Scotty

I wholeheartedly applaud Terry Butcher for deciding to stay with our club. I dont really care that it was a "hard decision" to turn down Barnsley, they likely offered a large salary increase compared to what we can offer, as well as a bigger transfer budget, and an opportunity to put himself in the shop window for what may be his ultimate goal of managing in the English Premiership. Nor do I really care whether there is any truth in the rumours that he wanted to go and either Mo or Marsella didnt so they all stayed. They are a team and that team displayed collective loyalty to each other and to the club. The bottom line is that TB is still ICT manager this morning, and the amount of positive press it has brought our club, and the pride in the club it has likely brought us all is immeasurable. I witnessed fans of many other clubs, including Celtic fans who probably loathe him from his time at Ibrox, posting on social media about how happy they were for ICT and for Scottish football that he decided to stay, and thats before you even head off to the BBC or to other news media outlets for a blast of ICT news .... If Terry can navigate us to a top 6 finish or maintain our current position and bring European football to the Highlands in time for our 20th birthday, secure the likes of Shinnie and others on longer contracts, and maybe even get us to the League Cup final (and/or a decent run in the Scottish Cup) then Barry Wilson is correct in the article linked to above ... he will be a club legend ... in fact, if he brings Euro football to the club, he wont be a legend, he will inherit the title of the immortal one from Johndo !!!!

Remind me why it matters ?

Page 26 ...... I guess the page 25 thing was a Mayan prediction !

now get Andy Shinnie signed up and it will be a great week

He is staying

They had to go by train ... the bus was full of a vast majority of refuseniks !

Paul Mariner is available !!! Just sacked by Toronto FC and replaced with Ryan Nelsen of QPR ... who will continue to play for QPR until he is allowed to leave or until June (whichever comes first) ... He will presumably manage TFC for the first 3 months of the MLS season over Skype ... which tells you how highly the new TFC Club President rated Mariner !!

No negative reaction to that to be honest .... there's been some slagging of Barnsley in this thread and he is coming on defending his team, just like we would do (and have done) on other forums in the past ......

Its the semi-annual merger threads The only unanswered question I have about the merger is which team IHE supported before Caley? Obviously he is Immortal and therefore born before football was even invented ........

I stand corrected ... it does seem like their away strip is currently red/blue stripes. I guess they always did want to be Caley Thistle ! Thursday 5th July 2012 Elgin City have launched a new away strip that has left their fans scratching their heads as it looks like the first choice strip of Highland rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The Borough Briggs side’s second choice outfit has been light blue over recent seasons however it is now a red and blue striped effort that is a dead ringer for Terry Butcher’s side although the club insist it is more of a Barcelona design. http://www.scottishfootballleague.com/news/article/elgin-launch-new-away-kit/ However, traditionally they are known to play in black/white stripes and I think the identity of most teams is their home kit, not their away ones ...... just look back at some of the dodgy kits from any other SPL side or even that orange effort from ICT and try telling any fan that this is their identity !!!

Signs you know you are a long time ICT supporter ...... You just read through the 10 pages of the latest merger debate and are sure you read the exact same posts last year and the year before and the year before and the year before

This I agree with ...... I would agree that 'some' travelling on these buses may have been former Caley or Thistle fans but not "the vast majority". The simple fact of the matter is that there were buses going up and down the A9 while Telford St and Kingsmills Park were hosting Highland League football. I went to school with a fair few who were always fans of Celtic/Rangers or other clubs and who occasionally went to local football if they were skint or their big team were not playing that week. As I got older, I also socialised with a number of the same folk as well as others who did the same so it didnt start when Caley and Thistle merged, it merely continued ... but I will agree again, there may be some who formerly went to Telford St or Kingsmills who decided to jump on the bus in much the same manner as there are some who only started following ICT when they came into existence and had no allegiance to either of the pre-merger teams. I personally know of at least two on opposite sides of the world now so its not restricted to the central belt ! Having said that, we all know that many Inverness football supporters (regardless of allegiance) supported one of the two merger partners and also had a "big" team ... It stands to reason that moving closer to the home ground of their big team in the central belt would make it easier to go there than it would to the TCS ..... The bottom line for me is that Caley and Thistle ceased to exist. Some - like AD/Kavs etc - saw that as "the end" and made a personal choice not to have anything to do with the new club. I can respect that, and even sympathise with some of the venom that was spewed ... I (and this website) would likely be the same if it were suggested that ICT merge with County to form "Highlanders FC" or something like that. However, others (and I include myself in that) saw it as a "new beginning" and I would hope that the 'refuseniks' or at least some of them could respect that choice too. I know that some did as I had that conversation with more than one of them ..... and on more than one occasion. I was not a 'rebel', nor did I become a season ticket holder to vote in the merger debates. The reason for this was because my work schedule meant I typically worked 3 Saturdays out of every 5 and I was at best only a semi-regular at Telford Street so did not feel any entitlement to decide on the path to be taken. That work schedule changed around the time of the merger so when CT were formed, I was able to become a permanent fixture at home games and even got to quite a few away grounds ... I immediately dropped my allegiance to my "big" team and will be "ICT til I die" regardless of my geographic location. These merger debates that crop up every so often are usually pretty tiresome and we could basically regurgitate the ones from previous years and see the same responses, but one thing I have noticed over the last couple of debates is that there are more voices in the discussion who have little or no knowledge of the pre-merger teams. We have a fair number of ICT fans who are 18 or under and whilst us older folk have the merger and our opinions about it firmly entrenched, these young supporters dont have the same baggage as they were not even born at the time ! For them, our history is going from D3 to SPL in 10 years, it is beating Celtic at Parkhead and the ballistic headline, it is beating Hearts at Tynie a couple of years later, it is gaining promotion to the SPL at the end of the 2003/4 season, it is playing at Pittodrie as a home venue, it is our only relegation season and the bounceback, it is Pele, Robbo and Butcher, it is everything else that is mentioned in the other thread about what it is to be an ICT supporter ...... I will end with one final thought ...... I dont know what would have happened had Caley and Thistle applied separately to the league, no-one does. I can theorise, and that theory would see both teams flitting between D2 and D1 and having the odd cup run that ultimately ended in failure maybe around the QF mark, with the SPL and national finals a lofty but ultimately unachievable goal. However, one thing I do know for a fact is that Inverness Caledonian Thistle are on the world map. I talk to people all the time at Toronto games and huge numbers of them are quite knowledgeable about the world game. Most follow EPL or La Liga as opposed to SPL, but even those who only follow English teams have normally heard of ICT, know at least something about the club (even if only the ballistic headline) and have certainly heard of Terry Butcher ... if we had not taken that giant leap back in 93, then I firmly believe Caledonian FC and Inverness Thistle would have merely been seen as one of these "novelty" names that appeared every so often in the Scottish cup ..... a bit like when someone asked me "who or what are a Clackna-something-or-other"

Name them. Would you know them all? you must be the Electoral roll? I dont believe there are still 100s (if there were ever quite that many) ...... There may have been a fair sized group in 93/94 and beyond, but some have decided to follow ICT, for some life changes happened and football would no longer be in their weekly plans anyway, some are no longer with us on this planet, and still others have moved to the other side of various oceans ...... There may be 'dozens' around in total, but once you consider only those in Inverness or still attending football (at other grounds) then I would suggest the number is in single figures !

Elgin dont play in red/blue stripes ......

Sounds like Paul Mariner is available now !!! Toronto Star and other Canadian news sites are reporting that Mariner was fired today and QPR Defender Ryan Nelsen is taking over as manager (or player/manager) tomorrow. Nothing official on their website other than the fact that TFC have announced an "important" press conference for tomorrow..... another part of the 'rebuild' that new club president Kevin Payne is instigating. Trust me .... we do not want this particular Ipswich old boy ! hoofball, late game collapses, and belligerent with the fans who have the audacity to call him out for poor results ! Holy Crap !! I could be in the unfortunate position of following two teams, one of whom is doing really well, the other which is showing optimistic signs for the coming season ... and both might end up replacing or having to replace managers !

From the Telegraph article: 4 paras that basically say they are speculating ... he might go to Barnsley, he might go to Doncaster or he might stay in Inverness ... everyone has no clue as nobody is returning phonecalls !

Tell him to give Steve Paterson a call, or even a quick chat with Robbo ......... Right now - based on this season's success so far - he is about as close to a football "job for life" as you can get. Here's hoping what happened to him after leaving Motherwell and eventually landing up at Brentford is at the forefront of his mind.

Apparently Craig Burley was also Scotland boss ...

I am just enjoying the ride. We are second, we deserve it and hopefully we can have a nice wee run in the Scottish Cup as well as perhaps getting to the League Cup final .... that would be a truly remarkable season for ICT. I am under no illusions that we will maintain that year-on-year, although it would be nice, but with our setup and size we will always lose our best players to bigger clubs and the manager - whoever it is at the time - will always have to try and pull some economical rabbits out of the hat on an almost constant basis. Terry has done that for the current season and is to be applauded. I am hoping he will be around for a while yet and continue to do it ! After last season, where TB was getting slated by many, and we flirted with the wrong end of the table for most of the season, and then - in my case at least - I had to endure a North American season watching Toronto FC finish dead last in MLS, this is a refreshing experience ... hell even TFC are looking up now by poaching the man that built DC United to head the rebuild here ..... good times ... enjoy them !! the dip in the rollercoaster that is being a supporter of almost any team will eventually come ....... so make the most of this peak !

Meeting everyone in the Caley Inn before games and landlord Don slagging us off about how big a team Dundee were ! The Innes Bar before away trips ..... Queues at the pie/bovril area (oh wait ...) Pele downing several pints of Guinness in a few seconds each in the boardroom

Yes there was, the club shop was in the room to the right of the reception. Remember it well. It was run by Ian Broadfoot and Peter McCallum on game days and you could buy merchandise, programmes etc, get team lines, pick up tickets, and have any trivia question you could think of answered by Ian ! Think it also doubled as Charlie's office during the week !

Garry Wood scored for Montrose today and Martin Bavidge scored for Peterhead ....

yes it is

3 yellow cards and 2 subs in the last 5 minutes or so .... and Motherwell just equalised too !