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The best outcome for both club and player is for Ryan to continue his development at the club by signing a two year extention to his contract and to stay for at least another year before moving on to an English Premiership club for three million pounds plus add ons and a sell on percentage. If that means making him the highest paid player on the books so be it. A perfect opportunity for the club to speculate to accumulate. Win win for both club and player.

There are two basic reasons why teams like Dundee United command much higher fees than we do for promising young players. Firstly, they have the confidence and foresight to put them on three or four year contracts and secondly, and just as crucially, they have developed a reputation for being shrewd negotiators who will not be sold short or taken advantage of. We, on the other hand, up until now, have a reputation of being naïve soft touches who will wet ourselves with excitement at the prospect of a few hundred thousand pounds for our best players. Whether he goes now or later, Ryan represents a great opportunity to change that perception. Such is the money in the English Premiership just now that any team that truly rates him even as a prospect for the future ought to be paying at least two and a half times the figure of £600,000 being bandied about. We have been a top tier club, with a one season blip, for a decade now. High time we started conducting ourselves like one when it comes to these sort of negotiations.

Quite right CC 1 - 3..I was one who started getting peed off with Mac small c just before he started coming good,( For the benefit of those who generally jump down my throat ) I am not saying that Mr Lopez will become the same type of player as Mackay But he is already showing that he can find space and with fast wing play to feed him he coiuld start getting shots away and finding the net. I really cannot understand why so many posters are so ready to blame Yogi for any mishaps on and off the field, touting names that he should be looking at etc etc. surely they should understand that he knows what he is looking for and has his reasons for his decisions. It would ;have been great to have kept all the players we ;had but this is football life and it a'int easy on our budget. John is building our team to a shape that he wants and knows can be successful.We will see a difference as the league progresses, it is early days league wise. An example is the current criticism of Tansey and good explanation has been given of that in another post. John builds teams he doesn't collect individual stars and primadonnas.When our team starts to gel then the naysayers will be happy again, probably only 'till the next glitch arises, but some might just start believing again and maybe one day togetherNess will return.

Just curious whether people think the player gets a say in all of this ... Plenty of folk saying sign him up now, or sell him on for a huge fee, or the board should resign if they cant get him to re-sign etc. As far as I know, Ryan does get a say in all of this and we cannot force him to sign up for longer, nor can we force him to accept a transfer (although he likely would given it would be a bigger team and wage). The club will do what they can to keep him for as long as they can, but they will not stand in the way of his progress. The Christie family have been, and I think always will be, very loyal to ICTFC so as and when Ryan goes, and he WILL go (onwards and upwards) I believe everyone will try to make it at a time that benefits everyone, or at least doesn't screw things up for everyone.

We need a Stephen Thomson to do the deal.

Common sense and good post Bughtmaster. Surely we can give Mr.Hughes just a WEE chance to settle a disrupted team. Remember the negativity thrown his way by some posters at the start of his tenure here and how well he shattered all that baloney by hard work, sticking to his policy and plan and getting the players to buy into his beliefs. So much so that we then end up with the Scottish Cup. No!!!!!!! Rome wasn't built in a day and it's not his fault at all that so many valuable players left all at once.

I'm sure that learning his craft here and emerging as a key player in the first team has been good for Christie's development, but to be honest, I don't see that he is going to develop a lot more here. He works his socks off most of the time but all too often there is such a lack of movement in front of him that he is forced to play safe balls square or backwards with the result that he creates relatively little end product. You can see the frustration at times. I think he has reached the stage where he needs to move in order to develop. He needs to move to a team with a more attack minded philosophy with players in front of him who can pull defenders out of position and create the spaces for the incisive passes he is capable of delivering. I can see the attraction of offering him a 2 or 3 year deal on a much higher salary in the hope that it leads to a significantly higher bid in a couple of years time, but there are a couple of huge risks in that. Firstly, with our limited resources, paying him significantly more means there is correspondingly less for others. He needs good players round him to bring out the best in him and we will not attract and retain good players if we can't afford the wages. Secondly, he may get injured or simply fail to fulfill his potential. If that happens then we keep paying a high wage for an asset who is not actually worth too much. Personally I think the best option for him and the club would be for us to cash in whilst we can and get a realistic (7 figure) price for him in this transfer window. With Vincent, Doran and Roberts all due to return from injury, with Williams potentially available for midfield duties on Tremarco's return from injury, plus the re-signing of Vigurs, we have a lot of decent players in midfield. Where we have a problem is up front. With £1m+ in the bank we have the opportunity of attracting a better striker. We also have far too many players on contracts which expire at the end of the season and this would also give us the opportunity to offer a little more to players the manager is keen to keep. In selling Ryan, a loan clause would be an option but not an important one as far as I'm concerned. What would be far more important is to get some clause for a cut in any future sale of the player. Yes, we would miss him if he went but personally I think the benefit of the major cash boost would more than compensate for that. He is now at the stage where he will develop more without us, and with the cash boost his sale might generate I think the club would develop more without him. It's time for him to move on with our very best wishes for his future.

He's a hard worker and scores goals. Always looked dangerous whenever I saw him. I'd be willing to take a punt.

That is exactly why the club needs to address the issue NOW and not at the end of the year. If we allow Ryan to go in the Jan window under a pre-contract, our board should resign. A bit harsh considering they are the board who have kept us in the black at the same time as overseeing the most successful period on the field in our history.

If it is indeed a premiership team that gets Ryan Christie this window, I also wouldn't mind us making a deal where we get a couple players from their youth set up in on loan. If we did that then there could be a good chance that we could become a feeder club to Swansea for example.

Totallly agree with Kingsmills. However, this story seems to be gathering pace: I never really get how fees are arrived at - my limited understanding of economics would suggest that value = "whatever somebody will pay". But it is slightly different in the case of a small club like ours, where value seems to = "whatever we can't refuse" (which appears to be not very much!) On that basis, I would not be the slightest bit surprised if he went for £500k or less. however, it might help if there are a few clubs in for him, particularly Barclays Prem clubs. The new TV deal down there means that a couple of million is loose change and could easily be gambled on a punt. Let's hope that there is some way that we can keep this talented football with us for another year AND still get market value for him when he moves on to better his career! Fingers crossed!

We need pace and work rate over the need for a new striker as such IMHO as we're lacking penetration and the ability to stretch the opposition. And if he can play up front it will be interesting to see how the situation develops. Billy Mckay wasn't an out and out striker when he was signed and had a very mediocre goal record. However he was converted into a goal getter. Utilising his key attributes pace and work rate. As for Lopez, I haven't seen enough of him to see if he's really an out and out striker. Some have noted a poor work rate but the British mentality of running your socks off isn't always the best option. Intelligent movement. But work rate aside he's been starved of service. We're just not creating service and clear cut chances. And not creating chances makes strikers look isolated and poor. Seems Hughes views in the Scotsman compliment my thoughts. “We’ve got a boy, Toby Ajala, in on trial from Torquay, and what we’re looking for is someone who makes defenders take a step back, because they’re strong and quick. It will give us room to play. A lot of what we’re doing is in front of teams. We need to be more cutting and dynamic in the final third. “Toby’s an out-and-out striker and looked sharp yesterday morning. He came and watched the Partick Thistle game and, hopefully, he might be the one"

Big fan of players with pace to burn. Something we don't have a lot of to be honest. Perhaps this lad could be another Hayes type player. I look forward to him signing for Aberdeen in 2017.

Match fitness is only an excuse for his poor performance. The guy ain't got it.

Positives - Top class performance from the full backs. Williams looks every bit as good as Shinnie. - Owain Fon Williams was terrific again. - Polworth and Horner put in a great shift. - Vigurs looks promising. Hard to be too negative with a clean sheet and a point against a bogey team. We certainly rode our luck at the back at times but got away with it. The big downer has to be the lack of action in the final third for the first 85 minutes. Christie had an off night. Mutombo showed some decent touches, but no end product. Lopez looked isolated, and bereft of confidence. The bottom line is, we've scored 1 goal in 7 and a half hours of football. Not good enough.

Full Time 0-0 well I suppose that's a point more than we took off of them last year BBC Stats Possession Caley 55% 5 Shots 3 on target 3 corners Partick 45% 7 shots 4 on target definitely need a striker by the looks of it

If he's a Inverness player now then he's got my full support. The past is the past. Neither player or fan were exactly courteous towards each other after he left but it was hand bags at dawn nonsense. Let bygones be bygones. So long as he gives his upmost for the team I'm happy. And if he scores the occasional free kick against county then all the better.

Should I be concerned the latest deals are back to the one year deals we loathed for so long just a few seasons ago?

Come off it mate.. he is from ICT and Butcher said he was surplus to requirements... not his fault. Saying that his club choice was poor Great signing .... and significantly our first Scottish signing in feck knows how long... also he is one of our own although he does need a good wash! Hated him because I was gutted he left and went to County because he was at that time the most talented players we have produced. He's had his time away and will be hungry to impress. With him and Tansey we have 2 of the best set piece takers in the league. Also with Vigurs competing for a midfield position it frees Williams up as a left back so does.. in a way give us defensive cover NOW WE NEED A STRIKER!

Disgraceful post. Vigurs is a talented player with an poor attitude in the past and a bit of 'history' with ICT and our fans resulting in mixed views on whether we are wise to sign him. Evans is a disgusting convicted and, worse, unrepentant rapist who no right thinking fan would want within a million miles of this or any other club.

Left sided, hungry, a point to prove. Welcome back.

An excellent piece of business IMO. One of the best set piece takers / passers of a football in the country. Can see him contributing plenty of goals and assists. How often do we fail to turn dominance into goals for lack of a composed 'final ball'. Vigurs could be the missing piece of the jigsaw in that respect. Also pretty excited to see how well he links up with other intelligent players like Christie and Vincent. These kind of guys tend to bring the best out of each other.

I dislike Aberdeen probably more than anyone on here having lived there for so long but even I can't bring myself to deny the fact that they have an excellent squad of players and a superb starting XI now. The Dons thoroughly deserved second spot last season. Our one poor spell was basically three months without a win in the league - there is no way you can expect to secure second spot with that kind of form. Their team is excellent and they showed that on plenty of occasions last season - their long unbeaten run, often coming from behind to win games something previous Aberdeen sides hadn't been doing, winning games despite not playing well etc. Aberdeen appear to have improved on what they achieved last season with some of their signings and some strong showings in Europe whereas we have lost some of our best players and it can be argued that they've not really been replaced though time will tell on that one. I'm away to wash my hands. I feel dirty after typing up a positive post on Aberdeen.

I think Struan might have executed his plan well, plenty of biters.

That is exactly why the club needs to address the issue NOW and not at the end of the year. If we allow Ryan to go in the Jan window under a pre-contract, our board should resign.

Maybe I'm too old and cynical. Vigurs arrives , Christie for sale signs go up and the spin is he can only go if he comes back on loan (so that's the starting position for bid negotiations) or the other scenario is everybody is skint so the whiff of a news story gets blown out proportion. E.g celtic sign championship player for buttons sensation! In answer to the question nothing. One more season and retaining the cup. Forget the money that'll just disappear but the memories will last longer.