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Merger Talk


TheCaleyjags123

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As one of the younger members of the ICT fan base I don't know a lot about the merger but ive been surprised to hear that it has kept many fans from both teams away from supporting ICT? Find it quite silly TBH

 

 

The reason you are surprised to hear this is that the merger has NOT actually kept very many fans away from supporting ICT at all.

 

This is and always has been a complete myth which a tiny rump of Cyber Rebels attempt to perpetuate through various social media, including on here, and when they occasionally meet face to face in plenary session in a phone box on Telford Street. It's a wee bit like the myth about Celtic supporters in Seville, except about 20,000 times smaller.

 

If you are one of the younger members of the ICT fan base, let me summarise what happened from the autumn of 1993 in a very few sentences. (A more detailed account can be found in "Against All Odds" online on this site.)

 

Some Caley and an even smaller number of Thistle fans objected to the merger and the manner in which it was achieved. It is important to understand that attendances at games in these Highland League days was tiny (a few hundred) compared with nowadays since in between a large number of new fans with no interest in the merger in the first place have come on board. In the case of Caley, it is also very important to understand that in any case, no more than 226 people ever voted against the merger, even though recruitment by the anti merger faction was exhaustive. Of these:-

* Very many still came to games and even helped out behind the scenes when the club got under way.

* Some more have drifted back over the years.

* Some more have left Inverness as would have happened anyway.

* Some more have died in the intervening 19 years, as would have happened anyway.

 

The numbers in Thistle's case were a good deal smaller than that.

 

So, almost 20 years on, this residual small fraction of what, by modern standards, was a very small number in the first place, is really a drop in the ocean. However the more successful Caley Thistle has become in its transition from the Third Division to the top quarter of the SPL, the more and more bitter this tiny awkward squad has become and also the more laughable their cyberfiction.

As a result, this Christmas, with this highly successful team sitting where it is, there will rather more "Bah Humbugs" than usual in that phone box on Telford Street.

The merger, fascinating though it was to observe, is long gone and its product is now riding high in the very top tier of Scottish football.

So this Yuletide, beware men with "predominantly blue" Santa hats, telling fairlytales, bearing grudges and with back numbers of LSM sticking out of their predominantly blue santa suits!!!

 

EDIT - and I thoroughly agree with Caley D who posted as I was writing!!!!! :lol:  :lol:

Edited by Charles Bannerman
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The greater good. I also was too young to remember but the achievements the club has made speak for themselves...and at present we are only going to keep achieving. 

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Cheers very helpful haha

Now that you've had a very brief education on the merger process you might like to amend your username to CaleyThistleboys ?? :wink:

 

Cheers very helpful haha

Now that you've had a very brief education on the merger process you might like to amend your username to CaleyThistleboys ?? :wink:

 

Probably not, Have always referenced the club as "caley" as its shorter and easier to say nothing else to it Edited by Caleyboys
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As one of the younger members of the ICT fan base I don't know a lot about the merger but ive been surprised to hear that it has kept many fans from both teams away from supporting ICT? Find it quite silly TBH

I know of 4 supporters, 3 Caley and 1 Thistle who never went back to a game while I would have prefered Caley to have gone it alone ICT were and are still ahead of our shadows and have a Premier Team to follow which is great for the youngsters of Inverness and surrounding areas.  You are right in saying quite silly, they are the ones that are missing the great football now!

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Good post Charles --only one big word that shivered my timbers.:   HUBRIS.

 I think that means some kind of obsession doesn't it? 

 

Whatever, the fact is that any REAL supporter could not possibly stay away from the current Caley Thistle park games could he or she?

 

So, onward and upward. :wave:

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As one of the younger members of the ICT fan base I don't know a lot about the merger but ive been surprised to hear that it has kept many fans from both teams away from supporting ICT? Find it quite silly TBH

I know of 4 supporters, 3 Caley and 1 Thistle who never went back to a game while I would have prefered Caley to have gone it alone ICT were and are still ahead of our shadows and have a Premier Team to follow which is great for the youngsters of Inverness and surrounding areas.  You are right in saying quite silly, they are the ones that are missing the great football now!

 

If only the Jags had been voted in ahead of Ferranti Thistle we would be red and black champions of the world by now !

Edited by Kingsmills
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The reason you are surprised to hear this is that the merger has NOT actually kept very many fans away from supporting ICT at all.

 

This is and always has been a complete myth which a tiny rump of Cyber Rebels attempt to perpetuate through various social media, including on here, and when they occasionally meet face to face in plenary session in a phone box on Telford Street. It's a wee bit like the myth about Celtic supporters in Seville, except about 20,000 times smaller.

 

If you are one of the younger members of the ICT fan base, let me summarise what happened from the autumn of 1993 in a very few sentences. (A more detailed account can be found in "Against All Odds" online on this site.)

 

Some Caley and an even smaller number of Thistle fans objected to the merger and the manner in which it was achieved. It is important to understand that attendances at games in these Highland League days was tiny (a few hundred) compared with nowadays since in between a large number of new fans with no interest in the merger in the first place have come on board. In the case of Caley, it is also very important to understand that in any case, no more than 226 people ever voted against the merger, even though recruitment by the anti merger faction was exhaustive. Of these:-

* Very many still came to games and even helped out behind the scenes when the club got under way.

* Some more have drifted back over the years.

* Some more have left Inverness as would have happened anyway.

* Some more have died in the intervening 19 years, as would have happened anyway.

 

The numbers in Thistle's case were a good deal smaller than that.

 

So, almost 20 years on, this residual small fraction of what, by modern standards, was a very small number in the first place, is really a drop in the ocean. However the more successful Caley Thistle has become in its transition from the Third Division to the top quarter of the SPL, the more and more bitter this tiny awkward squad has become and also the more laughable their cyberfiction.

As a result, this Christmas, with this highly successful team sitting where it is, there will rather more "Bah Humbugs" than usual in that phone box on Telford Street.

The merger, fascinating though it was to observe, is long gone and its product is now riding high in the very top tier of Scottish football.

So this Yuletide, beware men with "predominantly blue" Santa hats, telling fairlytales, bearing grudges and with back numbers of LSM sticking out of their predominantly blue santa suits!!!

 

See!?

Told you someone was gonna get mad!!!

 

:lol:

 

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Fact.....had any one of those teams gone it alone and been accepted into Scottish league system they'd probably still be a part time team wallowing in among the Brechin's, Montrose's and East Stirling's with, maybe, the odd foray into Div 2. As a part time team with a few hundred fans there would not have been the money to get us where we are now.

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I'm apolitical when it comes to both clubs, but I think there is a case to say that there is still a bit of a Caledonian bias when it comes to the modern day ICT.  The "Caledonian" Stadium with it's predominantly blue seats is one of the first that comes to mind, along with without question the club's shirts.  Whenever a new ICT home kit comes out and it's a block colour, it's always blue.  It's never red (or black!).  Why?  Is there still a bias within the inner realms of the club?  Is it a technique to try and entice former Caledonian fans and stayawayers back to the new team?  

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Fact.....had any one of those teams gone it alone and been accepted into Scottish league system they'd probably still be a part time team wallowing in among the Brechin's, Montrose's and East Stirling's with, maybe, the odd foray into Div 2. As a part time team with a few hundred fans there would not have been the money to get us where we are now.

 

Ah, but they might have been adopted by a tycoon like David Murray and then they'd be..............in among the Montroses and East Stirlings. :lol:

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Fact.....had any one of those teams gone it alone and been accepted into Scottish league system they'd probably still be a part time team wallowing in among the Brechin's, Montrose's and East Stirling's with, maybe, the odd foray into Div 2. As a part time team with a few hundred fans there would not have been the money to get us where we are now.

 

Not a fact at all - just an opinion!

 

And my opinion is that Caley, on their own could have done just as well as ICT have - possibly better because they wouldn't have had the merger baggage.

 

As the only Scottish League team in Inverness they would have attracted just as much investment as ICT have and would have made it into the SPL in a similar timescale, attracting larger crowds as they progressed.

 

Don't believe me? Look at Ross County!!

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Exactly the same could be said if Thistle had got voted in in the 1970's.

It's all what if's.

If people still cannot get over the merger of 2 Highland league clubs then f**k 'em.  They can stay and wallow in their own anger and in the past.

We are ICT.  We are here to stay.

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Exactly the same could be said if Thistle had got voted in in the 1970's.

It's all what if's.

If people still cannot get over the merger of 2 Highland league clubs then f**k 'em.  They can stay and wallow in their own anger and in the past.

We are ICT.  We are here to stay.

 

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

 

Love it! This is one of several excellent posts on this thread. The merger really is history and needs to recede into an honoured place in the past. But equally when refusenik propaganda raises its head again, it needs to be answered.

 

I also read with interest good contributions from -

 

lukemackay and ajsict92 - how refreshing it is to hear young lad like that make such positive and constructive comments about the manner in which SPL football has been brought to Inverness and the Highlands.

 

Alex MacLeod - I agree absoluely. At the very, very best, Caley MIGHT have been a yoyo team between Divisions 1 and 2 but Inverness would have had nothing like what it has experienced in recent years. Sorry Buckett, I just can't buy into the notion that Caley would have done just as well on their own. Their fan base would have been so much smaller, Caley actually weren't that popular and indeed were even actively disliked  in Inverness outwith their own orbit, they would not have had the universal appeal that ICT had, would they have got in on their own in the first place?, and if they did they would only have had a fraction of the resources that ICT had. For instance, of the £4.8M stadium budget, at least £1.8M would not have been available to Caley since there was a lot of public funding they wouldn't have got and they wouldn't have had Thistle's asset contribution either.

 

Renegade - by its very nature this was never going to be an equal merger. Caley always were significantly the bigger partner, although this never gave them the right to monopolise. At one point it was said that Caley had 70% of the assets, 80% of the membership and 90% of the fundraising capacity. As a result they deserved the political advantage - although I really would like to hear the name "Thistle" used a bit more these days! This was also pointed up by yngwie (many of whose posts entertain me massively on a weekly basis by the way!!) And the blue/ blac and red "bias" brings me to....

 

Tichy BlacksBack  - yes I know! I used the blue analogy in my last post but there was a very deliberate reason for that! What I was doing was satirising the fact that the great majority of the bitterness and propaganda myth seems to originate from those of the former Caley persuasion!

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I personally know dozens of ex Caley and Thistle fans that have never set foot inside the new stadium and who rejoice when ICT get beat .

 

I know a few who claim they don't attend ICT "because of the merger"....but when pushed on the subject it transpires that they rarely ever went to the football pre-merger anyway, so would hardly count as a lost fan.  It's almost as if it's just a convenient get out clause for many local OF supporters when challenged on why they don't support their local team as well.

 

The truth is, as I pointed out, the real "stay aways" are few and far between and are certainly have no significant impact on current crowds.

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