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Yes indeed "last night" is a real favourite of newspapers when they try to kid the public that they're not really hours behind more rapid response media such internet, radio and TV. For instance you might get something like: "Ex Rangers stopper Terry Butcher LAST NIGHT swooped from his secret Highland hideaway to snap up crack Dutch hit man Ruud Boogers on a one year deal. The Highlanders' boss, who has been ordered to appear before Hampden beaks following his latest rant against Scottish whistlers, had been tracking the busty goal ace since the flying Dutchman issued a 'come and get me' plea just before the last transfer window slammed shut. The England legend has now signed Boogers from under the nose of his old mate and fellow Ibrox legend Coisty, whose derisory wage offer of 50p a week was described by Boogers' agent Dick van Dyke as 'woeful, but I suppose it's the best they can afford'." Now what this really means is that LAST NIGHT, Terry was actually at home in Abriachan enjoying a glass or red wine and reflectiing over his latest signing who had put pen to paper first thing that morning, as reported throughout the day by broadcasters and internet.

I got my one because I support the team not the league, I'm not having a pop at anyone it's just how I feel ;-)

He's too embarrassed to admit it? He certainly ought to be.

Tade and Hayes contributed more than twenty goals in terms of goals and assists and we are losing both of them to competing SPL teams. We are relying on our manager to bring in players who can replace them and Butcher hasn't done as well as you'd like in the past few windows. One blessing could be that we have players who hardly played last season who could step up and be excellent for us in Doran and Shinnie.

Luke I admire you unflinching postivity towards everything ICT, I hope its not to big a shock when you realise everything is not as rosy as you think

The latest dramatic twist see's Rangers application for the English Conference league turned down as the weren't prepared to do Woking away.

It would seem so. I have a few issues with what has happened, but let me start by saying why I think they have gone the way they have...... Clubs can go in to Administration for a variety of reasons...and it's not always something of their own (immediate) making. e.g. Rangers non payment of monies due to clubs this season past caused issues for a couple of clubs, most notably Dunfermline who had to short pay players and then make up the difference. Had the amounts been larger then they could easily have found themselves in the more trouble than they did. If you have set penalties then a club ending up in administration for those reasons would have to be treated the same as a club who found themselves in administration due to purposefully trying to cheat the system and deliberately withholding tax whilst spending money they did not have....and that would hardly seem fair. The problem I have is that there's other measures which could be taken under those circumstances to ensure one club does not become the victim of another clubs poor financial management. Things like..... - The SPL withholding prize money and paying these "footballing" debts. - All match tickets for league games are sold by the home club, in cases where the away club want to sell the tickets then they pay up front for them. - No "credit" facility for inter-league player transfers....if you are willing to pay a transfer fee then you must pay it in full up front. Further to that....if a club are operating in such a manner whereby non payment of a few thousand pounds is likely to send them into administration, and subsequently liquidation, then their problems (and debts) are very likely to run a lot deeper and it's not the leagues place to be throwing out lifelines which allow them to escape the full consequences of operating in such a manner. The other problem I have is the "fixed" penalty of going into administration....one third of last seasons points or ten points, whichever is greater. It is a punishment which serves to punish the smaller teams more than it ever will the bigger teams. e.g. Celtic could have placed themselves in administration this season after seeing it happen to Rangers. If both had been given a one third points deduction then Celtic would still have won the league (on goal difference). Celtic could have wiped out any debt and effectively gone unpunished. Given the huge financial benefit of playing in Europe (even Europa), then is a team on the fringe of a qualifying place going to think it worth taking a punt by spending money they can't really afford to push for that place? A one third deduction in points if it goes wrong isn't going to relegate them and provided they can come out of admin via a CVA then what's the hardship? The point being....relegation hurts (financially) more than anything else and the new rules do no more to dissuade clubs from spending to avoid it than than the old ones. 10pts or one third of previous seasons total is only going to hurt the bottom half teams....why should the threat of relegation as a result of administration not apply to ALL teams? The change of rules in regards to administration are, IMO, nothing more then the SPL paying lip service to the problem. Then we have the "NewCo" situation. Forget the "we'll decide on a case by case" argument. It wouldn't make any difference if they had put in place 1001 rules to cover every possible reason for the event. Why? because there's not a court in the world that will allow any organisation to punish a new organisation for the indiscretions of an old one. The SPL have shot themselves in the foot head here. They have a setup which now says a NewCo can walk straight into the SPL....that's fine, it's up the the SPL to decide the entry criteria. The problem comes the moment the first SPL club goes into liquidation (leaving Rangers aside) because the SPL will say "yes you can join, but here is the conditions". The Club/NewCo in question will go thank you very much for letting us in, but we do not accept the conditions which punish us for the actions of a club/entity which we have no legal connection to. A court (be it civil or CAS) will not allow the conditions to stand and if the SPL then remove the membership they will be hammered for removing membership on the basis that a club refused to accept illegal conditions....end result, NewCo in the SPL and no further punishments applied. Dress it up any way they like, make promises to deal harshly with worst offenders if they want, the fact is it WILL NOT WORK and the ONLY way to deal with the NewCo situation is not to allow a NewCo entry to the SPL under any circumstances.

disappointed. If true, it seems to be a move motivated by money rather than career enhancement or ambition and I thought JH was a bigger man than that. nothing more to say really. unfollowed on Twitter !

Lets save all the talk of relegation until march-may 2013, IF it looks like that is what is on the cards for us. We have a whole season of the SPL ahead of us. Im fairly confident that there will be at least one team worse than us. ICT isnt the only team struggling financially etc....there are about another 11 teams in the same boat, admittedly, some worse than others...BUtT...in fact...its probably the most level playing field theres been in the SPL for many many years.

I have just spoken to Craig Brown who said "of course its true Johndo" and blew a raspberry down the phone. I then spoke to the grandmother of Johnny Hayes who informed me that wee johnny was always " a bit of a fibber". I think I must have got the wrong number for Terry butcher as the respondent said "Feck off" and slammed down the phone when I said who I was.

Seems nobody is telling porkies. The articles say agreement has been reached...............none of them say signing has been completed...............Jonny makes his tweet that he hasn't signed which is true. He will however sign if all goes well with his medical on return from holiday. Goodbye Jonny.......you've made a big mistake going to this club.

From the Horses mouth on Twitter jonathan hayes ‏@jonnyhayes7 I must have a doppelgänger because I've managed to sign for teams even tho I'm halfway across the world!.... Leave it out

Extremely dissapointed losing Hayes to Aberdeen, really thought he would have shown more ambition than that. I can see why Tade moved, he wont be on much more than he was here in terms of wages but the lure of playing in Europe is one i can fully understand. Wonder if our club will ever realise that offering 1 year deals and waiting till their contract expires before offering them a new deal is getting us nowhere and if we continue to do it then we will get relegated sooner rather than later. TB said last year that he wanted to rebuild the team (which he did to a lot of grumbles) and then retain them at the end of this season so that we can push on. It is blatantly clear that this has not worked due to the majority of the team being able to speak to other clubs after 6 months of signing. Hope lessons have been learned and now it is pretty much back to square one and we are going to have a pretty big rebuilding job on our hands again this year Have to say that todays news has left me very down about next season. I have real fears about our survival in the league next year

Ten4 regarding the P & J recession answer being page 3 girls, they would be better with fresh ewe's every day, and the 'mutton dressed as lamb' page 7. When you think about it, we look like we are going to have another rebuilding job ahead of us, Tansey, Tade, Hayes and not forgetting Proc. But we are then going to give new players the chance to impress and better their predesessors. Most seem upset at Tade leaving, 9 goal hitman, yet most of us think he should have scored 20 plus with the chances he had last season. Tansey came with a glowing reputation and a nose for goals, which he only partly showed although he was fairly decent. Jonny will be missed, but he can be hot and cold. All these players are taking a chance, as the new team they are going to may take ages and ages to gel, as they too are having wholesale changes. The bottom 10 are having massive changes this summer, and the promoted one has lost 3 regulars already. We are all in the same boat as it were, and who knows what will happen, Jonny gets injured early on, Tade continues to fluff when he has time to think, Hibs struggle again, Dons continue to dazzle under Pa Broon, Midden lost their legend and star Hasselbank, Killie continue to pass pass pass misplace pass, Hearts drop their good players, St J rebuild and cant gel, Arabs lose our ex trialist and others and also shop in England div2, Well crash and burn after Champs league July elimination, and Rangers are taken to task by FIFA nolikey their non footie court involvement. Which leaves Celtic at the top and County in their caravans

Oh well 2 games in Eurpoe and fighting relegation because lets not kid about it the season St J just had was an exceptional one created by some very good loan signings who managed to do well and other bigger and better teams like Hearts & D Utd struggled to gel as quickly. But to think that will be repeated would be unrealistic - good luck to Tade but he wasnt exceptional for us this year and still has a lot of improvement in his game, sad he wasnt willing to do that with us.

Going to laugh my t*ts off if this turns out to be Jonny playing the ultimate wind-up on Aberdeen.

He will sign for them, it's a no-brainer for Jonny there's a Nando's in Aberdeen...

I fear the same. Butcher doesnt have a great history in the transfer market (baring a couple of gems) so its going to be an interesting summer trying to sign quality with a reduced budget

The club only issue statements about Gavin Morrison. Johnny Hayes "lying" on Twitter about a move being brokered by his agent is about as believable as Ross Tokely "lying" to the media about his discussions with the club about his future !!

Sorry but the Saints in Europe thing isn't going to last long is it? Couple of games at most perhaps?

If the squad isn't significantly improved I can see relegation next season .

As many have stated our pre season is crucial, at present we have only weakend the squad so yes I am very worried, do I trust Butcher to fix it, no I am afraid not.

If you weren't worried before you should be now!!

Can't help thinking he'll regret this move.

Bottle Crashing (sorry Heilandee )

A "secret highland hideaway" = any house north of Perth

One of the most sensible posts I've read on this site in a very long time.

It's a sad day when even Tade doesn't really want to stay with us.

I am a little worried about the future for ICT but I think that stems from the shambles that is the SPL at the moment. I don’t think I would be as worried if there weren’t issues over future TV money and league restructuring I’m not sure I buy into this point of view that we need local players in the team to ensure passion and loyalty. These are characteristics of a person that are down to the individual rather than where he is from. Given the choice between having a successful team with a team made up of not local players or a poor team full of local players I know which one most of us would choose. I think our current spell of bad form is not down to the fact we dont have a lot of local players in the team but more down to the fact our budget and geography dictates we can only buy players of a certain quality IMO I would be great if we could fill our team with local talented youngsters and do well in the SPL but I doubt we will ever see this. Football is a primarily a business and loyalty to local players or indeed long serving players is becoming a thing of the past. Not saying I like it but its becoming part and parcel of the game Using ICT as an example I think the days of us filling a team with numerous local players are long gone. I think more often than not in the coming years we will be filling teams with a mix of Scottish players from the central belt and English youngsters released from bigger clubs. The only exception to this will be a few young players ( similar to the likes Nick Ross, Gavin Morrison etc) on the fringes of the squad and maybe the odd local player doing well becoming a first team mainstay (similar to Munro) To look at the theory that many other teams/managers use predominantly local players in their teams I'm not sure I buy into this either. Ross County currently have only three players born relatively local to Dingwall (Michael Fraser - Drumnadrochit, Grant Munro - Inverness and Alec Cooper - Inverness) hardly bristling with local talent! St Johnstone have only 2 players in their first team who were born in Perth in Kevin Moon and Stevie May. Aberdeen seem to recruit strongly in Aberdeen with 9 locally born players in their first team but have been largely disappointing in the last 5 seasons if not more. Dundee United have 2 players born in Dundee with a 3rd joining them this summer in Michael Gardyne. The old firm have hardly been well know for filling their first teams with local talent and Hearts and Hibs teams are more often than not filled with foreign players. I think the idea that players are only loyal to a club if they are born in the city they play is fast becoming a myth. Money is often the only thing that players play for nowadays. I think the days when players like Giggs and Scholes play their entire careers at one club are going to be a thing of the past. Loyalty these days is a very rare thing and more often than not money speaks louder than anything

I think people get pulled in a certain direction including myself with regards to punishing the greedy b#####ds. If it was a club like Kilmarnock, and for instance a company who loans money to Killy and carries their dept suddenly goes bust and the receivers want the dept called in then Killy may be no more.Just only a possible example. But this hasn't happened to Kilmarnock, its happened to a big greedy club, a club that will beat most of the clubs it plays due to its spending power, a club that will steal your best players just to have them sitting on a bench, a club that will go bust and still have the money to fly from Glasgow to Inverness and stay in a 4* hotel but cant afford to hand over the money for tickets it sold to their own fans to watch an away game. a club that will overspend with the hope of getting a greater return from the cups it competes in. A club that steals your locals so they can call themselves Rangers fans just so they can cling on to a bit of success and rejoice if their adopted Glasgow club beats the team of their place of birth. A club that refuses to share more of the SPL kitty to the rest, just to weaken the rest of Scottish football. If it was a small club that was in difficulty I think I would be compassionate to them but its happened to a club that takes,takes then takes some more. What ever sanctions are put in place all they have to do is spend more cash and get a good lawyer to overthrow any handicaps put in front of them, just like the bans handed out to Lennon. I say take what you can get from them.

Luke if you get worried I WILL be worried! Ask me if I'm worried in June. There's 2 things that worry me the demise of ict and armageddon. I am worried about being worried about not having enough players next season. So in a way i am indirectly worried.

Must admit Morgan Spice echos alot of my points but Butcher had no way of winning it. If he had signed most of these guys on long term deals and theyd been cack then we would be moaning about how they should have been given short term deals and built upon them if they impress and vice versa if they were quaility signings but only on 1 year deals. I am worried becuase up until this summer we always had the core of stalwarts to rely upon and build the team around each summer but we no longer have the support following the mass exodus of last year. There isnt really an answer to it. We can only keep what we can and hope that the new signings impress. May not fill folks with confidence but that is all that can be done.

I'm not really that fussed to be honest. Flattered to deceive a lot of time and can be easily replaced. Nick Ross and Andrew Shinnie to name just two are players in the squad who for my money are the better ball players.