Renegade

Mckay's on the verge of signing for Wigan apparently.

I'm not concerned about the selection/line-up because we seem to play well no-matter who's where, but we need to approach the game like we did in the second half against Accies. County are there for a gubbish big time and are coming for a draw. Let's give them a right thrashing to say cheerio for their inevitable descent into the wilderness!

You wouldn't even offer Mckay and Watkins a deal?! Jesus! I'd be offering Devine a deal as well, even if there's a good chance he'll turn it down.

Out of all the out of contract players (who as of yet haven't sign PCAs anywhere else), who are the ones you'd be looking to keep and who would you prefer to get rid of. On top of that, without making this a "Who Should We Sign" thread, what types of players would you like to see brought to the club? Out of all those out of contract, I'd like to see the following retained (even if there's a good chance they won't sign new deals) - Billy Mckay Marley Watkins David Raven Danny Devine Nick Ross Josh Meekings I'd like to retain this lot for obvious reasons really - they're good players! Despite not playing much this season, Danny Devine has always been someone who can be relied upon to come into centre-back and put in a good shift. I also think we really need to sign Nick Ross up as well. He's been on excellent form lately. Release - Lewis Horner Liam Polworth Horner has barely played since signing and in the U20 matches I've seen, looks no better than some of the youth players coming through. Liam Polworth was someone who I thought had a lot of potential, but he's never really forced his way into the team or come good. Probably best for everyone if he was released. What do we need? I'd like to see at least two strikers brought in, especially if Mckay goes (Ferguson will have probably coming into the team by then). Preferably a kinda nippy, hard worker type and I'd like to see someone a bit taller come in as well, at least as an option off the bench. Should Devine and/or Meekings go, I'd like to see a 6"3 defender come in, again to give us another option. One that can play as a full back either side would be perfect as well! Should Watkins go, a winger with real pace would be something else I'd like to see, but should Ross stay and with Sutherland coming through, it might not be overly needed.

An announcement could've been made that Shinnie would leave the club at the end of the season. When that came was the time to make an announcement over which team it was. I seem to recollect Peter Schmeichel doing something like that at Man United. As you say, the Hayes thing was a circus and disrespectful on his part, using his Twitter page to play games with the ICT fans. "I've not signed for anyone" was something I recollect him saying, before three or four announcements that he would announce his future that day, before radio silence. A complete mess and another good reason why it's maybe time to look at doing away with pre-contract agreements, which I believe aren't even legally binding.

I have absolute no problem with players leaving (whether they should play or not is another argument and I think it depends on the circumstances). Players are always going to leave and their reasons are their own. We aren't always in a position to keep everyone we'd like to and but even when we have lost major players in the past, we've always managed to replace them. Hayes for example was a great player for us, but did we really miss him when he went? Not particularly. What I do take umbrage with is the way Aberdeen and previously Shinnie's agent have conducted themselves. Announcing these things mid-season, while he's still contracted to ICT, I think is very disrespectful. It looks to me like Shinnie's intention has been to go to Aberdeen for quite some time. What was to stop an agreement between Shinnie, his agent and Aberdeen from not announcing anything until the season was over? This is an attempt to unsettle us big time. But why? I'll you why: they fear us massively. Granted they are doing fairly well but they're only a point ahead of us. People can say "We're punching above our weight" and maybe to a degree that is true, but really Aberdeen are still, as they have been for years, underachieving yet again. They've got far more fans, a bigger catchment area, a far bigger name and are going to be far more appetising to sponsors and players than we are, yet they're only a point ahead, when really they should be miles ahead of everyone else in the Premiership bar Celtic and Dundee United. People can fawn over them as much as they like, but behaviour like this (and they did the same with Hayes), says it all. They're far more afraid of us, than we are of them.

I remember something like that as well. He did attend Aberdeen games occasionally though apparently. I'm sure it was a game before we played them once and the interviewer said something like "So Graeme, do you have any feelings for your hometown team" and he said "Eh, not really".

I don't know what his situation is, but I was quite impressed with Garcia Tena for Accies yesterday. For me, only he and the keeper had decent games for them. He's pretty tall, strong, fast enough and seems a good ball player out from the back. Reminds of Golobart in some ways. A centre-back of this nature would be perfect for the way we play and it'd be nice to have a really tall defender in the squad for set-pieces and stuff.

He'd be a good signing, but chances are he'd command a massive wage. Probably go to a lower Championship/League One side down south, unless he goes to the A League or something.

Absolutely right. It's probably better to read the opening post in a new context. It's partly a complaint and it's partly massively attention seeking. We weren't packed in like sardines. Moving out of earshot was easily possible. They were stewards around. Why weren't they notified? Why didn't the OP complain to the person directly. Instead no, he took the most reactionary action possible and is now crying about it on here. What kind of role model is that for a child? We all know that there'll be swearing at the football, but it's quite easy to ignore and/or move away from. The sad thing here is that the child could be put off ICT and/or attending matches for life and that's not a result of the swearers, it's on the part of the grandfather. In hindsight it would've been better had someone stayed at home watching children's programmes.....and I don't mean the six year old!

Well we'll see who goes onto have the better career then. As good as the likes of Ferguson and Sutherland are, if they were going to keep the likes of Dingwall out of the side, we'd probably be finding a losing battle trying to hold onto them.

Sadly i have to agree with you there, their top youth prospect wouldn't make our U20's. Nonsense. Tony Dingwall is a good player and has a heck of a lot of potential. To say he wouldn't get in our U20s is laughable. While the English search has been successful on the whole (there's been a couple of duds), I hope we don't start flinging the net too wide. That was what happened with our team in 2011, where we signed quite a few journeymen foreigners and as a result the team didn't really click at all. Had Hibs and Dunfermline not been so poor that season, we could've been in trouble. We've seen Dundee this season make a good signing in Greg Stewart from Division One. I think it'd be foolish not to have a look there as well. There'll certainly be a few players around in Scotland who'll be capable of making the step up.

Theres nothing wrong with praising Hughes's style of football and criticising Butcher's but why weren't these people saying that at the time? In fact, it used to be the case that any hint of criticism of their then Dear Leader, was met with a jumping down of the throat within a matter of minutes. How times have changed...

No it wouldn't. Boyce has been one of the players to actually stand out for County and does seem to have ability, as well as actually scoring and playing regularly at this level. Again, you don't go from playing for Cliftonville to Werder Bremen for nothing. Curtis Allen didn't make the bench once with us for a number of reasons, not least because he was actually pretty hopeless. Considering I've seen both play, I would say Boyce is far superior player. Again dismissing County players outright is naive. Presumably going by that way of thinking, the signing of Don Cowie on a pre-contract from a very poor County side, in the league below and who were later relegated to Division 2, would also be classed as a 'dud'.

Maybe not at this given moment, but should Mckay and Watkins etc leave the building, then there are some do definitely have the potential to be more than adequate replacements. Also, I think dismissing County players out of hand because of their current form is short sighted and naive. No-one complained when we signed their best players when they were in the league below, nor when we signed Don Cowie from a side that was later relegated from Division One.

Boyce knows the area somewhat and has experience at this level. I'd be willing to take him if the chance was there. Just because he (and anyone else for that matter) is in a poor County side, doesn't mean they wouldn't flourish in our team and Boyce fits our hard working ethos. You don't get a move from Northern Ireland to Werder Bremen for nothing. Cardle seems to have stalled a bit at County. It wasn't that long ago, every man and their dog on here wanted to sign him but maybe the Championship is more his level. What about Gardyne as well? He's another who's career has stalled a wee bit, but I saw him playing against Aberdeen a couple of months back and I thought he was very good. We have a habit of turning careers around as well. What's the situation with Lionel Ainsworth? I recollect Hughes wanting to sign him before and I think he'd be perfect should Watkins move on. It'd be nice to have a player with proper lightning pace on the wings as well.

Some people might scoff at this, but should County go down, what about Liam Boyce? Despite playing for a hopeless team, he does seem to have a decent goal record and has an excellent record in Northern Ireland (a low standard I know). He's a hard worker and always looked a handful whenever I've seen him. If he can get his weight sorted out, could he be someone worth looking at? Maybe we should try and sign that Tony Dingwall as well, just to laugh at the Dingwallian seethe!

Accies, like us, are a passing-based, quick side. With that in mind, I think we need to win the midfield and have pace and penetration within it. For me - Brill Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie Draper Tansey-----------Ross Christie Watkins Mckay Subs - Esson, Doran, Williams, Vincent, Polworth, Devine, Sutherland Look at bringing Doran and Williams on as a double change with about 20 minutes to go should we need a final death blow.

I quite liked the 4-3-3 thing we used against Kilmarnock. If Watkins and Vincent are back fit - Brill Shinnie Warren Meekings Tremarco Vincent Draper Ross Watkins Mckay Williams Subs - Esson, Devine, Doran, Polworth, Horner, Christie, Sutherland I think Doran is better off the bench and I liked the way Yogi won the game putting him and Christie on together at Dundee. I was also going to put Ferguson on the bench but then I remembered he's away so I've gone with Ali Sutherland instead.

I see you're in Thurso. Would you mind heading to the golf course to see if Mahonio's ok? Haven't heard from him in a while and I hope he hasn't been blown away!

The thing is about this game, the team really need to be on top form to get new spectators in the ground to come again. Approaching the game in the same way we did against County should do this. "Taking the sting out of the game" and "Only wanting to win 1-0" attitudes Hughes sometimes takes won't encourage any potential new fans to come back whether we win or not. Might be a good idea to try and cut out some of the more cringey aspects of the matchday experience as well. For a start maybe leaving that awful sandwich mascot at home and maybe getting the announcer to stop doing that dreadful, cringe-inducing "Make some noise for the Caley boys!" would be a good idea.

According to Football Manager, there's clubs in the lower leagues in Spain that play on a sand and clay pitches. Perhaps even more weirdly though, there's a team in Romania that play on gravel!

Think he trained with us for a couple of weeks whilst staying with family up here. Don't think it was ever with intention of signing him. There was talk of Hughes trying to get him on a short term deal IIRC. Asking him to play for free for a bit was quoted as well I think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30734788?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I remember that as well. To quote the woman sat behind me that season "All he did was wave at us!". He was absolutely useless and should never have been signed in the first place. He must've been one of the slowest players we've ever had as well. I'm sure as well, his wife/girlfriend was a poster on here for a while as well. Her username was like "ICTGirl" or something and every post was about him and how fantastic he was!