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This is risible! Fife Council have had no involvement in talks, as stated in the Inverness Courier. The P&J go further: "Fife Council’s community manager Sarah Roxburgh confirmed that Fife Council owns the pitch and that the council had not been involved in the partnership plans recently announced by Kelty Hearts and Inverness Caley Thistle" "We understand discussions between the two clubs are ongoing. On behalf of Fife Council, we'll need to be involved to review current booking terms and conditions as well as weigh up the impact that this may have on the availability of the community pitch to other users with any potential benefits" Not at all surprising given it is the owner, and it was all paid for by £7m of Fife Council's money for/from its community! Central Fife Times, in 2016, stated Fife council had set up a Community Investment Fund and said 'Additional facilities include a large outdoor football 3G pitch for use by Kelty Hearts the village junior team, the school and the local community'. The "Turf Matters" website in 2018 stated Fife Council had invested £665,000 in the park for the whole community and said it was 'a community asset that is open to the paying public'. Kelty Hearts Community Club, which is a registered charity, was reported in the Central Fife Times in 2019 as having over 160 young people on their books as well with an under 20s team and woman’s team and a walking football team all included. They have an online booking system here (for New Central Park) and here for Bath Street Park (grass). Their Twitter/X shows that in the last week, Kelty CC had their Under 17s, under 16s, under 14s maroons, under 14s whites, under 13 maroons, all playing teams from elsewhere in the region and doing very well (the Under 14 Maroons won the Fife Football Development League which has Raith and Dunfermline in it) Kelty Community Club Facebook states that Sunday afternoons are for their '2007s' who play in the Under 18s AFYFC Division One. Mon and Wed evenings for the girls teams, Mon 8th July is booked in the morning for Open trials for the 2012s. What an active Centre and pitch! Active Fife Football - which is basically High Life Highland - is Fife Council's own initiative. They have mornings reserved for infants and Fri nights 5pm-6.30 for 10-17 year olds every week etc (via Active Fife Football FB). That same 2019 article in Central Fife Times was about the issues they have with limited parking. The charity applied to lease land to build a car park as there was not enough parking during evenings or match days. A post on WeArePerth suggests that the changing rooms for New Central Park are housed in the Community Centre (assuming ICT would need to use a gym, meeting rooms, changing rooms, etc.). This Community Centre was built, again according to the 2016 report in Central Fife Times, By Fife Council's Community Investment Fund. So basically, the board are intending to take its commercial full time pro football team operation into a community - 146 miles away - and take over its facilities, which is primarily being used by a youth charity, without asking it! Ross Morrison: "I have got to take responsibility as the chairman. The idea came to me, and I thought we cannot move down there. Then I thought about it [and while re-thinking it, did it ever occur to you to ask the person who brought the idea to you if it they had approval from its owner before announcing it to the public...] and it works" [well, clearly does not - and neither does the CEO and the board] If the Chairman is reading this, this can be a watershed moment. Please drop your backing for the CEO Scot Gardiner before its too late. Surround yourself instead with better people, people who have actually had ICTs best interests at heart, for decades, even if you see them as the problem at the moment (and you might have justification, nobody's perfect). Don't let pride get in the way - you'll find a lot of people will understand that you put your faith in the wrong person -Scot Gardiner - and that led you down the (boat of) garden path. But you have to change tack now. Not in a week, not in two weeks - because then you'll be complicit and it will be impossible for you to disassociate yourself. You've put in money, you came out and spoke to the Press, and that is laudable - but if this doesn't provide you with the stark reality of the CEOs toxic effect, it'll be impossible to salvage. You have put in money and time, and emotions into ICT - do the right thing and people will surprise you, if you put ICT first from today. It might even be the path you've been looking for all along. Please don't sink the club because of one employee.

This is on the money. I absolutely believe that no positive change will happen at the club until Morrison manages to see the light with Gardiner and bin him. I really can't fathom why he is so besotted by him, he has a constant, long running record of failure in every aspect. He's soured every relationship the club as and I can't think of one thing that he's done which has improved the club. However Morrison says that he's 'been loyal to the club' well I'd be loyal too if my employer was paying me allegedly close to £100k a year and it didn't matter how big a failure I was. I can only assume Gardiner is holding one of the Chairman's children hostage or has compromising pictures or something. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! After we were relegated I fully expected to quickly hear the Gardiner was going - do we really need an expensive CEO in League 1 anyway?! Gardiner is a toxic, pathetic failure in our club who has turned us into a laughing stock and sadly after 15 years, I won't be back at Caledonian Stadium until he's gone.

Now that the league cup fixtures are announced for 13/14 July, most teams come back for pre season about 4 weeks before that. Gets everyone together, normally a few friendlies with highland league teams etc. That means everyone is due back roughly mid June, which is only a couple of weeks away!!!!!! Training venue still not clear, only a few players under contract, staff unclear as to wether they have employment in Inverness or Fife, no new players (that have been announced), signed up to make a full squad!!! What an absolute shambles this is. I imagine they still have to move the entire footballing side of things down the road……. When is all that happening. Desperate stuff.

Therein lies the problem. He is an absentee chairman who has let Gardiner dictate things. No-one will step forward to replace him while Gardiner is there so the chairman has one simple task, sack Gardiner and maybe someone will take over. This would also get some fans back onside.

Just finished listening to TWS 136 miles from home. Firstly, fair play to Ross Morrison for coming out and speaking to the fans. Irrespective of what we made of what he said, plenty of folk would have remained hidden. A couple of things sprung to mind in all the financial turmoil he described; 1. Who decided to give Duncan Ferguson a 3 year deal? 2. Who decided that when the costs of digs was so expensive, that we should sign a huge number of loan players and add to that cost? Given the board watched the turgid football we played last year and have now confirmed that Duncan Ferguson is manager for next season, and given everything else that has happened, how are we going to entice any fans to get back to the ground? Congrats to the guys at TWS for keeping it calm and civil.

Well done Achfary. Brilliant detective work and sums up the fans feelings exactly.

Excellent research Achfary.

P&J https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/inverness-caledonian-thistle/6487264/ex-caley-thistle-chairman-alan-savage-provides-key-cash-for-academy/

Gives us a chance to scope out the Annan players we keep missing out on.

In his Courier interview, the Chairman said that he and the 2 other directors had bought the battery company for £250,000 because the club needed the money. If these directors have that money to buy the battery company, why not simply give money to the club? I don’t have much understanding of business practices, but it is clear they didn’t buy the company because the club needed the money. Is it because they anticipate the club going into administration and any profit from the battery farm being used by the administrators to pay off the creditors? it seems that everything the Chairman says raises more questions than it provides answers

9 years since we won the cup and almost 9 since we had our first sniff of Europe. Not expecting we get Europe any time soon, but sure as hell know its an impossibility with the Muppet Show going on at the club right now. Sackable offence after sackable offence but the Gardinerball keeps on rolling, unfortunately.

I think I was in the same pub lol. I too thought that was as far as we could go. And so it proved. That great team went it's separate ways in search of a better wage and who wouldn't to be fair. We lost the momentum of the Cup win and entered the downward spiral with no brakes. I listened to the latest pod. Those guys do a fantastic job and I'm sorry I haven't listened to them more during the season. I congratulate them on the RM interview. I think you have to feel for the guy [RM]. A true Invernesian who's pride must be in tatters. However, surely he has the power to get rid of those that are dragging this club down..no? As for DF - I am 100% certain we will not get out of League 1 with him in charge. No chance. He hasn't got a clue. So, DF, prove me wrong.

Just been doing a wee simple arithmetic exercise. Ross Morrison says we will save £300k by going to Kelty. Given what I spend on season ticket, cup game tickets, sponsorship etc a season multiplied by , say, 700 who are not going to renew season tickets gives approx £500k. Throw in a £100k salary which we don’t need. Problem solved. Just saying…..

Not fair enough. He's trying to prove he's not a complete failure so he can get another job. So far, he's unemployable after two relegations. A promotion might make him saleable again. We've seen enough. Any decent manager would have got us well out of relegation by not playing 5 at the back and a midfield made up of another defender and our leading striker, whilst sidelining Samuels and Rory. Ferguson was our biggest problem.

I've not seen anyone doubt RMs passion as a fan but right now he's allowing his loyalty to a friend to override that passion and do harm to the club. We the fans are not responsible for the money he has put in. Money that there is nothing to show for. He has funded the gamble to keep spending on large player wages, a CEO, a sporting director (who's been paid to sit at home for 7 months and was moonlighting on the radio while here), 2 useless managers (one of whom he gave a 2 year deal and then sacked 5 games later and the other that got us relegated), not to mention all the batshit crazy side projects. He spent his money chasing his vision of the club and now he expects someone else to come in to give him his money back and bail the club out. He claims that people at the club fully support the idea but people from the club are telling others they knew nothing of it until it was announced. Cry me a river and float the F U C K O F F down it. If he'd spent that money on the stadium and improving the fan experience. If he'd focused on fan engagement and the basics. Then I'd still be a ST and willing to chip in a bit more besides. I suspect others would have as well.

Don't think they release the podcast on 78s unfortunately.

Anyone who steps forward can just get rid of Gardiner themselves, if they think someone else could do a better job!

As others have said, fair play to RM for offering to do this and well done to the pod guys. The Chairman provided a lot of interesting info and came across as very open and honest, no attempt to spin things, just telling it like he sees it, and I think we can all appreciate that even if we don’t agree with him. I thought, however, that he did a very poor job of explaining/justifying the Kelty move, when he had an opportunity to sell to fans exactly why it is needed or beneficial. He’s not a great communicator, as we already knew. The interview also highlighted that he is not a hands on, close to the detail type of chairman. He clearly relies heavily on others like the CEO, which is unsurprising as he has his own businesses to run full time. He also confirmed what to me has apparent for a long time, that he would happily step aside if someone else stepped forward. He was basically inviting them to do so.

I’ve got massive respect for the guys @ The Wyness Shuffle. They are doing a fantastic job for us the fans. I really feel that they got through to Ross Morrison

Latest fan reaction to the Proposed move to the Kingdom of Keltydonia..... and this is how we we will get rid of the fans!

Some how I think we’d have to pay them to take him off our hands

I agree it's sickening that Gardiner & Morrison, in progressing the move south are effectively enabling a vanity project for Ferguson next season with promises of a group of as yet unknown footballing mercenaries who can lead Caledonian Thistle Wanderers to the promised land. The alternative, the prioritising of home grown talent alongside league one status for a number of seasons if necessary until a winning team is formulated on a budget will not satisfy Ferguson, Morrison or Gardiner the short term outcomes they individually crave. After listening to Morrison it'a clear he has been sold a pup & has allowed stronger personalities to bulldoze their ideas through. Personalities who care nothing about the area, the people or lets be honest the club which is just a convenient vehicle to underpin their career ambitions.

I remember sitting in a Glasgow bar that night feeling quite depressed despite what we’d just achieved - I thought this was it, the pinnacle of our achievements, the best we could probably ever be and it would never be quite as good again. It would have been no surprise to anyone if we didn’t win a major trophy for another decade, or flirt with relegation to the Championship a few times like County, however, I could never have dreamed that we could fall from grace so far, so quickly and so easily. In essence eventually ruined by one selfish, inept and incompetent idiot while others we trusted with the safe running of our club turned their heads the other way. Ross Morrison has to accept responsibility for his part in allowing Gardiner the freedom to cause so much pain and damage. The evidence is overwhelming, you have an opportunity Ross to take the first steps in putting things right, sack Gardiner now! No further delays or excuses, just get on with it and maybe you’ll find you come out of this in a far better place than where you find yourself today.

And the video is available on betamax from blockbuster

Sorry but I am a bit of a luddite. Can i only get the latest pod on Twitter? The work you lads have put in to get these published is phenomenal and I for one think they are essential listening. So, is there another way?

If Ferguson feels he has something to prove, fair enough. As regards Gardner. The impression I have is of someone who has made too many enemies in the area. You can't even say he's a marmite figure. Some people like marmite. No apparent effort to court local business is crazy in any enterprise, never mind a football club. I think he should be shown the door.

Yup. I will give him that. In any and all conversations with him that I have ever had (a few but not many), he has always come across as a fan not just a chairman and he was a fan long before he was the chairman so fair play to him for sticking his head above the ramparts. He has also put his money where his mouth is for many years and is clearly hurting not only at the club's current situation, but presumably from the criticism he is getting as well. Some deserved, and some perhaps undeserved. Unfortunately, I believe he has been painted into this particular corner by our CEO and may be guilty of the same kind of loyalty towards him that Kenny C had for Foran which ultimately proved to be a misplaced loyalty, albeit to a far more likeable person. Haven't listened in a while as I seldom have any time, but have listened to the last two and wow, you guys just nailed it. Lee almost had me in tears on the last one given the raw emotion on display. That was as heartfelt a statement as I have heard for a while. I was also nodding my head and agreeing so much with you on virtually all the points raised when listening on my commute home the other day that drivers around me on the highway probably thought i was headbanging to some metal music!! On this last one, which i listened to this morning at work, again I was nodding along, but at one point I think I heard the penny drop for the chairman (or hope I did). Think it was when you did the quick math of losing around 1000 season tickets that he seemed to have an "oh, s***, yeah" epiphany. Here's hoping at least. Get that Trebuchet ready boys! Great stuff, keep it up

I don't really care about Gardiner. I don't see him going means anything. As the lads said later, if he needs ideas, then ask for them before announcing something like this. If Kelty was in the works no matter the Division, then ask for help the year before. Come to a deal with hotels. Ask for digs. Get the equivalent of a Supporters Trust that other clubs have, where you pay a lot more for a real voice. The whole idea is NOT related to relegation. If we get promoted from Division One, then we're still in the same avenue as previously, i.e., a move to Kelty no matter what. If we then got to the SPL, then you cannot just move back to Inverness with the whole squad in Fife. It's a permanent deal. The only way we go back is if we are hopeless in Division One, maybe even relegation to Division Two. Who wants that? Get someone in that knows about developing young talent, that can identify Highland League players and bring up others from elsewhere, e.g., Central Belt, Aberdeen, England etc. That's certainly not Ferguson. We need a modern Pele. Maybe Graeme Stewart's opportunity?

I’m surprised that no-one with expertise in subtitling has produced an ICT version of the famous “Downfall” clip.

Technically it has now provided income for the club, but only because it has diverted income through another source. I agree that the purchase will protect any BESS profits from the administrators but it also raises the potential that any major profit ends up in the pockets of the directors. I should say that I don’t for one minute suggest that they would not put the money back to the club, but it opens the door to suspicion. The point here is that after all the publicity and controversy over the BESS project, the directors changed the ownership and kept quiet about it. If the change of ownership was good for the club then why not immediately announce the move and explain the benefits for the club? Cynics would say that people only keep quiet when they have something to hide.

Big capital letters for the above!

The text below is from an e-mail shared with members yesterday, but we welcome responses to the survey from all fans:

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

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.

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.

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

But it has to be the correct right-hand man. I don't know if he was pals with SG before he appointed him, or if SG just talked a really good game at the interview process, but a quick google search, even back then would have provided a ton of info from his time in Dundee and at Hearts. That should have given pause for thought and/or a sense that he would give the guy a chance but there had to be oversight .... Clearly we do not need a CEO in the current league, and certainly not this CEO. We need someone who will go in, get their hands dirty, listen to opinions and ideas from all sides, be able to evaluate and implement them where they prove to be good, be open to fan engagement and ideas, and capable of working with a team of excellent ICT staff and hopefully volunteers who I believe will be chapping at the door if we reverse the Kelty cock-up and divest ourselves of the CEO. This is in my opinion the only (and the cheapest) way to get us back on the right track. We have great supporters, many of whom have a diverse and under-utilised skill set because they have been regarded with suspicion and derision for so long. Recognise the talent, pull together and get us back up where we can be. A bag of balls and a sack of half-time oranges?

I see that a vacancy arose today at Rangers for a CEO. Just imagine if they want our very own Scot Gardiner. What should the transfer fee be?!

Sounds like a Scot Gardiner quote circa 2012

Who’d have thought on this day 9 years ago where we would be and what we’d be discussing today! How we’ve fallen in that time.

next to the longman roundabout just on stadium road where we used to advertise our games with a tiny banner

Not sure about that - if the battery farm proceeds and generates a huge lump sum after administration, the proceeds would go to Ross Morrison who has security over it. So it would not be in his interest for the club to have sold it on the cheap. The directors buying it have taken a huge gamble, there is a fair chance it is worth zilch, time will tell. Another observation - the battery farm project has generated £250,000 income for the club, which whilst a lot less than was intended, means it has been very worthwhile, vindicating the decision to pursue it?

I have no basis for this but I have a feeling we'll be away to Dundee and Annan and home to Bonnyrigg and Arbroath. Suspect we are all hoping for a trip to Midlothian though!

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.

Don't think anyone sees it as a panacea tbh. I agree very very risky considering we don't know debs incurred, assets or how much owed to Directors via secured loans? What is alternative though? If anyone has any other bright ideas that can sort this stalemate with club that are workable they should voice them. Folk are fully aware of the dangers

Actually the accounts due this week ought to look better than usual in so far as they cover the season in which we made possibly £1m from the cup run, and bit of profit from the concerts too. The ones for the season just ended, however, will be an absolute car crash, with lower revenue from all sources. Those are the accounts we’d really like to see, but will no doubt have to wait a long time for them.

The Trust stated they had taken legal advice on the matter.

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

You just don't get it! Last season we had a squad which was good enough to gain promotion back to the championship. We were very unlucky to be relegated in such a tight division. Despite a lot of injury problems we were a penalty miss away from 5th and in reality, had a squad that was good enough to challenge for promotion. We might have done so with a better manager. The powers that be on the Board were negotiating this absurd scheme whilst we were in the Championship and not expecting to be relegated. They, presumably, expect this scheme to produce a squad which will put us back in the Premiership. Anything except promotion straight back to the Championship will therefore represent an absolute failure for the scheme. But do you really think the scheme will allow for recruitment of players that will take us back to the Championship, let alone to the Premiership? As previously explained, the scheme makes it far more difficult for any player who actually lives in Inverness or would be happy to come and live in this wonderful part of the country for a year or two. The only players for whom this scheme will be attractive are players living within easy commuting distance of Kelty. These players will also be within easy communing distance of numerous other clubs looking to recruit. So tell me, what makes you think that these guys will sign up for us and a 3 hour trip up the A9 before and after matches, rather than a more local club where they are embedded in the camaraderie of the club infrastructure and the local community? Success will depend on recruiting a very significant number of such players. Logic tells us that the only players we will attract will be ones who can't get a contract with a central belt team. A team of rejects with no link to Inverness are more likely to see us relegated than promoted.