The New Raith Rovers Thread

[RAITHROVERS84]

12 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

Right, but its 5 games into the f**king season, there are 93 points still to play for (31 games) and plenty of time. Talk and panic around relegation is madness.  Are things looking bad, sure, but there is plenty of time to rectify that still. New manager needs time to evaluate the squad and work on a defined system.

The club can focus on two fronts at the same time independently, its not focusing on one by neglecting the other. People greeting about the club putting out content about the off-field developments (especially after so many people asking about the cladding holdups etc) when we're doing poorly on the pitch are the same sort of clowns that complain when players are seen with a smile or out at an event after a defeat. Some can't seem to understand that many things can go on in parallel. 

Do people really think that the board are taking previously assigned money away from the playing budget to get a room decorated? 

Your initial comment was improvements around the infrastructure will stand us in good stead irrespective of on field issues.

My response was effectively it would be irrelevant if we drop a division. Pretty obvious I’d say. 

My concern is numerous posters think we’ll just start climbing the league like you have alluded to with the sheer volume of points available.

Hopefully we do but nothing this season so far suggests we will unless something changes.

The club possibly can focus on two fronts like you suggest, maybe getting some players in to get us out the mire should be prioritised.

[SanStarko]

Recruitment wise.  After one of the Pars games last season live on TV, after the game Murray got interviewed and said he felt we needed a player with pace as it was something we lacked.  So that should then be with Potter to go and find that type of player, 9/10 months later and.....nothing.  I mean surely if your manager goes out on national TV identifying a weakness in his squad that needs improvement, and one of your main tasks is bringing players in and almost a year later that same issue is still on full view, then surely questions need to be asked.  It's great that he seems to absolute badger players to sign for us, but it would be even better if he was badgering players who would actually fix the glaring issues in the squad.

The off the field stuff, the club is in a tough place.  There'll be a budget for the on the field footballing side, and there'll be a budget for all the off the field stuff.  Just because on the field we're doing shit just now doesn't mean the off the field stuff should stop.  The problem they have just now is if they don't say what it is they're doing on the off the field side, you'll have people ask what's going on and where the money is going.  But when they do come out and talk about all the improvements people will have a go asking why we're not signing a RB or whatever.

Really, last season the new board were playing on easy mode.  Every decision they made paid off and they got a lot of leeway off fans as a result, they could pretty much do no wrong.  This season the difficulty level jumped up, and then they themselves bumped it up even higher thanks to the timing of sacking Murray and mess that followed while they tried to bring in the new man.

Edited Monday at 21:17 by SanStarko

[McGuigan1978]

30 minutes ago, CountryBumpkin said:

Right, but its 5 games into the f**king season, there are 93 points still to play for (31 games) and plenty of time. Talk and panic around relegation is madness.  Are things looking bad, sure, but there is plenty of time to rectify that still. New manager needs time to evaluate the squad and work on a defined system.

The club can focus on two fronts at the same time independently, its not focusing on one by neglecting the other. People greeting about the club putting out content about the off-field developments (especially after so many people asking about the cladding holdups etc) when we're doing poorly on the pitch are the same sort of clowns that complain when players are seen with a smile or out at an event after a defeat. Some can't seem to understand that many things can go on in parallel. 

Do people really think that the board are taking previously assigned money away from the playing budget to get a room decorated? 

This is our worst start to a season since 2004/05, the Claude Anelka campaign. 

It's absolutely wild that after having a head start on every other team in the league, we can be in a position as October approaches with no right back, two wingers playing up front, and virtually no shots at goal in the league, despite us playing two of the poorer teams in the division. 

I totally agree that the work doing up the stadium can absolutely be separated from what's going on on the park, but goodness me, the squad building over the summer has been desperately poor, and I don't think it's wrong to call that out. 

Even if every injured player was to come back soon, and let's face it, considering our injury record they probably won't, we're weaker across the middle of the park and have fewer options up front than last season. It's ridiculous. 

Edited Monday at 21:20 by McGuigan1978

[SirJimmyofNic]

31 games and 93 points to play for that's a relief, we only need to win 13/14 of those games to secure championship status, thats not too big an ask, if it wasn't for getting that penalty against Partick we'd only have 1 point and no goals scored, that has to be a concern even with rose tinted specs 

[pub car king]

The summer recruitment was primarily about the defence. 

We lost Watson, Corr and technically Millen. These were replaced by Fordyce, Hanlon and Freeman as well as the addition of Stevenson at LB that's only 1 additional player in that area where we were frequently short last year. 

In midfield we have added Montagu and Nicolson who are both prospects who should be loaned out for their development and aren't ready for regular championship football.  We also aquired Gibson who has gone straight into the squad and is a viable starter. Turner returned to his parent club.

However tellingly we have not added any pace in the middle which was a key issue identified under Ian Murray. 

Up front we've added Jamieson on loan. Rudden also returned to his parent club.

So to summarise the numbers for this summers business consists of adding an additional defender, 1 midfielder and 2 young prospects. 

We have a squad that's too small for our requirements just the same as last season only we're having our injury crisis in August instead of January.  

Now it can only be speculated on how much Murrays sacking has derailed recruitment but you have to wonder if (lack of) recruitment was one of the subjects alluded to in his final interview. 

[Been going too long]

Maybe they are waiting on Collins evaluating the squad and telling potter what he wants? We did a lot of business early but only focused on one part of the team primarily. I’m usually someone who isn’t patient for new signings but I do think we will have some new bodies in soon . It’s been frustrating as hell this summer/ early season plus a derby loss doesn’t help. It’s still early and long way to go but hoping the comeback starts Saturday. Panicking isn’t helping anyone we need to stick together 

[McGuigan1978]

1 minute ago, Been going too long said:

Maybe they are waiting on Collins evaluating the squad and telling potter what he wants? We did a lot of business early but only focused on one part of the team primarily. I’m usually someone who isn’t patient for new signings but I do think we will have some new bodies in soon . It’s been frustrating as hell this summer/ early season plus a derby loss doesn’t help. It’s still early and long way to go but hoping the comeback starts Saturday. Panicking isn’t helping anyone we need to stick together 

It isn’t early though, we can only bring in loan signings and free agents. 

[SirJimmyofNic]

It's kinda of a funny coincidence that results have been so-so ever since the Millen incident, we've never really had a proper RB after that day 

[RAITHROVERS84]

3 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

It's kinda of a funny coincidence that results have been so-so ever since the Millen incident, we've never really had a proper RB after that day 

Liked Millen the more last season went on. His passion was brilliant.

One of the best games last season and for a generation really was QP away…2-1 down with 10 men…Millen Panenka was absurd.

[R12ATH]

We obviously need a striker but an electric paced, 20 goal a season striker are just not available to us.

More of a concern is the lack of chances we are creating and therefore converting to goals. We could have had Mbappe up front for us on Friday and we would not have scored, we never created one clear chance or had the ball in the box often enough. Was the same for most games last season which is why we squeaked by most games winning by 1 goal.

If we got back to our form at the start of last season Vaughan, Smith, Jamieson and Hamilton would score goals. Since January we typically create hee-haw every game.

So far we have created  zero against Airdrie, Livingston, Ayr and the Pars. 1 goal in 5 league games is horrendous but we created literally no chances in 4 of them, maybe Livi game apart.

[Been going too long]

11 minutes ago, McGuigan1978 said:

It isn’t early though, we can only bring in loan signings and free agents. 

Early in the season I meant, I’m not happy either with the recruitment this year, I said this to a few mates who told me I was knicker wetting but who are now saying the same. Just got to hope we have irons in the fire and get things done. I just think some of the comments folk are making about jamieson for example isn’t helping , right now the team need us. I get the frustration about the manager change, Christ I went on about it nearly daily about wanting a quicker appointment for this very reason of getting players in but we need to back the team fully on Saturday and hopefully get a result 

[Been going too long]

3 minutes ago, R12ATH said:

Livingston

I thought we created a few chances v livi tbh and undeservedly lost that game, the rest you are right about, crumb of comfort is we did score 2 in open play v ayr in the diddy cup

[Broken Algorithms]

I'd love to see Adeloye come in for us, albeit he's coming back from a serious injury so you'd imagine he'd need a bit of time to come back from that. Also, he has a pulse which means that Partick Thistle will likely chuck a contract under his nose. 

With Megwa, it's worth remembering that players can come out of nowhere. It'll likely need to be a loan deal: it got mooted earlier on in the summer by @R.R.FC but I'd look to check about Josh Dede from Celtic. He's probably about the closest in profile to what we're needing: an energetic right back who can get up and down the pitch and help get involved. He's only played for Celtic B, but even with Megwa the sum of his experience before playing for Airdrie was 9 games for Kelty. 

 

[Been going too long]

If Dundalk went bust would we want the hammer back ? Just putting that out there( guaranteed to split opinion) I’m a maybe 

[R12ATH]

1 minute ago, Been going too long said:

I thought we created a few chances v livi tbh and undeservedly lost that game, the rest you are right about, crumb of comfort is we did score 2 in open play v ayr in the diddy cup

Yeah for sure Livi was better.. Feels like half way through last season Murray put the handbrake on the attacking murrayball for a more negative and pragmatic style and we just cant get out of it. 

Easton, Connolly, Vaughan, Smith, Stanton and Mullin should be ripping it up in this league but collectively they doing nothing at the moment.

[SirJimmyofNic]

2 minutes ago, Been going too long said:

If Dundalk went bust would we want the hammer back ? Just putting that out there( guaranteed to split opinion) I’m a maybe 

Where exactly would he play even if that scenario did materialise, it's bad enough a inconsistent team playing Murrays formation and now being tasked to play Collins 3-5 bloody 2 

[Been going too long]

1 minute ago, R12ATH said:

Yeah for sure Livi was better.. Feels like half way through last season Murray put the handbrake on the attacking murrayball for a more negative and pragmatic style and we just cant get out of it. 

Easton, Connolly, Vaughan, Smith, Stanton and Mullin should be ripping it up in this league but collectively they doing nothing at the moment.

I think if we persist 3-5-2 then we will score more but maybe lose a few more as well, Murray definitely went more pragmatic second half,4-1-3-2 let us be over run at times in midfield but we went more direct and got a reward 

[Been going too long]

2 minutes ago, SirJimmyofNic said:

Where exactly would he play even if that scenario did materialise, it's bad enough a inconsistent team playing Murrays formation and now being tasked to play Collins 3-5 bloody 2 

Second striker, linked up well with Vaughan, it’s just a thought that’s all, I hope Dundalk don’t go bust but I was chatting to one of their fans on Twitter and he sugggested it 

[Broken Algorithms]

7 minutes ago, Been going too long said:

If Dundalk went bust would we want the hammer back ? Just putting that out there( guaranteed to split opinion) I’m a maybe 

No for me. Injury prone, drifts out wide when used up top and for all Rudden got slaughtered last season he offered far more of a goal threat than Gullan.

He will of course also move to Partick to become heir apparent to Brian Graham.

[Been going too long]

3 minutes ago, Broken Algorithms said:

No for me. Injury prone, drifts out wide when used up top and for all Rudden got slaughtered last season he offered far more of a goal threat than Gullan.

He will of course also move to Partick to become heir apparent to Brian Graham.

Yeah his injury record is poor , hopefully a body in this week