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All opinions are valid. An echo chamber is never a good thing. If you feel the current regime are right with their stellar record of - failed concerts, failed live streaming, awful commentary on said live stream, alienating the volunteer media team, souring the relationship with the local authority, failed battery farm application, employing Robertson as a Sporting Director (we're still paying him) where he did virtually nothing, extending Dodds' contract then sacking him 6 games later, promoting Raise the Roof and then closing the stand, releasing a WATP orange strip on the 12th of July, paying Ferguson £4k a week with a past record of failure (then failed to keep us up when the manager we turned down kept his team up), failed hospitality, ignoring and alienating the Supporters Trust, damaging our reputation with local businesses, having our lowest finish in a quarter century, stopping all family activities like Christmas parties and end of season events, not having player of the year, having no openness or even basic communication... If you think after all they've achieved in the last 5 years, they're the ones who have the answers, that's your perogative.

This is risible! Fife Council have had no involvement in talks, as stated in the Inverness Courier. The P&J go further: "Fife Council’s community manager Sarah Roxburgh confirmed that Fife Council owns the pitch and that the council had not been involved in the partnership plans recently announced by Kelty Hearts and Inverness Caley Thistle" "We understand discussions between the two clubs are ongoing. On behalf of Fife Council, we'll need to be involved to review current booking terms and conditions as well as weigh up the impact that this may have on the availability of the community pitch to other users with any potential benefits" Not at all surprising given it is the owner, and it was all paid for by £7m of Fife Council's money for/from its community! Central Fife Times, in 2016, stated Fife council had set up a Community Investment Fund and said 'Additional facilities include a large outdoor football 3G pitch for use by Kelty Hearts the village junior team, the school and the local community'. The "Turf Matters" website in 2018 stated Fife Council had invested £665,000 in the park for the whole community and said it was 'a community asset that is open to the paying public'. Kelty Hearts Community Club, which is a registered charity, was reported in the Central Fife Times in 2019 as having over 160 young people on their books as well with an under 20s team and woman’s team and a walking football team all included. They have an online booking system here (for New Central Park) and here for Bath Street Park (grass). Their Twitter/X shows that in the last week, Kelty CC had their Under 17s, under 16s, under 14s maroons, under 14s whites, under 13 maroons, all playing teams from elsewhere in the region and doing very well (the Under 14 Maroons won the Fife Football Development League which has Raith and Dunfermline in it) Kelty Community Club Facebook states that Sunday afternoons are for their '2007s' who play in the Under 18s AFYFC Division One. Mon and Wed evenings for the girls teams, Mon 8th July is booked in the morning for Open trials for the 2012s. What an active Centre and pitch! Active Fife Football - which is basically High Life Highland - is Fife Council's own initiative. They have mornings reserved for infants and Fri nights 5pm-6.30 for 10-17 year olds every week etc (via Active Fife Football FB). That same 2019 article in Central Fife Times was about the issues they have with limited parking. The charity applied to lease land to build a car park as there was not enough parking during evenings or match days. A post on WeArePerth suggests that the changing rooms for New Central Park are housed in the Community Centre (assuming ICT would need to use a gym, meeting rooms, changing rooms, etc.). This Community Centre was built, again according to the 2016 report in Central Fife Times, By Fife Council's Community Investment Fund. So basically, the board are intending to take its commercial full time pro football team operation into a community - 146 miles away - and take over its facilities, which is primarily being used by a youth charity, without asking it! Ross Morrison: "I have got to take responsibility as the chairman. The idea came to me, and I thought we cannot move down there. Then I thought about it [and while re-thinking it, did it ever occur to you to ask the person who brought the idea to you if it they had approval from its owner before announcing it to the public...] and it works" [well, clearly does not - and neither does the CEO and the board] If the Chairman is reading this, this can be a watershed moment. Please drop your backing for the CEO Scot Gardiner before its too late. Surround yourself instead with better people, people who have actually had ICTs best interests at heart, for decades, even if you see them as the problem at the moment (and you might have justification, nobody's perfect). Don't let pride get in the way - you'll find a lot of people will understand that you put your faith in the wrong person -Scot Gardiner - and that led you down the (boat of) garden path. But you have to change tack now. Not in a week, not in two weeks - because then you'll be complicit and it will be impossible for you to disassociate yourself. You've put in money, you came out and spoke to the Press, and that is laudable - but if this doesn't provide you with the stark reality of the CEOs toxic effect, it'll be impossible to salvage. You have put in money and time, and emotions into ICT - do the right thing and people will surprise you, if you put ICT first from today. It might even be the path you've been looking for all along. Please don't sink the club because of one employee.

Think this will be deserving of its own thread as details emerge of the sheer state of our finances ... but let me start controversially by saying THANK YOU to Ketan Makwana ! The utter nonsense of your 'takeover' bid, the corporate phygital gobbledygook coming out of your mouth or your linked in page, and your history at companies house woke up some of our giants of the past in Messrs. McGilvray, Sutherland and Savage. You were the straw that broke the camel's back, the final grand scheme that saw all of our CEO's cards collapse, that one domino that started the progression that will surely see more dominoes fall. I want you nowhere near our club, but you can take heart that even without buying the club with imaginary money, you may well have played a part in saving it. Clearly the reality of our situation is far worse than even the most cynical fan expected now that we have had some straight talking from Alan Savage and it all started with the idea that 77Ventures were random new owners overnight just a few weeks ago. But onto the main focus of this thread - the money, or more specifically the lack of it or of any oversight on that front. AS went in just 3 days ago and in that time he has discovered that we are not £300K adrift, that quickly ballooned to £450K then £700K and now closer to £900K. We don't have new strips FOR THE TEAM let alone the fans, because we have not paid the bills, and we apparently have a pre-order for £120K of strips sitting with Puma as part of that £900K. Given that the average cost of a strip is around £50 retail that's 2400 strips, but profits on these are decent so do we really have upwards of 3-4000 new strips waiting to be sold once we pay for them wholesale first? Not having strips for the start of the season is right up there with not having seats for the Tynecastle stands and having twice as many as we get at the stadium on a good crowd day, sitting in a container somewhere is as ludicrous as it sounds. I am sure AS will discover all sorts of 'anomalies', unexplained or lets say 'less than optimal' spending as he goes through the accounts with a fine-tooth comb, but my ire on that one is directed back at the board. How in f*** was there no oversight on this. SG did what SG was there to do. To operate as the CEO of ICTFC. The fact he seemingly did that without a shred of governance is not his fault. His performance and ability to do it correctly and economically should have been something benchmarked on a regular basis by the board. Did he have no performance reviews since 2019? If not, why not? Thats not a failing of SG, that's a failing of the board. Red flags have been around for a while. I recall the comment about Ryan Christie buying footballs for the youth team and I think that's what Charlie is referring to in today's article in the Courier which is well worth a read. The last three days with Alan Savage and now acting CEO Charlie Christie have seen more public communication from the club in 3 days than we have experienced in the last 5 years since the former CEO was put in post. https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/this-club-for-far-too-long-has-been-losing-too-much-money-358498/ A few great bullets raised by Charlie: He is confident that working alongside Savage, it will lead to the club having a brighter future. The staff get frustrated too and a lot of that has been from resources. He, as academy manager, has had to do without things that were needed. The mood at the club has been great since Alan came in. Some of the staff don’t know him. He is fair, but demanding - and very professional.. He will want a paper trail for everything, as there should be. He will want more corporate governance in his time at the club and I don’t think that's much to ask. It is good for any business to have that. That’s what he’ll bring. We’re all delighted because we feel it is a step in the right direction. Watching the ill-feeling towards individuals at the end of last season, it is not good for Caley Thistle. It is something I’ve never seen. Fans have a go at managers, myself included, after poor performances. That goes with the territory. But not what we witnessed last year at times. Hopefully that’s dead in the water now and we can move on. I like the comments I have heard that some creditors are already paid, and the things Charlie mentions in that article. I especially like the comment that the mood at the club has improved. there are many hard-working and crucial folks down there doing thankless tasks who do not need to be micro managed and for them to finally be able to exhale and maybe show what they are capable of is a relief. We do have to get back to basics, we do have to stop all the pie-in-the-sky bullshit and the loss of money hand-over-fist. We do have to put football first and try to get out of this league and back up to the Championship and hopefully over time, the Premiership. One step at a time, one obstacle at a time, and all in a sustainable or responsible manner. With Charlie and Alan Savage at the helm now, I think this is a good start to the process but let's not stop looking inwards. The CEO was allowed to do what he did for many years, and those who allowed that, or didn't bother to look at what he was doing also need to take accountability for that.

Still no accountability from our board though ... and more worryingly, still an undercurrent of thought that Makwana was a viable investor! As I make a personal comment on each of those quotes I highlighted below from the email from Panos this morning I am getting angrier and angrier at how much he is seeking to whitewash the board's role in this and their lack of governance. Whoever wrote this email for him is trying to spin a situation that has already spun out. Utter honesty and admission of failure would have been more appropriate in this instance. Really? You had no idea before? Thats an admission that you employed ZERO governance on the former CEO. Think you have this reversed. What about seller expectations? and buyer ability? If you seriously considered this then you are utterly incompetent. 100s of unqualified fans who spent 5 minutes or less googling raised enough red flags in just a few hours that would have kept Mao Tse-Tung happy for decades. Thats more googling than the prospective 'owner ' did by his own accounting. You then spent weeks wooing this serial fantasist and even now the courier articles from back then are cringeworthy at how gullible everyone seemed to be (except the fans, Alan Savage and Duncan Shearer). Did we investigate who gets commission on this deal? At full retail that's 2500 shirts per year for 3 years. Given that we won't pay full retail for these and there is an insane markup of football shirts, that could be as many as 5000 shirts per year or a combo of various merchandise. Seems insanely high and not a deal worked out based on the size of the club fanbase, nor the level of our merchandise sales and therefore quite possibly not to the benefit of the club. Something doesn't smell right in this deal. No shit Sherlock! A little bit f***ing late for all of that now. When asked 5 years ago, many of us presented ideas that were summarily ignored, or perhaps left in unread emails. Hundreds of supporters have reported they have sent emails to the club without response and NOW you ask us for ideas. Where were your statutory duties back in 2019 or 2021 or even 2023? What condescending sh1te. For the last 5 years the fans have been ignored and looked down upon by the very same people (Alan Savage aside) who are now coming at us with the begging bowl and hailing supporters as lifeblood. Which one is it? You can't have it both ways. The Supporters Trust have been derided publicly by the [former] CEO - who was allowed to do so by the board - and as the main, formally recognised, fan body, ignored by you all until we are now in the last chance saloon. This board really do beggar belief. Hypocrites. So -£5 million quid in 5 years and not one of you had a f****** clue that we were in deep financial doo-doo and/or had the balls to call either of our former CEOs who held those purse strings to account? Again, where were your statutory duties when this was occuring? Online broadcast and questions for the diaspora outside of Inverness? Lots of committed fans in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK, and internationally. Probably not then. That will be a f****** first. But given that it's unlikely you will make this an online meeting here's a few to be going on with ... I will likely think of many more, as will others on here. You say Alan Savage gave you clarity... WHY did you not have this before? Given your professional qualifications as a respected orthopaedic surgeon would you care to comment on the treatment dished out to our injured players, specifically the accusation made against you by Aaron Doran, and also in general to the club's treatment of other players who were - based on opinions expressed - 'cast aside' by the club over the last 5 years, in some cases while recovering from injuries. This may seem like old news but given the success of a crowdfunding request by one of those players cast aside (Sutherland), on behalf of another (Doran), and the sheer speed by which it reached and surpassed its crowdfunding goal, it may be pertinent to clear the air 'frankly' as you seek to use the same platform to crowdfund for the club. Please explain the internal governance methodology employed over the last 5 years that has seen the previous model of fiscal responsibility at the club (which also struggled to make ends meet each year) torn down and replaced with schemes that seem to have generated a shortfall of £5m in 5 years. Was the board aware of this and if they were, why was it allowed to get to this stage. If not aware, why not? Why did we rely on the assumption that one after another pie-in-the-sky schemes would come to fruition rather than work with what we had, taking small positive steps, and view these schemes as a windfall IF they happened. Please explain why you have failed to communicate with fans over the last 5 years. It is not a secret that this has been happening, so saying you did not know is utter BS, but yet the action of not responding, or not taking any action to instruct those who should be responding has been allowed to continue and is therefore condoned. Do you feel that you and the board of directors have behaved in a manner that is always for the good and benefit of the club? If not, why have you remained in place? That would be a question to each and every board member individually not collectively. Final Thoughts IF the club fails Panos, you and every single one of your board will forever be seen as 'Neros'. Fiddling while ICT burns. So let's see who prefers to be a Hero rather than a Zero.

Hi everyone, I’m Jack, I was the Kitman for Caley between 2015 and 2022. To see where this club is going just saddens me. Unfortunately I was part of the relegation from the Premiership in 2017 and was part of the sides that just couldn’t make that final hurdle to get back up for all those years (I’ve always believed that the season that was curtailed by Covid we would have got promoted through the playoffs). I feel so sorry for the members of the back room staff, who I still call friends, whose futures at the club will be in serious doubt now. I know for sure that if I was still at the club there would be no chance of me relocating to Fife. Who knows how this move to Kelty will go, I’m pretty certain having been involved in dressing rooms for over 10 years that it will be incredibly difficult to instil a strong team spirit at a training ground that to the players will feel like being a stranger in someone else’s home, 140 miles away from the city you are supposed to be representing. I loved working for Caley. I loved how relaxed it all was, how kind everyone was. It felt like a place where everyone looked out for each other. I know it’s cliche but it really did feel like a family. It was never perfect but you felt like you belonged to something that mattered. Somewhere along the line all that has been lost and that breaks my heart. I hope it all works out for the best and the club can return to something resembling an institution that Caley fans can be proud of. Unfortunately right now, I just can’t see that happening anytime soon.

No we can't! Why would any central belt player choose to join a club which requires players to face a 3 hour journey to play "home" games followed by a 3 hour journey back - in the middle of winter? We will only be able to attract central belt players who can't get a contract at a club which is based in the area where the ground is. And we might not be able to afford to offer them as much as we would if we were based at home. Apart from the significant loss of gate money that this absurd plan will result in, there will be significant additional costs in hiring the facilities at Kelty and in relocation and travelling costs. More importantly, this move will likely mean we can only sign central Scotland based players. Players who are currently based in Inverness won't want to move South in order to play for Inverness! The idea is preposterous. Players from elsewhere are not going to relocate to the central belt to be close to the training facilities of a club which is actually located 3 hours away. We will be a team stuffed with central belt rejects with no connection with Inverness and who will be off as soon as they get a better offer. The absurdity of this is compounded by the fact that central belt players have never featured particularly strongly in Inverness teams over the years. Dip into your copy of "Milestones and Memories" and look at the biographies of the 25 players who made the most appearances for the club up to 2019. Only 3 came to us from central belt teams (Barry Wilson, Bobby Mann and Mark Brown. Also, Mike Teasdale came to us from Dundee but he was from Elgin and wanted to play closer to home. We had 2 or 3 from Aberdeen (e.g. Dennis Wyness) but most were either local or were signed from English clubs. Other key players for us over years who didn't make the list include David Raven, Jonny Hayes, Adam Rooney and, of course, Billy Mckay, who were all signed from English clubs, and local talent in the form of Ryan Christie and Mark Ridgers. Of course "Milestones and Memories" is a great reminder of all the brilliant achievements of this club before Gardiner arrived. Top of the list has to be winning the Scottish Cup. It is worth noting that only one of the entire matchday squad (Danny Devine) joined us from a Central Belt club. Our club has never relied upon Central Belt players for its success and there is no reason why it should now. To embark on a strategy which will likely mean we can only recruit Central Belt players, and then only those who can't get a contract elsewhere, seems to me to be the height of folly.

Wishing all the moderators, posters, and visitors to CTO a very Merry Christmas and especially a Happy New Year, filled with joy, happiness, a lack of administration, and loads of points won by Scott K and the team to keep us free from playoffs or relegation.

We are happy to, and to provide some comments that may assist non members in particular. The Supporters Trust Board currently comprises eight members, who all voluntarily give their time and effort due to a shared passion for the club and for ensuring that fans' voices are heard by those running the club. The Board covers a wide range of ages, skills and experience. For example, the youngest member is 19, whilst others have significant business experience. One Board member leads on media activity, but all Board members have the opportunity to comment on draft Press Statements, and they are only issued once the Board agrees them. We make no apologies for the content of yesterday's statement, and we are grateful for the significant positive feedback on it from members. We had seen the club's announcement on Tuesday, and knew that the media would be speaking to Alan Savage. We therefore wanted to have a different emphasis and put our message across from the perspective of fans, linking back to key outputs from the Fans Meeting in May: Walking away from the Kelty plan. Securing the future of the Academy. Having a change in the leadership of the club, particularly the departure of the CEO. We wanted to recognise the significant role of all fans in these outputs being achieved. Our release had to be founded on facts, rather than rumour, speculation or opinions. That is why we did not explicitly refer to Seventy7 Ventures, but it was implicit in our welcoming of Alan Savage. There have been comments that the Trust was in some way endorsing the Seventy7 Ventures attempt to take control of the club. That is simply not the case. We did welcome the announcement that new investment had been found but we were clear that we needed to understand their vision, motives and plan. We were promised a meeting, but we received none of the details that we had sought. The fireworks were intended to bring some welcome light relief, and reflect the joy and relief fans are feeling with the confirmed departure of the former CEO, and the relief that Alan Savage has become involved. Now the former CEO has departed, it is time to move on, and that is what the Trust Board has been doing since his resignation was originally announced. Board members have been having significant engagement and dialogue with other key stakeholders, including Alan Savage. We recognise that there is a long road ahead, and there will be many challenges and twists along the way, but we are ready to play our part in that. As mentioned in our Press Statement, we are about to issue a survey to allow fans to show how they can play their part and join the Trust in working more closely with the club. This has been ready to be issued for some time, just waiting for confirmation of the departure of the former CEO, but we did not want to bombard members yesterday. We know that many fans are ready and willing to give their support. We also intend to continue with Fans Meetings this season, and details will be provided once the first date is set.

To be fair - the fans saw right through him immediately. We are all Marge Simpson (monorail reference). 100% agree. The current board should hang their heads in shame, not just over this last scheme but every single fuc**** nonsensical hail-mary scheme that went before it. It is like a Las Vegas gambler trying desperately to get back to break even and failing at each turn. They have no right to be there. They are elected (or co-opted) to do what is right for the club, to be custodians of the club, to make sure everything that is done is for the good and benefit of the club. They have failed at that single task miserably. Individually, there are ones on the board who I know, and who I trust(ed) but in true parent fashion, I am not angry at them, just deeply disappointed. They should have walked or raised their voice when all this shi* was going down. If some combination of MM, Savage, Sutherland, McGilvray Jr etc is going to come in and save us, then hopefully egos can remain in check and they can work together for the greater good. McGilvray Sr got us on the path to Premier League in the first place (and did it in 10 years just as his vision document stated). Sutherland and those that followed who were associated with him or Tulloch steadied the ship and made us fiscally responsible. Savage was always there or thereabouts, and I certainly trust him a lot further than who is there now, and even MM had the right idea but what they lacked was the right representative IMHO. There is plenty of credit to go around if they can raise ICT FC from the ashes, rebuild the community and local business support, rebuild fan trust, rebuild the trust of other clubs (ie. paying for our loan contracts), and rebuild the morale and trust of players and staff alike. This is something that has taken the current board and management a very short time to erode and destroy. Rebuilding it will take a lot longer. On a personal level - what I would like to see Gardiner out the door permanently (appears to be in progress) An under-performing manager out the door replaced with a hungry young coach eager to prove his/her worth and able to work with scant resources we have and will have in the foreseeable future. Ryan Esson springs to mind but that may be sentiment on my part. I will leave others to suggest who might fit the bill. A complete rebuild in the boardroom with representatives from all the major shareholder camps working together and remembering the ethos is to do what is right "for the good and benefit of ICTFC". A public acknowledgement from the incoming board/club management of the hideous actions of the last few years and an apology to the likes of Shane Sutherland, Aaron Doran, Ryan Esson and others. You simply don't treat people like that, least of all those who have given almost their entire carers to ICTFC. Those that earned testimonials should also get them as a way to try and build bridges in the support again and show we are back to being a community focused club. Its going to be a long road back, but if the right people are at the helm and are open and transparent with us, where business confidentiality does not preclude it, then we can get there.

Signed back on here with an extra S on my name to pay my respects to my great friend, my best friend - Bronson... aka Simon Macdonald. You gave me many laughs mate. You were an absolute rock for me when I went through my own separation. You pulled me back up. You had my back. You held me up. You were a true, true friend & one of very few people I trusted with my life. We had a brilliant night on Friday. Laughing, smiling, joking, drinking, talking about the future. I am so, so, sorry from the bottom of my heart that I never saw the signs from you. I'm sorry I never saw your pain or your turmoil. I just saw Simon, laughing, smiling, joking.... My heart is hurting like hell for you. I am riddled with guilt I never saw your internal pain & my own pain is growing each day that I failed you in your own time of need. RIP Simon. It was an honour to call you my friend.

Gardiner should have been sacked long ago. The Board have created a problem for themselves by trusting Gardiner and allowing him to have far too much control in the running of the club. Gardiner's management style is of the control freak variety. He has never wanted anything done without his say so. There are things which should have been delegated but which he would keep to himself. As a result, I suspect there genuinely are a lot of things which realistically, only he can do. For instance, we are due a club AGM and this had previously been administered by the Company Secretary. We haven't had a Company Secretary since April last year and I would imagine that it has been the CEO who has taken on the Company Secretary roles. There may be nobody else in the building that would know what to do, where to find the relevant files etc. On the other hand, the Board also know there are people who do not trust Gardiner and who will not put a penny into the club until he is finally out of the door. They will be aware that of all the loose ends to be tied up, he is the biggest. I would assume he has at least 3 months notice to work, but if the club is to move forward quickly in a meaningful way, he needs to be away before then. The Board therefore need to identify what "loose ends" there are which Gardiner needs to action and give him a clear timescale to get them sorted. They need to identify who will now carry out his former management roles. They then need to identify what information he has which needs passed to others to allow the club to function, and make sure it is passed to the relevant people. That should not take more than 4 weeks at the most. After that, he should be away on gardening leave for the rest of his notice period. Of course, if Gardiner was even a remotely competent manager, none of this would be necessary because he would have trained his staff properly and kept relevant staff appropriately appraised of issues. This should be routine practice in order that other staff can seamlessly take over the reins in the event of unforeseen absence. There should have been no reason for him to stay in the building beyond the day he resigned.

We did not continue player sponsorship last season mainly because of this man. This site has sponsored a player for the last 25+ years, either personally by me out of my own pocket for the first few years, or via a group of the users on here, or sometimes both. We always tried to sponsor young local lads as they sometimes did not get the same attention as bigger names. We are proud to have sponsored Grant Munro through his entire ICT career, from youngster on the bench to club captain until he left ICT, and until last year, had been doing the same thing with Cammy Harper who it seems will unfortunately (for us but not him hopefully) take the same path and leave ICT. Once it has been confirmed that SG has handed his keys over and left the building for the last time, then we will be happy to have that conversation with the club about reinstating sponsorship of one or more players and will try to get as many people on board with it as we did before, provided the club are keen to work with all supporter groups and bodies (Supporters Trust, TWS, CTO, Travel Club, and anyone else) so we can all pull in one direction for the good and benefit of ICT FC. #TogetherNESS #INverNESS

This is so comprehensively absurd that I’ve only sufficiently recovered from the shock to comment on one aspect. One of the biggest contributors to the mess the club has got itself into is its failure to relate to and inspire the local community. In fact it’s far worse than that because a multitude of issues - not the least the Concert Company collapsing leaving local traders out of pocket while the club trousered a generous ground rent - have resulted in public perception hitting rock bottom (or at least so I thought until this emerged). There are also strong messages that the local business community has become greatly disenchanted with Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Then consider that supporter morale has never in 30 years been as low as now and and that there is unprecedented dissatisfaction with certain individuals in the club’s employ. All of this makes for a clear, urgent and overwhelming need for the club to rebuild bridges with all layers of the local community adds also to restore internal morale. So what do they do? They suddenly unplug the first team playing squad and management team from Inverness and send it 140 miles down the road to share facilities with a rival League One club - a direct competitor whose own promotion challenge will be greatly strengthened by the considerable rent…. from an arrangement that Inverness Caledonian Thistle tell us they are “delighted” (I did read that three times just to check) to announce. In other words they have selected one of the club’s big weak points… and taken the single course of action that’s guaranteed to make it even worse.

Although this is not (yet) posted on the official site I am posting it here as the source is pretty legit (Nicola McAlley). Assuming this is indeed legit then a huge pat on the back to the club for doing this. This is a tremendous idea and one they should be praised highly for. GOOD JOB !!!

Lots of talk of being embarrassed at being an #ICTFC fan on other threads but it is things like this that still make me proud to be one. We rose as a COMMUNITY of fans, current and former team-mates, club staff (past and present), families of all of the above, and, it has to be said, also several football journalists to donate to this cause initiated by a former team-mate who himself went through injury hell and didn't get the support he needed and should have received from the club. £7K in less than 24 hours is great. Aaron will get his op and whether or not he plays football again, he should at least be able to play with his kids, which the article said he couldn't even do right now. That's the least he should expect after almost a decade and a half of loyal service. Look at the list of names in there and you will see many folks whose names you recognise but you may also notice - unless donating anonymously - the glaring lack of any names you might hope had developed a conscience and personally donated to the cause even if the club couldn't or wouldn't. I AM proud to be an ICT supporter because it means i can stand with and mingle with people like our supporters and others in our team's COMMUNITY. The ineptitude, inefficiency and seemingly utter disregard for our club from those who should be speaking now will not deter me from that. THEY are not the club. WE are the club, whether we have been here for 30 minutes or 30 years.

This is at the heart of the problem. It is all very well for the club to say we all need to pull together, but what exactly are we supposed to be pulling together on? Given the club's recent record of catastrophic decision making, are we simply expected to dip deeper into our pockets to finance more bad decisions taken without any consultation? In his recent Wyness Shuffle interview, Morrison stated that the 2022/3 cup run windfall of around £800k was used to pay off creditors. He also said that the club currently owe £300k to creditors. In other words, the club effectively has at least £500k less debt than it had at the start of the season. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is that they have made decisions based on money they were assuming would materialise but which hasn't. And it hasn't materialised because they mismanaged the BESS application and signed contracts which were not sufficiently robust. Communication on these issues has been poor and consultation non-existent. In the meantime, cash flow was managed because directors were putting money into the club on a loan basis in anticipation of forthcoming windfalls. Now there is no imminent windfall and the directors don't feel able to put more money into the club. The answer? Fans and new "investors" to put money into the club as part of the pulling togetherness! But hold on a minute! Morrison and Munro have both lodged charges against the club in order to protect their loans. In effect, this means that we, the long suffering fans, are expected to dip into our pockets and fork out money which can then be paid back to the very people who got the club into the mess in the first place! I am more than willing to spend as much on the club in League 1 as I did when we were in the Premiership - and more, but I don't want my money being used to pay back directors' loans. I want my money to help pay the wages of the players and the hard working staff at the stadium. I want my money to help with some of the stadium improvements required to address the issues raised in the Supporters Trust's matchday experience survey. If the club want us to "pull together" then I am more than willing to do so. But first, those who got us into this crisis have to take the lead and accept their accountability. Morrison and Munro should withdraw the charges they hold against the club and all directors who have bankrolled the club with loans should publicly declare that they are writing off those loans. Not only would that demonstrate accountability on their behalf, it would open the door to major investors who will not want to have a significant amount of their money swallowed up by repaying those who are responsible for the mess.

Thats parochial and insular bullshit. We have signed plenty of players from outwith the HL and local area who have done loads in the community because they have embedded themselves in the community. Carl Tremarco is a great example that jumps to mind but there are a load of others I could come up with depending on what you class as being "embedded in the community". Carl went on to stay in the local area long after his ICT days were over and them being over was a decision made for him not by him. You can represent the city and be present and active in the community even if you come from somewhere else, and even if you go somewhere else after your ICT career is over. Where you come from is irrelevant. Wanting to play for ICT, who are based in Inverness, Scotland, is the minimum requirement. I would agree however that the club has become less "community" focused over the last 5 years. Prior to COVID it was all about #TogetherNESS and working together to try and make sure the club could function properly. Fast forward 5 years, and after one commercial disaster after another and dragging the club name through the mud with the battery farm, we get a statement 3 days after relegation asking for "UNITY" then another statement today that completes rips out any semblance of COMM-UNITY from our club. There is no unity without comm-unity. Moving training to Fife because it will make recruitment of players - who do not want to move to Inverness - will, in my opinion, have a far greater long-term impact on us than relegation. I actually just 'liked' a tweet by "Jailender" calling County the only team in the Highlands. I liked it, not because I will change loyalties, but because, right now, he is correct. We cant let this happen. Central to our success over the years has always been community and a sense of team spirit fostered by our distance from the central belt, which even led to the use of a bunch of hashtags a few years ago like #TogetherNESS . The current regime seem to be trying to reverse all that progress at an astonishingly rapid pace and for many fans, any move outside of Inverness, even for training, will be seen as the final straw.

An honour to play with Herchie and proud to call him a pal, played with his heart on his sleeve, a real winner and leader, I'll never forget you! RIP Big Herch.

I will be there in spirit as a paid up Trust member. Just my Tuppence worth, but it is time for everyone to put aside the distrust that comes with this type of situation and make it clear to whoever represents US when it comes to any talks with the club that the current situation is untenable. The Trust should be the conduit to organising or requesting an EGM if the current board remain invisible and ineffective. We cannot have a CEO, board and SLO who won't talk to fans. In the case of the SLO that's his feckin job FFS. We cannot have a sporting director who spends more time in Dingwall than the team bus or directors seats at whichever location we are playing. You were supposed to be an important cog in the wheel. If you are not there then it's stealing a wage. We can't have a manager and coaches who see something isn't working so try the same thing again and again to see if they get a different outcome. That's the definition of clueless. Teams.know how to play us, we don't have a clue how to play a pub team. Dodds has to go. He could reclaim some dignity by resigning rather than getting sacked. No package required or requested. His backroom team need to go with him. Gardiner needs to go. Too many day to day issues, problems and ill will for his position to be anything other than untenable. I know many examples of situations where suggestions have been made to the club, even at their own request just before COVID, but these suggestions or money making leads were completely ignored seemingly because they were not his idea. No idea how true that opinion is other than personal knowledge of one really good lead given to him - by me - that was never followed up on. Ross Morrison may have been a supporter of the club long before he was chairman, and seems like a decent guy when I have encountered him, (or.passed.him that lead) but he is making the same mistake with Gardiner that Kenny C did with Richie Foran. Too much faith and misplaced trust. Time for eyes to be opened and difficult conversations to take place. If he can't show SG a P45 then he needs to award himself one. This is the lowest point our club has been at on its 30 year existence and if we want it to reach any more milestones the rot has to stop NOW.

Amid all the doom and gloom, let’s take a moment to praise Billy on scoring his 102nd goal for us and becoming our all time record goal scorer. Its a shame goals 101 and 102 came in defeats, but he continues to show his value and commitment to the club. His work rate is immense and he is a great role model for our younger players. The achievement is well deserved and I hope there are many goals in him during the rest of his time with us. Well done Billy!

It is with heartbreak and sorrow that I must announce the passing of well-known ICT supporter, my great friend for many years, and the best man at my wedding Stewart Anderson. Stewart, his brother Ross, another friend Calum, and I sat directly above the tunnel from the second season of ICT at the Caledonian Stadium and even if you didn’t know him, you likely knew of him or encountered him. It will always be an unforgettable sight to have seen the big man in full swing shouting “encouragement” to opposition players, managers, and referees! Those tickets changed hands over the years as paths crossed and uncrossed or personal circumstances changed, but always within people who were a part of that group with Stewart at or near the centre. The banter and ‘encouragement’ on a Saturday afternoon were all just football. Away from the stadium, Stewart was the proverbial gentle giant, a 6’5” teddy bear dedicated to family and friends who was also hardworking and conscientious. He would never knowingly do you any wrong and would give you the shirt off his back to help you if needed. I had the privilege to know Stewart for nearly 30 years. It started through football but transcended into far more areas of our lives. Stewart became a close friend before I moved to Canada, and when I did, he was the best man at my wedding, his dad Blair was our piper, and his mum Mary and brother Allan were also in attendance. He gave a speech at the reception that made even the ministers blush (we had two ministers – a husband and wife team from Nova Scotia who were very broad minded). I think I still have the handcuffs and blow-up sheep somewhere! Over the years we had some memorable times in Scotland at ICT games both home and away, starting or ending in either the Caley Inn or the Innes Bar. He came to Toronto a couple of times after the wedding and we had a fun time travelling through the Rockies from Vancouver to Edmonton, then to Calgary and back to Toronto. Another time he came to Toronto then with us to Cuba where he celebrated mine and my wife’s 5th anniversary in style, looking and feeling equally happy as he relaxed with a Pina Colada and a Cuban cigar at the beach in Varadero or sipping a Mojito in Hemingway’s bar in Havana. He also came with me to a couple of Toronto FC games that year and managed to get an entire pub singing “Bridge and Castle”! (see video). He made friends here in Toronto who still ask for him after all this time. Friends who I will now have to break this tragic news to and who will feel the pain like everyone else. Stewart was a bit of a technophobe, who just about managed to work his way around Facebook, so you won’t find him as a previous poster on the site. However, you will find many on here who knew the big man, respected, and loved him, and will miss him dearly. I am seldom lost for words, and even though I have a thousand stories I could relay about fun and crazy times with the big man, I am honestly and truly at a loss for more to say right now other than that I am thinking of his parents Blair and Mary and his siblings Blair, Ross, and Alan. I offer them my sincere and heartfelt condolences which I know will barely make any dent in their loss, but hopefully at some point, they can take comfort in knowing that my feelings are reciprocated across thousands of people whose lives Stewart has touched over the years whether from his travels, work, family, or football and every one of us sings the same song about his warmth and generosity. To Stewart, what else can I say but ‘Jeezo Big Man - Rest in Peace. I love you. I cherish all the happy memories we had together. I even cherish the times we disagreed. It made our friendship stronger, and you truly were the best man, not just my best man. You were one of a kind and I will miss you dearly. I and many others in several countries will raise a ‘peedy’ to your memory and look back on your life with great pride to have known you and been a part of it. Rest in Peace my friend. //Scott.

Pathetic attacks on the team and manager on here. Tactics may or may not have been correct. We were on top before the first goal for quite a period and if Tom Walshs strike had gone in it would have been a very different game. To sit deep against ( Scottish International) passers like Scott Allen giving them time on the ball like he got in the second half after the sending off would have been catastrophic imho. Our forwards troubled the hibs defence , we scored 2 goals and could have scored 4 but for some superb goalkeeping from marciano. Our defence played to their level with some great last minute tackles from brad mackay Rooney ,and tremarco. Mchattie gave away a silly penalty and showed some inexperience but thats who we are. A team of developing players getting better under robbie rather than worse under Foran. Midfield were outclassed by a great hibs side coached by jack ross who made the most of their forwards amazing movement. Ridgers was a rock. Hibs are the form side in the premier league since Jack Ross took over moving from one point of the bottom to sixth place and too hear the same tired refrain of its all Robbos fault is disappointing to say the least. I think yesterdays game and the match against other premier league teams this season shows that even after losing Mcart and Coll we can challenge the premier league teams in the playoffs especially if we have our best team on the pitch. We missed Sean Welsh yesterday but I see hope not despair that promotion is possible. So support the team rather than attack the people working to that success.

It is with great regret and deep sadness that I post this note to pay tribute to Ken Thomson, former director of Inverness Caledonian Thistle who passed away earlier today (Friday). Personally I am happy and privileged to have been able to call Ken a friend as well as someone who always tried to do his best at Caley Thistle, sometimes under very challenging circumstances. A man who also liaised with us here at CTO to foster the excellent collaborative relationship we had with the club in recent years. Many people will have known him not only from the football world where he came to the club around 1999/2000 but also from the shinty world where he was president of the Camanachd Association in the early 90s. He was elected president in 1990 but served his time in that association well before coming president. He was on the executive committee in 1978 at the age of 24, and was also a former president of the Camanachd Referees' Association, a former secretary of the North of Scotland Shinty Association, and an organiser of the Aviemore Indoor Sixes. He was goalkeeper for Aberdeen University in the 1973 Sutherland Cup-winning team before turning to refereeing, and also sponsored Strathglass, the club from his home village of Cannich. Ken was an extremely important part of our relationship with the club. I would go as far as to say that he was the primary architect of the bond we forged over nearly 20 years. In the same season where Super Caley went ballistic, Ken reached out to me and we met a few times to discuss how the fledgling (5 year old) CaleyThistleOnline site could help the club communicate with fans and act as a two-way conduit directly with, and to, the board as the internet became a more and more important communication tool. He recognised the significance of the internet before many others did and was open minded enough to embrace it and ourselves and not worry too much about keeping things as insular as they had been for the first few years the club existed. He may have been more AOL than iOS when it came to operating the technology but he understood the importance. In modern day terms he was a supporters liaison officer (SLO) before anyone had ever coined the phrase or even thought supporters were that important ! He was instrumental in helping setup "Boardroom Banter" both times we ran it. He was the man responsible for the live chat sessions we had with the likes of Graeme Bennett and others and he helped us facilitate a number of events where club officials and fans mingled in social settings in the Caley Inn, Caley Club, Innes Bar and even on away trips at times. Over the years he dragged along the chairman, other directors, chief execs and other folk to these get togethers and I believe his input helped forge a bond with many supporters that can never be broken. There are not too many clubs that were as open as Caley Thistle during his time on the board and he is to be applauded and lauded for that. Goodnight my friend, you will be missed, but you will never be forgotten.

Quite frankly never seen anything like this in football. Liam Polworth has come through the ranks at Caley, 25 assists last season, clearly the only one with the ability to unlock a defence and yet the abuse he gets from some sections beggars belief. It hardly matters what kind of game he's having either. So many "supporters" seem worryingly ready to rail on him at the slightest thing. This isn't in my head, hear it all around me every home game. Yesterday as an example, Mackay came on and took a touch that would've resulted in an outcry had it been Poli. But because it was Mackay? Total silence. Get behind your players and learn something about the game you're supposedly watching, you know who you are, absolute disgrace. You only need to listen for a while to the people talking ***** about Poli to realise they don't have much of a clue how the majority of the game works, really seems like they're there to vent. I for one really hope he stays unlike that wee lemon Daniel ict or whatever his name is on Twitter who's going about delighted at the prospect of losing our only playmaker to a premier league club. That wee crew are such a stereotype, are more or less only at games for the homoerotic camaraderie, know **** all about football and I hope they see this: nothing wrong with your reasons for being at the football, that's your business, but when you're dishing out that kind of abuse expect it to come back and bite you. Aside from that lengthy rant, we've got a very good side here if they could up the tempo at key moments and were able to add a player who can finish consistently. Still hoping Austin can be that player myself. Roll on Tuesday.

What a brilliant weekend away that was! Got to Dumbarton from London Gatwick good and early [early enough to have breakfast in MacDonalds!] ...then took in the Scottish Maritime Museum [where a delightful lady told me all the history about the shipyard and Denny boat testing tank], a walk up the coast past the ground to the Castle [where an equally delightful lady took me around the castle and told me a great story about Robert the Bruce's heart!]... Enjoyed a drink in the bar, with a Manchester City supporter ticking off another Scottish football ground Anyway.... Always thought this was going to be a gritty match, the pitch hardly helped, it seemed almost impossible to play a true ball [esp for poor old Nolan!]. Generally we were much the better side, especially in the first half, yet Dumbarton had the more dangerous chances [in the second half], Dibaga and the bar saved us a couple of times, which made the last 10mins decidely nervy especially with Dumbarton winning late corners. But in the end Bavidge came up trumps and I experienced 'limbs' as everyone went bonkers with delight. It was lovely to share the full time celebrations with the team...and what a great turnout from our fans. Well done everybody Playing Brannan at the back to allow Bray to play further forward helped mitigate the absence of Longstaff. I must say we did very well to get Savage last year and Dibaga/Allan this, and Gilmour really is becoming a worthy successor to some quality midfielders we have had in the past...and obviously the signing of Bavidge is the one that saves our season [unless things go strangely awry] To cap off a great weekend both Palace & Sutton United won, I got upgraded at my hotel, and had the entire row to myself on my plane back home....A weekend of football doesn't get much better than that [other than winning the Cup]

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

Over the last couple of weeks, my favourite expletive seems to have become the word 'Horsesh*t" and this falls into the biggest pile of it I have seen. ever. How do we get enough people or voting percentage together to force an EGM? This cannot be allowed to happen. It will kill the club completely. Supporters Trust? I thought Gardiner could not top his previous debacles .. Pixellot, the Concert, alienating staff, players and supporters, not to mention relegation but f*ck me, I underestimated the man. This puts a cherry on top of the whole fu*king lot, a really huge feckin' cherry! Funny how, for the most part, the players that end up staying in the area after their careers wind down came up not from Scotland, but from England. The central-belters, for the most part head back down the A9 to Glasgow/Edinburgh or some commuter belt outside of those cities. We are only 1 hour from London or Manchester by air and I bet there are plenty of hungry players down there who would not whine about the A9 as much (other than on match days). Hop on EasyJet and its all sorted. Happy to have another David Raven, Carl Tremarco, or Gary Warren out of that kind of scenario. To me its all about the sell-job. We may be a career club for some players (Tokely for example), but for others, who clearly won't make this their long-term club, we have previously used it, and should continue to use it, as an opportunity to sell the player on getting a career back on track or putting themselves in the shop window to get a move. Even if that move is (currently) to a higher league team across the Black Isle where they would not even need to move again. If they don't want to come here, then they don't want to come here, its that simple. Geography is simply an excuse. Look all over the rest of the world and a 140-mile relocation in some countries or for some clubs is called a commute! As for accommodation costs ... why are we paying these? My employer doesn't pay my mortgage, not directly at least, but they do pay me enough so I can afford it. Its my responsibility to get a house in a location I can afford that allows me to get to work to earn my wage. Back in the days when we were in the third tier before, players like Bobby Mann came to the club and literally stayed in B&Bs whose owners had an affiliation to the club and no doubt gave them a deal for a long-term rental. That may be an avenue to explore again. The bigger problem is that we are no longer in the Premiership or even the league below, we are now back down in the doldrums so attracting any player, regardless of where we train will be exponentially more difficult. Don't forget there will also be added costs. Presumably all the first team players (including young players in the squad) who currently live in Inverness and have houses will need to be brought down to Fife and either stay for the week for training or travel back on a daily basis? The first will cost money, the second is unsustainable. What about the youth players? How do they fare in this. Will they be brought to Fife or will they - as suspected in some circles - be abandoned and put an end to our youth system. How will players travel to Inverness for home games? In their own cars and claiming travel expenses and maybe a night in a hotel the night before? or will we hire a bus at considerable cost to get to our home-away game thereby doubling our transportation costs for the year. I could probably rant on for pages but I will stop here. This has got me more raging than the relegation so well done Gardiner. Now Get the F*ck out out of our club and take your cronies with you !!! Utter Horseshit!!! This cannot be allowed to happen. As others have said ... how can we be a community club when we are not even in the community on a day-to-day basis?

It strikes me that there must still be this small, sad group of individuals who have been sitting around for the last 30 years, desperately waiting for a misfortune so they can attempt to say “told you so”. Meanwhile everyone else has been enjoying progress to the SPL in just a decade, further progress to the Top Six, winning the Third and First Divisions, winning the Challenge Cup, and (in anticipation of some smart-ass comment about that), I’ll add winning the Scottish Cup, reaching the League Cup final, bringing European football to the Highlands, beating the Old Firm home and away including Celtic three times in the Scottish Cup, raising attendances to a peak of 7 and still 3 times what Thistle and Caley combined were taking in pre-merger…. and even after this weekend’s misfortune, Inverness football is still two leagues above what it was before this club came around. One difficulty is that there’s also this small caucus of ex-Caley fans who seem to live in some fantasy world, hallucinating that 6000 people packed themselves into Telford Street every second Saturday right up to the bitter end in the Highland League and 5000 of them still resolutely refuse to go near the Caledonian Stadium. Meanwhile the reality is that the biggest number of Caley fans that ever voted against the merger was 226, many of whom still became regular ICT attendees, and that the biggest number that ever attended a Thistle meeting was (off the top of my head) 45.

Hi everyone, I attended my first Caley game last weekend on a complete whim as I was visiting close to the area. My hometown is Blackpool and I support Blackpool (I loved seeing Nathan Shaw score that third goal as a product of our academy) but as life has taken me around a bit I now live in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, not far from Leeds. I also follow Pontefract Collieries home and away because of this. 8th tier of English football. I wanted to join the site to firstly say I really enjoyed the hospitality of your club. We spoke to a few locals around the city before and after the game and they were very welcoming us of foreigners. Secondly, the football was brilliant. Now, I know I may come in to some criticism for this but it was like watching lower league English football but with an immaculate pitch. However that is EXACTLY what I want to see in a football match. Lastly, and my only criticism of your wonderful club would be the home atmosphere. I expected booming when the third goal went in last week but it fell flat. Even at 2-0 up it was very quiet. I’d love you to create more of an atmosphere. Get that drum banging and get singing guys!! It’ll make a massive difference to your results! I’ll be forever keeping my eye out for your results now. Hope you manage to string a few wins together and get up the table. Come on Caley. Cheers

Gardiner/Morrison will be hoping that takes the heat of them for a bit. We can't let it. The club is rotten to the core and whilst Dodds needed to go, so do the aforementioned.

It is with great sadness that we let everyone know of the passing of one of our site moderators 'Kingsmills'. Colin had been a member of the site for many years, definitely someone you would consider one of the originals. He was also a moderator on the site for much of his time here. Like all mods, he had his fair share of run-ins with some posters but as far as I am concerned always handled things pretty fairly. To my knowledge, I had never met Colin in person as I had already moved to Canada when he became a mod and we never (knowingly) crossed paths at the stadium but in email or PM dealings with him it was always pleasant. Condolences and respects to his family and friends.

Whoever will be at the helm next season we owe Neil McCaan and Billy Dodds a huge Thank You for getting us to where we are now .They did a great job in the short time they were here . Wishing them All the Best for the future ....Hoping the managers position can be announced soon .

3 hours old and already in the strip Northstandfan super proud of you and my new grandson. Future Northstander sorry if it’s not appropriate for this part of the forum but just had to do it.

I don’t understand fans staying away because they don’t trust the Board. Most fans don’t give a stuff about the Board - they, like me, go to watch football and support the players of ICT. It’s like saying you’re never going to buy in M&S because you don’t like their board members.

The team has just equalled the club record for the number of league games undefeated (22) and moved back into the play off places. It's a great achievement. Yet some of the "support" choose to boo the team at the end and to hurl abuse at our leading scorer who happened to score the 2nd equaliser tonight. It can't exactly encourage players to want to play for us if that is the kind of "support" fans give. Of course the recent draws are frustrating and we've lacked penetration going forward, but you don't go 22 games unbeaten if you are a poor side. The players themselves were clearly gutted not to have got a win from the game tonight. Perhaps if some of the folk who were constantly on the players' backs all night had shown a bit of support instead, then the players may have felt less pressured and played better as a result.

Scott Young approached Laura Grant, one of our Board members, this afternoon to see if the Supporters Trust could provide volunteers to allow the Sports Bar to be open tomorrow. Laura was delighted to assist and has found volunteers which means that the Sports Bar will now be open from 1 pm tomorrow, with last orders at 2.30 pm and the bar fully closed at 2.45 pm. This is an early example of how beneficial volunteer fans can be to the club, and we hope that many fans attending the game tomorrow will now be able to enjoy a pre-match drink (or two) in the Sports Bar, providing the club with additional income. A number of the Trust Board members will be there, both behind the bar and as customers, so please say hello to them.

The Supporters Trust has issued a fresh statement about the ongoing situation today, which is being sent to all members. You can read it on this link: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/statement-pre-season-2024 The Trust Board will continue to work on behalf of our members and the wider fan base, and we would welcome further members. Anyone joining now will have their membership apply until the end of July 2025. You can join using this link: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/join-us Many of you who supported our Stronger Together initiative indicated (understandably) that you would not contribute as long as the CEO was at the club. Given that the club has publicly confirmed that they have accepted his resignation, you can use the link below to contribute to this initiative, either through a subscription or by making a donation. As confirmed before, the Trust Board will only use this to purchase shares in the club when it is has sought and received commitments from the club Board on behalf of the Trust's members: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/stronger-together

I think we all want to get back to giving our usual financial support to the club and, for those who can afford it, perhaps a little bit more to help the club get back on track. It is all a question of timing and trust. None of us wants to shell out a significant sum of money only to see the club fall into administration. Nor do we want to see an outcome which sees broadly the same regime in charge. The last club statement and the subsequent one from the Supporters Trust gave grounds for considerable optimism. I would assume that the Trust is involved in some level of dialogue behind the scenes and has been given sufficient information to allow it to word their statement as they did. Some will have acted on this and purchased their season tickets but others feel more assurances are required before they part with their money. There are, perhaps 3 key issues. The CEO's position. His resignation has been accepted but he has been asked to work his notice, the length of which is confidential. Of course, the CEO himself could easily agree to make that information public for the sake of clarity. People can draw their own conclusions on why the information has not been made public. Rightly or wrongly, a large number of fans have so little trust in the CEO that they will not believe he is going until is actually gone. His actual departure will be followed by a significant influx of funds for the club and therefore those working behind the scenes should be taking steps to ensure those tasks which they seemingly need his knowledge and experience for are completed as soon as possible. If the CEO genuinely wants to do the best for the club, he will then go and a statement will be released to that effect. The accounts. This will (or should) take longer. I assume the accounts cannot be submitted until the auditors are satisfied the club is a going concern. That, in turn, cannot be demonstrated until a new Board is in place and has costed out its new football model and financial plan. In this context the extent to which existing Board members and the former Chairman are willing to write off their loans will be crucial. It would be helpful to everyone if they were to make their position on this public ASAP. The manager. We have been told Ferguson remains the manager and has accepted a wage cut. However, we have heard absolutely nothing from him. His style of play and his failure to make use of home grown talent last season has not endeared him to fans. Given that local lads are likely to make up the bulk of the squad next year, it would seem that he is not a good fit for the club going forward. His departure by mutual consent and his replacement by one of the very capable coaching staff at the club would be better for the club in both a financial and footballing sense. The start of the new season is now less than a month away. I appreciate that any potential new leadership and investors will need time to assess the situation in order to assure themselves that they want to be involved at all, and then to negotiate and implement the change. But time is ticking. The Club's welcome statement on Friday referred to "hugely positive discussions currently ongoing with a number of potential new investors". This would suggest that change is imminent, but as yet, only Ross Morrison has left and nobody new has arrived. Given the recent history of false promises and poor communication, people can be forgiven for being sceptical and for withholding their hard-earned money until they have proof of real change. Following on from Friday's statement, we need to have regular updates to inform fans on progress on the various issues. The club needs to earn the trust of fans - and the time to earn it is now.

Duncan Ferguson should have done the right thing and resigned after the Hamilton debacle. No pay offs , severance pay,nothing. He should have held his hand up and admitted his failings when trying to build a team out of lower level loanees. This was an absolutely awful experiment doomed to failure and the financial repercussions are now coming home to roost. We have lost a whole season of developing young players the likes of Bray, Hyde etc for what..... Relegation. FFS I know we lost Deas and Allardice but the nucleus of a capable squad was still there. Capable enough to avoid relegation anyway.

Everyone will have their opinion but for me, the ones defending this decision have been caught hook, line and sinker. Everything that you state as a defence is a regurgitation of the board and previous managers since Foran. First they have to convince people that there's a problem, make it out worse than it is, push the agenda, repeat, repeat, repeat before convincing you that they have the answer to something that didn't need changed in the first place. It's of no coincidence to me that we have a manager with central belt historical ties, who from day one spouted about poor home form, constantly on repeat and still will, but yet never questioned. The man before also with central belt historical ties, also spouted the same lines but never questioned. Planting the seed about poor home form but clearly with an underlying meaning. We hear how difficult it is to attract players up to Inverness, have done since after Foran, on repeat, constantly, the same lines over and over. It must be Inverness! By gosh, how didn't I figure it out myself, I feel so stupid having to be told on repeat before I realised. Dwindling investment, dwindling income, disengagement with the fans, alienation of the local business community, picking fights with local government. It's always been the fault of others, make people believe it's others. Could it just simply be that those who are in positions of power and decision makers just aren't good enough? If this next ridiculous venture fails, who's fault will it be then, will they claim travelling distance is the problem? The biggest issue in everything is staring us in the face, we all know it, and it falls firmly at the hands of the board.

I'm finding myself in agreement. Talks a great game but what has he actually achieved, other than alienate a lot of local businesses from wanting anything to do with the club after the concert fiasco? All that orange kit and 12th july nonsense was the final straw for me, the club should never have let itself be lowered to that level! Seems like the chairman has given him free rein of the club to run it as he likes? Might his final act have been, what's becoming blatantly obvious, the mad decision to award dodds another 2 year contract?

If he had his dream job as Sporting Director of Hearts, do you think their fans would acquiesce to his continued employment by the club if he was commentating on Hibs games every time Hearts were playing away? Enough is enough. Time for the broom of change to sweep through the club.

I hope after reading and hearing what the man went through with his illness people get off his back. He genuinely wants to help our team do well and he's if nothing else not short on effort as well as being our current top scorer this season. Let's for once try and get behind all our players at the business end of the season, we still have a great chance of the playoffs and his goals are going to be crucial.

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!

It is with a heavy heart that I post this message today. Our friend and fellow supporter John MacKenzie, known as "Johndo" or Immortal Howden Ender (and likely quite a few other things to some of you) passed away this morning while waiting for surgery. More details and tributes to follow from many of us I am sure. On a personal level, I have known Johndo since I was a kid in Dalneigh. Johndo was a few years older than me, and he was always one of those you looked at as one of the cool kids. Quite apart from his role as Dad and Granddad, he was also a hardworking and dedicated mental health medical professional in real life, but outside of that stressful environment, most of us knew him more as a joker, irreverent character, and a wind-up merchant extraordinaire when it came to the football, whether that was Caley before the merger, or by embracing Caley Thistle after the merger, and inevitably becoming a lightning rod of criticism for those who didn't agree with his choice to follow the new club. Above everything else, Johndo was a friend to all who knew him. If there is a group picture of Caley Thistle fans, be it in Romania, at Hampden, or some far flung lower division ground, Johndo is probably in it, marshalling the support somewhere. I am really lost for words of tribute for him right now as I have a thousand memories going through my head ... being led astray in the Tarry on occasions when visiting in recent years, unexpectedly seeing his mug on my telly in Toronto when the fans got interviewed at Hampden, or just reading his pearls of wisdom on here and looking beyond the wind-up merchant to the deep thinker he actually was. Rest in Peace Johndo. I will miss you my friend. Will raise a large Voddie & Coke to you tonight and I know you will be having a sesh up there with Brosno, Big Stew and others.

They should replace the entire board - they all signed off on the Kelty move, they all signed off on the Makwana takeover, they all signed off on a massive deal for Ferguson, they all signed off on continuing to employ Gardiner, they have all stood there as the club withers while we try and pull off strange property deals to make a quick buck.

I've kept relatively silent (publicly) on this whole thing, but I sent the following email to the Supporters Trust earlier. Ultimately it is a decision for each individual to make on whether to buy season tickets and merchandise, but they should be FULLY informed on what that means and the risks involved. Unless the supporters' trust has had sight of and verified that a deal is in place (and if they do, tell us), then it's irresponsible for them to be encouraging people to make a purchase. They wouldn't support a boycott for fear of the legal implications, but seem happy enough to put a call out to buy and have fans risk their money?

Tragically Bronson is not the first site member of ours to have passed away over the 25 years the forum has been active, and unfortunately he wont be the last, but the news this weekend seems to have affected a lot of us deeply as we have known him a long time even if we all had different degrees of closeness to him. I have been thinking about things a lot since I heard about this and would like there to be something positive to come from his passing. The Bronson Legacy referred to in the title of this post if you will. I do not know what fits, how best to phrase it, or even if we are able to do something lasting and beneficial on the site but FFS we need to look out for each other somehow .... I have seen comments on Facebook and elsewhere where members of our site have posted the offer to be there for others who might need to talk. I also hold my hands out and say the same thing to anyone on this site whether we know each other or not and whether we have crossed swords or are best of buddies. If you need to talk, I am here. If you need to vent, I am here. If you need a second, third or fourth opinion, I am here. I am no expert or psychologist, but I can do two things quite well ... listen and give an opinion. Many of us are the 'strong silent type' and that stoic Highland reserve is how I used to deal with things as well. It's a man thing, it's a Highland thing, and it's most definitely a Highland Man thing. Over the last two years my personal life has been less than perfect. 2018 started (on Jan 1st) with the suicide of someone I knew from the Toronto FC supporters group who didn't realise how much he was loved and revered (and still is). After watching an uncle die from Prostate Cancer, I was then diagnosed and treated for cancer myself and will live with some side effects forever but the crucial thing is that I will live. I also lost my mum in June 2019, two days after returning to Canada from our last visit to see her. Through it all I had the support of friends on both sides of the Atlantic, family and colleagues and this helped. I was in a dark place a few times but someone was always there with encouragement or a quick word. Its amazing how even asking how someone is doing can be uplifting and bring you out of that slump. It also helped me shed that stoic reserved approach. I now view life as too short and bottling stuff up is less of an issue now. I now participate in Movember each year and one of the key cornerstones of this is mental health (along with Prostate and Testicular cancers). I have talked openly about my cancer and told colleagues at work that if anyone is scared to go for testing or wants to know what happens after a diagnosis, I am here. The same applies for trying to remove the stigma over talking about mental health. I have added the MikeysLine link to our site pages over the weekend and there are a couple of other links below to sites that may help or form the basis of some small thing we can do for our little community here .... because thats what we are, a community, and community means looking out for each other even if/when we dont always get along. Please use this thread for comments, links or brainstorming anything you think we can do here. https://uk.movember.com/mens-health/we-need-to-ask https://letstalk.bell.ca/en/ways-to-help

Ridiculous that people call for Robbo's head. Can you imagine the budget of Hibs compared to ours, especially these days. Who exactly would you replace him with? People forget we've got to a cup final, quarter final, and are well in contention to be promoted to the premier league. Totally clueless.