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The New Raith Rovers Thread


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7 minutes ago, Starkiplier said:

Obviously emotions are still very raw given what’s unfolded at the club this week, so I can understand that todays statement hasn’t done much to calm the fury of some fans. However I don’t think that sacking the manger is the answer.

Nobody has done more for Raith Rovers over the last 20 years than John McGlynn, on or off the pitch. He turned us from a shambolic outfit rotting away in League 1 into a team challenging for promotion to the top tier. Twice. Even in the years he wasn’t employed by us, he was at every club event, fundraiser or testimonial he could manage. He was out in the community delivering supplies to the vulnerable during lockdown, and again at Christmas. He lives, sleeps and breathes this football club. He has dedicated his life to Raith Rovers and always given everything he could to try and bring us success.

In signing Goodwillie, he has made a monumental error of judgement. Perhaps he thought that because the player had been at Clyde for 5 years without causing too much of a stir that this wouldn’t go down too badly and people would see it the same we he did, as a good signing who would score goals. I don’t believe for a second that McGlynn would have signed the player if he understood the hurt and the outrage that it would cause, that’s obviously extremely naive on his part and I’m sure in hindsight he deeply regrets ever even considering it. However it’s not up to me to make his excuses for him and it would be good to hear him come out and say as much in an interview before Saturday.

The man is in our club’s hall of fame and there’s barely anyone more deserving of that status than him. I can’t control what other fans do but the thought of us hounding out one of our greatest ever managers over a mistake, even one as catastrophic as this one, is crazy. Cancel culture is rife in our society and people seem to believe that the only way to right a wrong is for a man to lose his livelihood and disappear from the public eye. I completely disagree with that and I think that if anyone has earned a chance to put this right it’s John McGlynn.

All he was trying to do was all he has ever tried to do during both his spells in Kirkcaldy, and that is bring success to the football club we all love.

I agree with every word of this. I understand not everyone will feel this way, but it echoes my feeling perfectly. 

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14 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Will be on K107 on Saturday. Usually starts 1pm. Available online. 

Will also be available to catch up on the website after.

7 minutes ago, pub car king said:

Briefly dipped into the 107 thing on twitter but was on my way to work. Will catch up with it at the weekend particularly interested on Margie Robertsons input. 

Hats off to Margie, she was absolutely fantastic.

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10 hours ago, Starkiplier said:

All he was trying to do was all he has ever tried to do during both his spells in Kirkcaldy, and that is bring success to the football club we all love

He cost you 139 years of being at the heart of the community, he couldn't care less about the fans or the club that much is blatantly obvious by, firstly signing him and secondly hiding behind the unsigned statement as an explanation.

Hes quite obvious a man that thinks rapist's are suitable for employment in a club that has ties in its community, if there is any chance of your repairing the trust he cannot be the man to do it.

Edited by 101
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10 minutes ago, pub car king said:

Briefly dipped into the 107 thing on twitter but was on my way to work. Will catch up with it at the weekend particularly interested on Margie Robertsons input. 

Margie was phenomenal. I was dipping in and out but I heard her whole piece and it was excellent. A lot of emotion behind it, clearly, but she crystallised a lot of the key issues - from a POV that's as close to inside the club as we've had - in just a few minutes. 

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McGlynn won't be sacked. Even for this board, it would take some brass neck to sack him after they authorised the transfer. 

It's a bit weird that he hasn't yet signed a new deal considering it runs out this summer. Maybe they were just putting it on the back burner and concentrating on the current campaign and would've gotten round to the formalities towards the end of the season, but it was a bit strange considering the amount of long term deals we've given to playing staff that the management team were not yet tied up beyond the summer. 

It's a shame because apart from a couple of obvious weak spots, the basis of a good team has been put together and the future was looking relatively bright.

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There are few people in football, perhaps none, that I’d afford a second chance to in these circumstances, other than John McGlynn. If Raith TV are still interested, or Alan Temple fancies another exclusive, and I worked at the club, I’d be on the phone at 9am tomorrow morning organising an interview where John can say a heartfelt sorry to the fans. 

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I'd dearly love to be able to forgive John McGlynn and see him continue as the Rovers manager. I think he's one of maybe only two or three managers in the country where that's even a consideration, such is his standing and history with the club. 

But for that to happen, there needs to be a massive mea culpa. 

He's obviously not someone who's particularly comfortable in front of a camera, he never has been. I think it's abundantly clear that if he could be a football manager without ever having to give an interview, he'd bite your hand off. But this situation needs communication, and it needs transparency. 

It probably needs to start with a phone call to someone like Davie or Niall (and I've no idea if they'd welcome that, I'm not for a second trying to speak for them) for a personal explanation, and a request to come and film a sit down interview. I don't need an Australian cricket style tearful breakdown, that's the last thing I want to see, but for John McGlynn and Raith Rovers to move forward, there has to be a recognition of what's happened, and what's going to be different going forward. 

We need to hear why he thought it was a good idea (which, to be fair, we do already know), we need to hear that he recognises that it's not acceptable to minimise violence against women in the way this episode did, we need to hear an acknowledgement that he was wrong, an acknowledgement of the effect this must have had on Goodwillie's victim, we need an apology, and we need a commitment to improving to make sure this type of thing will not and cannot happen again. 

Someone on the K107 discussion, it might even have been Graeme himself, suggested that what McGlynn needed more than anything was to get back to football and get back to winning. That's his opinion and of course he's absolutely entitled to it, but I disagree. The transgressions have been too great, they have to be addressed directly. Only then can we move on. 

Edited by Against The Machine
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10 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

It's a shame because apart from a couple of obvious weak spots, the basis of a good team has been put together and the future was looking relatively bright.

That's the thing that makes me very sad as well - acknowledging, of course, that this pales in comparison to the harm and hurt the club's actions have caused more widely. I'd accepted we weren't going up this year, but I was really looking forward to seeing how the team got on next year. The goals were coming again too - you could see Gullan growing in confidence during the Morton game, Poplatnik was looking sharp (and I'd have liked us to have offered him a deal in the summer if Livingston let him go) and Stanton looks like an incredible player. All seemed like thoroughly likeable characters too.

As it is, who knows what will happen next season now.

Edited by Kuma Power
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McGlynn has done so much for us in both his stints as our Manager. Surely that counts for something?

I feel really let down by him, but I’m not sure I want him leaving under a cloud. It’s a difficult one. I’d rather see the Chief Exec and Directors punted. How could McGlynn, Paul Smith, the Chief Exec, the Directors, and John Sim, not see that this signing might not be received well by the fans, the sponsors, and the volunteers who they need to run the club? Do they not talk to anyone? The crisis speaks volumes for the way the club is run and the communication within it.

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4 minutes ago, Steakngravys Maw said:

Hearing that DG will be getting his full signing fee paid in instalments. He's also legally entitled to compensation due to his career coming to an abrupt end at senior level thanks to Raith Rovers FC.

Hope Sims got deep pockets.

I'm sorry, but we're not to blame for ending his career. 

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8 minutes ago, Steakngravys Maw said:

Hearing that DG will be getting his full signing fee paid in instalments. He's also legally entitled to compensation due to his career coming to an abrupt end at senior level thanks to Raith Rovers FC.

Hope Sims got deep pockets.

Regardless of the moral position and everything else. The fact is he has a contract and the club as employers have a duty of care towards him. 

This could get very messy because I'd imagine he has all kinds of promotion bonuses, appearances and goal bonuses. 

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6 minutes ago, Against The Machine said:

He's obviously not someone who's particularly comfortable in front of a camera, he never has been. I think it's abundantly clear that if he could be a football manager without ever having to give an interview, he'd bite your hand off. But this situation needs communication, and it needs transparency. 

I have to disagree on these counts, I've been around at home and away games and he has been quite calm about interviews.

He is always asking 'am I doing you (RaithTV) first or the BBC?'

His dedication to post match is exemplary, he was in no hurry to do the written press, which was always a group interview or the National or for the Rovers.

The only time I saw him uncomfortable, and I had to turn away was the infamous interview down at Stranraer.

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Look like all Rovers fans I like John McGlynn he’s done tremendous good for our club on the park in both stints as manager and of the people involved he’s probably the one with the tiniest chance to keep his job because the fans have so much time for him. However his decision to want the club to buy Goodwillie something Val McDermid says came up before when she was on the board and was shot down has cost this club hundreds of thousands of pounds, both our main sponsors, two members of our board, the Ladies team, the SLO, RaithTV, potentially hundreds of fans and a hell of a lot of goodwill built up over decades along with our reputation in tatters. I honestly don’t see how he can survive this. 

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