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let the man finish his 'holiday' first.

I definitely agree with Renegade that there is something 'not right' about the club's silence on this rumour. I supported the club's stance all through the saga of not publishing the amount of tickets sold for the cup final, and even for their coyness about publishing the amount of season tickets sold so far. I sort of get their reluctance to go public on anything to do with money. But this Latapy issue really confounds me. If there is nothing in it, why not come out and deny it and put everyone's mind at rest. If there is something in it, then give us credit for being reasonably intelligent and let us know what is going on. I, for one, cannot believe that it was just coincidence that Rice apparently was in the dugout for the Deveronvale game. I believe that the majority of posters on here are honest, serious ICT supporters and I think we deserve better communication from the club on this issue. I've only written to the chairman once before (on the kicking Rangers out of the SPL issue), but I'm tempted to contact him again over this. Come on ICT, treat us like adults!

Incredibly, this technically starts tomorrow! We don't enter until the 4th Round (which is now in 'back' in its traditional January slot), but the draw for the opening stages is being held tomorrow at Hampden. Davie Moyes drawing out teams he'll never have heard of! Interestingly, no 'first time' winner has retained the trophy since the 1870s. To my knowledge, this seasons competition will have the most ever clubs with 92. And with 2 preliminary rounds scheduled, there are effectively 10 rounds of competition - again a record. In the old North of Scotland Qualifying Cup, if I remember, the 16 Highland League teams had to win two games to reach the semi-finals, and qualification to the Scottish Cup. Then (the Scottish Cup) had 4 rounds before the quarter-finals...so a total of 9 matches to win the whole thing! (sometimes even a bye in Round 1 was a possibility). But this season's marathon means that when we enter, 5 of the 10 rounds will already have been played, and 60 of the 92 clubs will have been eliminated! The 2 preliminary rounds are drawn tomorrow with the Scottish Amateur Cup winners involved for the first time - apparently a team called Harestanes from Kirkintilloch who play on a public park!

Now have 7 coaches booked for Bucharest - Giurgiu transfer!

Saints out. Dons through **** just got real!!! Would have been a disaster being the only Scottish team left in the competition so happy to see Dons get through.

Just seen that our U20s squad had a game tonight against Strathspey Thistle which finished 4-4. Our scorers were Andrew Macrae, Jaime Wilson, Ali Sutherland and Stephen Rennie.

Rather discuss this in the Main Forum but would be interested to know how many people from outside of the Highlands are going to Romania but NOT taking in the home game - and why ? I am still not sure and that is from a financial perspective and travelling midweek to an evening game is really difficult. I could drive up and back but that is draining fer an old mannie. When I priced up the train it would probably cost me £100+ without the cheap rates. Add on hotel, drinking money etc and I actually reckon that going to Sneck would be on a par financially to my Romania trip. I may well go in the end as it is history in the making and summat I really want to be part of. But the doubt appears to be shared by many. What worries me is what if we feckin go through !!

9 July Jason Oswell again, for Newton in their 2nd leg win in Malta

If this is true it will be an absolute disgrace, and we will be the laughing stock of Scottish Football. Come on all you supporters who joined us for the Cup Final, and make this another night of celebration for Yogi and the boys who represent our city. Lets show Europe the real INVERNESS.

Now, I know the club have been on holidays.. staff included, I presume and knowing finances and time are a primary resource to anything and everything but I'm a little disappointed that there doesn't seem to have been even an ounce of the hype the club were drumming up for the final. I understand it's natural to put a bit more effort into something that could directly reward you if it pulls off, just like the cup final but this is a completely different forray into football territory, yet equally leveled with the cup final, I feel. I may just be blind and not have noticed anything in the town center on ad boards or such but all I've seen is it coming from sources like this forum and the club website.. all very well for the regulars that visit and know fine well of the occasion. Should we make it to the next round, I for one would be happy to see what we could do to drum up attention for the home leg, getting those who were happy to come to the final, make the same effort and garner their passion for the home legs.

Interesting question ! I can't make the game in Romania due to a long standing previous commitment. But I am sure it would have been cheaper for me to get there from down here in Berkshire than it will be for my trip to Inverness next week for the 1st leg. When I add up flights, parking at Heathrow, hotel, car hire for a day, ticket, food and booze I'll be lucky to see any change from £500. Pretty sure I could have got to Romania cheaper.

A very crude comparison would suggest that as England has 10 times the population of Scotland it should have 10 football clubs for every 1 in Scotland. Top tier in Scotland has 12 clubs so it seems reasonable that the 2nd tier could be seen as broadly comparable with the level below the 92 clubs in the football league. I think what we see of Conference (now the "National" league) football and the players who emerge from there bear this out as a reasonable comparison.

Clubs have played in European games for decades we all know through TV, radio or other media that the games generally are on are on at 7.45pm (1945) regardless of CL or EL, unless away from home and time differences. This is a ticket time printing error and either a quick call to the club or search on the net (official ICT site http://ictfc.com/matches/fixture-list) will tell the time for anyone unsure - calling for the club to reissue tickets is extreme and a cost tahts un-necessary. Nobody expects a 12.00am (not 12.08am) KO time and certainly not for Romanian (not Rumanian) TV as they are +2 hours from us, why would they want a 2am game for local TV?

I like the photo of the Gellions charter

When my mates come and visit me I often get them to come into my place of work and start helping me out with my job. Nothing unusual there.

In order for Latapy to speak to another club, said club wishing to talk to him would have to be granted access by ICT. When Hibs came in for Butcher and Malpas (and Marsella possibly as well), there was no big secret. We all knew what was happening and got on with it. What's happened this time is very weird. In the eyes of the fans, our assistant manager has literally disappeared into thin air. Surely more and more people are starting to find that very strange. If he's speaking to another club, just say. If he's resigned for some reason, just say. If he's taken a leave of absence for some reason, just say. You don't have to go into too much detail, especially if it's a personal matter, but just clarify the situation for the fans. What I do find very strange, as I alluded to in my previous post, was that Latapy's disappearance, has happened almost magically at the same time Brian Rice is here 'on holiday'. Now I know it's not beyond the realms of possibility that he was here by chance, but the fact that all of a sudden he actually has an active role in managing the team is very strange indeed. If he was up visiting Hughes as normal and took in a game from the stand, no-one would bat an eyelid. The fact though that he's in the dugout shouting instructions and taking the half-time training of players he's not even in charge of, is simply bizarre. I'm sure most of the players, especially those from down south, have people coming up to visit them and take in a game all the time. You don't see them in training gear running up and down the side of the pitch warming up during the game pretending to be substitutes! As I said, the silence is becoming increasingly deafening, but what someone said about Hughes wanting Latapy's contract paid up is even more interesting. If Latapy had agreed a deal with another club or had resigned it wouldn't be an issue. He'd have his last pay cheque and that would be it. My question here is, has he been sacked? We all know Latapy has quite a 'party animal' reputation, but the fact he's simply disappeared with no explanation suggests that there could well be some rift behind the scenes. Have the club sacked him and kept it quiet in order to avoid any bad press in the run up to these European games? It's verging into the land of conspiracy theories, but with no explanation whatsoever, what more can you do? As time goes on, it's looking more and more likely that there's more to this than meets the eye. The key factor here for me is Brian Rice. Latapy disappears with no explanation and just by chance, Brian Rice (who would always have been a major candidate to be his replacement) just appears from nowhere. Is that all just a coincidence? More and more, I don't think so.

I'd guess that the ticket sales for the home tie might have something to do with it being £25. Seems a hell of a lot for a Europa qualifying tie. Not sure what the away ticket prices will be but I'll bet they'll not be that steep.

I don't do red dots, but suggesting we sign Lee Miller definitely tested my resolve.

I don't know how anyone could defend the club over this. It's too easy to blame the suppliers. Embarrassing not to have this sorted by now.

Giurgiu won't know what's hit it!

We signed up with Errea around 1999 just after we were promoted to the First Division. Errea seems to treat us if that's what we still are.

Let's put the pieces together here. It's no secret he'd like to be a manager in his own right again and Russell Latapy is linked with a move away from ICT, yet the club(s) he's applied for is not revealed. As soon as Latapy disappears, Brian Rice turns up out of nowhere on 'holiday'. Despite Rice being on 'holiday' he's in the dugout for two matches in full ICT gear, shouting instructions to the players and taking the training. Hughes seemingly now wants Latapy's deal paid out in full, despite him, as far as we know not being sacked. This presumably means that there's some issue behind the scenes between the board and Latapy. Should Latapy go, you'd put your house on Rice being the replacement. There is something not right about this whole saga. The silence from the club is becoming deafening IMO as well. Hughes seemed to suggest in the press that Latapy's absence is to speak to another club, but no-one seems to know what club or even what country they're in. There's not even been any mention of the club granting permission to speak to another club. I was told last season that Latapy 'hadn't been pulling his weight' at the club and I wonder if there's been some sort of fall-out behind closed doors.

Errea have been a shambles for years. I remember a few years back (the Flybe striped kit), the first team's kits didn't turn up until the week before the season started. We had to play almost all of pre-season in training kits. The black named away kit didn't turn up until October. Last season we were the last club to announce our new home kit (and not for the first time). Why the club have never called time on this mob I don't know. You'd have thought with the cup final still pretty fresh and the Europa League game next week, with the players back in, you'd have thought this week would be the perfect time to showcase the new away kit. Sadly though, I'm disappointed but not surprised.

Agree with you Scotty but even the lower league English clubs inc The Conference have released Errea kits weeks ago! Do Errea make our kits or do we buy a template and then print out own club crest and sponsor? No matter who's to blame I feel like the club has lost a great chance to get extra revenue through kit sales after the cup win and the European tie. This happens every season so why not address it a little bit earlier in year around April so we don't have these issues again?

Some well taken goals but it has to be said that the standard of defending at that level looked very poor and he would need to sharpen up for the Scottish Premiership. A contract until January initially ? As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending. Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship? Talk about talking the game in this country down. To suggest that our Premiership on a par with the conference is just about as ludicrous as your previously expressed view that the Highland League was and is amateurish pub football.... I think 'iamthecaptain' was surmising that Conference level teams might be on a par with Scottish Championship sides, not Scottish Premiership. He could have a point in my opinion. Certainly I think top conference sides would give lower Scottish Championship sides a run for their money.

Definitely a left back! reading Tremarco's interview in todays p&J he says that there is no need for Hughes to look further for a left back!!! very scared....

As mentioned before, make a show reel of a player banging in goals and he'll look great. But if you consistently see goals being scored then you'll see a fair bit of bad defending. Conference football. Probably on a par with the Scottish Championship? Talk about talking the game in this country down. To suggest that our Premiership on a par with the conference is just about as ludicrous as your previously expressed view that the Highland League was and is amateurish pub football.... Goes to show how little you bother reading (again). I clearly, as pointed out by several other who took the time to read and not jump the gun and be offended, said Scottish Championship. This is the 2nd tier in Scottish football. It was previously known as the 1st division. I think back in the 70s it was the 2nd division but that is many many years ago. I'm not saying that every conference team is as good as the Championship. Nor am I saying that the best teams in the Championship (Hibs, Falkirk, QotS et al) are of, without being deliberately demeaning, as low a standard as the Conference. But roughly, yeah. The Championship is probably on a par with the top Conference/League 2 teams. How do I figure this you might ask? Well, several of our players (a team who won a cup and finished 3rd in the TOP league - this being the Scottish Premiership) come from being released by league 1, 2 and conference teams. (Albeit some leave to try elsewhere on their own terms). So if our players are around, lets say, an approximate average league 1 side then it stands to reason that the Championship is possibly of a lower standard. Possibly. It's not an exact science. There are several variables. My point was simply to state that comparatively speaking the Scottish Premiership probably isn't so much of a leap up in defensive standards. Certainly not to the lofty heights some might dream it is. All that being said I'm not saying that players signed from the lower levels of the English game can't progress to being higher level players with the right training, competitive level and most importantly game time. This is pretty much why we sign young hungry players eager to prove a point. However they will be coming up against some players who have played at that level also. So it's a mixed bag.