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It would appear to be the case that, although Morrison was Chairman, Gardiner ran the club in his absence. What he (Gardiner) did during this time only he will know but given the mess that Savage has uncovered it will certainly give rise to theories that he wasn't, how shall I put this diplomatically, focused on doing what was best for the club.

The sad thing is a lot of fans suspected all wasn't well and the club could have been run better but felt totally helpless

A good game to watch with the football played a a very fast pace and some nice moves from both sides although the Nairn players are more seasoned than ours but not the tippy-tappy stuff we usually have to endure. The young guys put in a good performance and Shae Keogh took his goal well when he got the chance. I said to another supporter that the Nairn number 7 reminded me of Martin Lisle when he played for Caley and the photographer at the side of the pitch said it was his son Scott. Back to the league on Saturday where we must win to put some points on the board.

I felt 4-1 flattered Nairn a bit. Nairn looked dangerous at set pieces and obviously they had the physical advantage. I felt our 2 CBs Walker and I’m not sure who the other lad was Leo? did very well dealing with Nairn’s direct style. We certainly had 3 or 4 good chances but failed to convert them. Some of the build up play was very good at times. Ferguson Jnr had a few good moments in the first half but he hasn’t got his dad’s aggressive streak. That must be the youngest team to represent ICT in any match?

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.

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'.

A couple of key comments in that article for me .... That was the basis of the Canadian interest I presented to the chairman back in 2019. They did not want to buy the club, but wanted to assist in the youth setup, possibly lend players to the club to develop them for their home club, or for a possible sell-on in Europe. They would also use their extensive media and entertainment experience in North America to help them with commercial advice and/or ideas. ICT would be one of a number of clubs they intended to work with in various continents with the aim being that they as the parent club would benefit from all of the relationships in some way. ICT did not respond to the person, then COVID happened so it may not have come to fruition anyway, and the opportunity (as well as that person) have moved on now so that ship has well and truly sailed. However, this sounds similar, and if that's the case here, and the interested party wants a football relationship that can be symbiotic in some fashion and bring something to the table for everyone then this could indeed be great news. It's definitely better than an out and out takeover by an equity firm that's for sure. This speaks volumes. We know he has already stuck £200K in last week to keep the lights on, but pumping more money in seems to suggest some level of confidence under all the rocks he has overturned during his audit.

More details in the Courier today about the Portugese company. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/portuguese-wealth-management-firm-ready-to-pump-2-5-million-359019/ Doesn't sound like it's the company referred to above. For those who can't see the article The article goes on to say that the Chinese investors had to withdraw their interest due to reglations preventing them investing in the UK. And also, to the surprise of no-one, Ketan Makwana did not provide any proof of funds to the club during his bid.

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)

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

To this above from this ………..Aye when we see results ... but we won't because he is *****! make up your mind.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

That always seems to be the way with youngsters more recently unfortunately. For every Ryan Christie, there are 100 Machados who don't quite make it for one reason or another either as academy graduates or as youngsters coming into the team. its not only a Scottish thing either. We see it over here all the time. Toronto FC has what's recognised as one of the best academies in MLS in terms of resources, funding and facilities and within a few years of formation in 2007 started churning out some really good prospects that looked exciting, but a stint in the first team seems to burn them out and they either have to move to restart a career or they just fade away. Just last week, we traded one young prospect (Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty) to Montreal for around US$1m which on the face of it sounds good, but as a prospect breaking into the team at 16, just a few years ago it was expected he would be the next Alphonso Davies and go to Europe for somewhere in the $10-$20m range around now. At least JMR still has a shot, but others take a similar route to Machado, they drop down to the 2nd team at their club, then perhaps to the Canadian Premier League, and maybe either USL or League One which are the US/Canada tiers below that.

Hanlon's Razor "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

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.

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

Ketan Makwana should celebrating dodging a bullet. Not a chance he was doing a deal knowing what we know 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.