the best signing we have made, the rest may be as good as what we had but I would have thought the trick would have been to get better players, A pensioner in footballing terms, hold me back. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb_diamond Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 16 minutes ago, Jack Reed said: We certainly need some pace in midfield and upfront, but I am one of the Airdrie fans that have not a clue how to manage, so for what it is worth Agnew is the best signing we have made, the rest may be as good as what we had but I would have thought the trick would have been to get better players, As I said early every signed player is at very best parity with what we had last season or more realistically all of them are a downgrade. It's a rotten set of signings on paper. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 1 hour ago, Diamond8 said: A pensioner in footballing terms, hold me back. Aye, so was Paton, who would you rather have, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballboy Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 The manager needs told these players almost got dumbarton relegated. He seems to think adding a couple from east Fife and a couple from our squad last season and they would have been atlest play offs or title contenders. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 17 minutes ago, Ballboy said: The manager needs told these players almost got dumbarton relegated. He seems to think adding a couple from east Fife and a couple from our squad last season and they would have been atlest play offs or title contenders. The problem with the manager is he has planned these signings and has been talking to these players in advance backed up by the statement from the new signings other than JA the rest were offered contracts where they were or other clubs. The club tried to keep one or two players as they are with McCann. We all have differing opinions of some players however we all recognise which positions we need to strengthen we can only hope the manager can see it too minimum of 7 imo but not teenage loan players had enough of them 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond8 Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 1 hour ago, Jack Reed said: Aye, so was Paton, who would you rather have, Paton played at a higher level for a much longer part of his career, streets ahead of Agnew imo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 24 minutes ago, Diamond8 said: Paton played at a higher level for a much longer part of his career, streets ahead of Agnew imo Aye, he did play at a higher level, got a feeling Agnew will serve us well though, hope so anyway, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb_diamond Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 50 minutes ago, Jack Reed said: Aye, he did play at a higher level, got a feeling Agnew will serve us well though, hope so anyway, So just to double check the right answer to your question was the player we no longer have rather than the one we do? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ballboy Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 Just a thought, are all these guys full time? Are we still going with this hybrid system as last season? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O'Kelly Isley III Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 7 hours ago, airdrieman said: Frizzell confirmed. May the next rumours commence. Phew ! I was beginning to worry that this wasn't going to happen. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thediamonddude Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 (edited) 6 hours ago, Airdrie76 said: The point about the Archibald team is that they took time to settle and needed to get the blend right (Craig Ireland made a huge difference for instance). We could all see how technically good they were and I think it was 7 games unbeaten when it imploded. I get for a lot of the season results weren’t great but for me they’d begun to click. Agree with Murray, results wise on paper he’s been successful. However the footballs been dire and ultimately we’ve not achieved promotion - which is how success should be measured. Oh yeah absolutely, I completely accept that that particular team was thrown together and there were a lot of off-field issues that made things incredibly tough, for that reason maybe the Archibald team wasn’t the best comparison point for me to choose. However, my point is that their results weren’t great - actually probably really close to Murray’s first (part) season in charge. Yet he is derided for the style he plays and having success in recent seasons, while they are lauded for their style and leaving us just outside the drop zone - I don’t think that is right and I don’t agree with it. I also take AB1974’s point - disastrous was a poor word choice from me to describe that team’s results but equally, I don’t think you get to where Murray’s gotten us to in recent years by being clueless or tactically inept. I accept that my argument is predicated on the results Murray has had and, while they’ve been undeniably good and there has been progress, we haven’t yet been promoted. That said, I think to assume we were going to do that in his first, or even second, season is to forget where we are or what we’re up against. This was never going to be quick fix - so I feel that this is the the season that, rightly, he should be judged on whether we achieve promotion or not. Back onto the signings... I’ve already spoken about Agnew, Wardrop, and Quitongo - I’ve seen all 3 play and do I think they’re good enough to be in a title challenging team? Yes I do. I can’t really recall much of Watson and Frizzell, while we haven’t really seen anywhere near enough of Allen or Pyott to judge. I’m not going to write any of those guys off until I’ve seen them and while it’s no doubt they’re a bit of a gamble, that’s what you need to do at this level sometimes. I’ve yet to hear many alternate suggestions on who we could/should be signing and the other teams around us are either signing no one or players I wouldn’t be that fussed about either. This is a football forum and we all have a right to express our views, which means we’re not all going to agree. However, whatever your thoughts, I still think it’s wayy too early to be panicking the way some folk are. Edited June 5, 2021 by thediamonddude 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thediamonddude Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 22 minutes ago, Ballboy said: Just a thought, are all these guys full time? Are we still going with this hybrid system as last season? Still using the hybrid model - although I don’t think it’s entirely clear who is FT and who is PT, other than Quitongo, who mentions FT. If I’d to guess, of the new players... FT - Quitongo, Wardrop, Frizzell PT - Agnew, Watson, Allen 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Reed Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 1 hour ago, cb_diamond said: So just to double check the right answer to your question was the player we no longer have rather than the one we do? What was the question?? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric the half a b Posted June 5, 2021 Share Posted June 5, 2021 See Cove have just signed a defender ..... from Dumbarton 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.