Libero

I voted no but i really cant make my mind up on wheter it would be beneficial or a waste of valuable resources

Its very worrying if he is!! Wilson and Paatelainen up front anyone? Yeah, think (and hope) they mean McBain, the 'midfieler' tag points to a mistake anyway

Just read the BBC Preview of the arabs game and noticed that Bayne is suspended. I never knew anything about this, is it a mistake or is he suspended?

The time of year has come again where Intertoto applications are being considered and it looks like once again we are going to apply. See Article below from the P and J. A few things have to be taken into account though - i'm pretty sure Aberdeen have expressed an interest in applying, we are not as far up the table as we were this time last season and also the tardiness of the decision about intertoto places last season nearly ruined our pre-season plans...... so should we apply this year or do posters on here think it would be a waste of time?

Forgot about McBain being suspended, Hart in then hopefully. Havent heard anything about dargo in a while :024:

Would like to see Paatalinen start in place of Wilson (who i think needs rested) but playing as a striker and if Mcbain doesnt make it then Hart in and put on the right with Rankin moving over to the left. Other than that same line up as Sunday

I think we should stick with a similar line up but i think we cannot play as defense minded as we did against septic, i think an attacking approach as opposed to counter-attack is needed. back to a traditional 4-4-2 for me.

Certainly hope so, we need to pick our heads up and focus on as high a place in the league as possible.

Yeah its not so much money lost but potential monies lost. I seem to remember when we had the televised replay with Aberdeen that it earnt us £75k so a replay would have been have been circa £100k as a guesstimate

I'm with Kencar on this one, we need to revert to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation rather than what we did at the weekend with Wilson playing deeper supporting the lone striker but neither Mcwegan nor Mccallister have done much to inspire me so Wilson up front. :021:

As i left the house this morning for work i glanced at the P and J and noticed an article saying that if we had got through to the next round of the cup we could of had £300k added to the coffers. In this day and age where football clubs are run as a business' interest this result could be more damaging than i initially thought. Its gonna be hard enough for the players to pick themselves up after such a deflating event but the reveleation that we have missed the chance to earn a bundle is equally disappointing. I really hope Charlie can rally the troops for this weekend. Come on lads! edited to include p and j article

I was interested to see what the official Celtic website said about the game today and while the report seemed 'fairly' accurate i noticed they gave the MOM to Nakamura, ha ha ha :024: WTF!! was nakamura even playing today? I obvioulsy didnt expect them to put an opposition player as MOM but nakamura?

After todays result i'm not that bothered about the Cup, top six for me :022:

Agree 100% with everything in that post RiG, spot on. i'm absolutely gutted with todays result.

No-one, its been ditched in favour of an advertising spread! :007: unlessits hidden away somewhere

I have never been a fan of loan deals, partly because of the lack of sucess we have had with them however after seeing Falkirk making a what turned out to be a dream loan deal in Stokes it has led me to think differently, Stokes has arguably saved Falkirk from possible relegation this year and if one loan player can do that then maybe it is an avenue that should be looked into. Co-incidentally it looks like they have another potential star in the lad Finnegan from Newcastle who scored against rangers at the weekend. The premiership has a huge pool of youngsters trying to force their way into first team contention and i'm sure a lot of clubs would be willing to let players leave for first team experience so both parties clearly benefit. Kudos to the club for keeping the club financially stable over the seasons however we have been very lucky in that our team has managed to make the step up in quality through the leagues without too much difficulties and we have therefore managed to retain most of the team without too many changes. It certainly appears now that the time may have come where we have no option but to update the squad and hopefully our prudent stance in the past will mean we have the resources to update the squad as necessary.

I agree that defence and up front are the priority areas. Since typing the original report i have read an article in the Daily Express which has mentioned that "Charlie has already started looking at defensive options and Livingston's James mcPake and Dundee youngster gary mcKenzie are on his radar". Also It quotes Grassa saying " we have been looking at two or three players from the First division and that is likely to be the road we will be going down" The article also mentions that Richard Offiong is on our 'wanted list, English striker who's at Hamilton just now supposedly recommended to us by Robbo Is scouring the First Division for talent going to be enough to keep us in the SPL? I certainly hope so!! Good to see that moves are afoot to replace players leaving though

Over the fast few seasons we have started each season with similar faces and have benefitted from a settled squad that has not had to deal with any major changes in personell. We have been very fortunate enough to retain the core of successful team and have therefore only needed to add the odd face to our squad. Inevitably though the time has come where other teams have recognised some of our better performers and we have lost or will be losing a couple of first team players in Brown, Dods and possibly Dargo, Hastings, McSwegan(out of contract iirc) We have been unfortunate with injuries recently however our injury history over the season has been pretty kind to us for a small squad and what we have to remember is that although we have lost two important players it could be worse, just one or two more injuries and we could be in a great deal of trouble. This has shown that we do not have adequate depth to the squad to cope with injuries to a couple of top team players. IMO i think we are a team now established in the SPL but seem to have reached a peak where the lower end of the table seems to be our status quo therefore it is now the case that we need to look at a serious overhaul of the first team squad. I understand however that its sometimes easy to see the problem but not so easy to remedy it. It is well documented that ICT do not have the funds to compete with some of the SPL clubs in the top half of the table with regards to transfer fees and wages however there are several other SPL teams in the same boat as us (eg St Mirren, Killie, M'well, Pars) so in theory we should be able to compete. So is now the time for an overhaul of the first team squad and if it is are we capable of replacing the lost players with players of a similar or better calibre?

I agree it would be disastrous to lose him, has been player of the year for me. scotty - are you registered on that site? tell those numpties they're talking mince! cant attack? cant be the same Hastings, he looks menacing every time he steams down the wing!

As far as i'm aware both Hart and McSwegan played the full 90 minutes of the last reserve match which would indicate they are fit enough for 90 minutes of football. We have been struggling in front of goal since losing Dargo and Wyness and i think fielding Hart who has a more attacking side to his game would give the team a more attacking impetus. I think with regards to Rory that he's had needs to keep his head down and work hard on his finishing but for now mcSwegan should be given a chance, after all thats what he was brought here for. McSwegan was brought here as back up for our main strikers if they became injured, they are now injured, rory isnt cuttting the mustard just now so why not let mcswegan play. If not then what was the point in signing him?

maybe not injured, but fighting his way back to fitness after injury is he not ? He won't be match sharp after nearly 3-4 months out but he was always been a pretty fit guy and he's been back in training at least 4 weeks and lasted the whole of the last reserve game. Don't personally rate him but I'd pick him ahead of McBain every time McCallister isnt exactly sharp either though and thats after starting the last few games! just now i'd have hart in for mcbain purely for the reason that hart is a bigger goal threat and we desperately need goals just now.

I would love to see a different formation such as Harry's however i just cant see it happening. Personally i'd like to see Black and Hart recalled with Duncan and Roy dropped and McCallister dropped for Mcswegan. McCallister was given the chance of proving himself in the first team when it was clear he wasnt 100% fit so why not Hart and McSwegan? If it were me in the hotseat i would line up with: Fraser Tokely Dods Munro Hastings Hart Black Rankin Wilson Bayne McSwegan with rankin pushing forward to support the front two and black dropping deep to do the dirty work.

Theres probably some legal reason why they cant publish such tripe on the website! ha ha

there was one from IHE spouting informing about the supposed done deal to bring thon Ross County youngster Mckay-stevens to ICT. ha ha ha :024:

How many ICT fans then? :023: