Raith Rovers' Next Permanent Manager

[Scary Bear]

15 minutes ago, raith1974 said:

Don't think so.

Must just be that his Wiki page hasn’t been updated. 

[Cardle is Magic]

15 minutes ago, Been going too long said:

I bet they wish they kept him along the road  

Crawford quit - so there was no "kept" on the table.

The fact we've sunk much further since last season doesn't make any Pars fan yearn for the utter tedium of Crawford's reign.

[Broken Algorithms]

Why? I don’t know if he’s a good or bad manager. Obviously he didn’t set the heather on fire at the Pars, but he still got them to the play-offs. Relative to Grant and Hughes he was a superstar. 
The likes of him or Cameron coming back, maybe with this mythical older manager as their assistant isn’t a crazy appointment. As others have said, pretty much any appointment we make will be a gamble. 
As a fan, I await with interest to see which successful candidate is foisted upon me.

Because he managed at East Fife twice with a spell at Dunfermline between and every single time he's shown nothing to suggest he's any good. If we went for him, we'd be treading water until the board got shot of him much like Dunfermline were with Grant or Ayr were with Jim Duffy.

[Scary Bear]

For me, if we’re not going down the past player (or manager/assistant manager) route - so they at least get a longer period of good grace - I’d rather pick a manager who has proven (in recent memory) that they can win a league title (or play-offs). Obviously that would put Thomson and McPake in pole position. However, you have to temper that with the knowledge that both of them had a significant advantage over other teams in their leagues in terms of playing budget.

I’m sure that no matter who it is, they won’t please everyone. 

[Been going too long]

11 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Crawford quit - so there was no "kept" on the table.

The fact we've sunk much further since last season doesn't make any Pars fan yearn for the utter tedium of Crawford's reign.

Well you definitely haven’t had a boring season this year

[Scary Bear]

3 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

10 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

Why? I don’t know if he’s a good or bad manager. Obviously he didn’t set the heather on fire at the Pars, but he still got them to the play-offs. Relative to Grant and Hughes he was a superstar. 
The likes of him or Cameron coming back, maybe with this mythical older manager as their assistant isn’t a crazy appointment. As others have said, pretty much any appointment we make will be a gamble. 
As a fan, I await with interest to see which successful candidate is foisted upon me.

Because he managed at East Fife twice with a spell at Dunfermline between and every single time he's shown nothing to suggest he's any good. If we went for him, we'd be treading water until the board got shot of him much like Dunfermline were with Grant or Ayr were with Jim Duffy.

Crawford is some way from the top of my wish list, but successful management looks to be mainly about  good (lucky) recruitment and finding the correct management pairing. Ian Murray was hounded out of St Mirren and dismissed by many on here for management posts until, three years later, Airdrie took a chance. Then he rebuilt his stock and now we all want him again. It’s a fickle game.

 

 

[TxRover]

9 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

I’m sure that no matter who it is, they won’t please everyone. 

This is likely the only 100% true and correct statement on this whole thread.

[Scary Bear]

Whoever we get, I cannot be bothered with another trip to League One anytime soon, so hopefully he’s successful.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Scary Bear

[thediamonddude]

1 hour ago, Scary Bear said:

Is Micky Cameron still the assistant manager at Airdrie?

Nah, he left the club around the end of the 19/20 season when Covid hit. Scott Agnew is our current Assistant Manager, with Bryan Prunty part of the coaching staff.

When Murray was heavily linked with the Falkirk role, I noted that if we didn’t get promoted, I couldn’t begrudge him going to a club at a higher level than us - I just thought it would be ludicrous to lose him to a team in the same league.

I still feel the same and would wish him all the best if it came to that - he’s been excellent for us and doesn’t get the credit he deserves, even from our own support.

He took Stevie Findlay’s rag tag bunch of players from just outside the relegation zone to a few points off the promotion playoffs in his first half season.

He then had us 3rd in the league when it was called due to Covid, only 2 points behind Falkirk and 5 behind yourselves with both still to play. All of this with a DoF pulling a lot of the strings in terms of transfers - bringing in players that clearly weren’t suitable or wanted by Murray.

He had the same DoF issues at the start of last season but despite that and the chaos through Covid we battled to 2nd place, only 2 points behind Thistle and only lost out to Morton in the playoffs, as we’d played something like 8 games in 3 weeks and had a mountain of injuries.

This season is the first where he’s had his own assistant, built his own squad and it has easily been one of the best in my 30 years supporting Airdrie.

In all honesty, I do think it would be a travesty if we weren’t promoted, as the football we have played has been outstanding and after the gargantuan effort on Saturday, it should be clear to all the spirit we have.

You can never tell in football, but as I said to Falkirk fans at the time, I would be stunned if Murray has spoken with anyone about their job or applied for anything. His message to any suitors would likely be, wait till after the playoffs.

If we do go up, I’d like to think there would be no chance he’d come to you guys - he’s got a great bunch of players I think we’d keep together (with the exception of Dylan Easton perhaps), he’s got the full support of the board and the fans. He’s had to work for it, but he’s in a very good place with us.

If we don’t go up, I still don’t think it’s a sure thing that he’d go anywhere else. As others have said, he was badly burned at St Mirren and when the day comes that he does decide to leave us, I think he’ll be very careful with his choice of club.

Edited May 10, 2022 by thediamonddude

[Been going too long]

21 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

Crawford is some way from the top of my wish list, but successful management looks to be mainly about  good (lucky) recruitment and finding the correct management pairing. Ian Murray was hounded out of St Mirren and dismissed by many on here for management posts until, three years later, Airdrie took a chance. Then he rebuilt his stock and now we all want him again. It’s a fickle game.

 

 

This

[TxRover]

19 minutes ago, thediamonddude said:

Nah, he left the club around the end of the 19/20 season when Covid hit. Scott Agnew is our current Assistant Manager, with Bryan Prunty part of the coaching staff.

When Murray was heavily linked with the Falkirk role, I noted that if we didn’t get promoted, I couldn’t begrudge him going to a club at a higher level than us - I just thought it would be ludicrous to lose him to a team in the same league.

I still feel the same and would wish him all the best if it came to that - he’s been excellent for us and doesn’t get the credit he deserves, even from our own support.

He took Stevie Findlay’s rag tag bunch of players from just outside the relegation zone to a few points off the promotion playoffs in his first half season.

He then had us 3rd in the league when it was called due to Covid, only 2 points behind Falkirk and 5 behind yourselves with both still to play. All of this with a DoF pulling a lot of the strings in terms of transfers - bringing in players that clearly weren’t suitable or wanted by Murray.

He had the same DoF issues at the start of last season but despite that and the chaos through Covid we battled to 2nd place, only 2 points behind Thistle and only lost out to Morton in the playoffs, as we’d played something like 8 games in 3 weeks and had a mountain of injuries.

This season is the first where he’s had his own assistant, built his own squad and it has easily been one of the best in my 30 years supporting Airdrie.

In all honesty, I do think it would be a travesty if we weren’t promoted, as the football we have played has been outstanding and after the gargantuan effort on Saturday, it should be clear to all the spirit we have.

You can never tell in football, but as I said to Falkirk fans at the time, I would be stunned if Murray has spoken with anyone about their job or applied for anything. His message to any suitors would likely be, wait till after the playoffs.

If we do go up, I’d like to think there would be no chance he’d come to you guys - he’s got a great bunch of players I think we’d keep together (with the exception of Dylan Easton perhaps), he’s got the full support of the board and the fans. He’s had to work for it, but he’s in a very good place with us.

If we don’t go up, I still don’t think it’s a sure thing that he’d go anywhere else. As others have said, he was badly burned at St Mirren and when the day comes that he does decide to leave us, I think he’ll be very careful with his choice of club.

Nice summary of the unlikelihood of Murray ending up at Starks Park. I’d like to think Raith would be a step up from Airdrie, but that’s a pipe dream if you beat QP for the promotion. A Championship Airdire, a team he built, would surely be more appealing. I can’t see the Pars getting him, even if the promotion push falls short, but you never know. If he decides to consider the Raith job because of a failure to get promoted, the Pars might offer a large enough budget delta to entice him…

[GazH6]

17 hours ago, grumswall said:

He got a team promoted from this league. That's all he's achieved, which is weirdly more than mcglynn has ever managed. I still 100% do not want him as our next manager though. 

He also got a team promoted quicker from said league than Alan Stubbs (who ever managed at all) and in the same time as Mark Warburton. Both who’s budgets far outweighed Dundee’s I’d imagine. 

[GazH6]

57 minutes ago, Scary Bear said:

For me, if we’re not going down the past player (or manager/assistant manager) route - so they at least get a longer period of good grace - I’d rather pick a manager who has proven (in recent memory) that they can win a league title (or play-offs). Obviously that would put Thomson and McPake in pole position. However, you have to temper that with the knowledge that both of them had a significant advantage over other teams in their leagues in terms of playing budget.

I’m sure that no matter who it is, they won’t please everyone. 

I would counter argue that on two fronts. 
 

Kevin Thomson - Yeah had a big budget but also had a massive rebuild with Kelty coming into the league for the first time and it being Kevin’s first job. 
 

James McPake - Had Dundee Utd and Hearts in the Championship in the seasons they were in. First season the Pars paid a lot on wages also. They beat Dundee to signing of KN from us. 
 

Both done the job that was set out to do. Win promotion. 

[Stellaboz]

2 minutes ago, GazH6 said:

I would counter argue that on two fronts. 
 

Kevin Thomson - Yeah had a big budget but also had a massive rebuild with Kelty coming into the league for the first time and it being Kevin’s first job. 
 

James McPake - Had Dundee Utd and Hearts in the Championship in the seasons they were in. First season the Pars paid a lot on wages also. They beat Dundee to signing of KN from us. 
 

Both done the job that was set out to do. Win promotion. 

We signed Nisbet whilst we were in the Championship, not whilst in League One. 

[Cardle is Magic]

1 hour ago, Been going too long said:

Well you definitely haven’t had a boring season this year

Em, yes we did? We were terribly boring to watch all season.

[Been going too long]

14 minutes ago, Cardle is Magic said:

Em, yes we did? We were terribly boring to watch all season.

I think you have been great

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, Scary Bear said:

For me, if we’re not going down the past player (or manager/assistant manager) route - so they at least get a longer period of good grace - I’d rather pick a manager who has proven (in recent memory) that they can win a league title (or play-offs). Obviously that would put Thomson and McPake in pole position. However, you have to temper that with the knowledge that both of them had a significant advantage over other teams in their leagues in terms of playing budget.

I’m sure that no matter who it is, they won’t please everyone. 

Though about this for a while, and I’ve decided we might be looking at this a bit wrong. It’s nice to think we should get someone that’ll drive us forward and get us promoted, perhaps it’s more important to get a solid manager who can help stabilize the club as a Championship team on the pitch while rebuilding the community ties off the pitch. Then in a few years the club will be in a position to seek promotion from a much healthier base, increasing the chance of remaining up.

Like it or not, losing the Raith Ladies hurt the club a bit, and if we could draw them back into the fold after “he” departs, it would certainly improve our community outreach. I know Sim and Val aren’t friendly, but I do believe even Val would accept the advantage to the Ladies team of Starks Park and such, even if the Raith name remained absent for a while. It would also be ideal if the next manager had experience on youth development and the club supported building that infrastructure back up.

[roverthemoon]

Don’t think there’s any prospect of the women’s team returning anytime soon. Both from them not wanting anything to do with Sim and Sim not wanting anything to do with Val McD. Not even aware if the club had made any approach to them since January. The fact they were on Football Focus suggests not. So if we’re going to have a woman's team it’ll probably have to be started from scratch. 

[Raith_Raver]

3 hours ago, TxRover said:

This is likely the only 100% true and correct statement on this whole thread.

That'll likely be two now 

[jagfox]