Todays P+J quotes Dods as saying he definitely wants away at the end of the season.

'It's the travelling. I want something closer to home'.

Looks like the Utd option has gone, along with Brew :015:......unless he ends up at the Pars obviously :024:

and where will the pars get the money to pay his wages, they can't afford to pay the lads they right now.  I see that they could miss out on Levein becuase they can;t afford to take on his assistance Houston.  so do you think we should try and get Thompson back?

With St Johnstone pushing for promotion it's possible they could try to sign Dods. If the guy wants to move closer to home I would not hold it against him.

Dods will be gone by the summer if not sooner. I wonder if the club would be tempted to sell him come January if they got a decent offer for him?

Dods may well go to St. J for a year or so but my feeling is he,ll look at a club like Raith with a view to getting on the coaching ladder, which is the way he wants to go. I doubt we'd get very much for him in january and he has committed to staying till may.

ICTinAngus, why would we want Thomson back. We have CC and Parkie.

Dods to Hearts when they sell the rest of their current squad to Killie!

i think he would be a loss but in my opinion mcaffery is a decent player. what ever dods does he's been a fantastic player for us

I think we should get someone in at the chrimbo transfer marked regardless if Dods is away then or the end of the season.  Can't really grumble at his reasons for leaving the club but why does he have to do this through the press??

Presumeably because the press went out of their way to ask him.

For what we'd get in January we'd be better off hanging on to him until the end of the season and then wishing him all the best.

We'd be daft to let him go early for peanuts and risk being short of cover if someone in the back four picks up a nasty injury or a lengthy suspension.

Harry, there's no secret in the fact Dods is offskee next summer.  I therefore see little harm in him advertising the fact in the press to see who will come in for him.  If a couple of teams show interest we may just get an offer high enough to let him go in January.  Dods has already shown in his efforts this season that he is 100% committed to the shirt while he remains here so I have little worry on that front.

Harry, there's no secret in the fact Dods is offskee next summer.  I therefore see little harm in him advertising the fact in the press to see who will come in for him.  If a couple of teams show interest we may just get an offer high enough to let him go in January.  Dods has already shown in his efforts this season that he is 100% committed to the shirt while he remains here so I have little worry on that front.

I don't dispute that it has been made clear that he wants to leave but Christie and the board have noted this publicly.  If asked the question again is it too much to ask for a "no comment" rather than disrupt the squad with transfer speculation yet again.  If he wants to advertise his services he can do it during the transfer window as any other proffessional would.  You can't question his effort on the field since he decided to leave but I just think that there are ways a player should conduct himself to the media

I see what you are saying, I just don't think it will be in any way unsettling for the squad since they know he is offskee anyways.  Mountains out of molehills and all that!!

Quite a lot of us have to move about with our jobs, which means our families move with us.

its part and parcel of working life.

Maybe Darren's family could have been more supportive although having said that there maybe a valid reason for them not moving, as was the case with Bingham, although travelling to Gretna would take almost as long as to Inverness.

You would think going by some of the comments Inverness is the end of the world although I suppose going by Scots sport it is further away than that.

I won't dream of being critical of darrens commitment on the field but I have little sympathy with the excuse of distance to travel.

I have little sympathy with the excuse of distance to travel.

I have a 500 mile commute each week (40 miles each way, mon-fri) and while its a pain in the ***, its normal over here. Before anyone says it, yes, I do travel on a 4 lane highway to and from work, but that just means the traffic jams are wider !!! - give me the A9 anyday !! [i could rant on about Toronto drivers, Mobile Phone users, construction, potholes, and eccentric lane-changers but that is a whole different subject and would take me off topic a bit so I wont]

I do have some sympathy with him - travel might not be much of an excuse, but at the end of my day when facing a 2 hour (or longer) drive through rush hour traffic I often wonder if there might be a job for me 'closer to home' as the travel is the only aspect of my job that is not enjoyable.

  I hope Dods never vists Canada if he dosen't like distances.

The Evening Express, which seems to now publish more Non Aberdeen stories online, also had the same article.

Caley skipper Darren Dods admits that not even their fine form in the SPL will dissuade him from leaving the Inverness club at the end of the season.

Caley stretched their unbeaten run to six games at Love Street and consolidated their position in the top six of the SPL. But even those positive signs will not persuade Dods, who lives in Edinburgh, to stay at Caley beyond next summer.

He said: "It's going well and I'm enjoying my football but it's the travelling aspect. I want something closer to home.''

Caley should have built on Craig Dargo's first-half opener which put the visitors into a half-time lead. But Saints battled back and Sutton headed an equaliser.

*Evening Express*

Wimp

We give the guy his big break when nobody else wanted him and now the road is getting longer :010:

Do you think if we can get the A9 upgraded to dual carriageway all the way he would want to stay?

He said: "It's going well and I'm enjoying my football but it's the travelling aspect. I want something closer to home.''

Well buy a house in Inverness. Your girlfriend and any offspring will love it in Inverness. Look how happy Craig Brewster was when he lived and worked up here.

No great surprise and I've every confidence that he will be totally committed to the cause until he leaves in the summer.

With all due respec to Caff, he ill be difficult to replace in central defence.

Stick to the facts, Gretna's only half the drive from Edinburgh that Inverness is, and that's not counting any bother crossing the FRB.

*ICT Not Giving Up On Dods*

I read that earlier.  Sounds like the BBC trying to make a story.  Obviously we want to keep him, but he doesn't want to stay.  I suppose it depends what offers are on the table come January/July.

Much as I think Dods was the reason we did so well last year, why should clubs be held to ransom by players and agents. This would not be in the best interests of the club from a playing perspective, but stick him in the reserves and make him see out his contract. ICT are bigger than any player, no matter who. He has been a stalwat at the heart of the defence, but what would we give for a defender that can pass the ball out of defence instead of hoofing it the way he is facing.  I am sick and tired of these guys coming up here, getting their own careers kickstarted again and then because ICT make them appear better players, they want to return to bigger and better pastures........how often have we seen that scenario crop up, and fail.

Stay put and get on with the game Dods, you know it makes sense.

(thats it, that should be good enough to make the Courier :015: )