Charles Bannerman

There were certainly two during the Montecatini trip in 2006 - which was the first continental trip. I certainly remember being at the first one which broke all manner of records ranging from the fastest goal to the smallest crowd. I didn't stay out for the whole trip and after I left there was another game against a Romanian team who reportedly screamed and dived and assaulted and generally misbehaved whenever they could get away with it. (Oops... is my timing a bit unfortunate here?) There would also presumably have been friendlies during the Montecatini trip in 2007, which I didn't attend, so by the time of the Denmark one in 2008, after Brewster had taken over from Charlie, the opening game there might well have been more than the third.

This, and Scotty's, are very relevant caveats with regard to what I would describe as a thoroughly tacky and dubious wheeze. Apart from the issues Don raises, I think this also debases the professional integrity and credibility of bona fide players if Joe Public can simply jump on the bandwagon. Winning a professional contract is something to be aspired to as opposed to purchased in an auction. Who is brokering this scheme for Partick Thistle? Maundy Gregory? (The guy who sold honours on behalf of Lloyd George). It will all indeed end in tears, especially since this is Partick Thistle we are talking about..... so all the unsuccessful parties are bound to wheel out their QCs to contest the outcome of the auction.

You are spot on there! And usually doubles! He would just look at the barperson and say "Large!" We will miss Ali hugely. He was a stalwart both of Caledonian and ICT and must be given huge credit for one contribution in particular which was crucial to the formation of ICT. Caley Chairman Norman Miller took a serious heart attack towards the end of 1994 when the merger battle was still at a very critical stage so Ali, as Vice Chairman, stepped in. Within days he found himself chairing the crucial and pretty volatile (bangers exploding in the aisles etc) Third Battle Of Rose Street which finally saw Caley's assets invested in the new club. The manner in which Ali handled that meeting, which completed the final link in the chain, was masterful and it made a huge contribution to what we now see in front of us today. I and my friends, who were often in his company on a Saturday evening, will certainly be having a dram on his behalf in the Social Club tomorrow night. He was a gentleman who will be greatly missed both at the Stadium and at the Social Club.

Tickets of Inverness conflict 16th July, if you want them to achieve contact Stadium Caledonian. City Inverness much beneficial for visitors European. Advisory not start punch up MacDonalds since Securitate Scotland guns bearing cops will issue. Visitors cheap drink before game soliciting, Caley Club Greig Street much approval. Thistle Inverness Caledonian band apologising already before game behaviour local surgical supporter Immortal Howden Ender.

You say that remuneration does not correlate with ability but in football, which is largely the free market, it mainly does. Maybe Rangers are Captain's "wee club".

ICT's financial year has, so far anyway, ended on 31st May. I would therefore imagine that of the various windfalls of the season just ended - the McKay transfer, third place prize money, Scottish Cup etc - some will contribute to what the board will publish in the autumn while the rest will "roll over" to the 2015-16 accounts. Given ICT's relatively heavy dependence in recent years on windfalls such as investments, cup runs and the sale of the Social Club, this could be very good news across two financial years.

And I would include your good self as one of those on here with the said superior knowledge and experience of the Highland League.... well in between indulgences in stamps and Pomagne in the 1970s at any rate!

Interestingly this site, at the time in question, was recording that the biggest number of users ever online within any 24 hour period was 163 - as of 16:238 BST today, 22.6.15. Can't imagine what motivated that!

I have hesitated to post this until I was finally convinced that we are dealing here with the intractably stubborn and the voluntarily ineducable. Captain... I am one of the several people on here who have been telling you for some days now that your concept of the earlier history of Inverness football is woefully off the mark and hopelessly uninformed. If you are still unable to grasp the realities, the Administrators of this site, in 2011, were kind enough to place on here an online version of "Against All Odds", the official history of the formation of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. This was originally published in paperback 1997 and a special "prequel" chapter specifically about Thistle's and Caley's Highland League days was added when the book went online. Although the author has been following Highland League football since the mid 1960s and reporting in both national and local media on the Highland and Scottish Leagues since the mid 80s, he would still want to defer to the superior knowledge and experience of the Highland League of a number of the other posters on here who have also been trying to tell you the same thing. I don't, for instance, suppose you know that Andy Penman, ex Rangers and Dundee, also spent time playing for Caledonian and that Billy Urquhart, after he left Caledonian for Rangers and Wigan also came back to play there? I also don't suppose you know that Caledonian were good enough to produce and sell on players such as Kevin MacDonald who did the English League and Cup double with Liverpool in 1985? And I also suppose you are unaware that in the early 1990s, Thistle were ambitious enough to engage that Dunfermline legend Jim Leishman as their manager. And there's a lot more..... Oh...and have you ever asked the question "Who's Chic Allan anyway?" Or maybe I could offer you some more concise advice. STOP DIGGING!

I believe that to be the case, but only after a little known anomaly which continued immediately post-merger. Caley Thistle was initially funded by both Thistle and Caley voting to invest their assets in the new club. The votes which finally secured these decisions were not taken until December 1994 - four months after Caley Thistle started playing in the Third Division. In the case of Caley, there had been a huge influx of new season ticketholders in the autumn of 1993 for the "Rose Street 1" second vote on the merger. These were due to expire at the end of the season in May 1994 but it was agreed that they would be left open until such time as the asset question was settled - in other words December 1994. Now at that point there had never been a two-thirds majority to change the Constitution in any respect - hence the move to invest the assets in the new club which could be and was done on a 50% vote. As a result the club still existed, right down to the requirement to have a registered office in Telford Street Inverness! What I then believe happened was that the only members the constitutional shell of Caley by now had were the life members and they then quietly laid a great institution (which for the last few months had been "On A Life Support Machine") quietly to rest by winding it up with the kind of dignity which had unfortunately eluded it during its final 18 months of constitutional life.

Sheessht!! You'll just be encouraging the council to set up some town twinning beano for themselves

Quite a lot. We have been discussing the enormous progress, despite a phoneboxfull of refuseniks, made by football in Inverness since the central belt obsession with keeping the Highlanders out was at last defeated in 1994. The extent to which we (including Ross County) have got it right up them (the Central Belt) is therefore sweet in the extreme up here!

Central Belters = Barstewards as usual . Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. I suppose you'll be condemning the HL for keeping out Cove, Fort and Wick The Highland League began in 1893 with six Inverness clubs and Forres Mechanics (plus the "Ross County" side which resigned during the first season). It has subsequently expanded steadily over the decades with in more recent years Fort then Cove (1985 and 1986) boosting numbers from 16 to 18 and Wick (who got the verdict over geographically more accessible Inverurie) taking it to 16 in 1994 after Jags, Caley and County moved on. Inverurie and Strathspey have subsequently made it 18 again and I wouldn't rule out 2 divisions of 10 in the future. Central belters? In general, throughout history they've been far more of a pain in the @‌rse for Highlanders than the English ever were and in particular there was for decades a definite Central Belt effort to keep HL clubs out of the SFL. Hence, for instance, an Edinburgh works team got in ahead of Thistle in the 70s and there was that famous statement from Mr Clydebank Jack Steedman that Highland terams would get in over his dead body which kind of summed up the attitude of the CB. They still whinge about having to come up here and many would have loved to see County go down.

I would just like to endorse the comments of both Sneckboy and 12th Man above. More or less from the day it was founded in 1893, the Highland League, and hence the entire North of the country, had a glass ceiling imposed on it because the area was frozen out of the national game by the central belt who wanted to keep it all in their own little kailyard. That attitude still exists and was recently manifested by those down there who wanted Ross County to be relegated last season. That Highland football got to the level that it did in terms of the quality within the HL and the not infrequent cup runs is a tribute to the efforts of many. I do not believe that ICT could have done what it has now without its extremely sound pre-1994 background and the expertise of the many who contributed to that, some of whom are still involved at ICT. To refer to the Highland League as "pub football" in uninformed nonsense. The glass ceiling was finally shattered in 1994 and the two clubs which decided to join together have in the intervening 21 years made this famous Highland League to Europa League, Qualifying Cup to Scottish Cup transition. That would not have been possible unless there had been a pre-existing proud football tradition up here and also the expertise to implement such a massive advance in such a short time. So, for reasons possibly related to youth and a complete lack of knowledge of what happened up here in the Highland League, "I am the Captain" is way off the target and indeed his shooting is so poor that he must instantly accept demotion to Lance Corporal. I would also like to supplement Sneckboy's list of founding fathers with Charlie Cuthbert and Jim Falconer, who is the only one of these four gentlemen who bore the brunt of the merger who is still alive. He must be pinching himself at the thought that, as ICT's football secretary, just over two decades after exchanging team lines with the likes of Rothes and Lossiemouth (no disrespect) he is now undertaking the administrative preparation for an Inverness team to enter Europe. Finally, and I'm not going to argue this one in detail here, I believe that no single Inverness club would have made it to the levels currently achieved. It has been claimed that Caley would have done just as well on their own. I just can't see how that could ever have happened since ICT has long since become much greater than the sum of its constituent parts.

PLEEEZE not again!!!! 21 years after they made their own decision not to support a club which has gone from the Highland League to Europe, from the Qualifying Cup to winning the Scottish Cup and has seen football attendances in Inverness rise six fold, does anyone (apart from Dougal) really give a toss about what a few grumpy closet Old Firm fans thought? I mean, did the Luddites make any difference to the Industrial Revolution? Do many people actually know who the Luddites were?

Released at 1205pm on Friday 19th June.

Well at least Scotty Kellacher should be OK since he wears their national dress!!!

On one cccasion some years ago at a press conference, Terry Butcher quoted the "wages per point" figure..... and hence instantly revealed the club's wage bill!

You seem to have plenty of time on your hands Sneckboy? Interestingly, I also spotted something the other day that said that Celtic's turnover is more than the rest of the Premiership put together. Perhaps an even more valid measure, but still operating on the "lowest number best" principle would be to multiply the numbers in Sneckboy's right hand column by the clubs' turnovers. Now (although Sneckboy might ) I don't have time to look every club's up, but have done for Celtic, Aberdeen and St J, and we know that ICT's is around £3.8M. So for these two... ICT = 3.8 x 12 = 45.6 St Johnstone = 5.2 x 13 = 67.6 Aberdeen = 11.2 x 13 = 145.6 I suspect all the rest, if checked, would fit into this space befroe you get to the bottom of this particular league..... Celtic = 75.2 x 3 = 225.6 Given that Celtic have to shift more cash than all the rest put together to win a league where there was still, after New Year, debate about whether they might not, I am in no doubt that Celtic are bottom of this financial efficiency league which is topped by ICT - all of five times more efficient than Celtic and 50% more efficient than anyone else.

You raise two very important issues here Deano. In the case of Rangers and Celtic fans, Inverness is no different from other communities outwith Glasgow where they also proliferate. In Inverness, I believe there are two main reasons for this. Firstly, and this is a factor which applies across Scotland, Glasgow's toxic religious and political mix has, over many years, created two opposing sectors in society down there and these two football clubs have become conspicuous features of that divide. This has given these clubs sufficient critical mass for them to act as footballing black holes which drag in additional support from areas a long way away from Glasgow. The whole of Scottish football suffers from this. The second issue in Inverness is that until just a decade or so ago, the place didn't possess a major force in football. As a result, a lot of people could have their "big" team - usually the OF but possibly Aberdeen etc as well - and also their "wee" team, in other words lower league ICT or before that Jags or Caley. These could comfortably coexist. However now that ICT is also a "big" team some fans have had to make a choice and some of these have remained with their OF preferences. Hundreds of Invernessians regularly disappear down the road to Celtic Park and Ibrox, but I do believe that, as time has passed and ICT have become more successful, this unfortunate trend has already begun to dwindle. Evidence is largely anecdotal, but I think OF support in Inverness (especially Rangers for obvious reasons) is on the wane. Regarding the second issue of lower home gates now than several years ago, this is largely part of something that is happening across Scottish football, it's not just ICT. Football attendances do go in cycles and there are probably several reasons for the current downturn. I would include silly kick off times, unavoidably high prices, lack of personal funds after the recession began and competition from a range of non-football activities. So although ICT's success has provided motivation for more to attend, it has been difficult even to stand still against these other negative factors.

That's interesting to know, and irrespective of the specific ownership, it was indeed never contemplated when the deal was formulated that Grassa would have any input at all into running the club. However, immediately it became known that the sale was going to happen, a range of widely held misconceptions arose which included the notion that Graeme had bought the place to operate himself as a going concern. As we have both been at pains to emphasise, this is not the case and the club, as opposed to the premises, remains purely an ICTFC entity. And it is on that basis that it needs to be marketed more aggressively. Because my brief Friday evening visits can become very lonely indeed.... especially when the only other person in the bar is George Cowie

12th man.... I think it's clarity which in much needed. I don't think there's a great enough awareness of the Social Club among supporters.

£2.50 a drink? Extortion! You'll get most drinks far cheaper than that any night of the week in the ICT Social Club! Now there's another dimension. If a larger percentage of an increased fan base could be persuaded to offer their pub allegiance to one of the cheapest establishments in town, the football club would also benefit since it is the overwhelming beneficiary of Social Club profits. Isn't the social club a private members club, invitation only. with a locked door. Wasn't the club sold to a director to create extra funds. I'm not sure how this would help the club. Having x amount of people wearing ICT tops behind closed doors hardly raises the profile of the club. This degree of misunderstanding about the Social Club is worrying. The Social Club is indeed a members' club and so cheap to join (I've forgotten exactly what the annual fee is because I became a life member years ago) that you can LITERALLY recoup your membership fee through the first two nights' cheap drink. It also has a very efficient "signing in" policy which means that, for instance on match days, there is frequently a large presence there of non-member fans and people from hospitality, for whom there is sometimes also a bus from the stadium. However it's the ownership issue that tends to be the worst understood. About 5 years ago the premises were sold to then director Graeme Bennett and leased back by the football club/ Social Club board. Presumably at the time it was considered preferable to have the cash in hand and to pay rent instead. This, however, does not alter the fact that the arrangement continues to be that the Social Club is run by a board and profits are still ploughed into the football club. Graeme Bennett, apart from the rent he receives as a return for his cash up front, has no other financial interest in the social club and does not participate in its running. I would therefore much prefer to have x amount of people in ICT tops, or indeed in any other kind of top (bar the two which would need to be proscribed), either signed in or as members, drinking in there and hence making more money available to the football club. I really do think that there is not enough realisation among ICT fans that every time they use the Social Club, and at prices lower or indeed much lower than elsewhere, they are contributing directly to the finances of the football club.

£2.50 a drink? Extortion! You'll get most drinks far cheaper than that any night of the week in the ICT Social Club! Now there's another dimension. If a larger percentage of an increased fan base could be persuaded to offer their pub allegiance to one of the cheapest establishments in town, the football club would also benefit since it is the overwhelming beneficiary of Social Club profits.

Which is about 500. I am sure the ICT commercial department will pull out all the stops to pack every single available exta bum on a seat.