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I actually found this a stark reminder of where we're starting from for next season. Of the guys who have signed so far, I'd only have Devine, MacKinnon and Longstaff down as League One starting XI quality (maybe I'm being harsh on Strachan?). Everyone else aside from Mckay, who is of course also assistant manager, is still very much developing. Think we may have to really push the boat out if we want to keep any of the Big Four there. All have done enough to attract offers at a higher level than this. We will have a lot of work to do in the summer, which is why we need to nail down that CVA pronto and make sure we don't fall behind in the free agent market. And we need to be as good at using the loan market as last year too!

Big Dunc's comments about our club and the fans show him as a little man in terms of taking responsibility for his own failings. He criticises the club's facilities as a disgrace, and whilst we all know they are pretty poor, he should have ensured he knew what facilities the club had before he took the post. Or was he just so desperate for a job that he didn't even bother to find out the first thing about the club before taking the money? He criticises the fans for not liking his style of football. He suggests we would rather see a caber being tossed but that he likes his teams to play football. Well, the problem was that the fans want to see a footballing team and we weren't getting that with his over-emphasis on possession. Not only has the football been far more entertaining since he left, it has also been far more successful, despite his successor having to lose players due to the administration and having restrictions on what players could be brought in. He also criticises the fans for abuse of his son, Cameron. Now, I don't condone the abuse young Cameron got in any way, but he wouldn't have got any abuse if he hadn't have been here. Big Dunc seems to take no responsibility for his nepotism of putting his son into a team well above the ability of the poor lad. He wasn't good enough and he shouldn't have been here. He criticises the Board (fair enough!) but makes absolutely no mention of our former CEO who took the credit for signing Big Dunc and who therefore would have had a responsibility for appraising him of the facilities and circumstances of the club. It seems Big Dunc isn't big enough to say anything about the person most people feel is most responsible for the club's problems and consequently for his redundancy.

I find it impossible to dislike him as a person. He is a happy-go-lucky affable guy who has been in plenty of scrapes and has charmed a lot of people along the way, as well as playing some great football. Very entertaining to listen to. Clearly, however, he is not cut out to be a manager, and I place the blame on his hiring on the person who thought a big name character would be a managerial coup. Well, it was, just not in the way he thought. Any other manager, including the maligned Dodds would probably have kept in us in the championship. The funny thing about that is, though, that might have prolonged the dysfunctional running of the club and in turn might have made matters even worse than they turned out to be. In other words, the relegation under Duncan might have been the catalyst for everything that has happened since, ie the resurrection of a club in imminent danger of extinction and the hopeful survival on a more stable and financially responsible footing. So every cloud.. etc. That decision to employ Duncan might have been, perversely, the saving of us, in the long term. It's a funny old world. No point in remonstrating against Dunc, though. He was the fall guy for a bigger fish.

He will forever be able to say that he lost his job due to administration, but after a 2-6-2 record in 2024/25 (12 pts) and some horrible football, I think he would have been long gone had the administrator not saved his bacon and sacked him. To be fair, he did only lose two games in 24/25, but his style saw us turn potential wins into 6 draws in 10 games. His replacement put up a 14-4-8 W-D-L record over the rest of the season, still losing games, sometimes when we shouldn't, but those draws turned into wins and that was a huge factor in staying up. I wanted to like DF at ICT, and some of his banter was - and still is - entertaining to listen to, and I even appreciate him taking a pay cut before administration, but if he had been left to continue the season, even for another month then I think we would have been relegated or at least in the playoffs again. Kell's record in his first 10 games was 6-1-3 (19 pts) ... which was 7 points more than Dunc's first 10 games ... and we missed the playoffs by 7 points! If he did not get punted on the first day of administration, the conversation we are having now might have been very different.

Pleasantly surprised to see Longstaff agree a contract until 2027!

Clearly we were mad to get rid of him!

Alan Savage in the P and J today quoted as saying ' “We’ve now reached 95% backing from shareholders (for his offer) and it shows people are getting right behind the club again. “We’re getting closer to the finish line, and I’d encourage the few who have yet to sign their forms (for administrators BDO) to do so in order to allow my deal to happen.” Trust share transfer was key moment The supporters’ trust, who have 730 members, have a shareholding in the football club with enhanced voting rights of approximately 10%. A special general trust meeting was held last week, after which a trust statement said: “We are pleased to confirm that the resolution to transfer the trust’s shareholding in the club to FC Inverness Limited was agreed. “This transfer is subject to the club exiting administration, with the CVA meeting of creditors taking place on May 22. “A lot of work has clearly gone on behind the scenes to resolve the issues that have prolonged administration, relating to the disparate shareholding, the loans and the ownership of the car parks. We hope that everything comes together on May 22 with the CVA being agreed. “Credit must go to Alan Savage for funding the club through the difficult administration period and having the confidence to look to buy it.”

Ah right. My apologies, my ageing brain is struggling to cope with teams trying to win to stay in our league and others trying to win to get out. Mind you I’m not too fond of the Excelsiordome or whatever it’s called these days. Apart from losing a cup final there and suffering a record defeat, it’s soulless, out of town and far too big due to the 10000 seats.