http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t..._ct/7797295.stm

unfortunately, this article does nothing to suggest Black will agree to the new contract currently being negotiated.

"Black, who is part of a group of players whose contracts expire in the summer, told BBC Sport: "My opinion is there's a few boys out of contract soon - important players - and once that's sorted they can bring in other people. Roy McBain, David Proctor and Don Cowie are among them and once they're sorted they can look at strengthening." ^{[no mention of himself]}

Black, who has been with Inverness since 2004, admits his long-term future may lie away from the club. He said: "Talks have been all right, I'm enjoying everything up here and I've loved ^{[past tense]} my time here.

"The fans have been ^{[past tense]} great to me, the club's been great but I know there's interest and every player's got to weigh that up. "I've had ^{[past tense]} a great career here at Caley Thistle but I'm going to weigh everything up and see what's on the table."

Brewster has his head up his arse.

To be fair to the clown on this one,

Ian signing/verbally agreeing to a pre-contract with Hearts has bugger all to do with anybody at ICT least of all Brewster.

Would you tell your boss you were planning to leave ? I know I would'nt!. Especially when that boss has'nt a bloody clue at the best of times.

So you would rather do it through the media when you still potentially have six months left to work with him?

I am not buying the fact that Brewster was unaware, sorry.

If it meant potentially selling myself to other clubs in the process then, Yes i would rather do it through the media. Ian may still have six months to work with him but, who is to say Craig will last that six months ? It appears only one man can change Ian's idea of a move away and that is Craig , maybe Craig leaving will be what convinces Ian to stay at ICT ?!

Think about it this way, Ian is one of ICT's best players, so it's a win-win situation for Ian, If Craig does'nt play Ian over that six months between now and the end of the season just because he's annoyed, ego inflated - Craig himself is running a risk without one of his best players, one everybody knows fine well Craig cannot replace going with the logic of his usual pish signings.

Craig is the stupid one! He should be using whatever money he's going to get for signings in the "short term" to fund wages "short term" to keep his best players if he wants to stay in a job!

Ian will also have the fans on side with him, who as a fan would you rather see leave the club in the next six months ? Ian or Craig ?!

If however it backfires on Ian and he is left out and both end up leaving the club, Craig will be the one that is jobless in six months time - Ian will have a new club to goto.

If it meant potentially selling myself to other clubs in the process then, Yes i would rather do it through the media. Ian may still have six months to work with him but, who is to say Craig will last that six months ? It appears only one man can change Ian's idea of a move away and that is Craig , maybe Craig leaving will be what convinces Ian to stay at ICT ?!

Think about it this way, Ian is one of ICT's best players, so it's a win-win situation for Ian, If Craig does'nt play Ian over that six months between now and the end of the season just because he's annoyed, ego inflated - Craig himself is running a risk without one of his best players, one everybody knows fine well Craig cannot replace going with the logic of his usual pish signings.

Craig is the stupid one! He should be using whatever money he's going to get for signings in the "short term" to fund wages "short term" to keep his best players if he wants to stay in a job!

Ian will also have the fans on side with him, who as a fan would you rather see leave the club in the next six months ? Ian or Craig ?!

If however it backfires on Ian and he is left out and both end up leaving the club, Craig will be the one that is jobless in six months time - Ian will have a new club to goto.

Good point and well put across, I am still not buying it though, not that it matters either way anyhow.

I wouldn`t worry to much you`ve a decent team and hard to beat and if this is true with Black 99% of Hearts fans are delighted by this so it shows your doin summin right as for the press we get a hard time by them but look at us now we`re doin far better and they still try and knock us down I also hope you get some kind of fee if he has opted to us (thats if you get it ) LOL

Great wee player, but no player is bigger than the club. We have lost many a good player in the past few years but we have always moved on, and we will again.

Edited December 24, 200817 yr by Pele_Is_God

Money is not the main factor in Ian's move. It may well be A factor, but not the only one or main one.

He wasn't going to stay with us once his contract was up. We are a small club and we lose our good players. That's life for all clubs like ours I'm afraid. It's almost impossible to build a team nowadays. If bigger teams than us can lose their best players oce their contracts come to an end then what chance do we have to stem the tide.

He has moved to get better money and he will be playing for a bigger club. That's all there is to it. The Brewster sideshow wouldn't have changed anything. He would have left regardless, there has been plenty of interest in the guy.

That's not my reading of the situation. Regular fall-outs combined with a running down of his contract to within not just the final year but within the final season of his contract. Meant he had no real option but to consider his future. Anything there to disagree with?

No not really. He was never going to sign a new contract with us though. His agent was always going to find him a better gig. Whether you think Hearts are better or not is fair enough. But they pay a lot more than us and are a bigger club. It's just the law of the jungle.

We are never going to be able to hold on to our better players. No smallish sized Scottish clubs can and we are no different.

If we lose Blackie we're fecked....simple as.

When we've lost players before we've always been in a strong enough situation to carry on and do well without them, but we're not that strong any more. All the quality is fast being sapped from the squad.

FFS BREWSTER. Can't these idiots who make up the ICT board realise what this idiot is doing to the club?!?!?! Blackie clearly doesn't like the current situation at the club and has decided to go. If nothing is done, more and more players will be leaving.. eg Cowie.

Fact - His contract runs out in six months time and he can move then and take the cash

Fact - He was a ballboy there, his dad played there, Georgie is home.

Fact - if he goes now we get money and we need it.

Fact - If he has signed with his heart and not his head, like Robbo, he could regret the move.

Fact - We are a selling club, this is a good piece of business.

Fact - Brewster, for all his faults, probably played very little part in this. It would be Ian and his agent getting the best terms on offer.

The only part I would disagree with is even if we do get 100k for black you think that is a good piece of business???

He's from Tranent. Thats technically his home. So it is not a fact that gorgies his home.

If he goes now we get hardly any money. Probably none going by hearts record of payment.

Can Hearts afford to take him now, they have been late on wages and cant afford 15k (plus interest) to arbroath?

it says on setanta website blackies verbally vagreed to join hearts,yet brewster says he knows nothing about it,why would he,why should black treat him with respect if he hasnt treated blackie with respect

I hope he's saved enough over the ;ast few years to cover the weeks when he doesn't get paid.

I've got nothing to say, just posting so everybody can see my avatar again.

It's just all doom and gloom for Christmas :thumb04:

:o Just switched on itv teletext and says blackie has verbally agreed a pre-contract deal for Hearts...so much for getting the cash out MR CHAIRMAN.

enjoy your holiday

:o Just switched on itv teletext and says blackie has verbally agreed a pre-contract deal for Hearts...so much for getting the cash out MR CHAIRMAN.

enjoy your holiday

We spent the entire day yesterday debating Blackie's "pre contract deal" with Hearts, Brewnoclue - this is hardly earth shattering news.!!

:o Just switched on itv teletext and says blackie has verbally agreed a pre-contract deal for Hearts...so much for getting the cash out MR CHAIRMAN.

enjoy your holiday :018:

da.......waznt on yesterday n didnt see post!!!!!!! sorry!!! fek.....thought it waz an excluziv....lol

:thumb04:

i cant really blame him if he does go.. hes been a great player for us and i wish him all the best where ever hes playing next season. A huge loss!

Will miss him. Hope he goes now so we can get a fee for him rather than go at the end of the season foer nothing.

We lost Dargo, Dods and Brown 2 years ago in a similar situation, looks like we will lose Black, Cowie and Fraser this year.

Such fools we have for a Board.

such a fool we have for a manager!

we shouldn't be a "selling" club if we kept onto the quality players we had we'd be in a better spot right now i think, if we keep on farming out our talent to big city clubs we'll be bottom six forever!!

better players = higher the table = bigger payoff = more fans = MORE money = fuller stadium (not just for old firm)

we need someone to MANAGE the club, brewster can coach but not manage.

such a fool we have for a manager!

we shouldn't be a "selling" club if we kept onto the quality players we had we'd be in a better spot right now i think, if we keep on farming out our talent to big city clubs we'll be bottom six forever!!

better players = higher the table = bigger payoff = more fans = MORE money = fuller stadium (not just for old firm)

we need someone to MANAGE the club, brewster can coach but not manage.

We cant not be a selling club, like all other teams in the SPL any decent player will attract attention and move for money or ' family reasons ' even the old firm lose players this way from time to time.

Its up to the management to bring on quality players/ buy decent replacements, which up till now we have done no bad, i have a big big worry that the present encumbant has no clue what players are needed.

We have needed a decent centre half for near 2 seasons now, and still he's blind to the fact our defence is SHYTE.

such a fool we have for a manager!

we shouldn't be a "selling" club if we kept onto the quality players we had we'd be in a better spot right now i think, if we keep on farming out our talent to big city clubs we'll be bottom six forever!!

better players = higher the table = bigger payoff = more fans = MORE money = fuller stadium (not just for old firm)

we need someone to MANAGE the club, brewster can coach but not manage.

Serious? Caley can not be anything other than a seling club as they can not match the wages that other clubs can and if a player was in such demand they would simply just wait until their contract expires and leave for free if we turned down any offer. Also the club is not rich so many offers would be to good to turn down. Every club in the spl to an extent is a selling club, even the OF if they have a player of such quality will want to leave to play in the premiership and latter stages of the champions league, just look at Cruella (sp?) and Hutton in recent years im sure Rangers would much rather have held on to them.

every club in Scotland is a selling club ....... including the OF. 3rd division clubs sell to 2nd division, 2nd sell to 1st (and sometimes SPL), first sell to SPL and SPL sell to bigger SPL teams or teams from England and/or Europe. There is almost always a bigger fish !!!!

We are a mid to lower half SPL side and will routinely sell or lose players to teams above us. We dont like it, but there is not a lot we can do about it. You could argue that we should be on a par with 4 or 5 other sides but we certainly cannot compete with the OF, Aberdeen, DUFC, Hearts, & Hibs in terms of resources.

Having said all that, I dont think we have quite got the hang of it yet and can be incredibly naive !!! We routinely put players on 2 year contracts meaning that at the end of their first season, they are already in the shop window, and we seem to leave it late in beginning negotiations so probably lose more players than we should and for less money than we could reasonably expect to get.

Indeed, have a look at previous transactions.

Niculae - (Romanian International, Euro 2008 player)

Rankin (Scotland B,)

Brown (SPL winner, Scotland B,)

Robson (SPL winner, Scotland International, Champions League player)

Black (Scotland B,)

Add to that, Darren Dods, Graham Bayne, Dennis Wyness, Craig Dargo, Bobby Mann and it makes for a pretty darn good team.

I understand that we are a selling club - that doesn't mean we leave the front door unlocked for all and sundry to come in. And how much money, in total, have we reaped for the above players? Any ideas?

Edited December 26, 200817 yr by Kirishima

We have of necessity to be a selling club but we are incredibly naive in the way we go about it. Look at the millions that the likes of Hibs have made from selling on players on long contracts in recent years whereas our record tranfer is still barely into six figures.

That said, Black had indicated a general willingness to stay and both he and his agent had stated that the offer from ICT was not too far short of what he was looking for. The club needs to review the way contract negotiations are are dealt with.

We're not a selling club. Because of our naivet? we're more of a "giving away for free" club, and yet again it's come back to bite us on the backside.