The East Fife Thread

[Gordon EF]

3 hours ago, Ivo den Bieman said:

 

In fairness the couple of times I've seen them this campaign East Fife haven't been that bad, certainly I never saw them as relegation candidates. There's a few good players there but confidence and consistency have clearly been issues for them.

Sums up this season fairly well. I'd say there's only been a few games where we've been awful. A good chunk of our games this season are ones where we've looked "alright" but not been able to win. Around half of our games have been draws or 1 goal defeats.

We just haven't been able to take many points at all without actually playing well to get them. Good teams steal points regularly by playing ugly and earning bit of luck now and again. We haven't done that at all this season.

[1320Lichtie]

Just posted this on our thread - I cannot believe what I am hearing and have heard from Dick over the last 18 months. 

That spitting comment - fucking hell. You’ll soon come to learn that Dick love’s absolutely nothing more than a total haver and extreme exaggerations but that is just an extremely bitter and delusional thing to say. 
 

I really cannot believe the downward trajectory of the man over the last 18 month - Dick has spiralled out of control and had clearly well and truly lost his magic long before he left Gayfield.
 

I wouldn’t be too enamoured if I was an East Fife fan right now tbh. The guy that walked into Arbroath all they years ago has long gone. 
 

He has managed to fall out with a whole load of players and alienate an entire fanbase who absolutely loved him in the space of 18 month. That is some effort

 

A bitter and stubborn old guy who can do no wrong in his own eyes - genuinely think he’s losing it or already lost it.
 

Maybe it is because he’d been at Arbroath so long and a new fresh start somewhere will get him his mojo back.

Thankfully for him he’s got a great guy next to him in his brother who is an absolute hero of a guy. 

 

 

 

Edited February 8 by 1320Lichtie

[++Ammo - Airdrie++]

On 06/02/2024 at 21:40, SLClyde said:

Fair enough, definitely thought I’d heard about him being around Lanark. 

I'm pretty sure that's where he's originally from, I think he played boys club football with Kirkfieldbank over that way.

[tbsouth]

3 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Just posted this on our thread - I cannot believe what I am hearing and have heard from Dick over the last 18 months. 

That spitting comment - fucking hell. You’ll soon come to learn that Dick love’s absolutely nothing more than a total haver and extreme exaggerations but that is just an extremely bitter and delusional thing to say. 
 

I really cannot believe the downward trajectory of the man over the last 18 month - Dick has spiralled out of control and had clearly well and truly lost his magic long before he left Gayfield.
 

I wouldn’t be too enamoured if I was an East Fife fan right now tbh. The guy that walked into Arbroath all they years ago has long gone. 
 

He has managed to fall out with a whole load of players and alienate an entire fanbase who absolutely loved him in the space of 18 month. That is some effort

 

A bitter and stubborn old guy who can do no wrong in his own eyes - genuinely think he’s losing it or already lost it.
 

Maybe it is because he’d been at Arbroath so long and a new fresh start somewhere will get him his mojo back.

Thankfully for him he’s got a great guy next to him in his brother who is an absolute hero of a guy. 

 

 

 

Are you saying that Dick is lying about the incident?

[fifer]

3 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

You’ll soon come to learn that Dick love’s absolutely nothing more than a total haver and extreme exaggerations

Well that is something the whole world already knows.  We have been playing against his teams for a long time and he's blethered a fair amount of pish over the years.

[1320Lichtie]

Just now, fifer said:

Well that is something the whole world already knows.  We have been playing against his teams for a long time and he's blethered a fair amount of pish over the years.

It grates after a while but this latest thing has really annoyed me.

 

Best of luck to East Fife though - hopefully you get the better side of Dick Campbell and enjoy the rollercoaster it’ll undoubtedly be. 
 

I absolutely love Ian Campbell and have heard Youngy is a top man too so hope they do well. 
 

I have a feeling Colin Hamilton may end up at East Fife - think it would be a good move for him at this stage and possibly ToB but I’m not overly sure what’ll happen there as he’s got a 5 year deal. 

[Big Fifer]

5 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Just posted this on our thread - I cannot believe what I am hearing and have heard from Dick over the last 18 months. 

That spitting comment - fucking hell. You’ll soon come to learn that Dick love’s absolutely nothing more than a total haver and extreme exaggerations but that is just an extremely bitter and delusional thing to say. 
 

I really cannot believe the downward trajectory of the man over the last 18 month - Dick has spiralled out of control and had clearly well and truly lost his magic long before he left Gayfield.
 

I wouldn’t be too enamoured if I was an East Fife fan right now tbh. The guy that walked into Arbroath all they years ago has long gone. 
 

He has managed to fall out with a whole load of players and alienate an entire fanbase who absolutely loved him in the space of 18 month. That is some effort

 

A bitter and stubborn old guy who can do no wrong in his own eyes - genuinely think he’s losing it or already lost it.
 

Maybe it is because he’d been at Arbroath so long and a new fresh start somewhere will get him his mojo back.

Thankfully for him he’s got a great guy next to him in his brother who is an absolute hero of a guy. 

 

 

 

Watching that interview, my initial impression was that he is still an absolute blaw. I remember getting really tired of his shtick at Arbroath in the Championship after a while, too much of the Dick Campbell show. And with the sales of East Fife bunnets going through the roof, I worry that it might become a bit of a circus. This'll potentially be his last job, don't think folk realise the man is 70, so I'm hopeful he still has the magic. I still think it's the right appointment right now and I'm not sure who we could have brought in that would be better - I would be astonished if he can replicate anything near what he did with you lot. The aim has to be competing at the top end of the league next year, but that'll only happen if he still has the contacts and a batch of players who are desperate to play for him. 

[Wee Sandy]

Pleased to hear East Fife have a new Manager in, hopefully onwards and UPWARDS!!

The Man fae.......... Lo'Gelly.....certainly can talk, but he has a lot of experience at Div 1 and 2 levels,,

,,PLUS.....his brother Ian is with him,,,,THAT is the Bayview Bonus!!....Hopefully happier days ahead!!

[1320Lichtie]

1 hour ago, Big Fifer said:

Watching that interview, my initial impression was that he is still an absolute blaw. I remember getting really tired of his shtick at Arbroath in the Championship after a while, too much of the Dick Campbell show. And with the sales of East Fife bunnets going through the roof, I worry that it might become a bit of a circus. This'll potentially be his last job, don't think folk realise the man is 70, so I'm hopeful he still has the magic. I still think it's the right appointment right now and I'm not sure who we could have brought in that would be better - I would be astonished if he can replicate anything near what he did with you lot. The aim has to be competing at the top end of the league next year, but that'll only happen if he still has the contacts and a batch of players who are desperate to play for him. 

Think he will be able to provide the funding for some players - heard there is something like that going on with the Scott Allan situation - might be miles off it but it wouldn’t surprise me. 

 

He has fell out with a fair few players in the last 18 month. Even Balde who you’ll know well made a bit of a weird comment when he was sacked on social media which I found telling. But there was numerous wee things that transpired.

 

I feel like we hit our ceiling and it got to him a wee bit - we started to do things differently and I feel like he maybe got ideas above his station and become complacent which lead to the fallouts with players. Pretty sure Bobby Linn would’ve played another year if Dick wasn’t here and plenty of other players left on a bit of a sour note too.  
 

Right up until that point though Dick was brilliant and a breath of fresh air. You could see him getting older and you could hear the ‘schtick’ getting a bit more fantasy world and ridiculous year on year but when he was happy and enjoying being our manager he was spot on and brilliant 

 

I think when things started to turn and fans were getting a bit annoyed at what they were seeing happen on and off the park was when it all changed. It’s like he let it get to him so much and kind of couldn’t believe we all had the audacity to question the guy. Feels like he was getting more and more frustrated and was trying way too hard to dig himself out of the mess he had slowly created and the whole thing just turned into a total mess.
 

When he openly stated that the fans were getting on his tits because the Bobby Linn song was being sung when he wasn’t playing that’s when I just had a horrible feeling that things were never going to improve

I backed the guy to the hilt and even after how poor last season was I wanted him to stay, if we’d gone down I had said that I wanted him to stay as manager because he absolutely deserved it with all he’d achieved here.
 

However I was at hospitality on the last day of the season when we stayed up against Hamilton and he come in after - what I heard really made me have serious doubts. 
 

A guy who always used to come into the room and light it up came in and had everyone looking at each other while he was talking thinking the same thing - wtf is this guy talking about. It was a very weird speech where he was very condescending towards the supporters and seemed to have his own wee delusional view of how the season had actually gone with plenty of little digs in at players and the fans. 
 

He’s a very stubborn guy who has been brilliant at what he does but I feel like when the good times are good they’re great and he’s great but when things aren’t quite going his way and his teams aren’t performing then he really does not like anyone questioning or criticising him 

 

It is maybe why he’s always done well starting out at a lower level and working his way up - I feel like if we didn’t have Bobby Linn then this whole process could’ve started a lot faster for us. Bobby near enough single handedly won us the L1 title and then was massive in us staying up in the first couple seasons. 
 

I have no doubt we will be in L1 next season - maybe won’t see EF then but could be the case that we share the same league the season after and if Dick is still there that will be a really interesting season. 
 

 

 

 

 

[Cambuslang Fifer]

5 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

I have a feeling Colin Hamilton may end up at East Fife - think it would be a good move for him at this stage and possibly ToB but I’m not overly sure what’ll happen there as he’s got a 5 year deal. 

Would mind seeing Thomas O'Brien and Colin at us those two at arbroath I quite like to see in an east fife top. Would of liked Bobby but he's at lochee, We need a decent left back since naysmith/Penrice (onloan) left us so Colin would fit the bill and move young newton back into wide midfield again if newts was to be kept on but like I said everyone is on trial to get into the east fife squad next season and we will take it from there.

Though given we just signed hambrook extension which was or is odd I feel the rest are on trial to make it for next season squad but I can't see a way back for Slattery and given he has a testimonial at the end of the year he probably look to be the first one out the door though he has done quite well on EFtv I herd.

Plus the youngsters we brought up recently are best of the rest no offence so dunno if we should still have a youth system if we already have the top youngsters from there and there's only so much you can do until you send the wrong message out but that up to club if they keep it running and if dick feels that is the avenue that can be used as advantage but as well as that we need players with a pedigree from other teams too.

[Its not only a game]

On 08/02/2024 at 15:55, 1320Lichtie said:

Think he will be able to provide the funding for some players - heard there is something like that going on with the Scott Allan situation - might be miles off it but it wouldn’t surprise me. 

 

He has fell out with a fair few players in the last 18 month. Even Balde who you’ll know well made a bit of a weird comment when he was sacked on social media which I found telling. But there was numerous wee things that transpired.

 

I feel like we hit our ceiling and it got to him a wee bit - we started to do things differently and I feel like he maybe got ideas above his station and become complacent which lead to the fallouts with players. Pretty sure Bobby Linn would’ve played another year if Dick wasn’t here and plenty of other players left on a bit of a sour note too.  
 

Right up until that point though Dick was brilliant and a breath of fresh air. You could see him getting older and you could hear the ‘schtick’ getting a bit more fantasy world and ridiculous year on year but when he was happy and enjoying being our manager he was spot on and brilliant 

 

I think when things started to turn and fans were getting a bit annoyed at what they were seeing happen on and off the park was when it all changed. It’s like he let it get to him so much and kind of couldn’t believe we all had the audacity to question the guy. Feels like he was getting more and more frustrated and was trying way too hard to dig himself out of the mess he had slowly created and the whole thing just turned into a total mess.
 

When he openly stated that the fans were getting on his tits because the Bobby Linn song was being sung when he wasn’t playing that’s when I just had a horrible feeling that things were never going to improve

I backed the guy to the hilt and even after how poor last season was I wanted him to stay, if we’d gone down I had said that I wanted him to stay as manager because he absolutely deserved it with all he’d achieved here.
 

However I was at hospitality on the last day of the season when we stayed up against Hamilton and he come in after - what I heard really made me have serious doubts. 
 

A guy who always used to come into the room and light it up came in and had everyone looking at each other while he was talking thinking the same thing - wtf is this guy talking about. It was a very weird speech where he was very condescending towards the supporters and seemed to have his own wee delusional view of how the season had actually gone with plenty of little digs in at players and the fans. 
 

He’s a very stubborn guy who has been brilliant at what he does but I feel like when the good times are good they’re great and he’s great but when things aren’t quite going his way and his teams aren’t performing then he really does not like anyone questioning or criticising him 

 

It is maybe why he’s always done well starting out at a lower level and working his way up - I feel like if we didn’t have Bobby Linn then this whole process could’ve started a lot faster for us. Bobby near enough single handedly won us the L1 title and then was massive in us staying up in the first couple seasons. 
 

I have no doubt we will be in L1 next season - maybe won’t see EF then but could be the case that we share the same league the season after and if Dick is still there that will be a really interesting season. 
 

 

 

 

 

Jeez, a lot to say .

Arbroath were near bottom of league 2  when he joined and nearly got promoted to premiership . If he and brother does half of that all EF fans  will be  over the moon 

[Gordon EF]

Some Arbroath fans have lost all perspective since 21/22.

[mo83]

Heard that DC approached his son Iain Campbell to join you lot but he declined the offer.Who was in the dug out Saturday? Was Stuart Malcolm their?

[Gordon EF]

2 hours ago, mo83 said:

Heard that DC approached his son Iain Campbell to join you lot but he declined the offer.Who was in the dug out Saturday? Was Stuart Malcolm their?

Think it was DC, Pink, John Young and Paul Thompson (our previous assistant manager, not sure if he's staying or just helping out for last weeknd).

[1320Lichtie]

20 hours ago, Gordon EF said:

Some Arbroath fans have lost all perspective since 21/22.

With all due respect you’re talking absolute shite and if you can be arsed reading this then you’ll see why - 

 

On 26/11/2023 at 14:05, 1320Lichtie said:

Of course you have hit a nerve. Arbroath fans and the club have been extremely patient with Dick Campbell - to the point where I’ve not seen anything else like it in football. I can’t remember a manager getting the backing and support DC has when he had done such a terrible job over such a long period of time. 
 

 

Summer 2022 we were in an incredible position. Had a solid squad of players. 
 

Then the fallouts and dressing room bust ups came. James Craigen, Nicky Low and Jason Thomson all left the club after starting the season off with us.
 

Craigen who would still be a good player for us right now and who scored against us yesterday left because he could not get a game in central midfield. At one point Luke Donnelly and a man named Daniel Fosu (will get on to that later) played centre midfield over the guy. 
 

Then Luke Donnelly left. Dylan Patterson left. Hilson was injured and Keiran Shanks could barely get on the park. We were left with a young striker we’d signed from the Highland League and Dale Hilson, a guy who worked his socks off but rarely ever scored. 
 

We signed the likes of Daniel Fosu, Kareem Isiaka and Deri Corfe to replace the guys that had left. These 3 were absolutely nowhere near it. Daniel Fosu by far the best of the 3. Deri Corfe is easily up there with one of the worst players I’ve ever seen play. 
 

These kind of signings had been the new way forward for Dick, we had already had a wee taste of them when we brought in Sam Ford and Michael Bakare. It was as clear as day Dick Campbell was on a mission to find his own Nouble. 
 

6/7 of the signings we made in the first half of the season were moved on in January 2023. They all got given a chance against Dunfermline in the Challenge Cup and they were 4-0 down at half time. Dick slaughtered them all after and that was that. The club actually had to put a recruitment team in place because of how shambolic Summer 2022 was.
 

Throughout last season, on plenty of occasions we played without a striker on the park. For the majority of the season we had no wingers or strikers except Bobby Linn. Bobby was put upfront on several occasions while we played 5 central players across the midfield. Bobby was by far and away our best player and biggest goal threat yet Dick Campbell did his best to try and not play him. He commented on how the fans singing his name when he was on the bench ‘got on his tits’ and that we should get a grip. I know fine well that Bobby would’ve been terribly upset with the way he was treated. It really was a joke and showed Dick at his stubborn best. 
 

Anyway as RL86 has mentioned we were not a functioning football team as we had no attack, we scored the least amount of goals out of the 42 teams. Kieran Shanks was moved on in January after rarely getting a chance and we were left with Dale Hilson and Sean Adarkwa. Adarkwa was a handy player but he was injured for the majority of the time so we were left with wee Dale Hilson chasing long balls and punts up the park. 
 

In the end Derek Gaston, Ricky Little and Tam O’Brien were standouts and we managed to grind out enough draws to finish above 2 terrible teams. 

Despite all of that, myself and so many others said we achieved our goal and it was a success to stay up. I have mentioned how I had said that if we had got relegated last year I would still want Dick to stay. 
 

Then in we go to this year. 
 

First thing’s first, we started off the season with the news Keaghan Jacobs had re signed. A guy who was clearly absolutely finished and still plays no real part. 
 

Then the trialists started rolling in, I have lost count of how many we had. But we were told that they’d been extensively scouted and that they’d all be good enough to play for Arbroath. Wow. What an absolute embarrassment some of them were. It was as clear as day Dick was still trying to find his Nouble. 
 

Every single one of them bar a young lad Jess Norey and Turan were moved on. A total waste of time. 
 

We signed well in certain areas and we have built up a good group of players but if you read this thread back everyone was saying we needed a left back, a holding midfielder and some defensive cover. 
 

This has not happened. We have been scrambling about like a pub team in an effort to put together something that resembles a football team on several occasions already this year, players playing out of position because of how unbalanced the squad is. 
 

Im not sure how well you know these players but for one of our League Cup games we had a back 4 of

 

Keaghan Jacobs - RB

David Gold - CH

Ricky Little - CH

Scott Stewart - LB

 

It has been embarrassing. In recent weeks we’ve had a tiny squad with injuries yet Dick still sent Joao Balde on loan, a guy who has shown some promise, because he wanted to play more. There are so many cases of things like this. It’s bad bad bad management. 

The team do not resemble a football team. They do not look like they’re playing for Dick one little bit. It looks like a very bad environment to be in. You will have seen your team in a similar state at some point you know what I mean. 

Do not sit there and say that this is anything to do with us being too big for our boots, I was extremely upset at seeing them leave I wanted them to do well and I’ve backed them as much as I possibly can along with so many others. 
 

But their race was run and things needed to change. 

 

You have no idea - this was not about the support getting too big for their boots or ‘losing all sense of perspective’ or what other ridiculous things people have said since Dick left us 

It was extremely upsetting the night I’d heard he’d left us - a club legend - but it quite simply needed to happen and that was the overwhelming opinion of everyone involved 

 

Edited February 12 by 1320Lichtie

[Gordon EF]

2 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

With all due respect you’re talking absolute shite and if you can be arsed reading this then you’ll see why - 

With all due respect, no, you are.

This isn't just based on this thread. I've seen some fairly wild takes from Arbroath supporters since 2022 that seem fairly delusional. I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[Lichtie78]

23 minutes ago, Gordon EF said:

With all due respect, no, you are.

This isn't just based on this thread. I've seen some fairly wild takes from Arbroath supporters since 2022 that seem fairly delusional. I'm not the only one who thinks so.

We do have a few fans with more outlandish views, but them aside, there's several valid reasons for us to have been less than enamoured with some of Dicks behaviour recently.

[Cosmic Joe]

2 hours ago, Lichtie78 said:

We do have a few fans with more outlandish views, but them aside, there's several valid reasons for us to have been less than enamoured with some of Dicks behaviour recently.

DC has always been a bit of a maverick, but you surely need to look at the bigger picture. Where you were and where you are now. A bit of gratitude would not go amiss instead of personal abuse and gobbing on a player after narrowly losing to a pretty decent Spartans side away in the Scottish Cup.

Yes, you'll probably go down this season, but will be placed to more than hold your own in SPFL1 next year, something you could only dream of when he took over.

[Neilly]

I for one will be shocked to see Ehbroath return to their natural level next season.

Who would have thought it?

 

[keptie]

55 minutes ago, Neilly said:

I for one will be shocked to see Ehbroath return to their natural level next season.

Who would have thought it?

 

Ehbroath!! Hope your not tainting us as Dundonions.