ictchris

The crowds when Celtic and Rangers Under 20s played in this season's challenge cup Celtic U20s v Annan at Cappielow - 216 Celtic U20s v Cowdenbeath at Central Park - 449 Rangers U20s v Stenhousmuir at Forthbank - 324 Celtic U20s v Livingston at Energy Assets Stadium - 1219 The only game that saw any significant increase in crowds was the Livingston game, which the Celtic 'Colts' lost 5-1. That's another point, I'd imagine that a lot of the enthusiasm of this idea might fade when decent lower league teams started scudding the Ibrox and Parkhead kids week-in, week-out.

Scottish football is full of ideas that never die and this is one of them. There is no evidence that this would help young players develop and it takes well-supported leagues that contain teams who develop excellent young players and turns them into warm-ups for rich clubs reserve teams. In terms of their size and wealth clubs like Hamilton Accies and Livingston have been far more successful than the Old Firm in producing young players. Of the Scotland team who played on Saturday there were two Hearts youth products (Gordon and Berra), two Celtic (Tierney and Mulgrew), two Dundee Utd (Armstrong and Robertson), two Livingston (Grifiths and Snodgrass) one each from Hibs (Brown), Hamilton (McArthur), Middlesborough (Morrison), Aberdeen (Fraser), Wycombe (Anya) and Norwich City (Martin). Of the two teams (the Old Firm) who will be the Colt teams there were two players, one of whom, Mulgrew, is pish. Consider the vast sums of money spent by Rangers over the years on youth players and facilities and they have less success than Livingston. Colt teams really sum up the sort of discussion we have about football in this country - there are many, many things that make German and Spanish football produce better young players than in Scotland but the one that is picked up and hammered, over and over again for years, is B teams, 'Colt' teams. It's something that is pretty simple to explain and understand but actually shies away from the real reasons why young Scottish players don't do as well (not enough quality coaching at a young age, not enough facilities, lack of structured national programmes etc). The current rules say that B teams can't be included above the fifth tier of Scottish football. I think that's fine - we ourselves used to have a 'B' team in the North Caldonian League and there are other teams who have the same. The idea that you could have reserve teams squeezing out professional sides is a joke. Of the teams in last season's Premiership us, Ross County, Hamilton Accies, Rangers and Partick Thistle have played in the lower half of the league system in the last twenty years.

He's said he wants to play fast attacking football, exactly what Foran said when he was appointed. I'd quite like a manager who said "I want to play slow, defensive unexciting football" just for something different.

Where are people getting that Warren and Raven have been released?

Of those who've been linked with the job I think Paul Sheerin and Danny Lennon both have better, more recent experience. But also, I don't know who applied, who expressed an interest and who the club spoke to. You just don't know what sort of people were available, who we sought out (if anyone). I hope he succeeds but it seems as though we're just appointing the people who are slap bang in front of us rather than trying to do something different.

None of these are really relevant. 1 - Most of our managers, since Steve Paterson, have been in place for less than two years. Butcher was here for just under five years and Hughes for two and a half but generally football management isn't a long term job. We've done well in the past by letting managers go at the right time and moving on. The idea that we need someone who lives here doesn't hold out. 2 - His experience at this level is over a decade ago. Ian McCall and Jimmy Calderwood both had teams finish in the top half of the SPL the season that Robertson won the league with us. Alan Kernaghan almost took Clyde to the title. Imagine we'd appointed one of them. Also, post-ICT his experience is pretty much constant failure. 3 - We are recruiting a football manager not a Butlins redcoat. Maybe his attitude will be a positive but ability is more important. 4 - As above, ability is what matters not whether they live here or have an affinity with the Highlands, whatever that means. I have a genuine affinity with ICT and have spent a great deal of my life living in the Highlands, should I get the job? I hope he succeeds but people shouldn't be blinded by hope. He's someone who's proved limited during his career and doesn't have any recent experience. We need to rebuild out squad and team and freshen the club up. We've appointed someone who we are hoping succeed because he's been here before and lives in Inverness. It might work but it's disappointing. If it turns out that he's been appointed because certain people are wanting to get more involved in the club again then that is worse, tbh.

Looking forward to hearing the logic behind this from the board, should be amusing.

We've had to pay compensation for Robertson, according to the reports. He is a development coach at Hearts, under 17s though rather than under 20s for Sheerin.

This is just utterly deflating. Waiting around for weeks and we appoint someone who was good fourteen years ago, who hasn't had a job in five years, someone who hasn't had any success in football since leaving us. Do the board not have any contact numbers for anyone other than former players or people they've heard of before?

Hopefully we've got him on a month-to-month contract.

Alistair Fraser tweeting that it's Robertson.

Foran re-appointed, lol.

Scottish football is full of ideas that will never, ever die and this is one of them. A load of total *****.

Are we back to looking at managerial win percentages? Danny Lennon doesn't have a perfect record but he had several tricky jobs. He took Cowdenbeath to two successive promotions, which is probably the best outcome you could hope for with them. He kept St Mirren in the top flight and won a major trophy, again probably the best he could hope for. The fact they've dropped like a stone since he was let go is indicative that he did a pretty good job. They didn't ever set the heather on fire in the Premiership but the two 8th place finishes he managed were the best positions that St Mirren have finished in since the 1980s. Since then he's had two short-term appointments - he kept Alloa up but didn't manage to kick on the following season and then had a short spell at Airdrie to cover for when Eddie Wolecki had a stroke. He's not a glamour choice or anything like that but he has experience of managing sides at this level, and above. He has been involved in Scottish football for a long time so will hopefully have a good understanding of the teams around us and be able to prepare the team a bit better than we were last season. I wasn't particularly impressed with his St Mirren team but you can't argue with his achievements. Also, for someone like Danny Lennon, we are a huge opportunity, we are the biggest club he'll probably get a shot at managing at the moment. He'll certainly be motivated to succeed. If we do appoint him I would be happy.

Do other clubs fans and former players continually harp on about getting back previous managers/players, or is it just us?

Falkirk fans on P&B saying that we've signed John Baird. Ultra-experienced First Division striker. Good recent record. Solid signing I'd say.

The communications from the club have been pish for years, the club statements are poorly written, aren't clear and in many cases are actually infuriating. Things like the statement about Greg Tansey when he was targeted by Aberdeen, the bizarre statement when Hughes left, the fact that we were publicising a "one course meal and pay bar" for the Champions League final minutes after we were smashed by our local rivals. That's continued in this close season. A perfunctory statement detailing that Foran is leaving, a few puff pieces about the new board and then worst of all the announcement of season ticket prices. If the statement on season tickets had been thought through even for a couple of minutes then it would've included an acknowledgement that some fans would be disappointed at the prices but that the club need to maintain them to allow us to challenge then people might have come around to it. As it was there a single, throwaway sentence about the prices. You don't need to be a communications genius to anticipate what the reaction will be to something and try to head it off at the pass, as it were. When you look at clubs like Hearts and Hibs who have focused on communications from the board and club, it's night and day for us and it doesn't have to cost money. The updates Hearts issue from Ann Budge, the way Leanne Dempster has had an impact at Hibs - this is a cultural change and it doesn't have to cost money. Since the board talked about appointing a general manager, the role has been discussed as something like having a 'football man' on the board, like Malpas or Butcher. I think the role needs to be more than that, needs to encompass how the club engages with the fans, with sponsors and local businesses, with government agencies, with the wider community. A big part of that is having someone with overall responsibility for this and the GM could do that. I'm sure Don did lots for the club without pay and the YouTube stuff is excellent. The Twitter account was engaging and responded well to queries rather than just pushing out links to the website, which is a lot better than most clubs official Twitter accounts. I do think that perhaps the club have taken advantage of him a bit if he's been doing all this without pay though and there's surely someone at the club now who can operate a Twitter account to send out the latest fixtures? It's almost passive-aggressive to just not do anything.

As with Paul Sheerin, if Darren Dods hadn't played for us would people want him?

Dundee United have significant debts, we don't. Also, the compensation for Sheerin won't be significant. Recently Jack Ross was linked heavily with Dundee and it was widely reported that the compensation clause in his contract was £20,000. I'd amazed if there was any sort of clause like that in a Development managers contract.

Sheerin would be an underwhelming appointment but better than appointing some utter Scottish football jobber. Coaching under 20s is different from being a manager, please remember that when discussing his record at Aberdeen if we appoint him. He had a great start to his time at Arbroath, nearly taking them to successive promotions but fell away badly and got relegated. He has no experience of managing full-time players. He has spent the last twenty years in Scottish football, suggesting he'll focus on recruiting domestic players rather than casting the net wider the way we've done in the last few seasons.

Saw someone on Twitter post that we have interviewed Terry Butcher, Danny Lennon and Colin Calderwood.

Billy Reid did a great job at Hamilton and basically laid the foundations for all their success. The emphasis on youth and the organised system that they play is down to him. I'm not sure he's the person you want to come in and make a diffference straight away though. He was given a long run as Accies manager and waa able to out that in place. We need someone to come in, out a squad together and get us competing straight away. Billy Davies has an excellent track record as a manager in the second tier in England, I think it's highly doubtful that he's want to drop down to our level. He's also a notoriously difficult person to get on with, although the lesser press scrutiny up here might be a good thing for him. I'd say there's little chance of him coming here though. I wish he would, if only so I could hear Bannerman try to interview him.

I'd be amazed if we go for someone like Aitken. I doubt (and hope) that none of the speculation is relevant - we've just revamped the board so it's doubtful that journalists will have relevant contacts with people at the club to get inside scoops on what is going on. Our fans do seem to be obsessed with returning to previous managers and ex-players. If Sheerin hadn't played for us, literally nobody would be suggesting him as a candidate

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