Scotty

indeed ... Will always remember @The Mantis getting me in trouble with Stevie Hislop for something he said on CTO about his running style.

Lots of talk of being embarrassed at being an #ICTFC fan on other threads but it is things like this that still make me proud to be one. We rose as a COMMUNITY of fans, current and former team-mates, club staff (past and present), families of all of the above, and, it has to be said, also several football journalists to donate to this cause initiated by a former team-mate who himself went through injury hell and didn't get the support he needed and should have received from the club. £7K in less than 24 hours is great. Aaron will get his op and whether or not he plays football again, he should at least be able to play with his kids, which the article said he couldn't even do right now. That's the least he should expect after almost a decade and a half of loyal service. Look at the list of names in there and you will see many folks whose names you recognise but you may also notice - unless donating anonymously - the glaring lack of any names you might hope had developed a conscience and personally donated to the cause even if the club couldn't or wouldn't. I AM proud to be an ICT supporter because it means i can stand with and mingle with people like our supporters and others in our team's COMMUNITY. The ineptitude, inefficiency and seemingly utter disregard for our club from those who should be speaking now will not deter me from that. THEY are not the club. WE are the club, whether we have been here for 30 minutes or 30 years.

I think this is appropriate and also linked to the club before the cup final in 2015. This song is not so much for the board but more what the board should show players, staff and supporters:

Almost £4K of the £5K target raised in just a few hours, initiated by a former player because that’s his mate, and looking at the names of the donators, actioned by fans, colleagues and family. That is what you call COMMUNITY and that’s the power that can be unleashed if those who should never darken our doors again don’t let it hit them on the way out. If everyone pulls together we can perhaps stop the club from flatlining… anything else, while perhaps looking inevitable or unavoidable must still be regarded as unthinkable.

We have complained about the club being tight lipped before over many years - not just in the here and now - when difficult subjects came up, but the sheer level of silence to staff, players, and fans right now is utterly mind-blowing. It pains me to say this, but at this moment in time, I don't think we will have a club taking to the field for the 2024/25 season and there are quite a few people who will need to look in the mirror and ask themselves about their part in that. They can blame the fans, or the lack of sponsors, or the failure of various Walter Mitty schemes dreamt up by the CEO, but in the end, I hope they can feel proud of themselves when our club dies. They will go down in infamy. ICT (2025) to be reborn from the ashes? The Eagle and the Thistle rising from the ashes like a Phoenix under fan ownership and backed by the community and the city? Lets hope so.

You are right, you can't make firm offers... but you can have the decency to talk to people like Mark Ridgers and other squad members and say exactly what he has already stated. I.E. let them know if they are wanted or not, but temper that by telling them you can't make an offer until you know what's happening. Is that too much to ask? The guy is literally pleading for the club to tell him they want him, so he has an excuse to stay and we haven't bothered our @rse to speak to any of them by the sound of it.

He should have had those conversations before he went, but hey-ho, he's on a reputed six figure salary so what does he care about players, especially those he didn't sign or loan-in.

With Wallace Duffy now posting he is away, because no-one spoke to him all season about a new deal so he assumed he was heading out the door anyway, then again, it is really bad man management. It's the job of a football manager or the DoF to sit these players down at some point in the season and either put an offer on the table or let them know they will not be offered a contract. Anything else is sheer cowardice and disrespectful. If the manager is on holiday then this is something that must be done before he starts that. Anything else is f***ing ignorant. If we take what Ridgers has said, then he's not even looking for the details, he is just looking for someone to say "look, we want to keep you here, you are a great servant to the club, but we simply don't know what or how much we can offer you. We will understand if you seek employment elsewhere, but as and when we know what's happening, we will offer you what we can". Thats does not seem unreasonable, nor does it bind the club to anything, but it at least lets their (former) employees know they are still wanted if something can be sorted out.

Unfortunately, I do remember this and cannot decide which one looked down on fans, shareholders and sponsors more. They both looked at supporters like they were something on the bottom of their shoe after walking through a cow field.

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/defender-confirms-he-has-left-caley-thistle-after-receiving-352890/ EDIT - I should have noted this was Wallace Duffy's comments.

With each mounting catastrophe, the aversion to risk should have increased. Instead, we have seemingly lobbed the remaining eggs into each oncoming basket with gusto after a few were broken in each failed venture before it. Some of these schemes beggar belief and I also wonder why some things at the club were undertaken (at a premium cost) when perfectly good alternatives existed beforehand. Pixellot always annoys me because @ANDYCAM and the media team in place were doing a great job of filming, editing and commentary. Instead we get an amateur implementation of something that can't even distinguish between a ball and a bald head and goes viral for all the wrong reasons. How much did that cost us and why? Incidentally, my son's U11 team uses the same system to record and analyze all his games, and no issues when it is configured right! The concert company is another one. Ok, the club may be insulated from that legally and somewhat financially, but not morally or in the eyes of all those businesses who got screwed. But lets look at the concert itself. Why did it fail? Did the club look to anyone with expertise in running concert events for advice? Perhaps a former chairman or well-known supporter who had jointly owned an event company a few years ago, and one of whom is still running (successful) events on his own. If not, why not? We also seem to be bereft of any business savvy when it comes to all the other schemes such as battery farms, land investments, freeport advantages, land rental or other schemes designed to make us money. I don't profess to know all the ins and outs of this but we have some (very) successful businesspeople on the current board and past boards ... FFS, should someone not have sought out those who had expertise and acumen in certain areas of business and utilised that knowledge? Admitting you don't know something, or accepting advice and learning from that advice, is not a weakness, it is a strength, but it appears to not be a strength that Autocrat #1 at ICT seems to have. However, he is going to leave us with a final money winning scheme that will make us all rich .... I saw that article and it boils my blood. Someone, the manager or DoF, should be contacting those players and letting them know what the plan is, even if it's not finalised. As Ridgers said, he is not even looking for specifics, just that "we want to keep you but not sure what kind of offer we can make you until the dust settles" so he knows whether to bide his time or look elsewhere. The man has a family and needs to make sure they are provided for, so he is being extremely patient and loyal. Same for other players. It's not nice for anyone but FFS, at least speak to them and give them some info. For any player who chooses to continue their career away from ICT because you simply have no choice, then I applaud you for what you have done at the club, wish you well, and understand you are doing what you have to do for you, for your family, or for your career (or all of the above). For any that stick around to wait and see what contract (if any) gets offered, then that applause becomes a standing ovation because this situation is likely the hardest you have faced in your working life and your loyalty to the club and the fans should not be disrespected.

This.

She would definitely 'shake it up' .... ok, no more puns, I have reached the end of my Taylor Swift knowledge now 🙂 ... knowing our recent track records though, we'd be more likely to end up with Kanye.

I think it was nailed in another thread... the CEO is so autocratic that there are certain tasks that are needed and only he is aware of how to do them. No-one has likely ever been trained in those tasks and with time being short to the start of the season, he needs to get those done before he goes. That is the only scenario that sort of makes sense to me. GB is never the most eloquent speaker when interviewed as he will often speak frankly and without filter before processing the words into corporate speak. I hope what he is telling us is this, and it's a case of tying up those loose ends before the loose end of the CEO gets tied up himself. Anything else is a new title on an unchanged situation.

I meant club secretary for any paperwork relating to registrations or other items ahead of the new season. The problem with that idea - which I don't disagree with - is safeguarding that monies. If fans put £180K into the club as per your math above, then they will want that to be used responsibly to get us out of the current mess. Yes, it may be used to pay down debt or to keep the lights on in some fashion, but with the CEOs feet still under the desk, most will be less than confident that any funds put in will be used to best effect, and for the good and benefit of the club. There has been no transparency for years and no reason to think there will be until he is gone, and - it has to be said - no way to know if we go from frying pan to fire or to a better place. I would hope that the Trust, as a supporter's society, with a now fairly large membership, would democratically follow the wishes of the majority of its membership. I don't hold any position on the Trust other than member, but as far as I know, the whole reason this Sharesave plan is being run this way currently is because the fans don't like the way things were being run and wanted change. If things are running better, and there is transparency and engagement then by definition things will be a lot better. We will never all agree, but it would hopefully not get quite as low as the baseline is today. Perhaps in future - if things are or appear to be more sustainable - a direct pay scheme may work.

not to mention the aquifer in the centre circle

Well, that's just shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic then isn't it. The two main things voiced recently were the Kelty scheme had to be punted and so did the CEO. If he is still there in any capacity then nothing has changed on that front. He is the bigger fish to fry. The club cannot move forward with his hand on the rudder. If there is a valid purpose for him actually working his notice then perhaps the board can start the new era of communication by explaining it. Presumably we still have a club secretary, whose attention to detail got us back into the cup last year, so she can handle any league paperwork needed. We also hopefully still have other competent staff who can continue with or take on some of the things he did. I am guessing in many cases they may outperform him.

Those fans likely will dig deep but the devil will be in the detail. There is currently no detail. EDIT TO ADD: If I resigned at work, I would be walked out immediately regardless of notice period as I have access to confidential business info and full system access to many areas where I could do damage if I chose to. It's not that I would do that, it's the risk that I could do that which would have my bosses twitchy. Similarly, if sacked, the same would apply, and in both cases, keycards, computers or other company property would be returned and my computer access and permissions would be gone by the end of day at the latest. Any outstanding salary owed, or severance would be paid while on 'Gardinering leave' To say he is still there "tying up loose ends" begs the question of why? He is the focal point of fans' ire, and for good reason. He IS the loose end in most fans' eyes. What possible role could he be doing that is for the benefit of ICT when almost everything else we have seen has been farcical or far-fetched. If there is a valid reason, then fair enough - communicate that - I am sure there are some things needed before the season starts and perhaps he does need to keep those particular plates spinning ... but in all honesty, don't expect a penny from most fans when those same fans told you they would not put a penny in while he is still there.

The Stronger Together initiative from the Supporter's Trust is the one that is out there currently. Details: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/stronger-together Donate: https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/ictst-sharesave

We did not continue player sponsorship last season mainly because of this man. This site has sponsored a player for the last 25+ years, either personally by me out of my own pocket for the first few years, or via a group of the users on here, or sometimes both. We always tried to sponsor young local lads as they sometimes did not get the same attention as bigger names. We are proud to have sponsored Grant Munro through his entire ICT career, from youngster on the bench to club captain until he left ICT, and until last year, had been doing the same thing with Cammy Harper who it seems will unfortunately (for us but not him hopefully) take the same path and leave ICT. Once it has been confirmed that SG has handed his keys over and left the building for the last time, then we will be happy to have that conversation with the club about reinstating sponsorship of one or more players and will try to get as many people on board with it as we did before, provided the club are keen to work with all supporter groups and bodies (Supporters Trust, TWS, CTO, Travel Club, and anyone else) so we can all pull in one direction for the good and benefit of ICT FC. #TogetherNESS #INverNESS

Wasn't aware of that fact. thanks for letting me know.

@IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER is referencing Anders Povlsen in the HMS Sneck thread. Probably appropriate as his love for Scotland started when he was fishing!! However, we could do worse! According to this BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-47803110 he and his wife have a manifesto of sorts which describes their deep connection with the area and their pledge to: "Restore our parts of the Highlands to their former magnificent natural state and repair the harm that man has inflicted on them". Given that all of us want to repair the harm "that man" (SG) has inflicted on us, and restore Caley Thistle to their former magnificent natural state, then perhaps its a good fit. Besides, the ground at the Longman is a small part of Scotland he doesn't own 🙂

Dont give him ideas!!! no, really. dont give him ideas!!!

Ok, so Karen Gillan can maybe get the timelord to go back in time to circa 2000, or maybe one or more of the guardians of the galaxy to dispense with the CEO (preferably Rocket), or get the Rock to go Jumanji all over his 'candy ass' 🙂 ... maybe she could produce the series! no need for scriptwriters as you could not make half of this stuff up!

That would be true if there was oversight on a daily basis... repeatedly we have been told (from sources) there was not. SG basically had a free run of the place. Even on the POD he was not in a position to answer direct questions about what was going on at the club on what sounds like the same night he resigned. Repeatedly, stories come out about the dictatorial style and how things are being run on a day-to-day basis at ICT. These come from staff, fans, and also businesses. Leaving aside the fact there are usually 3 sides to any story, the anecdotes are all so similar that they sound legit. Past history shows failures at other clubs long before he landed at our door. That was long before the litany of failed schemes we have listed in various places by fans. While I don't welcome administration, and all the hurdles and challenges that it would/will bring, it may mean that we go back to fiscal responsibility. Saw a couple of posts last night mentioning former chairman Dougie McGilvray. If he were interested then he has both the knowledge and past experience of navigating the club through tortuous waters. He had the plan of Premier football within 10 years of formation at ICT and that happened. Thats a real statement on getting stuff done, and was the backbone of our future success even if it did come with many challenges. Same with messrs. Savage and Sutherland. All brought something to the table in terms of business acumen, ideas, knowledge and direction. One of those back would be great. However, if all three could find some way to work together for ICT then even better ... it would be like getting an offer from all the Dragons in the Den ... with hopefully the first action to roast the CEO.