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People have been knicker wetting about County's amazing hospitality and revolutionary shop for as long as I can remember. I can literally remember people saying this stuff 20 years ago. Billy Mckay signing for County has no impact on us. If he'd had an offer from a club that finished higher than County or an English club he'd have gone there. That's it. Of far more relevance to us is Dundee Utd signing Scott McDonald, an absolute brilliant signing for this level.

I wonder how long they'll take to get his name right

Its a well known fact that ' Gretna of the north' are being subsidised to the tune of about £1mper year by mileson. Mcgregor . This allows Cunty to use funding to boost other areas of their setup (rather well I have to admit) This shows up how over the years ICT have suffered from drastic under funding. I hope under Savage this may change for the better.

After years of "Always In Our Shadow", "The Feeder Club" and the dreaded "Pride Of The Highlands", I am sure this is just the latest development of the last few months that Roy will be thoroughly enjoying. It took a long time and needed a lot of patience, perseverance and not a little cash, but for the moment, Roy appears to have won the financial war of attrition. I have no doubt that Billy McKay will be a good signing for Ross County, but this is also the latest of several moves where Caley Thistle have been well and truly upstaged by County. For instance few weeks ago, during a period of complete silence from this side of the first, three press releases came out in one day from Dingwall. These announced the identity of County's new general manager (amid an ongoing information vacuum about ICT's one), arrangements for the County Chairman's next face to face with the fans (say no more) and statistics for uptake resulting from the Jail End price cut (at a time when the ICT board were getting pelters over their ST announcement). Ross County also have a lovely new club shop while the portakabin struggles on at East Longman. Then there's the frequently highlighted differences between the two clubs' hospitality arrangements. Most fundamental of all, County have always been able to buy themselves out of trouble where necessary while the most Inverness have been able to do was the highly controversial signing of Marius Niculae, funded in exchange for 275,000 shares in the club. Not only have County managed to get the upper hand, they are also well and truly rubbing ICT's nose in it. I don't even know if there's still the equivalent of a red dot on here, and if there is people can give me as many as they like but you cannot escape recent realities which are simply footballing Darwinism - which differs from conventional Darwinism in that the "natural selection" is fuelled by cash.

My first thought here is that the numbers which have been stated in recent posts lack substantiation so you do wonder to what extent they may be products of the rumour mill. But, even in the Premiership, numbers like these - if even remotely accurate - would indicate a club which was paying players way above their market value for the situation the club was in.

Wee hiccup or two writing our striker's name on the team sheet!

He didn't set the heather on fire last season I think we had the best of him first time around

Hopefully past his best , 2 relegations in 2 seasons is not that great to have on your CV. Hopefully this is a good omen to see us swap places with RC next May.

You mean like Ross County scarves?

The club do need to do something better than the portacabin. That is fine for matchdays but on other days its not going to generate much in the way of passing trade or tourist trade. If a permanent shop is not feasible then what about a so-called 'pop-up shop' somewhere in the city centre for the summer? There is usually no shortage of empty units in the centre unfortunately and it might be a good idea. I have seen dozens of these in Toronto over the last couple of years from varying sellers, including Toronto FC and artists like Drake or the Weeknd to brands such as Adidas, Nike and others ... They open a place for a week and in the case of TFC they locate it 'uptown' and sell stuff to people in some parts of the city who cant get down to the official club shop to buy as well as some exclusive gear only available at that location for the duration. [Although they have matchday kiosks inside the stadium, the club shop in Toronto is located a couple of miles from the stadium inside the Air Canada Centre where the Raptors and Maple Leafs play so its a one-stop shop for all teams] I do like the idea of a 'multi-purpose' venue so that it does not have to rely solely on merchandise sales and could perhaps have a cafe or meeting place of some sort but as many have said, that would require more upfront investment and perhaps a longer turnaround time to start making a profit (if ever) .... I may not be looking for a bit of 'Scaddish' tat for my friends in 'littleville Wyoming' but on my recent trip home I did make purchases in the big new shop on Bridge Street. It was huge and had all I needed for friends and colleagues back in Toronto ... a lot of the exact same stuff as the Woolen Mill but at significantly lower prices .... It was also very busy. busier I would say than the little tartan stores on the other side of Bridge street or in the market. If ICT could tap into that then I am sure it could be a goldmine. The other way it could be done - and again this is speculative - is that instead of asking retailers to stock ICT merchandise, you have your own shop and invite small, local businesses to peddle their wares inside the ICT store ... the kind of (non perishable) goods you might find at a farmers market or craft fair. I saw this in a few galleries and other shops in Iceland last year and it seemed to be a decent idea. Maybe its something that BID (and former ICT chief exec Mike Smith !!!) could look into not just for ICT but to make empty shopfronts available on a short term basis like this for others or to assist in actually helping small businesses in an attempt to re-invigorate what has become a depressingly dingy and uninteresting city centre.

Getting some competition in eh Don? I better up ma typing skills! Lol

I did find that too on the Monday after the game. Must take 48 hours then to count a 1000+ folk. The Tweeter feed sometimes announced the crowd figure but not sure if that was just CaleyD whom, of course, isn't there anymore. Place has gone to pot without him