Mr November
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Everything posted by Mr November
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All good points. I’ve said it before but we’re now on day 18 of the daily club tweets and we’re only at Euan Deveney. Easy to forget just how small our squad of genuine first team players was last season (and the season before). As you say, we’re still in a tricky position for recruiting full-time players. Remember last summer when people panicked because Queen of the South signed a load of players early on while we signed no one, forgetting that they’d just signed Rico Quitongo, Max Currie and a finished Gavin Reilly among other jobbers. I’m sure McCabe (and the good people at Consilium) will be prepared and working on things. We’ve seen McCabe become a lot less naive tactically, I expect he won’t repeat last summer’s lack of signings. Plenty of time before we can start panicking.
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I think that draw is fine if the fixtures work out in the usual way. Not the most exciting but all games we have a chance in. Bonnyrigg is a great away day, Inverness isn’t ideal since we’re heading there twice already, we’ve done well at home against top flight teams previously and our games against Dumbarton recently have been chaos.
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Can one of you wish for signing Kyle Turner next please?
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I think our fixtures are usually pot 5 away, pot 4 home, pot 1 home and then pot 2 away. I’d like Livingston, who seem to struggle in the cups at times, and Albion Rovers, as we might not get back to Cliftonhill for a while. Not too fussed about pot 2 or 4 but let’s go for Hamilton and Clyde since they’re probably the weakest teams in each.
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That does make sense, I know they announced Murray Johnson’s loan to Queen of the South around the same time so they were possibly very keen to announce it for whatever reason. It is very odd isn’t it? I get when they do it for club statements that they maybe don’t want a lot of attention on like Salim being punted but bizarre to not tweet out the squad update. I’m not bothered about them not mentioning anything about Callum Smith, than can easily be included as a sentence in the next update, just weird to quietly post a squad update on the website and not share it.
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Does anyone know why we announced the Hibs loans so early? It seems a bit odd to announce them at a time when everyone is focused on the play-offs rather than now when people are overly excited for a signing.
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Just remembered that at a game last season I overheard some guys talking about someone who got a CS11 tattoo on holiday. Hope whoever has it is feeling ok tonight.
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The New Raith Rovers Thread
Mr November replied to Hank Scorpio's topic in Scottish Championship General Chatter
He’s nothing like Zanatta really. Yes they both favour playing on the left wing and cutting inside but very different players in terms of everything else. -
The New Raith Rovers Thread
Mr November replied to Hank Scorpio's topic in Scottish Championship General Chatter
I know Raith have a lot of attacking midfielders/wide players now but I do think Smith is pretty different to most of them. He’s pretty much Murray’s perfect wide player, someone who is quick, can run at a defender but also works incredibly hard and will cover full backs when needed. He can be a bit of a shitebag with 50/50s at times but he never hides and even when he’s on a poor run, he’s usually trying too hard rather than not wanting the ball. I would say that he’s probably still unproven at this level but I think he’s good enough to be a regular starter and chip in with around 10 goals in a decent team. Mullin, Connolly, Vaughan, Smith, Ross, Gullan, Stanton, Brown, Matthews, McGill and Hamilton is a very strong group of players for the front six positions. I’m genuinely very intrigued to see how Ian Murray, a man not shy about rotating things every week when he doesn’t know his best team, goes about fitting them all in. -
Wide left and cutting inside. When Murray signed him in 2019 he tried to play him up front on his own, even putting Calum Gallagher on the wing but it never worked. He spent most of that season then playing wide right where he did well but lacked any cutting edge. Since returning in 2021 he’s generally played wide left, occasionally up front in a two. I’ve said for ages that I thought Smith would go to Raith, Murray is clearly a big fan, but I hoped that promotion might tempt him to stay. It’s hard to argue with a presumably longer deal on higher wages though. His performance against Montrose is the single best I’ve ever seen from any player, so I’ll always remember him fondly.
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If Daniel Church has left Alloa then they could do a lot worse than Deveney. He’s a similar kind of player and I’d say is decent League One left back at the moment with the potential to kick on. We’ve outgrown him a bit now and I do think it’s best for both that he moves on as he needs to play regularly. I certainly wish him all the best wherever he ends up.
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The Queen of the South thread
Mr November replied to qos_75's topic in Scottish League 1 General Chatter
Yeah I think there’s a balance to this. Fans are always very excitable at this time of year and seem to equate just announcing things as good news. Queens signed a lot of players early on which people assumed meant they were organised and making good signings but as you say, people had ignored that most of those players aren’t that good. Equally you don’t want to do what Airdrie did and go into the season with 12 outfielders and then sign a couple of players in September without a proper pre-season. It’s trying to find that balance between getting some solid players signed up early to build from and having patience for key targets who might have better offers elsewhere. -
Panicked when I saw Stuart Millar mentioned but that seems like the ideal role for him. Just keep him away from recruitment please! Hard to argue too much with those players released. Thanks for their efforts, they all contributed either in terms of good performances (Deveney) or entertainment (Byrd being a big Australian, McCabe refusing to being Dixon on, Riley having the worst game I’ve ever seen) which is good enough for me.
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I have no information on this but I’d be amazed, and slightly concerned, if we were paying Charlie Telfer, or anyone outside of McCabe and Fordyce, more than £800 a week. I reckon Smith and Salim would have been on pretty low Premiership wages, so even with taking on those contracts I’d expect them to be on £500-600 a week, the same for guys like Frizzell, Ballantyne, Rae, even ATS etc. Most of those players can justifiably demand an increase for next season, particularly Gabby McGill who is probably on a lowish wage given Airdrie was probably the highest level he was going to get when he joined so I doubt he’s on huge money, albeit we ostensibly cover his accommodation.
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The daily tweets the club are putting out make you appreciate just how small a squad we had in terms of genuine starting contenders. Day 12 and we’re still on Jay Riley, with the only player even close to a regular so far being Lewis Jamieson who played for five months.
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Doolan’s interview, and Thistle’s style of play, reminded me a lot of Rhys McCabe, so I do wonder if we’ll see a lot more of this over the next few years. I wonder if we’ll start to see a lot of teams move towards younger, more progressive coaches after the relatively high profile success of Doolan and McCabe. A lot of the appointments this summer already fit that (St. Johnstone, Kelty, Elgin, Peterhead). They won’t all work but it’s more exciting than the same old jobbers appearing everywhere. I went along tonight and really enjoyed the game, though it does feel like a slight missed opportunity for Thistle. I was at the first leg against Ayr and both times Thistle have been excellent going forward, really enjoyable to watch. Sunday will be a big test but you have to fancy them to score again, which should be enough. There can’t be many better ways to win promotion than battering everyone you come across, with a modern day legend in charge.
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Just seen McCabe with (I think) one of the Consilium people at Firhill tonight. The Kyle Turner dream lives on!
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I agree on the two year deal thing. The club has done really well to build a solid core squad over the last few seasons, with most of them at a good age. Now is the time to offer some continuity and longer term deals for Smith, Frizzell, McGill etc., with one year players we should be improving upon over the next year or two like Watson.
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Interesting to see what happens here, feels like the first big summer of change at Cove for a long time. I did think that Peterhead could be the real winners of Cove going full-time. If nothing else, signing Cove’s part-time players is a much more sensible recruitment policy than whatever they were up to this season!
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I think he can. I thought he just looked knackered against Hamilton more than anything. He was excellent against three big centre backs in the cup game at Dundee, so I do think he has it in him to step up a level. There will definitely be games where a more physical option might be needed but I’m fully expecting him to be our main striker next season.
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A fair summary @ShineOnYouCrazyDiamonds. I’d definitely keep Watson, I’m not as big on him as some fans but think he’s a good option to have in the squad. I don’t think he’s good enough to start every week but he’s a great option to cover/challenge Ballantyne and ideally a new full back. I’d guess Telfer is one of our higher earners, has he done enough to justify sticking around? Possibly not, I’d rather that wage went to a Scott Martin type player, but would also be fine with him sticking around. ATS is a tricky one. He clearly brings a calmness and experience that we don’t really have elsewhere in the squad but does he have the legs to play a level above? I’d keep him as backup but can we afford to use a wage on someone who might barely play? Some tough decisions for McCabe. I expect we’ll hear some news next week.
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I’d happily take him but I reckon he’ll get a move up the way and that it’s his choice to leave rather than Raith punting him. I think he’s been linked with Dunfermline but can see a top end Championship team going for him.
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@el Gringo you’re missing out on a career in politics with wording like that I’m looking forward to the Ben Wylie one and hope his finest Airdrie moment, bamming up Montrose fans at the 6-4 game, makes the cut.
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He’s signing for Alloa apparently, which I think is pretty much at the top of his level.
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I think people thought he was really young because he didn’t have much senior football experience before joining us. He was fine and did a job because our midfield really needed someone who could make forward runs and get the team up the park. It amazes me that anyone looks at the midfielders we’ve had over the last couple of seasons and wants a return to the teams from before that. Scott McGill and Justin Devenny are levels above him, nevermind Easton, Frizzell etc.
