R.R.FC

Daily Record have us in for Barjonas (unsurprisingly) but we face competition from Queens Park. They also mention Kieron Bowie looks likely to head out on loan to a Scottish Premier League side next season with St Mirren the favourites at the moment.

Would be a shame to lose MacDonald, he is a solid, reliable Championship keeper and it’s a position that if you get wrong can ruin your entire season (see Dundee United this season). I don’t think he’s been as good this season as some others do. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he’s had a good season and I’d be happy to see him stay but there have probably been more goals he’s conceded this season where I thought he could have done better or he’s actually been at fault for than the previous two combined, particularly just after he returned from injury. That’s probably more of a sign of how few mistakes he’s made for us than anything else though. At 37, I don’t think you can justify having him as one of, if not our top earner, his form could drop off at any minute. Generally goalkeepers play into their late 30’s but there is no guarantee. No idea if we could get him but my number 1 choice to replace him, if he goes, would be Kevin Dabrowski.

A lot better than the last time we made it big on Twitter over the signing of someone with a phallic surname tbf.

Happy enough with that. I assume Masson will go out on loan, at least for the first half of the season and get a good number of games under his belt. Mitchell will be squad filler but offers good pace and may develop further. As others have said, the fact that Young hasn’t announced with them suggests he is away. Not really seen enough of him to know what standard he is at but Murray will know best. Not sure how reliable but I heard we offered a deal to a Premier League left back that was out of contract but he then received a renewal from his current team which he subsequently signed. So if we are in the market for a new left back, as I think we need to be, then it makes sense for Young to move on as with Dick reported as in talks over a new deal he would likely have ended up as third choice.

Thoughts on Lee Ashcroft? Out of contract at Dundee and most of their fans seem to think he’s not good enough as a starter for the Premier League, so likely he’ll be looking for a team in this division. Has his flaws like every centre half at this level but dominant in the air and a good organiser so would tick two pretty major boxes from what we were lacking this season.

It’s the Daily Record who are reporting it. Interest from 2 Premiership teams up here as well as some clubs down south. Fair play to him, wish him all the best. I would definitely have kept him alongside an experienced partner but wouldn’t have said he was ready for the Premiership at this stage. Definitely has the potential but at 25 his next move will be very important in seeing whether he reaches that potential or if he is always going to have those flaws in his game holding him back.

This. Sure we will get some news next week on our current squad and who is staying and going but we will have to remain patient with incomings. Some of the players we have signed or are looking to sign will be involved in play off games at the moment, so can’t be announced until that’s over. Just because there’s nothing announced doesn’t mean nothing is happening.

We were linked with him but I think playing time at Falkirk would be the decisive factor. Likely to start most weeks at Falkirk, whereas he would likely find his playing time much more limited in the Championship. Sounds like the type of guy with a lot of potential but needs to be playing every week to develop so I think it’s the right move for him.

His agent is definitely earning his money, think the Daily Record have now linked him to us, Ayr, Dundee and Partick in the last month or so.

I was at hospitality that day and I remember clearly there were a lot of shouts for him to ‘f**k off’ as he went down the tunnel. Chat around the tables after the game was similar, admittedly a small sample size but that’s all I can go on as I didn’t pay much attention to any online forums at that point. May have been the frustration of losing a late goal in an important game but there certainly wasn’t universal support for him at that time, especially given he was on his 3rd attempt at getting out the league. Although granted the first year was always unrealistic and he oversaw an incredible turnaround. Not revisionism or trying to brand him a dud, just what I seen at the time. Just like it would also be accurate to say a large chunk of fans wanted rid of him after we got pumped at East Fife the year we won the league in his second spell, albeit I was not one of them. He did a good job in both his spells for us and left us in a better league position than he inherited both times which is usually a good gauge. You are correct he’s been our best manager of the last 30 years (not that there’s been much competition when you look at it!). If you asked me 18 months ago I’d have said he was a legend without doubt. However, aside from going over old ground on the obvious, if what Sim said in his interview on Friday is even remotely true (and I never really trust him 100%) but he claims McGlynn was given a 50% increase on his budget from the start of the previous season to have a real go at the league. With that increase he took us to 5th place and had the worst form in the league in the second half of the season whilst failing to beat the worst side Dunfermline have had in the Championship in living memory. Then after blowing that large budget and failing completely, instead of sticking around to try and fix his mess knowing he would get a reduced budget, he jumped ship at the very first opportunity he had to a basket case the league below us leaving someone else to pick up the pieces ahead of what looked like a very competitive Championship on reduced resources, not very legend-y. I am grateful for what he produced in the main across his two spells, a lot of my best memories as a Rovers fans are watching John McGlynn teams and I’m not sure anyone could argue he wasn’t good for us. However, his last 6 months were an unmitigated disaster and that, added to the way he left, means I also take a fair amount of enjoyment in the way things have turned out for all parties at Falkirk.

Yeah Smith and Gallagher seem the obvious ones. Would be very surprised if there isn’t an offer on the table from us for Gallagher but like you say probably won’t be enough money to tempt him to go full time. Frizzell has been excellent for them too but we have a lot of players very similar to him. Yep, I remember most people thinking his time was up after Ayr won 1-0 at Starks with 9 games to go, he owes a lot of his 15 years in management after that to Marvin Andrews!

Yeah, I had to double check, definitely felt like we were down there a lot longer than 4 years. Doesn’t seem right that we had only been down for just over a season when Dalziel was emptied and McGlynn came in.

I would imagine with Barrowman and Potter coming in, the shopping list will have more than just Murray’s input on it, although he will have the final say. That could just mean Kelty players as well as Airdrie right enough! But I think we have a few irons in the fire for better quality.

Amazing that after the Anelka shambles with guys who had never played 11 aside before, seeing us relegated with just 3 wins. Gordon Dalziel taking over, having to go with youth initially and then building an arguably worse squad with shite like Sean Kilgannon, Alistair Brown and Emilio Jaconelli, club in disarray on and off the pitch, our lowest ebb in a generation… We still managed to get out of League One in less time than Falkirk will.

Falkirk having 25 minutes with a man advantage, Airdrie known for collapses and having to play Hutton in goals and somehow ending up with the same margin of defeat as when the red card came and also getting someone sent off themselves into the bargain is almost as pitiful as being 5-0 down at half time…almost.

Hamilton have signed a keeper on a 7 day emergency loan from Hearts today but he is on the bench as they still had one keeper available so I imagine Airdrie would have a chance of being granted permission?

Airdrie collapse incoming, it’ll be a good laugh either way tbf.

Still a long way to go, especially given Airdrie’s susceptibility to collapses but McGlynn did have a habit of blowing play off ties in the first leg with us. In his 4 attempts at the play offs the tie was gone in 3 of them after the first leg. Defeats by 2-0 at home to Airdrie, 3-1 at home to QOS and 3-0 at home to Dundee all pretty much killed off our hopes before we even got to the second leg.

That’s good to hear, sounds from their interview that there may be a few changes implemented by the time we return. Exciting times off the field hopefully matched on the field!

Yeah it’s a fair point. I still think it’s doable, there are grounds where home and away fans are closer than that. Could even shut off the two sections of the North Stand closest to that section if we were overly concerned. The only away support that would need the whole stand next season would be Dunfermline and I would agree it would probably too much of risk to have our fans in the railway stand for that one. Would obviously need to be policed properly by the club and the group themselves. Sounds like the club are looking to open up regular communication with the group so hopefully that trust and responsibility will help ensure they behave themselves properly. Ideal scenario would be to have them in the railway stand closest to the south stand if it was safe but would be an unnecessary expense at the moment to get it in the required condition I’d imagine.

Could the ‘young team’ not be given the section of the railway stand that is open? Would allow them to have their own space to grow and do whatever displays they wish and enjoy themselves (within reason) knowing that anyone around them is there for the same reasons, similar to what the Pars have done with their fans in the NW stand? I know that would be quite far from the rest of the home support so wouldn’t help improve the atmosphere in the South Stand but might be something worth trying.

Offering Akio a deal because he looked half decent for one half of football would be like offering Nando Mendy a new deal because he played well in his last game against Dundee. One swallow doesn’t make a summer and ultimately the overwhelming evidence is he is no where near good enough. I am confident we will be aiming a lot higher. I think there will be a mix on the incomings between some real good quality experienced players and some “young, hungry players” such as Barjonas/Agyeman and some Premier League youngsters mentioned by Barrowman to beef up the squad a little bit. On the subject of young players, I would hope we would be having a look at Joe Bevan at Albion Rovers. Charlie Reilly is the one who gets all the headlines and is signing for Dundee but Bevan only turned 18 in January and has 9 goals in 17 games (8 in his last 9) for a side that has finished bottom and looks a real handful. Would imagine the Championship would be too big a job for next season but a 2 year deal with a loan back to League Two next season would be some worth looking at IMO.

Personally I would be very surprised, would expect him to stay at Ayr and certainly can’t see him signing anything without knowing how Ayr’s season ends. Few rumours flying around very different to that though!

Would prefer Mullin tbh.

The below is based on if we have aspirations of pushing for the top 4 in what will be a difficult league next season. Budget may dictate differently, especially with what you would imagine are most of our higher earners already signed up for next season. Under Contract: Andy McNeil Ross Millen Scott Brown Ross Matthews Aaron Arnott Sam Stanton Ethan Ross Dylan Easton Lewis Vaughan Jamie Gullan Keep: Jamie MacDonald - Experienced solid reliable keeper at this level. Robbie Thomson - By all accounts a very good coach and as good a number 2 keeper as we would be able to get. Tom Lang - Was excellent the first couple of months when he first returned from injury but there has obviously been a drop off since then. Alongside an experienced centre back he can be a good player at this level as we saw beside Berra last season. Jamie Masson - Think he has shown enough promise this season to deserve at least another year. Quite happy with him as either 4th choice centre back next season or possibly going out on loan League Two to get 30-40 games under his belt. Scott McGill - Not a must retain but given our injury record, having someone that can fill in 4/5 positions to a decent level and be relatively cheap (you would imagine) would be worth keeping. Aidan Connolly - Pretty obvious one. Obviously another one that has recently dropped off form wise but 25 goals across his last two seasons with us as well as putting in a power of work. Release: Ryan Nolan - He’s not the worst centre back we’ve ever had but I think this is one of the areas we need to improve to kick on. Quite happy for him to stick around as 3rd choice centre back but can’t imagine that would suit him. Connor McBride - Not much explanation needed, just not good enough. Luke Mahady - See above. Akio, Goncalves and Ngwenya will also return to their parent clubs and I would not be looking to bring any back. Undecided: Liam Dick - May be reading too much into Murray’s post match comments yesterday but he mentioned liking having versatile players in his squad and names Liam Dick as one of those so I think he’ll stay. I’d be okay with that on the basis it was as cover and competition for both left back and centre back but not starting. He’s not a bad player, just feel like we need a more dynamic option down the left unless we move away from wingers who cut inside to out and out wingers who hug the touch line and provide the width themselves. Brad Spencer - Really didn’t think last season I would be putting him in the undecided section. He’s been a very good player for us but this has been comfortably his poorest season. All things being equal I would still keep him but I would imagine he would be one of our higher earners and will have other options, not one we can get into a bidding war to keep. Greig Young and Kieran Mitchell can be grouped together. If Dick leaves I’d be tempted to keep Young as back up, he’s looked fine whenever I’ve seen him but Murray will know better. Likewise Mitchell, I’d keep him as a squad option based on the limited amount I’ve seen but wouldn’t be too upset either way. Obviously, we are 7th for a reason, we haven’t been good enough. Part of that is down to injuries (we have seen the difference in Partick and particularly Inverness since they got full squads back) but we also must improve in certain areas. However, I do think 4/5 quality additions in the right areas would make all the difference, I don’t think we need wholesale transformation.