Raith Rovers: CEO Andrew Barrowman admits he was "concerned" about highly-rated manager Ian Murray's potential departure for Dundee

When asked if it was a stressful week dealing with Murray’s possible departure to Den’s Park – one bookmaker had stopped taking bets on the 42-year-old replacing Gary Bowyer before Tony Docherty was ultimately appointed on Monday - Barrowman told the Fife Free Press: “Yes and no. We think Ian is the man that can get us to where we want to get to, so there was a concern about him leaving.

"But stress, no, because we didn’t really break stride in terms of what we were doing as a club in terms of recruitment and everything else.

"That’s the nature of the beast, that’s the structure that's in place.

"We were very open with Ian, Ian was very open with us throughout.

"It’s early on in the relationship but we’ve got a good relationship.

"Everyone understands where we are. We understand it was a good opportunity for Ian, hence why we were open with him and he chose to have that discussion.

"It’s not an issue with us, it’s football. I keep talking about it, we want to be a place where people, players, staff, managers, office staff, come in, make themselves better and move on to a higher level. That’s what we want to be so we’re not going to start moaning about it when it does happen.”

With former Airdrieonians manager Murray’s immediate future now looking secure at Raith – he is contracted until the end of the 2023-24 season – Barrowman revealed that there are hugely ambitious plans for the Rovers to improve immeasurably on last season’s seventh-place finish in the Championship by mounting a serious push for the promotion shake-up in the upcoming campaign.

When asked if he sees Murray as the man to take Rovers into the Premiership, possibly next season, Barrowman replied: “Absolutely. We don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves.

"We’re building a squad, a team, that we want to represent who we are as a club.

"What happens on a Saturday at 3 o’clock, none of us can control.

"We can do our best and get as many good players as possible, but if a striker wants to miss a chance in the last minute, none of us can control that.

"So we’ll try and put a team together that the fans can be proud of, the fans can get behind and we all enjoy watching on a Saturday.

"Whatever happens beyond that, that’s what happens.”

Rovers have been very productive in the early stages of the summer transfer window, with contract extensions agreed for existing squad men and the addition of new signings Dylan Corr, Jack Hamilton and Josh Mullin fuelling optimism that the Kirkcaldy outfit can have a successful 2023-24 campaign.

Barrowman added: “I’m fairly happy with how things are going. A lot of work’s going on behind the scenes.

"There are a lot of players we’ve missed out on as well as getting the ones over the line.

"There’s a lot of players that we’re still talking to that are close. It’s a lot of work in the process.

"People just see the guys with the scarf on the pitch being unveiled but there is a lot of work by a lot of people that has got it to that point.

"It’s an ongoing process. Obviously we had a bit of a distraction last week shall we say in terms of the manager.

"But if there’s ever an advert for putting the structure in place that we now have at the club then the last week, week and a half, has just shown that really.”