Jay_7

Apologies, lost track of time. I'm currently moving house so kinda got caught up in it all. 2 weeks holiday from Friday so it'll be the 12th before I make another appearance.

Where are you coming from?

8pm Balloch Primary School

I'll be there tonight.

He's already said he's not looking for any defenders until he's happy with our strike farce force. :023: Barrowman - I hope he proves me wrong but I can't see him worrying defences. Failed with Kilmarnock (albeit while Boyd, Naismith and Nish were there) then he failed with QoS. He appeared to find his level in the 2nd Division. Like I say, I prey he proves me wrong... Very wrong. 4/10 Lionel Djebi-Zadi (or whatever his name is) - Poor signing IMO. I know I said we needed competition for Hastings but I didn't mean a waster from a German diddy league. 2/10 Ryan Esson - Credit where it's due, I am impressed we captured his signature. Keep Ike on his toes and some much needed competition that Zibi could not provide last season. 8/10 Rumoured: Callum Elliott - What's the point in taking him here when we have Rory? 1/10 Graham Dorrans - I'll be very happy if we sign him. Can't see it happening though as there'll be far bigger teams than us looking for him. The rate we're going, we're going to have a bit of a Pele-style season ahead of us and we're going to have to hope that we can score more than we can concede. With that Dods shaped hole in the defence and just about every other team in the league strengthening (we have not strengthened, we have merely increased our wage bill) our defence will take a battering.

I'll see who turns up before I venture up.

Is it going to be on?

Fair enough, I will agree the club as a business has done well since we were established but wouldn't go as far as to say excel. If fans from other teams think that, then that's up to them. Sutherland has already pretty much said that himself. The fact is though, he actively stopped Savage from doing his job as chairman and prevented him from making improvements. Not everything can be done at lightspeed but Sutherland made sure nothing happened at all.

Scotty's pretty much answered for me but here we go: 1) We would probably never see a Hearts-like dictator ship, but Sutherland isn't far off that himself. Savage was chairman, not majority shareholder. 2) How can that possibly be a good thing?... You just said you didn't want a dictatorship... 3) I wasn't blaming Warnock, I was blaming those in charge for letting us believe that he was in the running. 4) OK you've answered the question regarding the team, but what about when the running of the club is such a shambles there is only one way the club can go?... We've seen what effect the boardroom squabbles can have on the team. As Scotty has said, it's not paranoia and it's certainly not sudden. As I have said many times now, I am grateful for what Sutherland has done for ICT, but if he or his puppets can no longer take ICT forward, it's time to look for someone who can.

:023: It'd be interesting if someone from the club could confirm this transfer figure as I see they are still quoting Niculae's wages to be ?4000 per week.

As I have said on numerous occasions on this thread, the complaints are primarily about David Sutherland. He chased away a man that was prepared to invest and make improvements to the club. He wants to run the club, but doesn't want to to be in the limelight... Sutherland was also the man that gave Brewster his job back, did he listen to any of the fans? Did he f**k. What he did do, was he led everyone to believe that Neil Warnock was in contention for the job. I believe he even put Warnocks name into a poll at a meeting with the fans... Harry Chibber has yet to answer this, so Caley100, what would it take for you to decide action was required? I was told to look at Dunfermline, Livi, Gretna and Dundee as examples of why we should be pleased with ICT... They all sat back and let relegation happen.

Clacher addressed that in his opening post: Did the supporters trust ever get anything positive done about the standard of stewarding? IIRC, we got a message from Mike Smith to the tune of "we don't make the rules, the SPL do" The fact is, the only thing that will make the BoD sit up and take notice is a down-turn in attendances.

Jay_7, as far as I'm aware there's not a queue of individuals out there waiting to be chairman of ICT; and more importantly with the ability to invest significantly into the club. Maybe you know of such individuals? We'll never know just how much Alan Savage was prepared to invest if he stayed as chairman, but he would have some catching up to do if he was going to match the investment (including off the field staffing and other resources) made by Tulloch over the last 8 years. If David Sutherland was to ever withdraw his support from this club, then we would be facing a very bleak future indeed. Do you wonder why there isn't a queue of individuals waiting to be chairman? Perhaps it's a similar reason to there not being a queue of managers waiting outside Tynecastle? I have never once suggested that David Sutherland should withdraw his support. I have pointed out that I would like him to sh*t or get off the pot - He either wants the power to run the club or not. If he could remain on the BoD as a majority shareholder and keep his nose out of the chairmans business, then I'd have no qualms with him at all. But that's simply not the case. As for your point above about Sutherland only acting to the benefit of the club, was chasing Savage benefitting the club any? As you say, we'll never know how much more he was prepared to invest, we may even have seen a proper club shop. Sutherland will do very nicely indeed out of a stadium relocation.

OK, that's your opinion. I can accept that. I'm not expecting folk to agree with me, but because you don't agree with me, I'm clutching at straws? The problem with Bennet is not his experience. It's his handling of the media and the way ICT are made to look a shambles when we chase a player for **** near 6 months. It's the way the vast majority of our players come from Ross County. Bennet found his level in the lower leagues. Call it clutching at straws if you like. The way I see it, we have an owner who doesn't want to be in the limelight, but wants to control everything that goes on at the club. He can't have it like that. If he wants that, he should be chairman again. If not, let the new chairman see if he can improve things. Of course, that wont happen now that we got rid of the man that did want to make changes and appointed a puppet in his place.

Sutherland to decide what he wants to do would be a nice start. If he wants to control what goes on at the club, he should be chairman. As chairman, the buck stops with him. It's all too easy for him at the moment with his yes-men in place that he can easily make scape-goats out of. If he genuinely does not want to run the club, he should let the chairman get on with his job and stop sticking his nose in as was done regularly with Savage. A seasoned and well versed DoF in place. Bennet has served us well, but we have to lose the Highland League image. The new DoF would have contacts throughout Britain, and will take full control as well as responsibility for contract negotiations. This caper of announcing targets to the press would stop, and negotiations process will not take 4-6 weeks. Mike Smith to be sacked and a Chief Executive brought in that will control stewards to an acceptable standard. I think I am correct in saying Smith is also in charge of the PR of the club, something that is non-existant at the moment. A CE should be constantly thinking of ways to improve the quality of a product or service. Why has it taken him this long to come up with the <16 ticket idea? Direct Debit flexibility plans should be in place, as should a proper brick and mortar club shop. I know for a fact that more can be done but here we have 3 perfect high-profile examples. We have a few more on the BoD that aren't pulling their weight I'm sure. The next example of something that can be done to the club is something I'm sure many will agree with. Why if we share youth facilities with Ross County have the likes of Liverpool not come in with ridiculous offers for any of our youths? I can't see this being anything to do with luck, and this needs looked at pronto.

My feelings exactly CaleyD. Harry, I honestly feel that things have gotten as bad as this. What would it take for you to decide that things had gotten bad and action was required? Relegation? The threat of insolvency? I appreciate that there are those of us who would back the club 100% of the time and fair play to them for it, I admire them for sticking to their beliefs. The potential ?1M we are allegedly seeking for the sale of Niculae is possibly the least ambitious move the club could make at this moment in time. Not only is it not ambitious, but it smacks of an ego that is prepared to risk SPL status just to prove a point. If this sale does go ahead, I don't believe for a minute that a penny of it will be made available to Brewster. I agree with you on the price of <16 tickets, that is a tremendous move for the club. One which I feel has been far too long in coming. It is nice that it's finally materialised but that doesn't alter the fact that it's taken 4 SPL seasons to get it in place. We are run like a highland league outfit. With the transfer activity so far, I can honestly say we have actually gone backwards. I would be delighted to be proved wrong on this, but I feel we are genuine contenders for relegations this coming season. The thread title asks the question Why haven't we bult on promotion to the SPL and I feel the answer sits at an office in Tullochs. Our majority shareholder is strangeling the club - He has demonstrated he is only too aware of this as well by appointing a puppet for a chairman.

That's exactly what I hope to achieve from this. If enough people decide to vote with their feet, changes will be made. Obviously there are always going to be people who question my support of the club when things like this happen, and there's nothing I can do about that. But it's exactly that kind of attitude that annoys me about those in charge of the club. "So what if a few fans didn't renew, who needs them anyway?" The fact is, ICT needs the fans whereas I don't need to spend in excess of ?500 a year to enjoy my Saturdays. It's not like I'm losing interest like some "Part-time fan". It's not like I'm going to spend my money to go and watch another team play. It's not like I'll come rushing back just with a new signing or simply just the sacking of Brewster. Serious changes have to take place in order for me to come back and it has to start with the BoD. Once that changes for the better, the rest will fall into place.

My actions are the result of a culmination of a number of factors, Brewsters appointment was just one of them. It's not an easy decision to make, but I feel I have no other option available to me like Clacher has said. It is the fans who have the power, and I am sick of seeing my money fueling ego's.

I'm with Clacher on this one, hence I will not be renewing this season. Major changes have to take place at ICT before I will return. And for those who doubt my support of the club, if these changes were to occur when we are in Division 3, then that's when I will buy another Season Ticket. If anything, I am doing this because I support the club.

Actually I criticised him for not tracking back after making his forward runs.

Weather permitting. I'll not be there if it's bucketing down.

I'm sure he turned down an offer from Celtic to go to Preston. I don't think he liked his time in Scotland.

Aye, very good. When you gather your toys back into your pram you might not want to look at any other threads with the word "Released" in them. :014:

Hearts part company with Pinilla Surely if we were looking at Callum Idiot Elliott, then we should be at least offering Pinilla a contract?! Bags of ability, eye for goal, reasonable pace - Come on Brew, pull your finger out!!! :008: