Scotty

Think this is one subject where there can be little or no argument about the fitting nature of what both ICT and RCFC have done in remembering a vital cog in both team's wheels and where we can all be positive about things.

Indeed. very fitting.

please remember this comment in the days ahead :004:

Think he meant Alan Savage rather than any mystery investor and we all seem to know a little about him. The only person who could come close to an overall majority shareholding at ICT is Mr Sutherland himself Not when you are undermining the person who is elected/employed to do that. You cant have it both ways. Only after the spin got out of control did he admit he was never interested in it ..... There is a lot of that statement I agree with but at the end of the day, I - like many others on here - am a shareholder of the company and although not likely to ever see and dividend from those shares would like to see the company run well. For many years, I was more than happy with how things were going but in the last few years ... since we got to the SPL in fact, things have been going downhill and I would like to see them improve. I dont think its paranoia and its definitely not sudden. The last 4 or 5 years have seen a steady erosion of the club's affinity towards the fans as the focus switches to looking after the corporates. Part of it is a necessary evil I suspect as costs are higher and money needs to be brought in, but it doesnt make it right. The two can co-exist if the club make the effort. There has also been no improvement in things like stewarding, the club shop, the car park, Errea, and I also know of plenty of people who say that our hospitality offering is still not as good as our neighbours across the bridge was several years ago but as I havent sampled it in a few years (and it was good when I did) then I cant say for sure on that one. One biggie for me is the club's (lack of) a proper PR person. 90% of the moaning and groaning could be swept away if the club had a qualified and dedicated person doing the PR and doing it well. I am no PR expert, but if I were in the position, I would immediately do two things .... first I would re-establish communication with the fans through something like the Boardroom Banter series of articles that we used to have on here. It could be done on the net simultaneously via the official (non-interactive) site and this (interactive) one, it could be done via the program as not everyone goes to either site, and it could also be supplemented by having some informal social gatherings where fans could meet and mingle with players and officials. This would re-establish a feelgood factor. Secondly, as a PR person, I would try to make sure that whatever rumours are doing the rounds, the club's stance is explained in a way that is truthful. The club cannot do spin, and when they get found out, fans get more and more distrustful over it. I accept that not everything can be commented on for various reasons, but if they can actually talk up some of the good work that they do actually do ... and nip bad rumours in the bud while re-establishing communication with the fans as per the first part of my plan, then I feel they would quickly regain a lot of the ground they have lost with the fans in recent years. Most of us do NOT want to moan and groan, to lambaste the club, or to pick holes in what is said, but quite frankly, right now they want to wrap everything in a veil of secrecy despite the leaks that exist all over the place and when some news does get out it is hastily spun without any sort of plan and it makes them look amateur. Tell us what you want to do, or tell us why some 'hot-button' issue cannot be done and most of us will support the decision, just dont treat us like idiots. I want to end on a somewhat positive note so I will grant you that we have stability and that this stability takes a lot of work. I mentioned this in my previous post. David Sutherland put a plan in place several years ago and regardless of what people may think of Mike Smith in his matchday duties, the simple fact is that his trade is accountancy not football and so far he has made sure the accounts have looked pretty good every year he has been at the club so far. Hopefully this years will also look good (?)

No idea what he is like now but for some reason I feel positive about this option.

I wish they used "BOLD" :004:

Absent Friend .... Overall, I cannot really argue with you as you do make some valid comments so let me just comment on some of what you have said. I have heard various stories over the last few months about lots of different things from several different people and I must say I am not happy if even a fraction of it is true. Some of it may be from the boardroom, some may not, its hard to tell when there are so many leaks within the club. I can however confirm that some of what I have been told has proved to be extremely accurate (as it has now happened) whilst I concede that some other parts may or may not be getting told from a skewed viewpoint. I hasten to add that not everything I have heard has been posted on here by me. I pick and choose what I post. As for the trust ... I am sorry to say that I would not channel any of my issues through them as they appear to be somewhat toothless. It is disappointing to say this as I know many people involved with it and they are good people, who - in some cases - have worked tirelessly for the supporters for many years, and who are most definitely ICT supporters through and through but whether it is the club appearing to treat them with contempt, or whether they just have not had an issue yet where they have had to be seen to take an opposing viewpoint to the club for more than 5 minutes, the overall impression is that they have become the club's "**** deflector" when it comes to fan issues. PS - not sure if I am one of the 2 you refer to or not, but if I am, please do not question my support for the club. I am no less a supporter because of where I now live or because I question the motives and machinations of certain people employed by it. I would be delighted to sit here and type out positive messages day in and day out and when they do something right, I will do that and back them to the hilt on it but, conversely, after so many years of being "required" to toe the party line, when I now see or hear from multiple sources about some of the shambolic stuff going on behind the scenes then it is fair game as far as I am concerned. Sometimes you have to hint at things as the whole story is not yet in the public domain and sources could be compromised. I concede that sometimes the stories coming out may be skewed to the viewpoint of the person telling it but that is equally true when the club purposely float a story (eg. Warnock) I have been on enough committees in my time that I know exactly how difficult it is to run even a small organisation. I also know that in committees like this there usually tends to be just a handful of people who wield the majority of the power because they have more responsibility whilst others can sometimes be there to just make up the numbers. I dont think the ICT board is like this because one of the (good) things David Sutherland did do in either his first or second stint as Chairman was to reduce the size of the ICT board so that there was less chance of "hangers-on". Even if I do not like some of the things coming from the boardroom, I can both respect and applaud the members involved because of their hard work. However, I would also respectfully suggest that not everyone on the board is of the same mind in every issue, but when it comes down to it they have something called "collective responsibility" that dictates they show a united front in public despite their own personal feelings. Speak to some privately and you may get a different viewpoint. No. If there is a cancer you cut it out. The treatment is horrible, makes you feel very bad, and there is no guarantee it will work but if you allow it to spread it gets worse and ultimately becomes terminal. We spent a good portion of last season watching the workings of the boardroom and it was not pleasant. Anyone who thinks this did not have an effect in every corner of the stadium and on the pitch has their head in the sand. I want to applaud my team on the park (and I always will be it in person or by jumping round my home office in Toronto) but I also WANT to applaud the rest of the team in the boardroom and in the stadium but I cannot do that when they appear to be doing things that I feel are contrary to, or stagnating the development of the club we all support. Some of these people are (or have been) employees whose only loyalty is to the paycheck ... we are fans whose loyalty is borne out of passion and love for the club and although that flame is hard to extinguish, it is not impossible. Here I agree with you 100% :003: We are at a crossroads right now and Marius Niculae is not really the issue. He is merely a symbol of the issue. Do we try to push forward and continue growing as a club or have we conceded that this is our lot, we have reached our peak and the only thing to do is consolidate our position and be happy we are even in the SPL ..... With a practical head on, I can see the argument for fiscal prudence. We have low crowds, lower turnover than most (if not all) SPL clubs and we have been fortunate to stay debt free for much of our existence thanks to the likes of David Sutherland. If he had not come in when he did (the first time), things may have been a lot different than they are now, in fact we might have gone the way of Gretna. I will always be grateful to him for that, and for his steadying hand since then on a few other occasions. He is without doubt a very smart and astute businessman and he has served the club well. However, as has been said before, he either wants to run the club or not. If he does, then fair enough, if not, then whoever is in the position needs to be allowed to do their job. With a less practical head on, I enjoyed the fact that Alan Savage managed to get someone of Marius Niculae's profile to the club and had plans to upgrade a lot of the stadium infrastructure (shop, car park, possibly a bar etc). Regardless of what anyone thinks of Marius' good or bad performances throughout the season I dont think anyone can argue that he certainly raised the profile of the club on the European or even World stage. ICT was mentioned frequently during the Euros, even on coverage over this side of the pond, and I was disappointed that the club failed to try and capitalise on that by perhaps using Marius as the carrot to persuade other players to come here. I will also feel extremely sad if he goes as he will not yield the club as much from his transfer as I feel he could have done on the park. Its a crying shame that the two aforementioned businessmen seemed to be on opposing sides with regards to the development of the club with one favouring a "tiny steps" mentality and the other perhaps taking greater leaps .... As a fan of the club I just think it would have been awesome if they could have met somewhere in the middle, formed what I think would have been a formidable partnership, and taken the club forward in good size steps. DS could rein in AS when his ideas got too large and AS could gee DS up when his vision may have been more parochial.

The figure sometimes quoted for the two years was in the region of ?270,000 which is roughly ?338,000 and this is equivalent to the amount of un-issued shares that Alan Savage/Orion purchased. Who is to say what signing on fee he got or what percentage of the future transfer fee he is due ........ I am sure it will all come out in the wash very soon

see HERE

...before coming up with a reason to reject it sorry, I may be in one of my neggy moods today, but I just do not see the club giving a flying **** about something like this.

not sure about the Romanian one, but the other one isnt even from the right country .......

Graham Bennett is not Gepetto [attach=1]

Absolutely disgusted with the things I have heard over the last 24 hours and just want to comment on the fantasy football piece from the P&J "Inverness will let the player leave in an effort to reduce their wage bill and raise revenue" BULLSH!T - He is being forced out because of internal politics. This has nothing to do with money and nothing to do with football. Its the end game of a boardroom pissing match that went on for the whole of last season and just about ripped the heart from our club. Marius does not want to leave. He is (was) happier than he has been for years at any club. The attacker earns £4,000 a week and his departure would give manager Craig Brewster increased clout in the transfer market. BULLSH!T - As has been stated before, he earns nothing like that figure and the funds to pay his wages are already in place and have been since the day he signed. How exactly it will give Brewster more clout is up for debate. He might receive a small portion of the transfer money certainly, but our club is continuing to expand its growing reputation for treating players like sh!t and few will want to come here unless we pay them a premium wage and thats gonna cost more than Marius so whats the difference ! “We have had a friendly and constructive discussion with Marius". BULLSH!T - telling a player he is not required and will be sold to the highest bidder despite his offer to extend his contract and protect the club's investment and future profit from his sale is not constructive. "In the meantime he has begun training with the first-team squad and will be available for selection until or unless we receive an offer which is satisfactory". BULLSH!T - He is to start training with U-19s from Monday. Time for the mushroom avatar/signature to reappear ..... at least they enjoy being kept in the dark and fed on sh!t [attach=1]

The 1st was always my favourite division ..... even if it is without a doubt the hardest one to get out of. Don't get me wrong, I dont want to see us relegated but most teams in the 1st have a chance of doing something as they are all capable and that fact alone makes it competitive and interesting to watch.

I havent been in the pub since I came back from Cuba and information passed to me this evening suggests otherwise.

Brewster is in charge of the team, but he is not in charge of contracts, that falls to the Director of Football and the Board. I am sure he can make recommendations or requests in this regard but the final decisions and much if not all of the negotiations take place upstairs as it were.

Given that the housing division of Tulloch has just made a number of site managers redundant then yes it would seem that they are feeling the effects of the current housing malaise. Not sure about the civil side of it though or even which parts Tulloch owns these days. As far as the effects on ICT, they should be minimal I would have thought as we are not so tied into Tulloch money on a day to day basis that it will hurt us. Where it might is if we were looking for assistance as has happened in the past and this may not be as easy to get as before. Our biggest shareholder is of course Mr Sutherland and it is my understanding that he has sold a good portion of the business recently and also diversified is interests in other areas. He is an intelligent man and I am sure he saw a lot of this coming - maybe not all - but he would have seen the signs.

As i understand it, and as I have posted before, the player was (is?) happy to stay at the club and the pushing is coming from a single direction.

to be fair to Brewster - it is, and always has been, out of his hands !

crazy money !!!! Thats the weird thing ... over here, so long as the number isnt already taken, and it passes the "decency" test, I can have whatever I want - up to 8 letters/numbers. ICT, ICTFC, ICT FC 1, CALEY, CALEYJAG, JAGS, THISTLE ... you get the idea. And the cost ... something like $300 [£150] (or thereabouts).

steady !!! remember this is a family site :015:

I sometimes think the other way round ...... Look at Paterson. He was also a defender in his time yet we got more out of the strikers than we did the defence. Much of the time the Caley Thistle ethos under Pele was to leak goals but score more than the opposition. When Robbo came on board, I believe we became far meaner at the back but less effective up front. Maybe its because managers think they know everything about the position they once played in and try to mould players who play in that position into their own image but let other positions have more freedom to develop naturally ..... If Brewster does have the ability to develop Stokes' (or any other striker's) talent rather than try to make him a clone of himself then I agree that it would be very interesting. Despite his currently questionable (by some) managerial skills, I also suspect that Brewster's reputation as a decent striker, a fitness fanatic and a player who looked after himself so he could still be playing at age 40 might be viewed favourably by clubs who are prepared to loan players out

My only concern with this player - and I cant find the source again so you may need to just take my word for it - is that when he went to Larnaca his first comment was that he would be the best player they had ever had so there seems to be an ego in play here. Watched a few of the youtube clips last night and while some were excellent others looked decidedly average.

There's already a loser .... Marius !!! He doesnt know whether he is coming or going and the constant speculation can be doing nothing for his pre-season preparations. Lets just hope that things behind the scenes are a little more clear cut than the press speculation suggests.

"so just how do I become the mascot at TCS ....."