Leaderboard

We are happy to, and to provide some comments that may assist non members in particular. The Supporters Trust Board currently comprises eight members, who all voluntarily give their time and effort due to a shared passion for the club and for ensuring that fans' voices are heard by those running the club. The Board covers a wide range of ages, skills and experience. For example, the youngest member is 19, whilst others have significant business experience. One Board member leads on media activity, but all Board members have the opportunity to comment on draft Press Statements, and they are only issued once the Board agrees them. We make no apologies for the content of yesterday's statement, and we are grateful for the significant positive feedback on it from members. We had seen the club's announcement on Tuesday, and knew that the media would be speaking to Alan Savage. We therefore wanted to have a different emphasis and put our message across from the perspective of fans, linking back to key outputs from the Fans Meeting in May: Walking away from the Kelty plan. Securing the future of the Academy. Having a change in the leadership of the club, particularly the departure of the CEO. We wanted to recognise the significant role of all fans in these outputs being achieved. Our release had to be founded on facts, rather than rumour, speculation or opinions. That is why we did not explicitly refer to Seventy7 Ventures, but it was implicit in our welcoming of Alan Savage. There have been comments that the Trust was in some way endorsing the Seventy7 Ventures attempt to take control of the club. That is simply not the case. We did welcome the announcement that new investment had been found but we were clear that we needed to understand their vision, motives and plan. We were promised a meeting, but we received none of the details that we had sought. The fireworks were intended to bring some welcome light relief, and reflect the joy and relief fans are feeling with the confirmed departure of the former CEO, and the relief that Alan Savage has become involved. Now the former CEO has departed, it is time to move on, and that is what the Trust Board has been doing since his resignation was originally announced. Board members have been having significant engagement and dialogue with other key stakeholders, including Alan Savage. We recognise that there is a long road ahead, and there will be many challenges and twists along the way, but we are ready to play our part in that. As mentioned in our Press Statement, we are about to issue a survey to allow fans to show how they can play their part and join the Trust in working more closely with the club. This has been ready to be issued for some time, just waiting for confirmation of the departure of the former CEO, but we did not want to bombard members yesterday. We know that many fans are ready and willing to give their support. We also intend to continue with Fans Meetings this season, and details will be provided once the first date is set.

Strathspey Thistle have announced the appointments of Ryan Esson as Head Coach and Aaron Doran as Player / Coach.

You can now rest in peace Johndo. Your work on here is now done and Alan Savage will hopefully be the man to get us back on an even keel. I'll send you some old Canned Heat LP's. How about On the road again. That might be appropriate for you given the mileage you put in following the club. For now you must rest as Big Stu & Bronson are waiting for you with a double voddie and coke. Rest easy and let us carry on your good work.

Its all getting a little bit messy. I see some sense in what Charles is saying, perhaps AS had to be a current director to make initial changes - such as binning the former CEO - and now that he has done this, he can revert to a more 'independent consultant' role. If his forensic investigation of things shows board culpability in anything, and given the laundry list of complaints from the last several years my opinion is that this is bound to be the case, and he was a (current) member of the board, then he may have to be hoisted by his own petard, which would be counterproductive. If on the other hand this is yet another hail-mary by either KM/77V or our former CEO then what could they possibly hope to achieve? One is the single most reviled person in the history of ICTFC, and the other has all the history of grand schemes failing that you could ever see (in fact that could also be a description of our former CEO also). To keep myself right, I have this handy guide

The reality is that you can't please everyone all the time. I used to try that on here and it was a nightmare that had you tied up in knots and running around in circles. Once I accepted that there are those who like the site (and/or me) or did not like the site (and/or me) for whatever reason and learned to live with it and not give a **** then it all got easier. I do my best, and if you don't like it, or have a fundamental disagreement on the site ethos and views then P&B awaits if you so desire. since we stopped trying to be everything to everybody, we just get on with things. I think the only people we have banned in the last couple of years are bonafide spammers who get through our security from time to time. I have been on the supporters' club committee back in the day as well as others including the local Pool league and the amateur Football league, and know that it doesn't matter the organisation, there are always the same few faces on each who do things year in and year out, and many of the same faces doing the complaining about what you do but not willing to get involved. It is easy to criticise, not so easy to be criticised when you are doing your best. For my part, no-one has been perfect through this. Our (former) CEO is apparently litigious according to sources who warned me early on about saying too much online and I have been very careful to try and state only opinion and fact, not slander or defamation. I keep those particular opinions to myself. I could have said a lot more but I am happy to have been consistently against recent developments from the start as my somewhat dull social media will attest to. Similarly, over the years, I built up relationships with various board members and chairmen, and these relationships were built on trust. Sometimes I could and would say things, more than I should sometimes, and at other times, I had additional info or background that gave me more context but was not for sharing. It takes a long time to get to that trust level with ICT and it should not be taken lightly as it can be of great benefit in getting info to fans. I currently don't have any of that inside track since Rae/Crook/Gardiner et all, so it is somewhat refreshing to be able to shoot from the hip and say what I think rather than what I think I am allowed to say. Might I have worded some of what has been said by the ST differently? Perhaps. However, they do have to walk a fine line based on trying to keep 3 sets of masters mollified. first and foremost are the members and like any organisation you are never going to please all of them so you do your best. Second is their own rules and articles which mean they do things in a certain manner for the good and benefit of the supporters and the club, and that might include watering down statements or being party to privileged info that you can't share so that you don't burn bridges for future revelations from the same source, and finally the club itself. Its a complicated balancing act.

You have to bear in mind that regardless of how awful anyone involved in running the club may be, the Supporters Trust have to do their best to work with them. If the Trust publicly slags off these people, then the club simply stops engaging with the Trust. That is in nobody's interest. Given what the Trust has had to put up with from Gardiner over the years, I think a bit of "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead!" is perfectly justified. There's a message in this for the Club Board too. The Board were the ones responsible for making the decisions at the end of the day and they were the ones who kept faith in Gardiner. By publicly slagging off Gardiner, the Trust are indirectly criticising the Board. The Trust will need to keep working with the Board, but by enthusiastically welcoming Alan Savage and simply not mentioning the Board at all in the statement, the Trust is giving a message without giving the Board any excuse for not working with the Trust. The Trust statement ends with an appeal to fans to join the Trust and to get involved. People can criticise the Trust all they want, but the simple truth is that the Trust is what the fans make it. It's a democratic body. Anyone is free to join and contribute to the process of voting for the Trust Board members or even putting themselves forward for the Board. Anyone is free to help out in any other way. The more people who come forward to help or simply to join the Trust, the more effective the Trust will become. Collectively, we fans have a lot of power. We can use that power or we can open the door to another Gardiner or Makwana. Personally, I prefer supporter power.

Season ticket purchased

I understand the argument and case for the ST presented. Fair enough they duly represent the fans as the recognised artery between the club and fans. I personally don’t have any issues with this line, ‘It’s good to talk’ so the saying goes. It’s clear the ST also have to balance any communication in such a manner that doesn’t jeopardise that relationship. My own view for what it’s worth (none ST member), is that the Trust, in the short period I have observed, and I say it with due respect and no malice intended, have been too compliant and reactive to the debacle we have witnessed over the past two years. I have went on the record to say I believe without the ST ‘Kelty’ just may have happened. That said the ST were not the leading force behind the ‘revolt’. It was the fans that was the energy behind any action. The ST in my view only acted when faced with overwhelming pressure from the fans. Ie Boycott, season tickets, protest!! In regards the S7V and Ketan Kahwana takeover bid the ST (again in my view), were too eager to be seen to endorse this bid without offering any serious consideration to whether S7V was in any way a fit and appropriate company to take over the club. I would argue without (I exclude myself here ), some serious and knowledgeable people on this forum (probably most if not all ST members) the case and momentum for A Savage to get involved to stop the S7V takeover may not have happened. So my argument (all along) is I believe the ST should be more vocal in representing all the fans views and not just a select group of comrade individuals. For the immediate future it looks like the club is saved from a deeper hole that it would have been if S7V had succeeded. That said for every Alan Savage out there, their is a Ketan Kahwana. It can happen again! I will resist the invitation to sign up to join the ST, not that don’t think it’s a good organisation for fans to be and express their views, I simply prefer to support the club in my own way and be free to voice or state my opinion without any constraints. I close by wishing the ST well in future. bc

Great article in the Courier now: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/johndo-remembered-caley-thistle-fans-make-poignant-700-mi-358356/

Don't suppose ebay has a power seller by the name of S<teevee>G, member since April 2019 - 94% positive feedback (1690) Item Location: Kelty Premier Inn

That’s one of the core issues about Makwana - he always seemed to “give the impression” that he was doing things whereas in effect he was doing nothing. He gave the impression that he was constructing a deal to become the majority shareholders and that he was facilitating new signings and that he was some big shot businessman opening a branch of his company in the UAE…. and then that he was in the process of repelling the return of Alan Savage. Meanwhile, the reality was that he did absolutely nothing and was simply indulging in various fantasies - which he very probably also believed himself. In the case of the board membership question, it’s clear he saw the Companies House entries - where there was always very likely to be some innocuous explanation - and converted this into a scenario where he thought that Providence had intervened on his behalf. I remain utterly astonished that the Board - albeit possibly led into the scenario by Scot Gardiner - could have unanimously have swallowed a heap of obvious that pretty well everybody else instantly saw through the moment the story broke last month.

Just seen the P&J article showing the extent of our troubles: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/inverness-caledonian-thistle/6558499/former-ictfc-chief-alan-savage-has-warning-amid-title-target/ Savage said administration remains a possibility and he requires key shareholders to get around the table and strike a deal for the good of the toiling club. He said: “I am trying to put matters to bed as soon as possible. “I believe the first set of figures I saw (were debts of) £450,000. On closer inspection, it rose to £600,000 and then £700,000. “On Wednesday, we found out we owed (kit supplier) Puma £60,000 for last season alone. “It seems £120,000 of kit had been ordered and our new CEO Charlie Christie cannot yet get the details of what’s been ordered. It’s been over-ordered. “So that takes the amount to more than £800,000. I have put £200,000 in this week. “With the help of people like (former director) David Cameron, who has some great ideas on the property side to drive in revenue, while (former chairman) David Sutherland will also be helpful and has pledged some money to the club, we can also approach other businesses with that in mind. Also clarified that the Companies House filing was his lawyers mistake: Savage, who is determined to bring transparency to light for the ICT fans, was keen to clear this one up after it appeared on Makwana’s LinkedIn page amid a discussion. He said: “I signed a form saying I’d join the board on the understanding it would be when I get to the bottom of the financial situation, whether it is three or four weeks, however long it takes me. “Until I knew what was going on, I remain as a consultant as it wouldn’t be in order for me to join the board. “However, the lawyer in the meeting has somehow sent it in by pressing the button in error. We soon realised that happened and rescinded it.”

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/sport/13353844/spfl-inverness-strip-this-season-bill-puma-kit/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=ScottishSunSportTwitter&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1723734437-1

Yes, that would be a sensible move. I wonder if this is just temporary, however? Is there anyone better to be the go-to guy at the stadium right now as we rebuild. AS can't be there every minute of the day but few other people can understand ICT the way Charlie does, he has seen it all as a player, as a manager, as a commercial employee, and as the head of youth development. ICT runs through his veins and whether he gets a decision right or wrong, he will make based on his perception of what is good for ICT and IMHO we have not been able to say that for many years.

Great read which said it all. His passing is still hard to take in. I considered heading to Chorley today but I am in the midst of house-moving so sadly decided agianst it. Well done to those who are going......he deserved such a turn out. I cant find out if the service can be watched online but I will set my watch and pay my own private respects at 1.30. Goodbye old friend.

That's what I highlighted earlier DD the club statement was dated the 12th and not posted, I would not trust the board members that have been running our club with a bag of sweets whereas I would put more trust in Alan Savage and Charlie Christie to try and save our club from all the others that have been involved.

Those who are not happy with the way the Supporters Trust relays information, should perhaps think about taking a more active role in the trust's work. Remember we are all part of the trust (if we are members). Personally I have been really glad to have their take on events over the last few months to help steer me through it all.

Just watched the interview with Alan Savage on stv, what a difference between him and Gardiner. He was open, honest and likable and gave more answers in those 3 minutes compared to however many years Gardiner was here! Finally a safe pair of hands and someone with ICT at heart!

It's time for Player Sponsorship for the 2024/2025 season. For 20+ years we sponsored one or more ICT players each season. We were proud to have been the main shirt sponsor of Grant Munro through his entire ICT career from a youth breaking into the team to his final season with the club, then we moved onto sponsorship of Liam Polworth. We have also sponsored other players over the years for boots, gloves or other items including record appearance holder Ross Tokely and most recently Cameron Harper for four years, until the end of the 2022/23 season. Like many others, we took a hard decision and paused our sponsorship at the end of the 2022/23 season due to a lack of confidence in our (now former) CEO. It was a hard thing to do, as we all love the club, but it had to be done. We remain proud to have sponsored so many players over the years and as Alan Savage appears to be coming in to right the ship, ably assisted by club legend Charlie Christie slotting into the CEO role (for now?), then it is time for us to also re-commit to the club and play our own meagre part in helping with the rebuild of ICTFC so we can once again become the 'Pride of the Highlands'. With our former sponsored player - Cammy Harper - gone, and the other player we were able to sponsor in 2022/23 (Lewis Hyde) also gone, it is time to choose a new player, or hopefully multiple players. I have been in contact with the club yesterday and have been told that many people withheld sponsorship in the way that we did so there are a lot of opportunities. Typically, we have chosen one of the young local lads with a view to maintaining that sponsorship throughout their entire ICT careers, but the field is very open right now. I have my own thoughts on who it should be but want to gauge everyone else's ideas so have added a poll to this thread to get an initial set of opinions and go from there. I will take the names from the club website where the main shirt is not showing a sponsor name. Whoever finishes the 'winner' can be who we look to sponsor and if we raise more than the cost of one sponsorship we will go to the next player on the list. All very democratic and open [UPDATE] After a week of polling we have now settled on our chosen player(s) and will initially sponsor the home top of Matthew Strachan. Should we raise enough money we will then sponsor an item from Ethan Cairns and the others listed below. The format will be the same as previous years - all monies raised will go to the sponsorship. We will focus on getting enough for player home shirts, which will be randomly given to one of our sponsors at the end of the season, and if we raise enough, we will sponsor other player items up to the level of cash received. (INITIAL) PLAYER TO BE SPONSORED: We will try to raise enough to sponsor more than one player in some fashion, but based on the poll results, the order is as shown below. MATTHEW STRACHAN ETHAN CAIRNS ADAM MACKINNON SHAE KEOGH ROBBIE THOMPSON COST Home Shirt - £450 inc vat [to be confirmed]. Other costs as shown below. [We will not be aiming to do any sponsorship on the manager.] HOW TO TAKE PART For now, answer the poll so we can figure out who to sponsor. Feel free to add any additional comments in the thread below, especially if the player you want to include is not listed. I took the names form the ICTFC website and did not add any players who already had a main shirt sponsor. I will delete the comments when we are ready to start accepting memberships to clean up the thread so if your post is a different point for discussion please use a different thread. Join the "Player Sponsor" group. We will use the money received from these memberships (minus PayPal fees) to purchase player sponsorship(s) from the club. We will set all memberships - regardless of when ordered - to end on June 1st of each year. This allows us time each year to gauge the interest in continuing for the following season. The cost to join this group remains the same as before at £16.00 (this amounts to £15.00 joining fee plus £1 to cover the PayPal fees). You may purchase multiple memberships if you wish, just amend the total in your shopping cart and add a note when placing the order if it is to cover family members who may not officially be site members! To join the group simply go to this page http://caleythistleonline.com/store/ or access the CTO Store from the main menu at the top. All our site membership upgrades are handled securely via PayPal's platform which will accept direct payment from most credit/debit cards so it should be easy enough to upgrade your membership whether you live in Sneck or somewhere thousands of miles from there. Unfortunately, we do not accept cash payments. Once we know how many members have joined the group, we will decide on who/what gets sponsored. The first item will be the selected player's Home Kit ... but the more members who upgrade to "Player Sponsor" membership, the more we can sponsor. At the end of the season, members of our sponsor group will be selected at random to receive any gifts we may receive from the club. For any events that occur during the season (like sponsors nights or meet and greets etc.) we will offer first refusal to members of the sponsor group to attend as our representative. If you are interested, please add your name to this thread or go ahead and join the sponsor group. You will be marked as once we confirm payment received via membership upgrade .... (once we have enabled it)

We issued a statement this morning following yesterday's announcement by the club. Our members should already have received a copy, but if you have not for any reason, please contact us at [email protected]. A copy of the statement is here: enjoy the fireworks over the stadium! https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/ict-supporters-trust-statement-on-ceo-departure Like our previous releases, this has had good coverage in the local media, and a Trust Board Member has featured on TV today. The Trust Board is grateful for the continued support of members, and for all the positive messages received during the last few troubled months. As well as supporting the efforts being made to stabilise the position at the club, we will continue to work on behalf of our members and the wider fan base and, if you are not currently a member, joining is easy using this link (and only £5, or £1 for Under 16s): https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/join-us

Pretty weird if he wants to buy a football club and win over support, to then openly put himself in a position where he is interpreted (even if only briefly, during a day of confusion) as being responsible for involvement in taking out the people’s champion (and he must have known that is how it would come across to readers). Not the best of PR moves. Hopefully Mr Makwana is now reading the room. Savage’s transparency and common sense statements, without need for flowery embellishment, are incredibly refreshing, and even with the difficult road ahead there is a sudden sense of optimism that there hasn’t been in years.

Checking out the comments on his linkedin .. some real Kult of Ketan disciples blowing smoke up his a##e

With all this communication the club are really spoiling us. I wonder if ferrero are the italian connection?

Sounds like something Trump might utter post apocalypse ..

Club apparently claiming there was a "clerical error" that saw Savage listed as a Director on Companies House: https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/caley-thistle-say-clerical-error-led-to-former-chairman-in-358466/ Just shows what a shambles the club is from top to bottom and I still get the strong pit in my stomach that yet again something isn't quite adding up...

Well said Scotty

Alan Savage said in the P&J that he has put £150,000 in, presumably to meet immedate wage needs etc.

Doesnt look like it. Shame, as we tend to take that for granted these days since COVID and like you I thought I would be able to tune in. Doing some googling and the funeral directors have a page here for Johndo: https://johnmackenzie.muchloved.com/ and their main presence seems to be Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bliveseyltd/?checkpoint_src=any which lists a website that appears to be 'under maintenance'. https://bliveseyltd.co.uk/ . Its morning for me so no Voddie and Coke but will raise a cup of coffee with a hint of Espresso to Johndo around 8:30am my time. Not sure I would get away with starting a conga around the office though.

As I said on Twitter I really enjoyed reading that. It's going to be so, so strange heading to an ICT away match and not seeing / hearing Johndo

Why would the interim Chairman not be the one to show Gardiner and Makwana the door? Did he and the rest of the Directors refuse to do so? Or might it be a simple mistake? Someone wrongly thinking that Savage was being appointed as a Director in order to carry out what the Board are asking him to do? After all, the Board have been known to make the odd mistake or two before! Panos Thomas's statement, dated 12th August but not put on the club's website until quite late on the 13th, is very strangely worded in several respects. It does, however, appear to be clear that Savage has not been appointed a Director. Instead, it would appear that Savage has been tasked with clarifying the actual financial situation of the club and getting things in order such that potential investors can be clear exactly what they might be putting money in to. Worryingly though, the statement still refers to new ownership and that talks with Makwana have been "suspended" rather than terminated. It is a very odd statement indeed and the whole situation seems to be fraught with tensions. I fear we are still a very long way from where we would like to be.

Not being an expert on the running of companies, I can only really ask questions here, but these Companies House entries both refer to events that happened on Monday, and as recently as today (Wed) Alan Savage has been discussing his role with the media. Is it therefore possible that he doesn’t seek to be a Director in his current role but, for some procedural reason unknown, required that status temporarily in order to fulfil a particular function? For instance it was on Monday that Scot Gardiner was told to leave the building and it may well also have been on Monday that Ketan Makwana was told that his services were no longer required. I just don’t follow what KM’s social media are on about, but as far as I can see, he is not a Director of ITandC and has not even got as far as acquiring any shares in the company, either by purchase of new equity or by acquisition of existing shares. The only area I might therefore foresee as problematic is the potential for some breach of agreement, but equally I can’t see Alan Savage having failed to take any such possible issue into account. In any case, if the existing shareholders didn’t want to sell to him, there’s not a thing he could do about it - unless he wanted to come up with £5.1M to acquire a majority share outright - and even then, I think it would require a general meeting to release enough shares for him to do that.

Why would you feel constrained? The Trust Board need to know what the members think so that they can better represent the members! It is only those on the Trust Board who need to support the Trust's stance in public and are subject to any constraints.

Amen to that please.

Who knows, hopefully Alan Savage will succeed in saving our club, but even if too much damage has been done, at least we know that he will have done all he can do, for the right reasons and for our club and you can't ask for more than that. Thank you, Mr Savage.

Just failed to post the link to the STV interview, there’s a link to it in the Courier article, so hopefully someone else can find it and do the honours. Most interesting bit for me is the closing paragraph… ”It can’t get any worse, because I am in full control of the cheque book now and Charlie Christie, who knows the club intimately, is the CEO and he knows what the problems have been so we have come together and we are going to control the costs.”

If he did reply to you then I think Karen Dunbar would likely sum it up best ....

That would be a difficult case to win, given that he had already resigned! All that will have happened is that he will have been paid for the rest of his notice period and escorted off the premises.

Perhaps audition Herr Gardiner for a different role .. naff facial hair, narcissistic outlook with grandiose plans, and a bunker mentality when things go t**s up. Also lacks b**ls

STFU said; ‘I think we need to manage our excitement and expectations a little. Savage won't know exactly what the situation is until he's completed his audit and it's not only the financials that are a total mess.’ Yes, I expect Gardener’s lawyer has spoken to the Club Secretary and the lawsuit for wrongful dismissal has already landed on the ICTFC doormat. I still regard this as an example of clearing our feet of the dross and flotsam that put us in the position we find. It’s going to take I expect accepting cretins like Gardener (as possibly, some soon to be heaved existing board members) being compensated as part of the uncomfortable digestion for us fans in the coming months. It may be kept under the radar so not to rile too many, but I for one will breathe easier as soon as this lot are gone for good! bc

I suspect that it simply means that they have informed Makwana that they are putting the deal "on hold" for now, pending the review by Alan Savage. So not cutting him off completely - never say "never" - but realistically the chances of Seventy7 returning must be pretty near zero.

I have also reached out to them about our sponsorship this morning. Watch for the thread once I get details ....

I purchased my season ticket this morning over the phone and the girl said that they had been busy with renewals which is good news.

This has all the hallmarks of a watershed club moment for me. In 2000/2001 we were massively in debt due to lingering costs of building the very infrastructure that now makes the land around us so enticing to 77 78 ventures and no doubt others. DFS came in, squirrelled away the debt and put us on the path to fiscal responsibility that ultimately led us eventually to our greatest achievements of finishing high up in the SPFL as well as winning the cup and getting into Europe. The last 7 years have been brutal, first with Rae/Crook and then with Gardiner. Alan Savage is a successful local businessman, a football person and hopefully the man we can trust in the same way as we did DFS to work on making us successful (or at least sustainable) again. He will be motivated to make sure the club returns to its community roots, as damage to his reputation locally would also damage his local business and I think we can see that he is community focused by the fact that he was willing to plough money into the youth setup regardless of the shitstorm going on around him. He also was not shy in saying publicly he did not want to work with our former CEO (man that feels good to say) in any way. the comment he made early on, that I am still using in my signature line resonated with me and I think it sums up how he feels about ICTFC. You are probably right. There may need to be some hard decisions to be made and some backward steps taken to go around obstacles from a different angle and facilitate further forward movement, but as noted by Lynne in the P&J article, the grown-ups are now in charge and that feels a lot better. I hope AS takes a leaf out of the Kenny Cameron book. Kenny was open and spoke truthfully to the fans whether that news was good, or a harsh reality. We were not treated like mushrooms, and it brought about that camaraderie and siege mentality that players and fans alike have commented on. We didn't get to hear everything that went on behind closed doors, but some things are, and need to be, confidential, and must remain so even now, but back then, absolutely everything was not shrouded in secrecy which is where we got to over the last 7 years. I think if we get anything from this it will be a bonus, but I am sure, or I hope, it will now be subject to more scrutiny than before in terms of the 'forensic' examination of everything mentioned.

Exactly this. In around all the fanfare and excitement there may still be movements which surprise some and may not be overly welcomed before stability can be built but perhaps better received given the proponent is 'one of our own'.

I would think it is more likely that he is on Gardinering Leave, ie still be getting paid until the expiry of his notice period. That’s what we’ve done with other leavers like Dodds and Robbo. We don’t have tens of thousands of pounds sitting around to give out as a lump sum. We seemingly didn’t have enough funds to pay for loan deals, or pay for Doran’s operation, or pay for new strips, and likely need financial support from Seventy7 or Savage to pay the August wages.

I would have made it a more positive message, welcoming Savage back to the club as the headline statement. I don't see what need there was to spell out some of the things that you think that Gardiner was responsible for, especially since the Board, who remain, were complicit in all of it. And as for the fireworks.... All a bit too much "Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead!". No mention of Seventy7 either?

To me there is a big question mark over the battery farm proposal. One minute we believe the club own the land, they stand to make over £3m which would have paid off liabilities with cash in hand,supporters were mobilised to write to councillors. The club appear to have sold these rights for £250K initially to three people - Morrison, Munro and Cameron. Who signed that off given that Munro became a shareholder? Given the fact that David Cameron resigned as a director of the club well before the submission to the Council what was his role in a company believed to be for the benefit of the football club?