Rate your Transfer Window

[D'Jaffo]

Well that’s it shut! Barring any late domestic loans that’ll be the squads set until January at the earliest. How happy are you with your squad and the job that’s been done by all involved in the recruitment? Did you get everything you asked for or were you left wanting?

 

It’s been a weird one for Ayr as our league cup campaign indicated we needed to make big changes but Bullen stuck with it and didn’t add anyone else until a couple of days ago and it’s paid off. The squad looks to have gelled really well and our headline player, Dipo Akinyemi is looking like the potential signing of the season. Frankie Musonda, Alex Kirk and getting Ben Dempsey on a permanent deal are all excellent acquisitions as well. Jayden Mitchell Lawson hasn’t seen much action but he looks promising and we’ve still got to see how Josh Mullin and Brad Young do although I think the former will be absolutely fine for us.

 

Based on all of that I’d give Ayr a solid A with potential to rise to an A+ if the striker we signed yesterday does well.

[Richey Edwards]

The league cup campaign made me think that Bullen and his transfers had actually made us worse than we were last season.

However, so far in the league campaign the team is looking really good and the new signings are looking fantastic. Dipo in particular looks like an amazing find. I fucking love him already.

[oneteaminglasgow]

Ours has involved swapping Richard Foster for Harry Milne, so regardless of anything else it’s a rip-roaring success.

I think that almost all of the players we’ve brought in have improved the squad. I’d say the only area that we’re weaker in is central defence, but everywhere else we’re better than last season and have actual options in most positions to change things, which we definitely didn’t have last season. In particular, both full backs, Cole McKinnon, Anton Dowds and Fitzpatrick are players I’m really happy with. Lawless has also started really well. 

The only players I’m not quite sold on are Tony Weston, basically because i’m not sure where he fits in to the team, and I also don’t think David Mitchell is much, if any, upgrade of Sneddon, but I don’t think he’s noticeably worse either.

But overall, it’s been very good for us. 

[qpfc]

Couldn’t be happier with recruitment this summer as it stands. We were a poor team who finished 4th place in league 1 last year and to then overhaul a large amount of the squad into what seems a really decent championship outfit now is credit to Coyle and Beuker. 

Dom Thomas and Grant Savoury have probably been the pick of the bunch so far. So exciting and entertaining to watch and it’s no surprise we score goals every week. After last season’s horror show with loans, there seems to be a massive improvement in that aspect. Malachi Boateng looks superb in midfield, whilst having young exciting players in Johnny Kenny from Celtic and Josh McPake from Rangers. Stephen Eze has came in and settled in well and with him having 13 caps for Nigeria, he should be more than competent for this level 

Only signing that hasn’t really got going at all has been Jason Naismith. Was fully expecting him to be a guaranteed starter for us when signed but a combination of injuries and maybe just not having the legs for right back anymore have resulted in him starting 0 games for us. He seems to be a back up centre back nowadays and especially since David Boateng from Palace was signed yesterday for right back 

Overall, very successful I’d say 

[CoveRangers1922]

What letter are we allowed to go to! Feels like F wouldn't justify McIntyre's inability to recruit. He's complaining it's hard to bring in players given our geography but surely he knows recruitment is a massive part of HIS job. 

Anyway rant over. In fact last moan, he forced Rory out the door too.

In fairness 17 year old Evan Towler, on loan from Aberdeen, looks a solid enough acquisition and will go on to have a very good career. Unfortunately he was replacing one of Scotland's best left backs.

Cieran Dunne has shown promise but really too early to tell if he's capable at this level or more akin to L1. Charlie Gilmour probably in the same boat. Doesn't excite me as a loan from a Premiership club.

Luis Longstaff and Gerry McDonagh wouldn't look out of place in L2.

We should have moved on at least Jamie Masson. I thought Leighton should have been punted but now glad he wasn't as he's our 2nd choice striker currently behind Mitch.

I'd give Cove an E.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by CoveRangers1922

[Zanetti]

The biggest success of this transfer window for me is how deep a squad we've managed to build. In the Premier Sports Cup matches we looked ok, but you got the feeling that we were just an injury or two away from really struggling, which isn't the case anymore. We have an excellent mixture of youth and experience all throughout the team.

Another huge positive is that we didn't fall into the trap of bringing in loanees from a "higher level" just for the sake of it. Last season we signed a few guys just because they were coming from big clubs, in positions that we didn't need to fill, and a lot of them turned out to be absolute diddies. Guys like Johnny Kenny from Celtic and Malachi Boateng from Crystal Palace are what we actually needed, and very solid additions to the squad.

If I were being greedy, I might've wanted another keeper to come in and challenge Ferrie for the number one jersey. He's having a really good season so far though and you can see improvement in the parts of his game that people have been critical about, so hopefully that won't be an issue.

Dom Thomas has been the most exciting signing for me, at least up until this point anyway. He's such an entertaining player to watch, and you just know that he's capable of creating something out of nothing every single time he gets near the ball. Delighted we managed to get him, he'd walk straight into just about any side's starting eleven in this division.

[raith1974]

Raiths transfer window has been distinctly average. No proper striker and cover in defence signed.

[North Terrace Gazza]

Personally I think most sides in this league have had a pretty dreadful transfer window. It’s going to be an interesting season and without picking the teams I think like last season we’re going to have 2 leagues within the league. One for promotion and one for relegation. I think there will be a sizeable gap between top 5 and bottom 5.

[madton]

Imrie appears to have a good eye for a player. he signed 2 in Jan, Brandon and Wilson and both improved us significantly. 

This year he has signed 9 players, one of those being a reserve rookie keeper to sit on then bench. The other 8 have all settled in well and appear to be good signings.   Baird, O'Connor, Schwake and Pignatiellio have all looked solid defensively, Giillespie( surprisingly)  and Crawford look good additions in the middle of the park and Quitongo is the other surprise package as he has been brilliant for us.

The only one who hasn't really impressed is Jaze Kabia but you can tell there is a player there and he has shown glimpses of what he can do, just need to see more of it. I'm confident that over time, he will turn out to be a good player for us. He hasn't done anything particularly bad, just not been involved enough in games.

He has moved out Jacobs which was a decent call as he hasn't done enough for quite awhile now.

Of course we lost a few good players from last season but most were out of his control for different reasons.

I think its clear that Dougie's budget was reduced half way through pre- season due to us missing out on sponsorship/investment and no doubt that had an impact on his plans to bring in a striker. However thanks to Dalrada, he  has been given some additional budget within the last few weeks to try and bring one in. Unfortunately we couldn't do it before the window but hopefully we get one over the next week or two. I've heard various rumours that we have a decent chunk of money there and are speaking to really good players so hopefully we see at least 1, if not 2 sooner rather than later.

B+ for Dougie. Once he gets us a striker, he can be upgraded to an A.

 

 

[johnnydun]

0/10.

Would not recommend.

[accies1874]

We've failed to improve any position except maybe striker, signing four youngsters with pretty much no experience of senior football, a maligned winger and a jobbing right-back. Come the end of the season, those youngsters + Zanatta could end up looking like good signings so just need to wait and see, but there's very little depth anywhere except midfield and Rankin's signings haven't made a whole lot of sense in terms of building a team. 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Shite

[RossBFaeDundee]

Shite.

Thanks again McPake!

[Fuctifano]

4 hours ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

Ours has involved swapping Richard Foster for Harry Milne, so regardless of anything else it’s a rip-roaring success.

I think that almost all of the players we’ve brought in have improved the squad. I’d say the only area that we’re weaker in is central defence, but everywhere else we’re better than last season and have actual options in most positions to change things, which we definitely didn’t have last season. In particular, both full backs, Cole McKinnon, Anton Dowds and Fitzpatrick are players I’m really happy with. Lawless has also started really well. 

The only players I’m not quite sold on are Tony Weston, basically because i’m not sure where he fits in to the team, and I also don’t think David Mitchell is much, if any, upgrade of Sneddon, but I don’t think he’s noticeably worse either.

But overall, it’s been very good for us. 

Agree with this, for a team that plays with 1 central striker having 4 of them on the books seems a bit much and I think we could have done with another winger or defensive midfielder instead- but on paper it's been a very good one and miles away from recent years in that we had all our signings done 3 weeks before the window closed- I do not miss the days of us signing Tam Scobbie after 10pm on deadline day.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Fuctifano

[TxRover]

2 hours ago, accies1874 said:

Come the end of the season, those youngsters + Zanatta could end up looking like good signings so just need to wait and see…

Oh you poor soul, best of luck in the dark winter months if that’s the campfire you’re saddled with. Of course, we’ve our own deadwood to burn through too.

[Ludo*1]

D.

We've got a largely bloated squad filled with absolute nonsense and they're all tied up for another year. This has led to our first manager that looks to have at least an ounce of managerial talent having to try and make a bunch of imposters along with some talented youth players look like a decent team and win the league or he'll not get the chance to mould his own.

He's signed 4 players. 3 on loan. They all look alright except 1 but nothing that will change things in our favour.

Desperately need the same positions filled as we did before the window opened.

[Duke Gekantawa]

Very good overall. Two new exciting attacking wing-backs. A plethora of additional attacking options in Dowds, Fitzpatrick, Lawless (who's been a revelation considering how little the Pars rated him last season), Mullen (all of which proven to some degree at this level) , plus a punt on Weston (all on top of Graham and Tiffoney).  McKinnon looks a cut above the usual Rangers loanees (like Mayo last year).

I'm not entirely sure whether Mitchell is better than Sneddon, but equally I'm not sure he's worse, and considering Sneddon was our player of the season last year then whoever is backup is a massive improvement on last season's backup

The only negative is that, while Muirhead is a solid enough edition, he's unlikely to be as good as Mayo- however Mayo was only here on loan anyway and we now have Brownlie back after a season long injury.

[The Ghost of B A R P]

Jury’s still out on Morton, but so far, so good.

Arbroath, Cove and (for different reasons) Dundee look to be in all sorts of trouble: I thought Dundee might add two or three and put clear blue water between themselves and the rest, but it hasn’t happened.

Ayr the pick of the bunch for me: Akinyemi and Mullin are serious upgrades in the right areas of the pitch, Musonda gets a game for most teams in the league.

[truedee93]

1/10 - the only good signing we've made is zach robinson, no ambition from us at all.

[ayrunitedfw]

Starting off with our outgoings, At Centre Half we lost Fjortoft (Now retired), Baird (Greenock Morton) and Muirhead (Partick Thistle). Surprisingly we offered the latter two new deals albeit on reduced terms however i don’t regard either as a loss. Muirhead could of been quite handy given the fact  he can play in numerous positions however I wouldn’t want him starting games at this level on a regular basis. Fjortoft and Baird were both useless. The other defenders we lost were Rowe who played a couple of games then got injured and was never seen again and Michael Miller who spent the majority of the season out on loan at Stenhousemuir and has since joined them on a permanent.

In midfield we lost Alex Kenyon (Chester), Gondoh( Sevenoaks Town), Maxwell (Doncaster Rovers) and Kerr McInroy (Kilmarnock). Kenyon rarely played and when he did looked like he was towing a caravan, Gondoh was apparently a really nice guy but looked like he had won a competition to play for Ayr United. Maxwell and in particular McInroy are argueably losses. I liked Maxwell when he was with us but I still don’t know what his best position is. Heard conflicting reports on whether or not we actually offered him a deal at the end of the season to sign permanently. Pretty early on it was clear he had his heart set on a move down south which he’s managed to get so fair play to him for that. McInroy is for me our biggest losss of the summer. When he signed in January he was a bit of a game changer for us and chipped in with a couple of vitals goals namely the one in the dying minutes against Hamilton and similar away to QOS. He has since signed for that mob up the road and I therefore wish him nothing but the worst for the remainder of his career

In attack we lost Tomi Adeloye who despite playing in a awful team was one of the top goalscorers in the league. Would of been delighted if he had stayed but he turned down our contract offer and has since signed for Swindon Town. 

Now onto the incomings, In defence we have signed Frankie Musonda (Raith) and Alex Kirk (on loan from Arsenal). Musonda has looked outstanding so far and is comfortably one of the better centre backs in the league without a doubt. I don’t know what his situation was at Raith but I’d be shocked and surprised if they had let him go. Reminds me a bit of when Morton let Andy Murdoch go. Alex Kirk has came into the team in recent weeks and been very good. Having two centre half’s who can play out form the back is a joy. Overall based on the evidence so far we’ve upgraded in defence.

In midfield we’ve added Ben Dempsey (loan turned permanent) which is a great bit of business particularly on a three year deal, David Bangala who is a complete unknown, Mitchell-Lawson (Swindon Town) who like most wingers looks like he’s going to be inconsistent but certainly seems to have something about him, Josh Mullin who only signed on Wednesday but is a player I’ve already rated and wanted to sign albeit wasn’t great for Accies last year but I think he was played out of position. IIRC he is a bit of a dead ball specialist and I’d hope he has a good few goal contributions come the end of the season. 
 

In attack we’ve added Dipo Akinyemi who so far has been outstanding and looks like some find. Based on early evidence I’d say he’s an upgrade on Tomi. He seems to have everything strength, power, pace and an eye for goal. Would be surprised if he isn’t close to the top if not top of the championship goal scoring charts this season. We also added Brad Young on loan from Villa yesterday. Again a complete unknown but hopefully can contribute something. 
 

Overall I’d say we’ve upgraded in every positionS only player you could argue we haven’t replaced is Kerr McInroy and I’m still hoping we can rectify that in the domestic loan market.

I’d give us a B so far but if we sign a decent attacking midfielder then it’s an A.

TL;DR; Get the promotion bus ready babyyy.