Tree

Has anyone else heard a rumour that Duncan Shearer is to return to the club as First Team Coach. The story also goes that CC had some 'debate' with the board over this decision last night and is less than impressed.

I would agree with CaleyD that Dods is not showing a lack of loyalty. He has consistently stated that he wishes to move back closer to home and has seen out the term of his contract (even when there has been options for him to move). It is his right to look elsewhere for better terms, personal reason or footballing reasons. Whilst we would all have wished that he stayed, we cannot call him disloyal. I would however dispute the view in relation to him moving his family up. His girlfriend has commented to the other 'WAGS' that she would not move up from Edinburgh under any circumstances.

Why is CC still being critised for taking Black off when it was the player himself who signalled to the bench that he was out on his feet and not able to continue. Comment on the player is coming on is valid, however the options on the bench were limited after Roy coming off injured and whilst I also would have chosen a different option. This may not have changed the outcome of the game at all. In the last home match against Celtic we suffered as a result of the defence sitting too deep at the end and bringing Caff on would have increased the likelihood of this happening again. At very least there is logic for keeping attacking minded players on the park and moving the game forward as a result. The biggest issue in the game was the failure to get a second goal.

It was confirmed in the post match interview that Black had signalled to the bench that he was 'knackered' and needed to come off. In terms of taking Caff on, we suffered in the last match from sitting too deep and to keep some form of balance in moving the game forward I would imagine the decision was takent o put some attacking minded people on.

The decision for the prices is not just the clubs. As has been pointed out, when the game involves SPL teams the prices are set at the normal match prices unless the opposition agrees. The options in this regard are therefore limited. The are other ways in which the club can reward loyalty however, and it would be nice at some point for the club to make a realistic attempt at giving something back. In particular the efforts to increase the number of younger supporters (who will be the paying supporters of the future) has diminished greatly over recent years. For clarity I am not talking about reducing the tickets or allowing free entry for under 12s for the last meaningless match of the season as has happened in recent years!

I would agree that Duncan was playing very well yesterday and Roy was poor (lots of effort and very little end product). However the substitution was to provide some additional energy in the deeper part of the central midfield, which was where Russell was playing. Roy was much further forward. Also, to try and suggest that the manager allowe dthe team to sit deeper is nonsense. Just about every top manager I can think of has at some time expressed their frustration that their team sat deeper as the match went on. To critise CC on this is clutching at straws. Tactically we were excellent yesterday with septic limited to only a couple of chances other that the two comedy defending moments which led to the goal! Equally, some of our forward play considering we had two very similar players up front was excellent.

His form has definately come on, which may be down to his confidence improving. Somehow he has also learned to tackle and get stuck in! He definately looks more at home out wide and when he moves in field the opposing defences are struggling to pick him up.

Just heard a nasty suggestion that CC is currently in discussions with Rab Douglas :010:

Clearly Mark is just wishing to join the long line of ex Ranagers players who are plying their trade at Celtic :003:

After everything that has been said regarding Inverness being out of the shop window for the Scotland team it is a bit odd that he is choosing to become a bendch player at Celtic. Unless Boruc is planning moving on in the summer I do not really see Mark being able to become a first choice keeper. I suspose money talks! In any event, Michael Fraser has the potential to be an even better keepr in all round terms (dealing with crosses, kicking, penalties, penalties and penalties....). Consistency and concentration will surely come with games. Hopefully we will get a nice £50k or so.

Contract extension for Barry perhaps :024:

Caff did get the opportunity to play SPL in our first season till he was suspended. In this time we leaked silly goals and only when Dods came in did we stabilise. In the games in which Caff has played he has tended to struggle against the taller front players and this means that as first choice we need to look elsewhere. That said, as a back-up to have on the bench his overall ability and flexibility is a useful asset. Moving Tokely inside is not an option I would like to see us go with either. In terms of Tokely's play this year he has struggled since missing the majority of the pre-season and has never really caught up with the rest of the squad fitness wise. Some of the off-field issues have also probably not helped either.

CC has no reason or justification for dropping the Bayne/Wyness combination up front at the minute. In the games prior to Stirling (mainly when Dargo was injured) the front pairing not only performed extremely well but they were chipping in with odd goal. In such a situation the manager will tend to keep with the pairing until there is some form of justification for changing this. I'm still of the opinion that our best pairing is Dargo and Wyness, albeit Bayne has something to offer from the physical side, however I don't see how fair critisism can be made of CC at this stage particularly as Dargo's earlier form was not that great (although the service he was receiving was poor).

The Man of the Match sponsor has to chose the player relatively early in the second half and this often leads to the best player in the first half being picked. This somestimes skews the choice. Given some of the home games this season you can imagine that chosing somebody would be hard :001: It is often the case that a guest with no knowledge on football has the final choice. I recall about 7 years ago being asked prior to a game by a guest at the MoM table who I thought ICTs best player was. Suffice to say that he was MoM the next day dispite player a 'mare' :014: I have no issues with Wyness being MoM as his all round play was immense. Hastings and Rankin both had strong shouts.

The word is indeed that Falkirk have made an offer (£30kish) for Mark Brown (though making an offer is different to a player actually leaving!). I suspect though that Mark will be off sooner or later and Hibs are also in the fray and on the face of it are a more likely option (talk of a player possibly coming this way from Hibs as well!). We are of course lucky in that we have a ready made replacement for Mark. Have to say though that none of this is directly down to CC!

We are left in a bit of a difficult situation if we allow Dodds to leave in that the amount time prior to the end of the Transfer Window is limted. We do not know if there is anyone available to replace Dodds, or at least anyone of the standard of which we need. Caff offers an element of cover for the middle and RHS of our defence, however I do not believe that he has the physical presence necessary to play against the taller players and this may leave us exposed. It was notable how much we improved in not conceding goals when Dodds came in two years ago. Caff is still an asset however. The final factor is that we should not be looking to ensure that D Utd can improve their squad at the expense of ours unless we are adequately compensated. The message coming from the D Utd side is that an offer of £15k has been made and a clause exists in Dodds' contract which sets the fee at around £25k. I would suggest that at this level of fee it is more in our interest to keep hold of Dodds for a year. If he goes in the sulk and we are not able to play him then we are only slightly out of pocket and are ensuring that D Utd are weaker. I do think that Dodds would remain professional enough in the situation and would continue to perform if required.

Hastings has the most to offer as left back (other than we should be feeding him some raw meat to increase his aggression levels - see Messer Tokely for reference). An improvement in the consistency of his crossing would also be of value as this can be a bit of a mixed bag. Based on performances from last season and on Saturday Golly must surely come third in line behind Morgan. Morgan whilst also being a good option in left midfield has played left back for all or part of a game on a number of occasions. Golly has been a good servant and is a useful asset to have around to cover for injuries, etc and assist with the reserve side of things, but at the his performances over the past months have consistently not been of a sufficient standard merit a start.

The underlying figures are not as bad as might first be thought. In addition to a good amount of the expenditure being 'performance' related - i.e. the players bonuses, failure to proceed in cups, etc would result in lower expenditures as well. Other 'one off' exceptional items will also be included, from recollection this will include payments in relation to elements of the undersoil heating which I think were noted by DS at one point as being held over into the next FY, as well as costs associated with the football licensing requirements. What also needs to be known is how much of the Tulloch £400k is include in the income stream, as this figure was a maximum to cover a number of the one-offs. This amount may well have been reduced due to the very good performance and it is clear from a number of sources that the playing staff budgets have been significantly increased (this decision will be based on an objective assessment of this years income and will exclude cup income as this is not guaranteed and is viewed therefore as a bonus).

I think that a good number of us would rather that we play with 10 men :006:. Nothing personal, just that he does not bring anything to the team.

TJE probably does make a reasonable point in regarding to Rankin. We must however not give players the general perception that they can leave at any point during their contract as and when it suits them. (I would point out that we do not actually know if any of the players involved are actually taking this stance). It is equally important that we do not give the impression to so called 'bigger' teams that we can be 'plundered' for players at their leasure. Realistically we have to realise that the very big teams will always offer an attraction to players and ambition to play at the top level is not unreasonable, however Utd at the moment are living on their past glories and we should not be considering selling players unless it is in the clubs interest.

Yet again the management at the club come up with a corker. Do we reduce pricces for the Utd game when lots of kids can be taken along by their parents hopefully assisting in increasing the long term support base, or do we wait till a midweek game against Falkirk when many parents struggle to make it due to work and the younger kids have to be in bed for school. Why try and reward the fans for supporting the club throughout the season (in spite of the dire home performances) when you can just try and make sure that you do not post a new record low crowd! What an astute Chief Exec we have! :x

Wouldn't you in their position!

BBC say deal has been agreed with contract to be signed in next couple of days. Agree that this is good news.