ictchris

I'm not surprised that the team are frustrated and angry.  For more than two seasons we've had managers who don't take responsibility and slate the players every time something goes wrong.  Off the top of my head the squad have been told they think they are better than they are, that they aren't real men, they aren't tough, they don't want to make sacrifices, they are bad apples. 

The managers saying this haven't signed any players who have added to the squad, in fact they've added players who are noticeably worse. They haven't been able to coach or make tactical adjustments to get results.  They have dropped or refused to play some of our best players for non-footballing reasons while signing utter dross.

 It must be extremely frustrating to play through that and have the manager insult you continually.  It's a sign of a manager completely out of his depth - we saw it last season with Foran and we are seeing it again with Robertson. Sadly we are in the same situation we were in with Foran, a manager so close to figures at the club that he's nigh on impossible to get rid of.

worth saying that Kellacher is a good coach and works well with the squad. I understand he took a lot of the slack at various points last season and it could be that he was just in the wrong place yesterday.

1 hour ago, ymip said:

Meanwhile the irony of the whingeing we are now reading about club statements is palpable. Complaints about lack of communication and board inactivity have been loud and long. However the response of some to the far more proactive and forthcoming board policy seen of late appears to be to complain about that as well.

This is an extremely poor point. The club should give out relevant information written in a professional and clear way. What they've been doing is sending out Sir Bufton-Tufton statements, written in a puffed up, finger wagging style that make the club look ridiculous.  It's typical of organisations and people who are completely out of their depth to react in this sort of passive aggressive way - "oh you are complaining about not getting enough information, well here's a statement every two days, how's that for information eh". It also shows complete ignorance on how to manage the media and get positive coverage for the club.

The issue with fans at Brechin could have been dealt with without a statement. If fans were caught with flares or smoke bombs then they should be banned. You don't need a statement to do that.

Putting anything in inverted commas in an official statement is an embarrassment, it reads like a church parish newsletter.

Just idiotic.  if the club are reading this, instead of putting a statement out for whatever no-mark occurrence has happened just mash your hand on the keyboard and hit 'send'.  it can't be any worse.

These statements are absolutely awful.  Just utterly dreadful.  Your heart sinks when you see them come up.

We are supposed to be playing a bounce game against Clach tonight, anyone know if we have anyone playing on trial?

Away to Forfar in the next round.

Anyone got the team lines, goal scorers, when the next round is?

The goals are in YouTube, both their goals came from back passes we didn't deal with.

We really are dreadful at the back.

I remember when I used to read outraged complaints on here about me and my mates at games, I'm getting old lads.

Transfer deadline tomorrow, wonder if we'll bring anyone in or ship anyone out.

1 - Take out £150m bank loan

2 - Use loan to sign Neymar.

3 - Sell 3 million Neymar shirts at £50 a go

4 - Pay off loan

5 - Use Neymar to qualify for play-offs

We aren't signing Greg Morrison.

He'll probably be in leave until he gets another job, which will most likely be never. Who exactly is going to employ him?

maybe he'll end up back at the club somehow. Charlie Christie did after he left as manager.

I doubt it's contractual as other Championship teams release longer coverage - Dunfermline for example.

According to transfermarkt the current youth players in the first team squad are:

Cameron Mckay - GK - 20

Ryan McRitchie - DF - 18

Liam MacDonald - MF - 17

Kier Smith - MF - 18

Mitchell Foy - FW - 17

Andrew Macrae - FW - 19

We've currently loaning out

Stephen Foster - GK (Nairn County)

Daniel Hoban - GK (Brora Rangers)

Aidan Wilson - MF (Wick Academy)

Alasdair Stark - DF (Wick Acacemy)

Can't say I know anything about any of these players to say whether they are worth a shot in the team.

I've sent Fraser a DM, I'd encourage anyone who has moaned on here to do the same.

On 18/08/2017 at 1:48 PM, Fraz said:

As I'm going I'd be happy to take questions or suggestions along on behalf of those too far away if there's no 'official' way of doing so. However if you can make it along, if ONLY for a wee bit please do as it helps to show our solidarity (for want of a better word) as fans. Don't want it to just be the usual faces.

Anyway if you do have anything you want raised probably best to PM me here I guess and I'll do my best.

I'm going to send you a message on this Fraz. A couple of other fans who aren't in here have suggestions as well. Will do it later today.

I love all the talk about "balance of power", like we are the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Here is an article about the analysts that worked on recruitment for Leicester City. I realise that we don't have a budget approaching theirs but are we even looking at anything like this? Do we have people looking at players in this way?

 http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/how-leicester-city-unearthed-mahrez-341044

15 minutes ago, RiG said:

Largely agree with Charles here. Plenty of folk have been on here moaning, myself included about things at the club in recent weeks and months. Surely we can muster up 120 people to head along to this event and express their concerns despite the short notice? if not it will only serve to strengthen the notion that a lot of people are happy to **** and moan about stuff they don't like but not do anything about it when afforded the opportunity.

So if you're annoyed about season ticket prices, the Pride of the Highlands badge, the poor communication through Twitter and Facebook or whatever it may be this is your chance to speak up about it. If you can't be bothered to do so then don't bother complaining about these things in the future.

I'll stick to moaning about it on the internet I think.

We've apparently signed Coll Donaldson.

not promising tbh. Maybe a new start is what he needs, let's hope so,

2 hours ago, Northern_jaggie said:

If I was in charge of the team I'd leave out both Vigurs and Polworthless for a few games.  Their constant involvement grates on me and I think the way they play has strong positives, it also has many outweighing negatives.  The very first thing a midfielder needs to do is to protect the team and the mindset of these two leaves us short  in this department.  This is why we will miss big Drapes so much.

We literally don't have any other central midfielders who have ever played a minute for the first team.  Vigurs is also clearly one of the few players we have who can pass the ball and create anything.  

Towards the end of last season Vigurs played better when he was given a deeper role in a midfield four.  Could we go back to that?  Say something like this

------------------Vigurs-------------------

--Polworth--------------Calder/Cooper---

----------------Trafford-----------------------

Strengths of this are that Vigurs is probably our best passer and can use the ball from deep and Polworth has been effective from the right before in terms of goals and assists.  Splitting the midfield like this also gives more openings for passes and space and stops us being one dimensional.  It also allows us to be compact and (hopefully) protect the back four.

Weaknesses are that Vigurs can be prone to switching off defensively and not picking men up; I'm not sure either Cooper or Calder are suited the the left midfield role, although it's their stronger side they are more wide players or full backs.  This formation also means we are reliant on full backs for width and the performances of Seedorf and Chalmers against the Pars left a lot to be desired.  Also, I think Trafford is more of a central midfielder than an attacking one so it might be unfamiliar for him.  

I don't recall many people criticising the contracts offered to Draper, Raven etc.  If anything fans clamoured for it.

Interestingly, we've signed Trafford on a three year deal and paid a transfer fee for him, although considering the length of contract it's probably minimal.  

We paid £228,000 a year to Tulloch?  Goodness me.

33 minutes ago, Council Juice said:

I'd still like to see someone in a DoF role. Although maybe not Grassa. He's had his time. I've mentioned him before but I think CC would be quite suited to that role. He's got a long term connection to the club. An affinity with the club and lives locally. He'd be in for the long haul. He's articulate and intelligent. Has a good bond with fans. Has football knowledge. I'm not saying it has to be him but he ticks a lot of boxes for me.

We need someone who could combine a DoF/head of recruitment/head of youth development type role. Someone with a model and general oversight of the football side and scouting. Leave first team football to the first team manager. He still has final say on players. However the DoF is the one doing the graft of inviting players for trial. Collating scout reports etc. 

I think it's high time that the club developed a model of football business. A philosophy that generally dictates signings and youth development up to the first team. Hopefully the new board recognise this as the last few years have just been a continuous run of false starts in that regard. 

We've appointed Danny MacDonald to that role.