IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER

As long as you don't turn into an anagram of yer name !?

But not against Ross County ?

Glory hunters!Pure and simple...We're no more immune to that than any other club in the country!Loads of new posters on this forum in the build-up - never to be heard of again.Literally thousands of 'fans' who attended that day who had never been to the TCS before.Literally thousands of fans who attended that day who have never been back to (or indeed, ever been to) the TCS since. We don't have 15,000 fans - we've 4,000. And if that doesn't increase after last season, then it simply never will. Glory hunters!Pure and simple...We're no more immune to that than any other club in the country!Loads of new posters on this forum in the build-up - never to be heard of again.Literally thousands of 'fans' who attended that day who had never been to the TCS before.Literally thousands of fans who attended that day who have never been back to (or indeed, ever been to) the TCS since. We don't have 15,000 fans - we've 4,000. And if that doesn't increase after last season, then it simply never will. Inverness potentially has a much bigger fanbase in my opinion, but it will take time. Too many folks in Inverness and area are Rangers/Celtic/Aberdeen fans, the club needs to get ICT into the mindset of kids in the schools now more than ever while we have had some success, forget bigger attendances for the next few seasons and look at the bigger picture and look to get these kids growing up as Caley fans, then who knows, maybe you then have a club with an average attendance of 6-7000 in 10-15 years time. It may never happen but that's where I see potential in the club, more so probably than any other club in the country. I agree with Sneckboy about the size of core support and the unlikelihood of it increasing significantly. We could do all the marketing and outreach in the world, and even move the stadium to a more central location, and I don't think there's any chance that the average attendance would ever reach figures of 6-7000. It's not just down to 'glory hunters' though, imho: there is a range of reasons why our support is static, some particular to Inverness, some reflecting wider trends in Scottish football. For a start, the make-up of Inverness's population has surely been in a greater state of flux, for all of the club's life and long before that, than almost any other Scottish population centre of similar size. We often hear about it having one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, but many of those who arrive will already have a long-established support for a different football team, or, if they haven't already developed an interest in football, are unlikely to suddenly do so to the extent that many of them will become regular attendees at TCS. Moreover, what is mentioned far less frequently is the number of people who leave the area. Traditionally, Inverness has been a place that young people go away from in order to study, and the club's lifetime has coincided with vastly increased number of school leavers across the UK going to university. I could name maybe 30 people from the central belt who I see at away games or go to away games with regularly, who are all examples of this trend. A couple of them, like RiG and Top Six Next Year, do continue to buy season tickets and attend TCS regularly, but it's a huge commitment for them, and it's not realistic to expect most people in that situation to have the time or money to do this. FWIW, I think that the numbers of teenagers and younger children at our home games makes up a pretty healthy proportion of our modest crowds - a bigger proportion, I'd argue, that in the crowds of many other Scottish teams, based on what I've seen at their grounds - but how many of these regular supporters will we keep when they finish school? The UHI might make a small difference, but people will still want to spread their wings. I think the 'Old Firm factor' is actually overstated, certainly among people born in the 90s and beyond, although I think it has limited our potential audience among those who were old enough to have chosen their 'big team' by the time the club was formed. There were plenty of people I was at school with who I saw regularly at Kingsmills in the 80s, but who also went to Celtic Park, or Ibrox, or (in my case and a few others') Pittodrie a few times a season, and who didn't make the jump when the merger occurred, simply because their allegiance to their 'big club' was too strong, rather than out of any deeply-held opposition to the merger. Celtic, and certainly Rangers are far less exotic or glamorous than they once appeared, and although there will be kids running around in their strips in Inverness, I'm convinced that this doesn't affect us significantly more than any other Scottish team of comparable size, whether in Perth, Ayrshire, Fife or Lanarkshire. The far bigger threat or distraction comes from the blanket coverage of the English Premier League and Champions League, which is encouraging a lot of young potential supporters to see Scottish football as devalued and even embarrassing. In the school I work in in Glasgow, where probably 99% of those who follow football would once upon a time have described themselves as Celtic supporters, and remain privileged enough to be able to afford season tickets if they want them, increasingly large numbers describe themselves and Man City, or Chelsea, or Barcelona or Real Madrid supporters, and disparage all Scottish football. I've heard more than one pupil describe how they were offered a Celtic season ticket for their birthday by their parents, and turned it down. Why should we expect kids in Inverness to be any different? That, of course, is probably a fairly significant factor in explaining why clubs across Scotland like ICT, and St Johnstone, and Motherwell, have not seen significant crowd increases in highly successful recent periods in their histories: the genuine interest in Scottish football that actually brings people through the gates just isn't there (expect for those 'one-off' occasions, like the Scottish Cup Final), although the overall stagnation in support in Scotland is sometimes disguised by recent bounces in crowd size experienced by 'sleeping giant' clubs like Hearts and Aberdeen. I do think that location is a slightly aggravating factor for us, and ticket prices are definitely too high throughout Scotland, but ticket offers and price reductions in the past haven't succeeded in significantly increasing support in the past, as Motherwell under John Boyle found out to their cost, so we are probably stuck with them, as the club has to budget around them. Finally, changes in working patterns have probably had a bigger impact on attendances than many people acknowledge. Far more people now work regularly at weekends than did during the heyday of Scottish football, and so they simply aren't able to make many matches. For my first 10 years of supporting ICT, I worked two weekends out of three; it felt like a real privilege to be able to attend games. I suspect that this is an area in which Inverness sees a slightly bigger disadvantage; as the primary shopping and service centre for about half of Scotland's land mass, it employs vast numbers in the retail and service sectors, and obviously the busiest time for such businesses is at the weekends, so I suspect that a larger proportion of people working in Inverness regularly work weekends than in the hometowns of most other Scottish clubs. This is all conjecture, though - I don't have any figures. Put all this together, and I just can't see us, or any other team of similar size, ever stepping up to another level in terms of the support we command. I suspect the club believes this too, and cuts its cloth accordingly. That's not to say that the marketing couldn't be a lot better and more imaginative - even adding 500 to the gates regularly would make a big difference, and that's not completely unrealistic - but it probably does explain the reluctance to offer Yogi a significantly enhanced contract (back on topic...) and a significantly increased playing budget. I don't think the chairman or the board members always get it right by any means, but I do have some sympathy with their dilemma here. I don't have anything to add - but this must be my biggest post ever.

So why did wee MacRae sit on the bench today ?

Here is the projected bench fer next week - Esson, Warren, Sutherland, Wedderburn AND

Perhaps we could make some spondoolachs by getting fans to pay fer the experience.

Aye the man in waiting but hopefully not a yes man. Brace yer selves for the phrases "by mutual agreement " and "confidentiality clause ".

Great to see Warren back but hope that he is not pushed too early - I would prefer him to stay on the bench against Well. Nice to see McRae warming the bench but still can't understand why we didn't include another development player. I was going to give Raven pelters but it sounds like he may have been hard done by BUT he does make a habit of it. Let's hope this is the start of better things.

I want to share Renegade's spliff but I am going to hook Tremarco as well and play Esson at centre half.

Perm any 11 from 15.

Here is what we feckin need - Manager (Helena Costa); Head Coach (Hope Powell); Director of Football (Karen Brady); Chairperson (Laura Grant); Board of Directors - Lynne Macdonald, Julie Wilson, Mairi Maclean, Susan Duncan,Jill MacRae, Bev Clark, Rosemary Webb.

I am still in no doubt that the ghosts of the merger continue to haunt us. They are is like zombies trawling the Longman in the darkness. I advise all "glory hunters" to stay away from the Dundee game unless you want to become the gory hunted. I think I may write a series called the "Undecided" for Sky1, starting in Rose Street in 1993.

Aye you are fair frothing at the mouth Mrs Grunt. Have a badge fer yer efforts.

At last Bughtmaster has encapsulated it. Yogi is fishing for the best outcome for him, the family and the club. Lets not treat him like Laura Grant.

Read between the lines instead of rustling sweeties.

Perhaps we need leaders off the park. Again my concern is that the loss of Yogi will affect the players and that we could probably only attract a younger, upcoming type of manager - probably more suited to the lower leagues.

Doh - I want Yogi to stay and the "negative" comments are opinions and observations. What other teams adhere to 5 players on the bench ? Back to Saturday as I was going to post a team. But is Storey injured - is Draper recovered ?

Credit to the man himself

I was hoping that we would be bold and look at somebody who has a good track record, who has previous positive experience of working in Scotland, would certainly attract a lot of media attention and would certainly change the ethos of Scottish football. But when I saw her reasons for leaving Clermont I doubt whether she would be interested.

So you leave an unhappy manager in charge for the next couple of seasons !! What is the difference between Yogi and McKay, Ross, Shinnie, Watkins and Christie ? I am aware of a couple of individuals who wanted to invest, albeit not paricularly heavily, and they were both put off by the attitudes and thinking of the individuals they talked to. To invest in something you either have to be previously devoted from the heart or look at the structure and the potential.

Sorry Scotty - missed your reply in the extensive support for my banging on nonsense

Doh - here is a clue - Finances - a new striker - training facilities - enuff to be going on with ?

Read between the lines - especially the family "excuse" - Bye Bye Yogi - but the real reason is evidently his mistrust of what is on offer next season, probably becos he has been fecked this season with broken promises ?