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That's a ridiculous statement, there is no way tight Aberdonians will pay train fares when the Megabus is only £1

It's importnant to remeber that Storey was never our player - only on loan. We haven't lost him because we never had him. Yes, you would hope that we might have had an edge in his thinking because we rescued his career, but it was Swindon and Storey's agent who held the cards here, not ICT. I really don't think we can point the finger at the club or management on this one: I've no doubt that there was a desire to keep him, but the speed at which this deal has been done suggests that it has been in the wind for a while, so we migth never have been at the races.

Best ? A long way from it. He was, however, last season the most fortunate.

He isn't the best manager we've ever had. Successful yes, but the best? No.

I think this deserves to be on the Caley page. What a great player he was for us. I have such fond memories of him rampaging down the park having been fed a pinpoint ball by Bobby Mann. Temperamental certainly, but one of my favourite players that have pulled on the shirt.......possibly THE favourite. My favourite goal was during a tense , meaningful game with Clyde up in Inverness. 0-0 with 10 to go and Barry bent a sublime freekick round the wall to give us an important victory..................I was going to look this up but Sneckboy will save me the bother. Laterly he proved himself an articulate analyst. And did he not score against Barcelona? What a guy!!!! Have an enjoyable post foottee career Barry!

Are we all talking about the David Raven who played only 17 minutes on Saturday but still made the SPFL Team of the Week

It's taken a bit of time to assimilate my thoughts on that season! On the face of it, the basic stats make reasonable reading: League position: 7th Points: 52 Goals for: 54 Goals against: 48 Scottish Cup: QF (lost to Hibs 1-2 (h) replay): League Cup: QF (lost to Ross County (h)) Europa cup: lost to Astra 1-0 agg. So, mid-table and 2 quarter-final appearances: what's to be glum about? 1. Style Yogi's persistence with possession football really did my head in! It is not entertaning or effective. In general, we actually did better when we adopted a more direct approach (e.g. games against Aberdeen and Ross County). We had the 3rd lowest number of shots and number of shots on target. Conversely, we had the 3rd highest conversion rate (goals/shots), suggesting that when we created chances, they were more clear-cut. Equally, we were tight at the back, with the lowest % shots on target in the league, perhaps suggesting that teams were forced to take shots from range against us. This also is relected in the number of goals conceded - the 3rd lowest in the league. Summing up - a reasonably effective style that worked well defensively, but made us too slow and predictable going forward. The players seemed afraid to shoot unless there was a clear goalscoring chance. 2. Players Some terrific performance this year, particularly from Ross Draper. I've always seen him as a ball-winner, but this year he was a really attacking midfielder who won us a few pens and scored a few key goals. Fon Williams was generally solid in goal and Tremarco really came onto his game later in the season. Tansey had a really slow start, but was neverthelss a key player in midfield. Warren was solid on his return, but would have liked to see his partnership with Meekings rekindled. Devine was OK, but has the odd crucial mistake in him. Of the guys definitely leaving: Vincent had a really good spell in January, but injuries let him down, Williams was reliable at left back and midfield and Storey was an excellent find from obscurity at Swindon. Vigurs was his usual mercurial self, while Roberts played really well when he got the opoportunity. Mutombo was exciting at times, but lacked a final ball and had a couple of petulent moments early on. 3. Manager Yogi refuses to shift from his principle of possession football. In fairness, it does yield the occasional cracker of a team goal, but too often it doesn't yield even a shot. If he'd just swallow his pride and go more direct occasionally, and encourage the players to shoot and get in the box! Off the field, Yogi has had a shocker IMO. The DUFC debacle was embarrassing: Yogi should be delighted that KC helped him dodge a bullet! All his statement did was to alienate him from the supporters who then doubted his commitment to the club! In addition, what is it with bigging up Auld Firm opponents? How many players has he offered to "drive them down there myself for the money they've bee offered"? The thinly veiled spat that is playing out in public over budget is unhelpful. And what about the comment about injured players playing through pain?? Meekiings wasn't impressed. 4. Injuries If one word summed up the season it was "injuries". There were times when there were more players on the treatment table than the pitch. Easy to forget after the event, but we really were struggling to field a team at times. 5. Recruitment and retention My biggest gripe all year. Everybody was aware that so many contracts were up at the end of the season and yet we failed to recruit effectively during last summer and then continually brought in midfielders when short of defensive cover and attack-minded players. Granted our late finish to last season and early start to this contributed to the problem, but starting the season without a recognised striker was justt shambolic. At least efforts were reported to have been made to keep Williams, but he turned down the offer - the same wasn't true of Vincent, who Yogi didn't rate for whatever reason. The Raven saga was just poor form - here's a player who really wanted to stay and he's punted by the manager.... 6. Attendances In many ways, this was the most depressing aspect. Average attendances almost exactly the same as last season (3,753 v 3,732), despite all the buzz of the cup win! I know these figures hide many things (e.g. who we play more times at home and midweek games, poor form etc), but it certainly highlights that there is no "other level" for us to go to in this respect and that we failed to capitalise on the cup victory. My pipe dream of perhaps 500 extra bods lay in shatters, which is why we find it so hard to retain and recruit!

Horner in - Raven out. How can anyone at ICT tell the fans that this is a forward thinking move. Why don't the board or the manager come out and tell the fans what exactly is happening.and why has Raven been shown the door when he is the best right back at the club and wanted to remain unlike some of the other prima donnas who are holding out on re-signing.

Can't help feeling a little disappointed in Storey accepting a better offer from Aberdeen after less than a season with us. I know all the arguments about it being a short career and players have to maximise their earnings while they can, but maybe one more season with us would have been a nice gesture on his part, as a 'thank you' for resurrecting his career which was clearly going nowhere at Swindon. Maybe I expect too much! I don't wish him any ill at Aberdeen, but I cannot bring myself to wish him 'all the best', which I clearly did for Graeme Shinnie after his years of loyal service with us. But as for Aberdeen as a club, I hope their good form of the last three matches continues for another three seasons or so.

Aye right. Like Terry Butcher has been an outstanding success since he left. Whatever the answer is it's certainly not the return of the flat cap and flasher coat and his side kick who was so disparaging about us before departing for the giddy heights of Easter Road.

NPL Review for Game 47 - Final After falling asleep during the first half I awoke to find a game going on . Great result for the last day of the season. Just a shame the ‘form’ hit too late. No maximums in any section for this game. Caley Mad in Berks and RedCard take credit for getting the correct FT score. So, after 47 NPL games I am pleased to announce that the winner of this seasons competition is...[fanfare fanfare...drum roll drum roll]... Andrew Fraser. He retains the title by a clear margin of 27 points. Total Entries 29 Jokers Played Mrs Gringo +4 Andrew Fraser +8 Gavroche +7 Ictross +2 lilmissictbabe +2 jodiec95 +3 Scotty +10 CDN Girl +2 SOS +1 caleydawson +6 caleycalum +8 Renegade +4 Predicted Match results H: 22 D: 6 A: 1 The Results HT: 0-0 FT: 4-0 1st ICT: Storey 1st Opp: -- Time of 1st Goal: 61 Correct Predictions HT: 10 FT: 2 1st ICT: 10 1st Opp: -- 1st Goal 10 pts: 0 1st Goal 5 pts: 1 1st Goal 2 pts: 3 Bragging Rights 20 - Scotty Your Points Scotty 20 Andrew Fraser 16 caleycalum 16 Gavroche 14 Gringo 13 caleydawson 12 MrCaleyjag 8 Mrs Gringo 8 Renegade 8 Tug 7 Wanderer 7 Caley Mad in Berks 6 jodiec95 6 RedCard 6 Caleyjag 5 CDN Girl 4 Ictross 4 lilmissictbabe 4 Mrs Tug 4 Tichy Blacks Back 4 Caley Braveheart 3 Cal's Thistle 3 ICTRoughi 3 CaleyCanary 2 caleymac 2 DoofersDad 2 Kingsmills 2 SOS 2 Joonya 1 FINAL TABLE 01 - 285 - Andrew Fraser 02 - 258 - caleycalum 03 - 257 - CaleyCanary 04 - 251 - caleydawson 05 - 250 - Gavroche 06 - 245 - Scotty 07 - 236 - Gringo 08 - 235 - Tug 09 - 227 - MrCaleyjag 10 - 224 - crownjaggie =============================== 11 - 223 - Wanderer 12 - 222 - ICTRoughi 13 - 212 - Tichy Blacks Back 14 - 211 - CDN Girl 14 - 211 - Mrs Gringo 16 - 208 - Renegade 17 - 207 - Caley Braveheart 18 - 205 - Cal's Thistle 19 - 202 - RedCard 20 - 200 - Caley Mad in Berks 21 - 194 - SOS 22 - 193 - Gabby 23 - 190 - Ictross 24 - 189 - Bauhaus 25 - 185 - jodiec95 26 - 184 - Eye Settee 27 - 182 - bughtmaster 27 - 182 - Joonya 29 - 181 - jagster 30 - 179 - mcdonnell761 31 - 174 - caleymac 31 - 174 - Mrs Bauhaus 33 - 172 - Caleyjag 34 - 164 - Teeshie 35 - 161 - Kingsmills 36 - 159 - old caley girl 37 - 151 - lilmissictbabe 38 - 148 - DoofersDad 39 - 144 - Nanoq 40 - 105 - WYNESS101 41 - 103 - Mrs Tug 42 - 26 - bdu98196 43 - 15 - Mithrandir 44 - 4 - CraigF92 44 - 4 - ICTCM 46 - 2 - JockWatt

I'll miss the magic hat song

Need to get this sorted immediately. Either kiss and make up or go separate ways: there's a new season to prepare for!

Not just disrespectful but thoroughly ignorant and unprofessional. Of course there are likely to be disagreements between different tiers of management but Yogi took what should have been an internal matter into the public domain leaving the chairman no alternative other than to seek to set the record straight.

How does anyone know a contract wasn't discussed either informally (which is likely) or formally, Storey has an agent and between them its probable that they would have wanted to hold out until end of season and see if there were better offers or where he sits with his parent club. Its very easy now to start blaming Yogi or the board for everything but unless anyone has actual facts as to what happens in any of these cases as there are always 3 sides with football.

Fraser McEwan Legal ?

Real shame if Hughes was to leave, but the board have made it clear that they have backed him financially more so than any other manager. It's been clear for months now that the manager and the board have a strained relationship, which isn't something we're used to. At the end of the day we have lost some very good players, and replacing them with players of a similar level of quality would be out of our price range. We have to bring in relatively unproven players and train them up, we've been hugely successful at doing that throughout our history. The problem with the board is that they let players go for free or for a small price. If all of the players we have lost over the last three years had been on longer contracts and we'd sold them for a fee, we'd be in a much healthier financial position by now. Hopefully this gets sorted in the next couple of days and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Hughes stays and is allowed to sign some key players. It may be too late, and the bridges might already have been burned.

Think we actually did County a favour with that last one.

Really? I'm sorry but I wholey disagree with you on this one, Tansey is one of our best players and I think we did the right thing and did well to keep him in January. Yes we are not short of options in midfield but why make our team weaker for only £200000 - lets be honest I'm sure Storey is going to get a far greater wage at Aberdeen than we could have afforded over and above the fee which doesn't make it viable in my opinion, not a club with our limited resources. You base the foundation of your team on your best players then you add to it, you don't sell your best players to bring in other 'hopefully' as good as players, that's a big risk. This whole situation was some what inevitable to be honest and as soon as a bigger club with bigger resources came in we were never going to be able to sign him. Yes he's a good player but would he have been the 20 goal plus man we need right now - I very much doubt it.

Dave the Rave plays 17 minutes on saturday yet is chosen as RB in SPFL team of the week. Now what does that say about his ability

Another one. Maybe we should just ask The Dons if they'd like to form an official agreement by where we get an annual fee for producing their stars. In other news Nate Wedderburn has joined Dunfermline.

What really grates about this, is every season we get well and truly shafted, not St Johnstone, Ross County or the like only US. Think Aberdeen are really taking the pxxsh and it is not a nice feeling.

It would appear that Swindon Town demanded a development fee for Miles Storey Inverness were informed Aberdeen paid that to Swindion which was excess of £200,000 Inverness were not williing or were unable to match that money

My understanding is that Storey's contract with Swindon doesn't end till beginning September and that anyone trying to sign him will need to negotiate development compensation for the seven years he's been with them.

Do you not think the managers recent conduct in press etc has been distrspectful? Personally cant wait to see the back of him!

Because Yogi's preferred assistant who is under conrtact is Brian Rice, who I would assume is seen as having a proven track record as well as a personal friend to Hughes - so unlikely he would want to sack him to make space for someone. Foran has been out injured long enough to have worked along side, done his badges and try take more control, whether he has done this I don't know, but from my observations on matchday Esson is more involved on the touchline and out of the dugout etc than Foran ever is - maybe its a case that Foran hasn't taken the opportunities given, doesn't have the mindset or isn't deemed good enough by those at the club with more knowledge and insight than us? As for Foran's leadership he has been a bit part player for 2 years with Shinnie & Warren demonstrating plenty qualities to take over the captains role, as a club ambassador while liked by the fans and perhaps the board he has had negative press about his off-field activities. Given his age, salary and contribution if he wants to go then the board should consider it and use the cash wisely to extend deals or replace.

I heard something similar to the above the other week but what I heard was an individual member of the board (who I don't know) was going to pay for a new contract for Raven personally. I can only assume that this was vetoed by Hughes. In that case then the 'moving Raven on to bring in an exciting player' was a flat out lie. Every man and their dog knows that the board and Yogi are at loggerheads at the moment and we can't carry on like this. If he's the manager at the start of next season I'll be very surprised, but I would say the chances of him being here this time next year are almost certainly nil.

Heard today (rumour, but trusted source) that the board offered to pay half of Raven's wage if he was offered a new contract but Hughes refused this, wanted him gone. No great shock, but if true shows the gulf between board and Hughes. Surely untenable. KC seemed to be chatting warmly to Raven on pitch on Saturday, no sign of any animosity there.

Brilliant result, one of the best this season. Dundee are no mugs and have a higher budget than us, as well as some really good players. People calling for Hughes' head need to wake up. You may not agree with some of his decisions and I'm disappointed that Raven is leaving too, but the man has given us the most successful spell in our history and this season has actually been pretty decent considering the mass exodus of all our best players and the massive injury list. There's been 8 replies to this topic. If we had lost this game, there would no doubt have been page after page of people complaining and calling for Hughes to leave. Nonsense.

We are missing the point. There are a significant number of people who are saying that they are not going to renew. A further number are uncertain. Currently there is nothing happening which gives any positive reasons for changing their mind and saying that they are not true supporters, irrespective of the intentions of the statement, will not make a difference. Only tangible reasons to expect improvements in the product being offered will change this situation. These people will not stop being supporters but will put less money into the club by limiting the number of games they attend and this impacts both finances but also the atmosphere at games.

I'll be renewing. I'll support the club first and foremost, regardless of stupid managerial decisions.

I can't remember a worse time for the club trying to sell them. We don't actually have a team to come and support. Legends are being dispersed with at the same time contracts are running out and no news at all of anyone coming in. The manager and the board are completely at loggerheads. What a time to be alive.

Seen some rumours on Twitter today that Yogi is away. Any truth in this? Certainly wouldn't be overly surprising if it was true.

If only we had sold them !!

Seems legit.

Thanks for another year Gringo....the time required to run this is greatly appreciated....and as always good fun

The BBC article on Storey http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36314711 states that Goodwillie has been released by Aberdeen - hopefully we are not even thinking about considering him as a replacement

Here we go - back to the old days of squad catch-up. Even if we ignored the Storey situation there is something that appears to be not quite right when it comes to the club's recruitment. Personally I don't rate Lewis Horner as a defensive unit and wouldn't have said he was the type of player that Hughes was stating we need to improve the club. Then again maybe he will prove me wrong.

Would have gone to the wall long ago

Perhaps we should organise some guest appearances from just down the East coast.

Yes, thanks for all your efforts Gringo and well done to those, all thirty four of you , who have had a more successful season than me.

Thanks again Gringo , another great year !!

barring a huge swing in voting in the remaining voting time I can confirm that ROSS DRAPER is the CaleyThistleOnline Player of the Year (elect) for 2015-2016. Ross took the Player of the Month honours for May, by a considerable margin from Jordan Roberts, and after taking maximum points in 2 of the 3 games leapfrogs Miles Storey to our award. A full story and breakdown of the voting will follow once I get back to Canada next weekend

I didn't see that but have heard it from a couple of people. Doesn't surprise me. Hughes has no class.

I honestly think I lost my sanity for about two minutes when he scored that goal - a wonderful but scary feeling. Club legend - gone but never forgotten

There's plenty to buy at bargain prices with free delivery. Shirts £10 http://m.jdsports.co.uk/featured/Inverness/

Great result to finish off the season, 4 wins out of 5, (and how do we lose that Dundee Utd match) so we were clearly better than bottom 6, we just cocked it up with a couple of home games in March (at the same time as falling short on the Scottish Cup). Considering the horrendous start to the season, the loss of Christie and the injuries in many respects not bad. However it seems as if Yogi has used up quite a bit of credit with fans (and the board?), with some unrest over Ravens departure and perhaps Foran...although if those two events actually allowed us to sign Storey permanently and extend deals for Roberts and Mutombo, would that compensate?? I do also think he has done well with a miniscule budget, even if some tactics and comments have grated on people. Lets hope that deals get done as quick as everyone seems to want, and the summer is peaceful, from my point of view the missus is now a fan and wants to come up again, so that cool!

Although I am disgusted with what has happened I agree with Fraz. We support the club no matter what. Managers come and go and hopefully this one will be gone soon. Shoes off.....

So right, givemeaccccc! Negligible change in crowds this season and the most boring form of football on show. Never mind, at least we can buy into the team.....er no! No keeper, no right back and no strike force. Ditching fans favourites (Raven) on top of the above could have a critical input on sales. Some BIG positive announcements needed NOW.

"The disciplinary hearing concluded that replaying the game before the end of the season - with the final round of games scheduled for this weekend - was not practical." Not correct - they could have replayed the game the following midweek if they really wanted it. They have therefore made the decision that we should not have the opportunity to collect the 3 points although they clearly believed that was what should have been the solution. A quite bizarre decision.