buckett

15 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

The irony of that headline is painful, and on the day the club’s salvation has been confirmed, I just wanted to look back on the absolute low point and give thanks for what has since transpired.

I see "Phygital" hasn't been recognised by the Oxford Dictionary yet, although Wikipedia gives it a nod!

15 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Did Savage say that a stadium naming rights deal has been agreed?

Edit - just found it, 3 year deal with Sarens PSG.

Pity. I liked the sound of "The Savage Caledonian Stadium" 

12 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

When we got relegated from the Premiership under Foran a lot of posters on here thought a few seasons out of the Premiership would be fun! As I and a few other argued at time it would go on to leave us in financial difficulties due to our neighbours hoovering up money from sponsors/hospitality etc due to being in a higher league. 

No I don't feel sorry for them. I'd rather concentrate on our own team tbh 

Yes it's dog eat dog, winner takes all.

There was near euphoria on this forum when County got promoted: "local derbies!" they said. "2 Highland SPL teams!" they said. "good publicity for the North!" they said.

Some of us knew though, that only one would prevail, and that would be to the detriment of the other. I sorta hoped it would be us!

On 5/28/2025 at 11:08 PM, Charles Bannerman said:

Yes, I’m pretty well in tune with your tuppenceworth, Cherly!

I don’t think it was quite foreseen in the 1990s that both clubs would develop to the extent that they did, and I now believe that the Highlands are unable to sustain two clubs that became infinitely larger than the pair that entered the SFL in 1994… even with the vast amounts of other people’s money that both clubs have gone through.

We of course have to factor in the gross mismanagement of Caley Thistle over the last few years that has contributed to its decline but (as I’ve probably said too often on here) despite what I reckon is a ballpark £35 million of unearned subsidy between the two of them, we have a situation where Caley Thistle declined to the threshold of League Two and Ross County, after several years of teetering on its edge, have now fallen into the abyss of the lower leagues.

It was very clear to me, when County came storming up the Championship table to join us in the Premiership that one of the teams would stutter. Initially it was them, but they persevered and Roy threw more and more money at them and eventually we stumbled and down we went.

A city the size of Dundee can just about support two Premiership teams. Inverness, about a third the size cannot. And make no mistake, Ross County is an Inverness team - without the proximity of Inverness, Ross County would be nothing.

1 hour ago, bdu98196 said:

Bad result for us having 2 Prem teams relegated this season. Looking forwards we should hope that RC buy their way out, however on the assumption we get promoted then ideally having a Championship with the weakest opposition possible should be the desire. Having a RC/StJ along with (who ever is relegated next season) the usual PT, Ayr, RR, Dunf would make it all the harder

Additionally the impact of not having a top flight Highlands team does nothing but justify the central belt bias and narrative that our clubs are an inconvenience.

Wouldn't worry too much at this stage. 

Having been through what we've been through, although promotion to the Championship would be nice, it's no great disaster if it doesn't happen. Just, let's not get relegated!

Realistically I think it'll be 4 or 5 years minimum before we're seriously looking at being ready for Premiership football. And a lot needs to happen between now and then!

Feel a bit sorry for Alex Samuel.

Gave it all for us last season - relegated!

Gave it all for County this season (when he got a chance) - relegated!

Would we take him back?

I would!

To modify a phrase that was popular here many years ago, as we rose through the divisions, "it shows how far we've gone", when the best we can do is take delight in County's downfall.

Still, take delight I shall!   

15 hours ago, bishbashbosh said:

At county v Motherwell today.

Played today……

jordan white north Lanarkshire, Scotland.

dylan smith Inverness, Scotland. Highlander.

on the bench….

logan Ross GK   Inverness, Scotland. Highlander.

joe coyle aviemore, Scotland. Highlander 15 years old.

 

 

Yes an unusually high percentage of Jocks fielded by RC yesterday - think they were resting their preferred players for the inevitable play-offs!

Jordan White seems to have been reborn as a striker over the bridge. Funny how he never quite did it for us, although tbf he did have his moments. Don't think he gets so much game time now though.

5 hours ago, big cherly said:

Well, the counter to that is would we, (or more precisely the to be decide new owners) be any different if ICT were in the top league and found that the local youth academy, trained and reared players, don’t reach the level required you go and recruit elsewhere. RC have used many Scottish players (and managers) over the past few years. Just so happens they can get cheaper and better players elsewhere! 
I’m sure old Roy would have been delighted to have any youth players in the first team.

My point is Uncle Roy is careful with his money and ruthless enough to get the best deal he can to keep his team in the top league. Whilst financing the whole operation, as said by Charles, (so long as he is around), it is done with precision and efficiency. 

The prime objective I understand from AS is to run a far more competent and cost effective club operation once finally out of Administration. If winning promotion from League One (and bringing in much needed more revenue), requires bringing in players from say Kelty or further afield will they reject that route if no highland players are in the team?

PS how much I wished I was donating to a ICTFC under 13’s at Tesco on Sat. 
bc

Fair point bc.

I personally felt more of an attachment to the team when they were cherry-picking the best affordable talent the North of Scotland had to offer, and training up their own youth players to the first team.

As the team progressed through the divisions they had to cast the net further afield to be able to compete and I didn't find it so easy to be fanatical about a team comprised primarily of players with little or no connection to the town they were representing.

But I suppose most supporters don't see beyond the colour of the strip, which is why 2000-3000 head for Dingwall every fortnight to watch a bunch of Englishmen, Irishmen, Welsh and foreigners supposedly representing the County of Ross. But no Ross-men. And no Scotsmen!

I would think more of Ross County if they fielded the occasional Highlander in their first team.

Or even a Scotsman!

22 hours ago, CaleyD said:

 

I may even be tempted to scrap, or at least reduce the cost benefit, on over 65 tickets....I await the backlash

Perhaps it should be voluntary.

In fact, it is!

I've been eligible for a few years now but still pay full price because I choose to. To help the club.

16-25 Season Ticket is a must though.

4 hours ago, Scotty said:

Please don't mention the 'T' word.  All this 51st state nonsense is pretty raw over here ! Could also seriously derail next year's world cup which is concerning. Travel and future bookings to USA is reportedly down over 70% from Canada, Europe and UK mainly due to deportations and immigration detention horror stories and FIFA are reportedly worried because the major host is in a trade war with the two co-hosts and the rest of the world. Elon and Tangoman could teach our former custodians a thing or two about how to alienate folks and drop your company profits by 71% in less than 100 days, and also how to make a party that was losing in a landslide before DJT spoke up, win the general election held in Canada this week! Crazy times.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqm-s6h8l1I

 

 

 

Apologies for the T-word Scotty, but the analogy was irresistible!  

1 hour ago, Scotty said:

These are the kind of loans - where the players do well for us and go back to their parent club as better players - that work for everyone.

Derek McInnes (and others) will no doubt be more willing to send players to us if that's the result he gets. The Alfies and the others also seemed to work out well, apart from the injury to Bavidge. I also liked that Savage mentioned in a recent comment about the club having paid for operations recently for players. Thats quite a turnaround from when we had a surgeon as an interim chairman and had to crowdfund surgery for Aaron Doran which was wrong on so many levels!   All these little things do a lot of positive things to turn around the reputation we gained under the previous "guardians" of the club. 

Like the USA in 4 years time, we are currently trying to dissociate ourselves, move on and rebuild trust, after the corrupt and untrustworthy mess we were under SG's stewardship - that was our Trump period!

5 hours ago, CaleyCiuin said:

I don’t have any shares, but if I did I’m sure I would hand them back as they are effectively worthless anyway. Others who may have a sentimental attachment to their shares may feel differently. I am a bit confused with the second last paragraph in the BDO statement above. It states all conditions need to be in place before the 22nd of May. Other than the shares issue, I thought they were? Has something changed? Are there still a major shareholders holding out, making it essential that AS needs the small share holders numbers to ensure he gets full control? Also the last paragraph is a bit blunt, no please or thank you for handing shares back, just an expectation to comply. It seems it’s the only way to save the Club, so I hope AS gets enough good will from small share holders. Will be interesting to see what happens if he doesn’t get 100% in!?

There's absolutely no chance of him getting 100% of the shares so I hope he's factored that in and will be happy enough with a reasonably close percentage.

Annan getting humped by Dumbarton. We're 5 minutes from safety!

2-0 up at half-time.

Arbroath manager will be raging at them right now so they'll be looking for a fightback.

Have to say though, if we don't see this one out we deserve to go down!

1 hour ago, STFU said:

Are there not rules about deliberately fielding a weakened team? From memory I think we had to defend a scenario where we played a youth team in a cup game?

Think it was Hamilton - most of the team were wiped out by flu so the youth team were sent to play the game. They lost but it was a very credible performance by all accounts.

22 minutes ago, Robert said:

That was a poor performance but we’ve been inconsistent recently, particularly at home.

As a result of pretty poor performances in the last 2 home games I decided to give the 3-hour drive to Inverness a miss this time around. I'm sure I wasn't the only one, and no doubt some will avoid the next home game on the strength of what they witnessed today.

This is why it is so important for a struggling team like ours to really up their game in front of the home crowd. The income generated from a healthy gate is our bread-and-butter, and consistent entertaining football and some home wins will surely boost attendances in subsequent matches.

Kells has got his work cut out!

Was planning a trip to Inverness for this one - so glad I listened to the voice in the back of my head telling me NO!

Loving the new-found positivity here.

Maybe we should go into administration more often!

Seriously though, although I won't be able to attend this one, my thoughts are with the team and hoping for 3 points this afternoon watched by a decent crowd!

Went along to Saturday's game fully aware there might be a negative reaction after Tuesday's 4-star performance and boy, was I right! We were just so slow and many an advantage lost by pratting around with the ball where a strong run up the park may have been more effective. At our current level I can't help thinking a Mark Ridgers style hoof up the park might offer better scoring opportunities than tippy-tappy.

Well we are where we are and the team have done a great job getting us to a position where we will probably survive in Div.1, but just can't help thinking that, as a full-time team among mainly part-timers, we should be pretty much setting the pace!

Well maybe not!

Annan stole a lucky deflected goal early on and we've been pretty much camped in their half seeking an equaliser. Their keeper has made some great saves and so far their defence holding firm.

Not too worried at this stage - hopefully we can turn the pressure into goals in the second half. Maybe not 8 though!

Going to script so far . . . !

Today's prediction: another 8-1 humping. You heard it here first!

Not very entertaining but at least we didn't lose.

Could have gone either way!