Scotty

According to the Sun (I know, I know) ... he will be sacked if he fails to beat us tomorrow night: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/3216225/Win-or-youre-sacked.html

I think Cox has the potential to talked about in the same way that we mention Hayes, Odhiambo and Rooney .... if it wasnt for injuries he may well have been shining in the SPL already. Because of those injuries though, he may not be ready to step into Russell's boots just yet. One thing that is noticeable though is that Duncan is finally being appreciated by more fans. For a long time there were only a small band who realised what an unsung hero role he has played for a few years ... I know some of his passes go astray, and he frustrates the hell out of us at times, but more often than not he goes about his task as a defensive midfielder in an effective manner that goes largely un-noticed.

I think this may be a decision Mike Noble clarified on MFR yesterday. The MFR commentator was talking about the blatant passback and MN clarified that because the passback was as a result of a challenge, the passback rule did not apply. I cant say I understand the ins and outs of it, but thats pretty much what Mike said.

The simple fact of the matter is that ICT do not sell enough merchandise to cover the cost of physical shop. A physical shop would have heating bills, lighting bills, business rates/taxes, staff costs and all sorts of other stuff ..... we do not make enough on merchandise sales to cover it. As for the joint ventures - and I am speculating here based on what happened with the online shop - the club would agree to pay commission to each of those outlets as part of each sale. The commission comes straight off the gross profit and in some cases might mean we are selling at break even cost or even below cost. I am guessing that one of two things were happening ... If the profit margins were being cut by commission then the club would not be motivated to stock the shop, alternatively, for the retailer, if the shop concession wasnt selling enough and generating traffic and/or income then they might think the space could be filled with something that could. What I do find crazy though is that local sports shops - even if they are part of a national chain - cannot or will not stock the strips at the very least. They should do this for local teams in all cities. I also wonder whether ICT with a more mainstream strip manufacturer (eg Adidas / Nike etc) would have more clout in getting the strip into sports shops.

Final Score ICT 1-2 Motherwell

Tokely now up front as ICT try to equalise

now 8-0 to Celtic ..... whats the betting that Aberdeen will be managerless on Tuesday ?

and 7

former ICT captain, Mike Noble

Paul Hartley sent off V Celtic, means he now misses our game

both commentaries are UK only pimple. BBC is only covering Celtic game due to industrial action and both clubs in that game only allow UK commentary otehr than via their own websites. MFR are licensed for UK coverage only.

According to BBC - Industrial action by the NUJ means there is commentary from only one game ... sorry folks, the standard BBC links above will yield us nothing !!!!

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who ?

its probably on the sportsound podcast .... will see if i can download later and isolate the clip ....

to be fair, Jimmy Crankie is a man-mountain compared to Chick !!!

missed it by about an hour ..... but indeed, well done to Tommy, its been deserved for a long time.

http://caleythistleonline.com/2794-just-what-the-doctor-ordered

we are suffering a bit from 'topic drift' here .... and I guess I am largely responsible ... lets get back on the topic of Dundee before CaleyD is no longer able to resist

Presumably, Scotty, your "most of" qualification refers to the one almost fatal period around 2000 where the stadium had to be handed over to the Trust and in excess of ?2M of debt miraculously disappeared from ICT's books. That, of course, means that ICT now owns no significant asset (players in contract and the Social Club being about it) to trade against any future financial crisis (not that I'm suggesting that one is likely.) In the warm afterglow of winning the First Division last season and returning to the SPL, I sometimes wonder if the Board have ever had an informal "what if" session on the scenario of NOT having bounced straight back up? What I am talking about is last year's ?947K debt (well actually a bit less than that since the bonuses to players would have been less in these circumstances)against continuing SFL income streams rather than those of the SPL again this season. That would have been quite a serious situation but not, I would suggest, in the same ballpark as a decade ago. Indeed Charles, that is what I am referring to. I dont think the incumbents of the directors box at that time necessarily mismanaged us, ie. I dont think it was done purposely, but I do believe we got sold a bill of goods that we didnt quite realise was going to come with such a hefty price tag despite the incentives received from various quarters and the profit that the town subsequently made from it, but thats another discussion. Putting all that aside ... the difference I am trying to point out is that we lived and learned from our mistake(s) whereas Dundee do not appear to have done similar. It is true to say that yes we did put a lot of money into our campaign last season in an effort to bounce back up but it was made abundantly clear at the start of the season that this was a one-shot deal. If we had not won the title then I agree, we could be having an entirely different conversation about the money spent, but I dont think we would be calling in the administrators as we didnt live beyond our means for long and the board indicated that they were not prepared to see us spend wads of cash that we didnt have year after year after year. In that scenario (not winning), we might be hurting about now, but we would be recovering, albeit with a smaller squad and different personnel.

The difference is that our Chairman indicated we would put resources in place for a one year make or break attempt to get back to the SPL ... they even used the 'bouncebackability' hope (dream) in advertising. Fans bought into it and we sold more season tickets last year than we did in the previous year in the SPL. However, I think we were all very clear, and under no illusions that if it didnt happen last season we were going to be in D1 for a while and would not be able to sustain a year-on-year push in the way that Dundee have done since their relegation. Hell, before Xmas, many of us were resigned to life in D1 for a while and wondering who the new manager would be when TB walked away along with much of the squad ...... and then our campaign clicked while others bottled it

they may not get the option ... If UEFA make it mandatory for their member associations, then the SFA/SFL/SPL will have no choice unless they want to leave UEFA ... and that is not going to happen. Just like every one of us - regardless of which side of the world we are on - has had to tighten our belts and deal with the recession, football clubs and their fans have to do the same to deal with both the recession and spiralling costs. The product has to be self sustaining and the idea that you spend slightly less than you earn, and use the rest to pay down your debt is so simple that it is one that some boards might even grasp, even if they find it hard to implement. For all of our own board's failings over the years, fiscal irresponsibility has not been one of them for most of our existence. We all have our moans and groans about the club or how they have done or handled different things but for the most part I think we are well run in that area. We were told when went down that we could sustain a one year challenge for the title but the underlying message was ... "if we dont get back in year 1, then be prepared for it to be a long slog with less resources". Luckily we dont need to talk about that right now, but should change come, and be embraced (however reluctantly) by the Scottish game, I think we - and probably one or two other teams - will probably be in good shape. (so long as we dont get relegated again).

It should be quite straightforward really ..... The various Scottish football authorities are a 'member organisation' so they could make it a condition of membership that the clubs adhere to the UEFA club licensing documentation with regards to finances (and any other part). UEFA are phasing their new 'break-even' ethos into the game and that basically says that by 2014 "Under the break-even requirement, clubs may not spend more than the income they generate.": http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/protectingthegame/financialfairplay/news/newsid=1500331.html Club Licensing document attached: 1500912_DOWNLOAD.pdf