Caley Stan

Lionel is the only player who is suspended for the Motherwell game. His name has been sitting on the SFA's List of Suspensions for nearly a year now so i hope someone at the club is aware of this. Dunfermline really have no excuse. Calum Woods' name has been sitting on the same list for the same amount of time. I hope the SFA punts them out - and a trip to Ochilview in the next round would do for us.

OK... I've just come back to this thread after several days and I see that it has had further activity. Initially, please note that in my original post I deliberately placed the term "Trust" in inverted commas to acknowledge the fact that there are varying viewpoints on the nature of this arrangement. However I would have to emphasise that, in almost a decade now since the "arrangement" was made, I have never really been aware of its precise nature being an issue among ICT fans. For instance it's not exactly the kind of thing that groups of scandalised people sit around discussing over their post match dram in the Social Club week in week out, nor is it the talk of the terraces Saturday after Saturday. Yes, a certain view of the arrangement does exist, but apart from one or two people on here it really seems to be a viewpoint which, despite having being stated very forcefully by those who subscribe to it and having had a decade to gain currency, has spectacularly failed to do so. I think the take of most fans (and this is my take as well) would tend to be:- * In 1999-2000 Caley Thistle's financial situation had become dire in the extreme. That threat to the future of ICT was removed by a transaction involving the Stadium. * In 2004-05 the extreme need to return from playing SPL football in Aberdeen to a 6000+ seat capacity stadium in Inverness was met and financed in a very short timescale. And it would appear that, in the view of the vast majority, these vital ends are what matter while very few people seem to feel "disadvantaged" or "cheated" or "done" or whatever by the means of achieving them. What a disappointing response to the very important points CaleyD has raised. Your conclusion seems to be that because Sutherland has helped us out a couple of times, we shouldn't really be asking any questions about how and why he did it. While I don't have much knowledge of the financial history of the club, it seems from what i'm reading on here that CaleyD has established that the deal which wiped ICT's debt in 2000 did not involve transferring the ownership of the stadium to a "charitable trust", as we were told, but actually involved David Sutherland buying the stadium and charging the club rent on it. If this is a fact, then a lot of significant questions arise from it - like these: If this was to be reported in the media, and these questions were to be put to our esteemed majority shareholder, then i think it is highly likely that this subject would soon become a major point of post-match discussion in the Social Club.

First Division title. 5 years in the SPL. 2 Scottish Cup semis. 6 wins over the Old Firm. Not many would've predicted that level of success 10 years ago. It's been a great decade to be an ICT supporter. Now we must be punished.......................

Great post, Charles. It's good to be reminded of all three of those special games at Telford Street. The Airdrie game in 1990 was the night that i fell head over heels for football and Caley. Does anyone have video footage of the game to post on tinternet?

Baldy old barsteward pretending to be a maths teacher whilst swilling a malt or two(or three)

Cracking steak pie yesterday x 2.

I am sorry Reliably_Informed but i don't believe this and why in a fortnight, don't you think it would be immediate so that is 1 of the reasons i disagree with you until i see it in papers or talked about in media. Mahonio, i suggest you take a wee gander at the OP's previous form. He has lived up to his name on a couple of occasions. Caley D, if the rumours that are circulating are true, what do you think it will take for the current board (and the shareholder who controls it) to GTF?

Do they realise that or will they have to be told?

Both the Dundee and ICT websites are saying that the game is on, bar heavy snowfall.

Still no sign of last weeks highlights...whatever you do, don't try.

Heroin addicts are pretty much unemployble though, and any move towards legalisation would have to be accompanied by support services for addicts whose lives are compeltely out of control. While i agree with your point about state intrusion, i think dougiedanger's original point about state services clearing up the mess is an important one. If, as a society, we want to address the heroin problem than we have to invest serious money in those services and in educating and employing the increaing percentage of people in this country who find themselves addicted to heroin and living in the kind of misery and poverty that tends to accompany the use of that drug. I'm more than happy for that money to come out of general taxation. The scale of addiction, poverty, and poor education in this country is a problem for every one of us.

Win or lose on Saturday, i would love to see Butcher stay and try to develop this team. I think that 27 points out of the first 18 games isn't bad going when you consider how many new, largely inexperienced players, he has brought into the team. I predict that we will pick up more than 27 points in the second half the season and finish comfortably in the top 4 without ever threatening Dundee's romp. To me, that would constitute a decent season in the circumstances, and contract extensions for the management team and a few of the young players would be in order. Unfortunately, as Caley D has outlined, financial problems may prevent us from building in this way.

I don't think that the fact that he hasn't won anything in relevant. He's spent the vast majority of his career in charge of Hearts and Dundee United during a decade that saw the Old Firm split just once. The challenge for managers in that league is to build a team that can challenge in the upper reaches of the table as consistently as possible - winning things almost never comes into the equation. In the this context, Levein's SPL record is excellent. His time at Hearts, which saw them finish 3rd in 3 out of 4 seasons, seems to get overlooked too often. Consecutive 5th place finishes as United may look less impressive on paper, but it's worth remembering just how sh1te United were prior to that, and of course, who his predecessor was. While his time in England was disappointing, 14 months at a Championship cub making cut-backs in not enough to judge his potential down there. I'm going to judge him on his 7 years in the SPL, and on that evidence, this is a great appointment.

C*unty @ 1.50

A double for Rory in Brechin's 3-0 home win over Peterhead takes his tally for the season to 16. People will be making comparisons with Barrowman soon......

This argument is very popular at the moment as unemployment rises. I'm not convinced that many people are happy to spend their lives on benefits. Significant sections of the population are very poorly educated and suffer from serious social problems which exclude them from the economy. In the post-industrial age, most developed countries carry an unemployment rate of 7-10%. There are some notable exceptions to this rule though. Norway's unemployment rate is 3%, and i don't think it's a coincidence that they have a more generous welfare system than most.

ICT @ 1.73

You're a dangerous extremist Mantis! While i don't think that this compass thing can be taken too seriously, it is striking that every political leader in the western world inhabites the space in the top right hand side - neo-liberalism with a wee touch of authoritarianism. This is where the political consensus lies and parliamentary democracy is a lot poorer for this narrowness. There isn't a mainstream political party that represents the left - even the 'soft left' or 'social democrats'. I don't think that this is because people wouldn't vote for such a party in decent numbers (over 27% of the poulation voted for Labour in 1983 when they presented a manifesto which wasn't far off the one that Marx proposed), but because political parties are far more responsive to big business than they are to the electorate.

Cox, Hayes and Rooney are good young players.

Political Compass If you're not sure then take the test! If the results are to be taken seriously, then i belong to the 'libertarian left', slightly to the left of Stalin and more libertarian than Gandhi. In other words, i'm a utopian dreamer with no sense of reality. I would recommend the work of Michail Bakunin to anyone who suffers from similar delusions.

:angry: :angry: Why slate me for every post i make about Butcher!!!? :angry: :angry: The only reason i started it was because i know, like most others, that Butcher is going to be linked to other jobs because he is a "big name" so i don't tolerate the criticism!! I am going to leave it at this as if i carry on i will post something bad (swearing) and i don't want to after getting a warning for that already. Sorry Mahonio, it's nothing personal. I just think that there is absolutely no chance of Butcher being considered for this job.

You got there first Johnboy. They are also a club with an average attendance of over 10,000 playing in one of the richest leagues in the world. I have no doubt that Butcher would crawl there if he thought that he had any chance of getting the job. But he doesn't. Where will the mods put this ridiculous thread?

I see your point completely stevico, but if Barry comes back then the wages will be spent on a coach for the furure. If, as many seem to be suggesting, Butcher goes at the end of the season to be replaced by a managerial team that includes Barry Wilson, then this move could well be the first step towards an orderly transition.

I feel the same! It seems impossible that a proven goal scorer can stop scoring goals. I realise we are talking about him moving up a league (or two at the start), but you feel there must have been times when he could have stuck the ball in the net, for us, as he had done in the past. He has been given a chance but does not perform for us but like you, I am a bit apprehensive that he will return to form once he leaves us. However the time for action on the park is past so maybe it is time to offload. It may kickstart his career and the money side of things maybe less important to him than getting a regular game with goals to his name. Barrowman has only proved that he can score goals in a team that's romping the Second Division. He has played a number of games in the SPL, First Division and the lower leagues of England without making any impact. I think Barrowman is the type of player who will only score goals regularly for a team that dominates games, as County were doing that year. He's a poacher that needs to play in a team that's creating loads of chances. Equally, any team that can afford the luxury of such a player must be strong enough in other areas of the pitch to compensate for his lack of input into general play. Maybe Adams knows how to use him and it'll work out, but from what i've seen of him (and them), i don't see what Barrowman would bring to the current County team.

Cracking finish. Cowie is all over these Highlights,