The New Raith Rovers Thread

[San Starko Rover]

17 minutes ago, port-ton said:

Whether McGlynn knew the damage he'd cause seems irrelevant to me. He signed someone he knew to have been found by a judge to have committed rape and had no problem with it, which is the issue every single raith fan has with the people running their club, even before the massive media and commercial spiral. 

Maybe I'm mistaken in my way of thinking but if I was a female raith fan and saw the man who sanctioned that signing in the dugout I'm not sure I could go and back a team managed by that person, regardless of what his previous accomplishments are. 

Rape apologists on twitter and this thread have been getting it tight all week and deservedly so for their awful opinions, so it doesn't sit well with me that one of the major players in this whole thing isn't held to account at the same standard for purely footballing reasons. 

I think you put it quite well with regards to female fans and staff. Let’s not forget sponsors too.  Now I believe (hope) that we can possibly convince people especially Val McDermid to come back and help us out this mess but I’m certain she won’t come back if we accept keeping any of those involved.  “John McGlynn is a good manager” is no different from “David Goodwillie is a good footballer” it does not justify excusing his involvement while we tear the CEO and BOD to shreds it’s absolute hypocrisy. There is nothing McGlynn can say that will undo the damage done.   

Edited February 4, 2022 by San Starko Rover

[Double Jack D]

4 minutes ago, Rob1885 said:

Strong Kyle Benedictus vibes from the Raith support last night and this morning.

"Mcglynn has our full backing" - Raith support

Nobody is saying that. 

[Kuma Power]

34 minutes ago, Michael W said:

On Sim, it's further occurred to me as well that whilst he's now the Global Chair of an Accountancy firm, he was by trade an Auditor. He himself ought to know that his role as Chairman represents very bad corporate governance.

This is something I just can't get my head around either. Sim is a very successful businessman, who as you say has built his whole career in sectors that promote good governance and a prudent, cautious approach to business. I'm not privy to the internal workings of the Rovers, but from the outside looking in he seems to have driven a coach and horses through all of these principles in the way this decision was made.

[Raith Against The Machine]

6 minutes ago, Rob1885 said:

Strong Kyle Benedictus vibes from the Raith support last night and this morning.

"Mcglynn has our full backing" - Raith support

Has anyone given McGlynn "full backing"? I've not seen that. 

[Double Jack D]

The place to start is with the board. 

The four remaining gone, the two who resigned offered back. I'd love us to do whatever required to get McDermid on board as that would start to heal a lot of the wounds and increasing the fans representatives on it would be a good start.

If we get the board right, I'd be happy for them to take a view on McGlynn. I would be amazed if he is still manager at the start of next season.

[baba douche]

Im a Thistle supporter, and the older posters might remember when our owner and chairman had to step down in rhe nineties over a couple of distasteful comments about a possible takeover by an Asian businessman.

I don't think he was even intentionally racist, but the outcry meant he moved into the far background, even though he still owned the club.

What your owner has done is far, far worse. He should probably look to do the same thing, as - unless someone can buy him out, and he actually WANTS to sell - its probably the only way to even possibly dampen things down.

[ribzanelli]

7 minutes ago, Rob1885 said:

Strong Kyle Benedictus vibes from the Raith support last night and this morning.

"Mcglynn has our full backing" - Raith support

I haven’t seen a single Raith fan offer McGlynn their full backing

[San Starko Rover]

2 minutes ago, baba douche said:

Im a Thistle supporter, and the older posters might remember when our owner and chairman had to step down in rhe nineties over a couple of distasteful comments about a possible takeover by an Asian businessman.

I don't think he was even intentionally racist, but the outcry meant he moved into the far background, even though he still owned the club.

What your owner has done is far, far worse. He should probably look to do the same thing, as - unless someone can buy him out, and he actually WANTS to sell - its probably the only way to even possibly dampen things down.

Wasn’t aware of your situation but yes Sims should if he’s any decency step back until he can be bought out.  The others should go as soon as replacements are found. 

[RaithRyan]

The decision was made for “footballing reasons” and the man who carries that can is McGlynn - as I said on the K107 show last night the management have pushed for this, and going by the post match interview the other night McGlynn looked a man who has royally fucked up - for me they have to go. 
 

There has been tremendous progress with the club in recent years, however as discussed last night there are some decisions that have been made that tells you that there is still that element of detachment and I guess what hurts me is I’ve always felt McGlynn understood and helped bridge that gap as he understood the fans - but this decision has undone years of hard work and who knows what will come out in the coming days, it could well get really ugly before things get better again. 

First time I got involved with the K107 twitter spaces last night and I thought everyone who spoke was superb and the overriding feeling was that most of the fan base are singing from the same hymn sheet. That tells me that whatever this sorry mess brings we can come out this at the other end together. 
 

Well done to Margie as well on the show last night, I thought she was excellent given the circumstances and how difficult a week it has been for everyone involved. 

[TheScarf]

4 minutes ago, Double Jack D said:

The place to start is with the board. 

The four remaining gone, the two who resigned offered back. I'd love us to do whatever required to get McDermid on board as that would start to heal a lot of the wounds and increasing the fans representatives on it would be a good start.

If we get the board right, I'd be happy for them to take a view on McGlynn. I would be amazed if he is still manager at the start of next season.

I think Val McDermid is done with Raith Rovers.

[San Starko Rover]

I can understand some who say let McGlynn see out his contract (end of the season) for continuity during this and to save having to potentially pay another person off and I see where you’re coming from. The problem is what then happens if we suddenly go on a run and end being promoted? would all be forgiven? There would be sections singing his name a demanding his contract extended. Hardly a good look after all this and a terrible message being sent out about our morals. 

[R.R.FC]

16 minutes ago, gav-ffc said:

That’s been covered extensively so you know we bid for him but I don’t know what that’s got to do with me saying mcglynn should resign.

Do you feel that Rennie and Miller should resign? I would imagine not, and understandably so, it would be silly to demand the resignation of a manager for suggesting a signing target. However, the same as John McGlynn, they wanted to sign a rapist. The only difference is our club, unfortunately, had the finances to push a deal through. But the request from the manager remains the same.

McGlynn also knows Goodwillie on a personal level from 18/19 years old and I am sure would have had a good relationship, as he does with nearly all his former players, before his rape conviction. That conviction should absolutely supersede any previous thoughts on his personality and be enough to stop any deal and sadly it hasn’t.

People are entitled to want McGlynn to go and I respect and understand that opinion, without him putting the name of Goodwillie forward he is not signed, that’s a fact.

However, I think people are naive if they think John McGlynn is the only manager who has put forward the name of David Goodwillie to their board in the last 5 years. However, no other board has been stupid enough to actually agree to the deal. Manager’s come and go, they have a responsibility to manage and put together a successful team on the pitch. They should always consider the wider effects of any signing but I don’t believe that is the sole responsibility of the manager. I believe it the main responsibility of the board is to protect and safeguard the reputation and uphold the values of the football club. I don’t see how they are not at least equally as culpable as McGlynn for this shitshow, more so in my opinion. All they had to do was say no as many boards around the country will have done in the past.

The key thing is how much McGlynn pushed for this. The panic has obviously set in at the club given our recent form and the huge opportunity of promotion. If McGlynn has went back to the board around deadline day and said ‘we must sign Goodwillie or we won’t go up’ and put demands or a serious level of pressure on the board to make this happen, then he needs to go, absolutely no doubt about it.

However, it could also be a case that he put the name to the board at the start of the window and after the Celtic cup draw, and on the back of a bad run of form, they have returned to McGlynn, who is out of contract at the end of the season with a level of expectation on his head to earn a new deal, and said, ‘We now have the cash for Goodwillie, if you still want him’ and McGlynn has said yes, I’m not sure I would demand his resignation for that but I appreciate and respect anyone that thinks differently. But unfortunately, I’m not sure we’ll ever find out that level of detail on how the deal came about and was pushed through.

I think the first course of action must be inviting Clark and Mill back to the board. If they don’t wish to accept that is understandable and they should be asked their terms to return. Val McDermid should return to the board and we should look to further diversify the profile of the board.

John Sim leaving is fanciful at this stage but I would expect to see the rest who voted in favour step down. I appreciate Sim ultimately always has the final say but I would like to hope the changes above would ensure if a vote ever happened again, the balance of views is not in favour of John Sim and his stooges. Once this new board is in place, they should consider how this deal came about, speak to the manager and ultimately make the decision they feel is correct on his future and I will support whatever this is.

 

[Scary Bear]

On a practical level if everyone is sacked or resigns, who runs the club and manages the team? There has to be some form of continuity through this period. 

Football fans just want to sack everyone when something goes wrong. In the social media age they want this done immediately. I get that this has been an absolute catastrophe for the club, but we need to work our way through this. Everything has happened so quickly. On Monday everything was tickety boo and between then and today we’ve been shipwrecked and now on Friday morning we find ourselves sitting on a desert island surveying the wreckage.

The damage has already happened and that won’t be fixed anytime soon. The main things required were for Goodwillie to be punted and for the club to apologise. These things have happened.

The issue we have now is that everyone left running the club obviously have varying degrees of blame attached to them but we need to continue to function as a club and win football matches and try and get through this season, while making the changes the majority of fans want.

Edited February 4, 2022 by Scary Bear

[mrpaddyx]

23 minutes ago, Rob1885 said:

Strong Kyle Benedictus vibes from the Raith support last night and this morning.

"Mcglynn has our full backing" - Raith support

Nope  

[Raith Against The Machine]

2 minutes ago, San Starko Rover said:

I can understand some who say let McGlynn see out his contract (end of the season) for continuity during this and to save having to potentially pay another person off and I see where you’re coming from. The problem is what then happens if we suddenly go on a run and end being promoted? would all be forgiven? There would be sections singing his name a demanding his contract extended. Hardly a good look after all this and a terrible message being sent out about our morals. 

I think it'd have to be signalled now that he's standing down at the end of the year, with no ambiguity. I don't think he can be allowed to just continue to the end of the season with the intention of not renewing without it being addressed now. 

[Scary Bear]

13 minutes ago, Double Jack D said:

The place to start is with the board. 

The four remaining gone, the two who resigned offered back. I'd love us to do whatever required to get McDermid on board as that would start to heal a lot of the wounds and increasing the fans representatives on it would be a good start.

If we get the board right, I'd be happy for them to take a view on McGlynn. I would be amazed if he is still manager at the start of next season.

I’m not sure how our club works but isn’t a Chief Exec normally responsible for the running of a company with the Board rubber stamping the Chief Execs decisions?

[DA Baracus]

I think it's a bit naive hoping that inviting those who left the Raith board will result in their return after the insincere apology of yesterday. It's especially naive to think McDermid will return.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but seems like there would need to be significant changes before those people even considered it, and there haven't even been rumours of such changes yet.

[GreenockRover]

1 hour ago, HeWhoWalksBehindTheRows said:

You're board signed a rapist m9.

No shit Sherlock...? 

Not much added by your incisive contribution there and clearly your rage typing fucked up the 'mate' sarcasm attempt.

Never mind.

Cant wait for your next attempt at serious discussion.

 

[Been going too long]

9 minutes ago, San Starko Rover said:

I can understand some who say let McGlynn see out his contract (end of the season) for continuity during this and to save having to potentially pay another person off and I see where you’re coming from. The problem is what then happens if we suddenly go on a run and end being promoted? would all be forgiven? There would be sections singing his name a demanding his contract extended. Hardly a good look after all this and a terrible message being sent out about our morals. 

No I won’t be singing his name and even if he did get promotion I still think he should leave, only suggested he stay to help the players already there as they don’t deserve this. 

[Michael W]

24 minutes ago, Double Jack D said:

The place to start is with the board. 

The four remaining gone, the two who resigned offered back. I'd love us to do whatever required to get McDermid on board as that would start to heal a lot of the wounds and increasing the fans representatives on it would be a good start.

If we get the board right, I'd be happy for them to take a view on McGlynn. I would be amazed if he is still manager at the start of next season.

This is one of the unknowns as to how much of the damage can be undone isn't it? Would Val be happy to return? I am not sure that she would, at least not whilst the existing board is in place. Maybe she's done forever, I don't know. 

From our own perspective, she is amongst a very, very small handful of people who:

1) Support the club; and

2) Have the financial means that they could use to effect some change another club. 

It is incredibly frustrating the way we have pissed her off as she could really help us start to put right some of this damage. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Michael W