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I'd be disappointed to lose Shinnie even for £300,000 to an English club, but £30,000?! And to our rivals, Aberdeen! The disappointment would turn to outrage if this came to pass... He's our player and we don't need to sell him - there's the argument that we could lose him for nothing at the end of the season when his contract expires. £30,000 is virtualy that - nothing! It's the equivalent of gate receipts (assuming £25 entry) of just 1,200 fans. It would also send out the message that we're 'easy to deal with' ie a soft touch, and would likely encourage ludicrous, speculative bids for Billy McKay, with clubs sensing they could get him on the cheap. We'll get the 'we don't want to stand in his way' patter, but we should play hard-ball - he was happy enough to sign the contract and accept the plaudits for demonstrating his loyalty. It was our club who nurtured him with shrewd integration into the first-team including a timely loan deal to the Highland League earlier in his development. He's proved to be a consistent, versatile and reliable performer for the past few seasons. With his best years yet to come and the fact he is under contract, we should be looking for considerable compensation here. If he is to go, we must ensure there are all sorts of clauses in the contract regarding future appearances, international call-ups and selling-on fees because Graeme Shinnie has an outstanding career ahead of him. I hope the board show some backbone.

Our club is no different to other small clubs in Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Thailand, India or Mauritania, that is suffering at the hands of the EPL's propaganda. Theres been lots of talk over the years about Inverness based Old Firm fans but the town will be no different to everywhere else in the world, in that young people are picking a shade of Red or Blue to support from down south. The Old Firm themselves will continue to suffer a loss of new fans to these clubs as the years roll on, even in areas of Northern Ireland where wearing one strip or the other was once considered a school uniform, the kids are all decked out in Liverpool or Man United tops. You see it in Glasgow as much as anywhere, just step into a pub on a Sunday afternoon when theres a 'big' game on and you'll find dozens more people taking in the EPL than whatever Scottish game Sky is taking pity on that day, even if the Old Firm are in action. The facts is that all entertainment is global and easily accessed anywhere, at any time, for virtually free on a phone or at home in any quality of coverage you choose to pay for. You wouldn't expect somebody to only go see Scottish Films, listen to Scottish Music or watch nothing but BBC Scotland, so why should football be any different? Theres no way to compete with the investment Sky and now BT have made, sadly joe public in general has the attention span of a ADHD goldfish and like nothing more than having their entertainment spoon-fed to them. Raising or loweirng ticket prices will have no affect on crowds now or in the future regardless of who the first team coach is, in the short term there will be a section of fans that it might encourage along but over time they will be bred out of existence too. The last throw of the dice for Scottish football IMO is a summer league, where we get 3 months of EPL-less football to make a name for ourselves in. If clubs worry abotu losing the festive revenue then surely something like the League or Scottish Cup games could be re-arranged to be played over Christmas, like pre-season friendlies?

Oh that makes me dizzy that.

Lord give me strength........................next it'll beYogi linked with Celtic and Shearer with Blackburn.

I think you're all missing the real issue. As I've said before, we're in competition with Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid etc and its a competition us and the rest of world football are losing heavily (Old Firm included). Busing schoolkids from Tain to watch football will not work, when they can easily sit on the toilet and watch Real Madrid on their phones for free. We've been living in a globalised world for years now and its really starting to take its toll. Part of the reason the Old Firm readily found new recruits all over the country was the blanket media coverage given to them by the Scottish Press, there was always something to talk about no matter how pointless the gossip. You're more likely to see kids/teenagers in Inverness and everywhere else wearing Chelsea or Liverpool tops than either of the Old Firms. As the influence of the printed press in Scotland decreases, the number of new fans who gravitate towards the sides most overly hyped in the media they do take in, is going through the roof. Once upon a time the fans of the Inverness clubs had a 'big' team which continued over the years until we were on a level playing field with them. Nothings really changed in that regards, as a huge number of our younger fans will call on the likes of Liverpool or Arsenal as their 'big' team. You cannot compete with the investment the TV firms globally have made into the top sides propoganda, so why bother. A switch to summer football for me is the only easy solution, 3 months with no EPL games on TV and the chance to catch potential new fans attention. You cant fault somebody in Inverness thinking 'f#ck this' when having to choose between sitting down the dump in the freezing cold for £20 on a Saturday afternoon or waiting until 5.15 for the evening EPL kick off while having a drink, with their feet up.

I think you would be very surprised how many fans we have in all of the locations you mentioned and beyond. We could have easily taken more buses from Dornoch/Tain and Moray area to the cup final. ICT have done a lot of good work, sorry thats a bit of an understatement. ICT have done a lot of terrific work looking after fans far and wide. Time and time again you hear of ICT lending a helping hand, children upset because their school garden gets vandalised at North Kessock, a boy getting his shirt replaced from up North, Eagle for Caleys brother getting shown around the staidum. Healthy eating in schools. I also believe more good news is on the way.

Would love to have Hayes back but cant see it. Hayes is being used as a 'model' for the new Aberdeen kit this season so would have thought it would be unlikely they would use him to promote their new strip if he were to be leaving. Incidentally I think the Shinnie link with Aberdeen is pure and utter fantasy. Our chairman has already said it would take a very special offer to let any of our players move this summer. £30k is an absolute insult as far as Shinnies current ability and potential go

All I want to see is good exciting football with teams competing right from the outset and not settling for safe draws. If I have to make a choice I'll back the little urchin's team for the sake of the Auld Alliance or Spain. Not anti English by any means but hate their exaggerated hype when it comes to football, especially from their commentators, besides they are not at home, I don't think they are good enough and have had to qualify to get to the finals. Three good reasons for them not to win.

Nobody should be too surprised if Qatar win it!

Not too bad Looks a bit like the corridor carpets in the Isle of Mull Hotel. Congratulations Fraz, you win the Most Random Post of the Month Award for May!

Got South Korea in a world cup sweepstake the other day. Easy money.

YOGI : ? Means ......."You Oll getting It?" Yep, we get that you need a break so you can come back fresh as paint and twice as energetic and ready for .. more success! Forget the naysayers and their ilk and set your goals high by getting us high on goals. And don't forget to consult the oracle -- the one and only IHE. He's ITCHING to gooooo as well.

Yes yogi can!!

I'd argue he was our best player last season and feel we should be offering him the best possible contract the club can afford. He's worthy of a better move than Aberdeen and we should invest in him now with an aim to both the club and GS benefitting from a better move in 12/18/24 months time. Following the chairmans words earlier this month accepting anything less than an outstanding offer would be a bitter pill to swallow.

Whether he wants to go or not I can't see that our board would sell him for 30,000 pounds under any circumstances.

Considering Mr Bannerman, who incidently is a sports journalist and not a political one, does have as much right as any other person to make his views known, and also considering that he hasn't posted anything since beginning of March then I think that spat is well out of order and constitutes nothing more than a personal abuse of said Mr Bannerman.

STV have some really interesting stats section for the football spod (like me!) The latest looks at the prem season as a whole. As I thought, the stat that really stands out is our failure to score a single goal from a direct free kick situation. In our defence, no team scored more than 2 goals in the whole season from free kicks, which I find astonishing. Assuming 2 direct free kicks per game in scoring positions, 2/76 shots at goal seems pretty appalling, never mind 0/76!!! http://sport.stv.tv/football/scottish-premier/276915-stats-zone-the-story-of-the-scottish-premiership-in-201314/ Is the Premiership technical ability so low that we can't get a couple of guys, with practice, to hit the target more often than that? You might think so, but actually the best in the world don't fare all that much better - conversion rates in EPL and La Liga look like they are around 4%. I'll not be getting out my seat in a hurry next time Greg Tansey lines one up from 20 yards next season....

And that is where the growth of the fan base is essential. There are many pre merger adults in Sneck. And I don't just mean the usual suspects. I mean the ones who were supporting the "bigger teams" whilst ICT was "growing". I know quite a few who went down to the a Dump on a fairly regular basis but now that ICT are on a level footing they have all turned back to their usual loves. Plus it is more expensive now to watch ICT from their perspectives. And as Dougal has oft points out there are a lot of incomers and they will have followed their own teams for years and will not just become avid ICT fans overnight. They will be the "watchers" and probably more apt to watch on the box. And all of the above will have offspring who they will probably be desperately influencing to follow Dads team. They and the children of Sneck are the ones that we have to attract. I feel that the numbers are slowly going and probably affected by some of the crazy non child friendly kick off times. There will always be the fight against the Old Filth for allegiances. Giving them cut price or free tickets may not give us any finances in the short term but will eventually. So as I have alluded to before it is the yoof that are our future. That will take time. And the last few times that I have been at the Dump it has been the Family Section that have started off any singing. But they will age and move along the sections. And parents must be encouraged when they see role models such as my good self.

This must be one of the most "off topic" threads ever

I can vouch for that. There's no way you could mask your identity. Nobody could make a mask big enough. apparently someone tried .... but in all seriousness, can we please keep the personal stuff off the boards. If any posters want to have a pop at each other then please do it by PM or elsewhere. The vast majority of us cant be arsed being stuck in the middle of these spats.

It's absurd to even try to pretend that our league compares favourably against England's. We've got about 9% of their population so can't expect to compete with their strength-in-depth. Our 2nd tier has some part-time clubs in it, while even most of England's top non-league clubs are full-time. For example, Dean Brill walked straight into our team despite being deemed surplice to requirements (as 3rd choice keeper) at a non-league side.

There will be 3 Scott Browns in our league next season (Celtic, St J, Aberdeen).

I wouldn't mind a change of supplier either to be honest, wearing our tops sometimes feels like I am about to go on the Tour de France! Have to admit Motherwell have two cracking tops with Macron for next year.

ABE now for sure. What is with the English obsession that Scottish people should support them. There is enough people in England they don't need our support. Rivalry is a major part of football, will Tottenham fans be supporting arsenal today as they are a London team? There is a particular fetish they have about Scottish people supporting their country and mock outrage when they say they don't care. Although it seems it's not just restricted to Scotland. If you watch the breakfast tv programmes especially the arrogance that everyone should care about the England football team is quite funny. Last time they would ask any American actor interviewed if they would be supporting England, when their own team was in the competition and in England's group. Shakira was also interview and got the same question! Why do they think that a Colombia married to one of the Spanish players would be supporting England. I wonder if Austrian's get asked every year if they will be supporting Germany.

Quite right Laurence, it is ridiculous those Jocks don't think or act how you want them to, especially after all this time you have lived in Jockoland, and given that they forced you to live among them. Poor show by the sweaties.