The General Ross County Chat Thread

[Comrie]

Heady days where County can offer nearly six figures for an oversized carthorse in midfield.

I may need a lie down.

[RiG]

4 minutes ago, bunglebonce said:

News doesn't come free, I think it's a good thing.

Living in Aberdeen for 14 years made me (even more of) a cheapskate.

[Matty-RCFC]

That should be it as far as our pursuit of Draper goes. No way we should be spending close to 100k on him. The squad is crying out for some creativity, I would far rather money was spent on some wingers/attacking midfielders. 
How much did we spend on Mikklesen btw? Can't find the figure. 

I think it was around 50k. It was either just under it or just over it.

[Savage Henry]

33 minutes ago, Matty-RCFC said:

I think it was around 50k. It was either just under it or just over it.

Some bloke off Twitter speculated the value in Danish money and it's grown legs.  I'd be disappointed if County spent that much on Mikkelsen (although I guess it's just the Brian Graham fee from Hibs).  I'm amazed County are offering their record fee (by some distance, too) for Draper when Nick Ross is available for free, but it sounds like a hundred grand will get him, and it also sounds very much like he'll be a County player next season.  

[Savage Henry]

45 minutes ago, bunglebonce said:

News doesn't come free, I think it's a good thing.

I have no idea why newspapers put their stuff up for free, or how the Independent actually turns a profit online. I'd never pay a paywall fee, but it seems the only reasonable policy for newspapers to adopt. 

[bunglebonce]

9 minutes ago, Savage Henry said:

I'm amazed County are offering their record fee (by some distance, too) for Draper when Nick Ross is available for free, but it sounds like a hundred grand will get him, and it also sounds very much like he'll be a County player next season.  

[Jayhawks]

80,000? I guess ICT are holding out for a quid for every foul he has committed.

[TheScarf]

The chances are they'll be wanting more off Roy than any other chairman.

[Matty-RCFC]

Some bloke off Twitter speculated the value in Danish money and it's grown legs.  I'd be disappointed if County spent that much on Mikkelsen (although I guess it's just the Brian Graham fee from Hibs).  I'm amazed County are offering their record fee (by some distance, too) for Draper when Nick Ross is available for free, but it sounds like a hundred grand will get him, and it also sounds very much like he'll be a County player next season.  

500,000 danish krones or something like that I saw which is around 50,000 in GBP

[Forfinn]

19 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

That's absolutely shambolic, and reflects appallingly on McIntyre and Dodds.

I've given this more thought, and decided the fault more likely lies with the La Manga Club who I assume organised the opposition as part of the service.  I'd be surprised if McIntyre and Dodds were expecting a team from one of Murcia's professional teams as neither are actually called "Murcia", but sounds as if the opposition wasn't of the level they were led to believe they were going to get.  The English version of the earlier La Manga Club tweet I posted explicitly says "Murcia Invitational".  Killie appear to have played a similar game while out at the same resort too.

As a support, we blithely assumed Murcia meant we were playing Real Murcia (who used to be in La Liga but are now rubbish).  Perhaps the club could have been clearer and said it was an invitational team, but probably not something to get too worked up over.  Hopefully Valenciennes put out a decent team for the game tonight.  It'll be an interesting test if they do.

[Forfinn]

On the subject of Thomas Mikkelsen, I've turned my sleuthing skills to trying to work out what, if anything, we paid for him.

Most Scottish media outlets have avoided the issue entirely, just using County's Spartan press release and adding in a bit about his spell at Dundee Utd.  Notable exceptions are STV who said he "joins the Highlanders following his release from Danish side Odense at the end of last season" and The Courier who reported he was "released by Danish side Odense".

So assuming that STV and the Courier aren't just making assumptions, that all points to him being a free agent.  However, having run the article from the official Odense website through both Google and Microsoft translators to get something intelligible, it appears his contract has been terminated after discussions with Ross County.  Given there's been direct contact between the two clubs, it's probably reasonable to assume there's some compensation involved, even though Odense don't mention it.

The Twitter chatter from Odense fans suggests they don't expect it to have been much more than his remaining salary costs and speculate it was around 500k Danish Krone (£59k).  So that's pretty much all we've got to go on.

The question I have is, why am I having to do this digging?  I think the club should have included something in their press release about whether he was a free agent, or if a fee was involved (even if it was just "undisclosed"), but that's their prerogative.  Why, though, are journalists not following this up?  It's an obvious question, but most outlets have left it out entirely, presumably because they don't care enough to go to the extra effort to ask.  Either that or the club are refusing to answer.  Unless STV and the Courier did ask and have been given half the story (as he has been released, but only after talks with County).

So after all that, we're not really any further forward... but on balance I reckon we've probably paid a small fee to Odense.

[Spain]

^^^ Just ask Alasdair.

[CountyFan]

2 hours ago, Forfinn said:

On the subject of Thomas Mikkelsen, I've turned my sleuthing skills to trying to work out what, if anything, we paid for him.

Most Scottish media outlets have avoided the issue entirely, just using County's Spartan press release and adding in a bit about his spell at Dundee Utd.  Notable exceptions are STV who said he "joins the Highlanders following his release from Danish side Odense at the end of last season" and The Courier who reported he was "released by Danish side Odense".

So assuming that STV and the Courier aren't just making assumptions, that all points to him being a free agent.  However, having run the article from the official Odense website through both Google and Microsoft translators to get something intelligible, it appears his contract has been terminated after discussions with Ross County.  Given there's been direct contact between the two clubs, it's probably reasonable to assume there's some compensation involved, even though Odense don't mention it.

The Twitter chatter from Odense fans suggests they don't expect it to have been much more than his remaining salary costs and speculate it was around 500k Danish Krone (£59k).  So that's pretty much all we've got to go on.

The question I have is, why am I having to do this digging?  I think the club should have included something in their press release about whether he was a free agent, or if a fee was involved (even if it was just "undisclosed"), but that's their prerogative.  Why, though, are journalists not following this up?  It's an obvious question, but most outlets have left it out entirely, presumably because they don't care enough to go to the extra effort to ask.  Either that or the club are refusing to answer.  Unless STV and the Courier did ask and have been given half the story (as he has been released, but only after talks with County).

So after all that, we're not really any further forward... but on balance I reckon we've probably paid a small fee to Odense.

If I was a Scottish football journalist at the moment with the stories surrounding some of the other sides I wouldn't be doing that much digging either. 

Does anyone actually care anyway? It's marginal gains. Die hard county fans would read the article but nobody else gives a flying f**k.

[Matty-RCFC]

Starting Lineup for County :
Fox
Naismith
Kelly
Davies
Van der Weg
Dow
Lindsay
Chow
Gardyne
Schalk
Mikkelsen

Subs:
Fraser
Malcolm
Tumilty
Dykes
Keillor-Dunn
Herron (T)
Morrison
Maciver
Dingwall
McCarey
Routis

[Matty-RCFC]

1-0 County Schalk

[Matty-RCFC]

1-1 Horrible defending apparently

[Matty-RCFC]

2-1 Valenciennes

[Matty-RCFC]

Full time 2-1

[Jayhawks]

Not fussed about the result, just hope we had a good injury free work out. Would love to have the addition of an Ali Crawford type midfielder, a winger who can deliver quick ball and where o where is Jim o' Brien.

[frankthetank22]

13 hours ago, RossCountyFan14 said:

£80k bid for Draper rejected, wonder what the price will go up to

You have a believe that Draper has been sounded out about this and he's keen on the move, otherwise things wouldn't be at this stage.

What's the options for ict, deny their top earner a move to a top flight team that would mean his wife and kids wouldn't need to uproot. That's a dangerous opinion to take, as if his desire to perform for ict diminishes they're left with an unhappy top earner!

I'd say the ball is in his court, if he wants the move he needs to make it clear to ict, if not he can stay in the Championship and we'll pursue other younger options.