Leaderboard

I doubt he had any wish to be in this position and I commend him for sticking with it whilst others ran to the hills. A real honourable person in my eyes

I know that SY has kept a relationship going with fans through the ST when others clammed up or publicly called out our fans the way our former CEO did. Would like to think he also dissented at a board level but no idea if that's the case or not - and as pointed out, we likely never will. Time will tell, but yes, he at least is stepping up and trying to keep things together. The others who are left, as far as I can see, have really said nothing, and in the case of Grassa, that really disappoints me. As a former player and Director of Football he should have been front and centre when relegation happened and when our players heard nothing from manager, CEO or any other directors. He should have been privately or publicly screaming from the rooftops that the players deserved better than that. As a local boy, I would also have expected to hear more from him about keeping the club alive and doing everything we can to avoiud, or as seems the case now, manage our way through, administration. As for those who have slunk off ... no comment needed.

I am pretty sure any chance that we had of moving to a better stadium was scuppered by Tesco (and the councilors who were in Tesco's pocket) when Asda were looking to buy the site and build us a new stadium as part of the deal, akin to what happened with St Mirren in Paisley. However, I would argue that the location of the stadium is a plus for us, the views are great, ok it can be a bit cold, but anyone who has sat in the away section at Pittodrie can attest to how cold that can really get.

I agree with you regarding the board with the exception of Scott Young. He's only been on the board a year or so and has been the only one making the effort to try and be transparent and speak with fans starting with the fans meetings at the Innes Bar. He's been the only one who hasn't hidden away and he's probably the least 'business man' in the group. Dissapointed with Grassa as I'd thought he'd have more sense than to let things get away like this and Fyfe is, with all due respect an empty chair and contributes zero. I won't articulate my thoughts on the members who have slinked away before facing any scrutiny. They are contemptible.

And if you recall the options back in the day were probably worse than the long man situation. The carse (right beside the sea) and probably further away from Town centre, Also even worse for parking. Then Stratton farmland, even further away from the centre, no facilities, so the other option was the bught, And that was never going to happen ! Shinty has a big hold there, And rugby had/has the monopoly on West bught. I must admit I don't mind where we are, The North stand may not give as good a view as the main stand but we don't get the sun full in our eyes nor wind and rain.

The relationship that the club has with the city has been discussed many times. There are a multitude of factors working against the club that they cannot control and can do little about. These include the location of the stadium, the quality of the stadium (financially there's little we can afford to change), people supporting other teams and of course, after 30 years refusniks who are still greeting. There are things they have some control over like the catering, ticket prices, quality of performance on the pitch etc There are some things they can control more fully such as the way they treat the community, way they engage with businesses/sponsors, how they treat loyal fans, how they responsibly use money for the good of the club. Aside from the work of the Community Trust and I'd also say the Women’s team/Academy (who in the interests of transparency I'm on the committee of and coach for) which are both separate entities from the club, the club itself has done the grand total of fk all to try and reach out to the city in at least the last 5-6 years. There's been nothing in terms of even the simplest kid's fun days, Christmas parties, bowling nights, school visits, fan events, regular hospitality or even proper sponsor evenings. The club has to make an effort and with Scot Gardiner (and Yvonne Crook) at the helm the last half decade or so has undone much of the good work that others took years to try and develop. It won't be quickly turned around, particularly if the fayre on the pitch is woeful.

Another question I had - why are our current chairman and our former chairman both telling the media that the club has never been profitable, or has only been profitable once in the last twenty years? This is proveably untrue - the club has made profits in 2006, 2007, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Those are only the years that I can find figures for. In addition, during those years that we made losses we didn't have any debt and didn't rely on bailouts. In addition to this, when we were relegated in 2009, we 'wrote off' a year to try and get back into the top flight, gave out one year deals so if we didn't go up we would be able to rebudget.

If he's been working without pay then he'll join teh queue of creditors - he'll be quite high up it as a football creditor. I wouldn't start joining hands and singing Kumbya for the guy just yet. Personally, I think he's been a terrible manager. Even if you leave aside the on-pitch issues, he was completely silent as the club was in turmoil in teh summer, saying nothing about the Kelty move, he seems to have done nothing about the situation with Aaron Doran for example. He's not been a leader, he's defeatist and has a bad attitude. It's the opposite of what we thought we'd get from employing him. Does anyone know if we are actually confirming going into admin or are we just leaving it? Has the laptop at the stadium been sold to raise money to pay off Scott Gardiner?

Scott Young may be least to blame of the directors but I don't think he was a dissenting voice given the fact it was him who signed both the charges on behalf if the board giving Ross Morrison pretty much full claim on all the club assets. Nice guy but it would seem equally gullible.

TBH the SLO shouldn't be a board member at all. They should be independent in that regard, most clubs don't operate that way. I've no clue if he was a dissenting voice the past year or not. It would be very interesting to see the minutes of the board meetings these past years but I wouldn't be surprised if they're never properly recorded as we don't seem to operate in a professional manner. I will say that he's stepped up at the most challenging time in the club history when other 'more experienced businessesmen' have slithered away. That says a lot to me.

Perhaps some people prefer to forget that through that period of time there was actually a system and process in place where successive chairmen stuck to the plan of fiscal responsibility that was initially laid down by Tulloch/DFS when we almost went down the path we are going down now in 1999/2000.

No, But you get a free pie!

Valiant attempt to steer the thread back on topic

The location and mis-shaped construction of the stadium, is I would say, a major factor in the fan disengagement with the club. Put aside football results (success and failure are twins and come and go), the experience of most fans # I know attending matches is a negative one. # To a person any away fans (friends, family and general people), I spoke to over the years are bewildered and somewhat surprised at the standard and condition of the stadium. Match distraction with the view and noise of passing lorries and vehicles. Poor viewing (low rake angle ) from the away stand. No fan atmosphere whatsoever. Throw in the risk of chancing your luck crossing the A9, and building site conditions, well it’s not an easy sell. That’s all of the above based on a good summer’s day. Winter Saturday’s, well……. Having visited the refurbished club bar I can recommend that to all fans as the improvements make it more appealing, so credit there. I know the siting and construction of the stadium was driven by (limiting) fiscal constraints and it is what it is, and it ain’t going to change. Helps I know when you have a sugar daddy! Unfortunately, in my opinion (whether it’s liked or not), until something major is done regarding the stadium, the appeal to attract new fans (both home and away) to attend matches will remain a tough challenge.

I haven't enjoyed Big Duncs time in charge but it's decent of him to work without pay and I felt quite sorry for him in his Sportsound interview. Wish him all the best wherever he ends up.

Also from that 2015 squad, Graeme Shinnie got Aberdeen’s equaliser at Parkhead and Ryan Christie set Bournemouth on their way to beating Arsenal. Three results for underdogs. How we need that spirit now! More mundanely, Matheus Machado for Montrose and Shane Sutherland scored a hat trick for Brora. More cup final heroes had a great weekend, as Ryan Esson and Aaron Doran have got Strathspey off the bottom of the Highland League after they went to second bottom Rothes and hammered them 6-0, with Kieran Chalmers getting one of them.

On the whole, I like the location of the stadium - it is near enough to walk to from the town centre if you don't have access to a car or fancy a drink or two, and you are not competing with traffic travelling to other events around town. It is central enough for fans from both the east and west of the river without going into town, and for those without transport this is important as crossing the town centre (using public transport for instance) is time consuming and expensive. I can remember many a fine afternoon spent there in the past with a great atmosphere, but it does take a larger support than we have now. The North stand is also as cosy as is possible for the most part if you are nearer the back. The size (seating wise) is obviously too large, but there was no control over that at the time we first entered the top flight, and indeed it was a source of pride that the North and South stands were put in place so quickly, so we are stuck with it. It would be wonderful to have a standing area, but again we were not given that option at the time that the stands were put in place. I still feel that our disabled supporters could do with a little more shelter than they have - maybe a heater in their shelters, like in railway stations, to improve their match day experience, but this is in an ideal world, not an administration situation. I don't really get why the North standers cannot use the facilities in the main stand, it would be good in wet weather and also to touch base with Main stander friends at half time but maybe there is a reason. I'm happy to put up with it and it's imperfections, but if the time came for the stands to be replaced we could opt for smaller, with reduced seating and a standing area. I think you have to make your own atmosphere to an extent - get chatting to those sitting around you - we have made some great friends in our football neighbours over the years.

I doubt the stadium would have ever been in a 'great' position. Even if ICT was offered somewhere like the bught planners would likely never allow it anyway due to traffic management etc. Even the new community hub has been held up and revisited due to traffic concerns from some locals so a full blown stadium would be magnitudes worse.

30 years on and I still haven’t come to a firm view on the siting of the stadium. When I was writing Against All Odds, INE gave me some of their documentation, including a consultant’s report, on stadium siting. They started with about 13 possible sites, of which some, like Torvean Quarry, quickly fell by the wayside. Inshes departed the race because the land was too expensive etc etc. In the end, it was down to the Golden Mile past the retail park, which was INE’s choice, and East Longman, the club’s choice, which only edged home after INE gave way to huge pressure from the club. Accessibility for fans, many of whom at that time lived west of the river, was the main objection to the Golden Mile/Stratton Farm. If truth be told, the survey didn’t really come up with anywhere that was an ideal choice and, among a very limited choice, East Longman eventually won out. One thing the report DIDN’T flag up was that East Longman would be bloody freezing! As regards the quality of the stadium, the original plans had to be scaled back significantly for reasons of cost. Part of that problem was the very high specification demanded by the Highland Council planners and the need to provide an approach road. Although the hugely controversial £900,000 grant made by Inverness District Council but eventually paid from the Common Good Fund was nominally for the road, that actually cost £1.3M. What that road also did was to provide an opportunity for extension through to the harbour and hence potential for massive development between the stadium and the harbour. I often wonder what the added value has been of that direct consequence of the stadium road that ICT paid for.

Booing or expressing displeasure at a player/manager/officials ability is not abuse and painting it as such is just another example of how matchdays (not just ours) are being continually sterilised. We have had incidents in the past where those shouts have crossed the line and become threatening or involved family members, sexuality, race etc and that's when it becomes abuse and unacceptable. I've not personally heard anything like that aimed at either DF or CF.

I genuinely worry for Scott Young as he looks like a man on the verge of a breakdown. He joined the board with a genuine desire to improve the relationship between the fans and the club and has found himself front and centre in having to deal with the fallout of the actions of the rest of the board many of which have abandoned ship. I'm not the touchy feely type, but during the meeting today I just wanted to give him man hug and tell him none of this is on his shoulders. He stood in stark contrast to Christie who knows he can go back to his academy and centenary club positions and presented as way more 'relaxed'. Too many good people will suffer from this and that is the hardest thing.

Tend to agree. Its been a turbulent time on and off the pitch. Clearly some of the football has fallen below the standard that supporters can reasonably expect. Very inflexible tactically. However, to be fair ,the manager has kept his head down and got on with the job, possibly for nowt, and has spoken reasonably well at times over the last few days. Credit for that. Its never nice to see someone lose their job so I wish him well.

Tbf we had 1 point when he was appointed. Granted he wasn't able to arrest the slide but Dodds had long since done the damage on the field. Is he a good manager? Not really. But it was 1 win from safety in the end. The stuff he's done in recent weeks like working for free. Also just read he's been paying for the players petrol and pitching in to hotels away from home. He might not be a great manager but he's been making some big sacrifices for the club where he shouldn't need to and deserves a lot of credit for that. Will be remembered fondly for that if anything.

I don’t think much of Ferguson in terms of tactics or getting the best performances out of the team, but he has conducted himself very well and made sacrifices to help the club when faced with the financial crisis this season, so best wishes to him when he goes.

Fair enough with Scot Young, he does seem to care about the Club. I would standby the statement that he is out of his depth in a football Club sense. In the year or so he has been in his various positions, with his fresh eyes he had the perfect opportunity to raise any issues with the CEO or other board members. I understand he hasn’t put any money into the club as other directors have, it now seems he is calling the shots in terms of admin etc. Is he really the best person to be taking the club forward. Nice guy, but SLO at most.

The current Chairman and what’s left of the current board are part of the problem. They may be nice enough people, but they are absolutely out of their depth in terms oor running a football club. That’s why the former CEO could go about unchecked.

Scott Young was interviewed on STV tonight. No offer was received so the administration process is proceeding. George Moodie from the Supporters Trust was also interviewed.

From the Fans Meeting, given the absence of an update today, we must be in administration. We were told the administrator would be here today or tomorrow, with a Press Conference likely to take place on Wednesday. There are presumably some formalities to be carried out before it can be formally confirmed. Copied from the Fans Meeting thread: To highlight one of the key issues, as has been mentioned in the Administration Thread Scott Young confirmed that the formal process for entering administration has started. Unless a formal offer is received before the administration papers are accepted by the Court (expected to be around 1000 on Monday) then the Administrator will be brought in, triggering the 15 point penalty. A Press Conference is likely to be held by the Administrator on Wednesday.

What is the feasibility of actually removing the North and South stands and returning the West stand to terracing? Does anyone know? Back in the days pre-premiership, I loved being in the West Stand, it was my favourite place to be.