Leaderboard

Duncan Ferguson should have done the right thing and resigned after the Hamilton debacle. No pay offs , severance pay,nothing. He should have held his hand up and admitted his failings when trying to build a team out of lower level loanees. This was an absolutely awful experiment doomed to failure and the financial repercussions are now coming home to roost. We have lost a whole season of developing young players the likes of Bray, Hyde etc for what..... Relegation. FFS I know we lost Deas and Allardice but the nucleus of a capable squad was still there. Capable enough to avoid relegation anyway.

This would seem to represent an excellent opportunity to get out of the disastrous "six figure deal" the club claims to have entered into. It would appear that Kelty Hearts may well have misrepresented that they're entitled to enter into the contractual agreement which the club purports to have signed. One might have expected the club to engage the services of a competent external legal counsel to advise over a fairly fundamental and legally binding agreement of this nature. The fact that such a glaring omission has been missed would suggest that the CEO has added club lawyer to his vast array of skills.

"We were running far too rich and we have been losing far too much money". Who is the "we" here? Not the fans. No fan demanded huge salaries for two current figures who were abject failures at their previous jobs. No fan wanted rafts of loanees housed in hotels. Thus, the "we" is those who hired Gardiner, Ferguson instead of going with other options without a cost (promote a coach, promote a staff member) which, given the state of things, wouldn't have been any worse (and likely would have been better). "I can’t put in any more money, the other directors can’t put any more money in so we have had to cut out costs" Sjálfbærni, Durabilitate, Тогтвортой байдал...or in English, 'sustainability': did it never cross your mind - or Mr Rae's - to be more sustainable, at all, since 2017. It was much easier to gamble big, until painted into corner, than be custodians, audit and carefully balance the books line by line and generate multiple, local, revenue streams to live within means. Well, if the supporters don’t support the club then the club goes out of business. If Season ticket money is so pivotal, when did spending it (and much more than just 'it') like Babylonian Kings on the likes of Yvonne Crook, Scot, Robbo, Dodds, Duncan, hotels for several loanees, accommodation and generous benefits, so many contributions all leading to relegation to the third tier of Scottish football. This move (and the Mad-hattery Farm 250k) does seems like life-support to avoid the club going belly up before the directors can extract their investments. The allure of Gardiner is clear - tasked by Morrison et al. to get them their money back before it goes bust, like a bailiff. TL;DR 'Not fit and proper since 2017'

I’m not able to access the full story but I follow that it’s emerged that the training facility in question is actually owned by Fife Council. This raises two questions. Can we assume that, before concluding the deal, ICT performed due diligence and established that Kelty Hearts’ arrangement with Fife Council allows them to perform the necessary sub-letting process? And can we assume that, before the arrangement was announced last Friday, ICT had established beyond doubt that the deal was over the line and certain to happen? If the answer to the second question is “no” then this project would appear to be a victim of the same “nothing could possibly go wrong” mentality that afflicted the Concert Company and the Battery Farm. The only difference this time is that something goes wrong.. it will be a matter of widespread celebration.

Can we not get a Netflix deal and call it Wrecksum

Would be a shame if someone block booked the facility for the next few months before our deal is signed.

Good to see Scott's made a pig's ear of yet another hare-brained business venture. Another abject failure from our hapless CEO.

Go part-time. Restructure (remove trash at the top). Redundancies. Blood youth team. Sell 2000+ season tickets. Re-engage with the city.

You can't make any assumptions with this shower of chancers. Apart from, they don't know what they're doing. Safe to assume that.

This is what an amateur £100k CEO gets u ! what a complete ****** of a guy that thinks he is better than everyone else . How professional that you can’t even get the basics done first . Morrison and Gardiner looking more like the chuckle brothers with every passing minute . wonder what’s next on his list of failures ?

We should have a whip-round and do that! Then we refuse to let the club take our slots, and so they would have to train in Inverness.

What an absolute shambles of a situation this is. We’re an absolute laughing stock and a complete embarrassment. How could this be released without it being absolutely watertight?

Couple of things: It seems obvious now that the chairman is only here to try and recoup most of the £1m+ funds he's put in to the club. There is only one asset left to strip and that's the lease of the land the stadium sits on. Is, ultimately, putting the lease up for sale the last action of a man who says he wants the best for the club? The club's board have, literally, moved the goalposts on giving the Supporters Trust a seat on said board, making it nigh on impossible now. If they really have the interests of the club at heart, why would they do this? They are behaving like it's a private members club, like a secret society! ICT is not theirs, it belongs to the community - its fans!

The opening statement set the tone nicely .. "Welcome to the Kelty Club, apologies Caley Club" Not exhaustive but some key points from recall One key observation from the floor was that the accounts when released on friday should reveal whether the club have effectively been operating whilst insolvent since the last set of accounts. This is highly likely given the situation in financial terms has not been stabilised through throwing dice, aka anticipated income streams. Once the level of debt is established we then move towards the likelihood of administration, shedding certain individuals, contracts etc and only then would current major shareholders step in to re capitalise the club. Another other key point was the withholding of ST money etc is a personal choice and not a recommendation the trust can make, however it has been asked we update the trust if our intention is not to purchase a ST this season to allow them to guage the numbers. The trust update also highlighted that the request for a fan rep on the board had been discussed at the last board meeting and pre requisites included significant funds ( equivalent to 50% of the Morton scheme used as a benchmark although this is an established scheme which I think was calculated out at 75k per annum) should be made available to the club via the Stronger Together initiative before representation could be approved. The trust stated they had therefore withdrawn their request but will grow the fund until an opportune moment presents itself in future. A protest march was also proposed ( not the 12 July please as Gardiner would mistake it for something else) Finally it is clear the trust are doing their damdest but would welcome any extra pairs of hands or ears etc as they are swamped so I'm going to message them tomorrow. We need to step up now as time is of the essence. A lot of heat from the floor, literally and metaphorically as we were pretty crammed but it was heartening to see passion and anger on display as it shows a lot of people won't give up without a fight, even if we may not all agree exactly on the way forward.

That's a fair summary, Quizzer. The Trust will put a summary on here in due course but can everyone please bear in mind that the Trust Board are few in number, some are in full time jobs and there are a hell of a lot of things they are doing and will need to be doing during this crisis. So please be patient. They are doing a great job on our behalf and a big "Thank You" is due to them all, particularly George Moodie who chaired the meeting so well tonight. I am sure we will be hearing quite a bit from them in days to come - and that might well include some pleas for help! The vast majority of the Season Ticket holders in the room indicated that they would not be renewing this year until certain actions are taken. It is important to note that the Trust is not endorsing a boycott but it is taking the view that this should be a decision for individuals. Taking this neutral stance is important given the Trust's status as Community Benefit Society. The Trust's role here is to discuss the implications of any boycott with the club and to impress upon the club that it is the actions of the club which are the cause of the boycott and subsequent loss of revenue.

You've all been reasonably well behaved so far despite the anger and frustration. Lets keep it that way....please.

Karen Gillan must have some Hollywood contacts to make a copycat 'Welcome to Wrexham'

Ross Morrison says today moving to Kelty would save the club 300-400k Ditching Gardiner 100k Ditching Ferguson 300k Not rocket science is it

I'm guessing that our losses are pretty colossal by now, and like any gambler who maybe should've walked away from the table at 10pm slightly down , Morrison has been handing over his car keys and his house keys, pension fund, his in-laws house keys etc. Its 3am and still his mate Scot is willing him on from the back of the room even though he's not got a dime on the table. Just one more spin, your luck is about to turn, come on , stay in the game! He needs to get up and walk now. Then Gardiner will be on his own, and he will follow.

and we still would, but we are not on here every second of every day. Thats why we have a report button so site users can alert us to anything that personally offends them and needs to be brought to our attention. No action needed here as the user has edited their own post.

Just like any leasing arrangement, there are probably legal conditions about sub-letting or about the use of the ground. Fife Council would not want Kelty to do anything which would reflect badly on the council - like, say, rent it out for a Reform Party rally. At the very least one of the first things that ICT should have done was to make sure that Kelty had the legal right - or permission - to enter into this agreement. As it is, clearly Kelty have either implicitly or explicity given ICT the impression that that is the case, and so ICT should be able to walk away from it if Kelty don't have that right. Though IANAL, as the saying goes. B***dy hell, I've just seen that the Provost of Fife is Jim Leishman! That Jim Leishman. Former manager of Inverness Thistle. Can someone no' have a wee word in his shell-like?

Following the potential for the Fife Council intervention to throw a spanner in the kelty works, it could be time for a Local Hero type film remake - where the Highland Club takes on the nasty business man - that would be one way to make some money for the club ( and the Caley Club would become a must visit tourist location)..........but only when we win this fight. No Inverness Training- No Season Ticket Renewal

On the other hand this is quite an inventive way to run a club. Imagine having to sell a Highland club to Americans. Imagine all the imagery, the connections that could be made to those who left the Highlands and settled in the States. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cg33138kyp4o.amp the more I think about this the more I realise our current board have no idea of the Highlands place in the world. They have no idea of the emotional pull it has for people. They will say they are business/football people….if that was the case they would realise that supporting a team and playing for a team is driven, in the most part, by passion. They are missing the connection which the Highlands have for so many outside of Inverness. Instead we go down the ‘innovative’ route of Kelty and cutting the heart out of the club

Where have you been all afternoon

It is S**** supporting ICT We're the lowest of the low! The scum of the F****** Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash, that was shat into civilisation! Some people hate County , I don't! They're just wankers! We, on the other hand, are colonised by wankers!

Throw increased advertising (buses, banners, radio (one wee Highland League-esque board next to the A9 isn't anywhere near enough)), a shop in the city center (Victorian Market or the (assuming they get a shift on) New Transport Hub, and start giving out tickets to local schools into the mix. The club needs to get a shift on, both within the club and improving city center presence

With the few contracted players we have left and the likely poorer calibre of summer additions it wouldn’t surprise me to see us bottom of the group - hopefully I’m wrong but I very much doubt we’ll progress past the group stage.

Kelty don't own the pitch they are going to rent us https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/exclusive-kelty-hearts-don-t-own-pitch-earmarked-for-caley-351962/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter You have to laugh.

I guess there are multiple reasons why they don't have a contract. Maybe they didn't fit with the club they were at, maybe the club needed to let them go to cut costs, maybe they just didn't like the club they were playing at. Many reasons why. We are now a League One club, the quality of player that we will be able to attract will now be different to the type of player that we could attract as a Championship club. As fans, we need to adjust to that.

The Bill which was passed earlier this year applies only to public bodies. Given that consumer groups and other pressure groups call for boycotts, I can't see any reason why the Trust couldn't. Though I guess that there would always be the possibility of legal action, if the boycotted organisation was so minded. There's also a very faint possibility that the Trust may end up talking to club management. In which case, if the Trust had called for a boycott, then that would make discussions that much more difficult. So a stance of neither formal approval nor formal disapproval seems fine.

Lots of individuals in the room who own shares and have businesses that own shares who were calling for a boycott. I can't see there being any law that would prevent such a thing. It was highlighted by someone that anti boycott laws refer only to public bodies which got looks of confusion from the trust board and they said they would look into it. I don't think it really matters in the grand scheme of things as the message that fans want to see a boycott was made clear and the trust did not oppose that. It just seems that if supporters trusts don't have the power to endorse or call for such action then it seriously weakens what they can do in these situations. Bringing fans together and allowing them to clearly and collectively voice their views was job done for last night. I don't think there was any doubt in the room that admin is a dangerous option. The view seemed to be that the Kelty thing was removing the club from the community and would be akin to losing it. No Kelty move and admin at least offered a chance of keeping it.

The club's lack of transparency means that it is very difficulty to challenge any figures they produce. As you rightly point out, if you get rid of somebody who is doing a poor job, you then have to replace them. In relation to Board members and especially the Chairman, anyone potentially willing to take over from Morrison at the helm will want to see the full detail of the financial position and the projections for any options for the future. It is not easy. Often, the greater the need for change, the less likely it is that there will be someone willing to take over. And boy, do we need change!

A rather tense, emotive meeting with some very articulate and considered contributions. To summarise, the vast majority of the room appeared to strongly favour administration as their preferred outcome by the time the meeting concluded. I know I know, sounds mad but it seemed the best option to get our club back, and we fully accepted the implications. There was some debate/conflict of opinions as to whether the future of the youth academy was secured or not, with someone very close indeed to the club saying they hadn't seen the evidence to back up the claim of it's secure future made by another contributor. A fair bit of pressure on the ST to come up with an action plan/already have one in place, but I think everyone understood by the end that this wasn't something that they could have put in place - as a small group - already. Some really helpful input by a few individuals, and a lot of passion and strong feelings in the room. No miracle solution, but a massive majority of people in favour of boycott/administration.

Well for almost 30 years we managed? We even won a Scottish Cup with them

Edited wouldn’t want to call Mr Gardiner anything un toward would we

Just found out Kelly hearts do not own the training pitch it’s fife council that’s owns it so the deal may be blocked on that grounds we should all email fife council to get them to block the move

Exactly! No one else would have him!

Yup.......................the more I think it over, the more I reckon there is some ulterior motive : dread to think what. The club is not being run with any consideration for the fans : those in charge seem to be doing their own thing for whatever purpose. The pattern has been there for a number of years : appointment of management / officials etc who have no affiliation to the club. There seems to be an attempt being made to take Inverness out of ICT.

Thanks for the feedback I was not at the meeting but am firmly behind all that were there and will not be renewing my season ticket.

Scott Gardiner Q+A Q+A with Gardiner not long after he got the job. An example of one of the questions and his response: - What would your enemies say about you? I always liked a quote that I thought was from Sir Winston Churchill but it turns out it was from the great writer Victor Hugo: “You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain.” So in short, I couldn’t care less. Disdain is good.

I’m absolutely not an expert… but from Companies House it looks like Morrison (and also Morrison and Gordon Munro on shares) is a secured creditor on the money he has lent to the club. Folks that know more about this stuff than me please correct if I’m wrong, but does this not mean that were ICT to go into admin, only Morrison (and the RBS) would be the ones getting their money back (or a % anyway) from the sale of any assets…? Something that no other Chairman seems to have felt the need to do? https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC149117/charges

We're burning through that in less than a season. We need to reduce our overspend massively, not fund it.

Another nail. Cammy has been one of our most consistent players this season. And one of our own!

There must be skeletons in the cupboard we don't know about? It's the only rational explanation for Gardiner still being there?

Ross Morrison seems to have realised a football club is nothing without ST money Peter? I think they are so tone deaf it's unbelievable

Apologies but I have come down with a nasty bug since Friday and won't be able to attend in person. Unfortunately I cant attribute that to the CEO or Chairman, but if they were both to leave I'm sure I would feel much better. Register my disgust at how they are treating loyal fans, local businesses, sponsors, youth players, the City of Inverness and the Highlands. We are now a complete and utter laughing stock.

Could we fit our entire board of directors, chairman AND CEO in his magic hat?

Quite convinced I could do a better job...lol

The club's statement says "For the avoidance of any doubt we absolutely intend to continue to develop our own homegrown Highland boys and we will take the appropriate steps to make sure that by being creative, innovative and practical, they do not miss out on the chance to have a pathway to first team football with their team." What it doesn't say is what those "appropriate steps" will be. Presumably this is because they simply don't know. The reality is pretty stark. Any young lad with the talent to break through to the level where training with the first team squad will be required to train 135 miles from their home. It is impractical for them to be travelling up and down the road every day, so what other options are there? Will they be provided with overnight accommodation for 3 or 4 nights a week? Do they move to Fife and, if so, who pays for that? Do they stay in Inverness and look to find a place at County or one of the Highland league clubs? Or do they just pack it in? The one option that is not open for them, is to continue to live at home with their families and play for the club they have grown up with and want to play for. No prizes for guessing where the most talented youngsters in the Highlands will be heading to now. What the statement doesn't say, is how long this arrangement will last. There is nothing to suggest this is a temporary arrangement and therefore we must assume the club intend this to be the permanent model for our club. So what sort of player will we attract? Rejects who want to be somewhere else would be my view. For example, imagine you had payed for Dundee Utd, live in Dundee but had been released as being not quite up to Premiership level. You get an offer from ICT and a similar one from Dunfermline, what do you do? For me it would be a no brainer. At Dunfermline you would be part of a local community with team mates who live in the area. You would regularly be in and out of the club and get to know all the folk who work behind the scenes. You would be playing in front of a decent sized crowd, You would feel much more of a part of the club. In short, you would have a sense of belonging. Sign for ICT and what do you get? Team mates who would rather be somewhere else and who will be off as soon as they get a better offer; no connection with the city where your "home" ground is; little connection with the wider club personnel; a 3 hour journey to travel to "home" games where you are playing in front of a handful of spectators. Yesterday, several former players were talking about the things that bond players together to make a good team. All of those factors will be missing. The reality will be that we will only be able to attract players who can't get a contract elsewhere. Are we really going to assemble a better team based in Kelty than we could up here? I very much doubt it. Even if we do attract a handful of good players, I doubt we will ever build a good team. I don't want to watch players who would rather be somewhere else. This may be our club, but it won't be our team.

You have absolutely no idea what community means do you? it’s not just about being in the Premier league it’s about identifying with a club through thick and thin because they are part of your community. the way this has been done is actually the main issue I have. People who have been loyal to the club, people who have developed young talent, people who have supported through the years, all just ignored and this half arsed statement comes out. No one at club knew anything about it, none of the players, none of the youth coaches. It is the worse example of business practice I have witnessed. In one fell swoop they have pissed off fans, players, coaches and it’s all based on a hope that we can get ‘better players’. Did any of Ferguson’s signings or the style of play we had to endure give any indication that this would improve. Did it hell. It was rank rotten, his signings were awful, his man management abysmal and his overall performance pathetic - he drove a wedge between so many. Between himself and Gardiner they just do not get what being a Highlander is about. It is not pandering to the south and the demands of second rate players. Have some dignity