Renegade

I'm led to believe Imrie will be back in about 3 weeks.

Has anyone else ever noticed that whenever a big "scandal" happens, or the fans, or a section are against something involved with ICT, a small group of strange unknown come on to try and shut them up? I certainly have. Notice the first time it seemed to happen, or the first time I noticed it anyway, was when the whole "Brewster Must Go" campaign picked up momentum. The vast majority of CTO posters seemed to be of the opinion that Brew should go, but now and again strange unknown, new posters kept popping up telling essentially to sit down and shut up. There seemed to be an attitude of "how dare you question the board. The board know best, you're just the fans, you don't know how to do anything" about them. Now there seems to be a few new posters saying the same sort of things those who think Butcher is not the man for the job. Once again a "We know best. Don't you dare question the club" kind of attitude. This has once again happened with the "gypsie" scandal. Once again new, unknown posters come on wth the whole "Don't question the club" attitude again. Is there a chance some these posters are put in by the club to get the fans off their backs? Discuss.

Welcome to Great Britain 2009 everybody.

According to Wikipedia (obviously don't know how how true it is then), he has in fact signed for Gibraltar United.

Coudn't they take them into Allison then?

According to Wikipedia, he did turn out for the Barca first team once, in an away tie against Deportivo La Caruna and he also turned out 44 times for the Barcelona B team, scoring 4 goals.

Says it all really. There are some folk in the ICT support seem to have had a sanity bypass. This is banter, it has always been banter. Have a look at the County Fans Forum and you'll see they call ICT "the Dump" and all sorts of other names. Am I offended? No. It's just banter. Will some of these sad lonely complainers be offened? Probably. And as for that bizarre rambling reply, pretty typical of ICT to be honest. They don't understand what it is like to support this club, and they don't care about us, they only compare about their bank balance and their fellow black suit wearing business collegues.

I know it kind of goes against the "rules" of my opeing post, but Juanjo turned out for Barcelona a handful of times, and though it might not be a huge team, Richard Hastings once looked set to go to Luton Town on a Bosman, but went to County instead.

Taken from the Geocities site: Ross County FC - not suitable for children ICT's oldest rivals, Ross County play in a a village in the blackest of Isles. Originally just another duff Highland League outfit, County stormed into the big time in the 1990s with, er, two Highland Leagues and a Qualifying Cup. With scaredy cats AC Milan and Real Madrid refusing to let County enter the Champions League they did the next best thing - applied to join the Scottish League. Since then the tinks have moved up the divisions with the speed and dexterity of Brian Irvine on a dancefloor - ie not much. However, a big-spending chairman and league reconstruction managed to wangle the fortune-tellers a place alongside ICT in the First Division. Since then, ICT have resumed their wonderful tradition of giving the gypos from Tinkwall a damn good hiding every time we play them (except of course when we let them win to avoid causing mass suicides among their long-suffering followers). Having signed failed male model Dick Hastings on a free after he left ICT, County perhaps expected to make an impression on the League this year, but have had to settle for being useless ona regular basis, something that the inbreds who follow them should be used to by nowdo's and don'ts when playing CountyDO: take a large clothes peg for use on your nose, in order to keep out the agricultural smells which proliferate in Dingwall. DO: Make sure you keep hold of your possessions Dingwall tinks will pinch anything. DON'T: Bump into Billy Ferries on a night out after ICT have humped County DON'T: Try to buy anything, they haven't got used to decimalisation yet in Dingwall. DON'T: Attempt to engage in any liason with a member of the opposite sex in Dingwall. One word: riddled. Just to give further warning, here is photo of the sort of typical Dingwall resident that you would be wise to avoid: Here is a typical Dingwall family, revealed here in their full horror: Ross COunty consider drastic action to prevent any repeats of ALex Bone's ill-discipline during derby games. It was a typical Monday down at Clach Park... It was a typical day down at the farm for the Dingwall Ross County supporters club

Let's All Laugh At County

A few seasons back Nottingham Forest if I remember right were very keen on signing Craig Dargo and Ross Tokely. Think this was around the time when Christie got the manager's job I think.

Just thinking recently, have any current or former ICT ever been strongly linked or gone on trial with a much bigger club. According to Wikipedia, Dougie Imrie went on trial with Nottingham Forest in November 2007 and Marius Niculae was strongly linked with Watford, Sporting Lisbon, Karlsruher and Torino towards the end of the 2007/08 season, before eventually re-signing with Dinamo Bucharest. A few years previous to joining ICT, he was once heavily linked with Werder Bremen. Phil McGuire was once also said to be on trial with Liverpool during his time a Aberdeen (whether that is true or just PR spin by his agent, I don't know) and perhaps the most surprising and strange one is that Brian Kerr was once said to be getting a lot of interest from Borussia Dortmund, during his time playing at Motherwell. Are there any other either current or former ICT players anyone can think of, who either went on trial with, or were strongly linked with a fairly large club?

I agree with that, what's the point? The way some Scottish commentaters are, I've rather we had the English lot back. Back on topic, I have no problem with Butcher being on the TV, some may remember John Robertson, when he was boss of ICT, being a semi-regular pundit on the BBC Sportscene Uefa Cup games. But here's the thing, do I think Butcher raises the profile of ICT doing these pundit things? No, but I do reckon he's doing it to up his profile, and to get himself in the shop window, the next time an SPL club is looking for a boss.

Which list is that then?

Any team in Scotland! That defence would be lucky to stop anyone in the Highland League. Golabek aint a centre-half and neither is Hastings. The only player with any real presence in that defence would be Tokely. ICT need a Mihadjuks/Mann type in next to Munro.....and need one now!

With this game coming, there's a chance that once again this game could go to penalties, so surely it's time they practiced them. I noticed in the Courier last week that Grant Munro said that they never practice penalties and "hope it all goes right on the day". Surely this isn't the way to go. Now I know some people are going to come with what the media constantly harp on about, calling them a "lottery". If you practice them, they aint. The Spanish and Italians say that this simply isn't true. You have to practice penalties. Notice England have only ever won on penalties once in a amjor competition, why? Cause they hardly ever practice them. Why do Portugal and the like always seem to win on penalties? Cause they always practice them. Surely not practicing penalties this week especially would be madness. Discuss

If that's the case, why didn't he A - start with three strikers (as he was touting last week), or B - keep Barrowman on, and put Sanchez on at half time, taking off one of the players having a dreadfull game, ie - Bulvitis, Proctor or Duncan.

I am not calling for Butcher to be sacked at all, just not yet anyway. Really has his signings on the whole been good? No, the only ones with any merit are Cox (who seems to have got worse over the last few games) and Hayes. Bulvitis is an accident waiting to happen, Stratford is just rubbish and Eagle is either decent or poor. The football hasn't exactly been amazing, the results haven't exactly been brilliant, failing to beat mediocre sides like Airdrie and Ayr and then getting absolutely gubbed by County. He also made some bizarre decesions in the lead up to the end of last season, then to put the icing on the cake, went with a quite frankly stupid line-up. Decisions that ultimately in the end that played a part in ICT's relegation. Butcher is my mind will not ever be sacked by ICT. He'll either leave about Christmas time (probably sighting budget shortages and the like, most likely to save his own record, when it becomes clear that he cannot steer ICT back to the SPL). If that doesn't happen it'll most likely be, that should ICT get promoted (though now unlikely) he probably will sign a new contract. If not, he'll see out his contract and that'll be it. The reason I'm not calling for his head, and the reason why at this time I hope he doesn't go is because I see Butcher as being the lesser of two evils, and should Butcher go, my worry...no, make that what I am absolutely petrified o,f is Malpas getting the job. Someone I reckon he'd be an absolute disaster. To quote Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, "when you're made to pick the lesser of two evils, your still picking evil". Unfortunately in this case we haven't much choice.

Someone has to truly be on a wind up. One person has awarded three points for Proctor and another has awarded three points for Duncan! Which game were they watching?

I'm no fan of Tokely in at Centre-Back, but would putting him there for the time being when he returns better that sticking with Bulvitis? I think it would. As pointed out on another thread, Bulvitis is in fact a natural right back, leaving Grant Munro the only natural centre-back (besides the injured Duff) in the current ICT squad. I decent CB has to be signed and fast.

Having a look about earlier and found this about Butcher's time as Sydney boss. It's an interesting point. http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/ To get the video, go about half way down and click on the Featured Videos and then the "Stoppage Time: Foreign Coaches. Butcher is mentioned about 1 minutes 50 seconds in.

Everythings just perfect isn't it... Not when you fail to use an apostrophe. I don't know how to make a come back so I'll just be petty.

You just have to read some of those rules and laugh. Can't take a picture or film something? That's madness. The one that made me think was the one about ther teams colours. Wearing a scarf or something of the opposition or a rival team is one thing, but come on. Going by those rules, if I wandered into Caley Stadium with say a Cwymbran Town hat on, am I going going to be taken away and put in jail? Absolute madness. It also shows how little freedom there is at football these. There'd be more freedom if Josef Stalin was in charge. Notice this, here if you ask for a Coke at the pie shop, they pour the Coke into a paper cup. In some countries at games, they just give you a bottle. It's bizarre the way things are here. Are they worried I'm going to go on a rampage with my empty bottle!? But to me all this proves one thing, the board don't like us. By us I mean, we the supporters. They might say they "want" us but in truth they don't. Shoot me down if you want but that's the feel these days. They don't care about us. Look how they're trying to kill some aspects of the home support. They might say they want a big crowd and get right behind the team and so on, but the only reason they said as it'll be more money in their pockets.

Really? From what I can see at the back, there's Lionel who can have some dreadful games, there's Proctor who was just awful on Saturday and the County game and then there's Bulvitis. He just doesn't bare thinking about. Did he? I thought he started 4-4-2.

Can someone please tell me why, not just ICT but essentially every team in Scotland just now, when the goalkeeper is taking a goal kick, they all move to one side? No-ones every really properly explained why it happens and I've never worked out why it happens myself. It happens everytime without fail. They're like sheep following the leader. But here's the thing. Why do they do it? Is it something like that Esson is told to punt the ball into a certain area, is it something to do with the wind moving the ball in a certain direction? It seems to happen everytime without fail. I've even seen people like David Proctor playing right back moving over so far that he's over into the centre/left hand side of the field. If I were boss, I'd be telling a couple of guys to stay in the centre of the field and when everyone moves over to one side, run over to the other side where Esson can ping the ball at them. If they aint too far away the ball doesn't even need to leave the ground and if they are a bit further away, he can punt it out to them where, should one of them control it properly, run down the wing with it, being a lot of space to cross the ball into the box. Discuss.