Lawrence Shankland - Ayr Utd striker

35 goals in 38 games...thats probably more than our entire team scores this season

 

No chance.Four goals last night alone, the lads scoring for fun.
If he does leave Ayr then someone will have to splash the cash big time to secure his services.
It won't be Bradford.

 

I’d love us to have the financial ambition to go out and sign two or three top drawer, young attacking players.

Yes it’d be pricey - but those players are what make your team, and they’re where the real sell on value is. Your not going to make big money on centre backs and full backs at this level.

Spend 500k on a striker, see him bag 25-30 goals and championship clubs will be in for 2-3m 12-18 months later.

This was my biggest bug bear about Rahic’s vision. His idea of investing in youth for resale was a good one - the execution is what failed because we weren’t anywhere near ambitious enough.

And in terms of financial risk, as I’ve always argued - there’s as much, if not more financial risk in doing things ‘on the cheap’. We’re seeing that now. And I know we’ve apparently had the biggest playing budget for 15 years (Jesus, what a clusterf**k), but we’ve spread it far too thinly, especially with regard to younger players.

Get the best you can attract, smaller squad, and watch things take off. And you’re much more likely to go on better and more lucrative cup runs with a better side.

I’m whinging, but it’s so frustrating. With just a moderate amount of investment and the right leadership, this club would fly. I’m sick of us being mediocre and the attitude of being grateful just to have a club to support. That attitude and manner of running the club is why we’ve never amounted to much and it’s not the way to inspire future generations of support. Let’s get out there and start tearing it up!!

 

Agree mostly and feel your passion FB.Might just add that decision making is as important as wise investment imo.

 

He was mentioned at the start of the season. Probably have to pay twice as much now. Would have stood a better chance of signing him if Hopkin had been in charge then as well

 

Good goalscorer for sure but he'd be completely wasted under Hopkin, just like Doyle is. Hopkin needs a target man.

 

Another potential costly mistake. Loaned all over the place by clubs that have had him, cannot blame the club for being cautious after previous wonder Scottish signings where they have cost us a lot of money while not good enough for standards of the English leagues

 

His current manager had a short spell at City before returning north because he was homesick.

 

Release clauses?

 

As someone said in the summer I am sure he has a release clause wasn't £300k mentioned or was that someone else?

 

Preferred haggis to curry.

 

He will end up at Rangers... Hes a Gers Fan ..

 

Off to Swansea apparently. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6451011/Swansea-line-Lawrence-Shankland-striker-stay-fire-Ayrs-title-bid.html

 

Was he fast?

I seem to remember him being quite chubby with a decent bit of skill but didn't run much?

It's a long time ago though so I'm probably miles out!

 

Does that mean we could get Ollie Mcburnie on loan ?

 

Doesn't matter because any goal scorers we bring in, we don't utilise correctly.

Doyle, O'Grady, McNulty to name a few over recent seasons.

 

Some very good points there. Nothing wrong with Rahic's vision but his execution and the fact that he is obviously a bit of a control freak didn't help with his relationship with supporters.
We got the level of season ticket numbers up to around 19,000 through cut price deals, success on the field and a good relationship between the club and supporters. To keep that level of support we needed to continue with those three things. The trick then is get those supporters to pay more for their season tickets. The way to do that is to show some ambition when signing players, players chosen by the manager who also has a vision. A vision of how he wants to play so as David Hopkin says, you aren't putting square legs into round holes.

 

He had fitness and ‘discipline’ issues. Lived a few doors from mine and used to rock up at tea time half cut (in a taxi) while we were playing footy in the street quite often.
Talented but wasted.