The New Raith Rovers Thread

[pub car king]

Pure speculation here but I wonder if Sim has told the board/MacDonald he wants out and to find a buyer. They have then been approached by Dellios and Co who have seen an opportunity and started spouting pish about big plans etc. 

Sim has come home for Christmas had a look and got them telt not to let the door hit their arse on the way out and he's back to square one. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by pub car king
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[Dalziel8]

I’m really struggling to work this one out. 
 

Silverbear are an investment group, led by Peter Chun. The club state they have never had any direct dealings with this group. (These guys seem legit)

This Mike Dellios guy seems to be the issue. It would appear that he’s gone to Silverbear for the money needed to buy the club and in return would use it to promote his own players from his agency/academy into Raith.

Im not sure where Gordon Smith comes into things. Who is he actually working for? Silverbear or Dellios?

[RRFC_Liam]

3 hours ago, lgb61 said:

If we can get a mid table finish this season, I can see a return to part time football, which would probably mean a new manager and playing squad but may possibly reduce the financial burden over the next 3 to 5 years, yes we would risk going down a league again, but I think a good part time team could stay n the championship for a good few years whilst, financially, they get themselves sorted

Or we could revert back to hybrid who says we can’t do it again and Murray has worked with that system at Airdrie before and we still have FT players and hopefully keep our better ones and sign some good PT players 

[RRFC_Liam]

3 minutes ago, pub car king said:

Pure speculation here but I wonder if Sim has told the board/MacDonald he wants out and to find a buyer. They have then been approached by Dellios and Co who have seen an opportunity and started spouting pish about big plans etc. 

Sim has come home for Christmas had a look and got them telt not to let the door hit their arse on the way out and he's back to square one. 

In previous articles (only rumours/speculation) it said we had more than 1 interested party so we could start talks with these said parties and hopefully they come forward with an offer sim is willing to take and not try get involved in signing players etc 

[Enigma]

12 minutes ago, SanStarko said:

Gordon Smith still blethering pish

Please, please buy a rival club.

[Enigma]

4 minutes ago, Dalziel8 said:

Silverbear are an investment group, led by Peter Chun. The club state they have never had any direct dealings with this group. (These guys seem legit)

Do they? I could only find scant information about them, very shady, Chun himself seems slippery “The Architect”.

[Rover1990]

2 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Please, please buy a rival club.

Falkirks looking for investment.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Rover1990

[Dalziel8]

1 minute ago, Enigma said:

Do they? I could only find scant information about them, very shady, Chun himself seems slippery “The Architect”.

Sorry, when I said legit I meant more along the lines of that they are actually an investment group. I didn’t mean that they were good guys or anything like that.

[Enigma]

5 minutes ago, Rover1990 said:

Falkirks looking for investment.

A real shame they never sold to that Mark Campbell chap. They’d have had a shiny fourth stand and a hotel by now.

[SirJimmyofNic]

What irks me more than anything is that our financial woes didn't just happen overnight, so why did Sim/ the Board waste all that extra cash we made from the two Celtic games the £100k plus that the supporters raised during lockdown,  and probably more that I cant remember by allowing the signings of Ross, Gullan, and "you know who" 

[ohnononowheredidRossgo]

1 hour ago, Michael W said:

I'd forgotten that Gordon Smith was appointed Director of Football at Rangers by Craig Whyte. 

A man well used to associating with shysters. The door should've been closed the moment his name was mentioned. 

Agreed. Gordon Smith is an idiot at best and a wrong ‘un at worst.

[raith1974]

38 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Please, please buy a rival club.

Some how I see Hamilton as a target for them.

[roverthemoon]

26 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

What irks me more than anything is that our financial woes didn't just happen overnight, so why did Sim/ the Board waste all that extra cash we made from the two Celtic games the £100k plus that the supporters raised during lockdown,  and probably more that I cant remember by allowing the signings of Ross, Gullan, and "you know who" 

Don’t forget the 500k from the Government.

Aside from DG, this is the most disappointing aspect of Sim’s tenure. All that talk of the pitch being put in to create an asset and source of income for the club. Had hoped that being from a global financial background he’d have got us on the path to sustainability or at least moved us a bit away from the threat of financial collapse. Yet here we are again with vultures and chancers circling. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by roverthemoon

[Alert Mongoose]

It's like they have deliberately picked the worst entrant in the following three categories to form their bid;

Venture Capital Groups

Football Agencies

Discredited Scottish Football Personalities

 

What could go wrong?

[Michael W]

32 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

What irks me more than anything is that our financial woes didn't just happen overnight, so why did Sim/ the Board waste all that extra cash we made from the two Celtic games the £100k plus that the supporters raised during lockdown,  and probably more that I cant remember by allowing the signings of Ross, Gullan, and "you know who" 

The thing is, the losses the club has made are not all equal. We might well be running at an average of £150k a year, but they are through circumstances. 

Our two massive losses recently were a direct result of playing in League One. Our first season down there we lost c£440k, halving the loss to c£200k the following year. I have no idea where we came out in 19/20 without looking again, but that's over £600k in just two seasons in that league. It is an utter cesspit of a league, and truly is the place that full time football goes to die.

These losses were almost certainly a deliberate attempt by the club to get back into the Championship; I am going to be uncharitable here and suggest that absolutely no attempt was made in either of these seasons to get close to a break even, with the club not wanting to place its promotion prospects in jeopardy. On one hand, understandable, on the other totally reckless with regards to the club's long-term future, especially if the losses are not simply written off. We do not go into a new season guaranteed to lose money: we do so because of poor budgeting/bad assumptions and indeed conscious choices made by the club's (non-footballing) management. Forecasts are not easy, but it is well within the realms of possibility to run a budget that will, under a reasonably pessimistic scenario, still come close to breaking even. We have failed to do this in years gone by. 

In recent years, despite all of these things, there have also been more than a few big items of income for the club. These are: 

The supporters raising £100k during covid; 

Selling Bowie to Fulham (£100k);

Selling Tait to Hibs (£100k);

Scottish Government Covid Grant (£500k);

2 x cup ties at Parkhead;

Home tie against Aberdeen, televised on Premier Sports. 

The total of the above is surely over £1m. And of course there are some other items of spending notable too: 

Fee for Ethan Ross, fee for Goodwillie (plus paying off his wage), paying off James Keatings. 

It is reasonable to question why we are in such a terrible position. Ultimately, however, the key thing to the club's survivability is not to be relegated to League fucking One. And if we happen to be, the cloth must be cut accordingly for the club's own sake. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Michael W

[SirJimmyofNic]

4 minutes ago, Michael W said:

The thing is, the losses the club has made are not all equal. We might well be running at an average of £150k a year, but they are through circumstances. 

Our two massive losses recently were a direct result of playing in League One. Our first season down there we lost c£440k, halving the loss to c£200k the following year. I have no idea where we came out in 19/20 without looking again, but that's over £600k in just two seasons in that league. It is an utter cesspit of a league, and truly is the place that full time football goes to die.

These losses were almost certainly a deliberate attempt by the club to get back into the Championship; I am going to be uncharitable here and suggest that absolutely no attempt was made in either of these seasons to get close to a break even, with the club not wanting to place its promotion prospects in jeopardy. On one hand, understandable, on the other totally reckless with regards to the club's long-term future, especially if the losses are not simply written off. We do not go into a new season guaranteed to lose money: we do so because of poor budgeting/bad assumptions and indeed conscious choices made by the club's (non-footballing) management. Forecasts are not easy, bit it us well within the realms of possibility to run a budget that will, under a reasonably pessimistic scenario still close to breaking even. We have failed to do this in years gone by. 

In recent years, despite all of thise things, there have also been more than a few big items of income for the club. These are: 

The supporters raising £100k during covid; 

Selling Bowie to Fulham (£100k);

Selling Tait to Hibs (£100k);

Scottish Government Covid Grant (£500k);

2 x cup ties at Parkhead;

Home tie against Aberdeen, televised on Premier Sports. 

The total of the above is surely over £1m. And of course there are some other items of spending notable too: 

Fee for Ethan Ross, fee for Goodwillie (plus paying off his wage), paying off James Keatings. 

It is reasonable to question why we are in such a terrible position. Ultimately, however, the key thing to the club's survivability is not to be relegated to League fucking One. And if we happen to be, the cloth must be cut accordingly for the club's own sake. 

Add to those figures the income from a 4th and 5th place finish in consecutive seasons

[Dalziel8]

The only good thing to come from all of this is knowing that the whole lot is up for sale (the club and the stadium) and we can hopefully join both back together again! 

[TxRover]

5 hours ago, Heid_The_Baw said:

To be fair, Murray has signed one of them.  A Faroese international basketball player.  In fact probably get more luck signing random punters from the local pub.

Not to be cynical, but as this apparently has been bubbling for a bit, could there not have been some sort of recommendation from some of these chancers, and IM being told he had the approval to sign Little John as a way for the club to nose around this scouting groups recommendations and Sim to show some willingness to work with them?

[SirJimmyofNic]

5 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Not to be cynical, but as this apparently has been bubbling for a bit, could there not have been some sort of recommendation from some of these chancers, and IM being told he had the approval to sign Little John as a way for the club to nose around this scouting groups recommendations and Sim to show some willingness to work with them?

I did allude to that in an earlier post, and considering Murray wouldn't sign a player he had not seen, and also it was a weegieland solicitor that handled the visa paperwork certainly makes you question it

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

7 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

and also it was a weegieland solicitor that handled the visa paperwork certainly makes you question it

Quote

The club are extremely grateful to Lisa McGuigan, Solicitor at McGlashan MacKay Solicitors in Glasgow, who specialise in Immigration Law and who assisted extensively in the work permit application process to ensure that John’s visa was applied for as smoothly as possible.

John Frederiksen Signs For Raith Rovers | Raith Rovers FC