Scotty

There is the possibility that Saturday's result might make a few extra bodies go to the game, but the abysmal home record is just as likely to see just as many stay away. We need a few decent home results, and some good performances to change the casual visitors perception that they might actually see a decent game (and a good ICT result) at the TCS. I remember back to Div2 & Div1 days where we nicknamed the TCS the 'fortress' as we seldom lost there (but we were correspondingly bad away from home) ... Our SPL record seems to have turned that stat on its head and even the radio commentators seem to mention the disparity every week ...

Charlie also said we 'sold out our allocation' - dont forget, away teams get virtually no seats at ibrox.

click on THIS LINK - the written report is to follow, but we have 3 audio clips from Radio Scotland up there - match report, interview with CC, and interview with PLG

how do we know thats actually what he's gonna do ? it could be truth, bluff, or double-bluff .... Would you reveal your full tactics truthfully to an opponent the day before a game or just give the journos a soundbite and then tell those that matter - ie your team - how its gonna be ? I can see it now .... Pepe Le Pew in the Rangers dressing room before the game ... "bonjour mes amis, Aujourd'hui we play Caley Thistle ... Charlie has given us his 'Tactique de jeu' and this is what we will do ......" at half-time "Oh merde .... " at full-time "Charlie est un bâtard adroit" of course, Barry understands every word :015:

So Mixu to Hibs, Levein to the Arabs, and Brewster to the dogs ... :015: :015:

I am sure that Craig will make the best decision for Craig and the comments to me sound neither positive or negative ... he is simply saying "I would be happy to stay at ICT, if the right offer is made .. so make me an offer and we can go from there..." I dont get the impression that CD is all that motivated by money - although it would be foolish to suggest it was not a factor. In his case, he had quite a few seasons blighted by injury which he clearly did not enjoy and - by his own admission - had one of his most enjoyable seasons last year. Hopefully 'job satisfaction' will be a major factor in his consideration of a new deal.

non-starter !! If I were to pick one from the 3 names I mentioned, I would pick Mixu - he has quietly been learning his trade and may feel ready for a step up. Being a former fan favourite at the club wont hurt him either.... wonder if McLeish's name will be mentioned as a possibility ? Sorry to see Mowbray go as thats another 'decent' man who has left the SPL. Regardless of the teams they previously played for, I always regarded both Mowbray and Butcher as pretty honest gentlemen in comments they made after games or in the press.

The early 'names in the frame' so far are Mixu Paatelainen John ' Yogi' Hughes John Collins

a late double from McSwegan made it 4-1 ICT final score Official Report

how about expanding this slightly ? ...... (1) ideal squad CURRENT - players who are still playing. (2) ideal squad ALL-TIME - current players AND former players.

OK - I have to come clean, I did a fair bit of gloating on Saturday .... like everyone else though, I fear the reality check that comes with being a follower of Scotland ... Its similar to the type of reality check we sometimes get as ICT fans after a huge result (how many remember the St Mirren game after that midweek cup game against Celtic ?) Saturday was tremendous ... I met up with a frequent visitor to the TCS on Saturday morning who had just arrived for a family holiday and as his wife and kid went to a place called Canada's Wonderland which is full of roller coasters and such like, we settled down in Scallywags bar at Yonge & St Clair to watch a different type of roller coaster at Walter's Wonderland. The bar has three floors - on the ground floor the England game was being shown, and it was costing them $10 each to get in as the match was on a pay-per-view channel. On the first floor was the Scotland game (free entry) and on the second floor was the Ireland game (also free entry). At half time - as all fans mingled - the Scots fans were the happiest as we were holding the mighty French to a draw and the others were concerned with their team performances. We met quite a few Hibs, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen supporters, even one guy from Elgin (the Dons fan). There were even one or two France supporters sitting quietly. We managed some good debate with the Hibs and Arab fans - mostly centred around our good results against Hibs and how much of an irritating ***** a certain former ICT manager is ... but all the inter-club rivalry was forgotten when the ball hit the back of the net and we were 1-0 up against the French - this should not be happenning. Those last 20 minutes felt like days and at the end, the roar in our bar was loud .... almost as loud as the groans from above and below. After the game, we didnt boast (much), just smiled and acknowledged that it was a good victory whilst sympathising (or so it seemed) with the English fans that they had a ****** result and not only that, that they also had to pay to watch it. and YES it felt really good If Walter can manage to make it 12 points from 12, then that will be amazing. I look forward to it. Regardless of the midweek result though, Walter and his staff are quickly removing the ridicule that came with being a Scotland fan under Berti.

while we can happily gloat JB .... lets just remember that 'pride comes before a fall' .... I'll save my gloating until later in the week ... if we have 12/12 :004:

To be fair to the courier, I think Mark Brown WILL be the first ICT player to be called up to the SCOTLAND international squad but I agree with those that say he is not our first international player. Richard Hastings is the ONLY player that we could claim to be an "ICT" internationalist given that he was at ICT when first called up for Canada. You could argue that Xausa was another "ICT Internationalist" but he was already a Canadian international when he arrived although he did gain a number of international caps when at ICT. All other players at ICT who possessed full international caps had long finished their international careers before arriving at ICT so we cant claim them as 'ICT' internationals (eg. Duncan Shearer, Nicky Walker, Sergei Baltacha, Gary McSwegan etc.). I would also say that U19, U21, 'B' Caps, 'Future Squad' games etc are immaterial when discussing this and 'semi-pro' smacks of straws and clutching :015: :015:.

Marvin Andrews was a great defender in the first division and was decent enough in the SPL until injured. By all accounts he is also a very personable gentleman. If he were fully fit and free of injuries, I would have loved to see him at ICT as a replacement for Bobby Mann or indeed for Darren Dods if he goes. However, the unfortunate truth is that Marvin is never going to be free of injury now and we shouldnt touch him with a ten foot pole.

yup - agree with whats above. 6 points from the games against Falkirk and St Midden should be the aim although I am sure they will think similarly. Taking anything from the Rangers game will be a bonus, so 6 out of 9 is realistic.

Think this list is more up to date ... Bayne - 2007 Black - 2009 Brown - 2007 Dargo - 2007 Dods - 2007 Duncan - 2008 Fraser - 2007 Golabek - 2008 Hart - 2008 Hastings - 2007 Keogh - 2007 Kerr - 2008 McAllister - 2008 McBain - 2007 McCaffrey - 2007 McSwegan - 2007 Morgan - 2007 Munro - 2007 Rankin - 2009 Smith - 2007 Soane - 2007 Sutherland - 2007 Tokely - 2008 Wilson - 2007 Wyness - 2008

The rumour mill is for RUMOURS ... as mentioned above, this came from Grassa. As i mentioned in my post - "the info isnt totally up to date as some have signed new contracts" - The list I had was from part way through last season, so it is entirely possible that some on it have indeed signed new contracts - After posting it, I amended Ian Black for example when I remembered he had signed a new deal - didnt have time to check back the forum threads for other mentions. perhaps others can tidy up my list ??

According to info I had during last season, we have quite a few players out of contract at the end of the season ... the info isnt totally up to date as some have signed new contracts I think but its a fair old list. Bayne Black signed new contract Brown Fraser Hastings Keogh McBain McAllister McCaffrey Morgan Munro Soane Sutherland Wilson

reads like it should be to the tune of Mambo #5

thought the most telling comment from a fan on the JT show was .... "if we want to play sideways, play ferguson"

sounds remarkably similar to what was done with ICT and the formation of the trust.

Had my doubts at the time of the DUFC saga based on the fact that he had a few ropy performances to start the season - sounds like he is back to normal now though which is good to hear.

Thats the story that surfaced at the time .... and we all bought into it .... but its amazing how most have only ever heard one side of the story .... a story which allegedly originated from someone who told us he was staying at the club and two days later was paraded as assistant manager at another club.

there is no additional TV money directly to the clubs for each game shown - the increased sponsorship is shared based on the 4% + bonus I mentioned above so the amopunt of money a club gets is entirely within their control - play better, finish higher, earn more money. I do however agree with you about the crowds.

The downside of 'progress' is change ..... but if we want to see the best football we can in Inverness, then change is inevitable. It is quite likely that we would never have got into the senior leagues if Caley and Thistle had to apply separately for membership and it was only through a monumental change in the setup of Inverness football that this happened. We all know the pain of this and the abuse meted out to those who were leaders in making this change happen. We also know that some fans never returned as they disagreed with this massive change. I myself have taken abuse on here and on the streets for launching a website about the newly merged team from its very first days but that is nothing compared to what some people endured. It was possible that we would very quickly be booted out of the league if we hadnt spent vast sums of money to change our home park from Caley's Telford Street ground to the 'neutral' venue of the Caledonian Stadium. Again, people had to have the vision to make these changes happen and others didnt agree with these changes. It is a fact that the club would have gone bust and we wouldnt be watching ANY ICT football if Tullochs and David Sutherland hadnt implemented major changes at the club by coming in, sorting out the debts we had accrued over the first few years and putting a structure in place that would lead to continued growth and eventually to SPL football. Once again, I know of a few people who thought DS had horns and a trident and that we were selling ourselves to the devil who would kill the club and have his company profit from the fallout - History has proven this to be nonsense and both Tullochs and David Sutherland are major factors in our rise to the SPL and also in bringing SPL football to the TCS. As we moved up the leagues we continued to see our club change slowly. In division 3 days with a hardcore support of a few hundred, the officials and players got to know most of the regular fans by name and it was truly a cosy and welcoming environment. Division 2 was the same, and even part of our journey in division 1. However, as the team progressed on the park, and eventually reached the SPL it was inevitable that things would have to change even further. To me the biggest change, and perhaps one of the reasons why there seems to be more negativity from fans at times is the fact that the club have had to become a lot more impersonal in their attempts to become more professional. In Div3, Div2, and even Div1 days, it was a cosy atmosphere, officials and players knew a lot of the fans by name, and on the admin side of things, rules could be bent or accomodations made. This meant that there were a lot less complaints about things as people were frequently able to resolve their issues behind the scenes or get their own way and therefore feel 'valued'. Now, with more fans, more scrutiny, and more rules applied to the club by other bodies, there is less chance to feel quite as valued as the club do have to follow all these new rules - some of which are as frustrating for them as it is for their customers. The club do a lot of things right but we seldom hear of this as good news is not so much fun to debate. I would agree that they are still a long way from getting it totally right off the park but they continue to try. I make no excuses for mistakes that people make other than to say people do make mistakes and I can only hope that they learn from them. I also hope these same people are humble enough to listen to fans who vent on this and other websites rather than bury their heads in the sand and say - 'its always so negative' or 'i dont go on there as they are always complaining' which I know happens. [NOTE: our Chief Exec IS a regular visitor so doesnt fall into the 'ostrich' category] anyway ... I got a bit off track there ... back to the present day. Change is inevitable and now that we are in the SPL we have more rules applied to us, less control over our own destiny and things that both the club and the fans dislike. Regardless of the annoyances, it is imperative that we stay in the SPL as the financial implications of not doing so would be disastrous. I think this was highlighted recently when the top clubs in Division 1 talked about the miniscule difference in money from the SFL for finishing top of division 1 compared to the bottom of division 3. Like it or not, TV revenue and Setanta sponsorship is required to make the SPL work. Setanta spend something in the region of £13,000,000 per year which is spread between the clubs. Each club are guaranteed 4% of that amount with the remaining 52% distributed as a bonus depending on where they finish (0.5% for 12th, 1% for 11th, 1.5% for 10th etc ... up to 4.5% for 4th, 5.5% for 3rd, 11% for 2nd and 13% for 1st). For ICT that equates to around 1 million per season if we continue our mid table finishes. This goes a huge way to making the books balance. Do I like the idea of Setanta having such a grip on the game ? NO Do I think that they should be allowed to arbitrarily move games around ? NO Do I think that live broadcasts should be blacked out in Scotland ? CERTAINLY NOT Do I think they (and their money) are needed ? YES Do I think they should consider the implications of moving games around ? YES Do I think they will do that ? NO