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For the Board, for the players or for us fans??

Credit where credit is due, as someone who was becoming frustrated about the lack of ticketing information coming out regarding our early fixtures this season, this is a positive gesture from the club and will hopefully attract a good crowd. Looks like the sun will be out too

Voting closes on Friday. We have three goals on the list: Billy Mckay against Livingston and Falkirk and Sean Welsh against Kilmarnock. Vote here: https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish-cup/goal-of-the-round-vote/

Having a director as a SLO is defeatist and the position has to be a neutral with close links to the Board and the fanbase - a trusted go between

The club is pleased to announce that this Saturday's match against Elgin City will be FREE entry for all supporters with the club inviting donations for Section 94's Raise the Roof campaign. Full Info https://ictfc.com/match-info-ictfc-v-elgin-city-friendly-match-08-07-2023/

What we need is an experienced therapist

Good luck to Tom. Just shows being a professional footballer is not always glamourous.

For those that don't do twitter. We are none the wiser regarding contracts, but Tom is having another op regardless.

Fans only matter to any club when the cash stops rolling in. Unlike any other business, football (and sport) is built on unwaivering fan loyalty (unless you're a glory hunter or plastic fan) so those in charge know they can treat their customer base with utter contempt and it has little to no effects unfortunately. There may be exceptions with great community ties and everyone feels part of a 'family' but they are the minority and there is a disconnect throughout football right now. The club will look at it from the perspective that employing someone to actively work as an SLO or in communications will cost £25,30,40k pa, even if its part time that's still half a salary................does investing that time (and cash) result in more returns that it costs. For a club our size its probably debatable - realistically given our ST costs we'd need a drop of around 600 just to make back the lowest quoted figure. Even with the discontent its unlikely we will see such impacts year on year (and nobody will look back beyond that because they will justify with other external factors)

Front row, second from left - the SLO who doesn't read emails or social media

As a relatively new ICTFC supporter I have attempted to contact the club about a few issues in recent months and have received no acknowledgement or reply to any of them. It was only when I discovered the Caley Jags forum that I became aware of th extent of the communication issues. Only a few days away from our first pre-season friendly, as far as I can see, there is still no information about ticket prices for this match or indeed whether this will be included for season ticket holders. No ticket information for the cup games has been sent out either it seems. I'm sure there would have been additional demand for strip sales prior to the cup final but this wasn't available in the club shop (at least in the majority of regular sizes) and there has been no announcement on kit for this season (as far as I'm aware) and we are now into July. I am disappointed to read of all the issues with the lack of communication from the club and how this has, understandably, left many feeling devalued and reluctant to renew season tickets. As someone who is keen to attend as many matches as possible (home and away) this season I am hoping the situation improves and have joined the Supporters Trust to try and make a positive contribution. From what I've read though the signs don't look good unless significant efforts are made to engage with the fans which ultimately make or break a football club! Here's hoping for a successful season ....

you are probably right, but then again, depending on who the fan is then they too stand the risk of being accused of just being a boardroom shill by elements of the fanbase. A classic case of not being able to please everyone. I am sure the well-meaning members of the Trust, and anyone else who has been on any supporter's organisation (and not just at ICT) can attest to this. Perhaps what is needed is a bit of both? A fan based rep for the generic or oft asked fan questions and a club official where it needs a more formal answer or may need to be escalated. Email forwarders could handle both people under one address The club have always been pretty parochial and insular with information, and in some cases, that's the correct stance. We may want to know everything and think we have the right, but we do not. Confidential info, personnel information, or business critical stuff need to remain confidential until it can be announced where appropriate. However almost everything else should be up for public consumption and certainly not a secret, but that's seldom the case. When called out about this behaviour, the level (and scope) of insularity then increases exponentially and actually does damage like we are seeing now. We have seen it many times before with different boards so it's nothing new. What's also not new is the fact that it's also pretty pointless trying to "manage" the non-confidential info this way as the flow of info from the stadium can sometimes be akin to water in a sieve. Many of the things raised recently are hardly state secrets (or should not need to be). How about we get back to the way the club used to share some info in a timely fashion and trot out the confidentiality clause only when it really is something that should not be discussed in the public domain. #OpenNESS

Not sure about source of Kyle Lafferty rumour. However, he is a very experienced player who could partner Billy and Austin. Last year was not a good year for him after being set up for the social network. After missing a lot of games it was not unresonable that he suffered injuries if truth be known. If he is on the verge of retirement, one final contract could be real focus for him. Having two Northern Ireland internationals up front for some games could be beneficial. Over the bridge, Malky McKay made mistakes early in his mangerial career but the dust has settled after he served his sentence. The Manager of Livingston is an example of turning life around. As is Paul McGowan at Dundee. However, no one has come up with evidence that Lafferty is indeed on our radar. Saturday's game against Elgin may result in some trialists getting a chance. It will be easy to recognise him if he is one of them.

Mixed feelings about Lafferty. He is a lout and probably not the easiest to have around but I could see him doing a job linking up with Billy. Could be quite potent and exactly what we need. It may only last a few months before summat goes wrong but we could make hay and put ourselves in a decent position. You cant ignore his history and he has had second chances but might it be worth a punt ( an expensive punt as well)? I dont think there would be significant reputational damage although I note Goodwillie is punting himself globally with no success

Well done Douglas, for persevering when most of us just gave up. Be interesting to see if your stone in the pond gathers any momentum (wave like), time will tell. For me the recent posters has been what’s good about the fans (both positive and negative [depending on what side of the fence you sit]); so here’s to the start of the new season. Enjoy it !(all the ups and downs).

Just to let you know the SLO sent me an Email over the weekend which I found today in my spam. He left me his contact number, so I phoned him today. Short version.He is SLO for ICTFC but he doesn't monitor the Email box a part time member of staff does, so if he doesn't get Emails it's because no one has forwarded them. He suggested I thought communication was poor from his chat with the Chairman. I said it wasn't poor, it was shocking. I am trying to keep this short,so suffice to say he apologised for my experience with the club and blamed lack of staff. He advised he had received no mail from me even when I advised that a member of staff told me Gordon had asked her to Email me.I believe him and now understand that the member of staff was only using her initiative as she monitored the SLO box.However from experience,when doing this sort of thing you have to be sure you and the role holder have a water tight system.Clearly ICT don't. The board don't look at social media relating to any fans pages or forums which begs the question how do they know what the fans are thinking wanting or needing ,hence the reason we get told little. The SLO was open and frank and promised to raise all concerns at the board meeting next week. For me I raised an issue and flogged it because of the principals involved.I have now shared the outcomes and at two minutes to four, I am too late for the early bird season tickets, so I will drift for a while before deciding where to watch football next season. Whatever,thanks for engaging with me,thanks for letting me be part of this forum and I wish you all the best.

I’d hope and expect that there will be some trialists training with the squad in the next couple of weeks, as usually happens at this stage of the season.

Thank goodness that common sense has prevailed.

Billy Mckay signs on for another 2 years.

What other environment would you get away with that. Poor example to the youngsters he is involved with.

I saw it earlier when it was public - a bizarre incident and looked unprovoked. Rather disgraceful behaviour, unfortunately.

Whilst googling for anything on Lafferty I stumbled across some pics of his rather attractive wife - she was wearing a football top but appeared to have carelessly forgotten to put the shorts on. If she dresses like that at our stadium the poor girl will likely catch a chill.

Just ask Mikey Fraser !!

Incredibly he didn’t even get a yellow for it!