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We survived for long enough (and were competitive) in the lower leagues....in fact I think we turned a profit more often in the lower leagues than we ever have in the SPL....proof positive that a reduced income is not the end of the world. If every club finds itself in the same position then the whole league needs to adapt to survive and I think we are more capable of doing that than many others. Ok, so standards may drop for a while until the league re-found its level, but such are the demands of business. I'd rather be a poor team competing in an honest, fair and competitive league than a poor team begging for scraps from the table of the OF.

Colwyn Bay !?! Give me strength - another non-entity with no concept of who we are, where we've come from and what we're about as a club. Someone within the upper echelons of this club seriously needs to take TB aside and point out that we are a Scotish Premier League side and it might be an idea adopting the radical ideology of signing one or two Scottish players, or heaven forbid a player with some connection with the area. I'm not expecting eleven Invernessian diehards out on the park every week but personally I'd rather see us signing Highland League/3rd division players than witness a repeat of the 11 non-Scots debacle. This season has undoubtedly seen a lack of fight, spirit and passion and filling the squad with itinerant journeyman on one season deals has to be a contributory factor in the predicamenet we find ourselves in.

If he was on trial last year and deemed not good enough, I doubt he'll be good enough this year! :wacko:

Not really surprised he's spouting that sort of drivel TBH. To my eyes it seems he's more of a Rangers man than a Caley Thistle man. Disappointing that a manager of ICT is pandering to 'ra peepul' but I suppose he's just looking after his own interests. The cringe inducing love-in with Mr McCoist before the 1-4 match was a low point, this is lower. If I was Terry I'd concentrate less on maintaining his rangers legend status and more on doing a better job for his current employers. This coming season is going to be very feckin important to ICT, we could have a great season finishing above county (a must) and maybe a decent cup run and league position... but if this fella doesn't get it right we could get relegated. Get yer eye on the ball TB, Rangers are finished and you're at a club with great potential - sort it out min. Butcher stated a clear fact in the interview that without the money generated from the old firm (and he did mentioned Celtic as will as Rangers in the interview) the club will have to cut its cloth accordingly. As can be seen from responses to a thread started by Caley D there is little appetite from supporters for replacing the money which the club will lose from Rangers being in the league. Whilst not trying to be an apologist for Butcher, there is nothing in the interview which can be construed as being anything other than stating the bloody obvious

- Fans pay £50 to emulate Jonny Hayes and have a square go with Richie Foran. First fan to last a minute going toe-to-toe with the Foranator wins a coconut. - CaleyD challenge: fans and players pay £25 each and have to read three of CaleyD's posts in a row without falling asleep. Winner gets years supply of Nytol. This challenge will require strict drug testing for Pro-Plus, cocaine and crystal meth. - Renegade XI. All the players Renegade has suggested we sign are recruited to play in a charity match against Caley Thistle. Fans flock for miles around to see how that eight foot tall Norwegian whaler works alongside Tana Umanga up front. - Ross County charity approach. We charge everyone £20 for, er, y'know, eh. Yep. - Everyone pays Johndo £10 to go a week without insinuating that he has insider information from within the club. The accuracy of Johndo's 'exclusives/windups/pish' will remain the same for this week. - Instead of TopSixNextYear putting bets on Caley winning 7-1 and Shane Sutherland to score hat-tricks, he donates all his bets for a month to the club. We now have more money than Manchester City and Ladbrokes are bankrupt. - ALternative Maryhill enters a 'Jesus and Mary Chain' look-a-like competition and wins £5 for the club. Sadly it's wasted when the result ofthe competition descends into a massive riot and everyone gets killed.

I appreciate that it's not always easy attracting young Scottish players to Inverness but are you honestly trying to tell me that you believe Tansey and OTJ are on £700 a week ?!? I'm not picking on the non-Scots but starting a game without a single Scot in the team is, imho, not acceptable. A major factor in the decline of Scottish football over the past 15-20 years has been the reliance on average inpats to the detriment of the development of young Scottish players. As I've stated previously I've felt little or no affinity for the guys out on the park this season who appear to be going through the motions and don't appear particularly committed to the cause. Can you really blame them when they're on one year deals and know full well they'll be moving on again each summer? Just look at what County achieved this season with a largely Scottish squad of players. They've finally realised that stability and a strong nucleus of guys who are settled in the area pay dividends. It's exactly what got us from the third division to the SPL but we've ditched that for a model which I feel is destabilisng the historic ethos of the club.

Because he's miles better than Fraser, that's why!

Maybe with Craig Whyte agreeing to sell his shares to this English group (alledgedly) the end game is maybe just maybe beginning? Personally wish Terry had kept his thoughts to himself.

I agree with the whole cutting of cloth thing, it's true that it's 'bloody obvious' that would have to be done to a certain extent should Rangers suffer relegation or extinction. I think however that it would be more of a 'disaster' for Scottish football as a whole if a club is allowed to retain its place in the top flight despite being caught ... ahem red handed riding roughshod over rules, laws and moral obligations for years - just cos they bring some money into the league. Caley Thistle adjusted their finaces accordingly when we dropped a division to a place with no Rangers, Celtic, Sky or ESPN. Maybe it's just me but I'd rather not sell my soul for a shiny dollar.

Final full day of HM10 is upon us, and it appears another wet one is in store. Waterproofs a must today! From the viewpoint above Fort Augustus to the Essich roundabout is our aim, leaving us Essich to the stadium tomorrow. Thanks again for everyones support. We'll be seeing you all tomorrow!

Well that's us in the Bunkhouse at Fort Augustus, 25 miles in the pouring rain, 20 miles tomorrow then 7 on Saturday around Inverness. We would like to thank you for all your support and hope to see some of you for a pint in the Innes pre match.

There's always an added risk with signing a player with a history of injuries. For ICT the risk worked out brilliantly with Dargo, and even Niculae came good after a slow and unfit start. I agree it's all about risk and reward, but the assessment has to be made at the time, without hindsight, and your comparisons seem a bit unfair to me. It's easy to see why OTJ was signed on a good wage - experience of playing at a decent level over many years, and an international to boot. A risk worth taking? I don't recall anyone saying anything to the contrary at the time. GMS on the other hand had never played a competitive game of football in his entire life. ICT took him for a test drive and he broke down. He was clearly talented but very high risk. I'm pretty sure he would have been touted round every pro club in Scotland that summer, but nobody signed him, not just ICT, nobody thought he was worth the risk on the terms he was looking for at the time. Dundee Utd only signed GMS the following season, after he had eventually proven his ability and fitness with Airdrie. Should we have looked at him again at that point? He was certainly worth the risk by then but we are pretty strong in that position and had other signing priorities. There's always a degree of luck with these things, but it's perfectly understandable why all parties did what they did and didn't what they didn't. It's also perhaps a bit early to be concluding or implying who was the better signing - there's a long way to go, and Saturday was GMS's first 90 minutes this season - OTJ has at least managed two full games!

Gary Mackay-Steven. Owain Tudur-Jones. Can't say we should never have signed one player with a history of injury problems but real talent then criticise when we sign a player with a history of injury problems but real talent. Can't blame Butcher for this one. It was the right deal at the time - both for ICT and GMS. It's worked out for him but he took a real risk.