Scotty

Doesn't matter whether we rate him or not ... does he have his UEFA badges? Club licensing requires the manager to have reached a certain level of licensing qualification and Neil McCann is licensed up to (the highest) UEFA PRO level which qualifies him to not only manage in the topflight of any country but also to be an international manager if that was his wish. I am not sure what badges Barry or Ryan have but if its UEFA B for example then they can't take charge of the club on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. An interim manager would be classed as semi-permanent due to there being no defined end date.

interesting and fitting that his first two fixtures are Hearts and Dundee !

Comes across well and is basically doing this as a favour to two friends (Scot Gardiner and Robbo). At pains to explain he is not interested in Robbo's job, just wants to keep the seat warm, and that he only took it on after speaking to Robbo. For me that interview pretty much ticks all the boxes in terms of doing things right and having the right attitude about it .... lets hope now that he can get a few points on the board. With Kells gone for now and Robbo obviously having a hard time of it recently - having mentioned mental health issues and now a bereavement - perhaps the eye was indeed off the ball and what we saw as bad performances were precipitated by this turmoil. If Robbo can focus on himself, and Scott can get better soon while NM steadies the ship and works with Barry and Ryan to get some decent result then its a win for all concerned 🙂

As Mantis has said, and contrary to popular belief from some, we dont censor comments on here, nor do we remove said comments unless they cross the line. You may find them disrespectful, and others may agree or disagree with those comments, but they are opinions of people who are entitled to voice their opinion whether you, I or anyone else agrees with it or not. Also, no-one has actually used the reporting mechanism that triggers a moderator discussion on a specific topic or post. In a situation like this, the typical course of action is to allow the rest of our audience to (respectfully) disagree with these posters and foster a discussion on the subject! Thats the prime purpose of a(n open) forum. It is also likely that should he indeed be a success that those same comments are paraded back to the naysayers later ... For what it's worth, my own opinion is that we should give the guy a chance. His previous managerial record is not exactly stellar with Dunfermline or with Dundee but we are neither of these clubs and something magical happens if someone, player or staff, is a good fit for our club. He has clearly stepped into the breach to help out our club in our, and our manager's time of need, giving up potentially lucrative media earnings, and for that he should have earned our 100% support from the get-go. If he can steady the ship and win a few points while Robbo is gone then its job done in these most strange times and difficult circumstances. If not, then the naysayers can say 'I told you so'. As I was entering his details into the managerial stats this morning I got to thinking, it seems like we have an ever-growing connection with Hearts these days... Obviously, there is the Robbo connection, the virtual ticketing for this week and the appreciation from Hearts fans of our stance during the reconstruction debate last year, and now a former Hearts hero stepping into the breach to give another Hearts hero time to recover and recharge his batteries ....

Best wishes to Robbo and hopes for a speedy recovery for Kells. The Herald article is a very good one and I particularly like the references to both Robbo and Kells being friends and colleagues because that speaks to a different mindset in how you handle any challenges, and it is important that we support both of them with whatever life throws at them right now. As for a temp manager, my mind went first to the likes of Charlie Christie given his history and past experience, but seems he is not in the frame right now given the comments about the youth setup. Going to pull this one from left field ... but assuming this is for a temporary stint, what is Pele doing these days? or perhaps Parky? Failing that then perhaps we need to persevere with Wilson and Esson. Not sure of the coaching badges of all the aforementioned but cannot see us getting any big names for a temporary appointment in the Highlands during a COVID pandemic .....

Its web design geekery but I think this may have originated with Hearts .... its their page and Curtis Sport have not changed the page title from a previous program that may have been on sale .... The HTML notes that it's from the following game: <title>Heart of Midlothian v Queen of the South - 12/12/20</title>

These are the worrying posts in this thread. The notion that the club are - once again - going into ostrich mode is concerning. How many hundreds of complaints have we seen, not just on here, about this clearly substandard system we are persevering with? and then to ignore comments of fans on social media and not address them ...... not a good idea. There has never been a period quite like this in world history and this is the time where the club should be doubling down on focussing locally by listening to supporters, working with the community, doing whatever they can in and around Inverness to actively build on any goodwill they can generate through this time. It seems they are doing the opposite. There is very little we can do about postponements or COVID related shutdowns or measures, but we can certainly focus on what things we can do .... I do see some community engagement over the last few months, but all that goes out the window if you turn around and ignore your customers. I respectfully disagree .... I get it that results have not gone our way but, in my mind, this whole period is not typical. We are skint, we are not generating (enough) income to resolve that, and until recently we did not even know if we would be playing any games at all, and therefore we can't afford nice shiny things (other than pixell-Not it would seem!) ... It would be folly to offer contracts to all and sundry, and even if we could, many would not even consider coming here right now given the travel restrictions and time away from family (as noted in Kai Kennedy's move to Raith). There's an old and crude saying that you can only pi** with the co** you have and that kind of fits our current status ... The time to judge Robbo is when things get back to normal and if he is underperforming then, that's the time to have this conversation .. until then, as frustrating as it is, he is trying his damnedest to get the best out of a patchwork of older players who used to be at a higher level, injury plagued players looking for another restart, and youngsters who aspire to get there ... not exactly the squad composition that any of us want or expect. He is doing all this while also acknowledging COVID related mental health issues that are being experienced by himself, and also presumably others around the club ... so we should get behind him. Any replacement for Robbo would have the same meagre resources, perhaps less if Robbo had to be paid off, and who is to say they could get more out of the existing squad ... we certainly could not be delving into the transfer market ....

Its not a new thing .... The club often seem to have had an issue listening to, acknowledging the capabilities of, or quality of service from, volunteers. Countless examples over the years of them going and doing something completely different, costing more money, because its 'professional' when they had a perfectly good or superior product in place already. The TV coverage is a prime example .. and there are plenty more. Seems to be a couple of basic mindsets at play where it has to be a specific person's idea or its not getting any traction regardless of performance (the MyWay or Highway ideology) or it must cost an eye-opening amount to be any good - and still ends up sh*** anyway (the 'If its not expensive its crap' ideology). AndyCAM does a great job and between various other folk around the club there are no shortage of characters who could provide a great commentary experience, yet we won't even consider it for some reason ....

You would likely have to approach Trevor Martin, Ken Macpherson etc as they were the main freelancers who supplied SNS around that time and did the official club photos. I think it's true to say that PP (Caleyjags.com) focused mainly on the fans at that point and began to diversify as time went by.

He is with Atlanta in MLS.

Great initiative. My boy was an in-person mascot in 2017 and loved it. It inspired him to get more into football and between that and his friend Kyle doing well in the ICT youth setup, he registered with Toronto FC juniors to try and emulate that feeling .... its all gone a bit t*ts up for now with COVID, but he's keen to get back to training once things resume ... and it will all have started at the Caledonian Stadium 🙂 I also wonder if there would be enough interest in doing a group match sponsorship like we did for the player sponsorship. You get 10 viewing passes so it would be £48 per head (inc VAT), but maybe a bit less if some season book holders who were already entitled to view the stream were to join in ... The comments to this thread would likely indicate if this was viable or not 🙂

He doesnt miss and hit the wall with this one !!!

I think you could be right ... it's incredibly expensive to run it as you have to have it running for a long time just for one match so we just dont use it. We did relay the pitch a couple of years ago didn't we so it's also possible it was removed and not replaced ... I know Tommy hates/hated it, reckoned it completely ruined his pitch which - until we put it in - had suffered only one or two postponements in its lifetime.

Posted by Ian’s daughter on Facebook. Many of you have asked for the link to the live stream of Dad's funeral. It starts at 2pm tomorrow (Friday 15th) and it should go live a few minutes early. http://bit.ly/2XE7jl9 Passcode: 000510

to be fair, he is trying his damnedest now!

The family have just shared funeral details on Facebook. Thank you for all your kind messages and cards. Ian's funeral will take place in Perth at 2pm on Friday 15 January 2021. Due to current restrictions, it will have to be private, but there will be a live stream. We'll receive the link on Thursday and will share that here for anyone who wishes to attend virtually. If you would like to make a donation in his name, we welcome contributions to Dogs Trust : https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ianbroadfoot

Wouldn't the same restrictions be in place for travel between Kirkcaldy and Glasgow as between Inverness and Glasgow? Definitely a shame given his impact. If the main driver behind this decision is family then you can't argue with that and should wish him all the best for his continued development.

Wind your neck in or take another break! No-one called you thick and you didn't report the post. There is nothing for an admin to steer in any direction and if one person disagreeing with you equates to everyone having something against you then you may need to re-evaluate things a little.

Guess he is the new Vigurs or Polworth ! Some of our support do seem to need a player to focus their anger on ....

I am shocked, saddened and really devastated to hear this news. I have known Ian since the very early days of ICT and a nicer, more dedicated, honest and humble gentleman you were not likely to meet. His stats, reviews and records for ICT have always been the gold standard for fans and directly led to both of his books. He (and Peter) also did wonders as volunteers in the club shop for many years and if you read the release when he was made a life member, you will see what else he did. When people talk about someone having ICT in their blood and being a stalwart of the club they are usually referring to the likes of Charlie Christie or others who have been with us from the start and who played for us for a long time ... Ian Broadfoot is in this same category behind the scenes. Ian would probably be too humble to think himself deserving of any fanfare but the club should definitely honour his memory in some way. Armbands and a minutes silence at the next game, for sure, at a minimum, but like his stats, which will live on, maybe something else more permanent too. Rest in peace Ian. The world has a large hole in it right now and you will truly be missed by friends and family alike. 😢

The stuff in the Sun is just the usual lazy journalism, trotting out a few names and hoping one sticks. no foundation, no facts, not even rumours. Just padding to a non-story. In the case of EM, the original post is a backhanded compliment to one of his Jambo heroes, acknowledging what Robbo has achieved despite all the challenges in his way, and SG is basically telling him to STFU and leave things alone in case anyone notices!! I still say Robbo would not be interested unless things are really bad behind the scenes. He got burned too many times when tempted before.

I would think they know each other going by this exchange.

ICT got Kennedy from Rangers on loan and he has lit up the side somewhat. Certainly not been a dud, that's for sure. I would like the club to think along the same lines now and see who they might get in the loan market. We probably get better value and no millstone contracts, allowing us to also hang onto our own promising youngsters. However, how about looking further afield? MLS is a huge player pool for example and with the disruption to the NASL/USL/CPL over here where teams usually send players to get experience they are now looking worldwide for 'partner' clubs according to a face to face chat I had with TFC president Bill Manning in early 2020. I can really only talk about TFC but most teams will have scenarios similar to that which I describe below: Toronto FC sent 3 internationals (1 full, 2 under 23s) out on loan last Season. Noble Okello and Rocco Romeo went to HB Koge in Denmark (Rocco is still there) and Julian Dunn went to Calgary. Ralph Priso, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Jacob Shaffelburg, and Jayden Nelson are all up and comers who have made first team debuts and any one of those would add to our squad, especially Noble Okello (IMO). Ifunanyachi Achara is another candidate. He was drafted by TFC last year and got injured at the start of the season. He will be on the road to recovery now but may need time to get up to full fitness and a loan outside might be beneficial for all concerned. He also counts towards TFC's international spots (Nigerian) so if he is not likely to make first team appearances in 2021 they may want him off the books for a year. He looked really good in the one game he played (his professional debut where he scored and put in a MOTM performance) and his previous (non-professional) playing experience is also impressive. Biggest issue with some of these players might be work permits but now as ex-EU it might be possible? TFC also have an incredible academy (one of the best in North America) which is churning out a lot of players - good players - who might also be options. I am not too familiar with TFC II but Dante Campbell and Nyal Higgins seem the most ready to make the step up and maybe Jordan Peruzza. Lots of options there in just one MLS team - permits permitting - multiply that by 26 teams and you can see its a pretty big pond that is largely unfished yet!

Canada banned flights from the UK for 72 hours when the new variant was discovered in the UK. They have now extended that to January 6th ... but only after 5 cases of the new variant have surfaced here. 2 people on the eastern suburbs of Toronto, 2 in British Columbia on the other side of the country and 1 in Ottawa. Initially none admitted to being in contact with anyone from UK but it turns out that the 1 in Ottawa just arrived from UK and had contact with the two in Toronto and that one of the ones in BC had also just come from UK with the other testing positive being their spouse. The ones in Toronto had omitted to tell of their contact with the person in Ottawa, presumably to try and not get them in trouble as there seems to be some familial connection and they stopped to visit on the way to Ottawa by the sounds of it. Arriving at Toronto airport {or any airport in Canada) and not going directly to your destination to quarantine for 14 days is forbidden right now but until its enforced its like trying to collect water in a colander.

Can we get back on topic please. If there is a an issue with a particular post or poster please report the post in the normal manner.