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The New Raith Rovers Thread


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18 minutes ago, Brashy's Boots said:

Some pretty big accusations there Scotty, without elaboration. 

As for hospitality and adverts, you are aware of the current economic crisis aren't you? People are making decisions on how they spend their money. Spending it at the Rovers is probably not high up the list of priorities.

I can elaborate, although will understandably chose not to do so on a public forum at this time. I can say though I've personally have had meetings at SP where I have been told one thing only for the subject of the conversation not to happen and subsequently to find out that there was never a chance of those things happening. The person in the meeting then blatently denied that they'd said those things to me despite there actually being a club director in same meeting. You could add in the documented denial "don't worry Val, we will not be signing him" once again despite there being other people within earshot when that was said, again there was denial. Add in the number of times we've been told DG would be off the books "in 2 weeks/soon/by the start of the season"

I'm at the stage where if a Rovers director/employee told me it was raining outside, I'd still look out the window to check.

 

Re, hospitality.

Recession or not they should have been able to sell more than a dozen places for yesterdays game. This wasn't Cove or Morton in November, January of February. No attempt was even made to drop the prices to make it viable.

Community wise in some areas the club has come on leaps and bounds, actual football team and club commercially wise we have also made major steps.... just backwards.

Regards to this being a transition season, I don't get people already thinking they're happy (though the longer it goes we all might) to accept just avoiding relegation. Two years ago we finished 3rd, last year 5th. Surely you replace your manager to improve not get worse?

 

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13 minutes ago, grumswall said:

I seen last season as a transition season under mcglynn, expecting him to still be here this season and have us pushing on. The run we went on early on changed that perception but with a new manager it definitely is a transition season. We'd all love to be challenging for the league but it probably wouldn't have happened regardless of who the manager is this season. Give Murray time and he will get it right. We've had two league games and people are talking about must win games. That's just nonsense.

He definitely doesn’t panic and airdrie went 5 games last season before a win, I think there was definitely positives yesterday and left the ground more upbeat , there isn’t much between any of the teams, I have definitely had to readjust my hopes for the season to staying in the league and hopefully aiming higher next season. Budget looks to be cut but we need to bring in a striker ( have Crewe got any other young players 🤔) soon

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He definitely doesn’t panic and airdrie went 5 games last season before a win, I think there was definitely positives yesterday and left the ground more upbeat , there isn’t much between any of the teams, I have definitely had to readjust my hopes for the season to staying in the league and hopefully aiming higher next season. Budget looks to be cut but we need to bring in a striker ( have Crewe got any other young players [emoji848]) soon
I don't think we need to lower our expectations to just surviving in the league. There where plenty of positives to take from yesterday. I don't expect us to challenge for promotion however we do still have 4 key players to come back in to contention on top of any possible signings that will hopefully happen this week. 5/6/7 should be our aim this season but we've only seen two teams from this league. Cove didn't look up to much and honestly I didn't think Dundee looked like league favourites.

Does anyone know if Gillespie is wearing his cough not a toupe cough while playing?
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I thought we played fine yesterday. The goal came completely from our own making, and there were some very shaky moments, but we actually created a few chances - notably the one where Gullan narrowly failed to get onto the ball across the face of the goal, and Ethan Ross not capitalising on their goalkeeper's absolute howler. 

I feel like quite a lot of people saw our three most recent signings and have felt like this squad is the finished article, but from what I've seen there's still extra bodies to come in. Throw in Lang, Spencer and Matthews into the mix (I'd put in Vaughan, but obviously he's one player who we need to offer as much flexibility with as possible) and that'll be a huge boost. Most of the reaction to O'Riordan signing was one of disappointment we'd brought in an 18 year old, but based on yesterday he looked reasonably solid. Nolan looked like he'll need a bit of game time to adjust to things, but even still didn't have any major issues. 

It's certainly felt that there's been an undercurrent of frustration at the club since the start of the season. Some of it is justified, others has just been outright cuntish behaviour. That's less prevalent here, but some of the bedwetting after two games has been absolutely wild. It feels like some folk are in a competition to put the most outrageous take they can on the matter. Get Ngwenya in at left back, get O'Riordan and Nolan game time and add another option up top and then work from there. 

45 minutes ago, Scottydog said:

That is outrageous, other than Sim who has actually paid for a place on the board?

The Fan's rep has the same right's on the board as anyone else. Is this a case of disrespecting the FR because she's a woman? None of the previous ones were treated like that.

In fact if you think about it, if the other directors have no share holdings behind them then the FR actually has more rights than them. The CEO has a place at this table why? The CEO is a paid employee (I notice the CEO has a nice new Merc btw , must be on a good wage there) and as such they will do as they're told, to me that's out and out corruption or at the very least a conflict of interests. CEO needs to go, we have regressed since any of them came in but more in the last 12 months than even during Eric Drysdales tenure.

All in all? Just a fecking shambles of an operation

There's very much an argument that our CEO benefitted from some form of nepotism, and that there's been a potential conflict of interest when Paul Smith was at the club. 

 

45 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

Maybe the fans rep wants to be with the...fans, on a match day?

I remember seeing previous supporters director in the pub at Arbroath pre game.  You may be reading far, far too much into something.

Yeah, I'd agree with this. Margie was far more visible throughout the South Stand than being involved with the directors when she was in the role. I'd expect the same of any new SLO/DAO. 

I'm not sure how frequently a Fans Director would expect to be in directors box at games, or if it's merely down to personal preference. I'd fully expect they're invited to board meetings to discuss matters. 

At the moment, it does feel like there's a disconnect to some degree in communication but I'm confident it'll improve over time. I'm involved with the fan's panel and there's been a lot of good suggestions and dialogue on the back of it which should hopefully come to the fore in the next little bit. That doesn't, however, absolve the lack of transparency at certain points. There's obviously still a very large elephant in the room and the closest we've had to an update is through a podcast with Aberdeen fans. Admittedly, it's a situation where people want plenty of answers but all that can be really said at the moment is that it's still with the lawyers. 

It feels at the moment like there's plenty to be positive about, but loads of questions to be raised. Enigma points out we're not selling out hospitality, and yet on the other hand the club are telling us we've reached a record number of season tickets for this time. There's various other examples which could be pointed out. 

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13 minutes ago, grumswall said:

I don't think we need to lower our expectations to just surviving in the league. There where plenty of positives to take from yesterday. I don't expect us to challenge for promotion however we do still have 4 key players to come back in to contention on top of any possible signings that will hopefully happen this week. 5/6/7 should be our aim this season but we've only seen two teams from this league. Cove didn't look up to much and honestly I didn't think Dundee looked like league favourites.

Does anyone know if Gillespie is wearing his cough not a toupe cough while playing?

Yeah Dundee didn’t look anything special, decent enough team, maybe if I lower my expectations I will enjoy the season 😉 there was some good things yesterday and if the 4 boys stay fit will make a big difference, just need that first goal next week to get us going 

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39 minutes ago, Scottydog said:

I can elaborate, although will understandably chose not to do so on a public forum at this time. I can say though I've personally have had meetings at SP where I have been told one thing only for the subject of the conversation not to happen and subsequently to find out that there was never a chance of those things happening. The person in the meeting then blatently denied that they'd said those things to me despite there actually being a club director in same meeting. You could add in the documented denial "don't worry Val, we will not be signing him" once again despite there being other people within earshot when that was said, again there was denial. Add in the number of times we've been told DG would be off the books "in 2 weeks/soon/by the start of the season"

I'm at the stage where if a Rovers director/employee told me it was raining outside, I'd still look out the window to check.

 

Re, hospitality.

Recession or not they should have been able to sell more than a dozen places for yesterdays game. This wasn't Cove or Morton in November, January of February. No attempt was even made to drop the prices to make it viable.

Community wise in some areas the club has come on leaps and bounds, actual football team and club commercially wise we have also made major steps.... just backwards.

Regards to this being a transition season, I don't get people already thinking they're happy (though the longer it goes we all might) to accept just avoiding relegation. Two years ago we finished 3rd, last year 5th. Surely you replace your manager to improve not get worse?

 

Zzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!

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I'm going to hang off on the "knicker wetting" until we've seen a quarter of league games. 

I think a lot of us underestimated how big a rebuilding job it was from last season. I think Murray is the right man at the minute and he is trying to get players in but is in the same boat as most other teams in that they're simply isn't the player pool that we have been used to. 

Also we've had a poor pre season which doesn't help, the Berra situation is just ridiculous packing it in 3 days before the season starts. I think recruitment wise the 2 centre half's will be fine and both look like they will do a job once they've played a few games, more so Nolan is in desperate need of minutes. The Negenwya situation is a little but of an odd one and he didn't look comfortable on Saturday he may well be a decent left back if given a run. Millen for me is a less dynamic Liam Dick but it is what it is. Brown looks the best bit of business so far he is capable and gets wired in as well as playing a few positions. Easton I think will frustrate at times and be sublime in equ measure.  

Recruitment is ongoing so we'll just have to wait and see.

As for behind the scenes I don't know enough about that but I don't see any real change from last year. 

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It's really easy to look at last season and use 5th place as the benchmark.  However, from 19th December onwards, it was as bad as almost anything I've seen from a Rovers side.  Totally devoid of any confidence,  and a genuinely horrific run of form.

Much of that side are still here.  7 of those players were on the pitch at some point yesterday.  Murray has had to come in to an unbalanced squad low on confidence,  on a terrible run of form.  He obviously hasn't got everything right, but it's going to take more than 2 league games for any manager to sort that.  So a transition season isn't the worst thing in the world, its far more than "5th place last season, we must immediately do better"

It's becoming clear that there is a sizeable job needing done, and Murray has just come out of a job where he made incremental,  slow, but assured progress in a methodical manner.  Let's give him that chance, I can't think of any manager at our level who would come into this with instant results.

But please sign a striker, Ian.

Edited by CALDERON
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1 minute ago, CALDERON said:

It's becoming clear that there is a sizeable job needing done, and Murray has just come out of a job where he made incremental,  slow, but assured progress in a methodical manner.  Let's give him that chance, I can't think of any manager at our level who would come into this with instant results.

Imrie took over a side that was stinking out the bottom of the league last Christmas under Gus McPherson and the turnaround was instant.

I'm not convinced that either Raith's squad issues and the scale of the turnaround needed are as significant as made out on here though. 

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2 minutes ago, virginton said:

Imrie took over a side that was stinking out the bottom of the league last Christmas under Gus McPherson and the turnaround was instant.

I'm not convinced that either Raith's squad issues and the scale of the turnaround needed are as significant as made out on here though. 

Well, I'm fairly sure this was statistically speaking the worst side in the league for the 2nd half of last season, so it's not a great starting point without having license to rip things up.

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Also can't be underestimated how badly Berra has fucked things up here, albeit unintentionally.  A pairing of him and O Riordan would have installed far more confidence yesterday, for example,  at least to settle things down for a bit.  

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Just now, CALDERON said:

Well, I'm fairly sure this was statistically speaking the worst side in the league for the 2nd half of last season, so it's not a great starting point without having license to rip things up.

Morton were both statistically and actually the worst side in the league when that manager took over and turned it around immediately.

There's really no inherent reason why a slump in form last season is relevant anyway. There has been a significant turnover of squad and the manager had the ability to ship out more players if he thought it was a genuine problem.

It's a lot of special pleading for what are just a couple of common or garden 'dung results'. 

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22 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

It's really easy to look at last season and use 5th place as the benchmark.  However, from 19th December onwards, it was as bad as almost anything I've seen from a Rovers side.  Totally devoid of any confidence,  and a genuinely horrific run of form.

Much of that side are still here.  7 of those players were on the pitch at some point yesterday.  Murray has had to come in to an unbalanced squad low on confidence,  on a terrible run of form.  He obviously hasn't got everything right, but it's going to take more than 2 league games for any manager to sort that.  So a transition season isn't the worst thing in the world, its far more than "5th place last season, we must immediately do better"

It's becoming clear that there is a sizeable job needing done, and Murray has just come out of a job where he made incremental,  slow, but assured progress in a methodical manner.  Let's give him that chance, I can't think of any manager at our level who would come into this with instant results.

But please sign a striker, Ian.

I have to agree I was definitely guilty of underestimating the job he has to do, he did/does frustrate me but sacking him would be a disaster. Berra obviously had a fall out no matter the official line, he is too professional to just Chuck it when he was still playing ok and that definitely put a major spanner in the works. Hopefully we get that first goal/points of the season on Saturday, it’s going to be a tight league again 

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1 hour ago, Scottydog said:

I'm at the stage where if a Rovers director/employee told me it was raining outside, I'd still look out the window to check.

Better look up as well, and check it isn’t he who shall not be named pissing off the roof either!

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1 hour ago, Scottydog said:

Regards to this being a transition season, I don't get people already thinking they're happy (though the longer it goes we all might) to accept just avoiding relegation. Two years ago we finished 3rd, last year 5th. Surely you replace your manager to improve not get worse?

 

I feel the same. Last time McGlynn left for Hearts and we got Grant Murray. It was okay but we had the clocks go back thing in full effect and a load of uninspiring 7th place finishes papered over by some decent cup runs. 

Surely if you’re letting McGlynn go it’s because you think you can do better and push for promotion?

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The board should be looking to let us know what’s happening with the Goodwillie situation anyway. The fans have a right to know if he’s close to being punted or if some agreement has been reached where he continues to be paid but is on gardening leave or whatever. Just some actual facts rather than radio silence and waiting for us to forget about it….

Its actually a joke. 

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I feel the same. Last time McGlynn left for Hearts and we got Grant Murray. It was okay but we had the clocks go back thing in full effect and a load of uninspiring 7th place finishes papered over by some decent cup runs. 
Surely if you’re letting McGlynn go it’s because you think you can do better and push for promotion?
Mcglynn wasn't technically let go though. Both him and smudger chose to move on for whatever reason.

Agree with wardy, the club need to address the massive sex pest in the room and keep fans updated considering the furore that it caused. There's no point at all in ignoring it and hoping everyone just forgets.
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12 minutes ago, grumswall said:



Agree with wardy, the club need to address the massive sex pest in the room and keep fans updated considering the furore that it caused. There's no point at all in ignoring it and hoping everyone just forgets.

In an ideal world this would be the case, but given the nature of the situation and the legal minefield involved in trying to agree a termination of someone's contract, I'd imagine the board will have been strongly advised by their lawyers to say nothing until a final settlement has been reached and signed off.

Edited by Specky Ginger
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In an ideal world this would be the case, but given the nature of the situation and the legal minefield involved in trying to agree a termination of someone's contract, I'd imagine the board will have been strongly advised by their lawyers to say nothing until a final settlement has been reached and signed off.
Even an update of talks are ongoing is better than nothing at all and at least gives the impression that moves are being made. I get it's a legal thing now but saying that doesn't cross any boundaries or make the club liable for anything.
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