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Probably a little too early to call this one for me. The threat of administration still hangs in the air and that could be the deciding factor. A 15 points deduction would almost certainly see us in L2 next season. IF we get new owners and investment then we could possibly make a challenge for the L1 title. Looking at the current squad and performances I can't see us making a challenge this season. We currently have a small squad and we get a spate of injuries - like we always do - we will struggle. I also feel sure the current manager isn't up to the job in hand. Lets see how it goes during the first few league matches.

announces his retirement https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cz5r1p8ne8no Thanks for the memories Jonny! Especially this tap in

As expected there’s now a vacancy for the England manager’s job. For several reasons I would love it if Big Dunc somehow got the job!

Saw the thread title and hoped he’d signed for us! I always hoped he’d come back to us for a season or two before retiring. Terrific player, and certainly one of the most exciting we have ever had.

Indeed. If only a tricky, speedy attacker like Nico Williams, or Bukayo Saka, or Jamal Musiala had been involved in the tournament Going back on topic, Hayes might be my favourite ICT player ever. The goal above was a particular highlight, but I can think of others: the way he terrorised defences in our promotion season; a late equaliser against Dunfermline in the cup where he deflected the keeper's clearance into the net and then ran off to the corner flag with his hand over his mouth; a win over Hibs where he gifted them a goal with an errant pass and almost instantly demanded the ball from the kickoff and promptly set up Adam Rooney to score; more than one occasion where he raced 70 yards at full speed to halt an opposition counter-attack. There was no messing about, no pointless tricks or showboating; just a guy who worked his ass off for 90 minutes every week, with and without the ball. We were privileged to have him for a few seasons.

Hi punters...I'm happy to take this on again this season. A whole new league to play with. Scotty has posted the first round of fixtures. I'll get a few added when time allows. To join just follow the instructions at the beginning of this thread. I'd love to see more of you having a go this season. Come and play.

It should be worrying that after four low tempo friendlies and one league cup game, that players are already managing injuries. With most league 1 teams playing on plastic and us training more at HRFC & Millburn, then can only see more impact on our squad fitness. At least Duncs loves playing youth on plastic. !!!!!!!!!

To think, when he started, I thought he was the poor man's Robert Eagle.

Was that a Ryan air? ICT = Inverness Christie Thistle?

I expect attendance to drop as we progress and more fan melt downs blaming everyone when we sit mid table and it's evident the squad depth isnt deep and most of our youngsters aren't good enough or ready for this level. Fingers crossed Brooks or Cairns might get us goals because I'm not sure Billy will otherwise it'll be closer to the bottom than the top.

I think we need to be brutally honest and acknowledge that we are looking here at a situation football has got itself into through the manner in which it pays players. There has for some time been a culture within the game of paying players at levels well above their true market value in terms of the earned income that clubs can generate. This has led to a widespread reliance on wealthy individuals effectively gifting money to clubs to allow them to continue to operate in a fundamentally loss making manner. In fact this has become so commonplace that it has generated unrealistic expectations that people should simply be there to provide these subsidies to football clubs. Ross County has been in the fortunate position of having a major benefactor in the long term which has given the club the means to rise up the leagues and (just) stay there. At a rough estimate I believe this assistance, across time, to be in the ballpark of £20 million. Should that source of funding suddenly disappear, I imagine that major problems would arise very quickly. However Caley Thistle has also had benefactors whose overall contributions I would very roughly estimate to have totalled around £10 million. At least £5 million of this came from Tullochs, who didn’t have to bother but, critics of Tullochs should note, without their assistance, ICT might well have gone out of business around 2001. If you then add all the share purchase with no prospect of any return, probable gifts and the loans that comprise the current £3M of liabilities, then it’s not difficult to see how ICT has gone through £10M of other people’s money over the years and now desperately needs millions more. Anyone connected with ICT should therefore be very careful about criticising how County has been funded because it is simply a more successful and more consistent version of what has happened in Inverness. Football needs to be aware that society doesn’t owe it a living - especially when it insists on continually living beyond its means.

Yes indeed a great player for us exciting to watch running with the ball and scoring goals just brilliant compared to the style of football we have now.

For me, survival as a club comes first, anything positive on the pitch is a bonus. That said, some of the feedback from Saturday is encouraging. In Bray and MacLeod we have youngsters with great potential and others may start to shine too, such as Mackay and Thompson who both looked good at Clach and Nairn. We’ve also Nicolson to come back which will strengthen us. On the other hand, Ferguson said that he played Brooks, Gilmour and McKay for longer on Saturday than he had planned to, given they’d had injuries. That is a major worry that we are asking too much of players who are not fully fit. I’m cautiously hopeful that they may surprise us this season and at least make the promotion play offs but, as others have said, it is very early days and we do not yet know the level we are at.

Yep too early yet for any solid expectations but if we do end up with a serious points deduction then my expectation is a strong challenge for the League 2 title in 25/26

There is more exciting football on show in the above clip, that what i saw on show at the whole of Euro 2024. Could you imagine teams now trying to deal with attack minded players rushing at them, at pace. Shows how much the game has deteriorated over the years

Like Gringo says we need to know exactly where we stand before predicting anything. You just don't know what is round the corner and the club just providing us with reactive statements which unfortunately often pose more questions than explanations and leave us in the dark

I think that many others, outside of the Highlands, don't realise how bad things are with us. Was talking to my wife's Stenny-supporting relatives last week, and, even though they are plugged into most things happening at that level, they were still expecting us to be up there challienging for promotion. Even when I explained that we had a team of mostly untried youngsters, they still couldn't take it in. "You've still got Mckay who scores all the goals, haven't you?". "Yes, but he's into his late 30s now, and he can only score goals if he is in an attacking position and gets good service!".

Sounds a bit Muirfield Mills.

This has been a slow downward spiral for almost 10 years starting with a failure to develop and capitalise on successes culminating in a Scottish Cup and European football. Not looking at sustainable finances at that point and seeking investment and sponsors when our stock was high to then subsequent CEOs making incorrect choices. Cameron and Rae are equally culpable in this mess which has only been escalated by poor on field results and bad decisions through to the current regime.

Sounds like our neighbours up the road, only about a dozen staff on County's books - everyone and everything else is funnelled via GEG. Football clubs are rich men's playthings and it was only a matter of time before Tullochs and the regime they installed got tired of the losses. No one up here can realistically compete with Roy and his annual write-offs.

The importance of this is often overlooked, as is the unheralded/unadvertised provision of staff, infrastructure and even office supplies while things were really rough.