Renegade

Oh Jesus, now the pitch is to blame. That'll be the same pitch that many of our fans raved about last season with some claiming how much more it helped our style of football. No surprise that was after we won on it and ICT themselves had looked at it as one similar to what they (at the time) had seemingly wanted to install at the Caley Stadium. Now we lose on it and all of a sudden, it's terrible. Dear oh dear. What next? The players were put off by the mismatched kits?! When Draper needed to come off, we lost the bite in midfield, no doubt about that. While I supported the signing of Vigurs and feel he's a good player, he wasn't the man we needed in midfield in the second half. I honestly think we'd have been better off putting Wedderburn on. At least he'd have been able to maintain the presence in there we normally get with Draper. Think the time has come to ask questions of Mutombo. He's simply a showboater. All these fancy tricks he tries to pull off are all well and good, but only if he knew how to take the ball with him. That incident as well, where he could of crossed for players waiting in the box after the short corner, but instead tried himself, letting fly with one of the tamest shots you'll see all season, was pathetic. Clearly fancies himself as Cristiano Ronaldo. In reality he's more of a Tarmo Kink.

Good to see Ally MacLeod get in as well. Arguably one of the most successful Scotland managers ever (one more goal would've seen Scotland qualify from the group), yet many like to portray him as a buffoon, dismissing the fact he was actually a good manager.

Craig Levein?! Steve Lomas?! Ally McCoist?! A few puffs of what you're on please!

I've seen a few people mention Stuart McCall as a potential successor but like Richie Foran, I'm not so sure. Now there's no doubt that he did an excellent job as manager of Motherwell on the whole and the Rangers gig was always going to be a hiding to nothing. He seems a nice man and granted he does seem to have a transfer policy not unlike what Butcher did here. My concern though is his general style of football. Caley Thistle have always been at their best when they're an attacking side. All our best managers, whether it be Paterson, Robertson, Butcher or Hughes, had their success at this club when they played passing-based attacking football. It's also a style of football that suits the players we have at our disposal at this moment in time. Does McCall play that way? I don't particularly remember McCall's Motherwell being a particularly long ball side, but he could be very conservative tactically. I remember coming out of Fir Park after a game against us a couple of seasons back (I think it might have been the game after our defeat in the League Cup Final) and I overheard two 'Well fans behind me complaining that McCall's tactics. Seemingly if they're ahead after half an hour, he parks the bus for the rest of the game. Does that really sound like the football we want to see? Would it suit us? Whenever we take that philosophy, it often seems to backfire. That's not to say McCall would be a bad choice. He'd certainly be better than some of the names that would inevitably come up and he'd have my full support if he was appointed, but would he bring out the full potential of the team he'd inherit? I'm not so sure.

Sky Sports apparently reported earlier that Dundee United will announce a new manager on Monday. Unless another approach has been accepted, that *could* suggest it's a free agent or internal appointment.

Pele turned down United just about a month before he went to Aberdeen. Butcher turned down Barnsley.

I'm starting to grow a bit nervous about the prospect of Foran taking over as manager. Now, there's no doubt he's been a great player for this club and he's a well-known leader but does that necessarily mean he should promoted? I'm not so sure. Leadership is a great quality, but it isn't the be-all and end-all of management. Terry Butcher was a great leader but on the whole, his management record is rubbish. The same can be said for Tony Adams and Roy Keane. On top of that, what contacts does Foran have? Is it a good idea to promote a player to a manager? It's not always a good idea to have someone going from being 'one of the lads' to being in-charge in any job. Now that's not to say I'm writing him off as a manager. Surely though a better way of doing it would be taking over a lower league side and working his way up, similar to Paul Hartley. Many comparisons will be made to Martin Canning and particularly Alex Neil, but they've both been promoted from the reserve side, as well as being at a club with a very different ethos. How many games has Foran been a 'manager' at any level? Not many anyway. Perhaps a better comparison would be Franck Sauzee at Hibs and we know how that turned out. Again, I'm not saying Foran will be a bad manager for the club (should he get it) but the deeper I look into the prospect, the more I'm becoming unsure that this hypothetical but very possible scenario is truly a wise move.

Doing a good job with Ayr at the moment...

It's Marcelo Bielsa, former boss of Chile and Argentina. Indeed it is, who also managed Athletic to the Europa League Final a few years back. The god to football hipsters, he's seemingly a complete recluse and one of the only managers on Earth to have his own 'signature' formation - the 3-3-1-3!

He's only saying that because everyone else was saying it - as far as I'm aware, he hardly attends any matches. His comments on Fon Williams are simply laughable. I take it he's scouted Darren Murray personally as well...

You're worried about him leaving now? Makes a change from this!

Wonder if their Championship highlights will magically cease as well....?

I don't have a problem with Championship highlights being included per se, but they shouldn't be made to look as if they're in the top flight (I must have missed Dumbarton's recent promotion!). Either show them at the end or not at all. On top of that, why are Rangers' games given special treatment? Every week their matches seem to get more coverage than everyone else, with the Hibs (and occasionally the Alba game) just given a quick run over. Watch out for it next week, the Rangers match gets the full nine yards while the other match (if they show them) is just the goals which gets talked over. The BBC is not a commercial broadcaster. They don't need to pander to anyone in order to get viewers or sponsorship. Rangers were quick to ban the BBC not so long ago, yet the BBC seem desperate to give them as much coverage as they can (notice they also seem desperate to broadcast every cup fixture they have as well). They're becoming more and more like a creepy stalker who's love letters continue to get ignored.

My Welsh speaking mother claims Tudur should be pronounced "Tee-Deer". I heard a few people pronounce it "Tudder" but if that was it it would be spelt Tydyr. It has crossed my mind though that he's gone by Tudur in order to avoid the brain explosions that would come with attempting to pronounce Tydyr!

Can I just again reiterate that his name is pronounced 'Oh-Wine Von' not 'Owen Fon'!

Apparently so. Some Googling and I found their team (which a assume is amateur) is called North Inverness United.

You are right. Going by a BBC article I found, he initially signed a pre-contract before ICT paid a nominal fee to acquire him in January. Presume that was the paying off of his contract (doubt it would have been much given he was only part time).

I was under the impression we signed him after his deal at Gillingham finished. Yep, he was awful. Edit - Indeed you are right. The Herald reported at the time that we paid a 'nominal fee' in compensation.

I was thinking recently about which players we've paid money for over the years. I think I'm right in saying that the only player in recent years we paid for was for Danny Williams for around £10,000 from Kendal Town. The others I can think of was Dougie Imrie from Clyde for £45,000 and Iain Stewart from Lossiemouth for £35,000. I know there won't be many, but is there any others?

Do not want!

And it's hwyl fawr (Weish for goodbye) to Terry from Newport. A 3-0 defeat by Crawley and he's been sacked yet again.

Ryan Christie definitely would've made a similar breakthrough at ICT. Butcher rated him very highly.

The Daily Record are reporting that Yogi is a target for Dundee United after they failed to bring in Michael O'Neil.

From what I've gathered from interviews and stuff, Hughes's family were (and presumably still are) based in Edinburgh (or around that area). On the face of it, the Dundee United (or Motherwell job for that matter) would be commutable from his home. In saying that though, United look to be becoming a similar club to what Hibs became prior to Butcher going there, a big club but a poisoned chalice on a downward spiral. I guess it could be argued that a less demanding club like Motherwell would be a more attractive place to go. Well you've changed your tune. You were started a thread calling for him to be sacked on P&B a few weeks back!