The General Ross County Chat Thread

[Sherrif John Bunnell 7,638]

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.

[Samsonite 9]

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.

[Comrie 1,298]

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.

[Savage Henry 6,771]

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 May 25, 2020 by Savage Henry

[Comrie 1,298]

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.

[yoda 6,657]

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.

[kingjoey 3,737]

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? 

[staggy1929 525]

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)

[Loki 1,394]

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.

 

[Staggie52 439]

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.

[frankthetank22 472]

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? 

[Comrie 1,298]

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.

[Aqy 55]

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.

[Savage Henry 6,771]

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.

[Comrie 1,298]

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.

[frankthetank22 472]

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 May 31, 2020 by frankthetank22

[Aqy 55]

Sorry, aye, I'd somehow forgotten about Grivo who I rate quite highly. Know he's been struggling with injury this season but I'd want him to start alongside either Morris or Donaldson next season.

[Matty-RCFC 243]

Donaldson is 25 so is slowly approaching his prime years, and Grivo is only 20 so has plenty of time to mould into a top-six centre half. Bleeding them in now would be excellent as they could be a strong pairing in 3-4 years time if we consistently selected those two whenever available.

Ideally, you have Kelly and Foster on the outside of those two - a strong back 4. However, they’re not going to leave Marcus Fraser out to dry but I can only assume they’re trying to bring at least 2 full backs in now.

[StoneThrowAway 251]

Marcus Fraser has left the building......

[Matty-RCFC 243]

Marcus Fraser has left the building......

Good servant to the club but ultimately lost his spark and was probably the right time for him to leave. Looked a player shot of confidence majority of this season. Did a lot for us and can’t take anything away from him though. Good luck to the lad.