Scotty

thinking about it logically, our midfield is in great shape to not only contribute goals (Rankin, Paatelainen, Hart, Wilson, Black all attack minded and capable of goals) but also to provide quality balls to the strikers - Wyness, Bayne, Rory and Buchanan (?) I quite like the idea of Wilson going further forward and allowing Hart or someone else some time on the right wing, maybe not as an out and out striker but a very attacking midfielder. I think Paatelainen will come very good next year and will provide well from the left flank and with Rankin and Black able to strut their stuff in midfield (supported by Duncan) we may miss Dargo less than we think. Next season is Denzil's year - if he gets the service he will score the goals - and our midfield is looking like it may be able to provide that service.

absolutely no real point to this other than trying to get ICT up the list....... I saw on one of the Toronto boards that TFC were being voted on so added ICT .... mine is the only vote so far ..... lets get ICT up there ... only need 100 votes to get to the top 40 ! http://football.thevotefor.com/index.php

Labonte is only 23 !!! PROFILE FROM OFFICIAL DAFC SITE Daquin is 28 PROFILE FROM OFFICIAL DAFC SITE

If other teams can use their 'history' to say they are the "nth" biggest team in Scotland or have this or that size of fanbase then we can surely use our 'youth' to argue a stat like this !!!

old news ..... Errea are trying to organise it as both ICT and Qatar will be in Italy .... the stumbling block appears to be the venue for it as the two teams are several hours apart from each other. with Errea organising it, I expect it to be a 3am kickoff on the 33rd of November :015:

IHE - thanks for the input. You are really in the driving seat from the supporters' point of view as it was you who was most affected. For all your self proclaimed eccentricities you have conducted yourself extremely professionally in this matter, probably a lot moreso than people who don't know you would have thought you were capable of !!! Once this is all over and the dust has settled, if you are happy with the result and the responses (apologies?) you have received from the club then that should be an end to it. Hopefully you will be able to post something to that effect when the time comes without breaking the confidences you spoke of. .... now off you go and lick some stamps .... this sensible Johndo is very confusing :015: :015:

and perhaps a comment from the likes of IHE that he has received a satisfactory (private) response to the points that he has raised.

Given that the chairman has publicly expressed support for the singing section then I would assume he will be all for it and full of positivity. However it is a shame that the Chief Exec was either unable or unwilling to attend as it is not the chairman who is holding the ball - so to speak - on a matchday. I agree with Caley D - the past incidents have to be addressed before the future plans can be discussed ..... As far as past events are concerned, the club need to put the Dunfermline game to bed. Be big about this .... admit that errors were made, or that over-reactions occurred (on one or both sides ?). There is no need for a witch-hunt but certain assurances need to be made about what happened and what mechanisms are in place so that it doesnt happen again. If there are any internal repercussions then that should be a private matter that is dealt with internally and not made into a public or media feeding frenzy. However, IHE also needs an explanation that he is satisfied with as he was one person who was "targeted for ejection" which is a very worrying development. This explanation can be made privately to IHE, but at the very least the club needs to acknowledge that they have made this explanation so they are not accused of burying the incident. Only then can you really move on to future plans ...... I dont know what the Chairman has up his sleeve in terms of plans for the signing section, and I hate to keep harping on about Toronto FC but if he needs any example of a situation where a supporters section has been created from scratch, allowed certain latitudes compared to other areas of the ground, has good but sensible stewarding, and has, for the most part, been very well behaved then he could do worse than talk to Paul Beirne at Toronto FC. Before the club was officially a member of MLS, before any players were signed, before the ground was completed and before Mo Johnston came on board as manager, Paul put plans in motion to have a singing section across the complete south stand. He argued the toss with the suits, was given concessions for this part of the ground and managed to make it sound attractive to all 'hardcore' fans (not least because of a deeply discounted price). The end result was that this section sold out in weeks and has been a tremendous success. In MLS circles, the David Beckham story is very much playing second fiddle to the amazement most teams express at the atmosphere they experience when they visit Toronto's BMO field. 6 home games so far, 6 total sell-outs and the stands bouncing so much that engineers had to come in and do some checks that the stands can cope with it !!!

Richard played another full 90 minutes as Canada advanced to the Quarter Final of the Gold Cup as winners of Group A with a 2-0 defeat of Haiti. Canada go through as group winners with Costa Rica taking second spot. Haiti go out after finishing in 4th spot but Guadeloupe could still make it through as one of the best 3rd placed teams. Next match is 16th June in Boston where Canada will play the runners up in Group B which could be any one of USA (6pts), Guatemala (3pts), El Salvador (3pts) or Trinidad & Tobago (0pts). The US have won both their games and play El Salvador today while Guatemala play Trinidad. My money would be on Guatemala being Canada's next opponents as Trinidad have a -3 goal difference and the USA will probably beat El Salvador.

The longer it goes the more hopeful I am. The club have obviously put a good offer on the table or there wouldnt even be any mention of him re-signing for ICT but at his age (just under 30) he has to make sure the deal is the right one both professionally and personally. From the club side, the pressure has been ramped up subtly with first Grassa asking for a decision and now Bayne speaking for the players in the Courier urging him to re-sign. The agent and the player dont seem to be guilty of some of the "posturing" we have seen from others in the past ..... its just down to them now to confirm it one way or the other. As frustrating as it is for us, we just have to wait for the player to get all his ducks in a row, sort out personal terms and hopefully persuade his girlfriend that Inverness is far more appealing than Motherwell, Falkirk, Dundee or somewhere in England. C'mon Craig .... you know it makes sense :021:

Aaron Labonte (DEF) and Freddy Daquin (R. MID) are both now transfer listed ..... worth looking at ?

Charlie has given him a chance ... its up to him to grab it. From what I hear he has not always tried that hard in training and it sounds like he didnt make any impact at County. His alleged 'laziness' has been a major part of his problem .... The ball - as they say - is firmly in the player's court and the only person that can now blow this chance is the lad himself.

"CONCACAF" Rankings with Gold Cup groups added - Guadeloupe not even on list as you said !!! [attach=1] The Gold Cup is a fairly long and drawn out competition - qualification began in September 2006 and the "lesser" teams (even though some are ranked higher than the likes of Canada) went through a load of qualifiers ..... In the Carribean, 24 teams started in 6 groups with the top two in each group going through to the next round. The second round was in three groups and again, the top two in each group went through with the two best third placed teams playing off for an additional spot and Trinidad seeded to enter at this stage. The third round of games was two groups of 4 with the top two in each going into the semis (and the gold cup) Qualifiers (in ranked order) : Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba, Guadeloupe In the central America qualifiers, there were only 7 teams so 1 group of 4 and 1 group of 3. After the first round of games, The top 2 teams went to the semis and beyond and the two third placed teams played off for 5th place. 5 teams qualified Qualifiers (in ranked order) : Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras Canada, USA and Mexico appear to go straight into the competition as I cant find any qualification rounds ?

From FIFA.com ..... Over in Group A in Miami, Guadeloupe - who drew Haiti in their fist match - kept up their Cinderella ways with a stunning 2-1 win over heavily-fancied Canada. Costa Rica and Haiti drew 1-1 in the night's final match to leave Guadeloupe alone at the top of the section. After watching Guadeloupe's opening-day draw with Haiti from the bench, 41-year-old former France international and Marseilles winger Jocelyn Angloma needed only nine minutes to open the scoring against Canada. The Canucks - who won their first match in impressive fashion 2-1 over Costa Rica - came back in minute 31 through Ali Gerba's wicked, long-range strike. Things looked to be getting back to the status quo, but just three minutes later David Fleurival slammed a screamer home from 30 yards to put the tiny French Caribbean island cluster in the lead again - where they stayed until the end to earn their first-ever victory in regional competition.

Whilst there was talk of Zander and Rory maybe getting into the Scotland U20 squad .... it may have gone un-noticed to some that Richard Hastings was recalled to the Canadian National Team a few months ago - and is now in the squad for the Gold Cup. He has played both matches so far (full 90 mins in each) as Canada beat out Costa Rica 2-1 but went down to Guadeloupe by the same scoreline

As predicted !!!!! its the standard procedure !!!

sure the chairman would be happy with that ...... but bear in mind, the bigger the team, the less money Barry might make as most teams will require payment in some form or another for things like making an appearance, hotels, travel costs etc .... this is standard practice in friendlies and cant see it being any different for a testimonial unless the opposing team waive any fees etc.

mmmm ... might it have anything in common with the following things http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6180387388162839873 [attach=1] [attach=2]

squad seems a bit lopsided ..... 8 defenders but only 5 midfielders ??? not sure the formation the team plays but if it is a standard 4-4-2 then surely 3 x GK, 7 x DEF, 7 x MID and 4 x FWD might have made more sense .... might have helped Zander's cause but probably not Rory !!! They dont fly out for another two weeks so there's always time for call-offs and late additions to the squad !!

Zander Sutherland and Rory McAllister will not be spending the summer in Canada after being left out of the squad for the U20 World Cup. Shame about that as I was looking forward to wearing an ICT shirt and maybe persuading some of the TFC diehards to support them at Toronto's BMO Field if Scotland reached the latter stages .... full squad Goalkeepers Scott Fox (Celtic) Greg Kelly (Aberdeen) Andrew McNeil (Hibernian) Defenders Andrew Cave-Brown (Norwich City) Andrew Considine (Aberdeen) Scott Cuthbert (Celtic) Garry Kenneth (Dundee United) Alan Lowing (Rangers) Ryan O’Leary (Kilmarnock) Mark Reynolds (Motherwell) Lee Wallace (Heart of Midlothian) Midfielders Jamie Adams (Kilmarnock) Ryan Conroy (Celtic) Brian Gilmour (Clyde) Sean Lynch (Hibernian) Michael McGlinchey (Celtic) Forwards Ross Campbell (Hibernian) Graham Dorrans (Livingston) Calum Elliot (Heart of Midlothian) Steven Fletcher (Hibernian) Robert Snodgrass (Livingston)

cant you just feel the love in this thread ....... I'm on Blackieforce's side on this one .... a missing apostrophe and an extra comma are certainly not the worst examples of grammar on here recently. and no yellow cards for anyone - smart arse response to the original post and a fair enough comeback (including smilie) to the smart arse response .... I am in a good mood today ... must be time for my medicine :icon_nurse01:

Good luck to him. also interesting to see Pele finally get Marino Keith - a player he was rumoured to have wanted to sign for ICT for years.

Lost 1-2 to New York Red Bulls tonight :( ..... Scottish connection - ex Rangers player Claudio Reyna is captain and another ex ger Ronald Wattereus is keeper (but was out injured tonight) ... Despite losing two goals in the second half, it was a decent game and Toronto played one of the slickest passing games I have seen in a long time ... at least in the first half ... second half it was a different TFC and it allowed league leaders NY to grab a couple of goals.

Facebook is the site of choice on this side of the pond now ........ cant remember if I am on bebo or myspace as these are all blocked at work and i usually forget to look at these things from home.

Costa Rica [shudder]