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From this day forward he will be known as Alan Salvage.

After a meeting today Alan Savage announces big news re debt. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/watch-massive-burden-removed-from-inverness-caledonian-th-358828/ good news for the future.

This is a massive step in the right direction and all the shareholders concerned are to be commended for writing off/converting their loans. It is also very encouraging to hear that Dougie MacGillvary is getting involved with the club again.

Ross Morrison was a fan before he was chairman and when we were discussing the potential involvement of a third-party, he told me he would sell his stake for peanuts if the right offer came in for the club. This was with his fan hat on rather than chairman's hat, so I believe him. He truly wanted/wants what's best for the club. Hopefully, he has written a portion off and (quite rightly) taken some in equity. History wont be overly kind to him as he will forever be mentioned in the same breath as our former CEO, but the reality - IMHO - is we would have gone under quite some time ago if he did not do his own version of an Uncle Roy impersonation and throw money at the club. Shame that the person he threw it at did not seem to use it well. The reality is that any of our creditors could have made life difficult and trigger an "insolvency event" so with Alan Savage now gaining broad agreement with them, then hopefully we can move forward cautiously. I think we are in good hands now, and engagement seems to be key. We are still deep in the forest and far from getting out of the woods but at least Scout Leader Savage seems to have the compass!

Amazing what the removal of one thorn can achieve.

the devil will be in the details, and we are yet to see how this plays out with those who agreed to convert debt to equity, (for example, does Ross Morrison now become our biggest shareholder with 2.1m shares?) but on the face of it good news and Mr Savage is to be applauded. "On a hugely significant day for the troubled 30-year-old outfit, Savage revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson was among those offering to help, having got in touch to urge Caley Thistle to stick by manager Duncan Ferguson." If he is encouraging us to stick by DF then that's likely not helping unless he is going to give him a management masterclass, but if he is offering to use his contacts and knowledge to help us out that would be massive!

I think the comments made about Duncan Ferguson mean he’s not getting sacked any time soon. Savage wouldn’t have mentioned what Sir Alex said otherwise.

It begs the question. Why was this not done before we got into this mess. Did Scot Gardiner really run such an oligarchy. Incredible.

There was a press conference at the stadium this afternoon where, among other things, it was revealed that a number of people - including Ross Morrison - to whom money was owed have agreed to convert the debt to equity in the club or to write it off completely. This follows a meeting this morning and is worth millions. I wasn’t there myself, but I’ve heard the press conference audio and this, to me, is pretty major. This is my BBC colleague Iain MacInnes’s online report. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clyw88kx84xo And it emerges that Alan Savage has also received a goodwill phone call from Sir Alex Ferguson!

Thats the unread ones, what about the 'read but ignored' ones!

Surely sitting on 7,000 unanswered emails comes under gross misconduct?

If you're an old duffer and/or pearl clutcher, sit in the Main Stand. If you're a cool kid, cool adult or cool senior citizen, sit in the North Stand. Problem solved.

According to the clip above, he sat on 7000 unread emails! what a breath of fresh air Alan Savage is right now.

Matheus Machado returned to Inverness in midfield for Montrose. When he arrived with us he showed terrific promise, so it was a bit sad to see him playing for a part time club and contributing so little to the game. One wonders why it is that some players who show such flair at a young age seem to go backwards when they grow older. It's as though the modern mantra of possession based football coaches the natural intuitive flair out of them.

It looks like you can buy him off with a case of red wine! https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/duncan-alex-ferguson-man-utd-27903305 Great news!

Incredibly good news. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/clyw88kx84xo

Please define what you mean by “mindless idiots” I’m genuinely intrigued. If you believe these people are “mindless idiots” for: - Calling out a board who nearly sunk the club with the mass debts racked up; - Calling out a manager who has us playing the worst football I can recall from an ICT team (and is earning still megabucks for the privilege); - And calling out our players to perform better against a part time team with 10 men. Then sign me up as a “mindless idiot”.

Think this will be deserving of its own thread as details emerge of the sheer state of our finances ... but let me start controversially by saying THANK YOU to Ketan Makwana ! The utter nonsense of your 'takeover' bid, the corporate phygital gobbledygook coming out of your mouth or your linked in page, and your history at companies house woke up some of our giants of the past in Messrs. McGilvray, Sutherland and Savage. You were the straw that broke the camel's back, the final grand scheme that saw all of our CEO's cards collapse, that one domino that started the progression that will surely see more dominoes fall. I want you nowhere near our club, but you can take heart that even without buying the club with imaginary money, you may well have played a part in saving it. Clearly the reality of our situation is far worse than even the most cynical fan expected now that we have had some straight talking from Alan Savage and it all started with the idea that 77Ventures were random new owners overnight just a few weeks ago. But onto the main focus of this thread - the money, or more specifically the lack of it or of any oversight on that front. AS went in just 3 days ago and in that time he has discovered that we are not £300K adrift, that quickly ballooned to £450K then £700K and now closer to £900K. We don't have new strips FOR THE TEAM let alone the fans, because we have not paid the bills, and we apparently have a pre-order for £120K of strips sitting with Puma as part of that £900K. Given that the average cost of a strip is around £50 retail that's 2400 strips, but profits on these are decent so do we really have upwards of 3-4000 new strips waiting to be sold once we pay for them wholesale first? Not having strips for the start of the season is right up there with not having seats for the Tynecastle stands and having twice as many as we get at the stadium on a good crowd day, sitting in a container somewhere is as ludicrous as it sounds. I am sure AS will discover all sorts of 'anomalies', unexplained or lets say 'less than optimal' spending as he goes through the accounts with a fine-tooth comb, but my ire on that one is directed back at the board. How in f*** was there no oversight on this. SG did what SG was there to do. To operate as the CEO of ICTFC. The fact he seemingly did that without a shred of governance is not his fault. His performance and ability to do it correctly and economically should have been something benchmarked on a regular basis by the board. Did he have no performance reviews since 2019? If not, why not? Thats not a failing of SG, that's a failing of the board. Red flags have been around for a while. I recall the comment about Ryan Christie buying footballs for the youth team and I think that's what Charlie is referring to in today's article in the Courier which is well worth a read. The last three days with Alan Savage and now acting CEO Charlie Christie have seen more public communication from the club in 3 days than we have experienced in the last 5 years since the former CEO was put in post. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/this-club-for-far-too-long-has-been-losing-too-much-money-358498/ A few great bullets raised by Charlie: He is confident that working alongside Savage, it will lead to the club having a brighter future. The staff get frustrated too and a lot of that has been from resources. He, as academy manager, has had to do without things that were needed. The mood at the club has been great since Alan came in. Some of the staff don’t know him. He is fair, but demanding - and very professional.. He will want a paper trail for everything, as there should be. He will want more corporate governance in his time at the club and I don’t think that's much to ask. It is good for any business to have that. That’s what he’ll bring. We’re all delighted because we feel it is a step in the right direction. Watching the ill-feeling towards individuals at the end of last season, it is not good for Caley Thistle. It is something I’ve never seen. Fans have a go at managers, myself included, after poor performances. That goes with the territory. But not what we witnessed last year at times. Hopefully that’s dead in the water now and we can move on. I like the comments I have heard that some creditors are already paid, and the things Charlie mentions in that article. I especially like the comment that the mood at the club has improved. there are many hard-working and crucial folks down there doing thankless tasks who do not need to be micro managed and for them to finally be able to exhale and maybe show what they are capable of is a relief. We do have to get back to basics, we do have to stop all the pie-in-the-sky bullshit and the loss of money hand-over-fist. We do have to put football first and try to get out of this league and back up to the Championship and hopefully over time, the Premiership. One step at a time, one obstacle at a time, and all in a sustainable or responsible manner. With Charlie and Alan Savage at the helm now, I think this is a good start to the process but let's not stop looking inwards. The CEO was allowed to do what he did for many years, and those who allowed that, or didn't bother to look at what he was doing also need to take accountability for that.

With today news regarding Alan Savage paying off all of or at least most of the debt a certain past CEO had got us into, I only think it's fair to post something along the lines of what the late and very popular poster/fan would post and that is that the future seems to be a lot brighter now than it was in a VERY LONG TIME . I've seen it mentioned on X that Alan Savage should never have to buy a pint in the City again or maybe that a statue of him needs put up outside the stadium for all the work he's done in ONLY A WEEK to basically save us from administration and another potential relegation due to a -10pt deduction. I also saw one person state that he should remain at the club in some capacity even when the new investment comes in, which looks likely to be Portugal owners of Monza . I've never been this positive in a long time and it's certainly thanks to this messiah so I'm now hoping he and Charlie Christie (with possible help from Sir Alex Ferguson) can work their magic on Duncan Ferguson so that we can at least get back up to the Championship and build from there! As Mr IHE would say, HMS Sneck is back on calmer waters from the rocky sea that we were on not that long ago!

Great to see someone locally based taking the initiative and investing in the club. Let's get Inverness back in ICT!!

Wow indeed!. That is perhaps the most revealing bit of the whole press conference. That and the fact that so many people had put in loans to the club and have now either written them off or converted them into equity. Sadly, it all further highlights the extraordinary ineptness of the Board in allowing the situation to get to such a desperate state. No doubt the former CEO kept a lot of things hidden from them, but Board members past and present should be ashamed of themselves for allowing him to almost destroy the club. Alan Savage has achieved a hundred times more for this club in a week than the whole rotten lot of them have done in the last 5 years.

The plan is to stabilise the club and get it fit for selling to an investor. I imagine it will then be up to them to sort out any investment in the squad and/or the future of the manager based on their vision for the future.

The internet has just been won for the season. Brilliant!

But as Scotty’s excellent post highlighted, his fanciful bid was the catalyst needed to get everything and everyone pulling together.

That is the absolutely central question. Totally without any benefit of hindsight, it was clear to a great number of people as early as 2018-19 that there was a severe problem when £1 million of new shares were needed to keep the ship afloat. The best take on it that I can make is that the problem was ignored for far too long and then naive faith was placed on a series of four money making wheezes, all of which collapsed spectacularly. Of these, the Concert Company was also hugely damaging to the club’s reputation and I wonder if there would have been grounds for sacking Gardiner on the strength of that alone? Then there seemed to be this blind faith that nothing could possibly go wrong with the Battery Farm and I wonder how much was spent and committed on the blind assumption that it would produce the goods? And in similar vein, it appears that this naive faith continued to the bitter end, since I believe that new signings were made on the say-so of “new owner” Ketan Makwana. As for the club’s reputation… recent years have seen this utterly trashed due to the manner in which it went about its business. However I think the manner now of its renaissance, especially off the back of Gardiner’s absurdly belated but hugely welcome departure, stands every chance of its steady restoration.

Really, really good news - Mr Savage you have worked wonders sorting out so much so quickly - thank you!

Pretty monumental news. Well done to all involved. Let's hope this is another step closer to ending the darkest period in the club’s history!

Potentially a very significant day. I loved his comments about Gardiner too!

I also don't want to turn this thread into an argument so that's a positive so I'll leave it at that . First of all, I think what you stated about giving the board flak for what we've become is legit because it's about time they understood how much anger we have towards them for the mess they've created, the same should really be aimed at the management team for their part in this said mess and, as you stated a couple of posts ago, they are rightly getting flak for the style of dull and boring football we play so I again think this sort of flak is legit . In reply to the issues @Leaky Blinder had, I remember there was a family section at the club which if I remember correctly was not far up from the away dugout so I'm not sure if that's still there and the @Leaky Blinder didn't know of that because family section would be more child friendly and likely free from this issues of swearing and shouting etc and fwiw I can understand why a young child will be frightened of "cretinous shouting" even if it wasn't in an aggressive manner etc . As I have said above, I'm willing to accept/respect your opinion and move on in respect of the mods who will want to keep this thread on topic and not to upset @Leaky Blinder in any way . As you say, most of our fans are sound people that go to matches to support the team and try and generate an atmosphere to help the players, we certainly don't have thugs that go to cause trouble with violence etc .

Not wanting to get into a slagging match however it was not at all clear what you meant by “mindless idiots” hence my question as to my knowledge there was nothing out of order from the young guys said or done yesterday as I sit literally right behind them. Legitimate concerns about the shambles of a club we support right now are rightly seeing those young fans challenge the board, players and management team and they have the same right as you, me and any other paying fan to do so so long as it is within the law and from my experience that is more often than not the case. Secondly, @Leaky Blinder has already said “cretinous shouting” was the reason his child was upset. Obviously, thats not good to hear of her having a negative experience at a game and I hope she can come back in the future and have a far better time. However I would say that frankly taking your child to any game for that matter up and down the country you are going to hear unsavoury things that you won’t like, unfortunately thats just life. Considering the Summer in particular we have just had and the last few weeks especially, there was always a high likelihood if not certainty that fans would be making their feelings felt. There are more than plenty areas in the ground where i’m sure any young fan attending his or her first game can go and enjoy the game in peace away from the Young Team in Section D. @Fraz made a great point in the thread about us having one of the most laidback supports about and its true. As I mentioned earlier I genuinely believe this is a reason frankly that the board for the longest time got away with what they did for so long as not enough people were vocal enough at games to call out the mess behind the scenes as it was seen as a small voice in an otherwise silent support.

The Supporters Trust, along with some others, are dedicating the Kelty away game on Saturday as a 'Johndo Awayday'. We are delighted that once again his daughter Isla will be joining us as we pay tribute. We have a Johndo special bus running with proceeds being donated to the British Heart Foundation in his memory. Bus leaves the Stadium at 9.30am and will cost £20 per head. There will be some fundraising activities en route. We can also accept cash donations at the game but if you prefer you can donate using the following link: https://johnmackenzie.muchloved.com Please also gift aid if appropriate. Drop us a message on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ICTSupportersTrust) to book or e-mail us at [email protected]

Another feature of what’s happened this week is that ICT can return to being a football club as opposed to some kind of vehicle for land speculation.

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.

£120,000 order with puma. Are we kitting out teams and stocking shops for the entire league?

Great news. Well done Alan savage. Your next 3 footer will be a gimme. After Sir Alex call to the club is this now the time for people to get off Dunc Ferguson's back and support the management as well as the team. Give the guy a break. The players gave him everything second half on Saturday, it wasn’t good enough but that’s all they can do. Savage talked about promotion, so hopefully he will find some dosh for some experienced players to go with the young guys.

Noticed that the BBC article on this states that the emergency funding Savage has put in enabled Saturday’s match to go ahead. Wow, if that’s how bad things are/were.