After counties defeat today against Hamilton could we have derbies again next season?

Uncle Roy cutting it a bit fine this year given that we’re into March. We sacked Brewster in early January and even the improvement in form under Butcher wasn’t enough. You wonder who he’s got lined up to take on the job of getting 3 points off PTFC on Saturday to lift them off the bottom. Otherwise the interview process would waste another couple of weeks with only 10 matches left. I don’t see them getting higher than 11th place but that would probably save them.

Roy may just sail along to the end of the season with a big temporary appointment hoping it`ll do the trick.

But hey whats the problem if they go down, they`ll be straight back up wont they. with their financial backer

Their press release is ''BREAKING NEWS | Ross County Football Club would like to announce that First Team Manager, Owen Coyle, has resigned from his post. He and Assistant Manager, Sandy Stewart, have left the club with immediate effect.

Owen Coyle said: “Myself and the Chairman had a chat on Monday and after some reflective thought I felt for the good of Ross County - and the challenging situation with my family being in England - it was in everyone’s best interests for me to offer my resignation which the Chairman duly accepted.”

Speaking about Coyle's resignation, Chairman, Roy MacGregor, said: “We thank Owen and Sandy for their time at Ross County Football Club and wish them well for the future.” ''

 

Not exactly much to thank Coyle for especially given his apparent mega salary. The club clearly did not think his challenging family situation was a problem when they replaced Jim Mac. Meanwhile Derek Adams has Plymouth making further progress.  So who can save County? Whilst some supporters look forward to possible derbies next year I have to say the impact of County's possible relegation is not good for Highland football overall. 

The bookies have Stuart Kettlewell as hot favourite.  As manager of County's development squad he will be well known to the team and seems to have done a pretty decent job.  It would be a bit of a gamble promoting him to 1st team manager but far less of a gamble than us appointing Foran.  If the players are keen to see Kettlewell take on the role then that might be the spark to get them playing as a unit.  John Hughes is 3-1.  Uncle Roy obviously got it wrong with Coyle, so maybe is losing his touch.  If so, he just might be daft enough to appoint Yogi.

Sounds like County have reached a crossroads. Do they continue to be Gretna 2.0, assembling a team of expensive mercenaries on short term / loan contracts every season. Or do they go with Kettlewell - a County man with a focus on youth development and long term sustainability. They may as well go for the latter. With Rangers, Hibs and Hearts now all back in the top league and performing well, the odds of County challenging at the top end of the table are virtually zero. The window of opportunity has closed for now. Why spend a fortune to finish 10th? What's the point of winning the Scottish development league if the players don't get promoted to the first team?

16 minutes ago, AlexJones said:

Sounds like County have reached a crossroads. Do they continue to be Gretna 2.0, assembling a team of expensive mercenaries on short term / loan contracts every season. Or do they go with Kettlewell - a County man with a focus on youth development and long term sustainability. They may as well go for the latter. With Rangers, Hibs and Hearts now all back in the top league and performing well, the odds of County challenging at the top end of the table are virtually zero. The window of opportunity has closed for now. Why spend a fortune to finish 10th? What's the point of winning the Scottish development league if the players don't get promoted to the first team?

I don't think the comparison with Gretna is completely accurate for one or two reasons. Firstly, I would give Roy MacGregor credit for a lot more savvy than Brooks Mileson and, although I agree that if Roy's assistance were suddenly to disappear, County would be in serious trouble. On the other hand Gretna was a total house of cards which rapidly expanded from nothing at the instigation of a guy who was clearly completely bizarre, surviving on 60 a day, chips and Lucozade, but who, for some reason, managed to con the media wholesale into believing in him. I also think that Ross County have a lot more fundamental substance as a football club than Gretna ever had.

If Stuart Kettlewell does get the job, then this would create an interesting parallel with the Rangers situation.

The thought of Yogi is an interesting one, given that this would then become a combination of a manager who has a track record for wheedling money out of chairmen for less than convincing signings and a chairman renowned for his capacity to sustain twice yearly signing bonanzas.

One other option may be what County did in 2011 on the departure of Willie McStay - the interim appointment of a well paid safe pair of hands (in that instance Jimmy Calderwood) to achieve safety before making a permanent appointment for the next season (in that instance Derek Adams). It's currently about three weeks later in the season than the corresponding time in 2011.

Edited March 1, 20188 yr by Charles Bannerman

County sacked Adams to become more community orientated. Look at them now. They have and always be a bunch of mercenaries with little care for the community. The development team was hugely successful last season but Roy panicks on a almost 6 monthly basis and relies on short term responses to survive in the top league. Who wants the county job now? I would suprise if there are any decent candidates bar the desperados

Even at Development level Ross County's success is "bought".  Last season's team was largely shipped in and not developed by them at all.

Who feckin cares - apart from Uncle Roy and his wee pal Charlie.

On 24/02/2018 at 6:45 PM, Caman said:

More likely to keep his job than Owen Coyle. 

That proved to be a very accurate prediction, Caman!

After today, it's looking increasingly likely that we will be facing County in the league next season.

The SPFL ?

29 minutes ago, Ten4 said:

The SPFL ?

The national league system is the SPFL (Scottish Professional Football League)

If you are asking which division then my answer is the Championship.

County have 21 points from 29 games. At the same stage last year, with a rookie manager way out of his depth and a terrible injury list, we had 24!

On 10/03/2018 at 9:26 PM, Yngwie said:

County have 21 points from 29 games. At the same stage last year, with a rookie manager way out of his depth and a terrible injury list, we had 24!

Dross County = 'Forever in our shadow' 

Edited March 11, 20188 yr by Guest

Having watched Sportscene last night i think County will avoid the drop by the skin of their teeth its looking more likely Dundee will drop down their defending on saturday was terrible Meekings in particular had an awful game and they did just avoid the drop last year beacause they did what  we did not they changed the manager 

3 hours ago, Polo Chick said:

Having watched Sportscene last night i think County will avoid the drop by the skin of their teeth its looking more likely Dundee will drop down their defending on saturday was terrible Meekings in particular had an awful game and they did just avoid the drop last year beacause they did what  we did not they changed the manager 

So what now? Re-name this thread "Dundee Derbies Next Season"??

There's actually a serious message here - if Dundee is not that far from having no teams in the Premiership, what price the inner Moray Firth? Edinburgh didn't cover itself in glory fairly recently either. 

Just ruined your own arguement. Apparently inner moray firth can't cope with 2 professional clubs. Currently Dundee, it was Edinburgh. What next, what's the point, let's just leave it to Celtic and the new team from Glasgow?

Pretty sure County will finish bottom. They have the cursed Billy Mckay. Plus they are very poor. 

40 minutes ago, Stirling Observer said:

Just ruined your own arguement. Apparently inner moray firth can't cope with 2 professional clubs. Currently Dundee, it was Edinburgh. What next, what's the point, let's just leave it to Celtic and the new team from Glasgow?

Regrettably, your pay-off line there is the key to the entire scenario. Celtic and "the new team from Glasgow" are hoovering up so much of Scotland's football cash that precious little is left for the rest, and Celtic's "European munificence" is really only p!ssing into the wind in return.

This two club hegemony further marginalises already marginal areas like the Highlands. Hence ICT, despite considerable financial assistance over the years, has passed the limit of punching above its weight while County, despite what's very likely a much greater level of subsidy, are now also finding their Premiership future in severe jeopardy.

In fact, if you look at the attendance figures alone, last season the Old Firm accounted for 62% of the total Premiership gate while the two Highland clubs had just 4.7%.

If, even adding in the lower leagues, just two clubs are accounting for such a disproportionate amount of Scottish football's turnover, then that really doesn't leave much for the rest

Cool. Just hand the Scottish cup back then and fold. Scotland needs clubs spread all over the country to give opportunities for youngsters to access games. What we need is for the MSM to stop filling their shows with ex old firm players who live round the corner who peddle the same myths about how important and great the old firm are. I must prefer listening to a balanced discussion/piece on Scottish football by  ex players who have no association with either old firm club, the difference is shockingly obvious. 

1 hour ago, Stirling Observer said:

What we need is for the MSM to stop filling their shows with ex old firm players who live round the corner who peddle the same myths about how important and great the old firm are.

Once again you put your finger on an unfortunate symptom of the fundamental problem - which is the Old Firm. They are of such a size and have become established/ imposed themselves on Scottish society to such an extent that they also have the media running after them - which in turn only compounds the problem. Some of the toe-curling sycophancy I've seen towards OF managers at post-match media gatherings beggars belief.

It all keeps coming back to that root cause of Scotland's failure, after 500 years, to come to terms with the Reformation. This has led to the continuation of rival religious groupings which have in turn adopted two football clubs as their focal points. The resulting clout these clubs receive has made them magnets also for much of the rest of the population Aided and abetted in addition by the media and the football governing bodies giving them what they want, this leaves scant pickings for the rest of the clubs - especially in economically marginal areas like the Highlands which have been attempting to sustain two upper flight clubs in a situation loaded against that.

57 minutes ago, Charles Bannerman said:

It all keeps coming back to that root cause of Scotland's failure, after 500 years, to come to terms with the Reformation. This has led to the continuation of rival religious groupings which have in turn adopted two football clubs as their focal points. The resulting clout these clubs receive has made them magnets also for much of the rest of the population Aided and abetted in addition by the media and the football governing bodies giving them what they want, this leaves scant pickings for the rest of the clubs - especially in economically marginal areas like the Highlands which have been attempting to sustain two upper flight clubs in a situation loaded against that.

So, if we can just get the message across that God doesn’t actually exist, that would be the problem solved!

Top marks, Charles, for getting the reformation into a thread about Highland derbies!

1 hour ago, Charles Bannerman said:

It all keeps coming back to that root cause of Scotland's failure, after 500 years, to come to terms with the Reformation.

Aye, that Martin Luther, just a trouble-maker.    If it wasn't for him, then the Highlands would today be able to support two top-flight football teams.

I'm no more a historian than Charles, but I thought that the Reformation went fairly smoothly in Scotland, with Presbyterianism gaining the upper hand quite quickly. It was the influx of Irish Catholic immigrants into Glasgow about 300 years later which kicked off the sectarianism that we still have today. Rangers and Celtic were formed in the midst of this, at a time when Glasgow was by far the most populous and powerful city in Scotland - the "second city of the British Empire" - so it's hardly a surprise that they came to dominate the scene.