bdu98196

Not the signing I was hoping for when I saw we'd got B.McKay............Billy or Barry never even considered Brad. Probably a sign that we spent our budget for a senior player on MacNaughton who now injured is a wage bill burden so most likely only have enough left to gamble on someone less proven and cheaper. Quite a few rumour circulating again around guys in my work with reliable contacts inside Pittodrie (a guys brother-in law is best mates with Barry Robson so they frequently all drink together) that given the poor result against Celtic the board are ready to back Del with some money for some strengthening of midfield and apparently both Draper and Tansey are high on the list again.

Doran will take time to get back, he hasn't played this level for over a year and while he may be heading towards fitness, he still looks to be carrying some weight, but hopefully over the next few months as he does it will give a new dynamic to the midfield and introduce that creative spark that we are missing and neither Vigurs or Polworth can provide. The question is asked who plays/who is dropped, is all are fit the strongest midfield would line up like this Draper Tansey King Doran Mulraney A proven goal scorer is necessary - in this league the difference between a 15 goal a season striker and not having one is fighting for top 4 or relegation, its that extreme. When Doumb came on he went onto the right wing, so he may not always be played as a CF and while both Boden & Fisher have performed ok this season, neither has made a case to be first choice or prominent starter as yet.

Had a suspicion they would do well against West Ham again especially given odds of 10-1 ;-) , don't think these English based teams or players care about the EL, get too much money playing in the EPL as a salary to care about the prestige of European competition unlike smaller nations. If its not cash driven like the CL then these guys just don't turn up - indicated by EPL teams playing their 2nd string players quite often.

I understand for young players its hard to break into established big teams in England due to the cash they spend, but he's 22 and played only 34 senior games at any level (considering he's been out on load the last 4 seasons) scoring only twice. By the comment where being described as not as good as a 30 year old player with significant injury problems and never managed to establish himself in a team for any duration or scoring record doesn't really sound like the solution to our scoring issues at this level.

Rig - Nail, head & hit Add to that shop 3 which pays the same or very similar as shop 2 but in order to compete to get the staff due to their remote location has to offer their staff accommodation or incentives to relocate themselves and their family?

Heard that already 2 or 3 times this summer..............starting to think its more a case of boy who cried wolf. Be convenient to keep talking this up to make it look like the club are trying and placate the fans before the window shuts and we miss out on all our targets. Sink or swim time for some of the youth players I think.

STJ have a huge advantage geographically in that central belt players can still stay in Glasgow/Edinburgh and work in Perth. Therefore as they are not relocating their salary requirements may be lower (we may even have to offer accommodation to players we sign as part of any packages?) and its a much easier sell for the club. But I do partially agree they have alternative revenue streams other than football which go back into the club however football is a professional business and should be run as such so solutions need to be balancing the books with extra income a bonus and not akin to starting flogging t-shirts out of the back of vans to try keep us solvent.

If thats the case they will really rip you if the clubs in the Championship next year. Rather see us steady the ship and build confidence with a clean sheet than worry whether its entertaining right now cos watching us ship 10 goals in 3 games certainly isnt. Ironic though if a team like Chelsea were to play that way against Barca then your English chums would probably laud how good Englich club sides are at competing with the best if a positive result comes of the negative approach.

Every week passing will make signing more difficult. Trying to persuade a player to join a loosing team who will be fighting relegation (or looks that way), at a club with a low support and in a location that doesnt appeal to all is going to be a significant challenge - Shinnie to Hibs (although he may never have been interested in us again) as an example, Hibs is an easy sell - winning team, fighting for a title (even if it is a lower level), big corwds, vibrant city life, players getting international call ups from that club - certainly makes recruitment easier IMO. Richie is going to have some hard work to do on recruitment now.

Without knowing the terms of payment for the Christie transfer there may only have been a partial up front payment and a series of staged. We do know that the Storey loan cost 50k for each half of the season, its been documented on here before. When McKay left we brought in Ofere - a player recognised as a mercenary who plays for money. Consider we had to sign OFW while retaining Brill and Esson, Foran and Doran were on a wage bill but never played - so we had to over extend our basic playing baudget. Although a few higher earners leave every time we renegotiate a player contract they will most likely get more, have signing on fees or even bonuses etc - all to prevent them being poached, otherwise fans will complain if we let them walk away after the contract expires and we gamble on unknown bargain basement options. If season tickets remain the same price and revenue fails to increase but living costs go up and therefore outgoings and salaries its inevitable we cant maintain the same level of quantity or quality.

Regardless of the Hughes/board and press issues which led to his sacking/resigining there was a strong voice from many fans before then, that they wanted Hughes out as he had huge budgets and reverted to boring football. While at times it was tepid, negative and often lacked entertainment perhaps what we really are seeing is that the squad isnt as good as we (the fans) think it was and perhaps he played this way beacuse we kept gradually getting weaker loosing players like McKay, Christie, Watkins, Ofere where the goals and creativity came from - maybe Hughes had no choice and keeping us at the level we were and the success we had was a bigger achievement than some would ever like to acknowledge. I'm all for giving time to a new manager, but calls for increased budgets are not practical, we have had number for key players (OFW, Draper, tansey, Warren, meekings, raven, tremarco, vigurs, polly) all sign up on longer deals - do people not think these will be on increased wages over previous contracts these guys had? Our 'core' wage will will have increased thus leaving less for the other players - sadly this is the price of success a trying to keep players and ward off other interested parties. We failed with top 6 last season, no cup finals and no increased foot fall - there is nowhere for extra cash to come from. People may cite the Christie transfer fee, how much has been paid is unclear or the terms, but with the horrendous injuries last year extra players had to be brought in and the Storey loan had a fee - its likely there is nothing of this left. Foran will need to work with what we have and adopt tactics that play to what we have, the signs arent good but we still have time. The next 3 games are very hard and I worry that after 6 games we could be still on zero points and been giving another couple of heavy defeats against the Dons & Celtic. Those who say its not Forans fault, if it was Hughes fault the tactics we played last year then it has to be Forans now - he picks the team and decides on how to play. Lets hope the learning curve is not too steep.

Given last season we had Raven, Warren, Meekings, Draper, Tansey as key players all tie into long term deals its not inconceivable that these guys asked for more money along with keeping OFW - which raises our core wage bill. After paying out extra wages last year due to injuries, plus the payoff to Hughes, we paid a loan fee for Storey - add to that without having a cup final, top 6 finish and no increase in footfall through the door its not a surprise if our biscuit tin is down to crumbs.

OFW Horner Raven Warren Tremarco Polworth Tansey Draper Vigurs Mulraney Boden Sit in, park the bus, get a point.

Kevin McNaughton's Achilles injury means Inverness CT may have to divert resources into finding defensive cover instead of manager Richie Foran being able to sign striker Farid El Alagui. (Sun) Lets hope this is nothing more than Sun speculation, not sure if El Alagui is the solution or the same player he was a few years back but if theres not much else available in our budget or interested then its a gamble we may need to take. I'd still like to see us go after Tony Andreu though

From BBC today Aberdeen have rejected a loan request by Inverness Caledonian Thistle for 19-year-old winger Scott Wright. (Daily Express) Who........................

More important who was the trialist?

Maybe when someone said Draper might be heading along a main trunk road out of Inverness, he forgot about the A96!!!

Why we kicking off at 7.30? I know its only 15 mins, but considering its not exactly local for fans to travel to, every little bit helps when trying to attend while keeping a job to pay for it!!!

Having turned up on a Sat morning to by tickets before and having had issues on more than one occasion with - computers aren't working or system is slow, not having change available or just generally not enough staff in place its going to be interesting how this works. For league games then it makes some sense as a large percentage of fans will already have their season tickets, however a game like this wknd where season tickets aren't valid then they need to have as many payment stations available as possible.

If only, its like an obsession on here for some along with negative digs towards our previous manager and brining up the 'm' word. Some just cant let go!!! Dunfermline in the Championship will probably have a higher average home crowd than us this season, may be willing to pay that bit more for a player deemed a star performer at that level, where as for us he would have just been another squad member and financially offered as such. Still time for signings yet, there will be players expecting moves to clubs who will find themselves unattached and having to lower expectations which is hopefully where we can get a good deal on a hungry player keen to prove themselves.

Why? While he had a decent season in a poor DUtd team, he's an aging player that we don not need, in a position we have plenty cover and will probably command too high a precentage of the wage budget IMO which could be better used in areas of the park we are weaker in or on younger talent we can try develop - its not like we have a very young inexperienced side where we need his leadership. Sometimes I'd like to see fans on here looking forwards to new blood at the club instead of the constant calls just to bring aging players back on sentiment.

^ not see it a positive that a small club like ours is on the radar of a guy who was manager of one of the biggest clubs in England and Europe, clearly must be doing something right if he's heard of us. It's not always necessary to gave and inferiority complex.

^ that sums up some of views of the yogi haters, no matter what the man did or could achieve at the club some will never give him praise. Winning a national cup, runner up in a 2nd and taking our little club into Europe will never rank as high as making our way through the lower leagues of Scotland.

Terrible decision and poor suggestions, I don't agree with this philosophy in football that if they are an ex - player they should never considered manager material or they have a connection. Latapay would be a great choice but I don't know the real back ground to his departure so he may not want to come back, otherwise who is out of work and has proven record at this level or we can afford that isn't one of the boring failed examples in Scottish football like shields, Calder wood, Collins etc. Jim mcinally I'd consider to step up but in reality we may have to accept we won't get as good as yogi whoever comes in.

If true then Yogi doesnt understand football either it seems, which is a worry. Offers can be made to any player but if that player or his agent wants to hold out for alternative offers then thats it - you cant force them to sign, if under contract they will run it down, if out of contract they will walk away to elsewhere. The board only have a limitied budget, the manager can only offer so much i terms of the team and ambitions but ultimately its down to the player and agent. I've little insight into the club other than a Sat afternoon but when we offer deals to players from down south who have to relocate, do we also need to offer accomodation be it a flat or house and any other expenses in addition to the salary? We know its hard to get players up here due to the preception of the area and geography/transport links so I'd hope the club does all this to make like easy for any targets - but it all costs and if we do have to offer these 'extras' then that reduces the budget for wages.