Raith Against The Machine

It does seem like a weird line to keep going back to. There might be one or two players that Murray thinks are surplus to requirements, but there's no way that the squad as a whole is too big. We've got 23 players signed up at the moment, three of whom are goalkeepers, and seven are apprentices (four of which have never kicked a ball in the Championship). 26 players started league games for us last year, and 20 of those started at least 5 matches. Just picking another few at random, Ayr started 27 players, Hamilton started 30, ICT and Partick Thistle both started 23. There's obviously some movement in January that leads to a couple of extra names joining the list, but you can't point to a squad with 14 senior outfielders and claim it's too big. It's just silly.

He was the best left back in this division in 2019/20, if he gets close that form again he should be an excellent signing. It sounds like he was in a weird situation with Hamilton where he was technically full-time but still working elsewhere, so hopefully just going back to a normal part-time approach sees him back to his best.

I don't think it's so much the ability of the opposition that'll suit Kennedy, more the fact that you'd expect to have the vast majority of the ball in most games. He's not a player for a battle or game that's going to be decided on fine margins, but in a game where you're dominating he'll make life miserable for the opposition. If he's only getting two or three chances a game then he's no use, but if you can get the ball to him one-on-one with his fullback six, seven or eight times in a game he'll make things happen. Last season, he'd have been a better player for Kilmarnock at the top of the Championship than he would've been for East Fife at the bottom of League One.

What Ben Williamson needs, more than anything else, is an agreement with a loan club that he only plays in one position. For his development, he can't spend another season being shunted from 6 to 8 to 10 to out wide. Ultimately, though, it's his ability to adequately cover all these positions that makes him an attractive option for the likes of Dundee. If the deal goes through for the full season, he'll make 10 starts, 20+ sub appearances, and he won't win a man of the match or be booed off at any point. If I was his agent, I'd be suggesting he drops a level instead and gets a guaranteed start for a Dunfermline or a Falkirk in whichever position he wants to make his own.

Are you being paid by the comma here or what?

Maxwell comes across terribly in that interview, and it's not helped by the author of the piece getting all snippy with everyone in the comments. Refusing a trial just because he's been at Rangers, even though he's in a position where a club will need to hand over cash to bring him in. The wee snippet about him giving an interview without the permission of the Rangers Academy speaks volumes too. Sounds like he'll almost certainly resurface in the Championship or League One up here, probably a week or two after the transfer window has closed, and he's had to beg Rangers to let him go to a team that's found themselves in need of an extra body.

Paul Hartley can just f**k off, eh?

It sounds like the trialist is Kareem Isiaka, who was unused on Wednesday. That defensive line-up is startlingly uninspiring. There's still plenty time to go, but you're looking at a guaranteed starter coming in to make that seem respectable. Obviously there will be wheels spinning in the background, but I've no idea who that'll be, and I'm increasingly unnerved.

Yikes.

Or Scott Brown at the back? Slim pickings.

Folks, we've got a highlight reel! As always, totally impossible to tell anything from that, but at least there's something new to speculate about.

He was being linked with Partick Thistle earlier in the week.

Yup. It's a small sample size, but that one-striker-who-only-touches-the-ball-five-times isn't a habit I'd care to take into a second season.

You know half way through the season you get a really brutal game and people say "this is like a friendly"? This is that friendly.

Cheers. Early (for me, anyway) impressions are that Scott Brown will very quickly become a fans favourite, Ross Millen is going to get rinsed by several of this division's wingers, and we're going to spend large parts of the season wasting Ethan Ross out wide to accommodate Dylan Easton, and it might well be worth it. Having seen them now come down to the front of the stand for a warm up, I don't recognise either trialist.

Was Scott Brown wearing the armband on Saturday too, or are they sharing it around waiting for a captain to emerge?

I see all these Scottish exports who went to Hartlepool are at a training camp in Portugal this week, enjoying blazing sunshine. Sometimes you've just got to say... aye, fair enough.

Is that not almost entirely because we played two home games (including a derby) in front of 500?

Ben Williamson was at the Rovers for a fair chunk of last season and was mostly... *shrug* He's fairly versatile, McGlynn used him in a number of roles across the midfield, and then at the very end of the season he got a couple of games up front and scored a double away at Accies. Constantly shifting positions almost certainly didn't help him, but I don't think he ever really performed well enough in any single position to justify a first team place.

Connor Brennan has signed for Stenhousemuir this summer after being at East Kilbride.

Personally I prefer an eleven man system, but I suppose we've got to get used to a new manager with his own ways of working now...

Bit of Twitter chat that Euan Murray is another one going to Hartlepool. Paul Hartley really depleting an already slim market for clubs like us!

He's far from infallible, but I think he fits into exactly the right profile for the central defender we need to bring in, having lost Benedictus and Musonda. He's got a lot of experience at this level whilst still being a really good age, and he does most things well. I imagine there'll be a fair bit of competition for him (and he's probably already got a move lined up) for exactly the reason we should be going to fair lengths to get him; there aren't a lot of these guys out there at the moment.

It'll be interesting to see where he pops up. That's twice now that he's left us to take a step up and found himself more-or-less frozen out because he's not consistent enough to warrant a long run of games. I'd imagine the likes of Morton and Ayr would be intrigued, but I wonder if he might not be better off dropping into League One with Dunfermline or Falkirk and having another shot at running riot every week.