dead_ball_specialist

I don't have a problem with him trying to make as much money as he can from his remaining years as a professional footballer. He's behaving as any sensible person would in the same situation. Realistically he isn't going anywhere unless he gets a significantly better offer from somewhere else, which he won't. But for the time being he's playing a game of brinkmanship, feigning a position of strength, hinting at moving to a bigger club etc. It's all part of the negotiating game. What would annoy me would be if the powers that be caved in to him, and ended up paying over the odds for his services. It wouldn't be Duncans fault, it'd be the clubs fault, and it'd set a terrible precedent for future contract negotiations. This would be the worst possible outcome.

Sounds a bit fanciful Alex. Alan Savage has never had any trouble in that department before, and why would Romanian property developers care if a Romanian footballer was playing in Inverness? Get real, your conspiracy theory is silly. :rolleyes02: And is it really reasonable to argue that the whole system been changed to accomodate Niculae? I don't think there's any evidence for this theory either. We have changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 recently, Brewster said that this is the system that Ionikos often employed during his time there to great effect. We won 6 consecutive SPL games with it - you could just as easily argue that the system was designed to accomodate Don Cowie and John Rankin, because they played their best ever football for ICT in it.

This is a milestone for the club (please no smartass comebacks about millstones and necks!). To have a player called up for a first class national team (Romania are ranked 13th in the world, and before anyone mocks the system, a look at their recent results show they are there on merit) is something we could hardly have imagined only a few years ago. I'd love to watch the game to see how our man gets on, but not sure how it could be accessed. I suppose eurosport is our best hope, but even that's a long shot. Does anyone have any ideas? Perhaps the club could arrange to have it streamed online or something?

You couldn't be more wrong, if you wanted the ball to fall to anyone outside the box it'd be Duncan. That's one skill that he certainly has in his locker. Which makes it all the harder to understand why he often struggles to execute simple 15 yard passes. :029:

I'd like to see a system where all the leagues are joined together in a giant ladder, like in England - it's possible for teams way down in the Conference, the Unibond league, the Doctor Martins league etc, to work their way up to the big time. It wouldn't exactly be rocket science to work out a structure which would allow Highland league, Junior or even North Caledonian league teams a path to bigger things. Break down the walls!

Aren't there programs that change your IP address every time you log onto the internet? I think my old Norton security software did something like that. So it's still possible to beat the system :024:

"Deano scores, we're on the pitch, Deaaano scores, we're on the pitch!" Shame he never actually put the ball in the net for us, would have been a magic moment - like Keoughs first goal :crazy07:

I get the impression that CB is too arrogant to give a f*** about a fan forum, let alone try to sabotage it. But it wouldn't suprise me if the players and their mates tried to vote themselves up. I know I would :004:

There have been a few purple patches when he's looked the part, but this season he's been attrocious. That said, quite a few of our current players have gone through spells when they were the weakest link and bounced back (e.g. Hastings and Fraser) patience has been a virtue for ICT in the past, but Duncan has had long enough to improve his game, and for whatever reason, still fails to perform at an acceptable level on a consistant basis. For that reason he doesn't deserve a pay rise. Is he any better than when we first came up to the SPL? Not really. He may even have gone backwards. I respect the service he's given to the club, and would love to see him succeed. But realistically he hasn't given any indication that he's going to get any better - and it wouldn't be particularly hard to find a younger player who's able to perform the same role at the same standard for less cash.

I don't think the powers that be would move the goalposts like that. :32: If Gretna are booted out then it wouldn't change anything other than allowing an extra team to get promoted from division 2 to fill the space that they would vacate in division 1. (could be good news for Peterhead if they keep their run going?) and the same goes for division 3 (elgin perhaps? mmmm probably not :016:) It'd also open the door for a new team to enter the SFL, possibly another HL team. Which would open the door for Inverness City (or possibly their main rivals Thurso) to step up to the HL. While it's a shame for Gretna - every cloud has a silver lining.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PIBIfJE7o4A :024:

I think Zibi gets a bit of a hard time of it on here. :018: He only actually made one mistake for us. :024: Sounds like he's been outstading in the reserves. Hopefully he'll get the chance to prove the moaners wrong at some point.

We're not that much better to be honest. Lets not start getting delusions of grandeur. We're a wee club ourselves afterall.

A good example of braindead knee-jerk legislation. I guess AC Milan and Inter wouldn't make the grade if they applied to join the SPL now. What a joke.

It's what you do ON the park that counts in my opinion. So long as your ground meets the minimum health and safety requirements there should be no problem. You shouldn't need to have X thousand seats, it's nothing but a cynical barrier to legitimate competition erected by self preservationists. If Gretna manage to pull themselves off the bottom it will be a remarkable achievement and it'd be a shame if their players and fans were robbed because of off the field politics.

:015: Genius pun! Cheered me up like :021:

It shows he cares :clapping03:

I like to see the underdog come good, hope he proves his knockers wrong :clapping03:

What's it all about? 11 men trying to kick an inflatable ball into a net - all this fuss over something so frivolous. (I've just been dumped, can you tell? :009:) Whatever the craic is with our final position, at least we've had a go :clapping03: yeah Brews tactics might not be so hot, McGuires tackling might be a little mental, Duncan might struggle to pass water, Niculae might be as pacey as Roy chubby Brown - but at least they're trying their best eh?! Lets give them all a break. They pull on those shirts every week and try to do us proud. It might not always work out - but at least their hearts are in the right place :003: Nobody really played that badly today - the guys just looked nackered out there. We know they're better than today. Lets just get behind them and hope they can break into the top 6, this is the closest we've ever come and with enough support I really believe we can do it this time! Let the Dons and Jambos fans do the moaning. Fresh slate starting next week! No booing Russel or Rory, no silly shouts at the gaffer or any of the boys from the stands! Our season starts now :003: M'oan the Caley Jags!!!

Todays extremely weak, tired performance was understandable coming at the end of a run of 5 tough games in 14 days. Perhaps Brewster should have been more economical with the resources available and played a second string side away against Celtic to concentrate on todays game, but I doubt many fans would have accepted such a decision. 3-0 flattered Hearts. Their goals were handed to them on a platter. It was reminiscent of our capitulation against Motherwell a while back, our midfield and defense were losing almost every challenge in the game. Their second goal was a good example of this. Duncan had what looked like an easy challenge to make against Nadi who had lost control, but he ended up sliding in and somehow managing to completly miss the ball :029: on todays display he's lucky to be a professional footballer at all, never mind a pay rise. He and McGuire were the worst players on the park. I would play McBain and Proctor in their place next week. Blackie was very ineffective and deserved to be substituted. I doubt he'll even make the squad next week after the way he reacted. On recent form I don't think he'll be sorely missed. Any positives? Imrie had another good game and seems to have a good understanding with Cowie. Roscoe did well to keep his head when the jambos were clearly trying to get him sent off, he kept making surging runs up the wing right to the end when others seemed to have given up. McAllister looked stronger when he came on for a late cameo. His dribble and shot was one of the few decent efforts we managed to muster in the whole game. And it was nice to hear Barry Wilsons name being chanted from behind the goals. Perhaps as a tribute, perhaps as a protest? I wouldn't give up on the top 6 just yet. Our rivals have failed to capitalise on our recent bad form so we're still in touch, and fixture wise we have a very favourable run in. I expect a much improved performance next week after a well earned rest, and hopefully a good collective @rse kicking from the gaffer. It's in the aftermath of days like to today where Brewster needs to earn his bacon.

There would be no-one better than Pele Paterson for that role.

I've always had a soft spot for gazza. Remember him applauding the caley fans at the final whistle in John Scott's ICT jersey?

There's so much garbage being spraffed here. :017: Considering that when Brewster came back we were rock bottom of the SPL with ZERO points and were getting humped by diddy teams rendering us one of the worst goal differences in British football - I think he has done a fantastic job. All the talk was of avoiding the realistic possibility of relegation. In fact, to have taken us from there, to challenging for a top 6 place, and to have tallied more points than in any previous season in the top flight, is an absolutly spectacular turn around. He should be in the running for SPL manager of the season in my opinion. If Brewster had been in charge at the beggining of the season we could easily be challenging for third place right now. It's so pathetic that some posters on here spit the dummy whenever we have a few bad results, completely overlooking what has been achieved. They need to put things in perspective. If there is player unrest then so be it. I hope the manager sorts them out. I'm sure lots of players were happier under Charlie Christie when they had a cooshy number training and team selection wise - but that isn't a healthy state of affairs for the club. If the rot had gone on for much longer we'd have earned ourselves a ticket back to the SFL. If you want to make an omlette you've got to break some eggs. All good managers have feuds with players, if everything was calm THEN I'd be worried. Popular, 'nice guy' managers don't win anything.

Surely it's a risk / reward scenario? Has anyone ever thought of the fact that if Marius, a player known across europe and still only 26, settles and returns to anything approaching his best then he will become an increasingly valuable asset to the team on the park (which I believe he has already achieved) increase the profile and standing of ICT, and potentially go on to attract wider interest (he is now on the radar screen of the national manager and may appear at the european championships) command a transfer fee in the region of 7 figures? And thus render all of those who sniped at his 'bumper' contract buffoons. :003: I don't see any sense whatsoever in constantly trying to knock him down. He's a brilliant player who could easily go on to be the best to have ever worn an ICT shirt. And anyone who claims he isn't doing the business yet should explain how he was an integral part of the side that won 6 in a row and earned the SPL player of the month award. :003:

It was weird seeing Robson playing in that game. I think he scored a perfectly good goal (that got chopped off) against Barcelona in a pre season friendly aswell. Don't know what the wee ginger nutter was doing playing him in central midfield tonight. :rolleyes02: