Renegade

Craig Levein?! Steve Lomas?! Ally McCoist?! A few puffs of what you're on please! He's entitled to his opinion like anybody else...... As am I. Those suggestions are awful! (Levein included, as the chances of him being appointed any time soon are zero!)

HT - ICT 0-2 Ross County FT - ICT 0-4 Ross County ICT 1st scorer - Storey County 1st scorer - Boyce Time of 1st Goal - 21

While you may believe it may not help their development, is their any harm in having them there? There's also the scenario of us being 4-0 with 15 minutes to go. Would giving one of them some game time at that stage help their development? It absolutely would. Let's change the tables here. Imagine we had filled the bench with U20 players. Would anyone be moaning about it claiming we should just leave the spaces blank? Of course not. Jason Brown was on the bench for the Astra games with little chance of seeing any action and no-one complained about that. There's also the case of us going into away games unable to fill the bench, but with Cameron Mackay (or Daniel Hoban) travelling with the team to help with the warm-up. Where's the harm on putting them on the bench? Imagine Fon Williams got injured or sent off early on and replaced by Ryan Esson, who was then forced off shortly after as well. I think I'd rather have Mackay come on than playing potentially over an hour with an outfield player in goal. Seemingly, Hamilton Accies had an interesting approach to this sort of thing. Under Billy Reid, they'd fill the bench with five first team players and a sub-keeper. The seventh spot was then reserved for an up and coming U20 player, with little chance of coming on. Following the game, the coaches would observe how they benefited from the experience and what they could use from it for their development at the club. To your mind it might do nothing for their development, but to a successful and highly respected youth set-up like the one at Accies, it certainly does. I think I'll take their word for it.

Have you thought about getting your ouija board out to try and contact the gremlins in the system?

I don't understand why we don't put a couple of the U20 lads onto the bench or even Cameron Mackay. Surely there's no hard in it and a potential to gain.

agreed...that post one of the worst I've read yet! John Hughes was the manager that led us to 2 cup finals, one trophy European football and good passing football (most of the time)! Yes the squad he took over was developed by butcher and co but he couldn't get us to a cup final and he never got us European football having missed out with a poor performance in Dingwall and if I remember correctly he was the manager when we were 2-0 at half time in the challenge cup final to Dundee team who were nothing special and we lost! Highes got us through one semifinal with 9 men, got us playing far better football and the other achievements which I've already stated! IMO Hughes should be offered a contract with some added improvements! And in terms of player recruitment...maybe all he needs is a decent scout...just as butcher had in Steve Marsella!!! I truly hope that post is a wind-up. An absolutely mindboggling piece of nonsense. Certainly not written by anyone who could refer to themselves as a fan of ICT, that's for sure. If it is true and that's his attitude, I'm glad Hughes ignored him. I think I would too! I truly doubt whether we'd have made either final under Butcher. Look at Butcher's record for must-win games. I don't think he won any of them. Falkirk relegation decider - lost. Challenge Cup Final - winning 2-0, still somehow lost. League Cup semi - lost. Europe game in Dingwall - lost. Hibs relegation play-off - 2-0 up and lost. Something's amiss there. He's also been sacked from his last few jobs and was sacked by a few before us. I think some people give him too much credit at times. He built a good side yes, but he wasn't Alex Ferguson! The Marsella point is an interesting one. From what I gather we still have some link to the agency down south and we do have scouts working for the club (this was alluded in the Darren Murray speculation and prior to the Astra games). I think Hughes' approach is something though that might not always be for the best. He's said in the past that he won't sign players he hasn't seen live. I can understand that, but I wonder if it means at times we miss out on some good players. Butcher would seemingly sign players only on Marsella's recommendation and it seemed to have worked more times than not. Some players simply won't want to come on trial....or think they're above it. I for one, hope he stays a while yet, but perhaps his approach in some areas could be changed, being more beneficial for everyone.

HT - ICT 0-0 Perth FT - ICT 2-0 Perth ICT 1st scorer - Storey Perth 1st scorer - O'Halloran Time of 1st Goal - 51

God almighty, we won the cup and some people are upset that Yogi didn't take a photo with them?! You couldn't make it up. Bizarrely some people can't just enjoy the fact we won the cup, instead choosing without a long winded poorly written rant belittling the club's achievements that would make the most paranoid of Celtic fans wince. Don't think I've ever read anything so cringeworthy or self-indulgent in years!

Is that him? I see Febian Brandy is an ex-Man United free agent and we were offered him once before. In all honesty, he bares a strong resemblance to the striker I saw playing for us at Grant Street the other week against Killie.

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!

HT - RC 0-1 ICT FT - RC 1-4 ICT RC 1st scorer - Boyce ICT 1st scorer - Storey Time of 1st Goal - 21 1st yellow - Draper