Scotty

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:

Whilst it is true to say the statement from the SPL said that "the clubs agreed" to the fixture change, I don't think there was much in the way of choice in the matter as its a well established rule that clubs have the right to 3 days between games. (They dont always use that right - for example over Xmas and New Year) but they do have the right. Hibs are playing live on Setanta on the Monday so cant be forced to play Wednesday in the replay, so that then becomes Thursday, and consequently they cant be forced to play Saturday in the league so our game becomes Sunday ..... a bit like teams playing in Europe on Thursdays (when we are still in those comps) usually moving their fixtures to the Sundays.

Killie V Hibs on monday (setanta) so 3 day rule applies, cup replay on thursday (again, 3 day rule) so ICT V Hibs on sunday

confirmed in email to me by ICT Chief Exec. Details on front page

That rumour has been flying around over here for ages .... Beckham to LA Galaxy so that posh spice can pursue a career of some sort in hollyweird. the other part of the rumour is that he will not only be a player but may receive part of his payment in the form of part-ownership of the club and that the club will help him establish the "beckham brand" of 'soccer' training camps for kids in the the USA ... anyroads, I guess I will see him play if/when Toronto FC play the Galaxy :004:

Send a PM to Gringo - he can let you know of a good one in a central location. We also have links to various places in the Pub, Grub & Accomodation page - (click + sign on clubguide menu on left). Its not on the page but the Travel Lodge at Inshes also used to do discounts for ICT fans, not sure if they still do but worth asking.

I dont think a discussion of this nature is 'tripe' and the fact that it has been discussed before doesnt make it any more relevant or irrelevant than it was before (or indeed when it raises its head again in the future as it surely will). I also dont think the majority of posters are blaming CC for the low attendances. They are disagreeing with him over using that as an excuse as to why we cant sign or re-sign players when that is only one facet of a multi dimensional problem. here are a couple of quotes that I added in the COURIER THREAD "I agree that we can/should all do our bit to try and get more people along but the club should also be proactively and visibly doing something to try and entice 'occasional' fans to come and see more games" "None of this is CC's fault and he probably cant have any effect on any of it, but its as valid an excuse for people not coming as blaming the fans themselves ..... you have to make them 'want' to come, not to expect it without making an effort" Why are attendances low and who is to blame ? The answer to that is EVERYONE and like most spirals it can either be an upward spiral of progress or a downward spiral to oblivion. If we start getting one or two of the factors right then each part can help the others to keep improving rather than stagnating or going backwards. The Club - entry prices, the 'experience' as described on another thread, the 'presence' etc - the club cannot expect anyone other than the diehards to turn up and must proactively promote the club. There have been a few attempts in the past, but most of these have been short lived, half hearted and ineffective. Ideas have been presented to the club over the years but very few have even been tested let alone implemented. Implementing ideas does however cost money and the club need to see a return on any investment with increased crowds so the fans do have a part to play if the club actually do try something. If they see a return, they can try more initiatives to encourage even more fans, or make money available for Charlie to spend improving the product on the park where he sees fit ... The Team (players & management) - give us a good product on the park. I dont think anyone would argue with the fact that teams playing well and winning games attract better crowds than if they are not performing but if you dont know which ICT will turn up on matchday or go through a spell where games are not being won or the style is boring and ineffective then 'casual' fans will not turn up. After all, they are going for entertainment rather than a diehard who is going because it is their 'passion' and if they are not entertained, they have no incentive to come back. To be fair to CC and the team, I dont think they ever go out with the intention of losing a game or playing badly but these are the only guys that can work on their own consistency. The team do respond to larger crowds encouraging them - it has been said before many times - so if the club attract more fans, and the players play well, then the crowd get encouraged, make more noise and become more enthusiastic, more 'part-timers' come back, the club can then justify doing more to make them (and those that they encourage) want to come back, the noise gets louder .... etc etc etc The Fans - Call it Highland apathy, call it laziness, call it frugality, but there are so many reasons why people decide not to turn up. Those who do turn up need to try and encourage others to come along and it is so much easier to do that if the team are playing well or the club are doing something to improve the 'experience' or 'presence' of the club. As said above - because each of the headings is interconnected - if we can get one or two of these factors moving in the right direction then it can all go in the right direction ....

"I was asked if I wanted to enter into discussions about a new contract. I said I was happy with the situation the way it was, but that did not stop them from offering me one. If they had chosen to offer me an extended contract and I had signed it then I would not be leaving now. It's as simple as that. If I had signed an extension then I couldn't have walked out. In my eyes, that would have been wrong." what bull**** ... Walter, they asked you if you wanted to discuss an extended contract, you said "no its alright", and are now blaming them for your answer ... I hope your next **** is a hedgehog you turncoat, traitorous barsteward. You did good work when you were in the job, but your legacy will be that of turning your back on your country. Dont be surprised when all but the most 'loyal' Rangers fans do the same to you.

I always thought it was a confidence/thinking issue with Roy .... when he started thinking he lost confidence in his own ability. He is undoubtedly skillful, he is indeed more one-footed than some although he can use both, but there were times watching him even in lower divisions where he seemed to cross an imaginary line about 10 yards over the half way line and then started thinking .... this invariably led to an infield pass or a 180 degree turn rather than going forward. When he kept his head down and looked like he wasnt thinking but just saying "**** it" and going for it he would usually manage to get to the byeline, or cut inside and deliver a decent ball in to the box or to the strikers. so Roy, as one of my bosses used to say to me .... "Dont think about it, JFDI !!" (just f****** do it).

The 'Curries' (Corries) performing Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire' :010:

Vengaboys - 'We're going to eat Pizza' (we're going to Ibiza)

George Burley would be my choice - but then again, he may want a full time management job for a few years yet.

that was a little involved ...... got it in the end :004: