CaleyD

Our squad is so small we'd need to replace him anyway, so I don't buy the "use his wage to enhance other contracts" reasoning. If going down that line then we are already saving the wage from Marcus which could be used.

As I understand/recall, Wilson was doing coaching at the club before Brewster returned. I definitely remember him being in the dugout for reserve matches.

Added a couple more designs recently. Not all ICT related as I had a request from elsewhere for a couple of things, but thought I'd make them available to everyone anyway. As always, if you want me to put them up in the shop in different colours from what I have there already or want them on a different product then just ask (here or via PM), or alternatively you can use the Design Your Own page to put them together yourself.

I think it has to do with allowing the club/player time for their right to appeal. I also think that if the club wished they could take it with immediate effect and Rossco could miss the Celtic game and the following game, but don't quote me on that.

There's nothing offensive in what he sung. Whilst we all know which famine is being referred to and who should go home....it is, technically, no more than assumption. What the court has done is say that these words are associated with the Famine Song, and that singing just those words automatically means your agree with and are promoting the rest of the words in the song and the meaning of those words.....it's this second part which is "dangerous" for the courts and what will, IMO, ultimately lead to a successful appeal. The question is....where do you draw the line? As I highlighted above, God Save the Queen contains a verse which talks about crushing rebellious Scots - surely that's just as bad as telling a few Irish to go home. Also, Flower of Scotland talks about us rising as a Nation once more and sending the English home....much the same sentiment as the words being used by Rangers fans. Some of the words in the Famine Song (in fact most of them) are disgusting, but these are not the words which the Rangers Fans are singing. Whilst I'm not defending them or saying they should necessarily have the right to sing them, I think that the courts would be setting a very dangerous precedent by allowing this decision to stand on the basis used by the Sheriff, or indeed by reinforcing it in a court of appeal or high court scenario where it would become just that. The ability to create atmosphere at football has been damaged enough by over zealous and ridiculous court decisions in the past and this decision, if allowed to stand, will mean that people could find themselves lifted for saying/singing/chanting just about anything at a football match if it can somehow be connected to something which might be deemed offensive.

I'm sorry, but that ruling is absolutely ridiculous and I very much doubt that it will stand up to proper scrutiny if/when it is appealed by any lawyer half worth their salt. For a start, the lines sung by the Rangers fans do not appear anywhere in the original lyrics of the song, so to base the outcome of the case on the fact that the two lines used by Rangers fans make it representative of the more damning words in the full lyrics is, at best, pushing their luck. Secondly, if they are to allow the findings of the Sheriff to stand on the basis that singing part of a song makes you "guilty" of being associated with the feelings/expressions shown elsewhere in the song then they better ban "God Save the Queen" right off the bat because they are now saying that even though the verse about crushing rebellious Scots is not sung, then singing the other verses, or parts thereof, now associates you with that verse purely by the fact that it exists. We can then probably make a start on banning the Flower of Scotland....and after that we better look closely at the National Anthem of every nation participating in the 2014 Commonwealth Games to make sure there's nothing in any of them (currently used or not) which might cause offence to any other nation. I don't agree with or condone the singing of the Famine song, but if they are going to be making judgements in law then they have to be able to stand up to scrutiny and the basis for this Sheriffs decision is very weak (at best) IMO. The words sung by the Rangers fans should have been taken entirely on their own and a decision based on that....to do what has been done gives this guy Wall so many "outs" it's unbelievable. Any "victory" for common sense will be short lived, and when the result is overturned on appeal it will only serve to fuel the fire of those who support their right to sing such things.

Esson Proctor - Duff - Munro - McBain Wilson ------ Black ------ Imrie Cowie ------ Vigurs Wood I'd start Wilson as we could do with an experienced/wise head out on the park, and also because it allows us to move Cowie inside where I think he is stronger. Wilson is also the best option for taking set pieces (and he knows how to win a few too). Sticking with Wood up front in this game also makes sense to me, the lad's shown he can mix it with the toughest of defenders and I think that's the kind of forward you need in games against Celtic. Borucs let off against St Mirren will still be fresh in the minds of the Refs and if we can get someone in on top of him pressuring every ball he goes for then we might just benefit from a Ref looking to right the wrong of last week where Boruc should've walked....or at the very least a Ref that's not too quick to do him any favours. I would like to have played Duncan between a back and middle 4, but we're likely to be sitting so deep that we'll just see a repeat of the situations recently where Black/Duncan/Vigurs end up tripping over each other in confusion as to which roll they should be playing and that is something Celtic will punish us for. Let Black do the job of controlling the middle of the park (he's the best at it) and make it clear to Vigurs and Cowie that they are to get forward to support at every opportunity.

Tokely: "I'll sing, you dance"

I don't care

I can do my designs etc from the CTO shop on Polo Shirts if people want them - alternatively you can use the Design Your Own version of the shop to take my designs (and a raft of other generic designs) to put together your own on any of the many available products. You can change the item colour, the design colour and even personalise them with your own text (name, favourite player etc).

Wonder how Spectre managed to get access to the bins at TCS, member of the staff?

I'll get my one and only negative point out of the way first....why were we so heavily weighted with forwards on the bench? No need to have Rooney, Barrowman and McAllister there and one more defensive player might have given us an option to tighten up a little more towards the end....someone like Duff!!! OK, so it's not really a huge negative and there's a good argument for attack being the best form of defence and all in all I have to say that I think we got things pretty much spot on for todays game. Hard to say whether or not we were playing counter attack football for the first hour or so as we seemed to be very much in the ascendancy and sounding like we were doing a lot of pushing for goal. Cringed a bit when the referee started dishing out yellow cards early on for incidents which would have been dealt with by way of a verbal warning by most refs and Black isn't the kind of player you like to be shackled with a card at that stage in a game. Sounded like we were creating decent chances and a little more composure might have got us another couple, but that's something we have to accept at the moment as we don't have the experience within the squad to rectify. Thought the subs were about right, both in terms of the changes and the timing. Black was on a yellow already and had to be suffering a bit from that knock he took in the first half, so made sense to protect him on both accounts. Killie had started to come at us a bit more which was reducing opportunities for Wood, so makes sense to hook him when on a card to protect him too. Most of all they lads were out there fighting hard for the win. Killie obviously came out in the second half wanting to get physical and mix things up and I think it was Imrie who was first to respond with a couple of crunching challenges to show them that we were also capable of playing that kind of game. Good result and sounded like a great display.

I wouldn't bet against Sky Sports line-up with Brewster at the helm

Playing Vigurs in the hole between Def and Mid? - Shurley shome mishtake!!!!

I think a lot of the poster who have been around the site for many years are able to identify posters who are genuinely "in the know" from those passing on info which came from Uncle Bobs third cousins next door neighbours daughters postman, and even some of those who might think they are "in the know" who have got info from someone close to the club could just be passing on spin....or as has been the case in the past, have come blurting info because the "source" knows they'll come straight back with it and have fed them a line for a laugh. That's why the BB could and should help improve things. As well as a means for fans to ask questions directly to the club it's an opportunity for the club, if they use it right, to correct misinformation by communicating properly with the fans. Some people are still a little sceptical of the BB, probably on both sides, but hopefully as it builds people will learn to make best use of it and get most from it...fans and club.

I like the black one...in fact, I wouldn't mind us sticking with a predominantly black away strip as I think they look smart. As was suggested earlier, I think there's a market for a 3rd "retro" shirt every couple of seasons. Doesn't have to be an official one either, that way we could look to get them done without restricting ourselves to the designs of the manufacturer of them.

You don't have to be "in the know" to realise there's big problems at ICT and even bigger ones coming if things don't change. All you need is the ability to look around you at the information and facts that are in the public domain. The conclusions reached by some might not be accurate, but there's little doubting that things aren't as they should be and that everyone who should be working for the benefit of the club is not necessarily doing that. People can draw their own conclusions as to whether that is through negligence/bad practice, personal interest or some other reason....but it all adds up to the same thing at the end of the day....and that is the fact that ICT is suffering as a result.

I remember seeing reports of the deal with Barrowman being in excess of ?200,000 over the 3 years which was in addition to the signing on fee. Even ignoring the signing on fee that would put him on a wage in the region of ?1300 per week if the reports are correct. I believe some of the younger lads are on less than ?200 per week....which, for an "apprentice" might be acceptable, but a couple of them are proving to be worth far more and instead of the raise the are due/deserve seem to have been benched in order to save a few quid.

Not at the price we're paying!!!

The lease already has transferred Alex (to a company owned and controlled by Sutherland) and there's been numerous enquiries made about changing the designated use for the land so as to allow the developer who now owns it to make a few quid from it. When this eventually happens (and it will, I'd bet every penny I have on it) then it won't be ICT who benefit, nor indeed will it be the Charitable Trust we were led to believe were taking ownership.....it will be David Sutherland, and he'll do so by a factor of 10 (or more) on what he originally paid for it.

You're right, Brewster isn't the first manager and won't be the last to have a go at a player, and other managers, and very successful managers, are known for it. I think if your a respected manager/boss in any business then you can get away with giving someone the occasional chewing out for a bad performance. The problem comes when it's the manager that is viewed as the source of the overall problems and his bollocking of staff (players) becomes the vehicle for trying to hide their own inadequacies. I guess what I'm saying is....if Brewster was doing his job right and he had a go for a bad performance or an error then you can put your hands up and say "fair enough boss". However, when it's blatantly obvious that Brewster isn't getting things right and his actions are generating the bulk of the problems on the park then his "authority" is going to carry very little weight and be met with a negative response.

I'm not so sure the players have lost touch with the fans. I think it's just impossible for them to be making statements in the press saying what they really think about their employers/bosses and when they have a Dictaphone shoved under their nose then they have to come up with something and the tried and tested "We're not the OF and can't expect to be winning every game" or "we could really do with the fans getting behind us" line comes as an easy answer. To a certain extent I can understand the players on the fans thing. They must be as frustrated as we are, and when we start getting frustrated and hacked off them they (the players) are the ones caught in the cross-fire. As I said, I just hope that (for the most part) the players realise that the real frustration for the fans is coming from the actions (or inactions) of the manager and Board and not necessarily as a result of their performance on the pitch. Last Wednesday against Falkirk I made a point of heading over to the tunnel at the end of the game to clap the players off the pitch because I felt it important to show them that I appreciated the effort they put in and the performance of the second half. It's not the players who are losing fan support, it's the manager and those who are keeping him in a job. It's just very difficult for the fans to separate them from the players when it comes to giving support (or not). If we cheer the team on for 90 minutes regardless then that gives the impression that we are happy with what's going on....if we don't then players think we've somehow turned on them. I think the players and the fans are very much in the same no-win situation at the moment.

I don't see any harm in us having a poll in order for us to put forward something like a top 3 favourite design for the fans for an Away strip at the moment - since that is the one we're due to change next. People are still coming up with ideas and suggestions, so we'll leave it a bit yet before going through and pulling out all the designs and putting a poll together.

Sutherland already has what he wants - total, unrestricted control over the site of TCS. I also get the feeling that everything else is now an inconvenience and if I was a total cynic, I might even go so far as to say that having an SPL team sitting in residence will be seen as harder to shift than a 1st Div team!!!

What's really scary is that a problem which was only rumoured to exist behind the scenes is now rearing it's ugly face in full view of everyone and still our board are doing nothing to rectify it and seem content to keep their head stuck in the sand. Reading the papers every week fills me with fear in regards to just how bad things are getting...and I'm not on about results or performances, but the complete lack of any acknowledgement from the manager, assistant manager, DoF or BoD that it's anything but business as usual at TCS and our problems are nothing more than bad luck and not getting the rub. We had Brewster in the Courier on Tuesday desperately trying to justify Barrowmans signing with the "He's a good player, he's shown he is a good player, he just needs to start scoring" type statements. We've got Malky in todays Highland News kidding himself on that the majority of fans are actually behind them hinting that it's the nay sayers that are dragging us down on match day....he even has a try at the old "touches our hearts" routine. Aside from trying to deflect responsibility onto the shoulders of the players and fans there's also what looks like attempts to make it look like the fans are peeved at the players. Whilst the players are the ones on the frontline and, as a result, the recipient of fan reaction...I don't think for one second that the fans blame the players or are thinking any less of them at the moment because a lot of them (fans) are intelligent enough to see that our problems lie beyond individual performances which are a product of the system. Brewster, Malky and the club need to stop kidding themselves and start crediting the fans with a little more intelligence.