Blog: EXCLUSIVE: ‘Brexit’s done us no favours’ – Ian Murray’s ‘waiting game’ on Raith Rovers new signing – The Courier

Raith Rovers are still working hard to add a new signing with the deal currently being held up due to “work permit-related” issues.

Manager Ian Murray has made no secret of his desire to bring in a striker before the loan and free transfer deadline passes at the end of the month.

The player – whose identity Murray remains tight-lipped about – will not be added ahead of this weekend’s match versus top-of-the-table Ayr United.

Murray is expecting a “very hard game” against Lee Bullen’s side who are unbeaten so far in the Scottish Championship.

Lee Bullen took charge of Ayr United for the first time.
Ayr United boss Lee Bullen is unbeaten in the league this season.

The Raith boss recalled one of their matches he took in earlier in the season when they hosted Queen’s Park.

Zeroes to heroes

He said: “It was game two of the season, they’re 2-0 down at half-time getting booed off the park – fans screaming at the manager and staff and the players.

“They win that game 3-2, they’re top of the league and they’re jumping about and dancing, ” he laughs.

“I’m sure Lee, with his experience, will be keeping his players very, very calm.

“The week off last week probably does help them because of the momentum and to gather more momentum.

“We expect a stern test but we also know that we can cause them problems.”

Brexit woes

The Rovers manager hopes to know a lot more in the seven days about his potential new recruit.

Last week Murray said the club was “working hard”.

Asked today by Courier Sport if the club was any further forward, he added: “Not at the moment.

“People can probably guess that it’s not a straightforward one, so we have to wait.

“It’s outwith the club’s control, it’s the powers that be that we have to wait on.

Ian Murray is having to be patient.

“It’s a waiting game. We’re very hopeful though. If we can get the player over the line it’ll be a decent one for us.

“It’s work permit-related stuff. The paperwork that goes into it. Brexit’s done us no favours whatsoever in the football world.

“We see it in the top league, teams wait two, three, four weeks.

“Hibs have had a hard time, Aberdeen in preseason had to wait weeks for their striker [Bojan Miovski] to get clearance.

“t’s not as easy as just signing forms, there’s a lot more to it.”

Already a subscriber? Sign in

[[title]]

[[text]]

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s