Raith Against The Machine

I suspected that might be the case. It's very understandable, in a way. When you've got a workforce that turns up for free and seems to know what it's doing, why intervene? But it's not a responsible business model. As we've seen all too clearly this week, it leaves you very vulnerable to all your volunteers just not showing up one day (although, in fairness, that risk can largely be mitigated by not acting like utter c***s). More importantly, though, it's not very community minded, and it's not very professional. More than one person on this thread has, perfectly validly, offered their opinion that a CEO isn't required at this level. On that point, I disagree. The club needs more permanent employees whose job is to make sure the club runs properly, not fewer. If you've got £200,000 to spend over the next three years, rather than prioritising another striker, maybe look at creating actual jobs for the people who are running your club for you. I'm not talking about big salaries, but to take the RaithTV guys as an example, they're putting out a professional quality product, that generates revenue. Put them on part-time (or zero hour or whatever, I'm no expert here) contracts to at least cover the time they're putting in with the living wage. At the last set of club accounts, Raith Rovers had 36 employees. Take the players, coaches and other first team staff away from that and there must be about ten people actually paid to run Raith Rovers, from answering the phones to the duties of the Chief Exec and everything inbetween. I picked St Mirren more or less at random, thinking that they're a similar sized club to us, but one we probably aspire to be like right now. They've got 35 employees... not including players (of which they've got 42). Infrastructure isn't just floodlights and portacabins. It's also employees and management structure. It's supposed to be a professional football operation, not a boys club run by committee. Yes, you can get to a situation where it feels like there are too many chiefs and administrators, and yes every pound spent in the office is a pound less that's spent on the pitch, but that's how you run a football club in 2022, and how you avoid catastrophic dictatorial decisions like the one we've seen this last week.

It's interesting, from the outside looking in, to wonder about the internal structure of the club being so reliant on volunteers. Is there a central point of contact, like the CEO, who's co-ordinating everyone and touching base with them regularly? Or is it more nebulous than that, with different people liaising with others within the club? Are some volunteers essentially just turning up and looking after themselves, with little contact with the board/employees of the club? I don't expect anyone to answer that, but it'll make a big difference when it comes to getting people back onside.

This is absolutely true, but they can't send McGlynn and the players into a game away at Parkhead with things still unresolved. Maybe if we'd been away at Queen of the South or Hamilton they'd be able to get through another weekend of "no comments" or "let's just talk about the game" but there's no way Premier Sports are going to go along with that line if nothing else has been forthcoming from the club. There's every chance that legal advice might take things well beyond this week, but if that is the case, there needs to be a holding statement to that effect at the absolute minimum.

I think we need to be careful with corroboration on stuff like this. There are so few routes for information to leak from the club now that 70% of the workforce have left, there's a significant chance that what we're hearing is the same source (which could be completely true or completely false) echoing through different second- or third-hand routes. Although, as someone else laid out quite eloquently earlier, it would be quite surprising if the people left in the boardroom/bunker aren't further entrenched in their original beliefs. That's quite natural in situations like this where everyone in the world is against you. To be a little cynical, though, it doesn't really matter what John Sim (or Tom Morgan or Karen Macartney etc) actually think, at this stage. What matters is what they put out into the world. When the doors are locked and they're sitting in private, if they want to think they've been hard done by and that there's been some sort of witch-hunt, then that's fine. I don't agree with it in the slightest, but each individual is entitled to their own opinion. However, the club's stance, and the club's actions, cannot reflect that. There needs to be contrition, acknowledgement of the hurt, and a commitment to improve. At the weekend it felt like that had to come as soon as possible, and I think some of that immediacy has died away. If it doesn't come until Thursday now, I think that's okay, as long as it's an adequate response when it does come. (And obviously it has to be before Sunday, they can't go into a game on live television having not responded to this.)

There's nothing to be gained trying to argue with that. It's not even a well-formed enough point of view to try and counter. Just weak gibberish from someone who feels they owe a loyalty to the intangible concept of a "club" over and above everything else, regardless of what evidence may or may not be present.

It was Matty Bowman, wasn't it?

John Sim's continued ownership is an unfortunate reality. There's almost certainly no viable route to replace him in the short or even medium term. That doesn't mean he should remain Chairman, or that others on the board should be allowed to continue in their current roles.

Franko! How's the investigation going? Are you any closer to finding out who I am? Not knowing is really playing havoc with my self-image.

I'll take 8-0 if nobody in the away end embarrasses themselves with a misguided show of "support" for a rapist.

I don't want to make the Frank conner mistake of assuming that someone has a level of insight just because they can write in full sentences, but if true that's worrying in the extreme. You'd think that with them being the lead item on the News at Six and on the front page of every paper in the country, there's no way they can possibly think this is going to blow over, but these are the same people who thought signing Goodwillie would be a grand idea, so anything's possible.

Yeah, for all PR firms get a bad wrap, there absolutely should be one involved. The club cannot afford to get anything else wrong at this point.

I don't think that's anywhere near as unusual as you'd think, at this level of football. I'd be pretty amazed if it's what happened here, mind you (albeit I haven't listened to Bill Clark's interview yet).

You want a third run at that comeback, neebur? I don't think they're getting any better but your luck might turn.

Phoning my own office?

Haha! Okay Columbo, let me know how you get on. Regards, J̶o̶h̶n̶ ̶M̶c̶G̶l̶y̶ Anonymous Pie & Bovril User

There are certainly ways in which this could happen, if it's something that Denise Clair thinks would be beneficial, but if it does, I don't think we'd ever hear about it, which is probably for the best.

Well that's handy, because I'm not fucking selling it. Believe what you like, I've got no inside track on anything that's happened. If I did, I wouldn't be holding back to protect this football club, not with what's gone on in the last week. This kind of whataboutery really has absolutely no place in this conversation, and it's exactly the kind of mental gymnastics I'm talking about. The matter at hand has absolutely nothing to do with Nicola Sturgeon's background or track record, and everything to do with David Goodwillie, Denise Clair and Raith Rovers. And as reluctant as I am to get dragged down this path, what's the logical conclusion of that argument anyway? Nicola Sturgeon didn't adequately deal with an abuser in her immediate circle, so... she shouldn't ever call out anyone who commits sexual violence, in the name of... consistency? Better to let Scottish society continue with its appalling attitude towards men committing sexual violence than be thought a hypocrite? I wonder what it is about women taking a stand against a rapist that makes so many men so uncomfortable? It's deeply troubling.

The abuse she's copped on social media over the years is utterly depressing. All for exposing a worthless rapist. I know it's the internet and that it sort of enforces a certain distance by its nature, but the sheer lack of empathy and humanity is just really, really bleak. It's been touched upon already, but after the Rape Crisis Scotland fundraiser was retweeted by Nicola Sturgeon, some of the replies were mind-boggling. The mental gymnastics that some people will perform are absolutely staggering. These people walk among us. It's terrifying.

The strength and bravery of Denise Clair is simply incredible. She's been failed too many times by too many institutions and individuals. She deserves so much better. Everyone still involved in leadership at Raith Rovers should be on their knees begging her forgiveness, and finding ways to help make amends.

Don't apologise, it's the nicest thing anyone's posted on this thread in the last week.

I've maybe had the odd nudge on an incoming transfer in the past, but I've not got any sort of boardroom insider, sadly.

Marc Chapman only shot one Beatle, he's still not getting to play up front for the Rovers.

Well, this is going to be unusual. Given how much of the Goodwillie debacle/catastrophe is still unresolved, this might be the first time in history where most of the build up to this fixture is dominated by coverage of the Rovers. After two home games, its a different kettle of fish for our support, too. I've largely ignored our games this week - I've still no idea who scored the goals on Tuesday night - but right now I'm minded to go to this one. But it's probably about 60/40 at the moment and that could easily be swayed by the actions of the club in the next few days. Ultimately I think the players still deserve support, and it's not going to get any tougher than having to go to Celtic Park. I can just about square that with not supporting or endorsing the club hierarchy. If I am there, I'll be wearing a white ribbon to support the campaign to end male violence against women. It is a small token, both literally and metaphorically, but after the absolute fucking nightmare that the club have perpetrated this week, I think even the smallest gestures of solidarity are probably worthwhile. Football-wise, I imagine we'll be comprehensively destroyed by at least four or five goals on live television, and I imagine the vast, vast majority of people watching will be absolutely delighted, which is totally fair.

It's such a long name, too. You'd think by the time you got to the second L, and you'd been at it for about 40 minutes, you'd think... "Hang on... Am I a total c**t?"

Absolutely shocked that the fucking captain of the good ship Bad Takes is here with yet another horrendous opinion.