alternative maryhill

I'd rather have Imrie and Barrowman than Niculae + Wood/Mcallister. Apparently Imrie had a couple of good games towards the end of the season playing up front (neither of which I got to), but isn't he really more of a wide man, possibly a long-term replacement for Barry? It might be heresy in the eyes of some supporters, but I'd be inclined to start with Barrowman and McAllister, based on pre-season performances. If McAllister is going to fulfil any potential he does have, then he needs games and support from the mangement and fans early. I suspect he's a confidence player, and there will arguably be less pressure on him if we give him his chance straight away than if we turn to him later on as a last resort if other combinations of players aren't delivering. If he's a disaster, then there will still be time to replace him with Wood or Imrie. Aberdeen probably isn't a bad game for him to start in - he'll be playing against his home town team and their central defence looks very ropey, especially if Diamond is still injured. Ideally I'd still like to see us tie up Rooney or sign another attacker, but a defender is even more of a priority.

Shocking intrusion. Will comment further when I have extracted this orange from my @rsehole :023:

Agree absolutely with the first point here - we saw some great football occasionally from Marius, but he was far from our most important player last season. I would quite like to have seen him stay on, if only to see if we could get a real season of quality out of him, but it's not as if the heart of the team has been ripped out. The guy seemed to conduct himself well while he was here and showed the supporters respect, and obviously there are questions over the club's conduct in seeming to push him out the door, but we're only a fortnight off the start of the season now and should be looking forward. F*ck the club politics, this is what I want to see: I want to see Rooney given a deal so that we increase our attacking options and give a chnace to a young a player who genuinely feels he has something to play for. I want to see the money from Marius used to shore up the central defence, although with whom, I have no idea. I want to see Brewster build a team around the midfield he has been lauding instead of playing the long ball. On August 9th, I want to see us lay to rest this ghost of never beating Aberdeen. I want to come on to this website on Saturday nights and see posts debating the football we've been playing and not what the board should be doing. Sorry if that seems naive - roll on the season!

I was impressed by Wood's presence in the box at the County friendly last pre-season, and if he's grown physically and in confidence since then then he could be really useful, but Ross's point here also worries me. Given Brewster's recent comments about the quality of our midfield, I'd hoped he had decided to move beyond the long ball tactic, and Rooney, if signed, sounds like a player more comfortable with the ball played on the deck. It would a serious backward step if we set out this season with a long-ball tactic based around a target man - not only is it predictable and easy to defend against, it would also frustrate our more creative midfielders and make them far less effective when they are asked to take control of a game. We have to build the team around Black and Cowie this season - if they move on after that, I'd rather it was because they had had outstanding seasons than because they felt they weren't being properly utilised in the Caley Thistle team. All that said, 1-1 sounds like a decent result against a Danish Sueprliga side.

I think Dods was a Robertson signing - summer before our first seaon in the SPL if I remember rightly? Same principle, though - ex-strikers should understand what makes a good defender by having directly opposing defenders during their careers. I agree with the concenrens about the back line and I worry about Brewster's ability to bring in someone appropriate. I haven't been impressed by Brewster's record of signing defenders - McGuire is temperamental and error-prone and I'm still not convinced by Proctor's defensive qualities, especially in the centre, although I know some posters will disagree with me on this.

No link, but we get a mention in Stuart Maconie's excellent memoir "Cider with Roadies": while discussing the skill involved in being a sub-ed, he describes the "SuperCaley..." headline as probably the greatest of all time.

Admirable piece of bluff-calling by Falkirk. Really hope all the other SPL clubs follow suit and put these presumptious @rseholes in their place.

Enjoy your holiday, IHE?...

I'm inclined to agree, although this is purely a gut reaction - I didn't see the two friendlies he played in. Obviously there's no point in signing a player who isn't up to standard, but I'm still worried about our lack of attacking options and it seems strange to think that a player that got significantly closer to the Man U first team than Rankin ever did isn't on a par with, say, Imrie or Paatelinen. Hopefully this isn't a repeat of the situation (I think) we had with Liam Buchanan, whom Brewster (if I remember correctly) took on trial but declined to offer a contract immediately. That said, another central defender is probably more of a priority.

God, how funny. Away over to P&B to snigger at the reaction from the seagulls.

Why not? We've always been a pioneering club, even though some people think we're stuck with a Highland League mentality... That's not to say straight men can't lay it down, however - remember seeing Roscoe cut a mean slosh on the floor at Gs a few years ago with a bird on each arm.

? It was part of the Scots / English alphabet until about 1476...

Oh go on then... zebra What's next?

woodchuck

Tssk. Unicorn :rolleyes02:

Nothing too worrying there - he hasn't turned up his nose at Inverness per se, just expressed his desire to fight for a place at West Brom, which is an understandable stance from a new signing keen to promote his own worth. If Mowbray convinces him that it would be in his best interests to go out on loan then we may still see him - and I think it would be a good short-term acquisition for us.

An Aberdeen fan quoted the Rosscoe rumour on P&B a few nights back and the response suggested he wouldn't be a popular signing. My own opinion is that he would fail if he went to a bigger or similarly-sized club - he's got limited ability but is so comfortable and confident at ICT that he has managed to make the step- up every time he's been asked to. Reminds me of Rougvie at Aberdeen, who went to Chelsea in the mid-80s and failed dismally. That said, I think the type of player Rosscoe is could win over the Dons fans more than McBain. I like McBain, but he isn't what they would expect a "grafting" midfielder to be. He's very tidy, overlaps well and uses the ball intelligently, but he lacks bite in the tackle and went missing far too much last season when we were struggling. A "grafting" midfielder would also be expected to dominate or take hold of a game and I rarely remember him doing that. His age would also count against him with the Dons fans - would suggest a lack of ambition from Tangoman. It's probably all b0llocks anyway...

Not intentionally, no - sorry if it came across that way. My objection was mainly to Bright's sneering tone. We are almost certainly the smallest club to be represented at the finals, but it doesn't automatically follow that a national team which contains players from smaller clubs will have no hope of competing against teams who draw all their players from champions League clubs, nor that the players from smaller clubs cannot contribute effectively in a major finals. That probably doesn't make much sense. Sorry. Some beer has been taken.

Agree absolutely, Scotty. The vertical stripes, as well as being a fairer representation of our parent clubs, make us immediately distinctive - there isn't another senior club in the Scottish game with vertical red and blue stripes, is there? Also, having to live in Glasgow, I object to anything that makes me look from a distance as if I could be a Rangers supporter.

From a completely neutral viewpoint it is a valid point, but there was something about the tone of voice that really grated - like we're a novelty act or something. Besides, he only made the comment because we're a team based in the UK and he was pandering to what he feels are the preconceptions of a UK-based audience. If Marius had still been playing with Mainz in the German seond division, he probably wouldn't have made the comment because people don't feel they know anything about Mainz. Also, Mark Bright's career never really took in any of the bigger English clubs as far as I can remember, yet I bet, had he been selected for a major finals, that he would have taken issue with you if you had suggested to him that he didn't have the right to be there.

No, No, No. For a start, look at the scoring records quoted in the article - 18 in 4 years is worse than Bayne or Wyness, who we've deemed surplus to requirements. Secondly, I seem to remember that both have poor injury records. Thirdly, try to find any Killie supporter on P&B with a good word to say about Wales. I know we've got a bit of history of turning round the careers of "failing" players, but at least Dargo had an excellent record as a young player at Raith Rovers. Wales never had the same record, and while Di Giacomo had promise as a very young player (like David Bagan, for example) he hasn't come close to fulfilling it.

Who's the utter c0ck that's summarising again? Just inferred that Romania couldn;t possibly expect to go through when they have a player that plays for "Inverness Caledonian (*choke cough splutter*) Thistle"... Think I'll send him a jobby in the post.

Not a surprising decision. He did nothing wrong with the ball when he had it, but he doesn't really have the pace to play a chasing game. If this is Romania going out though, got to say Marius played more minutes than I expected him to.

Hope I'm wrong, but unless Erse. Was about to post he wouldn't last much more than an hour and off he goes on 59 mins...

*Bump* So far so good... didn;t go missing during the national anthem. Come on, big man. :021: