Do you reckon ICT can bounce back to the SPL next season, and what are the biggest threats to them not making it ?

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by beachcomber

Biggest threat is Dundee and their wads of cash considering they will probably end up with a First Division XI for next season they would have to be amjor contenders for the league.

If we are going to be contendsers for the title, I'd think Dundee will definately be our main rivals in that respect.

Realistically I doubt we can bounce straight back up. Hibs are the only side? to have done it and I think they retained a large % of the team that they had in the SPL. They did this by being prepared to run at a loss and continue on a spl budget that year, a risk I cannot see our financially prudent board taking.

I think ICT will be lucky to hold on to half the current squad, we are looking at starting again and that takes time.

Also Dundee have solved their financial problems and as far as I understand have the backing of an ambitious millionaire who is already spending huge to build a team with the aim of getting them promoted next season. Gretna have already proved this can be done.

As we cannot compete financially with Dundee I cannot see us coming straight back up.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by kiltarlity

I said yes but....seen every team thats has gone down to the 1st division hasnt really put up a fight to go right back up. The same thing could happen to us but one thing the club has to take on board is dont splash all the cash in one season

read my post Big Tel

But there is a difference all the other clubs that went down have long and prestigious reputations so are perceived to be "bigger" clubs so teams raise their games against them but we will not be perceived as a "big" club and no one will expect us to win the league but if we play hungry, detremined players wanting to prove a point they could more than a match for Dundee's money grabbing players.

Don't think Partick, Morton, Dunfermline etc are any more prestigious than us!

neither do i but by clubs down in the central belt they are perceived to be so as they have a long history that we don't and we are viewed by the mindless morons from down there as a "wee" club as we have not been around for long and we are quite far from what they would loosely refer to as "civilization" that is the difference.

Earliest a club has gone down from the SPL and won the 1st Div the next season is 5years...

as a pars fan i would like to say it's going to be very hard next season for you. When we went down, a couple of seasons ago now, we all thought we will have a great chance of returning. We kept most of our squad and had budgets way above the rest of the league. We were shocked though at the small differnece between first division and spl quality. It is a very competitive league and this is shown in how close it is every year. I don't see Caley coming straight back as it takes time to establish again in such a competitive league.

Earliest a club has gone down from the SPL and won the 1st Div the next season is 5years...

Hibs did it!!

Earliest a club has gone down from the SPL and won the 1st Div the next season is 5years...

Hibs did it!!

It wasnt called the Spl then though. :025:

i think that we can bounce back into the spl next year as that is were we are meant to be not the stupid division 1

I don't mind whether we do go straight back up, we were there, I would have gladly sold my soul in return for the last 5 seasons 15 years ago.

Nope.

I don't think we will under the present management team....

Maybe. It depends on the comings and goings in the summer. If we can hold onto Morais and Foran I'd be confident but I'm doubtful as to whether or not we can hold on to them.

Foran will be offski, might hold onto Morais, would like to see him with a good pre season under his belt. Give Butcher a year to develop his own squad and see what happens.

Impossible to say without knowing the team.

We will be the kind of team that will go up and down between spl and first, just as Dundee, Dunfermline, Morton, Falkirk, St Mirren, St Johnstone et all have done for years.

We are not a big enough club and do not have the fan base/ money to be anything else.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by kiltarlity

"Hibs are the only side? to have done it "

Erm nope they weren't. Hibs were not relegated from the SPL as it didn't exist at that point. They did go up to the new SPL as champions of the first division, however the Pars were the only team (so far) to be relegated from the SPL and back up the next (as runners up in the first division).

Lewis is obviously a wee pars fan --- a helluva lot of us pars fans remember the yo-yo-ing between the SPL, 1st and 2nd divisions.

On a personal note, and having been a member of this site for nearly 4 years jeesh!, I was in tears at the result today. I was watching it all on Setanta in Legends at EEP and texting Mrs PB and ICTMee, updating them with the St Midden score also. Hand on heart gutted that you've been relegated...and hopefully you will be back up next season. The Pars have a lot of work to do next season but I reckon we'll be there for a wee while yet.

On the bright side, sorry, more chances for me to meet up with you lot....... and more wild weekends in the Sneck. :finger01:

Keep yer heads up folks, and keep smiling.

Mon the Caley, and ra Pars.

Buffy x

Nope.

How???

I would like to think so

But wages will play a large part and who can we sell.

On the good side we were relegated on 37 points, we aren't a hopeless team and thats the difference between us and the rest of the previously relegated sides.

we aren't a hopeless team and thats the difference between us and the rest of the previously relegated sides.

You don't have to be hopeless to get relegated from the SPL. (In the time we were in the SPL) Dundee were not hopeless when they went down!! nor were Dunfermline.

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by kiltarlity

Found this on P&B makes a interesting read. Thank's too Skyline Drifter for this data...

Since the SPL began competitive play in 1998/99 NO CLUB have bounced back from relegation to win the First Division the next season. Dunfermline in 99 DID get promotion back up in a single season but as runners up when there were still two promotion places on offer. Hibernian were the last team to bounce straight back as champions but that was a year earlier and to be pedantic they were relegated from the SFL Premier Division, not the SPL.

SPL Relegated sides:

1999 - Dunfermline - Promoted as first division runner up in 2000

2000 - No relegation - Aberdeen finished bottom but top two first division sides came up to make a top 12 and no playoff because Brockville wasn't eligible.

2001 - St Mirren relegated - Finished 8th first season Div 1 - Promoted back up in 2006 (5 years later), having only narrowly avoided relegation to the 2nd in 2003.

2002 - St Johnstone relegated - Finished 3rd first season in Div 1 - Promoted back up in 2009 (7 years later)

2003 - No relegation - Motherwell finished bottom but were saved by Brockville again.

2004 - Partick Thistle - Relegated again in 9th first season in Div 1 but came back via playoffs a year later. Still in 1st Division though.

2005 - Dundee relegated - Finished 7th first season in Div 1 - Still here 4 years later.

2006 - Livingston relegated - Finished 6th first season in Div 1 - Still here 3 years later.

2007 - Dunfermline relegated - Finished 5th first season in Div 1 - Still here 2 years later.

2008 - Gretna relegated & went out of business.

So not including Gretna, seven clubs have actually been relegated from the SPL. Of those NONE have won the first at the first time of asking and only Dunfermline, the first of them, have bounced straight back as runners up. St Johnstone in 2003 were 3rd and 2nd for most of the season but never seriously looked like winning the league. No-one else has been anywhere near it. History certainly doesn't favour the likelihood of ICT bouncing straight back but we'll see......................

It's not impossible but it's a hell of a big ask.

"So here I am once more in the playground of the broken hearts"

Edited May 23, 200917 yr by kiltarlity