Caley Stan

Youth Cup tie postponed.

Youth Cup tie moved to Ochilview - kick-off at 12.

I don't trust these guys.

Just watched the interviews. Can't shake off the image of Richie and Yogi gazing into to each other's eyes and seeing the intensity of their own passion and desire reflected back at themselves. Sleeping will be difficult.

He once chased my mate down Greig Street insisting that he was Noel Gallagher. I think he lets go after a couple.

That's really harsh. Hughes is a Leither and speaks like a Leither. If he does get the job then I hope we're not going to be snobby about that. It doesn't mean he's not intelligent or indeed articulate.

"Strong rumour in the north says John Hughes for ICT. I think that could be a good fit." Says Cyril.

Was there ever any meat in the story about Levein ruling himself out? It appeared in the P & J last week but the rest of the media have continued to speculate about him being on the shortlist. He'd be my choice if he is indeed an option because his track record in the SPL is excellent. Nobody else on the list of names above even comes close.

I'd be very surprised if Butcher doesn't take Malpas with him, but if he does want the job then I think we should stay well clear. He's had two shots as manager and flopped both times. It's too risky. Foran is an interesting shout. Butcher has obviously seen the potential himself by passing over team-talks to Richie on occasion.

Every time, Chris, every time. Anyway, Brewster's biggest influence was definitely Oleg Blokhin. Unfortunately, he's in the Dynamo Kiev job at the moment but if we want to revisit some of the joys brought to us by Brew's rigid 4-2-3-1 then I think we should look for another of Valeriy Lobanovskiy's protégés. No, not Sergei Baltacha, but Vladimir Onishchenko who is currently working as a Dynamo scout. This way, Alan Savage can finally live out his dream of seeing ICT become "a boutique club showcasing Eastern European talent". Seriously, though, Charlie Christie.

apart from this .... http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Butcher-denies-link-to-Hibs-04112013.htm Our chairman says no approach. I know and trust our chairman so dont expect him to lie (quite apart from the refreshing fact that he doesnt have a good poker face for lies anyway!) ICT have issued a statement to the same effect and condemned the BBC story out of hand in what is quite strong language where you normally have to be quite 'diplomatic'. Courier reporting Butcher has not spoken to Hibs and denies "terms agreed". story in tomorrow's paper STV reporting that ICT will refuse permission Hibs saying nothing There are a few more twists and turns to come I am sure but ultimately I can see one of three scenarios happening .... Butcher will stay on a nice extended contract with extra cash for him, Malpas and Marsella. Interest from another club will always restart stalled salary negotiations !!! Kenny - if this happens, be careful not to use the same invisible ink pen that Steve Paterson and Duncan Shearer used to sign their bumper contracts a few years ago .... and dont let any of them near Tam Cowan. Butcher will go to Hibs and we will speculate/argue and get very vocal and nasty about how terms could be agreed before permission was given? who lied? Was this a case of shady agents or representatives agreeing terms so the principles could have plausible deniability? TB will become a pariah despite all the excellent work he has done at ICT. The Hibs interest (and media gullibility) is being used as a 'shop window' for other positions, perhaps Middlesborough? I would be comfortable with #1. I would wish him all the best if #3 happened, but #2 which seems most likely would be very hard to take. He's worked wonders up here, and should be applauded for all he has done ...... but much like Pele making a big deal over turning own Dundee Utd, signing a new ICT contract and ending up at Aberdeen a week later, this would leave a very bad taste in the mouth !!! I prefer #2. It means we get to sing the Diego Maradona song on Saturday.

True. Delighted for Saints but still feel a bit sick thinking about what tonight could've been for us.

Wow, lots of confidence on this thread. I've voted 'not sure' because I think the there's too little difference in quality between most SPL squads for us to be confident of almost anything. Last season there was almost nothing between 2nd place and 11th place for the whole season, and I don't see that changing greatly this year. I worry a little about the fans being too confident - we've never been the most realistic support (something I think stems from our quick rise through the leagues under Pele) and that definitely transmits onto the pitch. If we struggle against St. Mirren in the first game, will the fans start getting impatient because we are expected to beat a team that we finished 8 places above last season? We may have done that but we also took only 2 points from 3 games against them and they looked a decent side on each occasion. They may be well be better than us this year, I have no idea. The New Firm might be different propositions under new management with lots of new faces - again, no idea. So I'm not confident or concerned, just clueless.

Golly and Juanjo got the goals in our first win at Pittodrie.

The cost of not aspiring to qualify for Europe is enormous. It sucks out one of the few aspects of this league that retains serious competition. It tells fans that they shouldn't hope or dream of anything beyond survival in the SPL.

Very sad comments and quite insulting to the fans. One of the things that has made this season so exciting is that we have been chasing a prize until the very end. To turn round afterwards and say that we didn't much fancy the prize anyway makes the whole thing feel a little empty. I also find some of the projections of financial burden a little far-fetched. The idea that we would need a bigger squad is just silly. We were looking at probably 2, at best 4 extra games - no more than you face in a good season in one of the cups. As for the costs of travel etc., I don't know the details but there are many clubs smaller than ours competing in the competition and they seem to cope. It's been a great season but there can be greater seasons. Talk to any fan from the numerous small Scottish clubs that have represented this country in Europe and they'll tell you it was one of the proudest moments of their lives, not to mention the fun some of them had following their team abroad. If we don't aspire to that then what are we doing?

I was screaming for Robbo's head that night. Hissy also took a lot of flak. I think the wound of Pele's departure was still a bit raw. It was a turning point though, we beat Celtic the following Sunday and went on to consecutive Scottish semis and a glorious return to Broadwood on the way to promotion.

The regional thing was abolished in 2009. I would love it if we got a Greek team, but would also be very happy with Turkey - sounds like the St. Johnstone fans had a great time there last year.

I heard he has a parrot called stanly, who picks the names of available players out of a food bowl.

This is the line up I expect: -----------------McGregor------------------ Hutton----Webster------Berra--------Fox ------------------Caldwell------------------ Mackie----Morrison---Adam-----Naismith -------------------Miller-------------------- It's far from ideal, but Levein's hands are tied - I have no idea what he will do if Berra doesn't make it. Caldwell's presence in midfield is basically enforced by the absence of Brown and Fletcher but I thought he performed well there against Australia, providing much needed cover for our ropey centre back pairing and recklessly attacking full-backs. Adam and Morrison are obvious choices in the middle although I would like to see Adam drop deeper to look for the ball - he's so much better when he has time and space to pick his pass. We have good options in wide areas but the inclusion of Mackie and Naismith is more about their defensive qualities and tactical discipline than anything else - we have more pace and creativity on the bench in Forrest and Phillips and they can be introduced later in the game if required but given our dodgy back line I think Levein is right to priorities solidity throughout the team. I'm almost certain he'll play Kenny Miller despite claiming to be considering Rhodes and I think it's clear why. Miller offers so much to the team overall with his running and link up play and we just can't afford to play a striker without those attributes at the moment.

There's an interesting range of views on this thread concerning why this performance was so bad - and it was really bad. Firstly, the Andy Walker school of analysis which dictates that if a football team plays badly then the players can't be trying hard enough or don't care enough about the club they are representing. This is an extremely lazy way to think about football and it's offensive to a group of players who have started the season quite well considering the circumstances. Then we have the 'hold our hands up and admit we just weren't good enough' brigade. Sure, Celtic are much better than us, but as others have pointed out, this was a relatively weak Celtic team having it easier in Inverness than they have ever had it before. Nerves definitely played a part - how else can you explain the number of misplaced passes and bombscare defending? Central midfield and central defence are always key in these games - the two central midfielders have to press like **** and the centre halfs have to concentrate at a much higher level than they are used to. Injuries and suspensions obviously didn't help us in those areas, but Butcher didn't give the players out there a chance to perform. I'm more than happy to see us pass the ball a bit more this season, but the number of times we gave it away in dangerous areas was just terrible. Mostly, I think Draper, Ross and the full-backs just didn't have options when they wanted to play it forward. Apart from Shinnie, who is really looking for the ball in our attack? Shane is static out wide and only seems to offer anything to the team when he comes inside to win the ball. What kind attacking threat does he actually offer? I've never seen Doran play for more than 10 minutes in a game. He looks capable of creating chances in those wee spurts but needs to become much more involved overall. And Billy McKay. Poor Billy McKay - he didn't ask for this. I saw glimpses of good link up play from him in Paisley but we were on top for long spells in that game. When we are on the back foot he offers absolutely nothing as an out ball. It scares me that we seem to have no other options up font. As Gavin Morrison was preparing to come on the tv camera focused on him and Butcher preparing him to come on. Butcher had a piece of paper in his hand but he looked confused and didn't say a word. Perhaps it was upside down.

I was at the game tonight and heard the boos before I saw Blackie. Closed my eyes an thought of Ibrox before clapping and cheering the wee bugger onto the park. The locals looked a bit bemused but they don't know our history.

I really liked the way we took the game to St. Mirren throughout, especially in the second half and enjoyed some of the football played by Doran, McKay and particularly Andy Shinnie around the box. Unfortunately, their touches rarely resulted in clear cut chances. Not sure whether we should be excited about the season ahead off the back of this or not - maybe Saints are just really poor - but at least it feels like we have a plan. OTJ and Draper in tandem performed the dual role of protecting the back 4 and pressing high up when we didn't have the ball. They're both slow, lumbering players without much of a creative spark but they looked reasonably comfortable in possession and both have great physical presence. The biggest negative today (apart from all the all the Chris Kerr/Dougie Imrie sh*t) was Ryan's performance - he looked culpable for both goals. I'm generally feeling much more positive about the season than i was at 3pm though.

The team we'll be fielding next season will generally contain 3 -5 players from the north of Scotland (the Shinnie's, Ryan, Nick and Shane), plus 2 players with good experience of Scottish football (Richie and Hogg), plus local youth players on the fringes, so I don't think there is any danger of the squad on the whole not "knowing their environment". However, beyond that, Terry clearly does have a policy of trawling the English lower leagues. Is it working? If not, why not? Do these players struggle with the style of the SPL, do they fail to settle in Inverness, or are they just not good enough?

From today's Grauniad: "Terry Butcher's methods of recruitment continue to raise eyebrows in the Highlands. The Inverness manager has opted to sign players from such teams as Newport County, Macclesfield and Gillingham, thereby completely avoiding the Scottish market. Such a policy carries clear dangers, given the importance of knowing the environment you are competing in. Prediction: 12th". Ok, so we know that he's a slimy little Jambo who you wouldn't want peeing next to you in the Heathmount toilets, but does Cyril have a point about Terry's signing policy?