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The General Ross County Chat Thread


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1 hour ago, Mr Tourette said:

Apologies if this has been discussed earlier in this thread, but any opinions on the 16yo striker James Graham who Rangers have agreed a fee for? The article in P&J says he was previously on trial at Liverpool and Man Utd and Leeds and Wolves are also interested

He is from the Isle of Lewis, and by all accounts is our best prospect.  He has been in Scotland Squads, but outwith that I know very little.

County have released their whole youth team, and four first teamers - Spence, Kelly, McManus and Foster.  No furlough to be had.

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1 hour ago, Mr Tourette said:

Apologies if this has been discussed earlier in this thread, but any opinions on the 16yo striker James Graham who Rangers have agreed a fee for? The article in P&J says he was previously on trial at Liverpool and Man Utd and Leeds and Wolves are also interested

He's good. Have seen him play a couple of times now, definite talent there but all depends on how he develops. I'd rather see him play for us than sit in Sevco's youth setup but if there's a fee to be had (and maybe a sell-on?) can't really say no right now.

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1 hour ago, Comrie said:

Foster

Kelly

Spence

McManus

Are being allowed to leave. Fraser and Morris offered new contracts. Really unsure about letting Kelly and Foster go.

Not too fussed about Kelly, definitely improvement over his performance last year but still not top-six level which is really what we should be aiming for. McManus never really broke into the team outside of injury duty, and Spence was just a centre-circle hacker (already got Vigurs and Tillson for that). I am a bit annoyed about Foster going, he was by far our best full-back last season (maybe not saying much compared to Kelly and Fraser). At least we'll get some comedy from MacDonald having another club to moan about.

I think Roy's right enough in not wanting to string players along that aren't going to be kept on - feel bad for the youth squad though, some of them have been with the club for a long time. Saying that though, if they've been with the club that long you'd expect some of them to have made their way into the first team.

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Surprised with the names of the players leaving. Foster was a consistent 7/10 player - knew what you were getting. Kelly, I thought, had improved a considerable amount even since the start of the season. Spence is understandable because we do have a lot of options in the middle of the park and his game time was becoming minimal by the end of the season. McManus clearly did well at Falkirk but don’t think he can cut the mustard at Premiership level. As I say, disappointed with Kelly and Foster leaving alongside the whole reserve team but it’s understandable as club preservation has to come first and no player is bigger than the club. As for the whole extending contract and furloughing players - it has to be a more complex procedure than some are assuming as do you not think those at the top of a Premiership football club would maybe have thought of doing that? Just a thought because I’m not sure this is how County wanted these players gone but I think it was the way they had to go about it.

What I have seen, though, is that Marcus Fraser has been offered a new contract. Utter shite this season and that’s what frustrates me about Kelly and Foster leaving because they were consistently better than Fraser, who got a free pass simply because he was captain.

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I'm willing to currently give Roy the benefit of the doubt on the furlough controversy. One of his main businesses is a recruitment agency, so I'd like to think that he is getting expert advice regarding the matter. The club has usually has a good reputation of treating players well.

If it turns out he has let them go when furloughing them wouldn't have cost him anything, then that would be a real dick move.

It's s bit shite that we have gone from winning the U20s league to having no youth teams at all in such a short space of time. Especially since barely any of those players were given a 1st team chance. Brora and Elgin will have a decent selection of free agents to choose from though.

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By the sounds of County along with a host of other clubs will have fairly large reduced squad size for the upcoming season.

Are Vigurs, Cowie & Draper all still under contract at the club as have seen no mention of any of those 3 leaving, all are getting on in age & also have all had bad injury records in the last couple of years bit of a risk having all 3 in a more compact squad.

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1 minute ago, Samsonite said:

By the sounds of County along with a host of other clubs will have fairly large reduced squad size for the upcoming season.

Are Vigurs, Cowie & Draper all still under contract at the club as have seen no mention of any of those 3 leaving, all are getting on in age & also have all had bad injury records in the last couple of years bit of a risk having all 3 in a more compact squad.

As far as I am aware Draper is under contract until 2021. Vigurs this year and I think Don is signed on til 2021 like Draper.

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1 hour ago, Matty-RCFC said:

Surprised with the names of the players leaving. Foster was a consistent 7/10 player - knew what you were getting. Kelly, I thought, had improved a considerable amount even since the start of the season. Spence is understandable because we do have a lot of options in the middle of the park and his game time was becoming minimal by the end of the season. McManus clearly did well at Falkirk but don’t think he can cut the mustard at Premiership level. As I say, disappointed with Kelly and Foster leaving alongside the whole reserve team but it’s understandable as club preservation has to come first and no player is bigger than the club. As for the whole extending contract and furloughing players - it has to be a more complex procedure than some are assuming as do you not think those at the top of a Premiership football club would maybe have thought of doing that? Just a thought because I’m not sure this is how County wanted these players gone but I think it was the way they had to go about it.

What I have seen, though, is that Marcus Fraser has been offered a new contract. Utter shite this season and that’s what frustrates me about Kelly and Foster leaving because they were consistently better than Fraser, who got a free pass simply because he was captain.

At least we know the club will be looking for full backs for next season.  Really surprised at Foster - unless he has something lined up, he is a really decent defender for a bottom six team.  The other players released aren’t good enough.  

Edit: also glad that Paton is getting renewed.

Edited by Savage Henry
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1 hour ago, Matty-RCFC said:


What I have seen, though, is that Marcus Fraser has been offered a new contract. Utter shite this season and that’s what frustrates me about Kelly and Foster leaving because they were consistently better than Fraser, who got a free pass simply because he was captain.

I get the impression that Ketts/Ferg think they can get Fraser back to where he was between 2015-2017 where he a consistently solid right back. 

However, he's not come anywhere near that level in the last three seasons. He's definitely steadied his form but he's still not playing that well in my opinion.

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MacGregor's line about using the furlough scheme for players who might not have been offered contracts anyway as "immoral" was outrageous. If it genuinely is a financial issue then fair enough, that's somewhat understandable, but cutting loose players (when there's a scheme in place that has the aim of limiting unemployment) just really doesn't sit right with me at all. 

It's not as if clubs are going to be lining up to offer these guys contracts.

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Foster must be a delight to deal with by management. Does he realise that people in the real world are being made redundant? It's obviously not a good position to be in, but why should footballers be treated any differently? 

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So which fullbacks in this league are out of contract soon then...

Fraser being captain is laughable and the fact that he is captain has kept him in a job, he's been consistently below par for the last 3 years.

Kelly was a solid left back this year and you could see the effort that was put into his overall fitness and I'm sad to see him and Foster go.

Spence and McMannus aren't made for this level but will be good additions to any championship squad.

Onwards and upwards! (hopefully)

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13 hours ago, yoda said:

MacGregor's line about using the furlough scheme for players who might not have been offered contracts anyway as "immoral" was outrageous. If it genuinely is a financial issue then fair enough, that's somewhat understandable, but cutting loose players (when there's a scheme in place that has the aim of limiting unemployment) just really doesn't sit right with me at all. 

It's not as if clubs are going to be lining up to offer these guys contracts.

I find McGregor's use of "immoral" and "dishonest" both ironic and funny.  This is from the guy that made lots of people redundant and then hired them back weeks later on reduced wages, he has reneged on wage rises to staff whilst at the same time ensuring he is paid in excess of £20m in dividends in 2019.  His moral compass works when it suits him.

If HMRC have an RTI feed for each footballer, they could have been furloughed.  Yes the furlough scheme has been having issues, and payments from Government have been slow, but these players may not have an income for the forseeable future.  We do not know when football can indeed start up again.

As for signing players, are they any point to doing so now?  I think both Fraser and Kelly did okay, but we easily had the worst defence in the league and realistically if we are looking to improve we need better than what we had.

 

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51 minutes ago, Loki said:

As for signing players, are they any point to doing so now?  I think both Fraser and Kelly did okay, but we easily had the worst defence in the league and realistically if we are looking to improve we need better than what we had.

Somehow I just don’t see the solution is to get rid of the better two and keep the worst one, even if we have others lined up.

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1 hour ago, frankthetank22 said:

Better news today, Josh Reid has been moved up to the senior squad, and three others have signed new contracts too. 

Anyone seen Josh play, what position does he play? 

Left back, no the biggest.

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On 26/05/2020 at 10:36, Staggie52 said:

Somehow I just don’t see the solution is to get rid of the better two and keep the worst one, even if we have others lined up.

Especially when we had two alright full backs and zero decent centre backs.

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3 hours ago, Aqy said:

Especially when we had two alright full backs and zero decent centre backs.

Your man Grivosti, while a bit on the wee side, is going to be a class player.  He might end up in the Draper role, right enough.

Anyway, our Facebook fans are always on the boil.  Steven Whittaker is the first shout.  Calvin Miller is the second.

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7 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Your man Grivosti, while a bit on the wee side, is going to be a class player.  He might end up in the Draper role, right enough.

Anyway, our Facebook fans are always on the boil.  Steven Whittaker is the first shout.  Calvin Miller is the second.

Only time Grivosti was found out was when Rangers papped us in Dingwall and he was man marking a white hot Morelos. I think he was carrying a knock as well, so it's hard to put him down for that. I also think Watson is a good center half, as is Donaldson. Bottom six guys but still fine for the top flight. Fontaine's woeful lack of positional awareness over the season cost us a lot.

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On 29/05/2020 at 20:39, Comrie said:

Only time Grivosti was found out was when Rangers papped us in Dingwall and he was man marking a white hot Morelos. I think he was carrying a knock as well, so it's hard to put him down for that. I also think Watson is a good center half, as is Donaldson. Bottom six guys but still fine for the top flight. Fontaine's woeful lack of positional awareness over the season cost us a lot.

^^^^ Couldn't agree more. 

I also believe Morris is great in the air and with the amount of high balls played by other SPFL teams means he's a useful player to have. The sooner Fontaine is a full-time coach the better imo. 

Will we go with either Laidlaw or Ross Munro in goal next season or will we look to loan out Munro again? 

Edited by frankthetank22
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