The New Raith Rovers Thread

[mr mince]

17 minutes ago, Rovers1992/1993 said:

Nobodies going to be petty enough to demand their seat like that.

Have you met our supporters?

[Rovers1992/1993]

Have you met our supporters?

[emoji23] fair point.

I’m a season ticket holder and I won’t throw somebody out my seat [emoji23]

There’s been a couple of times this season, somebody’s been in my seat, you just go and look for another seat.

[Ebanda's Handyman Services]

I did go looking for my seat on Saturday but there was a nice auld boy on it. 

He's there week in, week out too. 

If it had been an arsehole they'd have been asked to vacate. 

[Rover1990]

Listening to Barry Smith's interview's today and all year its no wonder the players have zero confidence and fight.  The guy is out his depth.  I think if we had McKinnon or McGlynn managing us on Saturday you would have seen the entire team running through brick walls to get over the line.  Doesn't feel like they are willing to do that for Barry. 

Smith also mentioned that he's been debating with the players whats went wrong.  Its not the first time this season either.  He is the manager he should be setting the team up tactically for each game with a clear plan to change it if its not going well.  Its evident that Barry has no plan B and possibly barely a plan A.

If Saturday goes exactly like the last 2 games I hope Smith walks.  He won't though so its up to Mr Sim to show us what ambition hes got for our club. 

[mr mince]

20 minutes ago, Rovers1992/1993 said:

fair point.

I’m a season ticket holder and I won’t throw somebody out my seat

There’s been a couple of times this season, somebody’s been in my seat, you just go and look for another seat.

True, happened to us almost every game this season. That'll teach me to not collect our stickers from the office. Never been an issue there's almost always something free nearby, the wee man has found a couple of his pals that he didn't even know went to games and I've found a new favourite place to sit for shooting South

I was jealous of the folk on the move on Saturday, not just because they missed so much of the game, that corner in the north used to be my favourite spot in the days before segregation and pre stand.

[Rovers_Lad]

2 hours ago, Michael W said:

If we get a good turnout at Starks we can more than afford to pay Smith off with the proceeds. Might encourage a few to turn out. 

Another disgraceful marketing failure from the club by not promoting this. 

The disgraceful marketing failure was the display by the team last night 

[JinglinGeordie]

5 hours ago, Michael W said:

Herein lies the problem - Lennon and Duffy would both be highly uninspiring;  they're managers who have not really achieved anything noteworthy (like Smith) and are unlikely to. It's where we are in terms of stature at the moment however that means we will doubtlessly end up with the likes of them. 

Baird to Forfar is an utterly fantastic signing for them. I can't see him at all in management given his propensity to strop, but as a player an excellent capture for them. 

Surprised you dismiss Danny Lennon and would find him an uninspiring appointment. Danny Lennon got Cowdenbeath two successive promotions before he moved to St Mirren where he kept them in the Premier League in his first season then won the League Cup in his second season. Also what he's achieved with Clyde this season is remarkable and extremely underrated - when he took over this season Clyde were second bottom, since then he's averaged over 2 points per game, stretching back to November!

We have to accept we're a small club and as a small club we're extremely limited with who we can realistically afford to appoint. With all clubs our size a lot of the time it is a gamble when you appoint a new manager - just look at some of our appointments in the last 10-15 years to see what credentials they had before joining us:

• Antonio Calderon - first managerial job was Raith, signed him as a player/manager, huge risk at the time especially since he demanded a bigger than normal budget to bring in a lot of foreign players. Considered a success.
• John McGlynn - again, first managerial job. Previously a first-team coach at Hearts - highly regarded in that respect. Considered a success.
• Grant Murray - once again, first managerial job. Cheap option for the club, kept us in the Championship and won us the Ramsden Cup. Not entirely considered a success but wasn't a catastrophe.
• Ray Mckinnon - achieved two play-off finishes and an 8th placed finish with Brechin before joining Raith - we were only his second senior club to manage. Considered a success for getting us a Premiership Play-Off place.
• Gary Locke - terrible appointment and we all knew it straight away, inexcusable 'gamble', less said about him the better. Considered a failure.
• John Hughes - extremely experience manager in Scottish football, we all thought he was the answer to our problems last season but he wasn't. Considered a failure but we were all happy at the time.
• Barry Smith - deemed 'young and upcoming' by a lot when appointed in May, could easily argue he had better credentials than guys like McKinnon and McGlynn when it comes to senior management. Most likely has failed to achieve his main objective of getting us promoted this season and is considered a failure of an appointment. For reference, go back to pages 2158, 2159 and 2160 of this thread to see what we all thought of the appointment.

Who's next?! I'd be very satisfied with Danny Lennon based on what he's achieved at clubs of different sizes. What I would like to know is how do we pick managers? Who is advising our board of directors (who are made up of predominantly accountants)? Do we have a 'football head' who also joins in the interviews to ask questions which our board and chairman wouldn't think to ask/consider?  It's quite easy for a club our size to make mistakes with managerial appointments but surely we're due a bit of luck with the next one!

[McGuigan1978]

Was Barry Smith regarded as young and upcoming by a lot?

He’s 44 and achieved very little. I doubt his list of achievements is about to grow anytime soon either.

[JinglinGeordie]

Was Barry Smith regarded as young and upcoming by a lot?

He’s 44 and achieved very little. I doubt his list of achievements is about to grow anytime soon either.

Indeed he was. 43 when he joined and in the younger bracket of Scottish football managers this season.

As I said, go back the thread to see exactly what we were all saying when he was appointed.

[kirkcaldybanjo111]

10 hours ago, SuperHans said:

Duffys an interesting one. He was being hailed a hero in the media last season for his work at Morton and then they've had a little bit of a poor spell towards the end of the season this year and he's out the door.

 

In all honesty, someone like McCall had the knowledge, contacts and experience to get Ayr out of this league in a rollercoaster season. If we took a punt on another young manager then a couple of good seasons and he'd be away to another club leaving us with the same situation as we were in before we appointed Locke. As much as a young, hungry manager on his way up is tempting, we don't have enough to keep him at Raith like St Mirren have done with Ross.

 

Maybe an old head with the ability to put foundations in place is exactly what we need. Many scoffed at the thought of Dick Campbell when his name was being thrown about. I just wonder if he'd have had it in his locker to get us up. His achievements at Arbroath this season and last are impressive enough to suggest so.

 

If dick campbell gets the job ill personally torch the main stand then hang myself from the roof of the south.

[Ro Sham Bo]

One issue about turning part-time once we get knocked out of the play offs is that we'll be late to the party in terms of signing part-time players. Many of the best will have agreed new contracts with their current clubs or signed pre contracts elsewhere eg Trouten.
Unless some of the current squad turned part-time we'd be looking at having to source an entire squad at very short notice.

[Beachbum]

7 minutes ago, JinglinGeordie said:

As I said, go back the thread to see exactly what we were all saying when he was appointed.

 

Might also be a good idea to find out what Alloa fans thought about him at around that time.

[mr mince]

4 minutes ago, kirkcaldybanjo111 said:

If dick campbell gets the job ill personally torch the main stand then hang myself from the roof of the south.

Harsh but fair, I'd settle for burning that bunnet of his.

4 minutes ago, Ro Sham Bo said:

One issue about turning part-time once we get knocked out of the play offs is that we'll be late to the party in terms of signing part-time players. Many of the best will have agreed new contracts with their current clubs or signed pre contracts elsewhere eg Trouten.
Unless some of the current squad turned part-time we'd be looking at having to source an entire squad at very short notice.

Think we should be looking at doing that anyway.

[McGuigan1978]

Indeed he was. 43 when he joined and in the younger bracket of Scottish football managers this season.

As I said, go back the thread to see exactly what we were all saying when he was appointed.

I don’t remember too many enthusiastic declarations though? I appreciate he may not be a dinosaur in managerial terms admittedly, but I think this may be the end of his career. Full time at least.

[Scary Bear]

Surprised you dismiss Danny Lennon and would find him an uninspiring appointment. Danny Lennon got Cowdenbeath two successive promotions before he moved to St Mirren where he kept them in the Premier League in his first season then won the League Cup in his second season. Also what he's achieved with Clyde this season is remarkable and extremely underrated - when he took over this season Clyde were second bottom, since then he's averaged over 2 points per game, stretching back to November!
We have to accept we're a small club and as a small club we're extremely limited with who we can realistically afford to appoint. With all clubs our size a lot of the time it is a gamble when you appoint a new manager - just look at some of our appointments in the last 10-15 years to see what credentials they had before joining us:

• Antonio Calderon - first managerial job was Raith, signed him as a player/manager, huge risk at the time especially since he demanded a bigger than normal budget to bring in a lot of foreign players. Considered a success.
• John McGlynn - again, first managerial job. Previously a first-team coach at Hearts - highly regarded in that respect. Considered a success.
• Grant Murray - once again, first managerial job. Cheap option for the club, kept us in the Championship and won us the Ramsden Cup. Not entirely considered a success but wasn't a catastrophe.
• Ray Mckinnon - achieved two play-off finishes and an 8th placed finish with Brechin before joining Raith - we were only his second senior club to manage. Considered a success for getting us a Premiership Play-Off place.
• Gary Locke - terrible appointment and we all knew it straight away, inexcusable 'gamble', less said about him the better. Considered a failure.
• John Hughes - extremely experience manager in Scottish football, we all thought he was the answer to our problems last season but he wasn't. Considered a failure but we were all happy at the time.
• Barry Smith - deemed 'young and upcoming' by a lot when appointed in May, could easily argue he had better credentials than guys like McKinnon and McGlynn when it comes to senior management. Most likely has failed to achieve his main objective of getting us promoted this season and is considered a failure of an appointment. For reference, go back to pages 2158, 2159 and 2160 of this thread to see what we all thought of the appointment.

Who's next?! I'd be very satisfied with Danny Lennon based on what he's achieved at clubs of different sizes. What I would like to know is how do we pick managers? Who is advising our board of directors (who are made up of predominantly accountants)? Do we have a 'football head' who also joins in the interviews to ask questions which our board and chairman wouldn't think to ask/consider?  It's quite easy for a club our size to make mistakes with managerial appointments but surely we're due a bit of luck with the next one!

Probably just because he was one of the heroes of the glory years, but I’d definitely have Danny Lennon as our manager.

[JinglinGeordie]

1 minute ago, McGuigan1978 said:

 

I don’t remember too many enthusiastic declarations though? I appreciate he may not be a dinosaur in managerial terms admittedly, but I think this may be the end of his career. Full time at least.

 

Yeah several. I 100% agree, I'm in no way trying to defend him as a manager. My point is, clubs our size have to take risks with managers, whether it's hiring someone for their first senior management role or hiring a younger manager who has performed well at clubs levels below. Barry Smith was considered a decent appointment by most of us last May, now we all want him sacked and quite rightly so - he's been terrible.

[SuperHans]

What about Jimmy Nic? He'll be out of a job soon, unless of course Stevie G keeps him on as assistant[emoji28][emoji28][emoji28]

[basher brash]

I’ve just listened to Barry Smiths interview  Absolutely deluded what game was he at ? I would have had much more respect for the man if he came out and said that performance was totally unexceptable but no he actually thinks we played well in patches. Barry Smith go now please if you think that’s exceptable you are clearly showing total contempt for the Rovers support when a so called full time outfit is totally schooled by a part time team . As for the Players there shouldn’t be any hiding places because the lot of you are responsible for that shambolic performance a total disgrace, Alloa showed more fighting spirit, guile, skill than any of those prima donnas and yet again the players spouting total pish in the media that we have to repay the fans with that performance take a look at yourselfs we deserve a lot better than that.

[McGuigan1978]

Yeah several. I 100% agree, I'm in no way trying to defend him as a manager. My point is, clubs our size have to take risks with managers, whether it's hiring someone for their first senior management role or hiring a younger manager who has performed well at clubs levels below. Barry Smith was considered a decent appointment by most of us last May, now we all want him sacked and quite rightly so - he's been terrible.

I totally agree. I was thinking today that if we appoint a particularly good manager next, he’ll just be tempted away.

I suppose the challenge is to appoint a couple of good managers one after the other.

Ultimately, I reckon a fair amount of it is done on guesswork, but if we can possibly start analysing their CV then I’d be delighted.

[buchan30]

What about Jimmy Nic? He'll be out of a job soon, unless of course Stevie G keeps him on as assistant[emoji28][emoji28][emoji28]

Even being assistant at the rangers, and me hating that club, i can’t bring myself to hate nicholl. Not sure if i would have him back though. He still loves the rovers, you could hear it when we played hearts in the replay at tynecastle, he was willing us on. Mckinnon or lennon for me. Think lennon gets a bad press, but could do a job for us.