Hiro

Hopeless for 70 minutes. Slightly less hopeless for 20.  It would have been a robbery had we equalised.  Big game on Saturday now, need 3 points before we find ourselves worried about the wrong playoffs.

Absolutely horrific 1st half.  

We really must improve defending balls into the box. We are conceding a stupid amount of goals from crosses, corners or long throws.

Decent performance and decent point.  2md half was a non event but we should view that as a point gained.  Pretty ballsy line up and subs by Mccann with 4 forwards on the pitch so I can't fault that.  There will be easier games to come so time to get up the table.  We need to start turning draws into wins though.

He comes across very well here, very aware of the sensitivity of the situation and its reassuring to hear that he didn't want to do anything until he could speak to Robbo first.  A little moral integrity doesn't do any harm.  Best of luck to him and let's hope he can drag us into the (right) play offs.

To be fair he's stepped away from a couple of lucrative TV gigs to do this, and he's also done it in the knowledge that it's potentially shortish term.  I think he's got something to lose by doing this. The Dundee supporters actually speak pretty highly of his period as interim boss (less said about the permanent position although I don't think he really wanted it) so hopefully he can do the same here and get us up the table.

On club website now

1 hour ago, Pele_Is_God said:

Hearing it’s Gary Naysmith..

Nope Neil McCann......

Thought we'd rescued 3 points from another poor performance until we hit self destruct yet again.  I couldn't believe how nervous we looked with the ball at times.

After Alloa went ahead we huffed and puffed without creating much of note. The away side were happy to defend what they had and to be honest we didn't look like we were ever going to break them down - even our dozen or so 2nd half corners were easily enough defended.  Storey going wide left seemed to completely change the game though and once we scored it felt like 3 or 4 were coming.

I just want to finish with a note on Storey's penalty.  It looked like Todorov was the designated taker hence why Keatings and possibly also Shane got involved. Really selfish action from him and it's cost us the game- it also seemed to affect Storey as well as he spent the last few minutes trying to shoot from everywhere when he got the ball. Really poor attitude and tonight of all nights the team had to come first after what they've all been through. I really hope the senior players had a word with him.

3 hours ago, Scotty said:

 

These are the worrying posts in this thread. The notion that the club are - once again - going into ostrich mode is concerning. How many hundreds of complaints have we seen, not just on here, about this clearly substandard system we are persevering with? and then to ignore comments of fans on social media and not address them ...... not a good idea. 

There has never been a period quite like this in world history and this is the time where the club should be doubling down on focussing locally by listening to supporters, working with the community, doing whatever they can in and around Inverness to actively build on any goodwill they can generate through this time. It seems they are doing the opposite.  There is very little we can do about postponements or COVID related shutdowns or measures, but we can certainly focus on what things we can do .... I do see some community engagement over the last few months, but all that goes out the window if you turn around and ignore your customers. 

 

I respectfully disagree .... I get it that results have not gone our way but, in my mind, this whole period is not typical. We are skint, we are not generating (enough) income to resolve that, and until recently we did not even know if we would be playing any games at all, and therefore we can't afford nice shiny things (other than pixell-Not it would seem!) ... It would be folly to offer contracts to all and sundry, and even if we could, many would not even consider coming here right now given the travel restrictions and time away from family (as noted in Kai Kennedy's move to Raith).  There's an old and crude saying that you can only pi** with the co** you have and that kind of fits our current status ...

The time to judge Robbo is when things get back to normal and if he is underperforming then, that's the time to have this conversation .. until then, as frustrating as it is, he is trying his damnedest to get the best out of a patchwork of older players who used to be at a higher level, injury plagued players looking for another restart, and youngsters who aspire to get there ... not exactly the squad composition that any of us want or expect. He is doing all this while also acknowledging COVID related mental health issues that are being experienced by himself, and also presumably others around the club ...  so we should get behind him. 

Any replacement for Robbo would have the same meagre resources, perhaps less if Robbo had to be paid off, and who is to say they could get more out of the existing squad ... we certainly could not be delving into the transfer market ....

 

The other point we need to remember in all of this is that although he's the first team manager Robbo is actually much more than that. He does a hell of a lot more than just the first team football side of things especially since Covid kicked in. 

I'm not a Robbo apologist by any means and recent results + performances are clearly substandard. However those questioning him need to be careful what they wish for as there's not much scope or resource for anyone else to do any better.

I'll give it the benefit of doubt and chalk that down to the lack of match practice recently.  Everything was just a bit flat.  If we're still seeing the same after the next 3 or 4 games then we're in a bit of trouble.

That was a little frustrating to say the least. It felt that we were lucky not to lose it with both Hamilton and Doolan missing great chances.

As with last week we completely lost our way as the 2nd half wore on.  Any ideas what Roddy McGregor has done to be jettisoned to the bench? He was probably our best player earlier in the season so I find it odd that he's getting so little game time now when his skill set seems to be exactly what we need.

Very doubtful that we'll see anyone coming in at this stage.  We're the only club in the division not to make a signing & strengthen and worst of all we've lost a key player in Kennedy to a rival.  Finances and Geography obviously playing a part but I'd be very interested to know what the actual ambitions are for the season.

If you're planning on buying kids strips make sure you size up.  I bought age 5-6 for my 3.5 year old and it'll barely last him the season. There's not quite as much growing room as I'd hoped (although admittedly he is tall for his age).

On 5/30/2020 at 5:12 PM, Hiro said:

 Club statement from 10/05/20 states that the club would be announcing news this month- with only 1 day left I'm fairly sure that they're going to miss that deadline.

The same statement also states news on season tickets would be out within a week- also hasn't happened.

Our CEO has also disappeared from the face of the earth....

Worth the wait to be fair....

2 hours ago, Tree said:

What are you expecting any statement to say? There may or may not be any games next year. In the meantime give us £350 of your money (I know that you may be about to lose your job but it’s better in our bank than yours).

The silence is because the whole of Scottish football is in a mess and don’t have a good way ahead which everyone can agree on

Your missing the point, I don't expect any statement to say anything.  The club chose to put out a statement that made reference to forthcoming announcements on things- I'm just pointing out the fact that they haven't done any of it.

Anyway, plenty of clubs are selling season tickets as a way to generate cash and allow suporters to show support. Have a look at the likes of Hearts and Hibs to see what I mean.  New strips can also generate some revenue and lots of Scottish clubs have found novel ways to generate both money and goodwill (e.g. face masks).

The club shouldn't be putting out statements to say they're going to do something if they're not going to do it.  I also refer you to the statement on 12th May regarding the Record article to which nothing happened.

 Club statement from 10/05/20 states that the club would be announcing news this month- with only 1 day left I'm fairly sure that they're going to miss that deadline.

The same statement also states news on season tickets would be out within a week- also hasn't happened.

Our CEO has also disappeared from the face of the earth....

13 hours ago, Yngwie said:

As expected/hoped, the Budge proposal is 14-14-14 and would result in ICT’s promotion (and survival). Hard to see the top flight clubs voting for it in sufficient numbers though.

Top flight clubs might vote for it but the championship clubs won't.  Our name is mud- actually our CEO's name is mud and if it benefits him Championship clubs are less likely to vote for it.  To say our relationships with the other clubs in the Championship are strained is an understatement.  We've also not heard the last of WhatsAppgate either......

1 minute ago, Jack Waddington said:

Ding ding ding! Statement time!

 

https://ictfc.com/club-statement-11

Quite the riposte to the Record article. 

6 minutes ago, ictchris said:

Why would any other club trust us in any negotiation from this point?  Transfers or further league meetings or anything else?  This is going to cost us in the long run and a few crowd-pleasing, poorly written, seething statements won't mean anything in a few weeks, let alone in the long term.,

I'm stunned so many fans seem to be lapping this up.

Yep, the more that seems to be coming out the more uncomfortable I feel about the position and actions we've taken.  I see that our CEO has locked his social media accounts down which is interesting as he's had plenty to say so far.  Im still giving him the benefit of the doubt as until proven otherwise we have to assume everything he says is exactly how it all happpened- however we can't say we weren't warned.

Nobody is coming out of this looking good. 

I see that the final section of today's statement confirms the new Puma deal.  It doesn't make reference to them specifically but rather a new technical partner as well as related improved online offerings. 

I'm glad to see this happening as in the current climate with no revenue coming in we need to try and find revenue from somewhere.   A new shirt, more merchandise and some additional 25th anniversary goodies is one way to do this and encourage fans to spend some cash on the club if they can.

21 hours ago, RiG said:

But a lot of footballers are paying 50% tax on a substantial amount of their salary.

For example, a player earning £100,000 a week will be paying 50% tax on £55,000 of his salary (and the rest as well) so therefore they would be contributing £22,500 a week (and the rest) in tax towards the NHS and other things.

If you were to cut players wages down to £60,000 a week then only £15,000 would be getting taxed at 50% (or £7,500) as well as the rest.

Whilst I agree that players are overpaid they are contributing a fair chunk towards the cost of the NHS already. It's been an excellent example of projecting by the Tories to shift the blame onto others to help people forget it is down to them that the NHS has suffered so many funding shortfalls in the past 10 or so years.

I'm sure the likes of Johnson, Hancock and Mogg will rush to take pay cuts to do their bit as well...

The only people who benefit from players taking a wage cut are the already wealthy owners and executives.  It won't stop them furloughing non playing staff. 

Other than as a government deflection tactic there's not much sense to this witch-hunt on players.  The players themselves have stated they want to help and some have floated having a % of salary deducted and put directly to funding good causes (NHS equipment etc.)

This article is well worth a read Football 365 article

Final score probably flattered Hibs but we didn't help ourselves.  Competed well for the majority of the match but undone by the speed of foot and thought by Hibs on the break - game was done when we went down to 10 men.

Stupid, cynical tackle from Brad McKay.  No need to do it especially after we'd just got ourselves back into the match.  I don't think we'll be weakened by his absence. 

I know he gave the ball away for one of the goals but I was massively impressed with Dave  Carson. He's improving with every match having stepped up to full time football - hopefully Welsh is fit to partner him in midfield for the run in.  I really think if we get Welsh fit we're a shoe in for 2nd and have a chance of going up.

7 hours ago, Scotty said:

The club have taken pelters in the past for bullshit or nonsense statements, but this one is an absolute belter. Nailed every word of it from start to finish. Extreme credit where it is absolutely due on this occasion to shame those who made the decision. I can only conclude incompetence or corruption in this decision. If its incompetence then resignations should follow ..... but I wont hold my breath on that one. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm also very heartened to see public displays of support from executives at other clubs for the statement- namely the excellent Alan Burrows at Motherwell and Leanne Dempster at Hibs.