Scotty

What have "Bennett & Co" done wrong other than try to hold onto a contracted player by offering him a new contract while fending off derisory offers from a club that prefer to do business through the media instead of through normal channels ? They made Dods an offer which, as it turns out, wasnt to his liking. Thats fair enough, I can respect that - its a short career and his next deal is possibly his last decent contract. We (now) know that his personal desire is to be closer to loved ones at the end of his current contract if he couldnt get the terms he wanted, and that is also understandable. However, this latest - media driven - move is taking the piss. I have said it before and will say it again NO player is bigger than the club, whoever they are, or think they are. If any player isnt committed 100% to the club and lacking the motivation or desire to perform well in front of fans who pay good money to see it then as far as I am concerned they can GTF !!! I posted my own opinion of our lineup for this week's game on another thread but at the end of the day its up to CC / DP - with Dods embroiled in this saga there is no way he can concentrate 100% on his game - no-one could, machine or not (as we have seen in the last 2 weeks !) - and I hope that Charlie has the balls to drop him for the greater good of the team.

Brown Tokely McCaffrey Munro Hastings Wilson © Black Rankin McBain Wyness Dargo Subs Fraser Golabek Morgan Duncan Bayne McAllister (u21) Sutherland/Soane (u21)

Copy of a news release received from ICT FC. Caley Thistle have today received a transfer request from Darren Dods, by fax from his agent. This has been turned down. Director of football Graeme Bennett says:"We have notified the agent that the situation remains unchanged from our last meeting at the end of July when we indicated that we expected to see Dods honour his contract to play for us this season. "That is the end of the matter as far as we're concerned." Caley Thistle are also disappointed to note fresh media stories in which Craig Brewster criticises the Inverness club for not selling players he has bid for. Mr Bennett says:"We have today spoken to Dundee United chairman Eddie Thomson about this blatant attempt to unsettle our players. "The only player we were prepared to have dialogue with United about was David Proctor but their offer did not meet our valuation. That remains the position and business will only be done if they meet our price for this player. "All other players are not for sale, as our chairman made extremely clear in his statement two weeks ago. In the light of that statement, Mr Brewster's comments are unprofessional. Our board gave him his first opportunity in management and we're very disappointed to see him act in this manner towards us. "Basically, he's complaining because we exercise our right to keep our players. That smacks of desperation. We're fed up with it, our fans are fed up with it, and we'd like to concentrate on our own season rather than keep hearing how frustrated Dundee United are."

some of them have other interests in the media - like Gordon Smith for example. Others probably have other businesses too ... does Paul Cherry still have an insurance firm ? It wouldnt suprise me if some of them are also on 'retainers' from some of their bigger clients if they have them.

Bayne is a little like Paul Ritchie - both had their share of doubters (and boo-boys) but both worked hard at providing for the other strikers. As has been said before, he is never going to be a 20+ goal a season striker, but he will create a fair few for Dargo / Wyness or whoever he is partnered with

It seems simple - Dods does not want to play for us anymore and while their may have been 'gentleman's agreements' in place that made it clear that he might want to move closer to Edinburgh to be nearer loved ones etc at the end of his contract unless ICT offered him something that would warrant moving them closer to him in Inverness, this latest turn of events seems to suggest that he or his agent are stirring up the issue. Whether (his friend) Brewster is in the middle of all this is unclear but at this point immaterial - it is the player or agent talking to the media and therefore the buck stops with him. We have said it time and time again - NO PLAYER IS BIGGER THAN THE CLUB - IF Dods does want to go and he or 'his people' are responsible for the latest machinations then its simple - he is out of the team and replaced by Stuart McCaffrey. Caff may not be the same style of player but he is a more than adequate replacement for the ungrateful barsteward. If Golly is not playing then give the armband to Barry Wilson, Russell Duncan or Ross Tokely

IHE - It appears to be true - did you miss your morning cuppa today ?

Kencar he has left the club "by mutual agreement".

Moving this to another forum as it has now been confirmed as true.

I did ... This was MY summary of the statement on this UNOFFICIAL website at the time of the statement's release. As the club did not send it out to me until a few hours after I began pestering them after reading it on numerous sites elsewhere, I did have to cobble together the initial report from a number of sources so the headline might not have been as correct as it could have been. I have now removed the sentence that seems to be causing all the confusion but if you read the actual words of DS as contained in the article, there is little room for confusion. I would concede that the line "in relation to players who are important to our manager's plans" does allow a little wiggle room but still think Mr Sutherland would prefer not to do business with them. Maybe we wont see any action until he steps down in 2 weeks and Alan Savage takes over ?

Teams [attachment deleted by admin]

OK found IHE's flag - also available in the gallery of the Ayr game on THIS site :004: [attachment deleted by admin]

CaleyLad - suggest you have a chat with IHE and Doresboy - PM them from here IHE had a flag made which I know there is a picture of somewhere (but cant find it right now) and Doresboy had a flag made a few years ago that we used to drape over the tunnel and is shown below [attachment deleted by admin]

FEATURES > Member Polls within the main menu, OR right hand side of the page on any screen that has a right-side column (all parts of site except Forum, PredictionLeague and Gallery). This was also discussed on this THREAD and as stated in that thread, I think we will now be able to add the poll directly into the end of the match reports :003:

Ahhh - someone who can verbally spar with Gypsy Rose Johndo :003: :015:

:015: - fair enough :004: maybe I am defending the site's integrity a little too much and maybe you are exaggerating the regularity of the 'witch-hunts' when the truth most likely lies somewhere in the middle. Lets just agree to the fact that people are entitled to criticise but sometimes that goes a little over the top. Incidentally, we do have a 'report' button on each post. If a post is reported we will review it and decide if we need to take action against the poster, delete it, move it, close it etc. We also respond to the club or the SPL if they complain about postings. Most times, this process takes place in the background away from the forums with only those involved knowing about it. If a player saw a posting they were unhappy about and wanted to complain they could do so discretely either as a registered member or through the club. To their credit, although many players have taken a slagging from time to time, only 1 player has ever emailed me to complain about a posting and that was 6 or 7 years ago, and one other player had a light hearted go at me about something on the boards at a supporters do 3 or 4 years ago.

Welcome aboard aussie_lad. New supporters are certainly most welcome. I am sure that Immortal Howden Ender will be along with some antipodean references to welcome you in his own inimitable style. dont worry though, as he himself said in antoher thread, he is one of our more eccentric posters !!! What teams should you hate ? : Whoever you want. We all have our favourites that we love to hate. Personally, I would say our main rivalries are with Ross County, Livingston and probably now, Dundee Utd Ross County rivalry stems from the Highland League days of pre-merger teams Caley and Thistle, the nearness of the hamlet of Dingwall, and the fact that we entered the leagues and came up through them at the same time (with ICT being somewhat more succesfull of course) Livingston is a similar rivalry - we moved up from Div3 to Div1 almost at the same rate and the media kind of built us up as the new firm of the smaller teams - Livi changed their name from Meadowbank around the same time as we entered the league and the media therefore classed each as new teams ... we prevented them from being promoted on the last day one season and their fans dont really like us much !!! Our loathing for Dundee Utd stems from the way they appear to conduct business. It is alleged that they tried to tempt then-manager Steve Paterson to Tannadice while we were in Div 1 and although he turned them down and went to Aberdeen a short time after it left a bad taste in the mouth. They poached Craig Brewster from us at Xmas time and you cant fail to have read about the ongoing squabbles between the clubs over their signing targets and how its being conducted through the press. Personally, I loathe this team more than any other. I would say we also have 'minor rivalries' with other teams. Aberdeen because the media see this as the 'north derby' even though we are in the north and they are in the north-east, St Mirren because their fans cant get over a single bad tackle that Ross Tokely committed years ago. The Partick rivalry you refer to is because of the whole promotion saga 3 seasons ago where they didnt accept relegation gracefully. Players :- legends of ICT would probably be the likes of Jim Calder (GK), Charlie Christie (now manager), Ian Stewart (80 goals) and current players such as Wyness (90+ goals) ... but we also seem to like 'good honest hardworking professionals' such as past players like Teasdale, MacArthur, Cherry, Mann, Sheerin and current players like Tokely, Wilson, Golabek (despite the negative thread from last weeks game), Black etc. I would direct you to the CLUBGUIDE section in the menu on the left of the screen - it contains a number of interesting pages such as STATS & FACTS and the CLUB HISTORY which will give you a good grounding in all things ICT. Pubs : There are many pubs where ICT fans congregate. My preferred hostelry when I lived in Inverness was the Innes Bar and it has a fairly sizeable group of fans who go there on a matchday - many of whom post on here. As you are in Orkney, a nice bottle of the world's finest HIGHLAND PARK whisky for Big Stu will ensure you never leave the Innes sober :004: ..... There is also the ICT Social Club in Greig Street on the other side of the river which is a members club but will allow guests in on match days. As it is a social club, the drink is somewhat cheaper and again, you will find many ICT fans congregating there and taking their bus to and from the game. The location of each pub is shown in the CLUBGUIDE > Stadia/Travel Map link.

1 example in almost 13 years of the site's existence ? ... wallowing ... :004: To be fair, I do recall LF getting a hard time from some posters but NOT from all, I also remember the same of Hastings when he left the club previously as well as Xausa, McCulloch and others. However, I also remember support for players like Sheerin over the Taxi incident, Denzil when he went to Hearts, Wilson when he went to Livi etc so although you choose to focus only on negativity, the posters on this site, who as I have said previously, are entitled to their own opinion, can regularly be very positive about our club, our team and our players.

Reading between all the various rumours, counter rumours, dodgy emails and tea leaf apparitions it seems to me that ..... ... He is good pals with Brew (?) ... He has family in Edinburgh (?) ... He wants to move closer to Edinburgh ... He wants a coaching role in his next (and final ?) contract ... He was pissed off that ICT didnt tell him of an offer from DUFC (even though he probably already knew by other means) ... He wants to go ... He won't sign a new contract (for whatever reason) Given all of this, he should go and go NOW. No single player is more important than the team as a whole. Caff can fill that spot until he either makes it his own or until CC gets additional cover/replacement. Disappointed that he appears to be showing more loyalty to Brew than to the club that pays his wages.

Both !! given that the 'machine' has shown his true colours and wants away and there are doubts over Black/Proctor .... this is my preferred lineup _______________________________________ Brown _______________________________________ Tokely McCaffrey Munro Hastings <--- Caff back where he belongs, switch to back 3 if needed _______________________________________ Duncan <--- Duncan doing the 'unsung' bit Wilson Black/Keogh Rankin Morgan/McBain <--- Rankin in the middle alongside Black/Keogh _______________________________________ Dargo <--- Dargo ploughing lone furrow, Denzil on if more needed.

The 'A' Squad was also named today ..... SCOTLAND A SQUAD Goalkeepers Neil Alexander (Cardiff City) Craig Gordon (Heart of Midlothian) Graeme Smith (Motherwell) Defenders Graham Alexander (Preston North End) Russell Anderson (Aberdeen) Gary Caldwell (Celtic) Steven Caldwell (Sunderland) Christian Dailly (West Ham United) Jackie McNamara (Wolverhampton W.) Graeme Murty (Reading) Gary Naysmith (Everton) Robbie Neilson (Heart of Midlothian) Steven Pressley (Heart of Midlothian) Andy Webster (Heart of Midlothian) David Weir (Everton) Midfield Barry Ferguson (Rangers) Darren Fletcher (Manchester United) Paul Hartley (Heart of Midlothian) Neil McCann (Heart of Midlothian) Lee McCulloch (Wigan Athletic) Ian Murray (Rangers) Nigel Quashie (West Bromwich Albion) Scott Severin (Aberdeen) Gary Teale (Wigan Athletic) Forwards Kris Boyd (Rangers) Chris Burke (Rangers) Shaun Maloney (Celtic) James McFadden (Everton) Kenny Miller (Celtic) Garry O'Connor (Lokomotiv Moscow)

Witch-hunt ? I dont think so. Is it a witch-hunt when players are regularly praised for doing well, or when the Board, Grassa, David Sutherland, or Charlie get plaudits for what we see as good decisions ? NO ? I guess its only a witch hunt when it doesnt match your opinion or when someone has the audacity to criticise a bad performance ? We can all be "nicey nicey" about the team, try to spin a crap performance into something it wasnt, or bury our head in the sand and be "nice-n-fluffy" but the fact of the matter is that last weeks performance got an "F" and rightly or wrongly Golly has - on this occasion - been deemed by a large number of fans to have been one of the main culprits. At the end of the day, Charlie and DP will pick the team that they think will win the game, they will get it spectacularly right on some occasions and quite wrong on others - thats what humans do - we get things right sometimes and we make mistakes at others !!! Another unique aspect of human nature is the ability for each of us to hold different opinions ....I do not necessarily agree with all that has been said about Golly in this thread but everyone is entitled to their opinion and to post and debate that opinion (unless deemed slanderous, libellous etc). Personally, I think Golly has been, and still is, a great asset to our club. I like the guy as an ICT player and hope his form can recover. HOWEVER, SG would be the first person to admit that his performance was not up to the standard we have seen from him before or what we are entitled to expect. It is also fairly reasonable for users to question why Richard Hastings was not in the starting lineup as he was an almost ever-present for us in that position last season. I cant remember who said it - think it was last season - but it was suggested that an internet fans forum is pretty much an online "pub discussion" - filled with the sort of thing you would have come across in many pubs around Inverness sometime after 5pm on Saturday. The only difference being that you can get more people round the table in this environment. I never thought I would say this on a thread on this site, but the most sensible posting I have seen was one made by F*ballers Wife :004: :010: when she said ......

merged two topics together in 'off the park' :004:

The previous thread on this subject was removed at the request of the Scottish Premier League who indicated that live commentary of a match to a third party such as a bookmaker contravened commercial arrangements that they have in place with other companies in much the same way as advertising pirate broadcasts or websites where live coverage can be watched is also 'verboten'. In the email from the SPL, they indicated that anyone providing such a service from the stadium should be immediately ejected from the ground if caught. I am happy to allow this subject on the board if it can be confirmed that the SPL has now relented in their stance. until then, the thread is closed and the author's posts are subject to admin moderation.

I have never been RH's biggest fan, but he made that position his own last season and it was a bit of a mystery as to why he wasnt in the lineup on Saturday. Most fans only have the benefit of seeing the players in match situations and we dont see the build-up to a match or training sessions, so we can only presume that Golly showed up better in training that RH. After all the comments of this past weekend, RH needs to be in the lineup next week if he is fit.