Kirishima

I dont forsee DS one day moving in the bulldozers, stroking a white cat and laughing menacingly. I think that if he wanted a bit of land he may well have gone down quicker and easier routes. However, the refusal to tell its own shareholders who exactly owns what is alarming to saythe least. If DS said, "its my land, get out" he wouldnt get very far at all. I cant see us re-locating, not ever, so while it is concerning about the unanswered questions, DS may be able to do with the land what he wants on paper, i doubt he would ever do anything that would vilify him, hence i am not worried He saved us, so benefactor all the way, profit or no profit

First on the agenda" - How to beat ICT at home...? Nah... I think there has to be a reason as to why half were chosen and half were not. What decisions/ideas will be put forward, some could affect ICT and we have no say in the discussions. For example (just if) one suggestion was that ICT pays for the away teams transportation and they all agreed. Or talking about the 16 team SPL?

I have to disagree, anybody who owns FM08 doesnt leave the house at weekends so cant be them Some people just arent rambunctious by nature. At ICT a fair few. What are you gonna do, use a cattle prod. Its their choice, they support with their wallets, you cant make someone shout and sing. Now if beer and standing was allowed, well,......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/s...rem/7730721.stm Walter Smith, Gordon Strachan, Jimmy Calderwood, John Hughes, Mark McGhee, Craig Levein were invited to the SPL forum. Why these 6 and why not the rest. How about the only Highland manager, why wasnt he invited? Maybe previously the other 6 said no, or were overlooked? 4 out of the 6 are from the central belt. Jim Jeffries is surely a man to be there having more SPL experience than the lot of them... Anyone know the reasons behind this? I assume they will be meeting in the central belt...

Topsixnextyear, good post. There is no fun. Been to many other grounds in many other countries and its different. Emphasis on the customer, an entertaining day, welcoming, hospitality. Said it before..ICT supporters - a necessary evil, in the clubs opinion imo I am shielded by distance but it must be galling for season ticket holders week in week out

Alex, I think you are partly correct but I dont think people at the club want Brewster out for the same reasons as other clubs. Differences - Brewster is having his second bite of the cherry, none of the other managers, bar WS, are. It worked at Stoke, its not working here. To employ somebody who decided to move on elsewhere and made a hash of it is fine, but its a gamble because the fans wont trust his loyalty, he is not an ICT man, and as Highlanders we put loyalty high up on the agenda. There seems to be some shenanigans, hearsay or not. Players speaking back, incoming mate of Brewster Byrne, who is popular with who?, a revamp of the squad that has left it threadbare and out of sync, players out of position, Marius saga, Home record has been abysmal, its all good and well getting points away from home, but tell to season ticketholders who give up their saturday to be bored and tormented in the cold and wet. I think the ICT case is unique

Kevin McNaughton is a utility man,idolised at Cardiff for playing wherever, whenever and doing a consistently good job. These players a rarity however, and playing players out of position is a bad thing to do, always! As for the respect issue, looks like those four will be off in January then. Obviously a factor in the summer departures. Bringing in mates such as Byrne should help though

Point is that there has to be subsidised travel put on. Look at Stoke they put on a free bus to Hull for their supporters. For a father and son from Portree it costs 65 odd quid all in (bus, tickets, snacks) and takes 13 hours. A bit unreasonable for the average family. People arent made of money, for a teenager its gonna cost 30 pound minimum to do it, and thats just bus and ticket. For an adult 45-55 pound. No matter how many bounce games ICT play or training sessions they do, we dont live in the central belt where an hour can take you to 10 different stadiums. Its a 13 hour day for people in Portree by bus. Free bus and then you are talking!

The only way ICT could get people from Skye/ Fort William would be with a free bus/train. The cost of that would cancel out any profit. People from Skye, Portree having 2000 odd, rarely go to Inverness. No amount of advertising will get them in, its too far and too expensive. By bus, takes three hours/four hours, costs 30 pound for the adult, 20 for the kid, have to leave at 9 and come back on 6 o clock bus, back at 10. By car, faster and cheaper but still a significant journey. By train is best, if you can get to Kyle, takes roughly same time, and cheaper. If ICT were to hook up with Scotrail and offer anyone with a match ticket free travel to Inverness from the Highland council area then maybe. But putting up a 1000 posters in Skye would do nothing, its too expensive to travel and takes too long! Out of 70,000 people in the city only 5 percent generally attend. Its there where the focus should be.

Highlands and Islands http://www.hie.co.uk/hie-economy.htm Highland Council http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/hig...landprofile.htm The first link gave me my original figures, looks like the second one is more accurate.

Highlands and Islands is about 400,000 people. Thats all the Islands, and going way way down to Argyll and Perth though. Inner Moray firth is ICT catchment area, totalling 70,000. (includes Dingwall....) maybe 10 people from Fort William might, might come but that is all. They come for the big games yes, but not in droves. The catchment area is probably a 30 mile radius but cant see many making a journey over 15 miles. There is no draw, 20 quid, nightmare parking, traffic jams. sky high petrol costs/train costs/bus costs. ICT have very few diehards, respect to them, i am not - through being far away and poor. Only diehards travel.

I see. so 250k seems to be the common denominator. ICT owe Tullochs about 1.3m (although im sure that is not really a loan that will ever be repaid) However, with current economic climates as they are, housing markets and so on, one never knows. If ICT benefactors were to pull the plug it would be Gretna-like dire straits. Again, cant ever see it happening, but never thought my bank, HBOS,was in trouble either. Positives- ICT has no major debt, not like Hearts or Gretna, Tullochs is a pretty big company insulated from current goings on, and the honcho is ICT through and through. Setanta is going from strength to strength, and will continue to do so as we enter the compulsory digital age. Negatives - Flybe hopefully wont follow XL or Zoom, no sponsors at West Brom and West Ham is unusual. Falling attendances arent helping. due to tightening belts/poor performances. Poor cup run and league position could hurt if the squad isnt strengthened. Credit crunch could affect overdrafts, further cutting into transfer budget. Setanta may see a fall in subscribers as people tighten belts. Overall, i think that things are ok financially once we are informed about the ins and outs of Niculaes money. But i think that there is no more money to come from Tullochs, as they are having their toughest time ever, thus that 250k may need to be set aside for emergencies. A new sponsor may be harder to come by if the recession hits harder. i dont think there will be much spending in January, maybe 50k

As Alan P would say, thats a hot potato, catch! Is there nowhere where we can see some figures. I have already seen the yearly financial summary but that has no detail. Under Freedom of Information etc, can we see things like setanta money, cup money, league money etc? Also, the wage bill must be public knowledge no? ICT is a PLC, then surely it accounts are open?

The main expenditure must be wages, for playing and non-playing. If Setanta, season tickets, advertising, sponsorship and league money cant cover that then that is a problem, no? Surely wages at the club dont exceed all the above income sources?

Having heard several different versions I am a little confused. Are we broke or do we have a transfer kitty? Does anybody know for example how much money ICT get from Setanta/Season ticket holders/Sponsorship and Advertising and if this is more or less than ICT wage bill etc? The SPL accountants say we operate with "no debt" although that is probably down to the generous benefactor. Did Marius's transfer give us lots of moolah? If the housing crisis caused our generous benefactor to cut back would we survive handsomely or, well, the opposite?

Teams with Scottish managers in England are often keen to loan here as they know its a tough league. Swindon, Burnley, Nott Forest, Man Utd, Everton, Plymouth, Birmingham, Leeds, Peterborough, Bradford all have Scottish managers. If finances are not there, perhaps a couple of loan signings would inject something.

Top 5 roles of a manager (imo) 1. Motivate, Inspire, Drive 2. Guide, Advise, Set example 3. Help players achieve through experience/knowledge 4. Make changes to help the team. whenever,wherever 5. Be a father figure, not a chum Brewster: 1. Dour, condascending, egotistical, unreasonable 2. No loyalty, did rubbish at DUFC 3. On paper, maybe, in games, nope. 4. Nope 5. Chum to some, not good idea.

Yes, taking a manager who did such a dreadful job previously surely should have meant we gave him a one year rolling contract, anything else is folly. Remember, this is Brewsters last chance in management, if he gets us relegated, or is sacked before then, he is not gonna get another job in the SPL or even the First division. That fact doesnt help ICT though... 12 home points before New Year, if we get less than 7 then im assuming the Board steps in. I would bank on the end of December being the earliest that the Directors will take that kind of action CaleyD, although sooner would be better. A lot of people reading will put this down to moaning and whingeing. But why did we get lumbered with a manager that left us asap, ersed up DUFC, only to come back and do a rubbish job with us. Hardly an inspiring choice, two bites of the cherry, once bitten twice shy, etc etc.

Manager - Darren Ferguson (Peterborough) Got them promoted from league two. and now sitting in play-offs in league one. Scottish, hungry, ambitious, lots of contacts, not least his Dad. QPR are after him though, may see his future in Premiership, in which case Manager - David Cormie (Inverurie Locos) Gets the players motivated, gives them confidence, huge drive, fan orientated, handles pressure. I would love to have him at ICT

Here is the pool I would choose from, not definitive, not all as Managers of course. Before January so they can spend Marius's millions.... Local/ICT/ICT-connected Iain Stewart, Barry Wilson, Bobby Mann, John McGinley, Paul Ritchie, Paul Sheerin. Possibles from lower divisions Dave Baikie - East Fife Gordon Chisolm-QoS Michael O' Neill - Brechin Derek McIness - St Johnstone David Cormie - Inverurie Locos Wildcards Darren Ferguson - Peterborough Maurice Malpas - Swindon Paul Lambert - Colchester Colin Calderwood - N Forest Dean Saunders - Wrexham Keith Hill - Rochdale Gary Waddock-Aldershot

Do any good number crunchers know what percentage ICT income is fan based, i.e season tickets, pay at the gate etc. is there a financial report outlining it? It would be interesting to see what percentage of ICT income is from supporters going to the matches. Any guesses on the percentage? Id say a fair bit, maybe 40%...I could be way off in either direction. Could someone point me to a financial report with all these details, im sure it exists, yes?

A very interesting and constructive thread this one. Not being able to go to the games as often as I would like ido take the chance when im home. It is an expensive day out, 20 quid for the match, 5 quid for programme, food and drink. Not solely ICT of course, a nationwide thing. I follow Sagan Tosu in Japan, J2. It costs 1500 yen a game for a main stand ticket which is equivalent to 10 pounds and i get a goodie bag at the entrance which includes a programme of sorts. Fans are allowed in and out for a smoke with their ticket, anytime, an array of food and drink including beer is available both at a counter or to your seat via roaming staff with trays of goodies. There is pre and post match entertainment, specifically a speech by the captain and manager pitchside by microphone to the supporters after the game on their thoughts, good or bad. Merchandise is available outside the ground, on matchdays. They have a singing section behind the goal with 12ft flag poles, and flags, with flags draped everywhere possible. The singing section stands the entire time, or jumps more accurately. The nearest train station is a sea of Turquoise and pink on matchdays (club colours unfortunately) not with fans but flags and pictures and banners paid for by the club and in agreement with the train station to hook more people into going. Thing is i feel like a customer there. At ICT, because of the catering, stewards and executives, you feel more like a necessary evil. I wont be surprised if attendances fall, the product isnt value for money. Im sure the club if they read this will just put it down to typical dour scot whinger, but thats the problem. I dont think day-to-day they really try to improve/develop the club for the fans because they think of themselves. They are their to serve us, not the other way around. Online ticketing? Nothing. Catering? Nothing. Car Park? Nothing. Pricing? Nothing. Perhaps Scotty is right and they are beginning to start but these problems are 5 years old. The efforts they make are to get more people into Hospitality/boxes, thats where you are suddenly a customer and not a necessary evil.

Being abroad I am unable to go to the matches. For those who do, it must be hard to have watched 4 defeats out of 6 home league games, especially Hamilton and St Mirren, those were to be the easiest... However, this season we beat Aberdeen 2-0 away, a momentous victory, and humped Kilmarnock at home 3-1, and the Dundee Utd and Celtic results after that were disappointing but they are stronger teams and they were clear favourites. Point is, the panic button is being pressed a tad early no? In past seasons there has always been a diddy team in the SPL, Dunfermline, Gretna, Dundee, etc. but not this season, which was bound to happen sooner or later. Definitely ICT will be in a relegation battle this time, probably with Hamilton, St Mirren, Falkirk, perhaps Aberdeen. We lost to Hamilton and St Mirren at home and if we had won we would be third-ish, and this thread wouldnt exist. End of the day, Brewster has to improve home form now and by the end of December there will have been 12 home points for grabs, all winnable, and that is what should be the cut off mark. Season tickets are a major expenditure for people, who have to offset costs elsewhere, no holidays or lesser car, they have to be respected, and if Brewster cant get a minimum of 7 points from those 12 at home then its out the door...IMO

Well, we can agree to disagree. No harm in that.

FYIBirdog. The message has been received loud and clear, and what you are doing is effectively the same as picking a scab. Keep on hounding them, ignoring their best attempts for redemption and see how far it gets us. Stevico has summed it up nicely, a nice conclusion. If you are so intent on hanging them out to dry then you know what to do and who to call.