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Glory hunters! Pure and simple... We're no more immune to that than any other club in the country! Loads of new posters on this forum in the build-up - never to be heard of again. Literally thousands of 'fans' who attended that day who had never been to the TCS before. Literally thousands of fans who attended that day who have never been back to (or indeed, ever been to) the TCS since. We don't have 15,000 fans - we've 4,000. And if that doesn't increase after last season, then it simply never will.

I'm with the Bughtmaster. I'm thinking there's big financial difficulties at the club. Why else would they feel the need to pay off one of their most hard working and helpful members of staff. The club has struggled to balance the books for a few years now. The hope was that crowd figures would rise each year but that hasn't happened. There's no sugar daddy with blank cheques to keep us where we are. We pay the lowest player salaries in the league so there's no incentive for them to sign long term deals. Many have come from obscurity on a low wage to ressurect careers and will move on to better earnings as they get noticed. Just think what a SC medal is going to do for the CV. I think this is where JH is coming from. He cant build with players who want to better themselves and he can't offer them any incentive to want to stay. Whats the answer? I dont know but I better be of and get the Euromillions ticket bought.

At last Bughtmaster has encapsulated it. Yogi is fishing for the best outcome for him, the family and the club. Lets not treat him like Laura Grant.

A lot of people seem to be missing a very relevant point in John's attitude towards his new contract............which is the betterment of ICT in general He is looking to the future of the club as well as his own interests.........More stability in the running of the Team, giving the players better incentives to stay rather than accept losses to other Clubs. Making more positive measures within the structure to attract better players to come North. He dearly wants our Club to prosper rather than just survive. His personal feelings are positive about this area despite living away from his family, I get the feeling that given the right contract he would have his family move North with him but he would have to know that the Club would offer him security by giving him the ammunition to ensure that a permanent move to ICT would really be worthwhile and that the Club does want to lift themselves in the right direction and not just plod on as they have in the past going from manager to manager waiting for better offers to come in for them and any star players that materialise.

Hughes publicly stated during the Christie transfer to Celtic, that ICT wouldn't 'stand in the way' of anybody wanting to move-on and 'better themselves'. We were within our 'rights' to refuse any discussions between another club and our contracted player - but, we allowed talks to take place and the subsequent transfer to go through. I can understand Hughes must have found it galling that he wasn't afforded the same courtesy when Dundee United came calling! I'm convinced he was wanting to go there. Dundee United wouldn't have 'shown their hand' and made an approach without having some degree of certainty that Hughes was interested. They would have 'put out feelers' before contacting ICT, and doing so without 'tapping up'...lets just say that Agent's talk! With permission refused and a hands-off statement issued, DDU turned to Mixu and offered him a contract that would effectively be financially equivalent to a six-year-deal at ICT. This episode has seen Hughes revealing much to the media that should normally be kept in-house, with the Dundee Utd episode being the catalyst for his candour. Thinly veiled references to dynamics behind the scenes, frustration at his budget, disillusionment and a get-out strategy...all very evident. Interesting times ahead! Something not harmonious behind-closed-doors. Heck, we never did get a satisfactory explanation how the coaching guru, Russell Latapy left the club (want's to be a boss in his own right!), soon after replaced by a holiday-maker.

I think people are reading far too much into this article... Budgets - Clearly KC not giving him an answer on whether he is going to have anything from the Christie sale to spend, he's clearly looking for clarity, which KC won't be able to give until he really looks at what can be made available. "It's just before you sign that contract just getting to know exactly what tools you're working with next year. I don't want to sign a contract and something gets taken away" To me he is ready to sign, he just wants to know what he is working with. Players - As with any manager you admire and you are getting playing time under, you want to see them stay, and if they don't of course that is going to impact your future and decision on whether to stay. Family - To me this is a statement to say to KC, offer me long term and I'll maybe move my family up here. look at the positive side of that rather than thinking he wants away and is using that as an excuse. Sticky Patch - Of course he feels he has no control, look at the injuries, he says it himself. Confidence is a huge factor and as he says if they get on a wee run it all comes back, it is kind of out of his hands and up the players to really start believing in themselves, Hughes can try motivate, but ultimately its down to the players to perform and get that belief back.

I would go with that Roughi, after a bad week we have nothing to loose!

Here is what we feckin need - Manager (Helena Costa); Head Coach (Hope Powell); Director of Football (Karen Brady); Chairperson (Laura Grant); Board of Directors - Lynne Macdonald, Julie Wilson, Mairi Maclean, Susan Duncan,Jill MacRae, Bev Clark, Rosemary Webb.

Inverness potentially has a much bigger fanbase in my opinion, but it will take time. First of all, on the glory hunters issue, I think Sneckboy is bang on the money there. In the community around most football clubs there is a sort of outer circle who class themselves as "fans", even if that simply involves looking for the result in the Sunday papers and having a brief smile of satisfaction if it's a win. At the other end of the spectrum there are your diehards who attend every home game and also as many aways as they can. At any point on that spectrum, there is a threshold of importance and significance which needs to be reached before people placed there will attend a particular game. For the diehards, that threshold is placed virtually at zero - they will be there whatever. Others less keen will come out maybe for the visit of Celtic, Aberdeen or County and further down the line it becomes something like a Scottish Cup final, especially one where ICT are favourites to win so there is a reasonable chance of that ultimate shot of self gratification. At some point on that spectrum it gets to the stage where you can reasonably use the term "glory hunter" As for the size of the fan base, I have for some time believed that the underlying trend since 1994 has been slowly upward, but there have also been shorter term declines as various "new" developments such as playing in a new stadium, in Division 2, Division 1, the SPL etc cease to be novelties. I do have to say that over the last couple of years, attendance figures have somewhat challenged that belief but on the other hand there has been no recent novelty. (The Scottish Cup doesn't fit the kind of thing I mean.) Then there's the Old Firm factor where I do believe that, slowly as time goes by and with the alternative of ICT, Inverness is beginning to reduce its simplistic obsession with Rangers and Celtic and starting to replace it with a degree of football maturity through support for the local club.

Glory hunters! Pure and simple... We're no more immune to that than any other club in the country! Loads of new posters on this forum in the build-up - never to be heard of again. Literally thousands of 'fans' who attended that day who had never been to the TCS before. Literally thousands of fans who attended that day who have never been back to (or indeed, ever been to) the TCS since. We don't have 15,000 fans - we've 4,000. And if that doesn't increase after last season, then it simply never will. Inverness potentially has a much bigger fanbase in my opinion, but it will take time. Too many folks in Inverness and area are Rangers/Celtic/Aberdeen fans, the club needs to get ICT into the mindset of kids in the schools now more than ever while we have had some success, forget bigger attendances for the next few seasons and look at the bigger picture and look to get these kids growing up as Caley fans, then who knows, maybe you then have a club with an average attendance of 6-7000 in 10-15 years time. It may never happen but that's where I see potential in the club, more so probably than any other club in the country.

May your wish be granted love Santa

Exactly this! JH is man with ambition, he clearly doesn't see last season as a one off like many of us, call him a dreamer, but to me he wants to build something special up here, and that has to be matched in the boardroom as well, yes funds will be an issue, but I feel if the board can at least match John's vision and tell him they will support him however they can I truly believe he can be managing over something pretty epic over the next decade, not just dwindle out his contract over the next 6 months.

Yogi has publicly stated he is in discussions for a new contract, so until then perhaps we should get behind him and the team, instead of already lining up a replacement, afterall even if he does decide to leave and makes that known in the next few weeks - we have 6 months to find the right appointment so why would the club jump into any rushed appointment? Possibility for plenty more candiates to become available over the season from clubs impatient for change, in some ways its refreshing to see a manager run a contract down and leave (if Yogi does) of his own accord than be sacked like a high percentage of his peers. Credit to the club, board and man himself.

Doh - here is a clue - Finances - a new striker - training facilities - enuff to be going on with ?

The board may have a big decision to make now. As long as Hughes remains non committal on a deal the likelihood is that the players won't be too keen to sign not knowing who will be in charge. If Hughes won't sign a new deal in the near future then he may need to be 'moved aside' so we can get someone else in and start to getting players like Meekings on new deals.

The lack of funds at the club cant be cited to Yogi, he brought us our most successful season ever and an attractive brand of football recieving plaudits everywhere (even the media), yet no more fans have come through the gate. Perhaps people need to look at themselves for those reasons, is everyone doing enough to encourage friends, family, colleagues etc? I don't see how the influence Yogi has on the players can be questioned, our team always looks motivated and committed even if we do fall short in games just now. Before the International break we hit a patch of form and started playing really well, moving the ball and scoring goals but since then we have had a few poor results and performances which suggest confidence is fragile just now. We are missing leaders on the park like Brill and Warren who organise our usually solid defence, Draper who marshalls the middle, Foran our captain has been out long term - injuiries are unprecendented and regardless of what some thing these players (Foran perhaps) along with Doran would get back into the team and improve it. We havent just lost key player, but key leaders on the park and they harder to replace. There is criticism of the signing policy yet even those players have been injured so how can we properly judge Roberts or Mutumbo, while Storey looks good potential. Look at the Championship where clubs like Rangers, Hibs, Falkirk, St Mirren all reside - clubs bigger than us, so we are still over-achieving, how long before fans accept this and a huge part of that is down to Yogi. I for one hope he stays and if not then he can walk away head high with what he has achieved, unfortunately for some fans on here they will never acknowledge his contribution to the club and still rue the day he arrived. Those who think we can find another manager who will bring us the same or more success without significant changes in budget and footfall then they need to bring these people into the club or make the board aware, because I'm hugely sceptical.

Preview ahead of tomorrows game. Remember the olde days when folk used to come on here and get worked up about a wee game of fitba..........."We have made cuts elsewhere. The nice lady that always appeared to be in control when you entered the club shop has not had her contract renewed........................................

Okay lets get radical - I wouldn't say no to someone like Billy Dodds - already in the area - has the potential to be his own boss !