bdu98196

Realism, is what we need now - we were lucky to have built up a great team on a small budget with the gamble of signing unproven players working and everything aligned and clicked with limited injuries, bits of luck like Meekings handball and our fans pulling down the Celtic players in the cup final, even the season before to come back and beat Hearts in the LC semi against the odds. Like many other smaller clubs who do well, we may look back and think - what if we'd kept that team together how far would they have gone, I bet hibs say the same about their early 2000's team before the OF picked off all the talent, or DUtd now they are staring relegation in the face compared to 18 months ago. As said we are a mid to lower SPFL team, where top league survival is the aim each season, but foremost we want to be entertained. If the team looses that should be accepted providing they show desire, work-rate, fight and at least try to entertain the fans - unfortunately this season there have been spells lacking in some of these areas. We now need to make the transition to Yogi's team, let him bring in who he can or wants and let those who want to move on do so. But it has to be remembered that we can only attract those who are in our budget and want to come to Inverness. Biggest disappointment this season is meekly loosing to Hibs in the SC QF, a team with poor form who cant pick up a win recently yet beating us on our own patch, this season ICT should have been back at hampden and with the draw we could have been looking at a final place. Sadly these occasions cannot be taken for granted, much like our SPFL status or the calibre of players at our club. Bigger, more well supported, higher budget and some may argue better clubs than us have been relegated recently and will be in the future, therefore we are not immune and its probably inevitable that unless our crowds grow and therefore budgets we will eventually stagnate or start to fall back with relegation at some point.

Andy Robertson moved to DUtd at 18 where a development fee was paid, where do you suggest ICT get that money from? We can't afford transfer fees, not even development. Additionally for every Robertson there is an Aiden connelly who moved in the same deal, where is he now, unable to make a struggling DUtd team - investments like this are a gamble and for and club with our limited finances not very viable.

There could be, but there are 2 factors a) We are no longer in the 3rd or 4th tier of Scottish football so the step up to SPFL from part time is huge. We were lucky that guys like Munro, Tokely, McBain, Christie managed to take us through the levels to SPL, however during that time we signed players of a level at the league we were in and players moved on. We are finding players who are full time in leagues down south struggle and its a higher level, just because someone is from locally and feels affinity doesn't mean they will be good. b) Some player like Rory MacAllister and others are part time and want to be, they may have good qualifications and a well paid job with a supplementary part time football wage on top - this may actually amount to more than our wage budget can stretch for a full time (entry level pro) - many don't want the gamble of dropping salary in the hope they 'may' make it. If we want local players, we have to take youngsters and give them a proper grounding and development where they can get into the first team - which was done with Christie and Polly, sadly guys like Ferguson & Sutherland haven't developed to that level yet. Basically if we were picking up good enough youth players then they would be in the team, but how many SPFL teams are churning out lots of high quality young home grown local talent - its sporadic at best throughout.

I'm not overly impressed with how our form has dipper, our style of play recently and some of JH comments in the press, however I'm not one to call for someone to loose their job. Regarding RF, other than an appearance in the cup game V hibs where oddly he got 90mins yet seems to be on the bench again and never near even a sub appearance - is it wrong to wonder if there is an underlying story about his fitness? As for RF taking over as manager what has he done over the layoff period to demonstrate coaching skills, is he a leader and does he have the attributes to be a successful coach - I don't know the guy so cant comment, however I can say that during match days Esson appears much more proactive in talking with the management and players than RF - perhaps we should be asking if Esson might be a better option for stepping up in the coaching team (although keepers rarely make it as anything other than keeper coaches). My feeling is that an RF appointment would be a short one and when I look around the club for suitable players to move into management (again without knowing them as people) I would suggest that Warren comes across as a determined, driven, motivated leader on the park with that bit of intelligence that could make him a success. However Yogi has a contract and unless either another club comes in to 'sign' him, he decides to walk away (why would he) then he will see that contract out as ICT are not in the financial position to pay off him and his backroom team - therefore making this thread pointless and redundant for another 2 seasons.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35979886 The man is an arse, he has no place at the top in the game in this country - lauding how great the return is and will be of such benefit, yet no acknowledgement of his error on 'armageddon' or praise for how the entertainment and fans have increased over the 4 years. Talking up the OF game in the cup next wknd and how the smaller clubs that have had the 'pleasure' of the Rangers 'fans' visiting should be grateful - no mention of the numerous sectarian crowd behaviour issues and general vile that's continued to follow them around. Rather than citing this as a return, Doncaster should be using this as an opportunity to define it as a new dawn - laying down the rules regarding sectarianism, bigotry and what is acceptable behaviour for both the OF, making it clear that extreme sanctions are in place with a no nonsense approach, instead its welcome back and as you are. Putting all political, financial and footballing indiscretions of the club aside as if in awe of them. If the return is so great we should be looking at bumper TV deals, new ways to promote the SPFL product and innovations to increase attendance, instead we have crap long terms TV deals and the product inevitably will suffer as fans get bored of the duopoly and politics that follow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35974305 I'm sure those at the top in the Scottish game will be happy, but already next season is starting to loose its appeal - obviously we are struggling, but I expect that for the next 4 months this is all that the media will write about. All the bigotry, bile and sectarianism will be forgotten as we are all supposed to rejoice at Armageddon ending - sadly I doubt most fans outwith the 2 ugly clubs will agree. I do find it interesting though, that a club humped last year so convincingly in the play-offs by an average Motherwell now have a test against Celtic in the cup, almost as if to let them gauge where they sit in terms of squad quality and preparation - a cynic would think its almost fixed? The re-birth of the SPFL was fun while it lasted, while some would say this is the resurrection of Scottish football, I think its more likely the death of much of the positivity and 'fun' over the last few years.

In many of these games they were away from home - we sit in and teams attack us then which allows us to break and in many cases take the lead. Unfortunately we then fail to capitalise when the opposition open up to come back at us and often find that after sustained periods of pressure we fall to the inevitable and conceede. The real issue is our inability to score 2 goals or more to kill off a game - as they say 1-0 is a fragile lead. While defensivly we make mistakes a big part of the problem is lack of goals and goalscorers to relieve that pressure.

Brill Raven Meekings Warren D.Williams Draper Tansey Doran Vincent Roberts Storey Bench - Fon Williams, Devine, Tremarco, Polworth, Mutumbo, Ferguson, Fisher Consier missing players from that line up are Esson, Foran, Wedderburn, Hughes, R.Williams, Horner, Sutherland

Midweek rescheduling a midweek reschedule of an original wknd fixture is an opportunity lost. As per my earlier post, should have put it on Sat 16th as both teams are out of the cup and hopefully would have drawn a decent size crowd with a reasonable kick off time. Chance for common sense missed again. Disappointing but not surprising.

Not the end of the world IMO, if this happens then maybe reschedule it for Sat 16th at 3pm then we can benefit from perhaps a larger crowd as neither team is in the Scottish Cup and it doesn't matter right now in the League. I do agree it creates a precedent if a game is cancelled due to excess injuries of illness, however this could work in our favour from a financial perspective.

The 2 ironic factors in that are 1) Hughes was a defender so should be able to coach that skill and help his players develop both in terms of ability and position etc and b) his previous assistant was creative and knew how to make or score goals, therefore when he left perhaps JH should have picked an assistant to replace those skills. If we have a coaching team who only played in defensive roles then does that create an imbalance?

Maybe the refs we get have had bad games, certainly Collum in the past, but recent defeats have had nothing to do with poor ref decisions and everything to do with poor management or player decisions.

Surprised some people took positives from that game. Players like Meekings, Hughes, Storey played in the wrong positions. Not fielding our strongest team. Negative tactics again, possession football where, we have it they cant isnt working - sadly we arent Arsenal or Barcelona so dont have the players for that, all we do is play passes and put ourselves under pressure and into mistakes, slow build up at almost pedestrian level, players like Vigurs who want to offload the ball as quicky as possible even if it plays the next man in trouble. The team seems right now to reflect Yogi's negative attitude towards the club, signings and contribution of the current players. I dont mind if we loose because we played well or were entertaining - sadly we are timid, tedious, predictable, without creativity and in each defeat its deserved.

Agreed, I'm a supporter of Yogi and what he has done at the club including accepting the injuries this season and how we have been unlucky with the signings but given the way the team has been playing the last few months, the constant excuses and the ever more increasing comments both written and from his mouth (which carry much more validity) its all getting a bit tiresome and negative - Bemoaning the Williams/Vincent sage, the comments about Tansey & Ofere in Jan, stories about Polly & Storey etc. The attitude this promotes is not positive, one comment is a dig at the board or can be seen that way, continual comments suggest a man looking or a way out - hopefully not but we know our budget yet there is no point complaining about lack of resources when those that have been used in some cases have been wasted or on sub-standard talent. Agents are obviously part of the game, but not all the blame lies at their door or even the players as they want the best deal, but the club have to do more and that starts with the manager and his tactics, philosophy and atmosphere he creates.

No idea on what the situation is, but I wouldn't be surprised that he or his agent looked at it as some kind of saviours return after the contribution the season before so priced any move as such. Regardless he's hardly featured for DUtd and not exactly shown anything near the form he did for us yet, so perhaps no big loss missing out.

Fon Williams Meekings Warren Devine D.Williams Tansey Draper Storey Polly Roberts Foran If Raven is fit then Meekings to CB in place of Devine, Mutumbo on for Foran with Storey moving upfront then. However I expect it to be the exact same line up that beat County - although this being at home and IMO a must win game we need to create and take the game to M'well as they wont come at us and let us break on them which is when we have been at our best this year.

With no game last wknd any news on more recoveries at all? Raven, Vincent or Mutumbo fit again?

SPFL - Agree on Ziggy Gordon although will probably not be able to afford him, Ryan Dow Championship - Nicky Clark, Peter Grant, Blair Alston but probably end up with Kevin Thomson, El Alugi & Andy Dow - yogi loves an ex-Hibee afterall SFL1 - El Bhaktoui of course - to think 12 months ago he had never played 11 a-side Others - Higdon, Fleck I'd like to see us try get some good loans if we cant sign players, guys like Tony Anderu who are SPFL proven but failed to make it after a move When you see lists of SPFL out of contract players, its worrying how one club (ours) makes up about 20-25% of the professional players listed!!!

With Warren, Meekings and Devine all tied up - does this mean JH is seriously looking at Meekings long term RB then - I hope not as he's proven much better centrally and Raven has done enough to warrant a new deal in a position up until a few months ago for whatever reason he had made his own. Very confusing times and recruitment strategy.

Another defensive midfielder? We have Draper tied up longer term, Tansey too, ok given the January events he may leave but Polly is still there and even though out of contract currently can see Hughes wanting to stick by Wedderburn & Vigurs with new contracts as they are players he brought to the club. Its wingers, forwards and creative midfielders we lack or will lack.

Sorry, not dismissing the validity but with vague statements like that it could be a cleaner and someone in the pie shop. So many posters on here have 'sources in the club' - if these sources are so happy to discuss and divulge confidential information relating to players contracts or terms of employment then they obviously have no respect for their position, employer or colleagues confidentiality so may as well just be completely public with the information - unless of course its hear-say and conjecture? If Warren is highest paid its deserved, he has been leader and captain of our most successful team and acted in a highly professional manner - easily displaying attributes to make him successful at a higher level. In life people either get paid a) what they are worth or b) what they ask for - often these are not the same, hopefully the club behaves in the manner of a) and everyone is paid based on what they can contribute and represent good value - running an organisation with the structure of option b) wont be sustainable very long!!

Perhaps the club offered as much as they could afford to Shinnie or any other player and still balance the books. The football club is a business and has to be run like such. If the average salary is £X and we offered Shinnie £4X then that means we would have had to either sacrifice 3 players or sign 6 players on £0.5X just to break even. So you end up with a threadbare squad relying on the youngsters who aren't ready or good enough or a team with 1 or 2 top players and the rest just not near the required level. Where is the actual facts in that statement, its been media conjecture - has the player ever come out and officially said through a reputable source this was the case. Everyone on here constantly blames the club, the players have input into this and can decide who to sign for, how much and when. Consider they have informal chats with the manager and club, if they indicate a desire to leave then why waste time, money and effort on long discussions otherwise, having solicitors involved etc when its unlikely they will change their mind. Too many on here think real world football is like football manager.

So you trying to say County fans dont have 5 fingers lol

Sadly its inevitable that a provincial club like ours with such a small fanbase and remote location (in relative terms) will struggle to recruit and in the event of success, certainly like we have retain players or a higehr calibre. The loss historically of our better players has happened for years, Robson, Cowie, A.Shinnie etc, more recently G.Shinnie, Mackay, Watkins, Ofere. While its disappointing not to keep players but its a fact they may get offers better than we can provide, whether salary, environment, location etc. We should be delighted to have key players like Tansey, Draper, Meekings, Warren signed up as I believe all are outstanding talents at our club and demonstrated to be SPFL quality or better so could have left to go elsewhere. We may be back to a summer or rebuilding but thats the price of success - look at Southampton after their good season when almost a full team left, expect the same with Suprs or Leicester this year - closer to home look at DUtd, Hibs,Hamilton all teams who did well and built some success only to loose the heart of their squads. Unfortunately for us we dont seem to be good at getting transfer fee's but when there are better or more appealing offers the club can only do so much. Like any business we have a wage structure, budgets and limits on what we can do - just like any walk of life someone will leave if offered something they percieve better for whatever reason.

I think we may be more likely to see us beat Hearts than DUtd. Honestly see the form of the Arabs improving all the time and a draw from there now would be a good result - with MacKay and Ofere starting to work together they have a dangerous attacking force who can cause damage. Still think 7 points is achievable but 6 of those in our home games.