Scotty

I have been getting increasingly frustrated at the problem of obtaining ANY coverage of ICT matches over the course of this season. I have to say that the BBC is EXCELLENT when they are able to broadcast outside the UK and I fully understand that there are some instances where for contractual reasons they cannot do it - they say on their site that Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock for example have alternative media arrangements in place and none of their games are available to overseas listeners. Thats fair enough, as its not in their control. However, it makes my blood boil when they mark other matches as unavailable for the same reason, and then say they wont enter into any conversation about it. I have spoken to ICT many times in the past about this and they do not have any media arrangements in place that would mean games get blocked. As I knew Hibs have an 'interactive' department run by fans, I also contacted long-time web guy Stuart Crowther who is heavily involved in running this as well as Hibs.net (one of the earliest and best independent fan sites for any club) and he confirmed that although H.I. does broadcast live from games, they do not block the coverage going out using normal methods as they actually have their own commentary team of fans ......... so come on BBC, explain yourselves, who is blocking this game ??? Is it YOU ? The SPL ? Caley Thistle ? or Hibs ? cos no-one is admitting to it ??? [attach=1]

Fraser Tokely Munro Dods Hastings Wilson Duncan McBain Rankin Wyness Bayne

Good luck to Bobby wherever he ends up. He may have got slower, but his football brain is no doubt as sharp as ever. He is one of the few solid centre halves around and makes up for his lack of pace by being able to read the game well and know where he has to be. He is also one of the very few that can accurately ping a pass more than 50 yards. Whatever anyone says I think he was tremendous for us both as a defender and as the leader of the team. Having said that, I would not see it as a good move to bring him back. He is without a doubt one of the members of the ICT 'Hall of Fame' because of his past performances and re-signing him would I feel be a backward step. If he goes to Peterhead along with Golly, Tony Low (who I also rated highly) and perhaps others from Paterson's ICT era then I can see them doing pretty well next season.

Playing for ICT did nothing for his chances of getting a full international cap, despite what we might think/hope .... not playing in the first team for one half of the OF usually means you are a shoe-in for a call up (unfortunately).

What has she said or done now ? The "Celebrity" Big Brother racism debacle has even made the national news over here, although I fail to see how Jade, her mum and her boyfriend are actually "celebrities"

Brewster was 'compensation' for the manager's contract not a transfer fee for a player .... and we actually got around 201k for Brew not 250k

Mike Fraser as #1 with Jonathan Smith as reserve although this Jamie McDonald sounds interesting. No to Ludo Roy, Bryn Halliwell or any other has-been or 'never-was'.

not sure how to feel about this one ..... On the one hand I wish him well as he has been a consistently good player for us who re-signed his last contract with no fuss. He has to look after #1 even if he wont be the #1 and moving to Celtic will certainly give him more money. I think I prefer the idea of him moving to Celtic rather than Falkirk as at least it shows some ambition rather than a pure money grab. On the other hand, I am disappointed if this is true as the reason touted for his apparent reluctance to sign a contract was a desire to break into the international squad and I fail to see how sitting on the celtic bench will make him an international keeper - although he will probably make it into the squad by virtue of being an OF player, reserve or not !! Oh well - Mikey Fraser may not have made many starts but now is his chance ........

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t..._ct/6273101.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/t..._ct/6273101.stm

Note to journalists: I was thinking of moving this to the rumour mill but to save the big man getting upset have decided to issue an IHE Health Warning instead - IHE's predictions have been known to be hazardous to your reputation if believed. Whilst some come true, others are total wind-ups - think aquifer, Richard Gough, Colin Hendry - and you print his comments at your peril .... :015: :015: :015: if true you will be a genius, if false you will get a job at one of the tabloids or as understudy to Jim Traynor or Chick Young.

The Hearts V ICT match on 10th February has been changed from a 3pm kickoff to a 2pm kickoff at the request of the police. This is to avoid a clash with the Scotland rugby game.

Rumour has it that a shortlist of 5 was drawn up and that this is now down to 2 - McLeish or McAllister Others that were rumoured to be on the initial list Jim Jeffries - may have ruled himself out as he has backed McLeish for the job and SFA doesnt want someone currently employed elsewhere. Tommy Burns - speculation that he would prefer to stay as assistant (along with mccoist) Joe Jordan - was interested but SFA doesnt want someone currently employed elsewhere.

stage opposite the main stand, with tall barriers erected behind to stop the bridge/A9 portion of the audience from getting a view. If you put it in front of any of the stands you automatically reduce the potential size of the crowd as no-one wants to sit behind the stage

I'm with Chibber (and Barry Ferguson) on this one .... A captain is very important on the park, geeing up players, making sure they are in the right place and generally giving them a boot up the erse where needed. As they are also on the pitch they can not only relay the manager's comments but also see things the manager may not. I will give you one recent example from the Barry Ferguson saga, I cant remember who said it, although I do remember it was an ex-Celtic player, (think it may have been Murdo MacLeod or someone like that on Radio Scotland) and this person said that if he were still playing, the first name they would ever have on their teamsheet was Roy Aitken. The 'Bear' was never the most skillful player in the world, but always gave 100% and his on the field leadership was legendary amongst the Celtic (and some of the Scotland) faithful. I seem to recall their Centenary season - where they won the championship - they won so many games in the last 5 minutes by keeping going for the full 90 (as they should) and many players put it down to the leadership (and growling/bellowing) of Roy Aitken. I think Souness, and maybe Terry Butcher were also in the same mould for both club and country, and in Caley Thistle terms, although we havent really had a 'bellower' both Darren Dods and Bobby Mann certainly have a presence on the park as captain. Also, the Club Captain tends to be the 'shop steward' for the players, the liaison between management and players and one who has a big part to play when things like win bonusses and other stuff is discussed before the start of the season

Maybe we should try to put ICT words to one of Elton's songs ? 'football wizard' 'charlie in the sky with diamonds' 'passengers' (for HMS Sneck) sure many of you can do better than me , I dont know too many Elton songs :014:

In this order .... Stuart Golabek : he is still club captain after all. If Golly isnt around then ..... Barry Wilson, assuming he is still playing. other alternatives (in order) 1. Munro - already touted as a future captain 2. Tokely - not as consistent this season but 10 years of consistency behind him. 3. Black - agree with IHE, it might mature him - just as it did with Barry Robson at United. 4. Hart - still think he can make midfield tick - was good when he appeared this season 5. Hastings - this choice might surprise some people but he has performed well.

Mystery investors :015: :015: :015: Most of the 'USA' designations are either search engine 'bots' that crawl the site such as Google / Yahoo looking for content or users who are registered to AOL (some of you using that service actually come to the site via proxy servers in the US !!!). A few USA visitors are real people :004:

If Dods goes then we need another defender regardless. Whether that is a replacement or cover for Munro / Caff remains to be seen. Caff has not had much of a chance at a run out in the first team because Dods and Munro have been excellent, as has Hastings and even though Tokely is getting less praise this season, Caff is no right back. [If Proctor is being released, maybe we should take him back ? He looked decent enough and seemed to keep Rosscoe on top of his game by pushing for a starting spot] He maybe didnt do 'magnificently' when pushed into first team action, but then again, would you do well when you hadnt had a first team game in several months ? No, didnt think so. Come the end of the season, Caff will hopefully be there fighting for his place and if he is good enough, he will prove to Charlie that he deserves it ... if not, then he wont. simple as that. We shouldnt write him off just yet !!

"... tell you what, we coulda had a good life together! F****** real good life! Had us a place of our own. But you didn't want it. So what we got now is Brokeback Mountain! Everything's built on that! That's all we got, boy, f****** all. So I hope you know that, even if you don't never know the rest! ...."

its a wrist injury .... and for a man in his position (viewed as a w***er by most of us) that could be a serious injury :004:

dont think thats in the online version ... anyone care to enlighten me ?

ABERDEEN [attach=1] ICT [attach=2]

If there is one area where the Americans do well that is marketing/sponsorship. They will make a fortune from Beckham merchandise, shirts, 'bobblehead dolls', collectors items, all sorts of things and thats before they even start to sort out humungous deals for corporate sponsorship. I think you will also find that he will not actually be paid that amount of money. That may be the value of the contract, but the rumours over here for several months now were that he would sign for the galaxy (because posh wants a stab at hollywood) and that the galaxy would not only help him establish more Beckahm soccer schools but also that he would eventually become one of the owners of the team so part of the contract will be for the schools, part will be in shares in the team and the rest will be wages (which the US tax people will take great delight in making into a far smaller amount)

According to the local news here last night, Toronto FC sold more than 600 tickets yesterday for the game against LA Galaxy. Bearing in mind that no-one knows when this game will be played, what day, what time, what month so dont even have a clue if they will get to it or not so it shows that whatever else he is (or is not), he is a player who will put bums on seats. I saw an interview with him on the news last night and he actually came across reasonably well. He got his facts straight when he said " 'soccer' in America is the most popular sport amongst kids up to a certain age, and then went on to talk about how he hopes he can change that by raising its profile and establishing more of his soccer academies. I think this Englishman may eventually be at least partially responsible for a new upswing in the fortunes of the Canadian and US national teams as interest in the sport soars just as much or even more than when they first set it up and enticed the likes of Pele to play in it. If the Americans start throwing money at the game (instead of at Beckham) they could be a serious force to be reckoned with in coming years. In the short term, I think Canada may benefit first .... with Toronto getting an MLS team, and advertising it heavily in newspapers and TV, and the youth world cup here later in the year interest is already reasonably high and even though he signed for a team thousands of miles away the buzz on the news last night was palpable as Beckham is a name that even those not interested in the sport know. interesting times ahead - just hope the bugger doesnt get a hat-trick against Toronto :004: