Jump to content

Scotty

08: Site Admin
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    22,609

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    250

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Scotty

    Battery Project - Chairman's Statement

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    Twitter post

    Many fans will have read the story running in today’s Inverness Courier re the ICT battery farm planning application and the subsequent negative recommendation from the Highland Council Planning Dept.
     
    Some of our fans will also have heard our chairman Ross Morrison talk about the battery farm application at the ICT Supporters Trust open meeting and how vitally important it is to us as a club going forward and how enormously positive a contribution it would make to Inverness and the Highlands in general as we are as a nation, crying out for such developments.
     
    Thanks to our partnership with Intelligent Land Investments who specialise in such things, we are on the cusp of securing our long term financial stability and making a huge contribution to our Highland community with one of the most significant recent Highland contributors towards achieving Highland Council, Scottish Govt and UK net zero targets with over 20,000 tonnes of CO, the equivalent of planting 1 million trees.
     
    Further to the above and during this last two hand a half year planning process, we also identified that the fantastic Inverness Kartway Raceway, a Queen’s Award winner and one of the finest examples of pro-active community charities in our region, was working hard towards meeting the challenge of replacing their existing fleet of Karts with electric ones. This would help their CEO Corrin Henderson and his team future proof the charity and continue to provide huge benefit to vulnerable youngsters in our area and reduce the noise from the Kartway centre, and the club was delighted to confirm that on receiving planning approval for our plan, a £25,000 payment would be made to IKR from ICTFC.
     
    The full video of the Chairman's statement which he makes in advance of next Wednesday's planning committee meeting can be viewed now
     
     

    Robertson going going gone

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    Club Press release 15 mins ago: 

     

    Statement Begins

    The club can confirm our Sporting Director John Robertson is leaving the club to pursue other opportunities in the game.

    Chairman Ross Morrison said “John has served the club incredibly well over a number of years, both as a successful Manager and more recently as Sporting Director. His football achievements here in the Highlands are outlined below and his astute transfer dealings brought in significant funds across his time in charge and throughout that period he was always a brilliant ambassador for the club. 

    His drive to establish the new 10-acre Hub for the ICT Community Trust working with Highland Council, Sport Scotland and the SFA and his input into accessing six figure grants for our Community Trust in particular has gone unseen by almost everyone out with the football club. We wish him well in his future endeavours and he will always be welcome at the Caledonian Stadium.”

    John first joined the club in December 2002 as he was appointed the club's manager following Steve Paterson's departure to Aberdeen. He then led the team to a 4th place finish in 2002/03 and beat Celtic 1-0 in the Scottish Cup Quarter Finals to set up the club's first ever trip to Hampden. The following season the team went on to win the First Division (now the Championship) title and Challenge Cup double during a remarkable 2003/04 season. In November 2004 Robbo left the club to join Hearts. 

    Upon the club's relegation to the Championship, Robertson would return in June 2017 when he was appointed Manager for a second time and John had to totally rebuild the squad, winning the Challenge Cup against Dumbarton at McDiarmid Park. The following season saw him lead the team to a 3rd place finish and into the play-off places and once again lead the team to Hampden for a Scottish Cup Semi-Final against Hearts, losing 3-0. Caley Thistle were beaten in the Premiership Play-Off semi finals by Dundee United. John had the team sitting in 2nd place during 2019/20 and in the Challenge Cup final when the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The season would be ended with us in 2nd place and Caley Thistle and Raith Rovers would be confirmed as joint winners of the Challenge Cup. The 2020/21 cinch Championship season would begin at the later start of October and only with major restrictions.  John was granted compassionate leave following a family bereavement in February 2021.

    Robertson returned back to the club in June 2021 as the club's first ever Sporting Director. 

    Honours/Achievements at ICTFC

    • Scottish First Division title - 2003/04 
    • Scottish Challenge Cup - 2003/04, 2017/18, 2019/20 (joint with Raith Rovers)
    • Scottish Cup Semi Finals 2002/03, 2003/04 and 2018/19

    Statement Ends

    • Like 2
    • Thank You 2

    ICTFC Squad Update 21/22/23/

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    32 minutes ago, bdu98196 said:

    Why would the manager be dealing with contracts when we have a DoF?

    Director of Football was originally setup to be a direct link from the boardroom to the dugout not to scout and sign all the players without the manager consent. He may work on negotiations on contract terms, length and other details, and may have to liaise with the board to get approvals and make the occasional case to sign a player if (when) there is no budget, but recruitment falls squarely on the manager (or should). Renewal of contracts would be the same. Cant see Big Dunc agreeing to a situation where anyone else has power of veto over him on purely footballing squad decisions unless it is a monetary issue affecting the club. 

    Sporting Director on the other hand is less clear. The club's own press release in 2021 and the BBC article naming Robbo simply said "The club say Robertson will work on a "number of specific projects. Chief executive Scot Gardiner added that he would be "a great help to the board and myself and his love of the club and the city will help drive us on"." Thats murky to say the least. After Dodds was given the job he further muddied the waters by noting he would be mad not to speak to Robbo about signings:  "Dodds says he will have the "final say" over new signings, adding: "But I would crazy not to go and ask John Robertson, who is a football man, and we will be working together to look at players and come up with targets."

     

     

    Ex ICT Players Score

    in General Football

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Robert said:

    Ross Tokely scored for Nairn in the Highland League last night. 

    It's funny (for me at least) - My little guy is glued to FIFA23 and FC24 and keeps on at me about all these current players being rated high ... Every time he asks me who he should add to his team, or tries to ask me "Do you know who is the best <insert position> in the game?" I always answer 'Ross Tokely' (or occasionally Charlie Christie to throw him off).   Awesome that Ross is still playing now and still amazing that he played for us in all divisions and I think in almost all positions at some time in his career. Oh, and I remind my son that ICT was indeed in FIFA once upon a time ... FIFA07 or 08 on the PS2!  

     

     

    • Like 1

    Duncan Ferguson & Who was in the running

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    I am kind of in the same boat as many. This will either be a masterstroke or an unmitigated disaster. Hoping for the first, not the latter.  

    On the plus side, he has been around some pretty big names in his roles as coach while learning the ropes over a lengthy period of time. He may have the personality and name recognition to attract players we might not have had a sniff at before and watching some of the videos I have seen over the last few days, he appears to be a different person (more likeable) than the person he was as a player. Seems highly regarded by supporters in the blue part of Liverpool. In the talksport and press conference videos he also seems to come across honest and truthfully when mentioning he has no clue about our players, or the lower leagues. Honesty and straight talking is something lacking in our recent history. 

    On the minus side, as mentioned, he has not coached in Scotland, and his Forest Green spell didn't make good reading. Having said that, Didn't a certain Mr. Butcher have a woeful recent record before he came to us.   My biggest fears are how we are affording this. He won't come cheap. He may have certain budgetary expectations that we can't meet (although I assume he knows its low as the talksport interview mentioned not blowing his budget on the hotel they put him up in). It also papers over other cracks that need looked at whether he is successful or not. 

     

     

    • Agree 2

    Duncan Ferguson & Who was in the running

    in Caley Thistle

    Posted

    21 minutes ago, big cherly said:

    Don’t know enough about his coaching credentials or results to say if he would have been any good. The fact he wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole after he did some simple research or speaking to some ‘people’, raises my respect for him and thinking he might have been a promising young manager to take us forward! #

    I believe he would have been good for us and will be a good manager for someone soon as he works his way through the coaching ranks gaining experience.

    Kind of sad he wouldn't look at us due to the shitshow surrounding us at senior levels. He was thought highly of at Toronto FC as a player and as a fan favourite. I think he would be a good motivator and whoever comes in really has to motivate this group of players to perform at their best if we are to climb the table and reach mid table obscurity as a season goal! Would also have been cool (for me at least) to have that Toronto FC and Caley Thistle link when I go to TFC games or when at ICT on trips home 🙂   

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. : Terms of Use : Guidelines : Privacy Policy