Sorry to see on Aberdeen FC website that Graeme Shinnie has signed a pre contract agreement and will join them in June. I would like to be one of the first to thank him for his service over the past 5/6 years at Inverness and wish him all the best in the future. (Unless playing against ICT)

well stated Mr Bannerman. I believe Shinnie will give his all for the rest of the time he is with us,

  so enjoy

Best wishes to Shinnie he has been a great servant for us and we will miss him. Nobody could deny that he is due bigger wages.

 

BUT.........I would play him in the Under 20s from now on. He could pass on some valuable experience to the youngsters and serve the club well in that way. It's not fair for either party to keep playing Graeme.

 

Imagine the scenario....we come to the last day of the season, it's us or the sheep for third place. Shinnie has an open goal, his options are a) he slams the ball into the back of the net and ICT take the Euro place, He soaks up the Inverness applause and drives down to Aberdeen where is treated appallingly by the Dons for the next 3 years..................... or b) he lofts it over the bar and his new club take the Euro place. Guess which option he chooses?

Option a)

option 'C' ..... pass to Calum Ferguson 

Mr Prolific scorer is he now ?? !!

Im pretty annoyed that we have lost another player for nothing. We let that happen too often with our players and it has to stop now!

Mckay is the same nothing for our top scorer really just remarkable how much we are getting shafted

There's still plenty of time to come to a financial agreement with aberdeen for him to move before the end of the month .

Im pretty annoyed that we have lost another player for nothing. We let that happen too often with our players and it has to stop now!

Mckay is the same nothing for our top scorer really just remarkable how much we are getting shafted

There's still plenty of time to come to a financial agreement with aberdeen for him to move before the end of the month .

I am surprised they haven't already especially with Ash Taylor and Shay Logan out, leaving Joe Shaughnessy as only option.

Didn't Scott McDonald score a winning goal for Motherwell in the last few mins of the season which prevented Celtic winning the league while he had already signed a pre contract for them? Footballers are professional enough to do the job in hand.

 

Totally agree we get well and truly shafted every time. To me this is really short sightedness and horrendously bad management not protecting your prize assets. If we are to be taken seriously as a top six club this needs to be rectified now by the Chairman and the Board. It is unforgiveable that players like Graeme Shinnie, Don Cowie, Ian Black, Johhny Hayes, Adam Rooney etc can leave for feck all because our Board of Directors cannot manage contracts.

How are we really ever going to progress when the rest of the SPFL see us as a soft touch.

Unlike the Board of Directors, you are obviously fortunate enough to know how a club with a £3 million turnover and a bedrock 3000 fanbase can hold on to such players by outbidding competitors who at least double or triple both these numbers.

What do you want to do first? Email the Chairman with this magical secret, or tell your fellow posters on here?

 

Presumably you have decided to email your secret to Kenny Cameron first FJ, hence the delay on here. We are all waiting with bated breath to find out how a club retains potentially high earning players within the scenario described.

I think we have to accept that transfer fees within Scotland are a thing of the past. Players and clubs prefer to wait for contracts to run down so that players are free to go wherever they like (without interference from club) and "buying" clubs only have to dangle salaries in front of players instead of salaries + transfer fees. Financially, we are near the bottom of the Premiership pile and therefore have very little pulling power to keep good players here once they feel the urge to move on. This is not the fault of the Board who run a very tight ship, it is the reality of modern football.

 

The tactic has been to get players on reasonably long contracts (2-3 years), which has worked inasmuch as we have a settled team and are not constantly re-inventing ourselves like County (for example). Towards the end of those contracts, players need to decide whether they are at the pinnacle of their career - in which case, they'll take another contract with us, or can earn a better wage elsewhere, in which case they will move on (for free). The success of the last few seasons suggest that this model works. the down-side is that we will continue to lose players who have developed here for nothing. C'est la vie until we can get 20,000 fans through the gates.

 

Good luck to Graeme Shinnie - I hope he gets the international caps that he has deserved. I expect him to retain the captaincy and play even better for a while. Depending on the league table towrds the end, we might need to think about resting him if his performances start to tail off (as for any player) - it has to be distracting to know that you'll be elsewhere as soon as the season ends.

Agree in full and, to Graeme's great credit, he has conducted himsekf with professionalism and decorum maintaining a dignified silence and not making any comments along the lines of moving to a bigger and better club.

Agree in full and, to Graeme's great credit, he has conducted himsekf with professionalism and decorum maintaining a dignified silence and not making any comments along the lines of moving to a bigger and better club.

 

Disagree. I saw him in the Union Square Nando's along with Hayes and Rooney setting fire to an ICT scarf.

 

Im pretty annoyed that we have lost another player for nothing. We let that happen too often with our players and it has to stop now!

Mckay is the same nothing for our top scorer really just remarkable how much we are getting shafted

Maybe so but unless we double their salaries we will not keep them .The money is the motivator -particularly where we have been over the last 3 years as we are a successful top 6 club

To pay them what they are being offered we need an extra 2/3000 coming through the gate at home games

Much as we enjoy where we are at present keeping our top players isn't going to happen in the near future and at least we keep them for 2 or 3 seasons now instead of the 1 year contracts we used to have

 

Rocky  I take your point

But the playing field is not level, when we are up against a club which was living on borrowing to a massive amount now  living basically on unearned income due to a bail out by a local benefactor.  They were taking our players before the  local firms cash injection. Where is the morality in that?

It follows that if a club can get a player without paying a transfer fee then there is more money available to pay the player.  Clubs will be able to offer players more attractive terms if they wait till the player is out of contract - hence the pre-contract agreements.  If clubs can afford a transfer fee as well in order to get the player ASAP, players may question if what they have been offerred was really the best offer.  As a club, we will only get transfer fees for our players if the club offering the money can pay what might more realistically be called a compensation fee in addition to what they are offering the player, and not many clubs in Scotland can do that.   No doubt Aberdeen would like Shinnie to move by the end of the month but would they be willing and able to pay the sort of money that the ICT Board would be prepared to accept to allow Aberdeen to strengthen their side and for us to weaken ours?

 

 

Im pretty annoyed that we have lost another player for nothing. We let that happen too often with our players and it has to stop now!

Mckay is the same nothing for our top scorer really just remarkable how much we are getting shafted

Maybe so but unless we double their salaries we will not keep them .The money is the motivator -particularly where we have been over the last 3 years as we are a successful top 6 club

To pay them what they are being offered we need an extra 2/3000 coming through the gate at home games

Much as we enjoy where we are at present keeping our top players isn't going to happen in the near future and at least we keep them for 2 or 3 seasons now instead of the 1 year contracts we used to have

 

Rocky  I take your point

But the playing field is not level, when we are up against a club which was living on borrowing to a massive amount now  living basically on unearned income due to a bail out by a local benefactor.  They were taking our players before the  local firms cash injection. Where is the morality in that?

 

 

Sorry to say morals don't sit well in football Laurence

It follows that if a club can get a player without paying a transfer fee then there is more money available to pay the player.  Clubs will be able to offer players more attractive terms if they wait till the player is out of contract - hence the pre-contract agreements.  If clubs can afford a transfer fee as well in order to get the player ASAP, players may question if what they have been offerred was really the best offer.  As a club, we will only get transfer fees for our players if the club offering the money can pay what might more realistically be called a compensation fee in addition to what they are offering the player, and not many clubs in Scotland can do that.   No doubt Aberdeen would like Shinnie to move by the end of the month but would they be willing and able to pay the sort of money that the ICT Board would be prepared to accept to allow Aberdeen to strengthen their side and for us to weaken ours?

 

I agree with you DD and I think we may hear from the dandy dons before the end of he week. However, I don't see the reasoning behind our board wanting a substantial fee mainly because of the following reasons :

• A fee, no matter how big or small is better than nothing at all - and we need the money!
• we have ready made replacements at FB and MF so we don't need to spend on a replacement.
• IMO can afford to let him go now without any major weakening of our team

 

It follows that if a club can get a player without paying a transfer fee then there is more money available to pay the player.  Clubs will be able to offer players more attractive terms if they wait till the player is out of contract - hence the pre-contract agreements.  If clubs can afford a transfer fee as well in order to get the player ASAP, players may question if what they have been offerred was really the best offer.  As a club, we will only get transfer fees for our players if the club offering the money can pay what might more realistically be called a compensation fee in addition to what they are offering the player, and not many clubs in Scotland can do that.   No doubt Aberdeen would like Shinnie to move by the end of the month but would they be willing and able to pay the sort of money that the ICT Board would be prepared to accept to allow Aberdeen to strengthen their side and for us to weaken ours?

 

I agree with you DD and I think we may hear from the dandy dons before the end of he week. However, I don't see the reasoning behind our board wanting a substantial fee mainly because of the following reasons :

• A fee, no matter how big or small is better than nothing at all - and we need the money!
• we have ready made replacements at FB and MF so we don't need to spend on a replacement.
• IMO can afford to let him go now without any major weakening of our team

 

 

Cant see Aberdeen offering any more than £30-50K. Having a player like him in our team could be the difference between finishing 4th and 3rd with the benefits of European football. Placing higher and games in Europe will get us more income, come the end of the season, not to mention will help bring fans through the door with something new and exciting to watch. With Hearts looking dangerous and Rangers returning next year this could be our last chance at a top 3 finish for a long time so we should do whatever it takes to keep this squad together, at least until the summer

just for reference .........
 

Why should the board let or consider letting GS leave for peanuts, he is under contract still. If Aberdeen are ambitious about winning the title (which it seems they are not) then with their injury crisis in defence then we can hold out for the most we can plus as siad GS is an asset in our side and the difference in league places may come into the assessment of value.

If I were to believe the story about Shinnie burning an ICT scarf I would be shocked.

Even if it was done in a jubilant, jesting mood it would show immaturity, a lack of caution and tact and contempt for his club and paymaster. And who is to say that at another club he would  have developed into the player fans say he is because no two clubs are the same. Conditions, player personalitie , training and so on may well be completely different leading to a different atmosphere altogether.

 

He should at this stage be keeping quiet, watching what he does and lying a bit low--after all he is still on the books of ICT and he is not an Aberdeen player yet...otherwise, many a slip between cup and lip could unhinge his career big time.

 

Just saying?

^ this a serious post?

Of course not! Who would be stupid enough o do a thing like that in public..?

News tonight of Dons taking on a loanee, defender 'till end of season. No cash coming our way I'm afraid.

To be expected adter all it is Aberdeen we are talking about here.

 

Agree in full and, to Graeme's great credit, he has conducted himsekf with professionalism and decorum maintaining a dignified silence and not making any comments along the lines of moving to a bigger and better club.

 

Disagree. I saw him in the Union Square Nando's along with Hayes and Rooney setting fire to an ICT scarf.

 

So it was YOU who also saw Butcher, Malpas and Marsela in the Heathmount on their way to Dingwall to accept the County job back in September?

Talking about Marsela we need him over the next 12months to replenish our depleted squad.

Understand he is unemployed but if any team knows his worth it is ICT.

He would be worth signing at probably a wage well below the footballers as current management team have found no one over 12 months