Raith Against The Machine

I went back and checked it the other day, and Murray's comments were a little contradictory. He said something like "Frankie's looking elsewhere... And sometimes it's good to make some changes, so you can improve." which gave me the impression that Frankie's departure was much more in the control of the club than Tumilty's was. The proof will be in the pudding, but I think this is a mistake. Ultimately, we can compete with Ayr for players. If Musonda does well there and we let him go, it's on Murray.

I have to say, I think it's a dreadful decision to let Frankie go. Whatever way round the decision was made, we should be able to compete with anything Ayr can offer. Murray might surprise us and bring in a couple of centre halfs who are incredible, but I think Musonda is exactly the kind of solid squad member you can rely on at this level, and I suspect he'll shine if he's given a prolonged run in one position.

Aye that's a complete nonsense Twitter account.

Oh. Bother. Eh... #WelcomeTomi

Euan Henderson, who did very well on loan at Alloa last year, is almost certainly going to turn up in the Championship as someone's starting striker this year. For the sake of interest, let's just say it's us. #WelcomeHendo

It's definitely a difficult market, there seems to be a real dearth of forwards, particularly for clubs at this level. In the last day or two, Caley have brought in Steven Boyd and Morton have signed Jai Quitongo. With a blank chequebook and all things being equal, I don't think anyone would've looked at either of those two as Championship strikers, let alone good ones. I think that probably speaks volumes about the quality that's available. I think the only other strikers that have signed for Championship clubs this summer are Dipo Akinyemi at Ayr (who's a complete unknown at this level) and Anton Dowds at Thistle. In a normal year, I think you'd be looking at multiple signings with the same approximate profile as Dowds. Ie, players from the division below who've either done well at that level or this one in the recent past. But for various reasons, there just aren't many of those kind of players around. Other than Tomi Adeloye and Matej Poplatnik, I can't think of any other "known" strikers who might resurface in this division, and there's every chance those two will go somewhere completely different. I think over the rest of the summer we'll see more Akinyemis, from down south or abroad who appear out of the blue and could be anywhere between excellent and dreadful, and then the usual raft of loan signings closer to the first league game. I don't think Jamie Gullan is a superstar, but I think if he'd run down his contract at Hibs he'd be incredibly sought after this summer. A lot of clubs, the Rovers included, are going to have to pin a fair bit of hope on a striker who's far from a guaranteed success.

I know who Jim Foy is. Is there somewhere I can collect my badge, or is there some sort of handshake I should learn...?

I'm not seeing people who said "I'll never be back!" and then rocked up the next week with a blasé attitude kidding on it never happened. I think a lot of people agonised over their position at the time, laid out how they felt, and drew their own personal red lines. For me, and I think probably the majority, that was David Goodwillie's active involvement, which meant the initial U-turn started the walk back. For many, it'll be his employment, and they won't consider a return until that situation is finalised. And for some, it'll go beyond that and they won't feel comfortable to renew their association (if ever) until signification amends are made up to and including a change of ownership, which I can totally sympathise with.

Sound the @Jan Vojáček horn. A brief search of Schiavone's name seems to suggest his 0 league goals in half a season in League One is underselling his abilities somewhat. The Dumbarton fans seemed to rate him higher than Stevie Farrell did, albeit as a supporting striker rather than an out-and-out number nine. Probably not a great sign that he spent the second half of the season at Gala Fairydean, although I can't find anything to suggest how he got on there.

That's a dreadful photo. The promo graphic makes it look a lot better. I suppose it depends how it really looks close up, but I'd be happy if the Rovers put out a kit like that (although we'd never go for black and white, for obvious reasons).

More excellent content coming out of the club. Striking a nice tone.

The lad who ran down the stairs to do the "haud me back" at Ben Williamson should ensure there's at least some entertainment. That was a good laugh. Especially the boy who launched an empty coffee cup, on a windy day. Most inefficient throwing of a missile since GOB tried to throw Michael's letter into the sea.

Have those quotes just been lifted from one of his RaithTV interviews? They sound familiar. The passage about the goalkeeper... "Murray, previously at Airdrieonians, is also understood to be close to securing the services of another goalkeeper, who could supply back-up down the line for Jamie MacDonald and Robbie Thomson." ...makes it sound like it'll be a young keeper coming in, rather than a replacement for either MacDonald or Thomson.

It certainly does sound like Murray was head-hunting Millen from the very beginning. Millen mentioned in his interview that it took a couple of weeks to get over the line, and there was a clip of the Scunthorpe gaffer talking about the move kicking off with Murray ringing to ask about Millen's availability. Doesn't seem like the kind of player you'd have quite that much desire for, but if Murray's that confident then hopefully that's a positive sign. On that basis I'd agree that Murray possibly wouldn't refer to him as a "trialist", and that's the interpretation I'm going with because it means there might be two mystery men to speculate about.

Well, having been pleased with the business so far, I suppose it had to get underwhelming at some stage. I think you'd be incredibly hard pressed to argue that Millen is an upgrade on RT, although of course that was always going to be a tall order. Good to get the business done early, too. Just a centre half to come in before we could put out a reasonably solid eleven.

It seems to be increasingly common. I don't know if they're being utilised more often or if teams are just publicising them more (for whatever reason?) but it does seem odd. Morton have just announced four pre-season friendlies, three of which are behind closed doors. Is it maybe a case of being able to use "looser" rules than an official friendly? Unlimited trialists or rolling subs or whatever? I've no idea what the rules are but it does seem odd to be turning paying punters away.

Christ. I think I carried the ball further than Liam Dick last season, by virtue of fetching a stray shot that was launched into the stand at Hamilton.

You can keep repeating that as often as you want, it doesn't make it true.

I'd like to see another left back come in, but it doesn't really chime with Murray's "tight squad" ethos.

Hey, he played 20 times in League Two for Scunthorpe last season, he can't be that ba... Oh.

I think that's almost inevitable for at least some of the remaining players who come in, for no reason more than the internal Scottish pool is so small. A club in our position would normally be looking at the clubs around us and the top performers in League One (as we did with Dylan Easton and Scott Brown) but the emergence of Cove Rangers and Queens Park as relatively big spenders and the travails of Falkirk and Dunfermline mean that there aren't as many players available to be "poached" by clubs like us, and there's other clubs willing to throw money at the kind of players we'd be interested in. Thistle acted early to get Harry Milne and Anton Downs in, and Queens took Dom Thomas from Dunfermline, but you're not seeing much in the way of League One players stepping up into the Championship, which would be the natural marketplace.

That mention of two defenders potentially joining imminently is intriguing, because unless I've missed it, I don't think there's been any specific names rumoured, even vaguely, that we might be interested in. Anyone feeling brave enough to put their name to a suggestion?

So, if media reports are to be believed, we're now looking at something more akin to this... Connolly and Zanatta are a little away from their natural positions, but it's obviously important to represent them. Based on Murray's business so far, I can't see that either would be starters in his first choice, but would quite possibly be primed to come on together and switch the system to run at tiring defences from out wide. Easton v Ross is a total toss-up that could go either way, and I think you could make the argument for any number of permutations for the three slots behind them in the midfield. On top of what's there, you've also got Bow, Mahady and Coulson. but I'd be incredibly surprised if they made five appearances between them. I've left question marks in for the right back and a centre half behind Lang because they're both cast iron requirements before the season begins. You'd also have to assume at least one more forward will come in.