caleyboy

CaleyP did you not slate Dougie "1st division" Imrie and now your great white hope has signed for a bottom 3 1st Division side? I thought you had him signed for half the SPL and now he's signed for a possible relegation team, maybe not the star you had him down for? well he turned down a move to a team in the UEFA cup next year as he wants to get a good season behind him....he accepted less than quarter of the wage this team were offering him including flights for him and his family every month to sign for county, so maybe he wants to prove something in scotland first. hows that mike, has imrie had an offer like that??? also mike including the team from over sea's he had SPL clubs interested, he just thought he'd have a greater chance of a game next season with a 1st division club so he can get experience behind him. anything else you would like to know mike?? Yes, if he has had these great offers and he's turned them down and he's signing for a lot less, is he getting more than he was at ICT from County, because I'm sure you said he needed to live on more than minimum wage? If he was as confident in his own ability as you were, surely he would have been better taking an offer from a bigger club than County, or does that where he think's his level is to be sure of a game? Your painting a picture of a young boy with the world at his feet but he joins County :021: , looks to me like that's the attitude that Butcher saw and kicked his ass out the door! :allhail: :025:

Maybe this is all before your time LG but we didn't have that joke of a portakabin stuck onto the front of the stadium. Ian Broadfoot and Kenny (Omar as he was affectionately known in his refereeing days) operated from a self-contained shop (albeit small) within the stadium. There was no need for a full-time set up as there probably won't be next season. I still feel we are "playing at the game" of retailing club gear and it is about time someone in authority took the whole thing and gave it a shake. The first thing would be to demolish that shed stuck onto the frontage!

Buying stock costs money and carries a risk that it doesn't sell. I do agree that the shop has often been understocked, but I don't think this is the time we will see an improvement in variety. More likely the reverse. We didn't even have a shop when we were in the 1st division before. I hope that isn't going to be the case this time as it provides a valuable income stream, but it will have to prove vialbe. I clearly remember a club shop when we were in Div 2 never mind Div 1. It was run by Ian Braodfoot and opened only on match days.

He obviously comes with a great deal of knowledge cos he's from Newcastle B) :D

Totally agree Johnboy but McArthur falls into the EXCEPTIONAL category, something we don't have.

It really is interesting to read everyones opinions but I think we may all need a reality check for next season. The fact of the matter is that Dale G and Jamie D will do very well to get a place on the bench in the 1st Div. TB will look for experience to take us back up and that unfortunately will be at the expense of youth. IMO this is not a league to learn your trade. These two guys would be better moving on to a club where they would play on a regular basis. It is the same as everything else in life, you can't learnyour trade by starting at the top! I don't see our club being any use to young pros UNLESS they are an EXCEPTIONAL talent. Unfortunately, we do not have any one in this category.

As fans we generally only see/hear one side of the story. Has Ian shown the right attitude when TB overlooked him? Who knows. If this decision is genuine, I don't think it has been made for his lack of potential.

And don't forget our "saviour" David Sutherland tried to blame the supporters!

There are a lot of questions to be answered by the Board and the sooner they deal with what is a major financial problem the better. Some of the questions I have: Can we afford to keep the present management team of Butcher & Malpas? Can we continue to afford a Director of Football? Can we afford to keep 2 full-time U19 coaches? Can we still afford a Chief Executive? Can we still afford a Reserve Team? What size of 1st Team squad can we afford? Do we need to maintain a squad of 16-18 full-time youth players when a small number of QUALITY kids could be coached and trained with the 1st team? What happens with our Youth Development programme? Where do we get the money to pay the lease on the two stands now that they will be near empty at most home games? I apologise for sounding so negative but I really think our problems started when we lost JOHN ROBERTSON and PARKY. When Brewster moved to DU we went for the easy option and appointed CC ( a legend but unqualified and probably unfair to give him the job ), re-appointed Brewster (a proven failure but someone our borad knew they could dominate and manipulate) and by the time they took action to get rid of him, we were ALREADY relegated! We have come to the end of a very exciting journey where we have created a sizeable number of jobs, given our fans the chance to experience prem league action, given the City massive exposure but I,m sorry to say that I feel although we were a prem league team for a number of years I don't think the club ever moved as fast as the team. I hope I'm wrong but unless we atract new money and new people and take the whole thing and shake it up, I feel we are maybe at our level and will just have to accept the fact that we are NOT a prem league club!

Only Grassa & Sutherland are to blame for the Brewster sitation. If we go down, there will be major changes needed and it will be interesting to see how much we paid certain directors during this financial year. Sutherland will probably say lots to save face but at the end of the day he is only there to look after the future value of the Tulloch investment. The wage bill will need to be SLASHED and that would normally start with the big earners (DoF, CEO, Manager, Head of Youth, etc). I hope it doesn't happen but if it does, it will be very interesting to see them all fight their corner. In the meantime - C'MON THE CALEY!

I see Mark McCulloch our former midfielder has decided to hang up his boots and join the police. Had a good living from football but always had his head screwed on the right way.

"Fraser" did not play in the U19's

Quality Has to be this one - PLEASE - it will sell like quality pies!

We should know by now that only wins are posted on the official site. :thumb04:

Killie St Mirren Falkirk Caley Hamilton But only if we beat Hamilton on Saturday. If not, i feel we could be doomed.

And at what level have you played at then "Dalneighcaley"? Oh come on "Dalneighcaley" tell us what "decent level" you played at? - Just so that we an bow to you when required! Played Highland League and had a couple of unsuccessful trials for senior teams . You ? So the Highland League is a decent level is it? Sounds like you maybe played for Fort William or Brora. Please don't give us this bull of playing at a "decent level" - we really aren't interested in dreamers!

And at what level have you played at then "Dalneighcaley"? Oh come on "Dalneighcaley" tell us what "decent level" you played at? - Just so that we an bow to you when required!

And at what level have you played at then "Dalneighcaley"?

For goodness sake 'the/his assistant ' has a name - it's Maurice Malpas - if you didn't know

Sorry Kingmills but semi-finalists are never remembered. What really matters is how many of these boys are capable of stepping up to the next level and lets not forget that the reserve league is being scrapped by the SPL. Good youth teams will not help the first team but a development programme pruducing good players will!

i am not here to disrespect anyone who went before and trust me i know all the hard work that went on before i arrived and understand only to well why the club could only bring in so many players at this time in partivular the work of a certain MrBeaton who was and still is one of the most important figures in youth football in inverness currently with his work at clach and also his work in the park leagues summer leagues etc if it is indeed correct that Duf and Wood started in the Elgin set up they finished at Caley and i would praise the fact that the youth set up now have the scouts in place to get the players into our system as regards to Danny the reason he spends a considerable amount of time fund raising is that to the best of my knowledge the entire youth system up to but not including the full time youths is to be self sustainable!!! no money directly from the club therefor to keep every team/coach plus office expenses and travel expenses he has to raise it and second point of not having enough money to run a team in the first division ross county,dundee,st johnstone,livingston,dunfermline,all run youth teams as said earlier its about priority in youth or 1st team and i have no issue with that and certainly no issue whatsover with what went before indeed nothing but praise i am merly stating in my opinion at the time one of the most important things was to set up a good well run youth system to attract and keep the best young talent i knew danny well from uefa pro license course saw what he had in place at county and wanted him not only to replicate it but better it at caley i beleive he has delivered that system and that caley will benefit long term i wish to place on record here and now at no point have i or would i disrespect anyone from the previous set up as ultimately it was far harder then without doubt merely pointing out that this was an area of the club that we could improve on and build thats all paramount to everything then and now was the 1st team making the premier league as youngsters i beleive want to play for their local team and this will continue with participation in the spl the current across the board youth set up was started 5 years ago and could not and would not have been a success with all those who worked previously fact i beleive the current set up is run or used to be under team ict to raise all monies to self sustain the running i applaud the fact that the previous set up produced fraser,munro and to lesser extent ridgers and low all who have played 1st team football merely stating that the system is now in place to hopefully start producing a reglar stream of new talent and i am certain had this been in place from clubs inception we might have had many more who knows but now we do have it and lets enjoy it Thanks for coming back John. I think you hve probably hit the nail somewhere near the head when you mention scouting system. It is my belief that this is the key to our future because I can assure you that ICT will NEVER be in a position to field squads of 16 - 18 LOCAL boys at U12 to U17 level. It is vital that we have football people scouring the North, East, West, Islands and Central belt for talent which could be developed. However, it is more important that these kids are coached by people who have played the game at a reasonable level. John Beaton and Co put in huge amounts of time and effort into Clach and ICT before it, but they have very little practical football experince. I know being a talented and experienced footballer does not make you a good coach but surely it must help. It is my opinion that not enough former players put enough back into the game and help these kids develope. I personally wish the ICT Youth Development Programme avery success but with the amount of self-generated money being pumped into it, it HAS to be. If Danny has 5 to 6 boys coming from the U17's to the U19's and they do well where do they go from there? There will be no reserve team so they will go out on loan to Elgin. If we retain our SPL status it will become more and more difficult for them to play 1st team football for ICT so we will see very little return for our Youth Development investment. In your day, you had a reserve team made up of first team squad players, the 3 or 4 full-time Skillies and kids from the U17's playing most Saturdays against the FREE highland league team - maybe this is where we will have to go back to - who knows. We then get into the debate of is it worth having 15 or 16 full-time U19 players with no "intermediate" step to the 1st Team? I could go on and on all day but I won't bore you.

Sorry John but our youth setup did not start only 5 years ago and Danny MacDonald didn't start it. A massive amount of work had been put into youth long before you came to the club but because we were in the lower divisions it was not possible to have a full-time youth team. The club could only afford to have a very limited number of full-time youths when we were in the 2nd and 1st divisions but from that limited resource Grant Munro and Ike Fraser (both Inverness boys) came to the fore. For what was being spent at that time compared to the investment now being made, I would strongly suggest that this was an exceptionally good return. Now that we are an established SPL club and enjoy the money this attracts, the two full-time coaches the club employs and the resources available, I would be expecting a better return on this investmet. As you know, very few players are retained after U19 level and even fewer make the first team squad on a regular basis and because the SPL are disbanding the Reserve league I see even fewer being reatined in the future. Only Jamie Duff of the 3 players mentioned by you have come through the system as Vigurs and Wood came from the Elgin City setup and joined us at U19 level. I also find it bizarre that Danny, a qualified European Lic coach spends his time fund raising and not coaching! I normally value your opinions John and I have a great respect for what you did at the club but I think you should make sure your facts ar correct and also show some respect for what went before you.

Totally agree. Said it many times before. He was NEVER good enough to play at this level. 3rd Div - Yes. 2nd Div -Probably. 1st Div-Doubt it. Too many youngsters are given false hope in football and it's not nice when the shove comes. Good luck to the boy wherever he lands up but it's about time he got a job and enjoyed football part-time. Even Nairn County would pay him good pt wage - certainly more than he would get from Elgin.

Maybe that's the problem alex - he is living in the past!

Maybe you should go to Tulloch Caledonian Stadium instead!