Raith Rovers Caretaker manager Shaun Dennis has agreed with former Assistant Davie Martin’s assessment that the current squad is not good enough for Division 1.
Martin left the club after disagreeing with then boss Claude Anelka’s philosophy of developing a side that could play in the style of Barcelona and then sell on the best talents to bigger Scottish Clubs.
This is not a new ploy. Playing like Barcelona obviously is but in recent years Nacho Novo, Didier Agathe and Ramon Perreria began their Scottish careers in Kirkcaldy before ascending to Rangers, Celtic and Hearts respectively.
The current crop of players is unfortunately not up to the standards of their more illustrious predecessors. These include stopper Anthony Bartholome who after a being roasted (in the old fashioned meaning of the word by the Thistle attack) was subbed after just 25 minutes at Firhill on Saturday.
After his departure Martin commented on Anelka: "I have no problem with him, but he has a different mentality. He wants the team to play like Barcelona but you have to the players to do that.
"None of the players he brought in improved the team. They are simply not of the standards required for the First Division."
Dennis still on the playing staff at Brechin added his voice to the criticism of the team following the reverse at Firhill this weekend.
He said: "I think we know that five years ago these players wouldn't even have been in Scotland.
"Out there we had players asking each other what positions they were supposed to be playing and that tells me they just don't listen at training or before games.
"It's nothing to do with communication-most of the players are English speaking. They just work when they want to work that's their problem."