CaleyD

I'm well below average on the spending front, but I'd give the best of them a run for their money on the gut front :015:

Probably more truth in that article than a lot of people will give it credit for.

Decisions Decisions!!! Rumour Mill, Anything Goes or Delete??? :015:

Where is Juanjo??? - he is in there somewhere :015:

Mr A Trialist???

We now have the techology to deal with these things :001:

All we need now is for CC to pull on the boots one more time :001:

Is that what they were on about, I wasn't paying much attention beyond "Rankin looks set to sign in 48 hours" Would make sense considering we have 2 games in 2 days as it will allow us to rest a few players, and it's not uncommon for such things to happen for testimonial matches.

The Substance Behind Your Average IHE Exclusive [img width=450 height=349] He Obviously Keeps Forgetting to Follow The Instructions

I thought he loves me, but he not come back to see me :019:

Maybe Black was arguing cause he didn't think the Ref was giving value for money :015:

Let the boy go and have a free holiday, he can come back with brewsters tactics book - I'm guessing he will have a new tactic now if he is not playing cause "Hoof the ball up the park to the Gaffer" won't work too well with them punting balls to the dugout.

I have been in that situation (although not on a football pitch) - some cnut is winding you up, you keep your hands down cause you know smacking them is the wrong thing, then something snaps and instinct or whatever you want to call it kicks in and you just go in with the head.

What was incorrect about saying a fee had been agreed with C*unty and they hoped to have it cleared up by the end of the week? Under the current conditions, where a player has more than 6 months remaining on a contract the club have to get permission to talk to a player, if a club says a fee has to be agreed first, then thats the way it is, whether we like it or not. Grassa has said that our basic wage is among the lowest, but bonuses more than make up the gap with many teams. I am perfectly aware of the level of wages our players are on (with and without bonus). OK, so we plough more money in to Youth, where does it come from? Player budget, which means an inferior team on the pitch (on lower wages than they are already on) - result = relegation = even less money. We only have X amount of money to spend, and the books have to be balanced, we can't have everything and concessions need to be made somewhere. I wouldn't argue that our Youth Development is underfunded, I just don't see where we could realistically where (from within the club) we have capacity to raise that funding. I personally know people who regularly dip in their pocket to give 10's of thousands to youth development at ICT, and will continue to do so for as long as it is needed, so I am aware of how things are. My comment about 11 "wet behind the ears" players was an indication of where we would end up if we took money from player budget to fund Youth Coaching, as that would be where we would have to draw our team from cause we wouldn't be able to afford anything else.

Updated for ya Manny - looks like they were fixing matches cause your now 5 points behind the leader.

How laid back was that penalty.... :015:

You boys are obviously going further back than me. However, I can't believe nobody has mentioned the fact that your feet used to stick to the carpet - that is probably one of the few things I remember about going to La Scala. Even when I walk in to the new place out the A96, I still expect to have to walk as if I had chewing gum on the soles of my feet and the whole cinema experience just isn't the same without it. Not my fondest (or oldest) memory, but probably the funniest. I fell asleep during the Lord of the Rings and was awoken by an elbow to the ribs from my mate as I had apparently being snoring rather loudly. Didn't realise how much of the movie I had missed until I watched it when it came out on DVD and thought they had made a fourth one I had missed somewhere along the line :015:

I always seemed to end up with food poisoning every time I went near the shows. Can't say they were that much of an attraction for me as they never really seemed like value for money.

Not forgotten about pics, just not had a chance yet.

If (when) Italy win tonight we should run a sweepstake for any players who may miss the bus to the airport tomorrow cause I'm certain they will get caught up in the party. :015:

The club will never win on this subject. One minute people are crying out for news, and when they release any news they get slated for not keeping it quiet!!! Personal terms were agreed with both Hoolahan and Rankin. In Hoolahan's case it was the terms of his release with Livingston that were delaying further action, and in Rankins case it is his Agents greed that is delaying any further action. Let's not kid ourselves, we still pay the lowest wages in the SPL (not that there is anything wrong in that) so we are only likely to attract players who are permanently out of the picture at an other SPL club and are willing to take a pay cut, a young player not getting a chance at a bigger club and wanting to kick start his career, a promising player in the lower divisions wanting his chance or our own home grown youngsters where we should be channeling far more resources than we are at present. We DO NOT pay the lowest wages in the SPL when bonuses etc are taken in to consideration. Personally I think this is a great system as it gives an added insentive for players to get the finger out on the pitch, and if one player isn't pulling his weight and is dragging the team down and impacting bonuses they will ensure he is motivated. And as great as the idea is off channeling more resource in to youth development, I think we do a pretty decent job for a club our size. 11 "wet behind the ears" youths wouldn't keep us in the SPL which is where the money comes from to fund their training. Also if a player is not confident enough in his own ability to accept such terms then I don't want to see him in an ICT Shirt (not directed at any specific players, just a general comment). To elaborate on the point above, aswell as the club being in a no-win situation with regards releasing news, it is extremely difficult to keep stories on the "QT" these days and even if only small snippets of info get out, it soon all comes together when folk start chatting on the net.

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Real Teams??? - Do you think we were playing against cardboard cut-outs in Italy or something :015:

A bit of a write-up in the Sunday Herald - Clicky Clicky