Forfinn
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Posts posted by Forfinn
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12 hours ago, yoda said:
He won't be sacked this season though. We could be bottom on Hogmanay and he'll still be in a job. The club can't really afford to keep sacking managers and having no coherent medium-term plan. Plus MacGregor would lose too much face over it.
I'm not sure I entirely agree with that. For all Roy stood four-square behind Mackay with that disastrous P&J interview in the aftermath of the appointment, he's demonstrated in the past that a manager has his full support... until he doesn't.
Another point that I don't think has been mentioned is the potential for Mackay to go of his own volition. His reputation is clearly still toxic, as evidenced by the reaction to his appointment at County and the fact that no bigger club has gone near him in years. This could be his last chance to rebuild his career at a meaningful level. If he misses out on umpteen signing targets (due to a combination of the covid shutdown and general reluctance to move to the Highlands) and we start the season badly does he hang around if the writing is on the wall? If he gets out quick he might be able to make excuses and persuade someone else to give him a shot. If he stays and adds a relegation to his CV, surely that's him done?
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1 hour ago, grantmacp said:
Would my synopsis be correct we are waiting to later in the window to sign players as we are looking to get the ‘right’ players in.
Or we are waiting to later in the window when players are panicking that they can’t get a contract elsewhere and might as well sign for Ross County for a season until they get a better option closer to home.
I would suggest that these two approaches are not mutually exclusive.
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1 minute ago, deldad7 said:
Did I miss the statement claiming Malay had dished the COVID out to everyone in the playing squad or are people just trying to pin a global pandemic on him too?
I don't think anyone's suggesting either of those things. Rather, they're suggesting his strategy of not making a lot of early signings means we don't have the squad depth to compensate for losing an unspecified number of players to covid. I think that in itself is pretty incontrovertible, it's just a question of how much of a sin people consider it to be.
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3 minutes ago, UAE1929 said:
It was always going to be a risk even without the current situation. In that interview he said that the side who started the season wouldn't be the same side a few weeks later. It was always planned to sign players late on. A very odd strategy, which has now really come back to bite the club on the arse.
I can understand the strategy, to an extent. It's important to sign the right players and it might be later in the window some of them become available. It was a risk though. I don't think you can be too critical of the current situation, assuming all protocols have been followed correctly, but it's deeply unfortunate we went through all of last season with a large squad and no covid issues, to be decimated as soon as we cut it back.
If we get over this, sign up some quality players and have a steady league campaign then the strategy will have paid off. If we end up struggling in the league anyway, then the manager will have even less goodwill than he does at the moment.
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That could have been a perfectly alright kit, except I think it's somewhat spoiled by the unnecessarily wide red bar on the sides.
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Apparently some season ticket holders were missed off the original renewal details email so they're phoning round. I'm not sure if that means they're phoning everyone who hasn't renewed or just the ones who were missed.
It would be interesting to see how sales compare to previous seasons. As @Rcfc fan suggests, a perfect storm of factors could contribute to poor sales. I don't know how many have not renewed just because of the Mackay appointment, perhaps not many, but put dissatisfaction with that alongside the pandemic (not getting value for money last year, financial pressures etc) and general ennui, it's not hard to envisage a negative impact.
Or perhaps they're doing a roaring trade with people excited to get such a high profile manager. I guess we'll see.
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29 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:
More the fact that some of the players were still wearing Macron gear, and everyone was in a different brand of socks.
Because I'm just that cool, I've gone and had a look through the pre-season training photos on Instagram from the last few weeks that you mentioned. Apart from the white sport socks, boots and Catapult vests, everyone appears to be in Joma gear. There's a few pairs of Macron socks, but also Nike, Adidas, Puma and VYPR:5. We can probably assume they've brought their own socks from home, which seems like a relatively minor inconsistency.
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16 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:
Never put down to pandemics what you can put down to gross incompetence by Joma/County's commercial department. The players have been wearing mismatching kits for training, if you notice from the instagram feed. I wouldn't be surprised if there is no home kit yet, and that they'll wear the away kit for all the cup games. Bit of a bugger for Paton, but I did notice that RCC is away with his country.
I've done my fair share of criticising County recently, and if the new home kit hasn't arrived in time for the first home game of the season then that is indeed a bit of a riddy. However, I'm not sure taking advantage of the wide range of training gear available in the Joma catalogue is necessarily something to beat them with.
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There's never been any confirmation of how long they would be shut down. Or number of cases, for that matter (the press was reporting eight). The statement on Thurs 8th said "We are working hard with all authorities to re-open our Football Department later next week".
The original statement was released at 10:00 on Tues 6th, so we can probably assume the positive tests came on Mon 5th. 10 days from then is Thurs 15th, which fits with the "later next week" comment.
Not ideal when you're supposed to be on the telly on Sunday.
We don't know who any of the positive cases are (nor should we necessarily expect to), but sounds as if Harry Paton is at least self-isolating - or the Canadian FA are just being ultra-cautious.
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When Mackay got the SFA job, the BBC reported:
QuoteAnd Lord Ouseley, the founder and chairman of the Kick It Out anti-racism group, said he believed Mackay now had a "better understanding" of diversity issues and deserved a second chance. He also said Mackay's new role would give him an opportunity to "put himself back in a state where he can prove that he is a good person, and a person capable of performing both in football terms, and how he treats people".
Rather than the initial "it's in the past, I've apologised, let's move on" approach, I want to hear from Mackay on what he did at the SFA that demonstrates progression on the "proving he is a good person" and "how he treats people" parts of that statement.
It doesn't need to be a fans meeting. A sit-down interview with RCFCTV would be ideal. I don't think that's an unreasonable ask, but there doesn't appear to be any willingness to do so. He might well have done loads of stuff, but if he doesn't tell us how are we supposed to know? Sure, people in the SFA, UEFA etc appear to think he's great, but I'd like a little more than just taking it on trust from them. Football authorities are not usually known as bastions of progressive thinking.
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36 minutes ago, yoda said:
Feels a bit like the Grant Munro situation, only reversed.
Quite so. It's a sign of how far we've come that the guys who are surplus to requirements at County end up at ICT, rather than the other way round. I don't begrudge him the opportunity to continue earning a living at a lower level.
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I was very surprised to see Bradford are in League 2. I assumed they were League 1. They're obviously a bigger club, but you'd think the extent of his achievements at Morecambe would get him a gig at a similar-sized club in League 1 or even the lower end of the Championship. Maybe he just likes the idea of the project at Bradford. I've no idea of their financial position, but it's not unreasonable for them to have ambitions of being back in the Championship in a few years.
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1 hour ago, RiG said:
Isn't Andy Barrowman involved in Joma as well?
He's their "Brand Manager for Scotland" which I think is fancy speak for "sales rep".
1 hour ago, Savage Henry said:That means it isn’t actually even a deal with Joma, right? We get the crappy €13 stuff.
The press release says Joma are supplying bespoke kits, so I assume (with absolutely no actual knowledge) that they'll do the kits but the training and leisure wear will be Richie Foran ironing Ross County badges on to standard templates in his basement.
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2 minutes ago, RiG said:
Richie Foran likes this.
Aye, at any other time we'd probably be ripping in to them for that, but after the last week I really can't be bothered. I enjoyed them shortening the company name to "R.F Sports Teamwear" in the press release though.
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I wonder what tomorrow will bring? The way this week has gone I fully expect to hear the haggis pie has been scrapped and Charlie Christie is joining the coaching staff.
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1 hour ago, staggy1929 said:
I think I said earlier in the thread that Roy will probably invest massively this year to try get players and fans onside. It will certainly be an interesting summer.
If Roy wants to change the club's strategy (again) by splashing the cash then, generally speaking, I'm fine with that. What I still can't get my head around is deciding to appoint such a divisive character to spearhead it. Could he really not have found an up-and-coming manager with the qualifications and connections to do the job? Someone the whole support could have gotten behind rather than alienating a large section of it.
Even if Roy believes Mackay is a reformed character, the reaction was blindingly predictable and they've put little-to-no effort in to assuaging those legitimate concerns. Why bother with the hassle in the first place? It's not as if Mackay is the second coming of Alex Ferguson. Just baffling all round.
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2 hours ago, 18May1991 said:
This. If Mackay turns out a success as their manager, nobody at Ross County will give much of a shit.
I would suggest that this is not, in fact, correct.
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Utterly grim. On the same day the club publish an interview saying:
"We do need to take stock and particularly that relationship with the fan has to become stronger."
I'd suggest this is not the way to go about it.
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But I read in The Athletic that Sean Kelly was really good?
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John Hughes, 5 Jan 2021: “We are working hard to identify players... They have to be better than what we have got."
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1 hour ago, StoneThrowAway said:
Relegate us now and save the misery.
I think the way to do it is to complete the Premiership season, or enough of the season to deem it "competent" (for want of a better word). However, the Championship ends early, too early to be competent, and is declared null and void. Therefore, we don't get relegated after finishing bottom and Hearts don't get promoted. The seethe from Gorgie would be magnificent.
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Does anyone remember the days when John Hughes was saying anyone we brought in would be better than what we have already? Those were good days, filled with promise for the future.
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We could do with another striker but if Roy is willing to sanction a six figure transfer for a striker in the sixth tier of English football then he's taken leave of his senses.
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At least Celtic are continuing their shitebag behaviour of not offering away fans PPV, so I don't have a dilemma over whether to pay for this or not.
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The General Ross County Chat Thread
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
This is pretty much me as well, with the caveat that I am open to Mackay persuading me he has in fact changed as a person.
When he joined the SFA in 2016, Kick It Out’s chairman said the role would give him an opportunity to "put himself back in a state where he can prove that he is a good person, and a person capable of performing both in football terms, and how he treats people".
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect him to proactively address what he has done to fulfil that in the last five years. He clearly doesn't want to, and that's his prerogative, but if he wants to win people over I think it would help.