Seeing as the season is now officially over and we have been crowned League 1 winners, I will post this now so that you guys can let me know who's under contract for next season.

It can also be used to post the list of retained and released players once that has been announced 👍.

Finally, it can also be used for transfer rumours and signings. On that I'll start with one from Everything Caley's Instagram who seem to suggest we are after Ruth's Dylan Smith. I also see on Twitter from The Scarf that Alfie Bavidge is signing permanently 😱👍.

No surprise at all that we are interested in him, but he has supposedly had a (disappointing) 2 year offer from Aberdeen and it’s not easy to see how our offer could be better. Hope we get him though, even past his best he is still a good player for this level.

4 hours ago, IBM said:

According to the P&J we are in advance talks to sign Graeme Shinnie.

County’s demise last season was, I think, due to having too many starters whose legs had gone or were too slow.

Gallagher, docherty, lacovitti, Gary Mackay Steven. . All good players but old Father Time has caught up with them. Jay Henderson another one, decent crosser of a ball but couldn’t go past anyone. If he couldn’t cross it, passed it backwards. In fact, wasn’t that the way he was with us.

I saw Gallagher sent off twice in a month after county attacking corners were cleared and Gallagher who was last man took out the fast opponent heading over the half way line to goal.

They think dropping down a level is the way to go, to prolong their career ( or last big pay day) but a lot of quick young guys in the championship.

Just saying.

1 hour ago, bishbashbosh said:

County’s demise last season was, I think, due to having too many starters whose legs had gone or were too slow.

Gallagher, docherty, lacovitti, Gary Mackay Steven. . All good players but old Father Time has caught up with them. Jay Henderson another one, decent crosser of a ball but couldn’t go past anyone. If he couldn’t cross it, passed it backwards. In fact, wasn’t that the way he was with us.

I saw Gallagher sent off twice in a month after county attacking corners were cleared and Gallagher who was last man took out the fast opponent heading over the half way line to goal.

They think dropping down a level is the way to go, to prolong their career ( or last big pay day) but a lot of quick young guys in the championship.

Just saying.

I thought Jay Henderson was good when he was with us and I would be happy if he was to sign back on.

I am happy to leave all the signings to the manager and the board but think Shinnie would be a good addition if we can afford him. As long as we don't have a team of old codgers

If I remember right some people were saying that Billy Mckay and David Wotherspoon were too old and past it, it was the pair of them that helped us win the league at the final push.

Edited May 21May 21 by IBM

11 hours ago, IBM said:

According to the P&J we are in advance talks to sign Graeme Shinnie.

Great player for us a decade ago. Tonnes on experience at the top level and clearly a ‘leader’ in the truest terms, however Graeme’s legs have gone. I’m not sure he could handle a 90 minute stint in Championship midfield bear pit. He’s too small to be a sweeper (fingers crossed Remi sticks with us), so I’m not clear where we would really use him to the point where he fits in ??

Just my tuppence worth.

bc

Edited May 21May 21 by big cherly

Championship football is arguably the toughest, most competitive division in this country.

Assuming we can retain a decent core of last seasons squad we will need to add some real strength in all areas. I felt at times in league 1 we lost out physically too often for my liking against average but experienced pros.

Whoever comes in , rumoured or otherwise will need to have plenty left in the legs to make the grade.

It'll be a test of whatever budget is available to get the blend of experienced but still capable and youthful and fast players from what's becoming available.

Again, some wise loan moves will be critical too.

Shinnie has knocked back Aberdeen. Hopefully he’ll be announced soon 🙏

Some surprises...https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/caley-jags-confirm-release-of-nine-players-at-the-end-of-the-435941/

Both Alfies, Liam Sole, Bren Brannan, Mitchel Robertson and Kieron Willox all returning to their parent clubs. There's hardly anyone left! There will need to be some very good recruitment.

8 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

Both Alfies, Liam Sole, Bren Brannan, Mitchel Robertson and Kieron Willox all returning to their parent clubs. There's hardly anyone left! There will need to be some very good recruitment.

All standard stuff ... end of contracts, and end of loans. Some may already be in contract discussions with us and re-sign based on improved Championship offers, others will inevitably move on. Hopefully we might get one or both of the Alfies back on loan again in a higher division if Kells wants them ....

As it stands today, these are the guys implicated in the release statement

Only surprise for me is Oscar MacIntyre, the CTO PotY 🏆

Maybe he has a better offer? or maybe he is in talks with the club on a new contract.

I thought MacIntyre and Zimba would have been on the list to resign for this year. Shame it's not worked out for Thompson, and feel for Davidson as it's the injuries that have done him

With that list above in mind, roughly how many signings does that mean we'll realistically need for next season?

It looks like a major rebuild but hopefully not, especially when players sign new deals etc!

We can't afford to have a new squad needing to get as that could lead to a slow start in the league cup/league!!!

5 hours ago, Scotty said:

Maybe he has a better offer? or maybe he is in talks with the club on a new contract.

With the second one, would he be on that list if so? I’m looking at Alonge for example which I thought was out of contract and he’s not on that list.

Looking at the positives and ignoring the loan players going back, it means it looks like we are in with a chance of keeping Munro, Savage and Allan to add to Devine, Macleod, MacKinnon and Longstaff, whilst maybe Mckay and Wotherspoon have another year in them as impact players.

Yes we need to get players in but that was inevitable with promotion.

Hopefully we’ve some already lined up, to be augmented again by loans.

20 minutes ago, Robert said:

Looking at the positives and ignoring the loan players going back, it means it looks like we are in with a chance of keeping Munro, Savage and Allan to add to Devine, Macleod, MacKinnon and Longstaff, whilst maybe Mckay and Wotherspoon have another year in them as impact players.

Yes we need to get players in but that was inevitable with promotion.

Hopefully we’ve some already lined up, to be augmented again by loans.

Who else is missing? Alonge, Chalmers, anyone else?

Dissappointed for Robbie , surprised at macintyre assume Zimba has other plans.

Does Graeme Shinnie drop back to give maturity at left back.

Oscar MacIntrye is the real surprise here for me. The others I can all see reasons why the club may choose to part ways them, but with Oscar I can only assume the descision not to sign an extention/new deal would be down to him.

Its possible that some of the players listed are discussing things with the club but the club or the player themselves let the contract expire so they can start negotiations afresh (and keep options open elsewhere). We are up a division and a player - like MacIntyre for example - performed well last season so their current contract may not reflect what they think they are worth and they want to discuss a better contract for themselves outside of the normal promotion clauses that may be in an old contract. Equally, for aging players, the club may think they are worth less than the player does and that too is another discussion ...

I long gave up trying to make sense of these kinds of situations as there are 3 different sets of people making these decisions, not just the club. The players themselves have to look after number 1, as do their agents, and then the club has only a small say. For once I have a little more confidence that between SK, CC and AS we will make sensible footballing decisions within our budget. No-one is so good that we have to break that budget, that's part of the reason we got into the situation we were in and I can't see Savage falling into that trap.

21 hours ago, ICTPaisley said:

Shinnie has knocked back Aberdeen. Hopefully he’ll be announced soon 🙏

Just announced.

Sophie Robb Art

From the club's announcement: "Shinnie then captained Aberdeen to the 2025 Scottish Cup, 10 years after his success with Caley Thistle, becoming the first man to captain two different sides to Scottish Cup victories."

Is that true? Really? Going all the way back to 1874?

Wow!

It’s early days for the squad coming together.

I look forward to hearing about those not named yesterday and whether they are staying or not, and about other arrivals.

Presumably we won’t see any loans being confirmed until much closer to the first league game.

Perhaps not either of the Alfie's, but you never know, do you think he may have an influence over any other possible loanees from Anerdeen?