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Richie Foran Has Left The Building


Renegade

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Despite my desperation for this outcome, it isn't possible to celebrate it now that it has become a reality. On a human level, a guy who loved the club with every fibre of his being has lost his job and deserves our sympathy. If only he'd been offered/accepted help from an experienced head several months ago, the outcome woild have been different, I am sure. If he walked for the good of the club, then respect to him... I wish him well wherever he goes.

From the football perspective, this was the right outcome, if a few months too late. Let's hope the damage is not totally irreversible.

Now we need to act fast to get the right person in to settle the squad and give us a pop at promotion. I have no idea who that might be, but experience must be top of the shopping list. Fingers crossed that the Board get this appointment right.

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Of course you have to feel for him on a personal level. No doubt he had great dreams of establishing himself as a great ICT manager, and it must be painful to accept the reality. However, time is the healer, and I hope he finds something where he will prosper. But it had to happen, he backed himself into a corner and there was no realistic prospect, or indeed evidence, that he could get the club and himself out of it. It was always too much too soon for him. Maybe he will feel a relief at the pressure being taken off him - management is unbelievably stressful, and the last months can't have been much fun.

I have no doubt the board were also cognisant of the fans' views on the matter, which was almost universal, and it would have been next to impossible to carry on with such opposition, liable to spill over into an unpleasant and uncomfortable atmosphere. 

But now we can look forward to what was always necessary - a clean break, with new faces, and some real optimism and hope for next season. We made some terrible mistakes last season, but we have the core of a great club, with a great, if short, tradition. There is no reason we can't regain that and get back to where we were. What a relief.

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Having not been in this situation myself previously, what is the likely cost of a season ticket going to be next season? I was 300 last year and struggled with work to get to quite a few of the games but I'd still be prepared to pay assuming it's not as much as that 

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Having been an RF critic, its a sad situation and being honest I had started to accept his staying. Reality is he should have left when we lost 3-0 away to Hamilton in that bottom of the table clash and we were rotten, the last few games this season showed the team can play and fight. With the experience from this season I think RF would have learned a lot and with the right support could have taken us back up.

Leaving or sacking now is just pointless - yes we can bring in a new man and new ideas for next year but we are in a position where there is potential free or contract expiring players who we should be looking at and trying to sign, instead we are now after a manager and will be on the back foot to build for next year with possible targets being missed and worst case signed by direct opponents. .

I'm sure most will disagree and be happy he has gone but its yet another poor timed and handled situation by the club for me.

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A great player for us but out of his depth as manager it just didn't work out!  I hope he finds a job outwith football which may be the best thing for him.

I hope Brian Rice has gone as well!

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Thought we were going to leave it too late for a second....now to catch Hamilton!

Seriously though, it would be great if he either became the club ambassador at some point (if finances later allow) or he takes over at a Highland League club, learns well and comes back as an all-conquering manager. Unlikely but not impossible.

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I am still somewhat bemused or indeed confused. Kenny Cameron's resignation was announced last Monday and Willie Finlayson was unveiled as his successor much less than 24 hours later. This is followed by six days of complete silence during which it emerges that Richie Foran was personally hiring and firing players as late as Friday, hence heightening expectations that he would be staying on. Then, in another strangely timed late-Monday announcement, it emerges that Richie is leaving.

What if the new manager doesn't fancy players who have been kept on or would have liked to retain players who have been let go?

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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I thought they were contracted to 31 May and the transfer window opens on the 1 June but I might be wrong on that and there has been no word of players being released or signed up.

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29 minutes ago, starchief said:

Thought we were going to leave it too late for a second....now to catch Hamilton!

Seriously though, it would be great if he either became the club ambassador at some point (if finances later allow) or he takes over at a Highland League club, learns well and comes back as an all-conquering manager. Unlikely but not impossible.

Why not indeed? CC stayed with the club after standing down from the dugout (although I realise the circumstances are totally different - but there IS a precedence).

I wouldn't be against RF having some involvment with the club in the future - a legend as a player, will always be gutted for Richie that it didn't work out for him as manager..

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Not an outcome any of us wanted or can be happy about, yet the right one all the same. I'm surprised, though - I thought he was staying put.

 

Worried now about the replacement. Will the board dither about that as they did while we were slowly and agonisingly getting relegated?

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14 minutes ago, jingsmonty said:

Why not indeed? CC stayed with the club after standing down from the dugout (although I realise the circumstances are totally different - but there IS a precedence).

I wouldn't be against RF having some involvment with the club in the future - a legend as a player, will always be gutted for Richie that it didn't work out for him as manager..

Indeed why not? :smile: OK we have to accept that his appointment as a manager didn't work although I have already likened that to suddenly promoting a trainee teacher to the Headmaster's job well before his time to save a few bucks after the previous Headmaster fell out with the Director of Education. He wasn't ready for it, but Richie's contribution as a player puts him right up there with the likes of (no order of preference) Dennis Wyness, Iain Stewart, Barry Wilson, Charlie Christie, Grant Munro, Ross Tokely and one or two others. As such, that makes Richie's status as a club legend more or less impregnable, irrespective of subsequent events, for which I do not believe he was solely responsible. After all, not even Mrs Mann caused Bobby to lose such an accolade!! :lol:

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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Even though he was a poor manager, yesterday marks the end of a club legend after eight years.  I think he deserved better than about five sentences in a statement written in English so poor that even a P7 could write better.

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12 hours ago, bdu98196 said:

Having been an RF critic, its a sad situation and being honest I had started to accept his staying. Reality is he should have left when we lost 3-0 away to Hamilton in that bottom of the table clash and we were rotten, the last few games this season showed the team can play and fight. With the experience from this season I think RF would have learned a lot and with the right support could have taken us back up.

Agree he should have left after that Hamilton game but I don't think we can read too much into the last few games. We were playing against sides with nothing to play for. Maybe this seasons experience could have helped for a season in the Championship but we simply have to get back to the Premiership. Within reason I don't care who is in charge so long as we get back up but I can't say with certainty that it Foran would have delivered promotion.

1 hour ago, Renegade said:

Even though he was a poor manager, yesterday marks the end of a club legend after eight years.  I think he deserved better than about five sentences in a statement written in English so poor that even a P7 could write better.

Good point. It wasn't just his time as a manager coming to an end, it could well have been the end of his time at ICT and he barely got any real acknowledgement of that. Shame.

As sad as it is to see him go it's the right choice.

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Regarding the wording of the statement, did people notice that Foran has not actually left the club? He has merely vacated the position of manager, which strongly implies that he remains an employee and will continue to be on the payroll. 

I'm not suggesting that he'll be given a different role, it's more likely that he'll be on gardening leave until he gets another job (similar to Hughes?). 

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9 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

 

.........I'm not suggesting that he'll be given a different role, it's more likely that he'll be on gardening leave until he gets another job (similar to Hughes?). 

I don't suppose we will ever know the terms of his "compensation" package.  Without meaning to sound to cruel, I hope the terms don't include "until he gets another job", as realistically, I don't see clubs rushing to give Richie another go as manager.  But, I hope he gets a fair pay off, and, as others have said, I wish him well for the future.

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18 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Regarding the wording of the statement, did people notice that Foran has not actually left the club? He has merely vacated the position of manager, which strongly implies that he remains an employee and will continue to be on the payroll. 

I'm not suggesting that he'll be given a different role, it's more likely that he'll be on gardening leave until he gets another job (similar to Hughes?). 

Not the first time a quite ambiguous statement has been released regarding our manager...

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I think we should've sacked him in January, or at least in April when it became clear that we were looking certain to go down.  But when we kept him it seemed as though the board had decided to persevere and keep going, thinking the experience would make Foran a better manager.  I don't agree that it would've but fair enough, it's at least a plan.  To sack him now?  It seems to fly in the face of any plan.

One reason why the club has enjoyed success in the past few decades is how we've managed changes in manager.  We've suffered from losing managers to bigger, richer clubs but we've used that to help develop the club and improve.  When Paterson left, we got money for him and recruited probably the most promising young coach in Scotland at that time and gave him a settled, excellent squad to work with.  When Robertson left we got money for him and were able to bring in Brewster, who had success in his first time at the club and improved the professionalism of the players.  Between then we had a few shakier managerial spots but then when Butcher came in we had someone who clearly had a plan for rebuilding and used his pull and influence to reshape the club for the top flight.  When Butcher left, we appointed Hughes, who got a great squad sitting second in the league and helped develop them into the best season our club has ever had, and likely ever will have.  The common factor is that we knew when to let a manager go, we knew how to recruit a replacement and we used these scenarios to advance the club.

When Dundee United came in for Hughes last season we should've let him go.  We should've taken compensation and allowed him to leave - it was clear that we were stagnating, that Hughes' signings were dross but we also had a better squad and would've been an attractive prospect for a manager.  As it stands, I think our board decided to stand too firm against United, ended up falling out with Hughes and put us in the position of costing us money and trying to build Foran as manager on the cheap.  It hasn't worked and we're now down and Foran has had his managerial career sacrificed for it.  It's a sad indictment of the management of the club at all levels.  What's vital now, though, is that we appoint someone solid and who can get us into a position to challenge to go back up, as well as moving the club forward.  Not someone who's a complete throw of the dice but equally not some dreary conveyer belt Scottish manager from the 'Jobs For The Boys' school.

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14 hours ago, PerfICT said:

Despite my desperation for this outcome, it isn't possible to celebrate it now that it has become a reality. On a human level, a guy who loved the club with every fibre of his being has lost his job and deserves our sympathy. If only he'd been offered/accepted help from an experienced head several months ago, the outcome woild have been different, I am sure. If he walked for the good of the club, then respect to him... I wish him well wherever he goes.

From the football perspective, this was the right outcome, if a few months too late. Let's hope the damage is not totally irreversible.

Now we need to act fast to get the right person in to settle the squad and give us a pop at promotion. I have no idea who that might be, but experience must be top of the shopping list. Fingers crossed that the Board get this appointment right.

I think you have said it best perfICT. I have a lot of respect for Richie and disappointed his first foray into managment has ended so poorly. 

All the best RF.

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