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It's maybe a bit unfair to make that point now, considering we're posting on a thread about our players that are out on loan and the majority of the youth squad are now being sent out elsewhere to get development time. If you want to point the finger, I think the guy who's just taken Campbell on loan is the one who should be on the end of it. I've no argument that he failed the youth players (and the club) in this regard.

Any business whether a football team or a garage is entitled to hire a rapist to represent them. Just as the customers, sponsors, suppliers and employees of any business are entitled to revoke their association with any business that has a rapist representing them. He should be allowed to play for Raith Rovers in the same way everyone should be allowed to boycott the fuck out of Raith Rovers if he does. He may have settled the debt he was ordered to pay by the court but he hasn’t settled his debt with society. Fuck him.

I completely agree that our approach to youth development is hopeless, at least when the youngsters reach the fringes of the first team at any rate. There is a slightly less cynical view that the club aren't just paying lip service to committing to youth but they're actually just hopeless at it. If a kid isn't going to be in the team or match day squad by a certain age, but you want to hang on to them, then it's got to be a loan at that point. But that requires clubs to take a proper long-term view and I'm not sure we've been that kind of club for a long, long time.

I agree with this - something as a club we should never have entertained and as a fan that we should have been mortified about

Ok, I’m not convinced Rico. Tell that to the guy who Gallagher battered with a baseball bat who had a bleeding brain and 20 odd staples to fix his head wounds. It’s like arguing whether paedos or murderers are worse, there’s no real point. Why it is ok for Gallagher to represent Scotland and the Dons but Goodwillie gets it in the neck over signing for Raith is beyond me. Both are total animals, just monsters.

That's not clear from what you've written at all. It's a very strange thing to pick up on too. It's a weird angle to take on rape. It's a crime that's second only to child molestation, but you seem to be concerned about the level of outrage. I could understand if you were saying that you're encouraged that more people in society are now outraged by two guys escorting a paralytic girl from a night club, telling concerned bouncers that they were taking her to the hospital, before taking her to a friend's flat before - both - raping her and leaving her naked and alone in the empty building, but you're not. For some bizarre reason, you're charting the trajectory of outrage over time.

Surely that's a good thing? I mean, aside from the blatantly obvious fucking reasons that signing for full-time Raith might provoke more of a reaction than signing for a part-time side bottom of the spfl at the time, that a world famous writer removing their sponsorship might turn a few heads that might otherwise not have heard of Goodwillie before, if society is recognising rape in a more serious and unforgiving light is that regression or progression in your eyes? There's no fucking bandwagon here, just greater publicity for something that people are fairly disgusted by. But let's not overlook the fact that plenty were outraged when he joined Clyde, as a basic Google search would show. Plenty of Clyde fans chose not to follow the club anymore. Rape crisis Scotland (think that's what they're called) were just as outraged as they are now.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course and what Goodwillie did was awful. For me, the issue this brings is how bad does the crime have to be before you are no longer allowed to do your job again? Is what Goodwillie did deemed to be worse than what Declan Gallagher did, which he spent three years inside for? Yet, Gallagher plays in our first team and has been capped for Scotland in recent months. Just playing devils advocate here but supposing he was a car mechanic, should he never be allowed to be a mechanic again? Gazza allegedly beat up his wife yet is widely acclaimed. Just for curiosity, I was searching for a Goodwillie thread on this site last night to gauge the feel for when he was our player and seems a number of our fans were quite happy to have him at the beginning so none of us should get too high and mighty over this one.

The problem is that they're only reversing the decision because people withdrew their support. Their statement directly contradicts everything they said 24 hours before, with zero explanation. We're sorry that you're upset is basically what they're saying. They'll get away with it too. Resigning should be the only course of action for the directors and manager, who were told in advance what the consequences would be. The Raith fans who withdrew their support can't back down now. As an aside, this is why I don't want us having a sugar daddy rich cunt ploughing his money into AFC. The fans of Raith put together £100k+ (from memory, I think they did anyway!) at the beginning of the pandemic to help fund the club (plus they have a player development fund). They got nothing in return. If those funds had been treated, correctly, as an investment - just like it would be if it was a wealthy business person putting in a lump sum - then they would have had a big say in this transfer. It's precisely the reason I'll never give money to the Aber DNA pish. If you're still giving money to this type of scheme/scam, then don't be surprised when AFC fuck you over in much the same way (like when Milne sided with the Tims in the voting structure). Those funds should return a shareholding and a say.

No. If we're not scoring with Ramirez up front, then it's unlikely to be any different with Anderson, they're similar players. I think Ramirez is better, although I think Anderson would have been fine as our main striker too. I completely understand the thought process behind the Jet move. He is a totally different type of player to Ramirez and should have allowed us to completely change tactics during a game. That he's pish and unfit is obviously the main problem there. On our budget, I don't think we can waste two wages on a Ramirez/Anderson type, with one simply replacing the other without anything else changing. We haven't had anyone that can offer something different from the bench since Magennis left. If the question had been, would you have been happy with Anderson as number 9 this season with the Ramirez money spent on a good number 10, I'd have said yes. That's not a criticism of Ramirez, just I don't think we've significantly benefited from having him up front, or certainly not got the best out of him. It's much like me playing golf this morning with my relatively expensive irons. Ramirez is like the brain that we only ever use ten percent of. Just as I could get by just as well with half price irons, the dons would have been just as fine with Anderson. If I get those golf lessons, or the dons get a good number 10, then we'll really start to see the benefit of buying a more expensive tool (no offence, Christian).