Charles Bannerman

Let's also not forget that CJT holds 10% of the voting rights at a general meeting - and it has already been suggested that if CJT goes defunct, so do these voting rights, which represent something like the third or fourth biggest single source of influence within the club.

Dunno about home crowds - there were several in 3 figures during the first season - but in Montecatini during the pre-season tour in 2006, I was in an away crowd of something like 12.?

Even if the temperature was above 5C, there probably wouldn't be enough light around to achieve significant growth during the winter. It's the old story of putting the lawn mower in the shed in September and taking it back out in April. On the other hand, in more recent years, these rough times have seemed to drift a little.

Tommy ("Grass grows by the inch and is ruined by the foot"?) has a 30 year-long reputation for keeping and sustaining a fine football pitch. It therefore seems unlikely that the reason for the current state of the pitch has anything to do with the capability of the ground staff, but will far more probably be something to do with availability of resources.

I have to say that I'm a it bemused by an event where there's a fairly high probability of being fouled out of a medal by a rival and, although the rival is DQd, your prospects are also at an end. But, tumbling out of FIVE Olympic events in a row? I really think there has got to be more to it than bad luck and that her tactic of skating so very close to rivals is not only increasing the chances of her falling but also putting her in a position to be caught by someone else. My sympathy with her is beginning to evaporate now and there's also one other question. Why on EARTH did the team management allow her to go through with that awful interview after the 500, the consequences of which will probably haunt her for the rest of her life? It was even more cringeworthy than Alan MacRae's unveiling of Alex McLeish!

Don't get too many to practise with!

Absolutely not, but it is worthwhile using this already well established hubris to reinforce what was being said in the post in question. In other words, the irony was worth revisiting.

This post raises a number of very interesting issues and questions. What do "new money", "fresh money" and "investment" mean? Do these terms simply mean charitable donations from wealthy individuals to right the ship after a period when the club lived beyond its means - and to allow expenditure to continue at a level which exceeds earnings? What actually is an investor who "will definitely not receive any return on their money"? Is this a benefactor? Or a source of subsidy? Or are these two euphemisms for a "sugar daddy" simply synonymous? Why does this practice appear acceptable in the case of ICT (who also received £6M, albeit with a few qualifications, from Tulloch) whilst dismissed as "Uncle Roy's Back Pocket" in the case of Ross County? Have the current board - who have been in post for only a short time - REALLY done all they can? Who are "sources with an affinity for the Club, perhaps even a previous history with the Club"? Is this a call for control of the club to pass to a regime involving the McGilvray family, or Alan Savage, or both? Or someone else? What is the thinking behind advocating that the Muirfield Mills influence be dispensed with? They are not especially large shareholders in their own direct right, although they have rather more than the suggested "circa £200K". The last full Companies House statement of holdings indicates £376,000 worth of shares, and I would be very surprised if MM were not also involved in the additional 450,000 shares allocated just last week in return for money put up front since the end of last season to keep the club afloat. I am also led to believe that another significant slice of this came from a source with a previous history with the club (but no inverted commas). Remember also that there are several other fairly large but quite fragmented holdings on the part of, for instance, Roddy Ross, David Cameron, the McGilvray Family, Orion Engineering, the ICT Trust (controlled by MM), David Sutherland (personally as opposed to Tullochs who donated their shares to the Trust) and - in the form of 10% of voting rights - the perpetually elusive Caley Jags Together (which is an ongoing concern). Where is this "new board" going to materialise from - a board which would continue to operate in an environment where shareholding remains fragmented? Finally - has there, of late, actually been a further, sudden deterioration in the club's financial affairs.... or is this simply a Twitter rumour to which the Board felt obliged to respond with its statement?

So would I, and this applies not only to ICT but to a large number of clubs. There is also an interesting potential debate here in sporting psychology and ethics (or possibly ethos) about the extent to which, in football, cash overrides other influences in providing a source of motivation to train and perform. Then, when you wonder how much the players involved in the alleged drunken incident at their Spanish training camp actually get paid, you really do have to ask if the p**s is getting taken rather too often?

I'm not sure about that. Wages are being artificially inflated above levels which, in a normal business environment or market, would be determined by the income coming into the sport. Clubs persist with this regime of over payment through living outwith their means, by carrying unrealistic liabilities, and by depending on the said "sugar daddies" - who can be as easily gone tomorrow as they are here today. Also contributing to this process is the sport as a whole straining every last sinew of the cash raising process by agreeing to TV deals which have significant down sides which include bizarre kick off times. I would also suggest that any argument that suggests that the current TV deals are part of a genuine market value, then there is no case whatsoever for fans to complain about the truly nonsensical kick off times which are being imposed on them by these deals.

Not quite. Football generally pays its players above, sometimes well above, their market value - hence creating, among other things, the need to bankroll that through TV deals with arrangements like 5:15 Sunday kick-offs. One of the main reasons Caley Thistle is on an unsound financial footing is that it latterly paid its players even further above that market value (ie compared, relatively, with the rest of football) in a failed attempt to remain in the Premiership.

Nice one, Yngwie.... but it will never happen. It's the obvious, logical thing - has been for years - but football is far too tribal, or indeed human nature in general is far too tribal. Many of the factors which helped things in Inverness to limp across the line in 1993 - 94 do not exist with respect to what is otherwise a viable next step.

The bigger concern is people who are shyte at fitba getting big money for being shyte at fitba. (qv, among others, ICTFC in recent years.) And then there are all these sets of Emperor's New Clothes which Scottish football in particular continues to acquire.

You are doubtless absolutely correct there IBM but it's difficult to have much reasonable issue with that, possibly for a number of reasons. Those who go over the bridge from Inverness will comprise both Invernessians and non-Invernessians (aka "incomers"). The latter category very possibly don't distinguish between ICT and Ross County in terms of local loyalty because, as "incomers", they have little or none; nor should they be expected to. They probably choose to go over there rather than here on the basis of other factors such as the match day experience - which now also includes County playing in a higher league. There is no particular motivation for them to go to ICT based on any affinity with Inverness, and some will actually be of Ross and Cromarty origin. On the other hand the reasons for Invernessians going over the bridge are possibly more complex and are probably a bigger concern. However they may well include ICT's historic failure to project itself to the local population. My own belief is that the Inner Moray Firth doesn't have sufficient population or economic weight to support two Premiership football teams in the longer term - even when one is heavily supported by a benefactor. However when the other comes up with one or two bad decisions, appointments and financial strategies, errors which it's not in a position to buy itself out of, then that's the one that will be squeezed - especially in this marginal inner Moray Firth economic environment. From the early 2000s Caley Thistle, saved from possible extinction by substantial Tulloch intervention and with a lot of largely good administration, more or less hung in there in the top tier and at times punched well above its weight. Eventually, Ross County's assistance from an ongoing benefactor got them into the SPL/Premiership as well, and on a number of occasions they have had to sign their way out of danger. The "perfect storm" has been a combination of County's financial muscle alongside strategic errors of governance creeping in at ICT, and we now have a situation which includes more and more likely going over the bridge on a Saturday. Roy MacGregor put the Hotel on Mayfair and in times of difficulty produced a "Get Out Of Jail(end) Free" card. Meanwhile Caley Thistle paid far too much for Old Kent Road, only maintained it by selling various other properties and got no return. "Always In Our Shadow" and "Pride Of The Highlands" certainly have something of a hollow ring about them now.

Unfortimately it's that kind of insular attitude which has contributed to landing football in the state it's in - a general state of paying players far too much, often for not doing a geeat deal, which in turn is one root cause of ICT's current specific predicament. Has it not occurred to posters who have been calling for a "sugar daddy" for ICT, just how bizarre it is that there should be some kind of institutionalised expectation that wealthy people should subsidise businesses which are loss making because they pay employees way above their market value? Football shouldn't assume that it is owed a living by rich people simply to keep turnstile prices down. And yes, 5:15 on a Sunday is a daft KO time, but it's simply a consequence of inflated wages creating pressure to do TV deals. If football would only wake up and sniff the coffee, it might actually learn something from the other sports which organise their affairs in a far more sustainable manner.

As far as I am aware, the ICT training regime requires rather more commitment than suggested there. However there are people in other sports who train 6 or 7 days a week alongside their day jobs, using their wages there to cover their training and competition costs. There are also some footballers in the Highland League who are paid hundreds of pounds a week and receive four figure signing on fees for training twice, or even once a week and playing in the fifth tier of Scottish football.

I often wonder how much money Scottish/ UK/ World football spends annually, paying former managers for doing absolutely nothing?

Thanks to Fraz and Yngwie for the much needed reality check!

It is not the function of a reporter to "assist the cause" of a club. It is the function of a reporter to report events, be they positive or negative. What you are describing is more like a PR operative.

No, I'm not missing your point BM - merely testing the temperature of the water with a bit of Devil's Advocacy. I actually spent years unsuccessfully cajoling Kenny Cameron about the need to adopt a higher media profile and I have to say that the poor public perception of the club when last summer became unhelpfully obvious as a result of the long term absence of same. To summarise my real position a bit more clearly I would, however, suggest that if Caley Thistle and Ross County are going to receive such a significant media presence, then it does become that much more difficult to justify much additional coverage for what are generally much lower levels of football, right down to the kick and rush of Walfare/Amateur. It also follows that there isn't all that strong a case of coverage for coverage's sake - such as in the Nationals where, if they can't find Old Firm stories, it's said they just make them up.

Using the numbers argument also, of course, concedes that Football would need to give up much of its space to Bowls and Angling. What this discussion does raise, though, is whether the club - which, unlike a newspaper which has an obligation to all, only has an obligation to those who are interested in it - should be doing more either to create its own coverage or to direct the attention of its supporters to whatever already exists. As for County, I'm not sure it's possible to be quite as sanguine about them as that given that they are a higher league club based just 15 miles from Inverness and with a large number of supporters in the city.

That was the response I expected, so let me indulge in a little more Devil's Advocacy by first pointing out that crowd levels are just one of the things that are well documented as being in freefall here so it's interesting to see the Achilles heel actually used as a defence. The crowd issue at the Caledonian Stadium has been one of decline which in turn has been one of the main causes of recent financial difficulties. Then there's the unfortunate issue of relegation to the second tier while another club in the immediate vicinity, which has large numbers of its supporters based in Inverness, remains in the Premiership. There therefore also emerges the case, given their league status and support levels in this city, for an increase in coverage of Ross County, alongside the performers who are operating at World, Commonwealth and European levels in other sports which are rapidly improving. Before I stop holding the Bunsen burner to the lump of sulphur, I'll also suggest that maybe it's something of a Scottish thing where the lion's share of media coverage goes and is expected to go to a sport which we are not actually very good at.

There are other sports to cover in the area - with performers operating at a higher level than in football into the bargain.

Or, in the best traditions of Noel Edmonds' Crinkley Bottom Gazette, a back page banner headline reading: STILL NOTHING MUCH HAPPENING AT THE CALEDONIAN STADIUM.

That's my recollection as well, Don. There was no match to preview or report on the weekend just past and none to report on the weekend before that. Presumably the space has been used for things that have been taking place.