bdu98196

Its unlikely, given that Yogi has a 2 years left on his contract, he hasn't had an awful season for the board to want to sack him and even if they did can we afford the compensation. That means he has to walk away and given the lack of other jobs out there he would be a fool to walk out of a regular job for 2 years, so unlikely as is another club coming in for him. The end of this season is a little flat, probably because we are mid table with nothing to really fight for, we are bottom 6 which isn't where we hoped to be, but fortunately far enough ahead that relegation is almost improbable. I think we all looked at the cup draw when we saw that if we beat hibs at home in the replay we could face a struggling DUtd side, that failed to materialise and I think for many we look at the high of last year and see this as a huge chance lost to get back to Hampden and given the semi opponents probably consecutive finals. Had the results been different I think the mood all round would be much more positive.

100% agree and in most business there is always a deadline and take it or leave it date. However the criticism of the board on here does not indicate that ICT taking a hard stance would go down well with a lot of fans, many believing that the club don't do enough as it is. If it became known as a club we were 'letting' key players leave without continually offering deals and discussions up until expiry of contract many would cite that the board just aren't trying and they both they and the manager should go etc.

"I’m keen to sort out my future as soon as possible and get it out of the way. It doesn’t play on my mind as it’s out of my hands. People who speak for me just need to sit down and sort it out," he said. That is exactly everything that's wrong with modern football, I'm all for some protection to ensure the players are not ripped off, exploited and remunerated fairly, but they should be involved or leading the discussions with the agent as a 3rd party IMO, not the primary party. Here we have a player keen to stay but that hinges on T&C's being sorted out by agents and club representatives, which if an agent its beneficial to drag this out as long as possible in order to keep the door open for counter offers. So perhaps all the fan criticism directed at the club and board is not all fair as their is a significantly influential additional party which has a different agenda to the club and player in many cases. Lets hope this gets resolved soon.

Which makes the one and only appearance when he started against Hibs in he cup even more bizarre, he hasn't featured even for a few mins as a sub since yet played 90 mins that night?

Who picks the days and times, only one 3pm Sat fixture out of 5?

Not sure what the point being made is? These are 2 players St J developed and sold. One went to the 2nd biggest club in Scotland with the 2nd biggest budget although in a lower league, much like Ryan Christie going to the biggest, the other went to an English Championship side like A.Shinnie, B.McKay (who we got a transfer fee for), Watkins did from us. Stevie Mays wages are so high that nobody in the SPFL could afford to take him back on loan last year. Players leave St J, ICT, D Utd and the others every season, but any club is lucky if 1 out of 10 commands a transfer fee - yes, it would be great if we sold Ryan for a higher fee and got money for the Shinnie's, Ross etc, but then how many other clubs all say the same about their talent. Buying clubs can look at what's on offer and if for example Adam Rooney is valued by Aberdeen at £1M, but Billy McKay is only £100k then they may see better value, prospect and opportunity with the cheaper deal - a club like ICT have to avoid pricing themselves out of the market when selling a player and ending up with them leaving for nothing - afterall if the player wants away they just run down the contract, nobody can force them to sign if they don't want, just the same as during the contract we cant sell them unless someone wants to buy them. Maybe this needs to be put into perspective - SPFL players (like ours) can leave for the English lower leagues where the clubs down there can afford the gamble of salaries many times our first team players for a reserve or prospect. Put really simply we have 29p so can buy a tin of Lidl beans in the hope they taste good, of we are lucky we may get some Tesco beans reduced on an offer, but we will never be able to afford Heinz and certainly not high end Harrods (unless out of date and past their best) - unless of course we decide to do without bread - only giving half a meal?

Preferred option Fon Williams Raven(Horner) Warren Meekings D.Williams Draper Tansey Roberts Polly Mutumbo Storey What I expect, given Hughes has frozen out Roberts and D.Williams it seems, possibly Raven too even if fit Fon Williams Meekings Warren Devine Tremarco Draper Tansey Polly Mutumbo Vigurs Storey

Agreed we need him back and put Meekings back to the CB position, however sadly I think Yogi may argue now that with it so close to end of season and Raven clearly not in his plans, he may want to continue with the defence as is giving more time in preparation for next year. Odds are we may never see Raven in an ICT shirt again, except for some kind of cameo prior to season end as a farewell - but I really hope that I'm very wrong on this as he is better than both Meekings and Horner at RB.

Without having any figures, I'd expect Hamilton to have the lowest budget in the league as they have the lowest average attendances and really struggle to get fans through the gate even more so than we do, then ICT followed by Partick/Kilmarnock and St J. One thing that might be more interesting is to define performance based on budget and we will probably find that over the last 5 years ST J come out on top as a team that consistently over-achieve based on investment and salaries.

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.