The General Ross County Chat Thread

[Sonam]

5 hours ago, Sensible Soccer said:

I'd expect us to be battling it out with St Johnstone, Motherwell, Dundee & Dundee United. Aberdeen & Hibs are both in yet another transition period, they should improve but have proven themselves to disaster zones recently too. Killie & St Mirren did well last season & both seem to have kept & strengthened their squads but it's to be seen how they cope with European football (not jealous at all btw). It's also to be seen if they're able to put two successful seasons back to back.

Hearts, Rangers & Celtic will comfortably occupy the top three positions imo.

I don't think Dundee will be battling relegation especially if Simon Murray stays fit. Mid table at least or higher. Think Aberdeen & Hibs will be a good bit above us, even if they finish bottom 6.

Killie have their pitch to their benefit, other teams often struggle. Motherwell I'd be surprised to see them bottom or in play off place.

St. Mirren I just don't expect to do as well, but would be surprised also if relegation folder.

So that leaves St. Johnstone (hope that they finish bottom), Dundee United (Hopefully play off place) and Ross County 3rd bottom. Unless we can find 4 good quality flair players.

[Sonam]

That's me thinking optimistically as well!

[Savage Henry]

15 hours ago, Sonam said:

That's me thinking optimistically as well!

I don’t think you’ll have too many arguing with you.  The signings so far have been mixed at best (even if we’re kind and saying Lamie, Telfer and Flapjack are bench players).   There’s no question the squad is weaker than the one that struggled so badly last year.   

Edited July 15 by Savage Henry

[bunglebonce]

Having watched Spain's opening goal last night, I couldn't help but think of the old partnership between Hungbo and Charles-Cook off the wings. I'm not looking forward to another season of 5-3-2 with no pace in the side and centre-backs who can't bring the ball out.

Last season there were only two players in the squad who could cross a ball and one of them barely featured in the second half of the season. With Dhanda gone, at least Brown is back at it now.

 

[The Great Stagsby]

I can't argue with the suggestion the squad is currently over all weaker than last season's, and that that doesn't bode well, but the optimist in me says:

 

1. We can hopefully still improve it with further additions;

2. In Don, we hopefully / possibly / maybe have a better manager than the ones under which last season's better squad toiled so badly, which maybe / possibly / hopefully would go some way to mitigating...? Enough for top 10...? (Oh, how I wish we could dream bigger than that!)

[Pete the Jakey]

County are 1000/1 to win the league - I like those odds and have just placed £5.59 (the contents of my account).

[Der Panzer]

If I was a County fan I’d be shitting it tbh - same if I was a St Johnstone fan or a Utd fan as I make you 3 favourites for the drop. 
 

That said - the league always ends up so tight that any one of probably 6 more teams could easily be pulled into trouble - and I don’t think any of the aforementioned teams will be as bad as Livi were.

My concern with County would be the manager tbh - we seen this with Barry Smith at Dens - came in during a tough period, galvanized the club and did well initially - then when that wore off and he had to build a squad and manage the team it was an unmitigated disaster. I hope that’s not the case at county - as I’d much rather see our Tayside compatriots suffer - but I’d have a massive eye on that if I was a county fan! 

[Riz]

So much negativity.

 

People can't surely expect us to be going out replacing Murray with another striker with pedigree, same with Dhanda. 

We're fishing in a very small pool, and hoping we strike gold, but it's the way it's always going to be. I'd rather wait till the season starts and see how it goes. 

 

The pessimistic comments in here are woeful. 

[Staggie52]

34 minutes ago, Riz said:

So much negativity.

 

People can't surely expect us to be going out replacing Murray with another striker with pedigree, same with Dhanda. 

We're fishing in a very small pool, and hoping we strike gold, but it's the way it's always going to be. I'd rather wait till the season starts and see how it goes. 

 

The pessimistic comments in here are woeful. 

You’re confusing realism with pessimism imo.

[Pete the Jakey]

34 minutes ago, Riz said:

So much negativity.

 

The pessimistic comments in here are woeful. 

We’ve finished 11th two years in a row, what do you expect, a fucking garden party at the townhouse where we all get together and say how great a team it is?

[RandomGuy.]

11 hours ago, Der Panzer said:

My concern with County would be the manager tbh - we seen this with Barry Smith at Dens - came in during a tough period, galvanized the club and did well initially - then when that wore off and he had to build a squad and manage the team it was an unmitigated disaster. I hope that’s not the case at county - as I’d much rather see our Tayside compatriots suffer - but I’d have a massive eye on that if I was a county fan! 

The exact same happened with us and MacLean last season.

I mentioned that a while back but got hounded because Cowie is a really nice guy which apparently means he can't fail.

[camer0n_mcd]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

The exact same happened with us and MacLean last season.

I mentioned that a while back but got hounded because Cowie is a really nice guy which apparently means he can't fail.

Stevie Hammell falls into this category, ex-player that got a lift at first then was found out very quickly.

Edited July 15 by camer0n_mcd

[Der Panzer]

1 hour ago, RandomGuy. said:

The exact same happened with us and MacLean last season.

I mentioned that a while back but got hounded because Cowie is a really nice guy which apparently means he can't fail.

 

4 minutes ago, camer0n_mcd said:

Stevie Hammell falls into this category, ex-player that got a lift at first then was found out very quickly.

I’d imagine almost every club will have a similar cautionary tale - would Barry Robson fall into that category as well for example?

Not many clubs will have the opposite experience of someone who comes in, steadies the ship and kicks on. It’s not impossible however -  Steven Naismith is one who is threatening to buck the trend - I’m sure there are others I’m just too tired to bother thinking.

I’ve also got a keen eye on Hibs - think theirs is a very risky appointment after recent seasons. 

 

[Pete the Jakey]

I would like to think we’ve exorcised that scenario with Stuart Kettlewell.

[Matty-RCFC]

This idea that Cowie gave County a little boost to get us over the line last season is utter tripe. He’s been part of the coaching staff for 3 years, and was in charge of 16 matches last season - beating Rangers and Hearts in amongst them. He’s quite literally proven his worth as a manager. 
 

Comparisons to the other managers above are complete shite, too. From what I remember, Steven MacLean took charge of 5 or 6 games at the end of the season - a few of which were complete dead rubbers. The Barry Smith shout is an odd one, given he miraculously kept Dundee up and then finished 2nd the year after. You’d have struggled to find any manager able to keep Dundee up the season he was sacked. 

[Der Panzer]

12 minutes ago, Matty-RCFC said:

This idea that Cowie gave County a little boost to get us over the line last season is utter tripe. He’s been part of the coaching staff for 3 years, and was in charge of 16 matches last season - beating Rangers and Hearts in amongst them. He’s quite literally proven his worth as a manager. 
 

 

He also got hammered 5-1 at home to Motherwell and lost to the worst Livi team seen in years. Cherry picking results to prove a point is easy. Getting results against a Hearts side on the beach with nothing to play for and a Sevco side who were in full implosion mode are nice headlines - but those games don’t define a Ross County season.  
 

He achieved 1 point away from home and only played a top 6 team on 6 occasions so 9 games against the fodder around him. I can’t remember lay of the land when Adams quit - but Cowie has either failed to overhaul a rotten St Johnstone team or allowed that same St Johnstone side to overtake County on his watch - ultimately condemning you to the play offs. 
 

He has proven nothing other than he can maybe get a reaction out of players who were just as likely to be motivated anyway after the shitstorm that lunatic Adams created - he’s never signed players or built a squad before and from what I’ve seen and read on here of your summer business it appears to show. 
 

Anyway - hopefully I’m wrong and he’s best thing since sliced bread and it condemns the Perth and the Angus mob to relegation. He also actually does seem like a genuinely nice guy so I have nothing against him or County. 
 

Point I was trying to make isn’t that he is shite, but that he’s a risk - I don’t think that’s really up for debate. 

[forkboy]

19 minutes ago, Der Panzer said:

He also got hammered 5-1 at home to Motherwell and lost to the worst Livi team seen in years. Cherry picking results to prove a point is easy. Getting results against a Hearts side on the beach with nothing to play for and a Sevco side who were in full implosion mode are nice headlines - but those games don’t define a Ross County season.  
 

He achieved 1 point away from home and only played a top 6 team on 6 occasions so 9 games against the fodder around him. I can’t remember lay of the land when Adams quit - but Cowie has either failed to overhaul a rotten St Johnstone team or allowed that same St Johnstone side to overtake County on his watch - ultimately condemning you to the play offs. 
 

He has proven nothing other than he can maybe get a reaction out of players who were just as likely to be motivated anyway after the shitstorm that lunatic Adams created - he’s never signed players or built a squad before and from what I’ve seen and read on here of your summer business it appears to show. 
 

Anyway - hopefully I’m wrong and he’s best thing since sliced bread and it condemns the Perth and the Angus mob to relegation. He also actually does seem like a genuinely nice guy so I have nothing against him or County. 
 

Point I was trying to make isn’t that he is shite, but that he’s a risk - I don’t think that’s really up for debate. 

All this is true enough, of course there's risk involved. But there's risk in appointing any manager, at this level at least. We're not bringing Klopp out of retirement, so you either take a flyer on a hometown hero, take a chance on someone from a lower league like a Rhys McCabe, or else go for some bleak retread, Yogi Hughes or whoever.

And that aside, the decision is already made, Don is the manager, what's to be gained with being down on the hiring, as a County fan? If it doesn't work then it doesn't work. He did enough last season to get the opportunity so I'm happy to let it play out. If we're stranded bottom come the end of October then I'll start having second thoughts.

[SEETHING]

16 hours ago, bunglebonce said:

Having watched Spain's opening goal last night, I couldn't help but think of the old partnership between Hungbo and Charles-Cook off the wings.

 

I fucking love Pie and Bovril sometimes man. 

[RandomGuy.]

8 hours ago, Matty-RCFC said:

This idea that Cowie gave County a little boost to get us over the line last season is utter tripe. He’s been part of the coaching staff for 3 years, and was in charge of 16 matches last season - beating Rangers and Hearts in amongst them. He’s quite literally proven his worth as a manager. 
 

Comparisons to the other managers above are complete shite, too. From what I remember, Steven MacLean took charge of 5 or 6 games at the end of the season - a few of which were complete dead rubbers. The Barry Smith shout is an odd one, given he miraculously kept Dundee up and then finished 2nd the year after. You’d have struggled to find any manager able to keep Dundee up the season he was sacked. 

I mean, you can't write off MacLeans wins (he won 3 games in 6 while Cowie won 4 in 16) but also include fluke ones like the Rangers result when they're in complete disarray. They chuck these losses out randomly every time they're under pressure.

He averages under 1pt a game if you're ignoring "dead rubber" end of season games too (for your opponents), all while having Dhanda and Murray.

The idea he's "proven" at anything is fanciful at best, and deluded at worst.

[Savage Henry]

11 hours ago, Pete the Jakey said:

We’ve finished 11th two years in a row, what do you expect, a fucking garden party at the townhouse where we all get together and say how great a team it is?

Well…

… No, it’s okay.  Not really…