Imrie to Raith

[Ferguson]

7 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

I really don't think he has. For Alloa's squad and likely budget to be consistently below Stenhousemuir in the same division, and for them to pose no serious challenge for promotion are both signs of underperformance. If Graham didn't have a Morton background he wouldn't even remotely be in the conversation right now. 

Probably a bit harsh, they go 2nd if they win their game in hand and won every game in their league cup group. Granted, the only time I’ve watched them was the last 16 game at Ibrox. Decent performance from them that day. We could do far worse.

[Charles_Joe]

Two words. 
Raja Maki

[dunning1874]

11 minutes ago, vikingTON said:

I really don't think he has. For Alloa's squad and likely budget to be consistently below Stenhousemuir in the same division, and for them to pose no serious challenge for promotion are both signs of underperformance. If Graham didn't have a Morton background he wouldn't even remotely be in the conversation right now. 

Yeah, his start to this season is impressive but doing well over 14 games of this season so far doesn't outweigh his failure to make the playoffs last season, which saw some Alloa fans calling for him to be sacked. Naysmith has done the most impressive job of any League One manager, but that's set against his previous failure at Queen of the South: has he learned from that and became a better manager who now deserves another shot at full-time, or is he just better suited to part-time football? Either way, I don't think we're the club who should be taking that gamble.

The only manager in the leagues below who has done an Imrie style job in consistently outperforming his budget and improving unfancied players is Michael McIndoe. Maybe he wouldn't want it, maybe he's also better suited to part-time football, but he's the gamble that actually has some evidence of having the skills needed to be Morton manager.

[irnbru]

2 hours ago, DumfriesTon said:

Surprisingly not as gutted as I would have been this time last year. It feels this season it has gone a bit stale and probably for the best he’s away, seeing as it seems he’s applied for every job going. 

No idea if Davies will be any good but would assume he will be in charge for the foreseeable. 

Aye, same here. Easy to forget how good some games and spells have been and he's brought a lot of positivity to the club and got the fans onside. 

Davies is probably as good as we could hope for in the short term. Not convinced about him as a permanent manager given his time out the game but would be more confident with him being involved in the recruitment than just the board. 

[Hej]

33 minutes ago, GiGi said:

Usually if a business pays towards qualifications for an employee it comes with the caveat that if they leave within a certain timeframe that some/all of the amount is to be paid back. 

I would hope we have something sensible like that in place if we've paid for coaching licences. 

This is Morton we're talking about. it's been about 6 months since we were embargo'd by FIFA for forgetting to get the email passwords off a departed employeeThe odds of anyone at the club has having the foresight and proactivity to arrange that seem low...

Edited November 25, 2025 by Hej

[Jamie_M]

 

[Drew Busby's Moustache]

The first person to suggest Tidser can get in the sea without a lifebelt.

[dunning1874]

3 minutes ago, Drew Busby's Moustache said:

The first person to suggest Tidser can get in the sea without a lifebelt.

He should obviously be nowhere near the job, but the worry is that the Chairman used to be his agent. Are we going to get a total jobs for the boys scenario?

[SpoonTon]

"The club will begin internal discussions regarding the next steps in the coming days."

What does this mean?

Edited November 25, 2025 by SpoonTon

[Rossco]

8 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

"The club will begin internal discussions regarding the next steps in the coming days."

What does this mean?

They will ask Billy if he wants it permanently if not they explore external candidates is what I take from it.

[SpoonTon]

5 minutes ago, Rossco said:

They will ask Billy if he wants it permanently if not they explore external candidates is what I take from it.

I'm guessing the same. It was interesting that the article earlier, which got the rest of the details correct, started that it wasn't likely that he'd take the job full time. This makes it sound like we don't know if he'd take it, or he hasn't yet indicated a willingness to, but we'd hope to convince him. Either that or we have someone else in mind rather than looking for applications. 

[GiGi]

12 minutes ago, dunning1874 said:

He should obviously be nowhere near the job, but the worry is that the Chairman used to be his agent. Are we going to get a total jobs for the boys scenario?

If that were the case, and there's nothing so far to say it is, we'd need to appoint a chairman who can pass fit and proper checks for directorship and without the clear conflicts of interest. 

As far as I know John Laird is not a director of GMFC and I'm still uncomfortable about that. 

[Deego]

Who makes the decision on the new appointment? Who really has the final say?

[Hej]

28 minutes ago, SpoonTon said:

"The club will begin internal discussions regarding the next steps in the coming days."

What does this mean?

That they're going to pretend to have a recruitment process but actually they're going to just give the job to Davies.

[HamCam]

Not the ideal time to be looking for a new manager. Most of the names in the frame are uninspiring. Davies should only be the short term option. Off to rewrite my Santa list to see if Pep wants a fresh challenge.

[Greacen2000]

Sad to see Imrie leave albeit strangely not as gutted as I was when I thought he was going to partick.  It felt like the writing was on the wall from the time that we got rid of Millen, and the fact he is taking him to raith tells its own story about how he felt about that situation.

He really was a breath of fresh air and gave the whole club a lift from the moment he came in.  His work ethic, attitude & the standards he set were exactly what we needed at that time.  He pulled us up by the bootstraps and for that I will always be grateful.  He has also shown an amazing knack of improving players.  That said, for every Oakley, Muirhead & Blues there's been a Broadfoot, McGinn, Ally Roy and JET so across the piece he has done plenty of poor transfer business too(not least with the imbalanced squad he has built for this season).  Without knowing exactly what went on with regards to Lewis Strapp, it also seems like  he might have let personality/ego get in the way of what was best for the team on that occasion so his tenure hasn't been without its flaws.

It does seem strange he is choosing to go to raith after knocking back partick, which on the face of it looks like a bigger job as well as being more local.  I can only assume he didn't fancy being a "head coach" working under barraclough and has maybe been told he is getting a bit more autonomy at raith?  For all that their fans seem unexcited by the appointment I actually think he could do pretty well there.  They have some talented players who are definitely performing below their level - I am sure Imrie will fancy himself to get more out of the squad than their last couple of managers have.

Looking forwards, it was always going to be Davies taking charge & I fully expect that to remain the case for the rest of the season.  Yes, he has been out of management for more than a decade but his record at Preston, Derby & the first spell at Forest is pretty great, and during that time it looked like he was destined for bigger things.  From what I have heard it was non-footballing issues that held him back, with him behaving pretty strangely and coming across as a bit of a prck on several occasions.  Hopefully this side of his character has mellowed a bit with age but he still has something to offer as a manager.  If that is the case then he could end up surprising a few people.  Athough Imrie voiced his support at the time of Davies appointment I always thought they seemed like strange bedfellows - both very strong & stubborn characters who I found it hard to imagine working together harmoniously.  To that end, I expect us to get a lot more value out of Davies as acting/interim manager than we did as "technical head coach".

 

Edited November 25, 2025 by Greacen2000

[vikingTON]

1 hour ago, Ferguson said:

Probably a bit harsh, they go 2nd if they win their game in hand and won every game in their league cup group. Granted, the only time I’ve watched them was the last 16 game at Ibrox. Decent performance from them that day. We could do far worse.

They could go 2nd in a division with multiple points deductions involved, having failed to do anything of note under similar circumstances last season. The only thing Graham can point to at this stage in his management career is that he's not one of the parade of donkeys managing Queen of the South to a more obvious underachievement. 

I'm not saying he'll never be a good manager, but there's nothing on a CV to merit a step up. 

[Chicken_Soup]

Feel quite happy to have an experienced interim manager, especially one who’s already at the club and familiar with the team. Most of the time in these circumstances it would be some random member of the backroom staff, a youth coach or a senior player. 

[ConTon74]

21 minutes ago, HamCam said:

Not the ideal time to be looking for a new manager. Most of the names in the frame are uninspiring. Davies should only be the short term option. Off to rewrite my Santa list to see if Pep wants a fresh challenge.

No thanks he’s already ruined football as it is 

[Brian Skelton]

What about John Rankin at Hamilton he has being doing a good job there under trying circumstances.