RiG

Charlton have been rumoured to be looking at Harper.

At least we can interview him for the podcast now.

You probably feel that the bottom 5 are the ones who are most likely going to be battling it out to avoid the drop. Airdrie and Morton seem to go on reasonable runs every so often and probably have better players / managers than the rest of us down the wrong end of the table. Obviously Partick, Raith and Dundee United won't be near the relegation spots. I fear we are in real trouble.

Apologies for the irregular updates in this thread but I think most of you know where to the find the pod these days anyway. Nonetheless, the guys have recorded a new episode and it features an interview with David Wotherspoon

Suspect that's a bit of an appeal to the higher ups at the club to get the fingers out and help get new faces in. If we go with what we've got we're in real trouble.

Is Darren Mackie in there as well?

Or one of them is leaving.

As mentioned above we aren't being given access to players, coaching staff etc for interviews for the pod. Previously, we just slid into their DMs for a chat and then we had to go through the club / Gardiner before chatting to folks which was fair enough I guess. Recently, for whatever reason, we aren't being allowed to chat to anyone at ICT. For personal reasons I've not been as involved in the pod over the last few months so I am not sure if there have been more in depth chats amongst the guys and Gardiner about why this has happened. Nonetheless, I don't think we can expect any players from the club appearing any time soon which is obviously a real shame but there isn't too much we can do about it.

Raith have had a decent amount of cash pumped into them recently which goes some way to explaining their reversal in fortunes.

He was getting pelters from the away fans at various points in the game. Can't really complain when he gives a little back.

This is perhaps unfair given this is my first game of the season but we are awful. Staggeringly negative with a shaky defence and a non existent attack. A honking performance so far.

Some planning applications can be given the go ahead if the perceived "benefits" outweigh negative impacts from a development or deviation from local or national planning policies. An obvious one is the Trump development at Menie where it was recognised that the "benefits" from the project would outweigh the detrimental effects on the environment. More recently the Coul Links golf proposal wasn't given the go ahead as it was felt the socio-economic benefits would not outweigh the environmental impacts from that particular development. Obviously this battery farm is a different scale, policies etc but it wouldn't be that unusual if it were given the go ahead despite contradicting the IMLDP for example but the applicant would need to provide a robust argument that the departure is acceptable. I would surmise that this is not the case here and, as @Stephen Malkmus has mentioned, this is what you end up with if you hire some jobbers to prepare your application material instead of getting experts involved. Of course if HC do refuse the application there is the option of an appeal to the DPEA but that's not guaranteed to overturn the decision and if the DPEA were to uphold the original recommendation of refusal it would leave ILI in an almost impossible situation to move forward other than to submit a completely new application.

Fairly certain (one of) the owner(s) of Fairways is involved in this project so it would indeed be slightly odd if (s)he objected.

I feel like this call to arms has come far too late in the day as the period to submit representations on this application has long since passed.

What involvement in the planning application have the club had? Everything has been done in the name of ILI. Have we chucked them some cash to get this off the ground and are now desperate for it to be approved so we (somehow) benefit financially? It's incredibly odd for a party with seemingly no direct involved in a planning application come out and lambast the local authority for their recommendation. This SPV sounds like another "at arms length" company using club finances possibly in a similar manner to the concert company which obviously went well. I'm all for diversification of revenue streams but it seems that we chasing overly ambitious schemes at times and don't employ the necessary expertise to deliver them.

The County end, is always full, the County end is always full, full of.... Actually, maybe not that one!

Big team, big Cup! Wee team, wee Cup!

Amazing that Dougal still gets bites TBH.

Dodds is pretty settled up north now isn't he? Not that much of a surprise that he's picked up a Sportsound gig again especially for the games in Dingwall.

An XL Bully (C/O @Stephen Malkmus).

Heard it was going to be @RedCard myself.

Three year deal on the face of it is bonkers but I suspect if Ferguson was to commit to us then we needed to commit to him and so that meant giving him a chunky contract to get him up here.

I hope I am wrong, I really do, but I cannot shake the feeling that we are going to end up in serious relegation trouble this season with this appointment.