Renegade

HT - ICT 2-0 County FT - ICT 5-0 County ICT 1st scorer - Draper County 1st scorer - Boyce Time of 1st Goal - 12

Watkins had a good game at Celtic Park that day. I'm unconvinced as Doran as a lone striker as his shooting is pretty poor on the whole, while Vincent offers nothing going forward at all. Should Watkins be out, I think Ryan Christie is most logical choice. As I said on another thread though, I reckon Meekings could do it as well.

Confirmed. https://twitter.com/LaticsOfficial/status/561161497561559041

Maybe no news is good news. Maybe so, but I think it's strange that there's been no news at all.

I know the focus will be on Shinnie and Mckay mainly, but I'd have liked to have heard at least something about Dean Brill and his injury. One of our main and best players was stretchered off on Saturday and we haven't heard anything about it since. I can't be the only one wondering about it.

I'm sure there was a time when if teams couldn't be separated, it went down to yellow and red cards. Don't know if that was ever brought in though!

This is going to sound a bit bizarre, but I've been thinking about this for a while. Could Josh Meekings play up-front? Think about it: he's tall, he's strong, he's fairly quick and mobile, he's a decent enough passer and crosser of the ball and has a quite a powerful shot and header on him. Imagine him as a kind of target man/creator up-front with a Mckay/Ferguson character. I think it might work!

That's not a bad idea actually. McDonald and Higdon as suggested on another thread would be good signings, but I think they'd both be out of our wage structure.

http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/Marsella-ready-work-Mariners/story-23251499-detail/story.html

Dear oh dear, someone's in a bad mood and you can tell someone's really raging when they right in capital letters! Of course, not everyone brought in by Butcher/Marsella was a success. Claude Gnakpa, Curtis Allen, Tom Aldred, Philip Roberts, Jordon Gibbons, Andre Blackman to name just a few. Sekajja and Horner were brought into be squad cover and that's all. It's unfair to slate Hughes on his signings just yet, when under his reign, we haven't really needed anyone who'd be a first team starter. Let's see where we are next season before we really cast judgement over that part of his management. Marsella's at Grimsby now by the way...

Somebody more in the know will probably be able to confirm this properly, but this romantic idea of Marsella putting in a pin a map of Northern League grounds was nothing of the sort. My understanding was ICT used to be offered players by agents and Marsella would go and watch them and report back. On top of this, he wasn't the only scout ICT had access to and the agent/contact network we had down south still exists, with Hughes adding a few to it.

While Marsella often took the credit for "finding" players, it wasn't like he was turning up at random English lower league matches and spotting players. I believe we still have other scouts as well and Hughes has added to them.

I don't know his contract situation, but what about Graham Carey? Another wing back type who could be a good replacement for Shinnie. He can play on the wing as well, so could go there if Watkins goes.

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 sincerely hope you don't think that article was balanced and unbiased Laurence. Or that anybody could be bothered to read beyond the first line to be honest!

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.