R.R.FC
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Posts posted by R.R.FC
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Not listened to the interview but surely he means we are 3 players away from a team i.e 11 players? Not including the youngsters promoted we have 8 senior players signed up for next season so that would make sense.
Sure there will be more signings on top of that as is already indicated with talks for another keeper and striker.
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I’m not particularly excited by the Duggan signing but it’s hard to take some of the reviews by the East Fife fans seriously. Was he not their best player just a couple of months ago? I wonder what changed their minds...
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Not surprised, been coming a while. Sure he will be a big miss as he did a great job with the youth team and was very enthusiastic and active in the community side of things. However, he has also been involved with 2 first team season failures, although I’m not sure what, if any, input he had amongst the various management teams so that is perhaps unfair.
Interesting change of tone in the statement, hopefully moving away from the ‘Can’t stand in his way’ comments were used to seeing.
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Surely Hopkin is looking at the clubs Jack Ross is being linked with and thinking he can do better than Carlisle?
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Anyway, I’d be a little surprised if we signed McIntosh. He was training with us last pre season and we never offered him a deal. Don’t really see what he did at Arbroath last season that would cause a U-turn.
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Fact is we could sign the last 11 posters on this thread and we’d still finish above East Fife. Probably still beat them 4 times too.
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I wouldn’t be too disappointed to see Thomson go. He’s been a great servant but probably better he goes now before his stock drops further in fans eyes and damages the way he’s remembered. He’ll certainly suit Dick Campbell’s style of football!
There doesn’t seem to be too many replacements jumping out though, decent right backs seem to be pretty thin on the ground which maybe edges me towards wanting him to stay. Is the lad Ballantyne that was on loan at Montrose and just been released by Dundee United a right back? He might be a decent option, highly rated by the Montrose fans.
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It’s a good interview. Don’t agree with everything Sim says but I certainly appreciated the honesty and transparency which is something we’ve lacked for a long time.
It may be controversial and It’ll not happen anytime soon for a number of reasons but if we ever had the opportunity to leave Starks and move to a 7000/7500 capacity purpose built stadium I would jump at the chance.
As much as I love Stark’s the place seems to be falling apart and the lack of room for expansion and development of facilities is really hampering us.
ETA: Also, credit to the Raith TV guys once again, can’t be easy but I think all the important questions we asked.
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Looking at the retained/released list further, I understand people saying Smith can finally put his stamp on the team. The worrying thing for me is he signed 6 of his own players on ‘permanent’ deals last season and 4 of them have been released and Buchanan would most likely have made that 5 had he not signed a 2 year deal.
If I wanted to be really harsh you could also include McHattie as Smith’s own signing who is also gone.
A clear out was definitely required but it will require a serious step up in Smith’s recruitment to make it work. Fingers crossed he gets it right this season.
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Would agree with no thanks to Mark Stewart. We’ve just got rid of a few injury prone players and I’ve seen enough of his first touch and constantly getting caught offside to last me a lifetime.
However, I can understand the suggestion. I thought we missed a genuine speed merchant upfront last season. Someone with real pace to stretch defences either out wide or upfront (preferably both) would make a real difference to us I think.
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1 minute ago, renton said:
Would've kept Furtardo, but other than that, it's definitely the major surgery I'd have hoped for.
Exactly this. Although I would have kept him based on potential I can understand Furtado. He only ever showed it in flashes for us and his performances have dropped over the last couple months.
Pleasantly surprised by what appears to be a good sized clear out. I don’t normally like to be too harsh on individuals but I’m pretty relieved I won’t see McHattie, Barr and Smith in Rovers shirts again.
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On the theme of Alloa loanees, I’d love us to sign Ross Stewart. Was impressed with him everytime I saw him. If we persist with our direct style of play would think he’d suit that too.
Cant see him getting game time with St Mirren in the Premiership but I’d imagine they may want to loan him to a Championship side next season. Would also take his namesake at St Mirren as our keeper.
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1 hour ago, Rovers1992/1993 said:
Spence and Barr weren’t part of our strongest 11 in the season just passed.
Exactly, spoken like someone who hasn’t seen Barr and Spence play the last year and is going purely off reputation.
Wilkie and Duggan are not exactly inspiring signings but certainly wouldn’t be a downgrade based on what we’ve seen the past season.
Duggan scored more goals than Spence in a dreadful East Fife team isolated on his own upfront. He will also suit our style of play more. Spence works hard which helps him escape criticism but he has flattered to deceive this season and has been a big disappointment for me. Bobby Barr hasn’t put in a consistent run of performances since around September 2016, it will be a relief to see him finally go.
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2 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:
Don’t think I’ll bother with that season ticket.
What he said.
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Hopefully we can manage both but if we could only afford one out of sacking Smith or staying full time, what would be the preference?
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Any idea if the board meeting is this morning or this evening?
Up for discussion we have:
New Chairman
Sack or keep manager
Full time or part time next season
Confirmation if we still plan to install the synthetic pitch this summer and when work should start.
Nothing too major then...
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32 minutes ago, SuperHans said:
I can't disagree with any of that. Ultimately when Smith was brought in, we were in a desperate position. Consistency is key for a goalkeeper and you could see the differences when they were swapped.
Back to my original point though; could Barry Smith have done more had he been given the opportunity to sign more of his own players?
I know for a fact that he asked for money to spend in January and was told no. Could that money have given us a player or players that could have made a difference this season? Who knows. I don't like the way we set up for a lot of the games this season but taking away the last couple of games against Alloa and we were effectively the width of the post away from being Champions. Can you honestly justify sacking a man who's managed that?
Just so we're clear, I'm not a fan of Barry Smith either. I'd happily see the back of him. All I'm trying to do is manage expectations. Like I was trying to do last year when everyone though Lionel Vaughan was going to get us promoted on his own then sign for PSG for £100m.I am no fan of the board but I can’t blame them for not releasing money to sign another midfielder in January. Smith only has himself to blame for spending a large chunk of his budget on Spence and Buchanan and then not utilising them properly.
Add that to the fact he brought in Hendry at the start of January and then, for reasons known only to Barry Smith, didn’t play him until March. Why would the board give him money for another midfielder when he wouldn’t play the one they did give him money for?
Smith was left with a lot of players from last season but he has made 7 signings, more than enough to shape his own team and style. Also, the fact that out of those 7 signings only one can be deemed a clear success (Murray) puts yet another black mark against Smiths name.
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13 minutes ago, somerset_lad said:
Highly doubt that
Can’t see us paying a fee for any players.Depends if he claims he’s always been an Ayr United fan. You’ll get him for free in that case.
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First out the door at 5pm on Saturday should be Barry Smith and Alan Young. I’m in the bring McKinnon back camp. I couldn’t care less how he left the club he was an excellent manager for us and he knows this league well.
In terms of the squad, I struggle to think of a time when we have had a more mentally fragile group of players. Serious lack of bottle and after failing under 3 managers now, they need to take a large chunk of responsibility.
The only players I’d keep would be:
Brian (Young, bit of potential and should be fine back up to an experience first choice)
Davo (Not getting any younger but had a good season and deserves another year)
Bene (Been poor since returning from injury but it’s difficult to return from a broken leg midseason. A full pre season under his belt will hopefully see him return to his best)
Murray (Solid at left back and pretty versatile, solid if unspectacular and probably deserves another year)
Robertson (Player/Coach, dodgy injury record but good player on his day)
Vaughan (If nobody comes in for him. Not been at his best recently but he’s single handedly carried our attacking threat at times this season. Teams have tended to single him out knowing that stops us. With better attackers taking the workload off him he’d have another good season)
Furtado (He looked a real player when he first joined but has featured less and less. Think there’s a good player there, would keep for another year)
Would also keep Watson, McKay, Berry and Court with them hopefully featuring a bit more. Thought it could have been a big season for Court in particular after the end of last season but it’s disappointing how limited his opportunities have been.
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6 minutes ago, ayrmad said:
Not really, that's the club saying they're back not some dafty on here, ill advised and not required IMHO.
It’s the club having a laugh because pretty much everyone had written off this being possible. I’m sure Alloa and Goodwin have all the motivation they need for Saturday and will take no notice of Twitter.
Tbh if the club market this properly to get a big crowd in and capture the casual fans they’ll need to set themselves up for egg on their face if we don’t win.
No problem at all with that, they need to hype it up as much as possible and cautious or wary social media outputs won’t do that.
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1 minute ago, ayrmad said:
Oh well, Goodwin won't need much of a team talk on Saturday.
I hope you’re right. If his team talk is centred around a 10 second joke twitter post then we might just actually do this.
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6 minutes ago, SuperHans said:
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but we didn't actually give Bates away for nothing. Hardie loan, Thompson loan extension and Roberts on a free on top of a sell on clause or development fee.
Although the players didn't work out in our favour you just have to look at where Hardie and Thompson are playing this season to see how much potential they had. Hardie scored some important goals for us but ultimately it was the management that didn't get the best out of them. I will concede that Roberts was gash but if we had stayed up last season the deal wouldn't have looked quite as bad.That may be a plausible argument if it wasn’t for the fact we’d already had Thompson and Roberts for the first half of the season and it was clear to everyone at the time of the deal that they were both total wasters that added zero value.
It was and always will be a terrible deal, no other way to dress it up. The benefit we’re apparently due now is nothing to do with the deal negotiated.
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According to Matt Elders tweet, it could be lucrative based on Fifa’s training compensation rules not based on any part of the deal that Drysdale negotiated so he has a bit of nerve trying to claim any form of credit.
Yes, the move to Rangers helped him get this one so it has (potentially) worked in our favour in that sense but nobody had a problem with us selling him to Rangers. The issue was basically giving him away for free. Well, worse than free actually, we got Scott Roberts in exchange.
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35 minutes ago, Rovers1992/1993 said:
Hibs?19 minutes ago, Starks Park Kdy said:
Ross Laidlaw I think?What he said.
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The New Raith Rovers Thread
in Scottish Championship General Chatter
Posted
I’d say a right back is needed more than a left back. Not sure Watson is ready to be relied upon as first choice. Murray at left back with Bene and Davo at CB and a new signing at right back is a solid back 4.
Somebody able to play comfortably on both sides would be ideal. Someone like Gary Irvine but only not old and passed it.