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I'm just a little bit dismayed at the incredibly negative comment on this forum about the return of Craig Brewster and I believe that at least some of it may be the result of misunderstanding and misinformation.
I believe that there's a lot of (unjust) anti Brewster feeling because the nature of his departure in January 2006 has not been fully understood. Weeks before he left, he was unfortunately "ambushed" into indicating that he was at ICT to stay. Then a very persuasive Eddie Thomson came in with an offer he couldn't refuse. I was there when Brewster made that first statement - which was solicited rather than volunteered - and he really couldn't have said anything else, nor could he have read the future. Then when he did leave, it was only after a great deal of persuasion, a great deal of thought, yes, a very good financial offer but who wouldn't be influenced by that? Then most of importantly of all, he refused to leave unless Caley Thistle got very generous compensation. This last fact is not very well known and the cash concerned created that year's profit.
There are also complaints about his record and his style of play. His results at Inverness were pretty good and you cannot take into account his poor statistics at Tannadice. He did not suddenly become a bad manager overnight, but he did move into a much less positive football environment overnight. I don't believe many of his United players (despite their hefty pay cheques) were prepared to put in the work he demanded and I think that when he went there, working under Eddie Thomson was not quite what he expected.... as many other managers have found. On the other hand the Brewster - ICT combination has already been proved to work.
If there is concern about his style of play, don't panic. You may very well find a positively different and more experienced Craig Brewster from the one which left 19 months ago. But he will certainly not have changed in his desire to produce a fit team.
I also think that some of the anti Brewster sentiment has been generated by the fact that the new man will NOT be Neil Warnock. For some reason a lot of fans seemed to be drawn into a storm of pro Warnock hysteria... but on the basis of what? A statement from Warnock which smacked seriously of the shop window? Did the directors ever really rate him as a realistic option? Would his financial requirements have been realsitic? How big a risk would there have been of him being away in months to the Premiership or the Championship? Does he really know much about Scotland outside the Old Firm?
If fans feel deprived of their high profile manager, think back to Jim Leishman and Sergei Baltacha. These were both high profile managers taken in by Thistle and Caley in the early 90s and both proved to be failures. Apart from the refusal of both to relocate to Inverness, neither understood football at the level at which they were managing and this was the main reason for their failure to produce. I believe Neil Warnock may well have fallen into the same trap and then we might well have got a lot more of the dressing room dramatics which someone at Wednesday night's meeting said they witnessed on U Tube.
Craig Brewster is here... or at least he will be on Monday. I don't really see much reason for Caley Thistle fans not to get solidly behind him and the team who really do need to feel a positive message from their supporters and not carping about the new manager.