CaleyD

You already have a squad of 20 players which is the maximum you can have in a private league. Need to sell before you can buy anyone else.

There are clubs with a far longer and more succesful history langushing in the lower leagues - are they also "Big Clubs". Being a so called "Big Club" has very little to do with history and far more to do with what you are doing here and now. Size of the fanbase is relevant to geography, population make-up and age of the club. Taking all these in to consideration I would say we are doing ok on the fanbase front. Also, you could have a fanbase of 50,000 and it doesn't guarantee any greater success on the pitch. Gretna obviously have aspirations of playing in the SPL, are they as big/bigger than the teams already playing there who aspire to survive each season? I'm sure every team from the local amatuer leagues to the OF aspires to play at the top level, just because you aspire to achieve something doesn't make you any bigger than anyone else. I would say we are doing a far better job than most at achieving our aspirations, which are to play at the highest level and maintain a healthy balance sheet. It matters not a jot what your aspirations are or how much money you throw at achieving them if it doesn't produce the desired results.

I am sure some of you have worked it out for yourself, but you can get money by particpating in the Sponsor activities and also by issuing press releases. If you fancy it you can also play the pools game. The game is very much a slowly slowly catchy money type scenario. If you spend all your money on transfers then you can't afford to train, if you spend it all on training you can't afford to buy players. This means you have to be clever in your transfer dealings. Players offered in via the system are generally better value than trying to deal on the transfer market and then there are the youts which get offered up occasionally. I tend to buy all the youths offered and if they are no use sell them on immediately.

On this occasion I don't buy in to the idea that because the player/agent has requested a transfer then he is not 100% dedicated to the team he currently plays for. Dods is not looking to go on and further his career, he is looking for his last contract, he wants a decent contract and he wants to be nearer his family or receive a commitment from ICT to keep him here for 4 years. All in all the issue seems to be one regarding personal circumstance and not financial gain for the player. If Dods was to stay at ICT till the end of his contract, then he will still be looking for a new contract with a club closer to home, it does him no favors to spend the season playing half hearted or below the level we know he is capable of, if he did that then any clubs who may now be interested in him are likely to look elsewhere for potential better prospects. I think we should let Dods go now, not because of any doubts I have regarding his commitment, but because the guy wants to be closer to family/loved ones. This has always been the case and he has already given us a year more than he originally signed on for (2 years if he stays till end of this season). He could have simply asked for a one year extension and left this summer, but by signing 2 years he has generated some value for us as a club, but ONLY if we move him on now. Give the guy a break and appreciate the reasons he wants to go and lets try and not be so selfish about things. Yes, it is a dog eat dog world, especially in football, but just because all other clubs act like mean barstewards does not mean we have to follow suite. We have always stood up and done things our own way and it has served us well, so lets do the right thing by the player and the right thing by the club and let the guy go get his final contract and be closer to those he wants to spend more time with. If Dods stays he will get 100% support from me unless he gives reason for anything else. If he goes I wish him all the best at wherever he ends up. If thats Utd, then so be it, it might stick in the throat a bit, but such is life, he has served us well and deserves our respect for that.

Applications being accepted for the new season. Will start new season on 15th August. Do those playing the game want a cup and league or just league?

Bells

Thats what happens when you use golf clubs on the keyboard, keep your putting for the greens :016:

Some Flag ideas I have images of from previous discussions on the subject.... Graphical reprisentation of IHE's French ICT ICT Saltire designs [img width=450 height=239] [img width=450 height=239] Saltire done by Alex MacLeaod [img width=450 height=284] If you have other ideas and want help knocking up a graphic for them let me know.

True incentive (if ever it was needed) for Caff to get stuck in and reclaim his place.

This thread seems to have morphed from a discussion about a players performance to a discussion about what people should and shouldn't say on the forum and how they should say it, together with some personal points scoring against a couple of individual contributors - none of this is football related andfor that reason I think it is time to close the thread, if anyone wishes it to be re-opened to allow them to add to the original subject feel free to PM one of the moderators to request it. For those who want a personal conversation, you are welcome to continue it in private via the PM function available on these forums. If anyone has particular objection to the contribution of any user and does not wish to continue viewing their comments then you can use the ignore function.

When Dods came to ICT he made it clear that he only intended to be here for the 2 years as he has family in Edinburgh and "long term" thats where he wanted to be. He agreed a 1 year extension last summer as things were going well for him here. He now wants to make one final move so he can settle and see out the remainder of his playing career. He does not want to sign a 1 or 2 year extension with us as he is thinking longer term. If ICT offer him 4 (3 year extension) years then he feels it will be worthwhile moving family up here, if not he will look for a contract with a club near Edinburgh. His decision not to sign a new contract with us has nothing to do with his commitment to the club, he is simply doing what we should all do and put family first. ICT were never under any illusion as to what the situation was/is with Dods, it has nothing to do with money or contract terms (other than length) and all is amicable between player and club. It is not a case of him not wanting to remain at ICT, it's just a lot can happen in a year and he wants/needs to keep his options open. The club have a choice, they have to weigh up any offers that come in for him against what "value" he will bring to the team over the next year. I understand the contract offer we have made remains open for him to reconsider at any time. You didn't need to be a tosserographer to know any of this as most of the information has been in the public domain since he arrived with us.

Please keep in mind that kids view these forums as well. Thanks.

CC made a couple of comments during the closed season about having players making fewer "lung busting" sprints down the wings from the back of the park, so Caff and Golly not pushing forward may have been based on instructions from the dugout. If/When these players are replaced next week we will see if the guys coming in perform a similar roll and it will become more obvious why we never seemed to be using the wings as well as we are known too. I have to say though, it doesn't make sense to have the widest pitch in the league and constantly try and play through the middle or via diagonal cross pitch balls. I would love to have seen the pitch narrowed this season, but that hasn't happened so we need to be better utilising the width to our advantage instead of letting visitors kick our a55 up and down the wide channels for 90 minutes.

:015: :015: :015: - Nice Spot Mr B

The Charitable Trust that owns the stadium owns the new stands and we lease the whole thing from them.

Take it easy with the personal insults. It is possible to disagree with a person without resorting to playground-esque name calling.

The point I was trying to make is that our increased turnover has nothing to do with the costs of the stands or the money supplied to cover those costs. I may be wrong, but I believe the club did make a payment from their own bank account towards the new stands (something like £200k rings a bell). So depending how that has been written off against the accounts we would have actually shown a higher operating profit if it was not included. All in all it just adds to how healthy our finances really are when we were able to shoulder such capital expenditure and still turn a profit. It's no suprise when you see how well we are doing on the financial front that the Bank of Scotland provide all their football club customers with David Sutherlands business plan as the blueprint for making a club pay.

Going back to CC, many people (me included) think he got it wrong with the line-up on Saturday, but on the positive side, it is good to see him trying something different. What will be important is what he takes from it and how he uses that going forward. Unlike players where you nearly always have more than one option, you are generally stuck with your manager every week (unless your Dundee Utd or Livingston). It's not like we can call in a reserve manager until the current one gets his act together (well we can, but I doubt anyone is calling for CC's head right now). We have a tough set of games ahead of us and after Saturday it looks like a steep learning curve, but I still remain confident CC is more than capable of rising to the task.

The drums were never my cup of tea, but...again...they did no harm and probably did help lift the crowd, so if someone wants to bring drums and the club are willing to allow it....Bring them on. Not sure if the club shop still have them, but they were selling those inflatable "CheerStix" which make a fair racket. Perhaps those who are in to that kind of thing could get their hands on some as they would make a suitable alternative to drums. If you want to do something like that you don't need to wait for someone else to do it or seek any kind of approval from other fans, take the initiative and lead the way.

I agree with the fact that Golly would not have gone out to intentionally have a bad game, but when things go wrong and your not at your worst then you expect criticism and you have to be man enough to stand up and take it. Golly's body language yesterday did not look to me like someone who realised they were having an off day, it looked to me like a person looking for excuses for every misplaced pass or poor tackle. The icing on the cake was when he removed the Captains armband. He gestured that it was too tight, yet he seemed to have managed fine with it up until that point. At the end of the day the decision as to whether Golly (or any player for that matter) starts next week is for CC to make. He is the man best placed to know how much of Saturday was down to "an off day" and how much was down to a drop in form. What we have to do as fans come 3pm this Saturday is put last weeks game/performance behind us and support the team from the first whistle, we do not want to fall in to the blackhole of getting on players backs from the off just because they had a poor game the week before. Thats whats so great about fans forums, they allow us the opportunity to get these things off our chests and move on. People won't always agree with each other, but hopefully we can take a little from what (most) people have to contribute to the discussions.

Make that back 3 Rossco/Proctor.....Dods......Hastings and I would be far happier. Nothing against Munro, just think Hastings would be more suited to playing on the left of a back 3

Changed days when people are actually saying they would prefer to have Hastings in the line-up :015: Seriously though, Hastings has really got stuck in and showed what he can do since he returned for his 2nd spell with us, I would have him as first choice at LB every week and can't help but think that Hastings must have been carrying a knock or something when Golly was put in ahead of him.

Funnily enough I never noticed/heard anyone standing shouting and cheering for the team for a full 90 minutes, so either you weren't doing it very loudly Soolivan, or your on here preaching that we should be supporting the team vocally for 90 minutes when your not doing so yourself. I actually thought the fans were pretty good considering the performance on Saturday. Immediately after the equaliser there was a pretty good session of chanting for the team, but the team never responded, in fact they went on to lose an even worse goal than the first one. Kinda hard to keep the chin up and keep on shouting when things are going like that. The only thing that annoys me is when the noise coming from the fans is negative, these people who sit and shout at players for every single poor touch of the ball yet sit in silence when we score or put together a good play are the ones who get right on my t1ts. Those who prefer to sit and watch the game in silence are doing nobody any harm, they paid their money to see the match the same as you did, so let them be and you enjoy the game the way you want to without worrying about others.

The one RiG mentioned in the 2nd half was well inside the box, I actually thought the Ref was going to give it as when I looked up from the incident he was looking straight at it. Agree that if Dargo had gone down then I think the ref would have had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, but he seemed to bottle it as he managed to stay on his feet. I didn't feel too agreaved at not getting a penalty as Dargo had lost the ball by then and the incident was "off the ball", but I have seen penalties given for far less. Not blaming the ref for our defeat, but when you consider he gave 17 fouls against us and only 8 for, it doesn't reflect that fact that St Mirren were the more physical team on the park yesterday. I don't think many of us would have expected much else from Freeland.

Is an outstanding match ban better or worse than your run-of-the-mill match ban? :016: