CaleyD

Translated........if you don't sell us the stadium at a good price then we'll pull the plug and the team will go to the wall. Much the same as what is going to happen at Hearts IMO. Romanov want's this super dooper all singing all dancing new main stand, and if he doesn't get permission for it then he'll just pull the plug and sell the place. With Hearts Debt as high as it is then he'll have made back what he initially paid out with the interest payments alone....anything he can sell the club/stadium for now is clear profit so if the local authority want to maintain Hearts FC then he basically has them by the balls. Whilst some might laugh at the situation of Livi and Hearts, we're not far off a similar position here at ICT. One man owns the stadium which he paid peanuts for and will have recouped a chunk of his money by way of rental payments. The club refuse to tell anyone what kind of lease is in place so we have no idea if or when we could find ourselves turfed out and looking for somewhere else to call home.....possibly part of the reason the Board are so keen to suck up to the guy and pander to his every whim. We might have no debt and even a little cash in the bank, but if faced with the need to build a new stadium who is going to lend in the current financial climate? So we're as close to the wall as anyone else at the moment, and just like Hearts and Livi (and a few other teams) we're relying on the "good faith" of an individual for our mere existence.

I started the day with a clean sheet for all players and whilst I don't think Barrowman deserves to get a hard time I am left wondering if he's done enough to warrant a start next week or if TB will opt to try one of the others. What we can't afford to do is continue with what Brewster was doing and chop and change the forward every second week. TB needs to make a decision on who his "first choice/s" will be and then stick with them and afford them a little time to come good. What was interesting to hear was that TB reckons Imrie has found his roll....as a striker. That's something a few people have been saying on here for a while, and whilst I don't see him as an out and out striker, I can seem him being given a bit more of a free roll behind a front man, letting him do what he does best by dropping into the middle to collect the ball and then carrying it forward.

I'd imagine the administrators would be duty bound (where possible) to honour the PCA, although as it wouldn't be in their favour to increase costs and Blacks favour to be going to a club where they might not be able to afford to honour the terms of his contract then it's more than likely it could (and would) be quashed by mutual agreement.

Thankfully Hearts don't have the money to take him off our hands until the end of the season as he's just the kind of player we need for the relegation battle. I wouldn't be too upset if Black was to pick up enough bookings to warrant a suspension....getting the final yellow on the last game of the season and having to miss Hearts first couple of games next season

I think DC maybe just has a wee soft spot for Celtic and isn't best pleased his "big" team only managed to hold ICT to a draw today

That's fair enough and don't think anyone is arguing that point. What people are arguing about is that DC seems to think Black should be carted off to the cells on some kind of assault charge and for possibly losing us a point if he had perhaps been sent off. The tackle was hard and a bit late, but he never got red carded and we never lost the game....so it's pointless trying to take the discussion down that path IMO.

iam sure tel,s a wino,he must of mentioned red wine and champagne at least 5-6 times in the interview Think it's an "in" joke. Did Butcher not do some kind of wine review thing for a newspaper or something in the not too distant past?

Apology accepted....but I would like to point out that our second best chance of the game came from a set piece where Majicks header at the back post was only just kept out by a decent save from Boruc.....I would class that as threatening.

We could so easily have gone into this game "high" on the adrenaline, but I think TB showed his second "positive" (first being his handling of the press) by managing things and getting the dose about perfect. What he has to do now is keep on managing that week on week. It shouldn't be too bad next week as the players will carry over from todays performance and result and if we can carry through to the Rangers match then it gives another chance for a booster as the split comes upon us.

The one about set pieces that DalneighCaley seems to be totally ignoring?

DalneighCaley.....remind me of the last time we beat Celtic. How many men did we have on the park at the end of the game? Proof positive that getting a man sent off does not mean instant defeat...no???

If nothing else your roses will come up beautiful this year.

But he didn't and we didn't....so all your IF's and BUT's are pointless.

I'll be honest....when Odhiambo came on and I saw his first couple of touches I thought he might have been a bit lazy and scared, but it didn't take long for me to realise I was mistaken and the signals were those of being relaxed and composed. What he will do is give us options up front. So far this season we've been relying on 3 guys who could all have come from the same mould, now we've added a forward who's a little smaller, but has a touch of pace and could prove tricky to deal with if utilised correctly. Do what we did today and bring him on against tired legs to work with someone like Rooney/Wood (work horses) or Vigurs (intelligent balls he can latch on to) and I'd hope to see the best of him. Play him along with Barrowman and I fear we'd be wasting our time.

A line from a book I'm reading just now that made me think about this thread.... "You need the left to do the talking, but it takes the right to win the fight"

Totally disagree. We might not have been hitting them spot on, but it was abundantly obvious it was something we'd been working on. At all but one set piece we knew exactly who was taking it, guys getting in to the box knew where they were to go and weren't looking around at each other in confusion. When you think of how long the team have gone without working on them, then you're not going to switch on to hitting them perfect with a weeks practice...but so long as we keep organised and plug away then they'll steadily improve.

One HUGE improvement I noticed today.....we weren't "ball chasing". For weeks now there's been far too many occasions where you could throw a 15 yard circle around 8 or 9 of our players when we didn't have possession.....that's gone, and when we lost the ball we had 2 or 3 players pressing and everyone else was dropping back to build and bolster the defensive line and rebuild our shape. Just as importantly, nobody was above covering and supporting anyone else....Foran, Imrie, Black and Duncan filing in spaces at the back one minute and supporting up front the next. That's the type of discipline that's going to save our season.

We saw the fight and spirit last week....we added to that this week with some nice, dare I say it, intelligent football. Butcher hit with a late blow in having the Board pull Cowie from under his feet and injuries/fitness meant he didn't have his full arsenal at his disposal, but he put together a starting 11 that worked well and (for the most part) complimented each other. If we can go out and put on a performance like that with a weakened squad then I'm thoroughly looking forward to what we can do as players start to come back and get fit. Message to the Club Board.......THAT's what we've been crying out for during most of the season. That's why we fans have been on your case. You almost fecked things up today with messing about on the Cowie situation, so I'm not sure how much you've learned, but we will survive despite you...not because of you. Bring on the Arabs!!!

It's amazingly easy to age the forum users on football sites these days..... U20 - Football Manager is the source of all football knowledge. 20-30 - Wikipedia is the source of all football knowledge. Over 30 - Sources generally have a bit of substance and people are able to draw own opinion.

How did you work out their wouldn't be any relegation from the SPL???

We might be struggling, but can't see Celtic allowing us to field 12 players!!! Hard to know what to expect, or wish for, given the new players that have come in and how Butcher might approach this game. Would love to see us just take to the field and go for the jugular, but if we're to start getting results then we also need to start being smarter at the back and "suicide tactics" aren't going to prepare us for games where we'll have to be a bit smarter about things. Butchers been talking a lot about getting tough etc, and I have no doubt we'll see a bit more fight from the team...I just hope we can be a little street-wise with it and not concede anything silly.....that's where we made mistakes against Hearts.

Alex, want to give Falkirk or someone a phone and see if they need any players sponsored?

Clicky Clicky

It doesn't really matter who or what the Mascot is if it's not properly utilised. Having someone in a suit wandering around inside the pitch wall and occasionally wandering over to pat a few kids on the head isn't entertaining....no matter what age you are. On match days the Mascot should be in among the fans and interacting, not just before kick-off, but throughout the game. He should be handing out t-shirts/hats/gifts/balloons of some form....even some noise-makers of some kind and geeing up the support. A couple of hundred pound spent on lifting the crowd and atmosphere is, IMO, money well spent....and if the club were to go about it in the right way then I'm sure they could get local businesses to cover/share the cost in return for them having their name on said items. Outwith match days the Mascot should be available to go visit schools, attend children's Birthday Parties and f?tes etc to help increase the club profile among the younger population of Inverness. Have them up the High Street during school holidays handing out a few free tickets to kids for our next match. You could even back up the presence of the Mascot with a stall selling ICT Merchandise...but lets make sure we've got stuff on there that appeals to passing trade and tourists etc.

Some might remember me doing a bit of research/surveying of fans a while back on the subject of what they might like to see as the club mascot, these were the final 2 designs I proposed to the club, but they ditched them and went for I-Cat!!!