The New Raith Rovers Thread

[Ro Sham Bo]

[Raithie]

Sounds like no new signings anytime soon.

[renton]

7 minutes ago, Raithie said:

Sounds like no new signings anytime soon.

Sounds increasingly like we're a bit fucked this season.

[GhostZapper]

10 minutes ago, Raithie said:

Sounds like no new signings anytime soon.

 

2 minutes ago, renton said:

Sounds increasingly like we're a bit fucked this season.

It doesn't sound like no signings.... It sounds like we are taking the opportunity to bring guys in to have a look at them before we throw a contract offer at them. Surely that's doing the appropriate due diligence before we sign someone?

Or would you rather we just chuck contract offers to anyone on a free in the hope that 4 or 5 of the sign.

 

[renton]

2 minutes ago, GhostZapper said:

 

It doesn't sound like no signings.... It sounds like we are taking the opportunity to bring guys in to have a look at them before we throw a contract offer at them. Surely that's doing the appropriate due diligence before we sign someone?

Or would you rather we just chuck contract offers to anyone on a free in the hope that 4 or 5 of the sign.

 

I think we've offered contracts to the players we want, and none of them have signed (yet), so we are going down the route of giving facilities to every hopeless jobber who isn't in the position of being able to mull over several other offers in the hope that one or two isn't complete shite.

[baillieinleeds]

Suppose this is the venture for us to go down. We’re not the most attractive club and finances are super tight. This league is gearing up to be so much harder than last season.

[The Moonster]

1 minute ago, baillieinleeds said:

Suppose this is the venture for us to go down. We’re not the most attractive club and finances are super tight. This league is gearing up to be so much harder than last season.

In League 1 I'd say you're the most attractive option for players and your finances should still over power everyone else in the division (although I understand you guys have some debt/losses to service). I can't comment much on last season's standard but is this year really harder? I'd have thought having no other full-time teams in the league, replacing Ayr with Brechin and Alloa with Dumbarton makes it weaker IMO. Sure, the bottom half of the league is probably a bit stronger with the likes of Stenny coming up but I look around the division and fear absolutely no one.

And as for what Barry Smith is saying there, I wouldn't be too concerned. We're taking a similar approach because our budget is tight. Aitken has signed up a core of players that he wants to build his team around but he's inviting plenty down for training to get a look at them before offering deals. If he doesn't have much money to play with then I'd say that's a sensible approach.

[CALDERON]

5 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

In League 1 I'd say you're the most attractive option for players and your finances should still over power everyone else in the division (although I understand you guys have some debt/losses to service). I can't comment much on last season's standard but is this year really harder? I'd have thought having no other full-time teams in the league, replacing Ayr with Brechin and Alloa with Dumbarton makes it weaker IMO. Sure, the bottom half of the league is probably a bit stronger with the likes of Stenny coming up but I look around the division and fear absolutely no one.

And as for what Barry Smith is saying there, I wouldn't be too concerned. We're taking a similar approach because our budget is tight. Aitken has signed up a core of players that he wants to build his team around but he's inviting plenty down for training to get a look at them before offering deals. If he doesn't have much money to play with then I'd say that's a sensible approach.

The fear is that the chairman said last week he thinks we are three singings away from a full squad, which is quite terrifying. That would mean a fair amount of trust and reliance on a number of youth players who we have no idea if they are in any way good enough.

[The Moonster]

Just now, CALDERON said:

The fear is that the chairman said last week he thinks we are three singings away from a full squad, which is quite terrifying. That would mean a fair amount of trust and reliance on a number of youth players who we have no idea if they are in any way good enough.

There is absolutely no way Raith only have 3 signings left to make. If that's all you've got left in the budget then staying full-time looks an utterly ridiculous decision.

[GhostZapper]

33 minutes ago, renton said:

I think we've offered contracts to the players we want, and none of them have signed (yet), so we are going down the route of giving facilities to every hopeless jobber who isn't in the position of being able to mull over several other offers in the hope that one or two isn't complete shite.

Really? you know that for a fact? who are the hopeless jobbers?

We possibly have offered contracts to a couple of folk, but I'd be more of the opinion that the budget is so tight there is no room for making a mistake, so Smith wants to be sure the players we sign will work. Theres no room in the budget to do what McKinnon or Locke did - bring in 5 or 6 first, then keep adding another 3 or 4 into august then another 5 in January.

The players we bring in now absolutely have to work.

[GhostZapper]

12 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

The fear is that the chairman said last week he thinks we are three singings away from a full squad, which is quite terrifying. That would mean a fair amount of trust and reliance on a number of youth players who we have no idea if they are in any way good enough.

and yet we spent half of last season bemoaning the lack of opportunities for young players. ;-)

[GhostZapper]

18 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

In League 1 I'd say you're the most attractive option for players and your finances should still over power everyone else in the division (although I understand you guys have some debt/losses to service). I can't comment much on last season's standard but is this year really harder? I'd have thought having no other full-time teams in the league, replacing Ayr with Brechin and Alloa with Dumbarton makes it weaker IMO. Sure, the bottom half of the league is probably a bit stronger with the likes of Stenny coming up but I look around the division and fear absolutely no one.

And as for what Barry Smith is saying there, I wouldn't be too concerned. We're taking a similar approach because our budget is tight. Aitken has signed up a core of players that he wants to build his team around but he's inviting plenty down for training to get a look at them before offering deals. If he doesn't have much money to play with then I'd say that's a sensible approach.

Spot on. Its harder because we are having to cut our cloth accordingly. The owner was prepared to put his hand in his pocket (and did to the tune of £250k) to subsidise the income hit of relegation. However now with a second season in L1, income, season tickets, gates will all fall yet again, and we have to live within our means. hence the tighter budget and smaller squad.

Agree with your comments on the tighter budget - managers have to get it right. No harm in bringing a player in to see what he can do before offering a contract. definitely the sensible way to do it. still 4 weeks before the cup starts, (which is essentially competitive pre season matches) and  7 weeks before the league starts properly. Plenty time.

[CALDERON]

8 minutes ago, GhostZapper said:

and yet we spent half of last season bemoaning the lack of opportunities for young players. ;-)

For me it was one player, Dave Mckay. There was absolutely nothing to suggest the others were good enough. We still don't know.

[CALDERON]

19 minutes ago, The Moonster said:

There is absolutely no way Raith only have 3 signings left to make. If that's all you've got left in the budget then staying full-time looks an utterly ridiculous decision.

Good point, our recent track record in sound decisions made at boardroom level is keeping my optimism high. 

[renton]

1 minute ago, GhostZapper said:

Really? you know that for a fact? who are the hopeless jobbers?

We possibly have offered contracts to a couple of folk, but I'd be more of the opinion that the budget is so tight there is no room for making a mistake, so Smith wants to be sure the players we sign will work. Theres no room in the budget to do what McKinnon or Locke did - bring in 5 or 6 first, then keep adding another 3 or 4 into august then another 5 in January.

The players we bring in now absolutely have to work.

If getting guys in to run the rule on them first was so important, why was Duggan and Thompson signed before the all important first few days of pre-season training, to make sure they work? I think, and several seasons of us bringing in trialists during the summer would seem to have shown, that the quality of these guys are not  generally there. It's a market place after all, and the better players will all have had several offers probably well before the end of last season. The very fact that Smith has said in that article that offers have been made but players are holding out for better deals, that we were supposedly last week in advanced talks with another forward who'd "add another dimension to the attack" suggests that Smith doesn't really believe that making sure the players work in a pre-season training environment is all that important either.

[renton]

2 minutes ago, CALDERON said:

For me it was one player, Dave Mckay. There was absolutely nothing to suggest the others were good enough. We still don't know.

Sim, going all the way back to 2006 was always very keen to get the youth players involved in the first team without really understanding why the jump to the first team was as big as it was.

[Beachbum]

He still doesn't understand. For him the bottom line is money, not ability.

[Beachbum]

The new rules on emergency temporary transfers will also have an effect on every club - today's Courier.

[He's Got No Hair]

All the best players will be snapped up quick and all the average players with no other deals will be coming on trial. If you are good you are offered a contract, if you are average to pish you are offered a trial. Maybe we'll find some hidden gems but it would appear that we can't offer the money to be first choice. 

[GhostZapper]

1 hour ago, Beachbum said:

The new rules on emergency temporary transfers will also have an effect on every club - today's Courier.

some key info......

Emergency Temporary Transfers will though still be allowed in the case of a goalie where if approved by the SPFL Board, a club can sign a keeper for seven days at a time in exceptional circumstances.