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Scotty

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Posts posted by Scotty

    Congratulations on New Club Record

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    2 hours ago, caleyboy said:

    Don't remember asking  for thread to be removed or hidden, just moved to non football business.

    correct - no-one has asked for it to be removed or hidden. 

    The description of this forum is "This forum is for discussions that involve Caley Thistle either on or off the park. If your post is not football related, is not about Caley Thistle or doesnt fit in here for some other reason, please use one of the other forums".

    Given the concerts took place at the stadium, involve people associated with the club, and were hoped to benefit the club if they made a profit, then this is the correct location as it is Caley Thistle related. There is no non-football business forum for Caley Thistle stuff, just general nonsense and to be honest, it fits in here better - whether we like it or not.  

     

    Game 06 - Arbroath (A) Sat 06 Aug

    in Gringo's NPL

    Posted

    Scotty

    • HT: 0-0
    • FT: 0-1
    • 1st Scorer ICT: Billy Mckay
    • 1st Scorer Arbroath: Fosu
    • Crowd: 1675

    CDN Girl

    • HT: 1-1
    • FT: 1-3
    • 1st Scorer ICT: Oakley
    • 1st Scorer Arbroath: McKenna
    • Crowd: 1512

    SOS

    • HT: 1-0
    • FT: 1-2
    • 1st Scorer ICT: Macgregor
    • 1st Scorer Arbroath: Linn
    • Crowd: 1699

    HELP WANTED

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    It takes quite a few people (and resources) behind the scenes to keep the site running smoothly and every year we do look to see if anyone is interested in helping out in some way.  
     

    • From a technical standpoint, I am always looking for bugs to squash and improvements to make so that the site runs as quickly as possible and without error. I am always interested in people with technical skills who can make suggestions or tweak things here and there... and I am still on the lookout for someone with PHP/MySQL knowledge that can help us migrate our current stats application to a late version of PHP7 or to PHP8 which the main site is now running on. That's a bit outside my current capabilities and at some point it means a portion of the site may no longer work if I am unable to get it updated somehow.   
       
    • On the content front the @tm4tj can never have enough assistance. We do have things like the NAPS competition ably managed by @MrCaleyjag or the NPL Prediction league and the SPFL prediction leagues run by @Gringo but Manfer is always looking for help with previews, reports and other articles. There is a small core group of users who help out but there is always room for more. This could be previews, reports, other unrelated articles, blogs, or simply data entry or looking after things like our calendar, player profiles or other history bits and bobs which I know interest a lot of folk if the 'ex-ICT' threads are anything to go by. 

    If you are interested in helping out, and will be able to do any of the stuff listed above ... or have other ideas how you could help, then let us know. Reach out to myself or @tm4tj through email or on here and we can have a chat about it. 

     

    • Like 1

    The new season and the perils of planning ahead

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    I guess its easier the further you are away !!

    Other than those trips where we had to come at short notice, or on specific dates for some reason, it would definitely be true to say I keep one eye on the fixture list when planning a trip.  

    We like to travel midweek-midweek where possible as the costs are generally quite a bit cheaper and the planes are less full. However, there have been a few occasions where we have missed games because they were moved to after our planned leaving date, or we have had to scramble because they were moved forward. More than once I have done the routine of flying overnight intending to sleep but getting none, arriving in Glasgow or Edinburgh at 6 or 7am, driving up the road absolutely knackered (usually have a nap and then a triple espresso at Stirling services), then heading over to the stadium for a night game! Brutal but fun 🙂

      

     

    • Like 2

    Game 02 - Livingston (A) Tue 12 July

    in Gringo's NPL

    Posted

    Scotty

    • HT: 0-0
    • FT: 1-0
    • 1st Scorer ICT: Daniel Mackay
    • 1st Scorer Livvy: Nouble
    • Crowd: 1287

    CDN Girl

    • HT: 1-0
    • FT: 2-0
    • 1st Scorer ICT: Samuels
    • 1st Scorer Livvy: Goncalves
    • Crowd: 987

    SOS

    • HT: 1-1
    • FT: 1-2
    • 1st Scorer ICT:  MacGregor
    • 1st Scorer Livvy: Bahamboula
    • Crowd: 1012

    Player Sponsorship 2022/23

    in Caley Thistle

    Player Sponsorship 2022/23

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    Its time for Player Sponsorship for the 2022/2023 season. 

    For 20+ years now we have sponsored one or more ICT players each season. We were proud to have been the main shirt sponsor of Grant Munro through his entire ICT career from a youth breaking into the team to his final season with the club, then we moved onto sponsorship of Liam Polworth. We have also sponsored other players over the years for boots, gloves or other items including record appearance holder Ross Tokely.

    For the last four seasons we have sponsored Cameron Harper and it looks like a good choice now that he's breaking into both the Caley Thistle side on a regular basis and also got a call-up to the Scotland U21 setup alongside Robbie Deas, Roddy MacGregor and former team-mate Daniel Mackay over the last couple of years.  As we continue to transition out of COVID restrictions, the club needs these sponsorships more than ever so here is hoping we can raise enough again this year to continue... 

    Last year our generous site users committed enough so that in addition to Cammy's shirt we were also able to sponsor Lewis Hyde's shirt and it was good to see him break into the first team as the season progressed. He did not look out of place in the first-team and its always a great pride when youngsters we sponsor break through. We will aim to sponsor Cammy first, but if we once again raise enough then we can look to renew other sponsorships.   

     


    ICT-Cameron-Harper.jpg(INITIAL) PLAYER TO BE SPONSORED: 
    We hope to continue sponsorship of CAMERON HARPER's Home Top. If we reach additional milestones, we will look to add sponsorship for other players for 'lesser' items. 

    COST
    Home Shirt - £450 inc vat [to be confirmed]

    HOW TO TAKE PART
    To take part in this sponsorship you will need to upgrade your site membership and join the "Player Sponsor" group. We in turn will use the money received from these memberships (minus PayPal fees) to purchase player sponsorship(s) from the club. We will set all memberships - regardless of when ordered - to end on June 1st of each year. This allows us time each year to gauge the interest in continuing for the following season. 

    The cost to join this group is £16.00 (this amounts to £15.00 joining fee plus £1 to cover the PayPal fees). You may purchase multiple memberships if you wish, just amend the total in your shopping cart and add a note when placing the order if it is to cover family members who may not officially be site members!!!

    • ALL MEMBERS: To join the group simply go to this page http://caleythistleonline.com/store/ or access the CTO Store from the main menu at the top (under shop). All our site membership upgrades are handled securely via PayPal's platform which will accept direct payment from most credit/debit cards so it should be easy enough to upgrade your membership whether you live in Sneck or somewhere thousands of miles from there.
       
    • CASH MEMBERSHIPS: We do NOT take cash payments. Everything needs to go through Paypal. Sorry. 

    Once we know how many members have joined the group, we will decide on what gets sponsored. The first item will be the selected player's Home Kit ... but the more members who upgrade to "Player Sponsor" membership, the more we can sponsor. At the end of the season, members of our sponsor group will be selected at random to receive any gifts we may receive from the club. For any events that occur during the season (like sponsors nights or meet and greets etc.) we will offer first refusal to members of the sponsor group to attend as our representative. Eligibility will also depend on any COVID restrictions in place at the time. 

    If you are interested, please add your name to this thread or go ahead and join the sponsor group. You will be marked as paid.png once we confirm payment received via membership upgrade ....

     

     

    • Like 1

    Sponsorship

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    Ok, just to close the loop on this one... Keith was in touch with me yesterday and the explanation was acceptable and makes sense.

    In my opinion, it would have been better to give us a quick update at the time, or at the start of playoffs, but I can see how those playoffs and then the players going on break literally the next day could impact things. Good to see they have also acknowledged the lack of 'functions' during the last couple of seasons, and again, with COVID, not entirely within their control...  If I have one suggestion for Keith (and anyone else at ICT) it is simply to communicate with us, and by 'us' I mean the broader ICT support whether on here, on social media, via the Trust, in email, podcast, or some other way. Plenty of avenues open to the club and almost all of them biased in the club's favour so no-one is looking to tear them down until they start shooting themselves in the foot!         

    Here is what Keith sent:

    Quote

    On behalf of everyone at ICTFC, many thanks for your generous sponsorship throughout the tumultuous last couple of years.  We have all been massively stretched as we have endeavoured to carry out all of the everyday functions of a football club, as well as new ventures to try and introduce new revenue streams.   Player Sponsorship has always been and will always be one of the cornerstones upon which our Commercial Department is built, so as ever we are hugely grateful for your support. 

    Ideally, your sponsored shirts would have been available much sooner, but with the play offs prolonging the season and the players then immediately going off on their close season break, it’s taken a bit of time to collate all of the relevant paraphernalia.  Both Cameron Harper and Lewis Hyde’s shirts are now available and as a small token of our appreciation for your ongoing support, I’d also like to offer you Shane Sutherland’s pink shirt from last season.

    I’m also conscious that some of the traditional features of Player Sponsorship have not been fulfilled over the past two years.  I’d like to in some way remedy that by inviting a couple of your members to a meet and greet with the players and staff on 23rd August 2022.  This is part of your sponsorship of last season, so they’d be very welcome to attend regardless of whether you choose to sponsor a player for season 2022-23.

    As I said, Player Sponsorship is an important part of what we do, so we’d be very grateful if you were in a position once more next season to continue with your generous backing.  To that end, I’ve taken the liberty to include our sponsorship renewal forms for the 2022/23 season, which we are hoping will be both exciting and successful for everyone at ICTFC.  If you could kindly either email me the form to <email> or have it dropped off at the Stadium for my attention, I’d be very much obliged. 

    If you could also let me know if you could attend the meet and greet evening on 23rd August it would be appreciated.  The plan is to host it in the Highlander Suite from 7pm onwards.

     

    So we have 3 items to draw for our Player Sponsors and I will get that attended to. Will post the draw info once its done. As in previous years we will use randompicker to do this as the mods/admins are also sponsors. If anyone is interested in going to the event scheduled for August 23rd let me know. It is scheduled for 7pm so may be an issue for those outside of town, but if you are around, and part of our player sponsor group then let me know. if we get more names than are allowed to go then we would do a draw via randopmpicker the same way as for the other goodies 🙂

     

    Finally - based on the response above from Keith then we will try to continue sponsorship for this year and we would likely look to continue Cammy Harper's shirt, then Lewis Hyde away shirt (if we raise enough) . The form the club sent indicates the same cost as last year so £450 inc VAT for a Home shirt and less for lesser items. I will get a thread for this up and running soon. Our costs to site users would also be same as last year which is £16 per membership with users able to purchase multiple memberships if they wish.   

     

    • Thank You 1

    ICTFC Squad Update 21/22/23/

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    6 hours ago, STFU said:

    I hear you and I know we always get told this, but the evidence doesn't seem to support it.

    I cite Hearts, Dundee Utd and, dare I say it, Rangers! as examples which immediately spring to mind.  Clubs who, in recent years, have been forced to use squads full of younger players and have done pretty well in doing so.  Sadly 2 of those clubs resorted to old habits when finances improved and I suspect Utd will do likewise as well.  Do they/we all think they were lucky with the younger players and fear slipping if they continue on that road?  Where are all the reports of ruined careers?

    The evidence is anecdotal ... players whose careers are affected by this seem to just fade away ... they sign for lower league clubs or slip out of the game with little or no fanfare. Supporters might not notice, or turn around and say they 'found their level' like was said about Rory McCallister, and indeed some of it may be just that, in the same way as you might only get 1 or 2 out of 100 academy kids reaching the first team but burnout does happen.  You say Rangers did it - very true, but both them and Celtic cherry pick youngsters from all around the leagues not just their own academy so I would argue the stats there may be skewed.  

    Best example I can think of in world football of burnout like this would be Freddy Adu, but like I said, i see it myself at Toronto over the last two years especially. Luke Singh was - in my opinion - almost ruined by our former boss after being expected to play in the first team every week. He got hung out to dry for a poor performance after 6 or 7 weeks as he wasnt mentally ready to play every week, and his head went down. He was dropped after that last appearance and we havent seen him since. He is now on loan at FC Edmonton in the tier below MLS. Our new boss Bob Bradley has a lot of youngsters in the squad, and although he is trying to manage their minutes more closely, has little alternative but to rely on youth a lot as he rebuilds. That comes with challenges of enthusiastic but inexperienced performances, as well as the risk of burnout. It doesnt take much to shatter a young player's confidence. 

    Bottom line is I am not saying we should not play the youngsters, but lets manage our own expectations. Every player cant be Ryan Christie or Daniel Mackay and we are more likely to see half a dozen who are competent and grow into the role more slowly - or not at all. I was impressed with what I saw of Hyde towards the end of last season so provided we have coaches who will mentor and develop these types players that's fine ... but its not the answer to all our issues or budgets.     

     

    • Agree 1
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