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The New Raith Rovers Thread


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4 minutes ago, McGuigan1978 said:

I do think this is quite interesting, and I'm a little confused at the two opinions which seem to be gathering around the CEO. They seem broadly to be in two camps;

A) Boo, why is Karen involved with anything when her man is the assistant manager, this is clearly a conflict of interest, booo  and;

B) Boo, why did she not get involved when her man is leaving, he's the assistant manager, she should have spoke to him, booo, etc

Now, I'm not saying the situation is ideal, far from it, but those two opinions don't really marry up, and Laura's tweet is interesting, and also suggests that there's a danger that we start slagging folk off when we don't really know the background. 

Then maybe this Laura shouldnt be firing off tweets like that in the first place. 

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2 minutes ago, McGuigan1978 said:

Why?

Because of the danger that it leads to folk getting slagged off when we really don't know their background as you said yourself. 

Writing on twitter that our small time football club's CEO has nothing to do with football contracts isn't going to get a positive response is it?

 

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3 minutes ago, Railwaystand said:

Some guy called Stephen Batty at 25/1. I’ve genuinely never heard of him before. 
 

Anyone know much about him? 

The East Fife under 20 manager/coach.  Looks about 13 himself....
No doubt in with a shout.

 

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2 minutes ago, RR #1 said:

Because of the danger that it leads to folk getting slagged off when we really don't know their background as you said yourself. 

Writing on twitter that our small time football club's CEO has nothing to do with football contracts isn't going to get a positive response is it?

 

Eh? Surely it does the opposite? She's given a little overview of what goes on that presumably none of us know?

Edited by McGuigan1978
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So it’s looking like Kevin Thomson is the favourite at 2/1 does anyone think this will be a good appointment just wanting some peoples thoughts, me personally think it’s better than the shite that on the list apart from Ian Murray 

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3 minutes ago, McGuigan1978 said:

Eh? Surely it does the opposite? She's given a little overview of what goes on that presumably none of us know?

Do we think Val McDermid was telling porkies when she said Karen had assured her DG wouldn’t sign and then “Next thing I know, she’s negotiating his transfer”?

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11 minutes ago, McGuigan1978 said:

Eh? Surely it does the opposite? She's given a little overview of what goes on that presumably none of us know?

Don't see how? If a CEO isn't involved with FOOTBALL matters at a FOOTBALL club I'm completely baffled, maybe that's just me but I don't think so. 

Edited by RR #1
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20 minutes ago, McGuigan1978 said:

Now, I'm not saying the situation is ideal, far from it, but those two opinions don't really marry up, and Laura's tweet is interesting, and also suggests that there's a danger that we start slagging folk off when we don't really know the background. 

I've no idea what the individual members of the board do, but if they make a terrible decision in replacing John McGlynn then I'll pan them, but I don't know what their jurisdiction or role is, or whether they can vote on matters, and I doubt anyone else does either. 

This is the crux of it, for me. Whenever there's silence with a club like the Rovers, external noise will fill it. 

I'm not pointing the finger at anyone in particular, but it also allows people with agendas to start mischief making too. 

Since Karen Macartney was appointed, I could tell you twenty things I've heard (or read) about her. Most are outright negative. Some are indisputably true. Almost none of it has come from Raith Rovers. 

I don't know how aware Karen is of this sort of reputation that she's building, but if I was her I'd be furious at the board (or I'd be using my influence as CEO to change things). She's been portrayed in different quarters as a powerless puppet, an overpaid saboteur and a lying nepotist, and others inbetween. 

I suspect she's none of those things. Or at least, not to the degree some have suspected. Like most people, I imagine she's a well intentioned person who's doing the best job they can in what have been very difficult circumstances (some of which she may have directly or indirectly contributed to). 

But the thing is, we've had absolutely nothing from the club to try and explain any of it. What does she do day-to-day? What impact has she had since she joined? Is she more focused on the community side or the football side of things? Who does the manager face off to on a daily basis, is it Karen or someone else on the board? Depending on the answers to those questions, what does Steven MacDonald do? If the next manager fucks up, who carries the can? Is it the board, the CEO, or does the owner take responsibility? 

There might not be many supporters in Scotland who could tell you the answer to those questions about their own club, but the Rovers are in a mess of their own making, and this is the way out. They need to communicate, remove all the unknowns, lay out the roles and responsibilities and make sure there's accountability for the big decisions that are made. 

Without that, the distance between the club hierarchy and the broader support is only going to grow. Right now there's a huge amount of mistrust, and you can't fix that with silence. 

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They were always going to open themselves up to questions like this when the appointment was made. At a football club, the two least stable positions are probably manager and assistant manager. At best, the appointment was going to raise questions over a conflict of interest and at it's worst it raises a question of nepotism. Similarly, it was always going to create situations where people would speculate about her role whether it was Smith getting punted with McGlynn on the back of a poor performance, Smith being appointed manager if McGlynn was punted, or the current situation where they've gone. 

I'm not the most in the know person over what goes on behind the scenes. I'd say there's a lack of transparency over what her role entails. If the club didn't see this sort of thing coming up, I'd be astounded. There is not a chance that they've failed to recognise that people would find out about this. 

8 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Do we think Val McDermid was telling porkies when she said Karen had assured her DG wouldn’t sign and then “Next thing I know, she’s negotiating his transfer”?

Apparently she claimed later in meetings that we'd been after another centre forward on loan who opted to move to another Championship club. That's all well and good, but you've got John Sim saying one thing in statements ("We got it wrong") only to come out and contradict himself in the press a month or so later.

There's a complete lack of clarity and at the moment it feels like they take everything for granted. They take the fans who left for granted with the primary stakeholder saying that there's 41 other clubs to pick from. They took for granted a popular cup winning management duo who have twice pulled us out of the mire in league one and got us established as a championship team. They took for granted the fans by thinking we'd accept David Goodwillie playing for us and ploughed on until we didn't have Raith TV or a match programme - the same fans who unquestioningly ploughed in a six figure sum into the club at the start of the pandemic and got nothing back in return. 

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Based on the very little information we have, maybe Karen’s actual role is more similar to a Business Development Manager. 
Having the title of CEO, within a football club, implies that you’re responsible for the day to day running and management of the club, with some negotiating and financial responsibilities. 

Giving her a title that doesn’t match her brief isn’t helpful. No wonder we’re left scratching our heads and being dumbfounded over what she does / doesn’t do!

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2 minutes ago, RR #1 said:

Don't see how? If a CEO isn't involved with FOOTBALL matters at a FOOTBALL club I'm completely baffled, maybe that's just me but I don't think so. 

This is the key thing, small club CEO said to be on a higher wage than the manger yet has no responsibility nor remit for football  (despite being married to the now ex Assistant) weird

She has overseen (specific role uncertain) a mutiny within the support via GW (her role varies from none to wrote the contract) 

Alienated volunteers, heard this from numerous well kent faces from programme, Roary club, etc

Alleged to have lied to major sponsor- debated to death but shooting one sponsor in the back then securing another seems a bit fast and loose.

If not involved in GW failed to have her voice heard when the marketing and reputational damage would make most walk due to their position being untenable

We do have a titan which appears significantly smaller than expected and won't service the numbers that were muted

Club communication is frankly comical of the Fawlty Towers variety. 

Direct engagement with fans is zilch- I recall 1 piss poor fluff piece on club TV, a  piece on k107 didnt hear so cant comment and a courier article Ironically moaning about misogyny in football.

We now have a media executive as well who must fill the day receiving counselling for the train wreck that surrounds the club.

Surely a CEO should set this communication strategy, lead dialogue etc or is that not in the remit either. Wouldn't surprise me if the desire to avoid a conflict of interest saw JM and Smudger go to save the CEO role for puppeter Sim.

Yet here the CEO is looking to lead the charge to replace the manager and her husband, seeking CV's like the club is a fast food franchise. Hardly reeks of competent succession planning.

 

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On 03/05/2022 at 14:51, Hoose Rice said:

Katie or Murray will get it depending on how the playoffs turn out imo.   Be funny if it was Peter Grant or Tommy Wright mind you. 

Top 2 in the betting. 

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20 minutes ago, RR #1 said:

Don't see how? If a CEO isn't involved with FOOTBALL matters at a FOOTBALL club I'm completely baffled, maybe that's just me but I don't think so. 

I can see a situation where, at a club the Rovers side, you ring-fence first team matters to the board and bring in an employee to manage the rest of the organisation. 

I have no idea if that's what Karen Macartney's role was supposed to be, or if I'd necessarily call that person "CEO", but it would allow for her to co-exist with her husband as assistant manager, for example. 

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From the Rovers site:

"Karen Macartney was appointed Chief Executive of Raith Rovers FC in April 2021. Karen’s immediate focus is to strengthen the infrastructure off the playing field, with the long term focus being to develop partnerships in the community and Scottish Football"

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If the CEO only deals with off the field matters and the wider running of the club as a business. Then to be honest we're not seeing a great deal of return on that side of things either. 

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13 minutes ago, Raithie said:

From the Rovers site:

"Karen Macartney was appointed Chief Executive of Raith Rovers FC in April 2021. Karen’s immediate focus is to strengthen the infrastructure off the playing field, with the long term focus being to develop partnerships in the community and Scottish Football"

In February 2022, the ladies team left and community relations were comprehensively burned to the ground. 

Job's a good 'un. 

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25 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

They were always going to open themselves up to questions like this when the appointment was made. At a football club, the two least stable positions are probably manager and assistant manager. At best, the appointment was going to raise questions over a conflict of interest and at it's worst it raises a question of nepotism. Similarly, it was always going to create situations where people would speculate about her role whether it was Smith getting punted with McGlynn on the back of a poor performance, Smith being appointed manager if McGlynn was punted, or the current situation where they've gone. 

I'm not the most in the know person over what goes on behind the scenes. I'd say there's a lack of transparency over what her role entails. If the club didn't see this sort of thing coming up, I'd be astounded. There is not a chance that they've failed to recognise that people would find out about this. 

Apparently she claimed later in meetings that we'd been after another centre forward on loan who opted to move to another Championship club. That's all well and good, but you've got John Sim saying one thing in statements ("We got it wrong") only to come out and contradict himself in the press a month or so later.

There's a complete lack of clarity and at the moment it feels like they take everything for granted. They take the fans who left for granted with the primary stakeholder saying that there's 41 other clubs to pick from. They took for granted a popular cup winning management duo who have twice pulled us out of the mire in league one and got us established as a championship team. They took for granted the fans by thinking we'd accept David Goodwillie playing for us and ploughed on until we didn't have Raith TV or a match programme - the same fans who unquestioningly ploughed in a six figure sum into the club at the start of the pandemic and got nothing back in return. 

That apparent striker was the boy who went to partick Alegria or however you spell it he wanted partick as it was closer to home type thing 

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That apparent striker was the boy who went to partick Alegria or however you spell it he wanted partick as it was closer to home type thing 
I've heard it was Jack Hamilton from Livi but he obviously went to Arbroath. Based on what we've seen we didn't miss much with Alegria.

On a side note, Poplatnik's pals are over from Slovenia and he's given them all our away kit. The most lovely man in Scottish football.
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