ictchris

I don't think you can pinpoint an exact moment where it all went wrong but I think it's somewhere around 2012. We got relegated in 2009, maybe slightly unfortunately with a record points total at that time, and then we gave Butcher leeway to rebuild and he did a great job. He then built more and created the cup winning squad that Yogi inherited, the zenith of the club up to this point. However, during those years when we had regular SPL football, a manageable financial situation (easily recoverable losses, external investment, cup runs, Europe money, transfer fees, money for managers etc) what investments did we make off the park? What improvements were made to the infrastructure of the club, both in terms of facilities for the fans and players? None. We still train at Fort George as far as I can see, the ground hasn't been touched or improved in years, and is now starting to fall apart. We don't have any facilities at our ground like a proper bar or decent food or excellent hospitality. You can extend this to off the pitch too and this is one reason why I don't entirely blame Morrison and Gardiner for what's happened to the club. We generally operated OK in the top flight, the losses were coverable when they happened and some years we made money. However, we didn't do anything to generate off the pitch revenue, something that coudl safeguard the clubs future. Gardiner and Morrison have taken a lot of stick for the concerts and the battery farm but they've had to do this because there was nothing there before. We didn't even control the land that the stadium is on, IIRC, and were paying money to another company for it. Eventually every club of our size gets relegated and we completely failed to plan for that in any sense - on the pitch, financially, from a business standpoint. If people remember the summer after we went down it was chaos, we had three different Chairmen, we were releasing players via social media, putting our press releases every day (Twitter account liked porn - statement, Duncan Shearer released by text - statement). It was clear no-one know what to do and really no-one has known what to do since. Everything that's happened to the club since stems from that failure. The Chairman and the CEO are trying to do positive things but failing because they are hamstrung by issues out of their control as well as their own incompetence. In the meantime the club throws huge money on players and managers, makes massive losses but is at the same time massively penny pinching. Watching the Montrose game via their stream I recall the Covid season where we had one of the worst streaming offerings in the entire league. other clubs have kept streaming and probably make a trickle of cash from it but we huffily insisted ours was fine and now don't do it at all. The only way I can see this improving is if an outside party buys the club and is willing to invest proper money in it, which I can't see happening or the current backers underwrite another few million quid and we finally manage to claw our way out of the situation we are in, we flukily get a managerial appointment spot on. I can't see either happening to be honest - I fully expect to be relegated and to spend a few years in League One.

The Inverness Caledonian Thistle Trust Limited shares - who controls that? I assume it is the Trust that was set up when Sutherland was chairman in the early 2000s, do they have a board? As for the old Caledonian and Inverness Thistle shareholdings, again, who controls that? My memory is that these shares reflected the membership of the pre-merger clubs. Companies house listing for the Trust Ltd - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC211723/officers

One question I have is who owns our club? Scott Gardiner is the CEO, Ross Morrison is the chairman but who controls the club? Basically, we are able to carry on operating as a full time club because directors and benefactors write off debt or loan us money on favourable terms. Who are the directors who are doing this, have they said they'll stop doing it? Since we've been relegated David Sutherland and Tulloch's seem to have stepped back from the day-to-day running of the club but they still own the club. Sutherland is involved in the battery farm deal from what I understand.

We can appeal to the Scottish government and we might well have a case. That will take a lot longer and cost money though. In the short run, I think we are highly likely to go into administration. We make massive losses every year that are written off by directors. Reading between the lines, it's obvious that these benefactors have said they won't continue doing that so we've pinned our hopes on this project, which was risky due to the potential rejection by the council. One thing that I'm a bit puzzled about is that this money was earmarked for other projects to make the club sustainable - I'm not sure if it was ever made clear what these projects are and why they are so dependent on the battery farm. Do we just need a revenue source? Is the battery farm somehow linked to the other projects? Are we confident in our useless board and adminisrators to invest millions of pounds in a sustainable way?

Surely enough time for a few more centre backs?

He's got the same agent as Remi Savage and Alex Samuel.

We've signed Alex Samuel on loan from County until the end of the season.

Last round we changed the team to play Cowdenbeath and needed late interventions from Mckay and Wotherspoon to take us through. We need to play a full strength team or we could easily lose.

I don't think the podcast has ever been overly critical of the club or the team. If anything they've been reluctant to criticise as stridently as some of our fans have.

He's confirmed as having been released https://ictfc.com/sean-welsh-leaves-ictfc/

I think he's much like the signings we made in the summer of 2017 (Ellsdon, Zschuschan et al), just signed to fill a spot in the squad. Our recruitment this summer was rushed, probably because our budgets weren't set until very late and there was uncertainty around the manager. It's obvious that if we hadn't made the cup final then Dodds wouldn't have been given a new deal and even though he was he was on a shoogly peg. The recruitment in the last few years has been really poor, espeically permanent signings. Since 2021 here are all the players we've signed permanently: Anthony MacDonald, Michael Gardyne, Tom Walsh, Manny Duku, Billy Mckay, Kirk Broadfoot, Austin Samuels, Max Ram, Steven Boyd, Nathan Shaw, George Oakley, Zak Delaney, Ryan Barrett, Jake Davidson, Charlie Gilmour, Adam Brooks, Luis Longstaff, David Wotherspoon, Harry Lodovica, Cillian Sheridan. Of those how many have been our best players? How many have even been regular starters? Billy Mckay and Nathan Shaw are probably the only two who fit both criteria. Wotherspoon as well but he's on a very short term deal and will be away soon. I think Gilmour looks pretty good but none of the others we've signed who are still at the club look like the sort of guys who are first on the team sheet. We have had some success in the loan market - Max Anderson and Morgan Boyes seem like good additions this year and Jay Henderson, Daniel Mckay, Logan Chalmers and Sam pearson were all decent. Overall we need a complete reset in how we bring in players.

I spoke to someone at the game on Saturday who knows about council planning applications in general, no special knowledge of this one specifically, and their opinion was that this will 100% be rejected. It fails it on noise grounds alone due to being too close to houses.

People talking about him being appointed for 'staunchness' are being silly. The guy played about ten games for Rangers thirty years ago. I don't think he's particularly renowned as a Rangers guy at all, Everton are the club he's identified with. He was really considered a big disappointment by Rangers fans

Positives and negatives about appointing Ferguson. POSITIVES He has coaching and assistant manager experience at the highest level. He was a first team coach at Everton from 2014 to 2022, caretaker manager a couple of times. He worked with Roberto Martinez, Ronald Koeman, Sam Allardyce, Marco Silva, Carlo Ancelloti, Rafa Benetiz. That has to be worth something. He seems to have been highly regarded by those he worked with. He has a reputation as a motivator, a positive guy who is passionate as a coach, not someone who is more analytical and measured. NEGATIVES He hasn't been involved in Scottish football for decades, he's never coached here at all. You can be certain he'll have zero knowledge of players at this level. He was interviewed by Tony Bellew for a podcast earlier this year and he said that he hasn't really paid much attention to Scottish football for years - which is understandable as he was coaching a Premier league club so knowledge of lower leagues in Scotland isn't required. He had a poor record as manager of Forest Green Rovers, who were in a similar position to us when he took over - bottom of their league. There are obviously reasons behind every failure (and success) and from what I've read about it there were underlying things wrong at the club that meant he wasn't in a position to succeed.

This is my understanding also. I might be wrong but I would expect him to take over as manager until the end of the season and, unless we get relegated, permanently after that.

We are linked with Jack Sanders, Killie centre half on loan. Played the first half of last season on loan at Cove Rangers.

RUmours that we will be signing a defender before the deadline.

It was obvious for more than a year that Robbie Deas would be leaving but we haven't signed a central defender to replace him. Now we are bottom of the league making horrendous defensive errors in every game and are scrambling about trying to sign someone for that position before the deadline. It's appalling management and planning.

Our squad is much weaker this season than last. Of the regulars from last season we've lost Deas, Allardice, Henderson and Mckay and none of them have really been replaced. Deas hasn't been replaced at all, we've just not signed anyone in his position. We have signed Charlie Gilmour in the middle where Allardice played but I'm not sure he is a similar player and isn't someone who is going to dominate in there the way Allardice did. Henderson and MacKay both had pace and the ability to deliver a great ball in and while it's early days I'm not sure Brooks or Longstaff look comparable. We are weaker in ever area and unless we make some excellent signings in the next few days I honestly think 8th is about the limit of our ambitions this season. We've done well on loan in the last few years - Jamieson, McAlear, Chalmers, Pearson and the aforementioned Henderson and MacKay were all good contributors - so maybe we can use that market.

Inverness Cup champions after a 17 season hiatus You'll never sing that.

All three goals came from us giving the ball away in our own half. Really poor. I hope that this is just the pre-season affect.

Glad the feel good factor from the cup final lasted a whole five days.

How many grounds have you seen Caley Thistle play at? Saw this discussed on P&B, thought it was an interesting question. I have seen us play at 40 different grounds. Premiership - PIttodrie, Celtic Park, Dens Park, Tynecastle, Easter Road, Rugby Park, Almondvale, Fir Park, Ibrox, Victoria Park, McDairmid Park, St Mirren Park. Championship - Excelsior, Somerset Park, Tannadice, East End, Cappielow, Caledonian Stadium, Firhill, Stark's Park League One - Recreation Park, Falkikr Stadium, New Douglas Park, Palmerston Park, Forthbank League Two - New Bayview, Borough Briggs, Ochilview. Non-league - Station Park (Nairn County), Christie Park (Huntly), Mosset Park (Forres Mechanics), Grant Street Park (Clach), Princess Royal Park (deveronvale), Grant Park (Lossiemouth), New Victoria Park (Newtongrange Star) and Cliftonhill (Albion Rovers). Neutral - Hampden Park (cup semis and finals) Grounds that no longer exist - Telford Street, Brockville and Love Street. I've also seen us play as the home team at five different grounds - Telford Street and Caledonian Stadium, as well as Pittodrie (2004/05 ground share), Tannadice (1996 cup tie v Rangers) and Victoria Park (January 2005 cup tie v St Johnstone).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Inverness_Caledonian_Thistle_F.C._players Scott Allan Andre Blackman Mark Brown (footballer, born 1981) Joe Chalmers Ryan Christie Jonny Hayes Jamie McCart Barry Robson Lewis Toshney Not including players who never started for Celtic - that rules out Gardyne, Deas, Prunty, Charlie Christie