CallumPar

I’m actually slowly losing interest. The new CEO is supposed to be good at the commercial/marketing side of things. Said we would announce season tickets soon, then the next announcement, 9 days later, was to say that the shop would be closed. I didn’t realise it was even open, since they have nothing to sell right now. We seem to be so far behind everyone else in terms of fan engagement/communication and it’s getting worse all the time. Even the PR/marketing side of things is horrendous. There’s nothing at all at the club that anyone can be ‘proud’ of. I genuinely think all aspects of the club are really poor right now and needs massive change/improvement. The training ground thing seems to have gone quiet. When it was announced, they were hoping this would be ready for pre-season. But the radio silence on that front suggests that’s not going to happen. This was meant to be such a big thing, why are fans not being kept up to date on this? I’m sure we’d all be quite interested in seeing/reading about the plans and the benefits that this will bring, as well as a timeline of when we should be in/progress updates.

Part 1 surely has to be Rovers fans telling us that Nisbet wouldn’t be good enough for us/the championship, when we signed him? May not have been a majority, but there was a decent amount on here that tried to claim he wasn’t very good and would struggle.

It’s very strange that nothing’s been announced about this yet. Normally on sale early/mid-May, with early bird ending around now. Usually accompanied with a message about how crucial it is to buy early, since we have no other source of income in May and June… The new CEO’s background is in the commercial aspect of football. I can’t understand why he’s let this drag on for so long, without any update on season tickets. It’s almost as if the club have just forgotten about them. Cook suggested in that interview last week that we would hear this week, but with the club announcing that their offices are now closed until Tuesday, that must be unlikely. On Saturday, it will be 4 weeks since our season ended and, so far, we have brought in a new manager, but no coaching team. I was told last week that Shields has accepted a move to the academy, so I’m surprised that there’s been no news on the coaching side. We’ve released everyone who was out of contract, no offers made to anyone. We seem to have forgotten about season tickets and are behind where we usually are with regards to new kit/leisurewear being released. Again, this is usually described as a crucial revenue stream at this time of year.

Is it not Chris Hamilton we’ve been linked with? Midfielder released by Hearts, was on loan at Arbroath last season.

I’d imagine he’ll end up at Queens Park or something. Won’t be turning down championship football at Ayr, for league one football here.

With Pybus, didn’t he have an extra year option? Maybe in those situations there needs to be some sort of written confirmation that we are/aren’t taking that option up? Again, this is just speculation, but seems logical to me. Can’t understand why the written confirmation is a text, but it seems to be how things are done in football.

All the ‘in the know’ guys were reporting that the players all had meetings at the club a couple of weeks ago. Now they’re reporting that the players haven’t had any face-to-face contact. Sorry, but the stories aren’t adding up. I don’t know what’s true, but if they were only told by text, it’s quite poor. It seems more likely this was the club’s way of providing written confirmation that the contract wasn’t being renewed, but I could be totally wrong.

He picked up an injury in the Ayr game. Seemed to bother him for the rest of the season. His attitude was honestly never in question, always seemed to give 100%. Scored a cracker away to Hamilton a few months ago, which is probably worth watching - if you really want a laugh, you can watch our defending in the rest of the highlights too.

Great signing for you. One of the very few players who was genuinely decent for us last season. If he was willing to drop down to this level, I’m really disappointed we missed out on him.

I hope we don’t keep him. He looked completely finished.

Decent enough interview. Knows the size of the task ahead of him and knows we deserve to be where we are. As he says himself though, we judge him on results once the football starts. Just glad we’re away from the arrogance of claiming to be a massive club that deserves better. Hopefully this proves to be a good appointment and we start getting used to winning games of football.

https://www.kingdomfm.co.uk/news/local-news/new-dunfermline-boss-says-he-has-improved-as-a-manager-after-time-away-from-the-dugout/ don’t think I’ve seen anyone else post this yet. Refreshingly honest interview. Just wants to win games of football, before we talk about any promotion/prospects.

Yeah, no interview 25 hours now after the appointment was confirmed - particularly with the interview being filmed before that was even done. We’re awful at the media/marketing/communications side of things and have been for a while. I thought the new CEO would help here, but unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case - not yet anyway. Incredibly, we actually got worse at communicating through social media during the pandemic, when everyone else strengthened those areas. Regarding the ParsTV team, they’re awful and the interviews are absolutely dreadful to watch/listen to. It’s the same guy that does the commentary on the stream. We’re a professional football club and, volunteers or not, our media team should be much more capable/professional. Other clubs manage it no problem, but we seem to have some strange loyalty to guys that just aren’t up to the task. We undoubtedly had the worst streaming service/commentary team in the championship and we just didn’t seem to care. Nothing personal, the guys are just not good at their role. For a while now, we’ve used Steven Mill for the big stuff (new managers, club announcements, new investors, new CEO etc), due to the fact he’s had media training and he can actually speak clearly/ask reasonable questions. I’m not sure why that hasn’t highlighted the fact that we need someone better doing the regular interviews. The week-to-week team are just so bad and it’s cringeworthy to watch. The same guys have been there for years and aren’t up to the job, when do we accept that and move on? Should have happened a long time ago.

Steven Mill tweeted that his interview with McPake would be up ‘a little later tonight’ when we announced the appointment. Also said there will be an interview with David Cook later this week. Noticed earlier though, that he said there were technical issues and it should be out today. ‘Technical issues’ probably means it’s been passed to ParsTV to edit/upload, and Brian is throwing a tantrum/being difficult because it wasn’t one of their team that interviewed the manager.

Anyone else just glad we won’t have to go to Firhill, for about the 10th time in 12 months?

This. We should be wanting the weakest possible group. In the same way most teams in other pots will hope to draw us, to increase their chances of progression.

I think we definitely need an experienced assistant/coach. For me, this was Crawford’s main downfall, he brought in his mates rather than an experienced guy like Jimmy Nicholl to point him in the right direction.

I don’t really understand the argument that someone from outwith Scotland with no managerial experience would be more exciting than a manager who got a side promoted from the championship last year. At the end of a season that we’ve seen Maloney and Glass come and completely fail, I don’t think that’s the sort of risk we need to be taking. But everyone’s entitled to their own opinions and if that’s what you’d prefer, fair enough. Even Bullen, all he’s really achieved is his Ayr team not being as bad as Hughes’ Dunfermline. That being said, I hope he learns from this season and has a good career in management. I can understand people wanting someone a bit different, but this thread just goes to show that no option available to us would have got everyone (or anyone?) particularly excited.

I didn’t say it was impossible, just pointed out some of the challenges. Outside of Rangers/Celtic, who do offer life changing wages, there aren’t many teams who attract managers from further afield. Obviously Hibs have just done it as well, but the difference in wages on offer and the attractiveness of the job compared to ours is enormous. Some Scottish managers look to return back to Scotland/the UK to progress their coaching careers (Glass, Maloney etc), some non-Scots/non-British managers also see it as a platform to prove themselves and get a bigger move. Some managers just back themselves and like a challenge, so come to Scotland. But you really can’t ignore that a club that have had major issues on and off the field and have been relegated to the third tier of Scottish football isn’t an attractive proposition for a manager, never mind one for them to relocate themselves and their family for. If nobody from outside Scotland applied, then why would we go out of our way to try and headhunt someone like that?

You do realise we’re not some sort of massive catch paying life-changing wages? If St Mirren couldn’t afford to pay Oran Kearney enough for him to relocate from Belfast, I’m not convinced a Scottish league one side will be offering wages/job security that will have someone desperate to relocate here. We’re on the brink of appointing our third manager in 12 months and are in the Scottish third tier. Recruiting a manager from out with Scotland would likely be a challenge. Not impossible, but certainly challenging. That’s before factoring in work permits and the issues that come with that, for anyone from out with the UK.

It’s not the most exciting appointment, but it’s about the best we realistically could have expected. Got to give him a chance, see what he does, who he brings in (in terms of coaches and players) and what he has learned from his time at Dundee. His spell at Dundee wasn’t as disastrous as Murray’s spell at St Mirren. So who’s to say he can’t learn from his time there and become a good manager? Yes, he struggled last season and faced challenges at Dundee, but what young/inexperienced managers don’t face challenging spells? Campbell said he doesn’t want to go full time (when asked about Arbroath in premiership), Petrie and Murray both already manage teams going for promotion at this level (Murray also got a better offer than us). Realistically, who else would we want? Kettlewell had 6 months as manager at County, once his co-manager left, and John Hughes came in to sort out his mess. No chance Jack Ross would take such a big step down either. It’s not a particularly appealing job. We’re a league one club that seem to have had a lot of issues on and off the park in the last 12 months. I’m not buzzing for the new season after this or desperate to get back to East End. But I know that I will renew my season and am happy enough to get behind McPake and the team and see what happens this season. It may seem underwhelming, but I think that’s more indicative of how far we’ve fallen, than any lack of ambition.

To be fair, I’m not too offended by McPake. He just wouldn’t be at the top of my list. Yes, he had Charlie Adam, but he won promotion with Dundee. I’d have Thomson and Murray ahead of him, definitely. Murray knows the league and has Airdrie playing good football. Thomson seems to be very highly rated, knows how to win and seems to like to attack. McPake would probably be another Crawford-type manager. I think he’d probably get results, but not be too entertaining. I wouldn’t be thrilled, but I’d certainly be willing to see how things go.

If you’re appointing one of those 2, I’d genuinely be happy for us to take your second option. Not the time for ‘pride’ and saying that we can’t be taking someone who isn’t good enough for you. Obviously I’d be all for us trying to outbid you, but Raith in the championship is a much more attractive job than Dunfermline in League One.

This has crossed my mind over the last few weeks. Lots of people with different info and I honestly hope they’re trying to find the ‘leaks’ and get rid of them. Giving everyone different info makes it easier to figure out who is passing on this information to people who rush online to tell everyone.

Up until the last 12 months, I’d say we’ve been better than most for giving managers time. McIntyre was here 4 and a bit years. Jefferies was here just under 3 years. Johnston was here 3 and a half years. Crawford was here 2 and a half years. That’s not to say Grant/Hughes deserved more time. Both were horrendous appointments that couldn’t have complained if they were punted sooner. Having said that, Crawford’s first half season ended dreadfully and he got fewer PPG than Hughes managed. Once he built his own team, we weren’t too bad. Big difference there is that Hughes signed 7 players and kept playing them - those players were a big part of the problem. If it wasn’t for the fact the board has significantly changed in the last 2 years, I don’t think the last 12 months would put anyone off/make managers hesitant to take the job. However, there may be some who look for assurance that they will be given time. The right appointment deserves time - this isn’t going to be a quick fix. If it’s as disastrous as the last 2 appointments, we have a problem. Punt them early and suddenly there’s a big red flag for potential managers. Keep a poor manager on for too long and we’re going to keep going backwards anyway.