Where does everyone think it went wrong then? 

Focus off the field, making and saving money, over reliance on some bargain basement loanees, injuries to all the better loanees, jettisoning the more reliable but higher earning stalwarts, no continuity and no forward apart from one and let's add an abysmal start to the season. Hopefully Samuel is not going to be a miss as there does appear to be more stability and promised recently. 

56 minutes ago, ICTPaisley said:

Where does everyone think it went wrong then? 

Never recruited a striker to challenge Mckay, found a system that worked with Wotherspoon and when he left just decided a park the bus system was the way to go instead finding a Wotherspoon replacement, no plan B

1 hour ago, ICTPaisley said:

Where does everyone think it went wrong then? 

This season?  It went wrong when we started with Dodds in charge and never looked like improving much when we chose to chase the headlines with his 'big name' replacement.

Before that the clubs decline on and off the park seems to coincide with Muirfield Mills appearing on the scene.

25 minutes ago, STFU said:

Before that the clubs decline on and off the park seems to coincide with Muirfield Mills appearing on the scene.

The opposite is true. The best seasons in our history occurred when Muirfield Mills were active and putting money in, from 2012 to 2019. We’ve been declining ever since.

7 hours ago, Yngwie said:

The opposite is true. The best seasons in our history occurred when Muirfield Mills were active and putting money in, from 2012 to 2019. We’ve been declining ever since.

They bought £250k of shares in 2012 but were pretty much dormant until 2015 when they then started making moves to take control of the club once it was apparent that something special was afoot that season.

The remainder of their 'investments' came in the form of covering the substantial losses they oversaw between 2017 and 2019.

So I stand by my view that their appearance/involvement marked the beginning of our decline.

I’ve split this out from the matchday thread as it is an interesting question and a separate discussion from a match in which not a lot actually went wrong!

There are so many factors at play.

We started this season with a weaker squad than we had last year. (This can be said every year, sadly)

Financial constraints impacting the playing budget further, most notably around January.

The manager(s)

Lack of leadership on the pitch

Strikers firing blanks

Injuries

Not getting our fair share of luck across the season? Certainly feels that way to me.

25 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

There are so many factors at play.

We started this season with a weaker squad than we had last year. (This can be said every year, sadly)

Financial constraints impacting the playing budget further, most notably around January.

The manager(s)

Lack of leadership on the pitch

Strikers firing blanks

Injuries

Not getting our fair share of luck across the season? Certainly feels that way to me.

Not sure about the strikers firing blanks. Don’t think Harry Kane would score many goals with the service on offer.

longstaff to me is always facing our goal when he receives the ball and his first touch takes him further back. Can’t slip a ball between full Back and centre half as he hasn’t got the pace to go for it. I have seen him get to the byline twice this year, both in same game, and his crosses sailed over everyone’s heads and went out for a throw in at far side. Strikers can’t do anything about that.

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by bishbashbosh
Made a mistake

8 minutes ago, bishbashbosh said:

Not sure about the strikers firing blanks. Don’t think Harry Kane would score many goals with the service on offer.

longstaff to me is always facing our goal when he receives the ball and I first touch takes him further back. Can’t slip a ball between full Bach and centre half as he hasn’t got the pace. I have seen him get to the byline twice this year, both in same game, and his crosses sailed over everyone’s heads and went out for a th

Agree that the service has been very poor all season, although Wetherspoon was able to get a good strike rate for us by being a good, creative forward.

I noticed that since Sheridan joined QP in February, the 4 goals he scored is the same as our strikers combined. (Mckay, Samuel, Pepple and Brooks - how must he feel about not getting a sniff).

IMO we were not adventurous enough going forward. We were clearly better than most teams but were happy to knock the ball about, until ultimately the game just fizzled out to nothing. 

No standout player either who could raise the game or the supporters, we kinda just plodded on regardless.

The final slide down the slipway started with us reaching the cup final, it kept Dodds in the job. Without that reprieve we may very well have had a new manager in place before the season started and hopefully have avoided the disastrous start to the season.

1 hour ago, CaleyCanary said:

The final slide down the slipway started with us reaching the cup final, it kept Dodds in the job. Without that reprieve we may very well have had a new manager in place before the season started and hopefully have avoided the disastrous start to the season.

That's certainly one in a long line of poor decisions from our current CEO (and by letting him make them the board). 

I think appointing Foran as manager (and in our typical way letting him linger way too long after it clearly wasn't working out) was a huge error. 

Appointing Yvonne Crook as CEO (yes remember her) was a huge error as she knew absolutely nothing about football or running a football club. 

We of course followed up with Scot 'Bluenose' Gardiner, while having at least a football background he left a trail of clubs where if we'd spent 5 mins speaking to his previous clubs and their supporters you'd get a clear picture of narcissistic incompetence. Admittedly he has achieved a lot since arriving - alienating fans, betraying local businesses, disrespecting and ignoring the Trust, half empty concerts, failed fan forums, failed 'raise the roof' campain, overt obsessive pro-Rangers stance, BS re the Freeport benefits and a continuous slide downwards on the pitch. To name a few. 

I do appreciate the board and others who have contributed financially however these appointments are their doing and they have to take responsibility for that. 

On the park we've had Robbo who stepped back as manager and we kept paying him for years to do God knows what, thereafter Billy likes Fitba who while seemed a nice guy wasn't up to the task and his recruitment was pretty atrocious. Now we have Big Dunc on an alleged £4k a week with whom I've seen nothing to give me much confidence he can recruit or manage the team at anything more than a bog standard level. 

I could prattle on but you get the gist. Every time me make a big decision especially around recruitment, it's a poor one and we let people linger around far too long. 

1 hour ago, Fraz said:

That's certainly one in a long line of poor decisions from our current CEO (and by letting him make them the board). 

I think appointing Foran as manager (and in our typical way letting him linger way too long after it clearly wasn't working out) was a huge error. 

 

You can add on the chairman refusing to let Yogi speak to Yenitit, in an attempt to avoid showing weakness. If Yogi had gone then, we would have got compensation and been able to afford better than Richie. As for Richie, anybody who saw us capitulate at Hamilton on a Tuesday night in January knew he should have been gone the next morning.

4 hours ago, CaleyCanary said:

The final slide down the slipway started with us reaching the cup final, it kept Dodds in the job. Without that reprieve we may very well have had a new manager in place before the season started and hopefully have avoided the disastrous start to the season.

Exactly.

Edited May 4, 20242 yr by The Mantis

Without going over the same old points I've made before some of which are already above. Ponder this, in many sections of the media Dougie and hid Morton are lauded for an amazing season and yet only 3 points above us which turns out to be 5th and best if the rest. Similar the job of Brown at Ayr and Davidson at QP is again praised yet both within 2 points. Has Dunc been as poor as some fans suggest or is it an exceptionally tight season?

Point being we have been poor but it's at creating and scoring, our defence was 2nd best overall and we have positive goal difference. Still enough room for optimism for play offs and to build on.

Recruitment last summer was poor and Dodds tenure this season set us on a negative path. Whether he knew the cost cutting was coming and chucked it, who knows but Jan saw an axe yielded and influx of loans with blame allowed to be directed at Dunc when it's the board driving that philosophy. Perhaps the fact he isn't phased by this criticism and negativity suggests he's gotba 'thick skin' so is the right character to take the inevitable backlash when this summer more players are cut and deals struck to minimise player costs at the expense of known quality.

 

11 hours ago, The Mantis said:

As for Richie, anybody who saw us capitulate at Hamilton on a Tuesday night in January knew he should have been gone the next morning.

Can't wait to possibly play Hamilton in the play offs, such an odious club and not one that brings a lot of positive memories with that one top of the **** list

On 5/3/2024 at 9:47 PM, ICTPaisley said:

Where does everyone think it went wrong then? 

It is all quite simple and it’s solely down to the so called guardians and blazers who correct me I’f im wrong initially handed out free season tickets and  hired in help to outvote the real fans and members?
Decades of deliberately failing to communicate with the new fan base probably using the naivety of same fan base to inflate their egos and take the club down this route of destruction.

Vast overspending and paying inflated wages chasing the pipe dream that Inverness could support an SPL club despite having such a very poor fan base and no rich backer. This amazingly continues today if we are to believe what big Duncan’s rumoured wage is. 
Yes we got to the SPL won the Scottish Cup and entered Europe but at what cost? 
The cost is what we are currently witnessing serious decay due to gross mismanagement and neglect it would be difficult to argue otherwise although there are still sadly some happy clappers/deluded halfwits on here that will.
It could be argued the next 2/4 games are the most important games in the clubs short history failure to get through these successfully is a quite frightening prospect. 
 

Dougal

 

 

 

6 hours ago, dougal said:

Yes we got to the SPL won the Scottish Cup and entered Europe but at what cost?

I suspect that at that point we may have been financially OK.  It was after that - paying inflated wages, paying Yogi off, paying Foran off, etc etc - that the financial slide started.

Football-wise, we've never really had a reliable, consistent goalscorer since Billy Mckay first left us in 2015.  I know they don't come in six-packs at the supermarket, but we really should have done better.  As folk have said, look at our goals for and goals against this season, and that will show which end of the field our problems are at.

Club management and directors - I only know what I read here, so I have nothing to say.

25 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

Football-wise, we've never really had a reliable, consistent goalscorer since Billy Mckay first left us in 2015.

Yes and this has occurred in an era of 5 consecutive managers who had been forwards themselves!

9 hours ago, dougal said:

It is all quite simple and it’s solely down to the so called guardians and blazers who correct me I’f im wrong initially handed out free season tickets and  hired in help to outvote the real fans and members?
Decades of deliberately failing to communicate with the new fan base probably using the naivety of same fan base to inflate their egos and take the club down this route of destruction.

Vast overspending and paying inflated wages chasing the pipe dream that Inverness could support an SPL club despite having such a very poor fan base and no rich backer. This amazingly continues today if we are to believe what big Duncan’s rumoured wage is. 
Yes we got to the SPL won the Scottish Cup and entered Europe but at what cost? 
The cost is what we are currently witnessing serious decay due to gross mismanagement and neglect it would be difficult to argue otherwise although there are still sadly some happy clappers/deluded halfwits on here that will.
It could be argued the next 2/4 games are the most important games in the clubs short history failure to get through these successfully is a quite frightening prospect. 
 

Dougal

 

 

 

Maybe save this speech for the League two playoffs 😂 

16 hours ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

I suspect that at that point we may have been financially OK.  It was after that - paying inflated wages, paying Yogi off, paying Foran off, etc etc - that the financial slide started.

Football-wise, we've never really had a reliable, consistent goalscorer since Billy Mckay first left us in 2015.  I know they don't come in six-packs at the supermarket, but we really should have done better.  As folk have said, look at our goals for and goals against this season, and that will show which end of the field our problems are at.

Club management and directors - I only know what I read here, so I have nothing to say.

I'm pretty sure that the losses in the Premier were marginal and the car crash started in 2016-7 with paying off Yogi and of course being relegated.
Although I read somewhere that County, even in the Premiership, have managed to average losses of £1.2M which are underwritten by Uncle Roy. This despite them apparently having higher attendances than we did. Maybe their wage bill is astronomical though. They say Andrew Davies was on about £5K per week back in 2017 although that could be the usual speculation.

I agree with a lot of what is being said in this thread. For me the club did not build on our successful cup winning and SPL season under Yogi.

Perhaps the appointment of Chisholm and his Highland League experience will do us good when we end up back there.

Morrison who then employed Gardiner who then employed Ferguson 

win or lose playoffs they all need to go .

Dunc is no "yes man" but he has lost his mojo and his style of football. He has become more of a coaching manual manager. I have been at games and watched on TV where I was happy with the performance when you have a team of mercenaries and a gun with only one bullet to fire and nobody wanting to pull the trigger. I rather see Dunc visioning the opposition and some of his own players as feckin burglars. I can only suggest that he has had some sort of therapy. As for Montrose I would not be surprised if the plan was to defend in depth and nick a winner. That may work with a drilled team in the Bernabeau but not with a team of loanees at Links Park. As with most loanees signings I suspect there are clauses about playing time and that has to be a reason to limit wee Roddy's time on the park. With McAllister injured surely Roddy would be shoe-in rather than Lawal. Wait for another completely different performance on Saturday OR

16 hours ago, BornCaley said:

I agree with a lot of what is being said in this thread. For me the club did not build on our successful cup winning and SPL season under Yogi.

Perhaps the appointment of Chisholm and his Highland League experience will do us good when we end up back there.

Yep, He sure did well with Clach! 😆

I don't think you can pinpoint an exact moment where it all went wrong but I think it's somewhere around 2012.  We got relegated in 2009, maybe slightly unfortunately with a record points total at that time, and then we gave Butcher leeway to rebuild and he did a great job.  He then built more and created the cup winning squad that Yogi inherited, the zenith of the club up to this point.

However, during those years when we had regular SPL football, a manageable financial situation (easily recoverable losses, external investment, cup runs, Europe money, transfer fees, money for managers etc) what investments did we make off the park?  What improvements were made to the infrastructure of the club, both in terms of facilities for the fans and players?  None.  We still train at Fort George as far as I can see, the ground hasn't been touched or improved in years, and is now starting to fall apart.  We don't have any facilities at our ground like a proper bar or decent food or excellent hospitality. 

You can extend this to off the pitch too and this is one reason why I don't entirely blame Morrison and Gardiner for what's happened to the club.  We generally operated OK in the top flight, the losses were coverable when they happened and some years we made money.  However, we didn't do anything to generate off the pitch revenue, something that coudl safeguard the clubs future.  Gardiner and Morrison have taken a lot of stick for the concerts and the battery farm but they've had to do this because there was nothing there before.  We didn't even control the land that the stadium is on, IIRC, and were paying money to another company for it.  Eventually every club of our size gets relegated and we completely failed to plan for that in any sense - on the pitch, financially, from a business standpoint.

If  people remember the summer after we went down it was chaos, we had three different Chairmen, we were releasing players via social media, putting our press releases every day (Twitter account liked porn - statement, Duncan Shearer released by text - statement).  It was clear no-one know what to do and really no-one has known what to do since.

Everything that's happened to the club since stems from that failure.  The Chairman and the CEO are trying to do positive things but failing because they are hamstrung by issues out of their control as well as their own incompetence.  In the meantime the club throws huge money on players and managers, makes massive losses but is at the same time massively penny pinching.  Watching the Montrose game via their stream I recall the Covid season where we had one of the worst streaming offerings in the entire league.  other clubs have kept streaming and probably make a trickle of cash from it but we huffily insisted ours was fine and now don't do it at all.

The only way I can see this improving is if an outside party buys the club and is willing to invest proper money in it, which I can't see happening or the current backers underwrite another few million quid and we finally manage to claw our way out of the situation we are in, we flukily get a managerial appointment spot on.  I can't see either happening to be honest - I fully expect to be relegated and to spend a few years in League One.