The General Ross County Chat Thread

[CountyFan]

1 minute ago, Staggie52 said:

I’m not having a go at the manager, but clearly a manager is responsible for recruiting and retaining players. The general expectation is that they recruit players with the right skills and commitment to the club and that the length of their contract is appropriate to both.

I have no idea why Spittal and Mullin got to the stage that they had to leave the club., but clearly they weren’t in the managers plans. Many questioned the signing of Fontaine and would say that they were right. So it’s clearly legitimate to question these decisions. Of course a policy of being open with fans about why players were recruited, and why they had to leave before the end of their contracts would maybe reduce some of the criticism.

That's naive. Name a club anywhere that operates such a policy. 

[staggy1929]

1 minute ago, Savage Henry said:

I can’t think of a single reason why Mullin and Spittal are not at the club, especially when you consider the latest signing was on loan at Stevenage, and there’s hardly a quality winger at the club.

Mullin said he was missing family and said he wasn't playing as much as he'd like. I would bet if we actually played him this season he'd have been more inclined to stay. that's not to say he definitely would've stayed however.

[CountyFan]

6 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

I can’t think of a single reason why Mullin and Spittal are not at the club, especially when you consider the latest signing was on loan at Stevenage, and there’s hardly a quality winger at the club.

So are you suggesting that the manager doesn't know what he is doing or that there may be things behind closed doors we arent party too? Maybe a bit of both? 

No chance at all that any of these players might have had a hand in their own departures no? Just easier to blame the club, isnt it.

None of us know why these guys left so giving the manager and club a hard time about it may be totally fair - but it may not. 

[CountyFan]

3 minutes ago, staggy1929 said:

Mullin said he was missing family and said he wasn't playing as much as he'd like. I would bet if we actually played him this season he'd have been more inclined to stay. that's not to say he definitely would've stayed however.

Why didn't he play? Are we genuinely saying that he was fit, ready to go, chomping at the bit and that if only he had a wee chance he would have set the heather alight? 

More likely he is a championship level player and he wasn't showing enough in training. 

It's always revisionist history with these guys after they leave. He scored 2 goals in his last 32 appearances, he's not Messi. 

[CountyFan]

Anyway, apologies for derailing the thread. I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just the general negativity our fans have annoys me. It's not just about player acquisitions or departures either. All the stuff over the summer with season books, staggies army, streaming, kit availability... we are obviously just a fanbase that bloody loves to moan. Quite fed up of it to be honest. 

[staggy1929]

1 minute ago, CountyFan said:

Why didn't he play? Are we genuinely saying that he was fit, ready to go, chomping at the bit and that if only he had a wee chance he would have set the heather alight? 

More likely he is a championship level player and he wasn't showing enough in training. 

It's always revisionist history with these guys after they leave. He scored 2 goals in his last 32 appearances, he's not Messi. 

I know he's not Messi, He was however our only actual right midfielder at the club. 

[Staggie52]

12 minutes ago, CountyFan said:

That's naive. Name a club anywhere that operates such a policy. 

Fine, resort to ad hominem tactics, however there are clearly clubs that are good at keeping in touch with fans and in my opinion County isn’t one of them.

[staggy1929]

4 minutes ago, CountyFan said:

Anyway, apologies for derailing the thread. I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just the general negativity our fans have annoys me. It's not just about player acquisitions or departures either. All the stuff over the summer with season books, staggies army, streaming, kit availability... we are obviously just a fanbase that bloody loves to moan. Quite fed up of it to be honest. 

I get what you mean, I'm not a fan of moaning heaps about the non football related aspects of things and I agree about our fanbase  being pessimistic.

Our recruitment and lack of tactical awareness is my biggest gripe with the club at the moment. That and our club twitter trying to take positives from last nights horror show...

[StoneThrowAway]

11 minutes ago, CountyFan said:

More likely he is a championship level player

And we currently have a manager that is probably below championship level.

[Loki]

1 hour ago, Forfinn said:

Both were away with the Scotland U21 squad. I've no doubt they would have played had they not been. Bad timing, really.

aye that'll be why!  I totally forgot the internationals were on.  I concede to that point.

However Laidlaw in the bin still stands

[CountyFan]

2 minutes ago, Loki said:

aye that'll be why!  I totally forgot the internationals were on.  I concede to that point.

However Laidlaw in the bin still stands

Now that is something that will unite the fanbase! 

[The Great Stagsby]

5 hours ago, Loki said:

I'm still pretty convinced we'd have stayed up last season we had eight games left all against bottom six opposition.  The final three games before the split included home games against Hamilton and St Mirren.

100% agreed. Around the time when the reconstruction thread was in full flow and fans and pundits alike were throwing out claims that County were the biggest beneficiaries of the early curtailment of the season, I had some pretty in-depth looks at head-to-heads, best / worst runs of form over the season, last 6 games and last 10 games runs of form... it was virtually impossible to find any logical application of any of those trends which would have resulted in County finishing bottom, or even 11th.

5 hours ago, Loki said:

Ross Stewart and Billy McKay will get us enough goals to stay up.

Less than 100% agreed! Base it on last season then yes, but see very little evidence 10 games into this season to convince me that still stands. Combination of lack of service and dips in their form / confidence has me pretty concerned right now. I would still think our best chance of staying up is them starting to find the net, but the longer we go without it happening, the less likely it probably is. Thankfully there still is plenty of time, and there are plenty of other useless teams out there. It would just be nice to have some glimmers of hope / encouragement sooner rather than later!

[Loki]

I just don't believe people turn to shite overnight.  Stewart has lacked confidence, but he has hit the woodwork three times and has taken bad touches through on goal.  That will all turn round, as the player still has that ability.  Id be more worried if he wasn't getting chances.

Billy McKay has always been a streaky scorer.  He will come good as well.

Id be more worried if Stewart had taken his chances and he was sold.

 

[Forfinn]

The frustrating thing for me is that this season is fast turning in to a missed opportunity. We were back training before most teams, with a professional approach to COVID-19. We got players signed up and looked to have a reasonably well-balanced squad with plenty depth. The top 4 teams in the league take care of themselves, but everything else is up for grabs. I think there's even a chance 5th could get you in to Europe. There's no reason that couldn't have been us.

However, it's clear now that some of our players simply aren't good enough, and we've got less balance and depth now than we did at the start of the season. I know we're "only" Ross County and have no right to a top six finish, but we've done it before and there'll never be a more opportune time to do it again.

[The Great Stagsby]

4 minutes ago, Loki said:

I just don't believe people turn to shite overnight.  Stewart has lacked confidence, but he has hit the woodwork three times and has taken bad touches through on goal.  That will all turn round, as the player still has that ability.  Id be more worried if he wasn't getting chances.

Billy McKay has always been a streaky scorer.  He will come good as well.

Id be more worried if Stewart had taken his chances and he was sold.

 

Oh totally, I probably wouldn’t disagree with any of that at all. I hope they get back on track and you turn out to be right - it wouldn’t surprise me. I just don’t have the confidence you do, based on the actual evidence up to this point, to say that Stewart and Mckay WILL get us enough goals to stay up.

[staggy1929]

12 minutes ago, The Great Stagsby said:

Oh totally, I probably wouldn’t disagree with any of that at all. I hope they get back on track and you turn out to be right - it wouldn’t surprise me. I just don’t have the confidence you do, based on the actual evidence up to this point, to say that Stewart and Mckay WILL get us enough goals to stay up.

With the amount of goals we concede Mckay and Stewart are going to have to score about 60 each this season 

[Savage Henry]

3 hours ago, CountyFan said:

Anyway, apologies for derailing the thread. I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just the general negativity our fans have annoys me. It's not just about player acquisitions or departures either. All the stuff over the summer with season books, staggies army, streaming, kit availability... we are obviously just a fanbase that bloody loves to moan. Quite fed up of it to be honest. 

No, it’s probably unfair on my part.  I don’t take issue with much of what you say.  I do think last night was a nadir in terms of defensive incompetence - which has been the hallmark of the team for two years now.

[Rcfc fan]

Might sound silly but at 3-0 last night I was delighted as even our 2-0 loss vs Rangers was actually a decent performance, cook and shaw scoring there first goals then bam what a capitulation, I can only hope for the sake of our season draper and grivosti get involved and this lakin can work a few wonders , mckay and Stewart are good strikers but they need more service to score goals , they simply aren’t getting the chances the aberdeen is an example of this it’s embarrassing how few chances we had at home that game

[frankthetank22]

7 hours ago, CountyFan said:

Anyway, apologies for derailing the thread. I'm not having a go at anyone in particular, just the general negativity our fans have annoys me. It's not just about player acquisitions or departures either. All the stuff over the summer with season books, staggies army, streaming, kit availability... we are obviously just a fanbase that bloody loves to moan. Quite fed up of it to be honest. 

^^^This^^^

Some of the moaning from our own fans about County is unreal, I'm not pretending that all is hunky dory but ffs.

[frankthetank22]

The u19's match was abandoned at ht due to manager Billy Stark testing positive for covid, the whole squad are to isolate for 14 days now so that'll be Josh Reid out for the Hibs game on the 17th!

What a f**k up, get called up to represent your country then your coach potentially contaminates the whole squad and back room staff!

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54469049

An under-19 friendly between England and Scotland on Thursday was abandoned during the first half after the visitors' head coach Billy Stark tested positive for Covid-19.

Hosts England led 3-1 in the game at St George's Park when it was halted.

The Scottish FA said Stark tested negative when the squad met up, but a second round took place on Thursday before a scheduled re-match on Sunday.

He will now "travel home in isolation and will self-isolate for 10 days".

"The playing group and the rest of the backroom team will undertake precautionary self-isolation for 14 days, whilst the Scottish government undertakes a formal risk assessment to assess who Stark was in close contact with during the camp," a Scottish FA statement said.

Scotland Under-19s second game against England on Sunday has now been postponed along with the scheduled Under-17s match at St. George's Park on Saturday.

Edited October 8, 2020 by frankthetank22
to add link