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ICT musicals: The Lying King Rats The Book of Moron We Will Shock You Shitty Shitty Business Plan Joseph and his Amazing Technocolour Battery Farm

Hello, I'm a Dundee FC fan and would just like to confirm what the previous poster has suggested - Gardiner, or 'Spoofer' as we referred to him was an absolute cretin to staff and club supporters and there's not one of us that wasn't delighted when he left. He got lucky when the club was sold to the current owners and he left when he realized he wasn't going to be allowed to do whatever he wanted anymore It has been genuinely astounding to most of us that he was ever allowed near a football club again. Incompetent to say the least. It saddens me to hear of ICT's plight and hope things improve for you. However, the second period of administration for Dundee FC led to an amazing undefeated run which helped us overturn a 25 point penalty and finish 3rd or 4th in the Championship using a skeleton squad with youth and trialists playing every week. The situation injected a determination into the side and it was a great time to be a supporter as we knew that every player on the park was cutting it above their weight. So hopefully we'll see the same at ICT, good luck!

All behind the scenes jobs retained for the moment, with possible reductions in hours. AS, who was at the top table with the admin and was confirmed as on his way on to the board, committed to ongoing funding, and this is probably why redundancies are relatively light. There have been three bids since the Admin came in… AS isn’t one of them. They expect the process to take weeks rather than months. The Admin confirmed that they would be looking at past financial practices and - when prompted - agreed that if there had been criminality, it would be looked into. Debt situation not yet clear and admin wouldn’t discuss any individual creditor when RM’s name was raised. Proposal to convert “Kingsmills Suite” into a restaurant franchise. I was encouraged by the cautiously optimistic vibes I got.

I really miss IHE. You know right about now that he would have the panto written and in true IHE style it would be very near the knuckle but written in such a manner that none of it would be actionable ... and even if any of it was, he wouldn't give a toss!

Thanks for the input. Many fans from Dundee/Hearts warned us of Gardiner's 'abilities'. However we had two successive chairman/boards who seemed to be quite happy to sit back and literally give him 100% latitude with zero KPIs, targets or accountability. To this day the previous chairman says he's been vilified . Despite the evidence being that he's not done ONE THING that's improved or furthered the club in over half a decade. We've been failed by Gardiner due to his arrogance, narcissism and hubris but we've been failed by the board too with their inaction and utter gullibility. Some fans saw this coming ages ago but were dismissed as trolls etc. What did they know eh?

Today’s news is not as bad as I had feared. My thoughts are with the players released and I hope they find clubs quickly. Of the four, only Wallace Duffy was a regular starter, but clearly Davidson has been preferred to him, and we have Ewen as defensive cover too. I see Dundee United are challenging us sending Newman back. I assume we were picking up his wage and accommodation costs so that’s why we’ve let him go. Hopefully Dibaga stays fit…. We now need to get behind the coaches and team and focus on helping them clawback the deficit, starting on Saturday at Dumbarton, which is a real “6 pointer”. The Administrator seemed positive about our prospects, and it is good the unsung heroes behind the scenes have not been culled. Savage being lined up to join the Board is another positive which can increase our confidence for the future. A much better day than I’d dared to hope for.

Gardiner was 'victimised horrendously' according to Ross Morrison ! https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/ross-morrison-opens-up-watching-inverness-go-down-pan-battery-farm-and-why-scot-gardiner-persecution-angers-him-4829197 I'm of the opinion that Morrison is as culpable as Gardiner for the club's predicament. He put blind faith in Gardiner, and still seems to be in denial that Gardiner did anything wrong?!? The club/board was well warned about Gardiner's appointment at the time, by many fans of other clubs and our own, yet they continued to allow him to run the club completely unsupervised for 5 years!!!

He just doesn't get so many things about our club does he? You'd have thought he'd start to 'get it' after a while, but no. Nothing positive from Ferguson's time here, plus ultimately he's been responsible for some of the most boring football I've seen in my life, in general. Glad he's gone.

While I'm delighted that non football staff have been kept on, we really need to up our game quickly in the commercial dept. It's been awful in terms of promotion or offering for ages. Any kind of revenue streams need to be looked at and local promotion of the club and associated activities addressed. Need to be more professional and proactive. I was speaking to someone from a business recently who has advertising boards at the club and dispite contacting the club several times, hasn't received an invoice to pay them for over a year. Madness. I know and see far more about the activities of the ICT Community Trust than I do about the club itself.

Why stop at a book? When Eden Court reopened in the noughties after a big transformation, they had a competition to write a Highland musical for the grand reopening. At the time I thought that ICT's speedy rise through the divisions would have have been a good subject, and so much more has happened since then. Of course it would have to be in the fictional Inversneck and any resemblance to real life characters would be by pure chance. It does upset me that DF, as he took his little box of tat away with him, did little to conceal the bitterness directed at the fans who stood up to the Kelty nonsense. He does not have a poker face - his thoughts are always written all over it despite what his mouth is saying. It goes a long way to explaining why we heard nothing from him as he sulked his way through the summer break. I had always hoped that he would start to listen to some of the advice that he was hearing regarding his tactics on the field, and I finally thought he was beginning to on Saturday, but that was obviously just him past caring anymore. He comes across as a very vain ('the players love me' - who says that about themselves? - it is for others to say') , not too sharp individual who refuses to consider any view point other than his own. He had no interest in our club and our city, other than to use it as a stepping stone in his career. Our young local talent did not stand a chance of progressing as he was always looking to bring in players from elsewhere, and we are well rid of him.

Personally, I think Scott taking charge with Billy as his assistant is a very good thing. These last few years must have been frustrating for Scott. There he is, an assistant manager and coach with Scottish Cup success, and a 3rd place finish in the top flight, left marginalised by the Duncan Doughnut roadshow, a manager with little to no experience, and there by virtue of a PR campaign, and the massaged ego of our delinquent former CEO. We, as fans, need to get fully behind Scott and Billy and give them and the team our 100% support. Nothing less will do. Positive management will lead to positive results.

What he doesn’t seem to be “getting” is that, even by the time he took over last year the club, as a business, had already been “on a life support machine” (did these Fanzinists of 3 or 4 decades ago have second sight?!) for years, and the only chance the company has really had for some time has been to go into administration - however unpalatable. And with that, we once again come back to the same root cause of the final phase of all this - a chairman who thought that a football club should be run like a property developer failing to control a CEO who was not only alarmingly incompetent but also steadily became behaviourally more bizarre as time went on.

Makwanageddon!

Charles can you not just say allegedly a lot? Dinnae buy them Povlson. We're right here. The highland fairytale in all its glory. None of this nonsense. What better represents a Highland rewilding landowner than the team in the capital of the Highlands? You know it makes sense

Ketan Makwana saying "Me! Me! Me!"?

Was starting to get irritated by the lack of info about the 12 noon press conference. Then I remembered I'm 2 hours ahead

Totally agree with this. It was great news yesterday that an established local coach was being retained. A person who survived significant adversity himself. Even better that Billy looks like being kept on. It is now likely, depending on the squad of players who remain, that we will be more positive each time we take the field. Anyone who was at the first game against Arbroath this season in the cup will know how incredibly well the young team took them on in the first half. When we brought on the established in the second half, the no shooting rule seemed to be back in force. With our backs against the wall hopefully we have suffient members of the current squad to go forward again. Will soon find out.

Thanks, eventually got it to work. Seems to me he's under the impression that there was a 12 month 'budget' that would be in place if we went to Kelty. My take is that he thinks it's crazy we (fans/board) didn't back the Kelty plan. This is similar to what Gardiner has said in the press that there was a 'recovery plan' that would have saved the club. Of course any sensible person could see with little scrutiny that this was doomed to failure. Just like the Gardiner backed Mr Phygital. Like most things over the past few years the club's saving grace was always just round the corner - Concerts, BESS scheme, freeport, park & ride, Kelty, Makwana etc. All of which failed spectacularly or were plainly ridiculous. However I get that Ferguson is probably just looking at the small part he's been promised on face value. Which as most fans realise is worthless with the Gardiner/Morrison cabal.

Sorry to cause anyone offence, but that just makes me really glad he is gone - what a fan*y.

I can't get the video to work, Internet is a bit hit and miss here in Turkey. However just going by the quotes he (Ferguson) seems to be under the impression that going to Kelty would have solved all our issues, cleared the slate, given him a budget for presumably 6 central belters who could/would not come up here. But the board (via fan pressure) went against Morrison and 'decided for admin' so, he then took his ball and went off. It's nowhere near as simplistic as he's making out. Other factors push us towards where we are, not least of course him being the manager who got us relegated worsening our already fragile situation but he's hardly going to highlight that. I've some sympathy for him in the sense that he was most likely sold some story when headhunted for the job (I still think it was a huge ego massage signing for SG) about all of the SG/RM schemes working out and he'd get a huge transfer budget, his 3k a week, gold plated training cones and the like. And why would he doubt these local titans of business and football club management?

We would have been in administration within the 12 months. We'd have had massively reduced income from supporters and sponsors if the move had gone ahead, the situation would have been unsustainable. That little spiel from Ferguson actually makes me think far less of Ross Morrison. He was prepared to fund the club for twelve months if we moved to Kelty but people didn't want to move to Kelty so no funding? I don't blame him for not funding the club anymore, it's burning money really, but he would ONLY fund it if we moved football operations 140 miles away? Seems a bit of a tantrum.

Regardless of the off-field shenanigans, Ferguson as a manager was completely unable to get a group of very competent footballers to operate as an effective team, and for our lamentable performances on the park and ultimate relegation, he was culpable. We are in my opinion, well rid of him and if we can give Dumbarton a right good humping at the Rock this weekend, that'll prove my point.

"Against All Odds - The decline and resurrection of ICT in a phygital universe" , nahh, maybe a bit too short and snappy a title ... Makwanageddon it is then

I think, even at this stage, it’s a bit risky even to be implying criminality in general and by any individual in particular. The administrator was asked about possible criminality and, in a very circumspect answer, did seem to imply that, should any emerge, it would be followed up.

Investing in another Scottish club would certainly explain the conflict of interest point that was mentioned last week.

Ayyyyyyyye. I have a gut feeling that there is a lot of shady stuff gone down in the last while.......and a certain someone (at least one person) may well end up in front of the courts. Just a feeling i have

Great to hear this part. and once again, many thanks to AS who seems to be doing all he can in this moment. Speculated on another post that the 3 bids might be AS + others as #1 (so obviously wrong there) but it would not surprise me if bids 2 & 3 were Ketan Makwana as one of them, and the consortium of 6 businessmen fronted by Don Lawson and David Anderson and rumoured to also include Morrison, Cameron and Munro according to the daily record last week. Heres hoping the 3rd bid may instead be Povlson - we can dream

Nope. just the standard rule that's been in place for a few years now. Its a bit like kicking a man while he is down, but not aimed at ICT specifically. Alan Savage + others? Ketan Makwana + phygital friends? David Anderson / Don Lawson fronted bid? - from the Daily Record last week, this consortium of 6 businessmen was also reputed to involve Morrison/Munro/Cameron. Its all rank speculation on my part, but hopefully, being in the hands of professional administrators means that the decision on who can bid or be taken seriously is based on merit rather than bullshit.

Fiddler on the roof ( no need to change the name).

Prospective buyers are dealing with adults now, I hope

It's been the rule for a few years now. Nothing to do with who we are.

I’ve seen a message that Cameron Ferguson has been made redundant, which is not a surprise. He should never have been brought into the club in the first place, given his father was Manager. If it’s true, he goes with my best wishes and I hope he can establish himself through getting a fresh start somewhere.

The fraud word may be something we do hear about in due course considering the lack of governance shown in recent years.

Correction done dougie.

Did they? I certainly didn't and don't know many that did? My group of friends have been unhappy with his leadership for years now

Scotty, let's not get into dunc bashing today when people are losing their jobs. It's been well covered on various threads on here. Did you see the episode of Still Game when the dignatory with the big scissors was giving a speech prior to cutting the ribbon with jack and Victor and the residents of craiglang watching. He would say something and one of the wee neds would shout out " naw he wisnae " He would carry on speaking and the wee ned would shout out " naw he didnae" Not a day for that.

The interested parties are all new interested parties, I’m told, with “sporting backgrounds”.

I wonder if Billy will play himself up top on Saturday…

Update: Duncan Ferguson gone. (Scott Kellacher is new head coach, with Billy Mckay as player coach) Gary Bollan gone Stuart Garden gone Players out Cameron Ferguson (enough said 12 appearances) Adam Brooks (7 goals in 41 appearances) Flynn Duffy (injured at present) Wallace Duffy (113 apps, 5 goals) Jack Newman (loan ended back to Dundee United)

Fresh moderation might be a positive hopefully just like administration will be for the club. I long for the day when posters don’t get unjust thread bans especially considering its probably the most important thread in CTO history. Dougal

I think Scot Gardiner was a very easy individual to take an instant dislike to. He simply exuded an unpleasant aura which his intermittent attempts at charm utterly failed to conceal. The PandJ’s public exposure of that was a masterpiece.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/i-saw-this-coming-i-took-an-instant-dislike-to-him-ross-364525/ Think this article sums up how many of us feel !

I don't feel sorry for Duncan Ferguson the millionaire or thereabouts. Probably thought of ICT as history by the time he reached bottom of Drumossie Brae. He'll find another job soon enough. I feel sorry for the people at the club who are normal, non famous, hard working local folk.

I bow to your superior wisdom and easy access to such fonts of information. Must remember to get your permission to consider raising a post or opinion and have it vetted.

This Thank you to DF, GB and SG for their hard work and time put in at the club and wish them the best in the future. I'm sure they'll find equal if not better employment elsewhere within the football world. I'm not best placed at present to offer any further opinions especially on DF as it would be ill-placed and I've said a lot already. It's the hard workers behind the scenes that will find it harder and tougher in the coming days, weeks and months and are so often overlooked in these situations. It doesn't pay for the new outlets to focus on the unsung behind the scenes staff which is why they'll all gush about DF.

The P&J is reporting that Billy McKay will be named as Kells’ assistant. It was inevitable that Ferguson and his entourage would be casualties and I wish them well. My thoughts are with all those who will learn their fate tomorrow and I just hope all those who learn they are leaving are treated properly by the club.

Stuart Garden was the other coach named as gone.

Yup - there are a thousand scenarios that would all sound plausible, and we will just have to wait and see. In the end, it's a number centric situation for the administrators rather than people focused so there will be cuts we all find unpalatable, sad and anger causing. While I personally may wish the administrator didn't do whatever it is we complain about in days to come, I know whose doors I am putting that blame in front of, and it is not those who have tried to sort out this mess (eg. Savage, Christie, Young), the staff, or the players and manager but squarely at current and former directors, CEOs and others who were tasked with good governance (and oversight) of our club. Is it 'our' club now? or should we now be saying 'the' club.

Did we? I don't think we had any influence over the Gardiner/Morrison cabal or Directors loans/secure loans, property companies etc