Renegade

I've been looking at a lot of old topics recently and remember none other than the very mysterious poster "Richard Fairbrass". He seemed to know a heck of a lot of inside information, far far more than a regular fan or even "someone in the know" would. He was almost certainly an ICT player during either one of or both of Brewster's terms here and claims he once "witnessed Brewster lying to a player" and wouldn't post some information due to a "risk of fines". One poster believed he was Ian Black while another claimed he was Darren Dods! He also claims that some posters "know who he is" and is "an Arab" with "a strong dislike of Brewster". Barry Wilson perhaps?

Well as we all know, the vote is tomorrow. I hope he doesn't change his mind...

I am a 13-year-old daffodil-loving Smiths fan I'll have you know! :annoyed:

Esson Raven Warren Hogg Shinnie Foran Shinnie Jones Doran Sutherland McKay Subs - Reguero, Meekings, Ross, Morrison, Oswell and some youth players!

Perhaps had either of those two played in the lower echelons of English football, they would've have been kept! Maybe me and Terry have something in common then! You seem to know a thing or two in regards to this. Without naming names, am I writing in saying that these "off field issues" were little to do with the manager, more to do with a certain player who's still in the squad? (if what I am alluding to is correct, then I presume you know who I'm talking about)

Hayes will be hard to replace. Hard, but not impossible. Gillet was mobile and always put in a good shift, particularly when played at centre-half. Tokely will never be replaced. No player has ever given or will give what he gave to the club again. His passion, his determination, his willing to give his all for the club. No-one will ever be able to replace that.

You've got to find the happy medium in regards to the build of players, the problem I think is though is Butcher wants to build a team based on brute force, power and strength....a team of eleven Terry Butcher's if you will. That's the problem here, I get the impression that Butcher would prefer to sign a big tall man who can hoof the ball away than a smaller trickier player who can play it. Look at Andrew Grieg, he was supposedly very highly regarded (and was very good when I saw him), but he ends up punted (so to speak!). I can't help but think that had he been any taller than his 5"6 frame, he might have been kept. What one must remember here is that Butcher is a long ball manager. It's a style he played at every club he's been at and the build of his signings of late seems to suggest that this is a style of football that will continue (he was quoted in his first press conference as saying that he wanted Sydney to be "the grinders of Australian football" - that didn't go down well!). He has turned the club into a Lower English League Reject XI, that plays a Lower-English-League-In-The-1980s style in the process, a style that bores supporters and from what I've seen at ICT is completely ineffective particularly when it involves hoofing it long towards McKay. Caley Thistle have always been a better team when the ball has been played on the deck and I can't see success happening again until such a style is resumed.

Notice all the signings so far and including this guy, are all either six foot or over. I can't help but feel that this shows we have another season of hit-and-hope football to look forward to....

You don't get many midfielders that are 6"5!

Does anyone have any statistics (or care to make them ) in regards to the squad turnover for each manager? ie - players brought in/players leaving compared to the actual time spent here by each respective manager. Under Butcher it seems to be massive!

I'm not trying to run this Oswell guy down just yet, but can't see him being any more than a substitute/bench player at this time. He might have scored nineteen times in the Welsh League, but remember Andy Barrowman scored more than that in Division Two, which for my money is probably a significantly higher standard.

I loathe this attitude of "if you disagree with the status quo/manager/board/other fans, you should go away". Such an attitude is detrimental to everyone and leads to more alienation in some quarters of the support. ICT have never had trouble in the past of signing Scottish players which go on to be successes - then again a decade ago, the club had a manager who was the best scout and judger of Scottish playing talent bar none. How times have changed. The problem here is that Butcher seems to be marketing the club in such a way that players, particularly those based in England who have been punted by teams down south, as a kind of place to come and play for a year and attempt to resurrect their career for a move back to England. In other words, Butcher's turned the club into what is basically a Glenn Hoddle Academy of the north. If it were just one or two players that this policy was used for then it would be okay, but when you build a whole team out of it, that's when problems arise. This team needs to be a team again, as it was in the past and if it doesn't the feelings of disconnection between the players and support will continue and could well end in a having squad not good enough to compete at this level.

With Hayes now away and Gillet by the look of things as good as gone and with the news that Laing is now a first team player (albeit probably a back-up one for now), that still leaves rather large areas of the squad that need filled. As things stand ICT have/need the following - Goalkeeper Ryan Esson Ed Baldy or Scott Mathieson probably used as third choice Gone - Johnny Tuffey Needed - New Back-Up Keeper Defence Josh Meekings Gary Warren Chris Hogg Graeme Shinnie Gone - Ross Tokely Kenny Gillet Thomas Piermayr David Proctor Steve Williams (end of loan) Roman Golobart (end of loan) Tom Aldred (end of loan) Needed - One new Right Back One new left back Two/Three new Centre Backs Midfield Nick Ross Andrew Shinnie Martin Laing Aaron Doran Richie Foran Owain Tudur Jones Gavin Morrison Liam Polworth (U19) Gone - Jonny Hayes Greg Tansey Lee Cox David Davis (end of loan) Claude Gnapka Aiden Chippendale (end of loan) Needed - One new winger (preferably a left footer/tearaway type) One attacking midfield Strikers Shane Sutherland Billy McKay Gone - Gregory Tade Sam Winnall (end of loan) Needed - Two strikers (one preferably who is a pacey finisher in the mould of say Craig Dargo and one bigger target man) So there are currently 15 players in the ICT first-team squad. Another eight to ten are needed I reckon.

Bit of a difference though. Robson went to Dundee United who were in the league above ICT at the time. Cowie went to the Championship with Watford. That's the thing here, if Hayes had signed for Bristol City for example, as was rumoured a while back, I think the ICT fans - like they did with Rooney - would see how he was going to a far bigger team, in a better league and unanimously wished him well. Hayes hasn't done that though, he's moved sideways for nothing more than money and that attitude could be detrimental to him in the long run.

I think though, my point really still stands. This constant switching between block blue and red trim to red and blue stripes seems a bit strange to me. It's almost like the club is still searching for it's true identity. The red and blue stripes to me represent the intertwining of Caley and Thistle and creates a design that seems to be unique in this country (and is actually fairly rare worldwide too for that matter), while also managing to end any comments that came with former shirts, of really being nothing more than a glorified Caledonian kit (why the club always has a block coloured blue shirt and never red, doesn't help matters and has never been revealed). You'd never see Celtic going from having hoops to an all white top for example, or Manchester United switching to red and white polka dots now would you?! Stripes are the way to go for ICT I reckon. I may be getting ahead of myself here somewhat, but why does the club seem to have fetish for white away kits? Seems a bit bland to me. I'd like to see a bit more variation in the away kit department myself (not a return to that god-awful orange kit though!). I was thinking something akin to Athletic Bilbao's away kit with an ICT twist, ie - predominantly green with red and blue trimming. That would look pretty snazzy I reckon.

Couldn't ICT and the other remaining SPL clubs not just request the SPL to scrap the coming season's split? That way, there would be more games, probably another money-spinning Celtic game and more games against teams that would bring a larger away support. Don't know how doable it is, but it might generate more income for each club.

What nonsense he's on about. The same old stuff about how big a club Aberdeen are, you'd think it was Barcelona he was signing for! I can't say the move surprises me though however and (going by some of the stories about his behaviour [his involvement in the Lee Cox assault incident for one]), he never did strike me as one of the sharper tools in the toolshed. Ah well, the Caley Curse will strike again!

What a fool.

Doesn't matter if they "counter" it in the following seasons away top, ICT should always be red and blue (IMO always in a striped manner), as that is the colours of the teams that incorporated the club in the first place and anything else is really just a glorified Caledonian kit and not really an ICT kit at all. If the new kit really is just all blue, then I would correctly expect some sort of outcry, probably along the lines of how there is still a pro-Caledonian/anti-Thistle bias at the club and at the same time alienating a sizeable cross-section of the support.

He's the size of a house these days! I tell you though, I saw him playing for Formartine a while back and his passing was still tremendous - I'd go as far as to say that he was the best distributor of the ball I saw all of last season.

I'm pleased. I think he'll be a good player for ICT, as long as he can stay out of the treatment room!

There's also ICT and Ross County games against Coventry of course and apparently Hearts are having a friendly at Grant Street against Clach.

Anyone else remember Clacher_Holiday? Former regular and moderator IIRC. Seems to have disappeared.

I see Simon Mensing's been released by Hamilton. Always looked solid whenever I've seen him play and can cover quite a few positions. Keeper-wise Celtic have released Dominic Cervi. A big guy and maybe good enough to be back-up to Esson.