The departure of Rovers manager Kevin Harper was pretty much a bolt from the blue and will no doubt leave fans somewhat perplexed at the motivations of both parties.
The official line is that terms could not be agreed, but it’s not easy to see what other options were open to both parties given the current situation.
Rovers are not awash with cash at the best of times and I would be surprised if Kevin has an abundance of alternative offers, but as ever in football, we will probably never know the full story.
What can’t be disputed though is that Kevin Harper will be remembered fondly at Cliftonhill for last season’s Great Escape – a superb achievement albeit one that cannot be ranked with the promotion and Championship winning seasons of recent times.
He will be less fondly remembered for the subsequent aborted season where he failed to push on from that success and get Rovers competing at the right end of the table.
It’s difficult to exactly pin down what went wrong but it seemed to me that all was not well with the playing staff.
How could a player like Smart Osadolor, who practically saved us last season, be so ineffectual that he ended up being unloaded to Elgin City part way through the season?
To be fair to the manager, I do think that we would have avoided bottom spot had the season concluded and that would have been seen in some quarters as job done.
I also believe that the squad we had showed that it was capable of more and ultimately didn’t show it enough.
So now Rovers must embark on a search for a new manager.
With so much uncertainty over the future of football and indeed the club itself, this will be no easy task.
Maybe one thing in our favour is that there is no need to rush to make an appointment as I don’t see how lower league football can possibly resume on schedule for season 2020-21.
I would like to see Rovers look for a young manager with recent playing experience and perhaps even some prior connection with the club. Maybe someone from the successful Rovers teams of 2010-11 or 2014-15 is looking to make his first steps into management!
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