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Ins and Outs
Rather than gloat in Killie’s richly deserved 1-0 victory against Ayr United in the League Cup semi-final, I thought we could take a look back over what has been a remarkable couple of years for Killie, bringing us to this point.
Of the eleven who started a relegation decider against Falkirk in May 2010, only two players remain – Kelly and Pascali.
Since then, Shiels and his predecessor Mixu Paatelainen have had to deal with a shrinking wage budget. Before Mixu had taken charge for the 2010/11 season, with Shiels his assistant, six first team squad members were allowed to leave.
They plugged this gap with a mixture of frees and loans. The stand-out deal was getting Alexei Eremenko on loan. Eremenko became the creative fulcrum and heartbeat of the team as the club also underwent a change in philosophy – away from the physical, direct play common in the SPL to a creative, free flowing passing style.
By the time Mixu left, lured away to the Finland job in the new year and leaving Shiels in charge, cracks had begun to appear in Killie’s transfer policy. Though the first window had been a success, the January window had been, frankly, a disaster.
The club had lost Sammon, who’d been on fire, to Wigan and Gordon back to Chelsea. Of the five signed, only one remains – Jaakola, the big Finnish keeper. Laurant came in, and then promptly seemed to vanish as if he were a figment of the imagination. Aubameyang came from AC Milan but failed to live up the hype. Berntsson was signed as a fullback, came on a sub in midfield, was terrible, and was hardly seen again. Evans was “one for the future”, but had gone by August..
The new season begun, again, with a swathe of players leaving. The previous windows had seen, broadly speaking, the club buy “young” – average age of 22.6 years in the first window, and 23.3 in the second – but this window was different. Kroča was the “wrong” side of 30, with Heffernan, Buijs and Panikvar not far behind. If not for a couple of youth signings, the average age would be 26.2.
The ratio of good signings to bad was much higher. Heffernan hit the ground scoring, Harkins slotted in and Racchi and McKeown look like excellent buys. Only Panikvar and Ada truly “flopped”. Ada seemed to fall out of favour before the ink was dry on his contract, and was gone by January.
It’s too early to judge this January window yet. Dean Shiels, previously on loan, signed till the end of the season and the Nelson looks solid at the back. The other permanent signing, thus far, is Belgian attacker Dieter Van Tornhout. The average age has jumped to 28.5.
Over these two seasons, Killie have brought in 31 players, comfortably the highest in the league. Despite this massive turnover, the club looks set to emulate last seasons top six finish, and could perhaps even deliver silverware.
If Shiels can deliver the Killie faithful another cup to celebrate, and new heroes to worship, the flops will be quickly forgotten.
Posted by Kilmarnock fan Kevin Alexander
Follow Kevin on Twitter at @SlideRulePass
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