Kingsmills

Aberdeen's used to consist of signing our best players for nothing either directly from us or indirectly via another club. They are now going to have to come up with a new one. We, for our part, don't seem to have a strategy at all other than signing random mediocre players who are willing to play for a very few hundred pounds a week and who nobody else wanted to touch.

I wouldn't waste time getting irritated, inordinately or otherwise, about three or four dozen bitter and increasingly middle aged souls, who were marginalised a quarter of a century ago and who are all but irrelevant now.

'Guys who have been here for years through various management regimes' have been the bedrock of our success over the last two decades or more. Part of the problem is that there are so few of them left in the current squad and all those who are fit should be on the team sheet unless and until the more recent recruits manage to prove that they are better.

I like to cut new players a bit of slack for the first few games but from what I've seen of Chalmers so far, he does not seem to have the ability to play at Championship level and doesn't appear to have the potential to improve. Then again, given his previous form, that is hardly a surprise. What was a surprise is that we recruited him in the first place even taking into account our limited finances.

I rather suspect that any hype, however justified, has been superseded for now by events off the pitch.

Clach are one of the oldest professional clubs in the United Kingdom and thus the World. They may no longer have a substantial fan base but I can assure you that they serve a 'useful purpose' for those that support them following on the many generations who followed them in the past including my late father, who was a proud Merkincher, all his days. I tend, on the whole, to agree with most if your football related posts but that one smacks of arrogance in the extreme.

Inverness Clachnacuddin Caledonian Thistle United Association Football Club. "Give us an I"..... ..

There are any number of downbeat negative threads on the go just now, in all fairness, with some justification. Why don't you post your negative thoughts on one of those instead of corrupting one of the very few positve threads started in recent months.

I was about to post on this thread but you have said it all for me and said it very well. We have been very fortunate indeed to spend almost a decade and a half in the top division beating every leading team in the land. That's something that few of us could have dreamed of in the Highland League days when away trips were to Rothes or Brora and a huge target every season was to reach the semi finals of the Qualifying Cup to reach the tournament proper at get 'glamour ties' against the likes of Queens Park or Stirling Albion. I recall the season that the Jags beat Kilmarnock and we all boarded the football special train to Glasgow and a match against Celtic at Parkhead. I didn't much care that we were beaten 6-0. I was watching my beloved Jags play one of the then best teams in Europe and truly thought it would be a once in a lifetime experience. Little did I think then that there would be another visit to the East End of Glasgow that would shake Scottish football to it's foundations and would lead to us going toe to toe with the most mighty teams in the land for the majority of the next two decades beating all of them with some regularity. Yes, the last two seasons have been disappointing and this one is looking far from promising but that has to be put in context. Look where we've come from and look where we still are compared to that. The very good times will come again although it may take a few years but, in the meantime, we all need to stick with it as true supporters should. That goes for everyone from us old stagers still dewy eyed about memories of Titchy Black or Billy Urqhart or even Jupie Mitchell or Bobby Bolt to the young crew who have only known the good times so far. We are Inverness Caledonian Thistle and we may no longer be the 'pride of the Highlands but we are here still and hugely proud of what we have achieved so far and what we will go on to achieve in the future.

No great fan of his but he has to take a great deal of credit for our success. He was the manager after all. However, that has to be balanced by the fact that due to his poor man management, abysmal recruitment and personal arrogance and avarice, he also bears a great deal of responsibility for our subsequent demise

I accept that those that know much more about what goes on behind the scenes at the club tend on the whole, to have a less than positive view on the contribution Russell Latapy made while he was here. However, from my position of almost total ignorance, I still find it difficult to overlook the objective fact that when John Hughes first took over our form and success nose dived but began to improve almost immediately after Latapy's arrival and steadily improved throughout the period he was involved culminating in our Scottish Cup triumph our highest ever league finish and a place in Europe for the only time in our history Immediately after he left our decline began and has persisted ever since. If that is merely coincidence it does seem a very odd one.

I have often heard it said that Rice is an excellent coach, very probably by people who are much better informed on the subject than I am. My problem is that I have seldom, if ever, seen any evidence of it in matches.

Far too early to pull the trigger but if things are no better by December the board will have to be much more proactive than they were last season. Robbo has had one decent spell as a manager almost a decade and a half ago but he has no track record at all of recruitment having been fortunate last time around to inherit the fantastic squad of players assembled by Steve Paterson who, by that time, pretty well managed themselves. I realise he was working in constrained financial circumstances but those players he has recruited, particularly in defence, including the goalkeeper, have been woeful. He was not at fault for losing his job at Hearts, he quit at County and quit again at East Fife who again were playing very poorly. He does deserve more time, at least another two months but, if things are no better then, then a decision needs to be made instead of just letting things drift and hoping for the best like last year. Relegation into the Championship was a bad enough blow but to then drop down another division would be catastrophic, leading inevitably to part time football. It almost happened to St Mitten last season and would have had they not made a timely managerial change. I sincerely hope that we don't but, should we find ourselves in that position come December we will have to do the same. That said, I don't want to see a manager sacked and hope that in two moths time the improvement in the team will make such thoughts redundant.

Much as I agree with you about the official club crest, it is possible to become just a little too obsessed!

Point one might have some validity. The views of Ross County on the fitness or otherwise of one of our former players is hardly worthy of comment on this site let alone some sort of response from the board.

I tend to agree. Nobody took issue with fish and chips at Auchterarder when the team was generally winning under Butcher. It's important that the players are generally fit and, in general terms, eat healthily. However, whatever our problems are at the moment, they are not down to the odd pizza or the odd fish supper on the way back from away matches.

Pizza or fish and chips after a win. Less than three points and it's a healthy option.

If this is true then surely there can be a compromise. He is getting no appearance bonus at all just now and no game time. We are deprived of the services of, when he's fit, the most competent 'keeper on our books. Ditch or very radically reduce the appearance bonus and get him playing and both parties are the winners. Right now, both parties are losing, in the case of the club, far too often liberally as well as metaphorically.

If OFW's position is now that he is fit and ready to play then, whatever the rights and wrongs of what went on between him and Robbo initially, he should be played. Ridgers has been given an opportunity and has cost us goals and points and is continuing to do so.

What's Jimmy Calder doing these days ? Even in his mid fifties he would be a safer pair of hands than Ridgers.

Difficult but not impossible and time to start that process.

Maybe not but it would certainly free up enough cash to recruit two very capable players for this level. Just a little quality over quantity is what's needed. Pity we can't entice Steve Marcella to scout them for us.

I think you will find that any fault lies with OFW rather than the manager. He has a nerve to describe himself as a professional footballer after his conduct since the Summer. Time we called his bluff and begin steps to hold him in breach of contract and send him on his way.

Nor did I. Not even the most red, black and blue tinted glasses make Brad appear international class.