R.R.FC

Am I reading too much into the striker part of that tweet being in bold? Is it just because there are two Jack Hamilton’s at Livi at we are making it clear which one is signing? Or is there a chance the goalkeeper one could be joining too?

The striker I’ve been wanting us to sign for the last two seasons. Fantastic bit of business and light years ahead of anything we had up there last season. Real statement of intent, particularly on a 3 year deal. Should hopefully settle some of the panic merchants! Albeit the quality of the goalkeeper and 2 centre half’s will still be key in shaping our season.

You could be right but hopefully not! I think they’ll tie in a signing announcement or two with the season ticket release. Timing would be ideal with end of month pay for most, couple of exciting signings and season tickets on sale. Maybe I’m too optimistic though…

Yeah, you could be right. I’m not remotely ITK, I think I’ve heard about 2/3 transfer rumours in my life! Weirdly heard about Mullin from 3 different people but could all be repeating the same dodgy original source, I guess we’ll find out soon.

Judging by the latest tweet from the club, it looks like we will see a signing today. Almost as if Murray and the club have been continuing to work as normal the last week… I’ll take a guess at Josh Mullin. It was rumoured he’d agreed to join weeks ago so would make sense if it’s now being announced with Ayr out the play offs.

Sure one of the ‘team mates’ interviews, might have been Lang and Vaughan? Mentioned that Spencer was seen as Murray’s favourite and they were regular laughing and joking together after training. Obviously depends on how he see’s his role in the side but it would appear the relationship between the two is really good or certainly was a couple of months ago. The delay may be on the terms of the extension. When Spencer agreed his 1 year extension last summer he was comfortably our best midfielder and had come off a really strong season so would have been paid accordingly. His last season wasn’t as good so he may not be valued quite the same internally. All complete conjecture though, obviously!

No he didn’t, Barry Smith signed him. He had already scored 8 in 8 games for us when McGlynn took over.

I’m the opposite, I take the fact season tickets aren’t on sale yet as a real plus about the financial security under the new owners. In the past we’ve had early bird season tickets go on sale in March as we desperately try to get money in to tide us over. The fact we are able to do the building work around Starks and still take our time, invest in proper marketing for the season tickets and put them on sale at the perceived ideal moment is a big positive for me.

Aside from Berra, Benedictus, Musonda, Tumilty, Matthews, Poplatnik and Williamson? And that’s just the decent ones. You can add in the likes of Mackie, Varian, McKay and Zanatta that all played a decent number of games for us under McGlynn too. There was also the pay offs for Goodwillie and Keatings. If you compare the starting 11 from our last game of 21/22 with our last starting 11 of 22/23, we had one outfield player the same. With respect, you’re talking nonsense.

Yeah, been a manger for over 10 years and never had a chance to manage in the Premier League, he’d have to take it, if offered. I would much prefer he stayed, I think we have the basis of a good squad, planning is well underway for the season ahead and I think he had a solid, if unspectacular, first season which gives us something to build on. However, it needn’t be a disaster if he goes, as long as act quickly and appoint someone competent (a big IF with the Rovers granted!). We’re pretty much done in terms of who we will retain from the current squad and whilst most players will still want to know the manager before they sign, the new structure with Barrowman and Potter leave us much less exposed than previous years and can still be working on recruitment in the background ready for the new man to sign off (or add his own names) when he joins. Also the names out there don’t seem quite as bleak as last season and I think we’re in a much more attractive position. One thing I learned from last year is to only judge any new manager on how they do with us. I would have been varying degrees of underwhelmed if we’d appointed any of Kettlewell, McPake or Scott Brown who we were linked with last summer but all have done good to excellent jobs for their respective sides.

I agree with all those saying the Dundee job looks a very difficult one. A complete rebuild in a league where they’ll probably be one of the favourites to come straight back down and where a couple of managers have been reported as turning the job down, presumably over not having the funds they’d like for the rebuild. However, playing devils advocate for a minute, it is a chance to to manage in the Premier League and if he fails, he will point to the factors above and failing at Premier League will probably mean he’ll still be in the running for a Championship down the line. Whilst our new owners have said they are behind him and he will be backed with a better budget, he isn’t ‘their’ manager and there is obviously increased pressure and expectation of a play off place this season. He could just as easily be out the door with us in 6 months too if we aren’t in the mix. And being sacked by a Championship side would probably mean he’d have to start again with a club the level below. I expect him to go if offered the job but I think Dundee will pick someone else.

Yeah that’s what I thought too. Dean McKenzie would have been the person that appointed him at Kelty wouldn’t he? Anyone but John Potter tbf, that’s my main concern right now. Also, I hope that contract with Connolly is watertight!

Sackable offence on its own IMO. Our performance in the 2-0 defeat at EEP after our cup win was a real low among lows in the second half of the season.

Not to get into it all again because it is a Falkirk thread but obviously the Goodwillie episode had a huge effect given the damage it did to the club. However, we were also a mess on the field for the last 5 months of his tenure and that is the context of which Murray is judged with his budget cut and the existing budget used up on unavailable players or overpaid for their worth (similar to what McGlynn himself inherited at Falkirk). Also, the last 19 of the season under McGlynn’s tenure, we were the worst team in the league (table below). So Murray inherited a club in turmoil, had his budget cut by 50% (the board had agreed with McGlynn to have a one off push at the title given the league was wide open, which was part of the reason McGlynn left, he didn’t want to stick around with a reduced budget) and also a team on the field which had spent the last half of the season as the worst team in the league. Hence why 7th was accepted as a decent job this year. If you asked Raith Rovers fans their opinion of McGlynn in December 2021, you’d have almost unanimous support but it’s hard to overstate how disastrous his last 5/6 months were both on and off the field and that destroyed his reputation for a lot. FWIW, I put most of the blame for the ridiculous contracts at the boards door, most managers would take advantage of that sort of thing, it is on the board to police that. Thankfully the new owners seem more active and switched on in that regard. # Club W D L Goals +/- Pts 1 Kilmarnock FC 19 11 5 3 30:16 14 38 2 Arbroath 19 9 7 3 26:15 11 34 3 Morton 19 7 6 6 21:19 2 27 4 Inverness CT 19 6 7 6 28:22 6 25 5 Hamilton Acad. 19 6 7 6 23:23 0 25 6 Ayr United 19 6 6 7 23:23 0 24 7 Partick Thistle 19 6 6 7 17:24 -7 24 8 Dunfermline A. 19 5 6 8 18:25 -7 21 9 Queen o. t. S. 19 5 4 10 20:28 -8 19 10 Raith Rovers 19 3 8 8 17:28 -11 17

That’s great news. Tailed off a bit at the end of season but carried our attack on his own for spells of the campaign. 25 goals in 2 seasons from right wing allied to an excellent work rate and entering into the prime of his career. Hopefully a couple of strikers and left winger to come and take some of the goal scoring burden off his shoulders for next season.

The day isn’t over yet . Happy with McGill, showed he could cover quite a few positions to a good standard, still young with room to develop too. Not a signing that will get the season tickets flying off the shelf but the type of player you need in a strong squad.

Not necessarily true, I think in terms of new signings, the young ones are the easiest to commit and get over the line earlier. The more experienced higher quality players will have multiple offers and take more time to decide their next move. Additionally, players aren’t out of contract till the end of the month and some of our targets may still be playing (play offs or Premiership squad players). It would be nice to get a couple of quality experienced players in now but I would be giving it a few weeks before I pressed the panic button on that front. The club have spoken about having a bigger squad, we aren’t going to get 25 proven Championship players so that will inevitably mean there will be some young squad filler we take punts on but it doesn’t mean they will all be like that even if the first few signings follow that profile.

New managers markets are usually all over the place with a small bet either way skewing things. Until someone goes heavy odds on, it’s usually just a guessing game. I’d be very surprised if they went for Murray. I like him and think he did a solid job given what he inherited and I certainly wouldn’t want to lose him at this stage of our planning for next season. But I’m not sure finishing 7th in the Championship for Raith Rovers would make him a front runner for the Dundee job in the Premier League.

Has there been anything said about when season tickets will go on sale? I assume it will be this week? Obviously the new owners and commercial team coming in will have delayed things. Can only hope the plan is to tie the announcement in with an exciting signing or two!

This. If Tiehi scores one of his two sitters yesterday at 2-0 in normal time or in the last seconds of extra time it’s a completely different story. Not saying McCabe hasn’t done a good job, he obviously has but Murray left him an excellent squad for that level. From watching the play off matches this year, the biggest difference in them getting through is that they just had a bit of luck in the right moments which has deserted them in the past, nothing transformational tactically.

It’s from here unfortunately mate!

Yeah, Zanatta could be absolutely infuriating to watch at times but he seems a nice enough guy. Likewise, we all enjoyed how much of a shithouse Tumilty was with us but despite getting plenty stick he didn’t try to wind up our support after his winner in the cup final which I was pleasantly surprised by. I can’t say I felt any sadness for them going down but certainly didn’t take any enjoyment either.

I can’t speak for anyone else that has mentioned him but for me, he seemed to do well when he came into the Hibs team last season. Man of the match on his debut against Hearts if I remember right. He is also very highly thought of at QOS and Dumbarton, being a stand out in his two spells in League One whilst still being a good age to develop and improve. I am sure I remember posts from @Jan Vojáček rating him highly and describing some of his main strengths as his presence and communication which, given our vulnerability at set pieces last season certainly wouldn’t do any harm.

Yeah, Dabrowski apparently joined Hibs in 2017 so he would have been there when Potter was.

He would have coached him at Hibs too.