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indeed, simile, metaphor etc should not always be taken literally, but if you use words that can have both a literal and figurative meaning within the same context, then you are going to cause confusion. Perhaps you would like Queens Park to resign from the SPFL forthwith, given that they are (literally) a bunch of amateurs? How can they possibly compete in a professional league? If you are trying to equate amateur with poorly run, then I think you have got your head up your backside. One of the biggest professional clubs in Scotland has been one of the worst run from a footballing point view for a number of years. I'll give you this - you've managed to unite Caley and Thistle fans a lot more quickly than the merger did!

The fact that we don't need to wait for the outcome of a previous match and that we are at home first means there is maximum time to make arrange for getting to Romania. Astra may have given Celtic a hard time last year - but they lost. We gave Celtic a hard time and won so there is no reason to think we can't win this. What you need to beat an Astra is a Cavalier approach.

As a shareholder, my dividend is seeing the club do well ..... I could care less if we make £10K profit or £500K provided that those tasked with the stewardship of the club are seen to be doing a good job and maximising our income (or minimising our loss) whilst providing the manager the funds to ensure he can get the lads to do the business on the pitch. Unlike some other teams we are very lucky and although its a huge juggling act our board have done it succesfully for a number of years.

Looks like Cumbernauld!

As a member of Caledonian back then, I 'happen to know' that the Caley wage bill in the 91-2 season was £130 000. Thistle can speak for themselves but Caley were a far more professional club than many lower-league SFL (as it was then) clubs. Evidence being their trepidation when the draw was made for the early rounds of the Cup when they knew they were as good as out. Mind you, you're probably right in that the HL did not have the quality in depth that the SFL lower leagues had, as Caley Thistle found out in 1994 when they were getting a hard fixture every week instead of getting large scores against the weaker HL clubs and only finished 6th out of 10, but apparently some other Highland club managed 3rd that year You say that remuneration does not correlate with ability but in football, which is largely the free market, it mainly does. SPFL players are not all full time. Maybe you mean the Premiership but as far as I know, part time clubs can reach the Premiership. The bottom two divisions are part time and I know that some of them are paying only about £60 p/w. I know this because I am involved with a Lowland League club and many players switch back and forward between the LL and League 2.

Just noticed that our twin town /city Augsburg are like ICT entering the Europa Cup for the first time! Not just that but they also formed through a merger of two local teams in 1969 between TSV Shwaben and BC Augburg, unfortunately the similarities end their as having finished in 5th place in the Bundesliga they are already in the group stages of the competition proper. Would be great to meet up with our German cousins at this stage of the tournament though....

Accounts are employed for the reason that they are a statutory requirement for a limited company. Failure to produce accounts on time can lead to sanctions up to and including the strike off of a company from the register of limited companies. In addition, failure to produce timely accounts could lead to sanctions from the footballing authorities, and would lead to the witholding of a uefa licence. Clubs employ accountants to minimise the amount of tax they have to pay, and private limited companies tend to produce accounts containing the least information legally required. To give more than that would be commercially naive. I was originally going to say there were three reasons for employing accountants with the third being to comply with legal and statutory requirements. But then it occurred to me that many companies (not ICT, of course) employ accountants to conceal the fact that there are some legal and statutory requirements that they are not complying with. Such companies usually engage the services of expensive lawyers as well. I'd better stop now or I might need one myself.

Unlike the one in Armenia St Johnstone are going to! that could have been us if we never won the cup!

Tripadvisor only has one entry under "things to do in Giurgiu" and that is to go to the "Bridge of Friendship" which takes you across the Danube and out of the country. It sounds like a smaller version of Hull.

Oh no! I've booked flights to Budapest

some travel info from Celtic's away trip there last year: https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/football-travel-advice-afc-astra-versus-celtic-fc

I have hesitated to post this until I was finally convinced that we are dealing here with the intractably stubborn and the voluntarily ineducable. Captain... I am one of the several people on here who have been telling you for some days now that your concept of the earlier history of Inverness football is woefully off the mark and hopelessly uninformed. If you are still unable to grasp the realities, the Administrators of this site, in 2011, were kind enough to place on here an online version of "Against All Odds", the official history of the formation of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. This was originally published in paperback 1997 and a special "prequel" chapter specifically about Thistle's and Caley's Highland League days was added when the book went online. Although the author has been following Highland League football since the mid 1960s and reporting in both national and local media on the Highland and Scottish Leagues since the mid 80s, he would still want to defer to the superior knowledge and experience of the Highland League of a number of the other posters on here who have also been trying to tell you the same thing. I don't, for instance, suppose you know that Andy Penman, ex Rangers and Dundee, also spent time playing for Caledonian and that Billy Urquhart, after he left Caledonian for Rangers and Wigan also came back to play there? I also don't suppose you know that Caledonian were good enough to produce and sell on players such as Kevin MacDonald who did the English League and Cup double with Liverpool in 1985? And I also suppose you are unaware that in the early 1990s, Thistle were ambitious enough to engage that Dunfermline legend Jim Leishman as their manager. And there's a lot more..... Oh...and have you ever asked the question "Who's Chic Allan anyway?" Or maybe I could offer you some more concise advice. STOP DIGGING!

Looks like flight to Bucharest then bus/train to Giurgiu. No cheap flights to Bucharest from Scotland I think. I wonder if the club will charter a plane ?

If the point you are trying but struggling, through ignorance and arrogance, to make is that ICT are playing at much higher level and with a much higher profile that either Thistle or Caley were or could reasonably aspire to then few will disagree with you. A little more humility and a lot less high handed arrogance when helpfully corrected by those that clearly know their subject more than you do would not go amiss.

and come out the victors. boom boom!

Astra away on the 23rd?

I don't get that? Surely the number of seeds has to remain for the draw to work? I don't get that? Surely the number of seeds has to remain for the draw to work? there were 102 teams in round 1, the 51 with the highest coefficient being seeded. There are 66 in round 2, the top 33 being seeded. Because the rounds are drawn together, UEFA seed assuming that the team with the highest coefficient will win in round 1 when seeding for round 2. An unseeded team in round 1 could be seeded in round 2 if the beat a seed with a high enough coefficient remember, this is uefa, so it's not meant to be simple to understand

West Ham are seeded for round 1, if they play Newport and new port win then Newport would then be seeded for round 2 because West Ham are already seeded for round 2 If Valetta who are seeded for round 1 play Newport and new port win they are both still unseeded for round 2 meaning we cant play either.

So we shouldn't take what you say literally? How on earth are we supposed to know what you are saying?

Looking at the draw from Round 1 we can no longer play anyone from Wales as well as Austria, Liechtenstein, Israel, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Russia, Italy, Ukraine, France, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Macedonia, Ireland, Malta, Armenia, Gibraltar,

As an ICT fan, I don't care who they draw...

Surreal, surely must be a dream....it just seems like yesterday I was standing in the rain at Kingsmills hoping for a late winner against Rothes and now I am waiting to hear what team we are going to draw in Europe. Simply magnificent

The Immortal One's only gone and made a bloody song.....

I believe that to be the case, but only after a little known anomaly which continued immediately post-merger. Caley Thistle was initially funded by both Thistle and Caley voting to invest their assets in the new club. The votes which finally secured these decisions were not taken until December 1994 - four months after Caley Thistle started playing in the Third Division. In the case of Caley, there had been a huge influx of new season ticketholders in the autumn of 1993 for the "Rose Street 1" second vote on the merger. These were due to expire at the end of the season in May 1994 but it was agreed that they would be left open until such time as the asset question was settled - in other words December 1994. Now at that point there had never been a two-thirds majority to change the Constitution in any respect - hence the move to invest the assets in the new club which could be and was done on a 50% vote. As a result the club still existed, right down to the requirement to have a registered office in Telford Street Inverness! What I then believe happened was that the only members the constitutional shell of Caley by now had were the life members and they then quietly laid a great institution (which for the last few months had been "On A Life Support Machine") quietly to rest by winding it up with the kind of dignity which had unfortunately eluded it during its final 18 months of constitutional life.

That's that sort of 'flippant' remark that does nobody any favours, and could be inflammatory! ICT are not a continuation of Caledonian (Caley)! Inverness then, is unrecognisable to what it's like now - from a town of 30k to now 80k in such a small time-scale is incredible. Back in the 80s/early 90s, Inverness Thistle or Caley 'going to the wall' would have been a blow to the town. Not financially, but they were simply part of the fabric. For both to 'fold' at-the-same-time was unthinkable...it was a risk, and the 'timing' had to be right. The vacancy, after 20 years, with no further opportunity in sight, had to be taken. The 'risk' involved in dissolving two 'great' (locally) clubs was certainly right. The opportunity was there to apply (and be accepted) to the Scottish League - despite interest from Gala (as usual) and others, it was virtually a fait accompli. Yes, the town lost two major institutions in its proud history - but a new one has been formed, perhaps mirroring the growth in the now City of Inverness. To suggest Caley still exist is absurd and frankly, legally inaccurate. Yes, 'Caley' is often used as the name for ICT, but that of course, is just a nickname, based on the shortening of the word Caledonian in our name. Any inference to the former 'Caledonian FC (Caley)' is unfortunately mistaken! Interested to see how many ex-Caledonian fans would be in favour of the club re-naming as simply Inverness FC?

I'm going to revise my saying of "One Great Club, Two Great Histories". I think we've now earned the right to say...... "ONE GREAT CLUB, THREE GREAT HISTORIES"

I'm not a fan of a Caley home and Thistle away concept, but I do think a red version of the home kit with two black stripes down the middle would look pretty cool. It'd also be nice if the club opted not to go with a white or ICT coloured away in some fashion and go with something different for a change. I'm bored of white away/third kits, though black seems to be a non-starter.

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this thread titled ICT in Europe. I dont think the opening poster intended it to be a debate on the merits of English clubs Laurence. If you want a debate on such then please start it in Other Football.

The Champions League is much more about making even more money for the wealthiest clubs and much less about fairness and sporting merit. The European Cup,where the league champions of each of the European nations competed against one another on merit and on an equal footing was an inspired post war idea and served the continent well until the accountants started running the game. The view that ' Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City could give any team in the world a good game' is an utter irrelevance.

The top 4 teams in England have got to be in the Champions league. No question about that Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United , Manchester City, Could give any team in the world a good game. Of course there should be a question. If they don't progress as well as teams from nations who have less places, why on earth should they continue to have four places? Teams should be there on merit. The real scandal to me is the way that failure in the Champions League system get a 2nd bite of the cherry in the Europa League. The name of the tournament is the 'Champions' League. Arsenal haven't won the English Premier League for about a decade. A couple of years back, Spurs were in it. They haven't won it since the 1960s! Hardly 'champions' to take part in the Champions League. Seems awfully unfair as well that a team in one country wins their league and have to go through a couple of qualifying rounds while another can finish 4th...4th! and get straight in. If Uefa want to include these teams, they should really look at expanding the Europa League or even bringing back the Cup Winners Cup.

One great club...making great history

Well generally most metaphors, similies and other similar language techniques are in written form. They don't necessarily need to be published articles to be used. I mean I would have thought it would be quite obvious to most that I don't literally mean that the highland league is pub team football (its not played on a Sunday for starters). And that the term amateur often gets banded around in football. Admittedly more when a player makes an error "that's amateur stuff that". Now it's not saying the player is indeed an amatuer, but what's been seen is something you'd expect at a lower level, or indeed the lack of nous displayed is something even amateurs would know. As in its not high level stuff. Entry level. Whatever your fondness for the Highland league and similar lowland leagues may be, they are entry level (semi) professional leagues. The bottom level before it really starts to actually become amateur (though take note that I also stress, the highest level before national league football and not necessarily a lower standard as has been adamantly put across in previous HL promotional posts). There is a gulf therefore between there and top level SPFL. From where it started, to now. So no, to answer your question, I don't think you should always take anything I say, or indeed what others say, literally. Rather look at what the context is as much or more than content. And what is being said rather than the words used. Then process it and understand what is indeed being said.