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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.

Think we need to all calm down and wait and see? Bills and wages need paid from somewhere. I trust Alan Savage and Co to get this right until proved otherwise

Whatever happens on the management side, and I don't foresee anything imminent, we will need to be patient with our young team. Get behind them and hopefully they can learn and build from their experiences over the next few weeks. As long as they can ignore some of the Orcs wailing from the stands I think they will come good.

Just a future will do, bright or not. That's already more than I had expected a week ago.

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.

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

We clearly didn't want to risk any injuries to the main first team players. Nairn deserved their win but we did play some nice stuff at times. Mackay and Thompson had moments when they looked like really imposing themselves on the match but we never really dominated at any time. Of the (very) young subs, Gardiner and Luxton did well, and we finished with seven youth team players on the pitch. No disgrace.

I can't see Savage coming in the way he has and putting money in to simply hand everything over to someone where there's a possibility they're going to do us over.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Alan Savage, and all of the people he enlisted to write off the debt. It is probably not too dramatic to say that he saved the club, as it seemed likely it would go bust under the proposed buyout from the asset stripper. What a relief to have the club back in the hands of people who are local and care deeply about the club. I have no doubt there will still be a rocky road ahead, full of ups and downs, but I think we can all live with that, knowing we have been here before and will rise again. If only IHE were here to see the rebirth of his beloved club - ICT v.2.0!

Behind all AS’s comments is an endorsement of DF as manager. Clearly we will be married to Duncan for better or worse (at least for the short/medium term) and therefore we must get on with supporting the club, like it or lump it. There’s no doubt a lot of muddy water under the bridge with DF but lumping it now given all the good work AS has done only serves to undermine the first glints of good feeling at ICT for a long, long time. I’ll personally be patient and supportive during this renaissance and hopefully DF takes some guidance from Charlie and others, along with modest investment, to turn our fortunes and playing style around. I’m picturing a Scottish Cup run of old, as proper old school underdogs. The playoff route to the Championship would seal another epic chapter in our beloved club. To quote IHE…time to ‘believe’?? Aye.

Given the starting line up and those on the bench, looks like we have placed more emphasis on our league campaign, than a chance to win some local silverware. Would have liked to have seen a stronger squad for this match. Not like were currently flying in the league !!!!!

More even that the score line suggests but Nairn have taken their chances and we haven’t. Keogh, Corner and Ferguson all could have scored but that’s been the story of our season.

The Inverness graphic designer must have had a night off, but here's the team lines from ICTFC. 1. Martin MacKinnon 2. Gavin Thomson 3. Matthew Strachan 4. Sam Thompson 5. Jack Walker 6. Leo Walker 7. Calum MacKay 8. Shae Keogh 9. Cameron Ferguson 10. Robbie Thompson 11. Ben Corner Subs 13. Szymon Rebilas, 12. James Clark, 14. Ben Gardiner, 15. Hashem Alsharaydeh, 16. Lewis Luxton, 17. Matteus Robertson, 18. Matthew Pearce It didn't take Nairn long to get the scoring underway when Callum Maclean headed in from a corner in the 7th minute. Fraser Dingwall was booked after 15 minutes and according to the Nairn feed he was booked for a studs up challenge and you could hear a "dunt" followed by a "clack". Ouch! Nairn were in the ascendency creating some half chances over the opening quarter of the game. Dylan MacLean saved from Ben Corner after he was fed through on goal by Cameron Ferguson. Nairn added a second after a scramble following a corner and Fraser Dingwall found the net. MacLean pulled off a brilliant close range stop to deny Cameron Ferguson a goal five minutes before the interval. HALF TIME: 2-0 Allan Pollock replaced Jonathan Bain at the interval. A Callum MacLean cross was knocked down in the box and Scott Lisle reacted first to it and finds the net. Three minutes later Mathew Wright put the tie beyond doubt as he got a fourth for Nairn. Shae Keogh benefits after a backpass goes awry and he gets a consolation after 64 minutes for the Caley Jags. A spate of substitutions but no further scoring and it ended at 4-1. Good luck to Nairn in the next round. NAIRN COUNTY 4-1 INVERNESS CT XI Nairn: Callum MacLean (7) Nairn: Fraser Dingwall (15) Nairn: Fraser Dingwall (35) Nairn: Scott Lisle (56) Nairn: Mathew Wright (59) ICTFC: Shae Keogh (64)

I agree. Thats why I said I am willing to put trust in him that he knows the potential investors better than we do and will do due diligence.

Will we never learn? The dream of outside investors with big pockets is a much trodden path for small teams, very few, if any, which benefit, and many are left ruing the day they signed up. We have just escaped a potentially catastrophic example, no need to rush into a repeat. By far the best way forward for teams like us is to build a sustainable model, not dependent on outsiders who have far different motives and reasons for 'investing'.

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!

I agree. When Makwana rocked up, I said that the first thing that a venture capitalist does when they acquire something is work out their exit strategy, including what they can get out of the venture. And it has occurred to me that, ironically, the people who AS is lining up to possibly take over may have the same ideas as Makwana - development of the site, etc. One hopes that they will be much more credible.

AF took on Moyes, who spent next to no money and finished 7th. Van Gaal took over. Spent a fortune and finished 5th. Failure to support Moyes, rather than failure of Moyes, IMO. Give him a transfer budget and a season, it would have been different.

Thats the question I have asked myself many times. I have yet to figure out a conclusion that makes sense. On the one hand you might buy into some of the schemes if 'sold' to you in a persuasive manner that makes you think the club you support will benefit financially... but on the other hand, you have to be blind - or located hundreds of miles away with your eye off the ball - to miss the signs that your chosen leader is alienating absolutely everybody from every category inside and outside of football for multiple years.

Aye when we see results ... but we won't because he is *****!

I'm really hoping that Savage stays on in the boardroom when whomever comes in to take over the club. Got his wits about him, has proven himself to be a capable leader and realises that constant 'high risk-debatable reward' projects absolutely aren't the way forward.

“I was brought in a week ago by Panos (Thomas), the acting chairman, to try and help him out and bring some clarity to matters. The first thing I realised (was to get) rid of Scot Gardiner, which was a major problem for the club. I won’t go into too much detail on that." What's bizarre is that Morrison not only allowed Gardiner carte blanche to create the chaos he did but also ruin business relationships and risk his own investment. Why did he have blind faith is a guy who so obviously was bad news for the club, Ross himself is indeed a fan. Scott Gardiner has been ripped out by the roots and not a moment too soon. Hopefully Savage and Co can find a suitable ownership group to get us back on track and in time up the leagues.

Its funny that you mention that because I'm fairly certain I heard on the 5pm or 5:30pm MFR news Alan Savage mention that we can possibly sign a couple of players before deadline day though that will be difficult so does he now accept or realise that we actually need a couple of more experienced players to mount a real or serious promotion push . I'm still not sure on the management yet but surely Sir Alex knows a good manager when he sees one, he was sort of right on David Moyes who won a European cup with WHU after his disaster at Man U. I did see a lot of positives (albeit only from YouTube highlights) from Saturday, we created a bucket load of chances that weren't taken so if we work on our finishing then we just maybe will turn a corner .

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!

Savage summed it up in two words, profit / loss. Basic financial housekeeping , oh and what bills are outstanding... Not rocket science.

I’ve said it before, but the Board seems to lack anyone of a finance/accounting background. Someone with those skills would be better placed to scrutinise the numbers, know what questions to ask of the CEO and insist on what financial information should be provided regularly.

Sounds like something Trump might utter post apocalypse ..

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.

MacOne evidently addresses Mr Gardiner in his phottie comment and it is also very apt that there is a link to Groundhog Day which is what ICT supporters have been going through for some time now. Anyway I suggest that he should change his forum name to Macaroni as he is clealry a cheesy wee tube.