D'Jaffo Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 And the source of that report is...?????Scott Burns is pretty much spot on with these things. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RossBFaeDundee Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 1 minute ago, yorkshirepud said: And the source of that report is...????? Scott Burns. About as reliable a Scottish football reporter as you can get from my experience. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richey Edwards Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 10 minutes ago, Ayr23 said: 19 minutes ago, mugen_power said: My brother works next door to Ashleigh Constructions head office, he just text me to say he saw Ally McCoist leaving the building I'd be happy with McCoist! No offence, but why? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Jaffo Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 If it’s true then I’ll manage to convince myself it’s a decent appointment even though I’m hugely sceptical after it’s pretty much common knowledge that Martindale was responsible for all the good stuff Livi did. I’ve no idea what kind of budget he’d have been working with at Morton either but you’d imagine he’ll have more money to work with at Ayr. I think he’ll probably keep us up but I can’t really see him being the guy to take us into the Premiership. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanayr1987 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Meh from me! Hopkin would be fine but I was hoping for a young or Petrie type appointment 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayrunitedfw Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Would be happy enough with David Hopkin. Got Livingston promoted from league 1 and then into the premiership via playoffs. I know lots of people say Martindale was the mastermind behind that but Hopkin does deserve credit. My main concern is his recruitment. His recruitment in the summer for Morton was a shambles. Signed about 20 wingers and 1 goalkeeper. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superhursty7 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 He sounds a decent guy if it's true he was paying for players meals out of his own pocket at Morton, I think the backroom staff he brings in as really important that was a major reason why Kerr backfired, do I want to see hoofball no but I also want to see Ayr in the top league for the first time in my life, Hopkin might be the guy to get us there 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayr23 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 No offence, but why?Ocht it would be a gid laugh eh? He'd probably bring a decent coaching team, keep us up, and attract players to push for promotion. Never going to happen though. I will not be devastated when he isn't announced. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie_M Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 39 minutes ago, ayrunitedfw said: Would be happy enough with David Hopkin. Got Livingston promoted from league 1 and then into the premiership via playoffs. Not before taking them down he didn't... 38 minutes ago, Superhursy7 said: He sounds a decent guy if it's true he was paying for players meals out of his own pocket at Morton, Or just says more about him being fucking loaded. Wonder if he is still the 2nd biggest shareholder of Morton... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunning1874 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 In all seriousness, this is going to be a career defining job for Hopkin. With the view that much of Livingston's success was entirely down to Martindale rather than Hopkin (unfair to Hopkin IMO) and his time with Morton being mediocre at best but with an outside impression of severe mitigating circumstances (far too fair to Hopkin IMO), he's going to need to be a success here to salvage a reputation as a good Championship manager. If this goes badly then any credit for the double promotion with Livingston vanishes and it'll be the jobs at Morton and Ayr that define him, possibly ruining his chances of working in FT football again. On the other hand if it goes well then he can be back in contention for bigger jobs, with Morton being put down to being a basketcase off the park. One of them is going to be seen as an outlier Hopkin does have obvious good points as a manager. Players do improve under his coaching, he is clearly very good at coaching players on an individual level. He also has a knack for shitfesting results, although sometimes he'll take a while to figure out the most effective system to do so and there'll be some baffling selections and players shoved wildly out of position while he gets there, with some players' faces not fitting for no apparent reason. With only 10 games to go that could be a problem, but you've got a better squad than the sides around you which is underperforming, so it's not like he has a massive turnaround to achieve; just getting them performing to par will be enough to stay comfortably clear of Alloa and Morton sides with massively inferior squads. Which brings us to the big long term problem. One thing that we know for a fact Martindale was responsible for at Livingston was the recruitment. Someone who knew what they were doing was giving Hopkin good players to work with and letting him focus entirely on the coaching and tactics. At Morton he had full control and it was, as you can see from one glance at our squad, an abject disaster. Don’t believe any of his excuses about budget - regardless of what individuals are being paid, the fact is that he built a squad with one goalkeeper, five defenders and 10 (TEN) 'can play anywhere across the front three' attackers. It's such a top heavy squad that one of those 10 forwards hasn't played a single minute in the league despite being fit all season, meanwhile we've been forced to use Robbie Muirhead as a left back and Rabin Omar as a right back due to the unbalanced mess he built. Also, despite that number of attackers, there somehow wasn't actually a single natural centre forward among them. He does not have a clue what he's doing building a squad and you should not give hima the chance to do so: he has to be accompanied by a sporting director, DOF, head of recruitment or whatever job title you want to give the person who actually makes the decisions on signings. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Jaffo Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 In all seriousness, this is going to be a career defining job for Hopkin. With the view that much of Livingston's success was entirely down to Martindale rather than Hopkin (unfair to Hopkin IMO) and his time with Morton being mediocre at best but with an outside impression of severe mitigating circumstances (far too fair to Hopkin IMO), he's going to need to be a success here to salvage a reputation as a good Championship manager. If this goes badly then any credit for the double promotion with Livingston vanishes and it'll be the jobs at Morton and Ayr that define him, possibly ruining his chances of working in FT football again. On the other hand if it goes well then he can be back in contention for bigger jobs, with Morton being put down to being a basketcase off the park. One of them is going to be seen as an outlier Hopkin does have obvious good points as a manager. Players do improve under his coaching, he is clearly very good at coaching players on an individual level. He also has a knack for shitfesting results, although sometimes he'll take a while to figure out the most effective system to do so and there'll be some baffling selections and players shoved wildly out of position while he gets there, with some players' faces not fitting for no apparent reason. With only 10 games to go that could be a problem, but you've got a better squad than the sides around you which is underperforming, so it's not like he has a massive turnaround to achieve; just getting them performing to par will be enough to stay comfortably clear of Alloa and Morton sides with massively inferior squads. Which brings us to the big long term problem. One thing that we know for a fact Martindale was responsible for at Livingston was the recruitment. Someone who knew what they were doing was giving Hopkin good players to work with and letting him focus entirely on the coaching and tactics. At Morton he had full control and it was, as you can see from one glance at our squad, an abject disaster. Don’t believe any of his excuses about budget - regardless of what individuals are being paid, the fact is that he built a squad with one goalkeeper, five defenders and 10 (TEN) 'can play anywhere across the front three' attackers. It's such a top heavy squad that one of those 10 forwards hasn't played a single minute in the league despite being fit all season, meanwhile we've been forced to use Robbie Muirhead as a left back and Rabin Omar as a right back due to the unbalanced mess he built. Also, despite that number of attackers, there somehow wasn't actually a single natural centre forward among them. He does not have a clue what he's doing building a squad and you should not give hima the chance to do so: he has to be accompanied by a sporting director, DOF, head of recruitment or whatever job title you want to give the person who actually makes the decisions on signings.I think a DOF or something along those lines was something Smith would’ve been planning regardless of Hopkin getting the job. Zero budget or not there’s no reason for signing 10 forwards and no midfielders. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yorkshirepud Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Scott Burns. About as reliable a Scottish football reporter as you can get from my experience.Not fussed who the reporter is, but absolutely nothing has leaked from the club on this. Been like a papal conclave. He might have info from elsewhere but the wording doesn't give any indication of why he is certain. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but this looks like another column filler so they don't have to write about the behaviour of the blue arse cheek. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodders1910 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Not fussed who the reporter is, but absolutely nothing has leaked from the club on this. Been like a papal conclave. He might have info from elsewhere but the wording doesn't give any indication of why he is certain. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but this looks like another column filler so they don't have to write about the behaviour of the blue arse cheek.It might not have came front he club though, could be from Hopkin himself or someone close to him 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finlay21 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 5 minutes ago, Rodders1910 said: 7 minutes ago, yorkshirepud said: Not fussed who the reporter is, but absolutely nothing has leaked from the club on this. Been like a papal conclave. He might have info from elsewhere but the wording doesn't give any indication of why he is certain. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but this looks like another column filler so they don't have to write about the behaviour of the blue arse cheek. It might not have came front he club though, could be from Hopkin himself or someone close to him Definitely not the club , 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Venom Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 It might not have came front he club though, could be from Hopkin himself or someone close to himIf that's the case and Smith was running a tight ship then it's not a great look ahead of your imminent appointment. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivo den Bieman Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 1 hour ago, rgreig said: It would be useful to know from a Montrose fan if there has been an increase in budget at Montrose or whether he has achieved this with roughly the same money for the playing squad that his predecessors had. If it's been done within the same budget then it's certainly impressive. Does anyone know what his job outside football actually is? He's a senior manager with RBS. No one's claimed he's Ancelotti or Mourinho. There is a bit more cash at Montrose but that's because investors are willing to put money in on the basis of results delivered by Petrie, and a thriving community side. It's not like someone's come in with an open cheque book. Glad people continue to be skeptical- if you guys have gone for Hopkin then I think this will be a discussion that will be re-opened sooner rather than later. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUcal Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Smith to give an update on manager situation at half time apparently... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callum-ayr Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 3 minutes ago, AuAl said: Smith to give an update on manager situation at half time apparently... Really? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ayr23 Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Smith to give an update on manager situation at half time apparently...Bizzare if so. Where you seeing this? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUcal Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 Just now, callum-ayr said: Really? I'm told that that's what was said on sportsound. Not listening myself but apparently an update to fans at halftime from the chairman. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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