Kingsmills

An excellent argument for inertia if ever I heard it. If they had followed that principle Inverness Thistle and Caledonian would still be members of the "not broke" Highland League.

Hardly reeks of unbridled ambition though.

The facts, as they stand, are that a Ritchie Hart was detained for questioning in relation to allegations of possessing a controlled drug as specified in the schedule attached to the Misuse of Drugs (Scotland) act. That schedule now lists hundreds of different substances ranging from class A drugs such as herion to class C drugs including cannibas. It is not in the public domain which substance is alleged to have been in his possession and so potentially defamatory to speculate ande no such speculation whether purportedly "informed" or not should be tolerated on this site. Nor is it true to say that the player has been charged with any 0ffence and he will not be charged until the substance involved has been analysed which, due to the current backlog in the system could take months. Accordingly, much as it seems to irk some posters, the moderators would be failing in their duty if they didn't delete or amend any posts which , with specific refence to Ritchie Hart, went beyond what is aleady in the public domain. That should not, however, inhibit free speach on the subject in more general terms.

McManus has now indeed resigned for the Pars.It's a bit concerning that both he and Buchanan have chosen first division football over the opportunity to play for ourselves.

I suspect Motherwell will now be an altogether tougher proposition.

To coin the now well worn phrase " I agree with Mantis".

I am fully in favour of our country being independant but I don't blame the English for our ills. The Union might just have been a good thing for Scotland in 1707 from a purely commercial and economic point of view and, although I disagree with much of what Charles has to say on the subject, there's no doubt that the failure of the ill conceived and badly executed Darien experiment was a factor which swayed the tiny proportion of the population who had a say on the matter at that time. However, that was 300 years ago and when all factors are taken into account including the massive but cleverly hidden London subsidy is taken into account the fact of the matter is that independance is unlikely, at the outset at least, to make much difference either way either to the financial standing of individuals or the wlth of the nation as a whole but, in my opinion, that is not the point. I am convinced that independance will increase the confidence and well being of the nation over time as well as alowing the opportunity of developing fiscal policy and a tax regime for the benifit os Scotland rather than the often very diofferent circumstances prevailing in the south east of England which has always, perhaps understandaly held sway if for no other reason than it's huge weight of population. That said, if a referendum was to be held on the subject sooner rather than later the result would almost certainly be a no vote.The pro Union faction would run a very well funded and entirely negative, not to say disingenuous, campaign and the fact of the matter is that it is now so long since we have taken resposibility for our own affairs that we there are far too many craven individuals out there who will swallow the propoganda that independance would be a financial disaster despite the fact that those who peddle that myth for their own ends can't point to a single poor small european country as an example of the the fate they say would await us. Why on earth should we be so very different from the likes of Ireland, Norway or Finland ?

As far as McIntyre is concerned, if we're really keem to have a 35 year old forward we might as well have retained McSwegan.

Immoral

Mispleced

It's now a matter of widespread public knowledge that an ICT player was detained by the police at the Rock Ness Music Festival in relation to alleged possesssion of an illegal recreational, rather than performance enhancing, drug. It's also now widely known and reported that that player is Ritchie Hart. In the circumstances, ther is nothing wrong in that infomation being posted on this site. Beyond that, however, the site aministrators are quite right to be very careful about further specific rumour or speculation. That said, there is no harm in there being a general discussion about what, if anything, our club should be doing in the event that it is finally established that one of it's employees is found guilty of commiting a criminal offence. As far as the courts are concerned, if an idividual who is a first offender is found guilty of simple possession of a class C drug then the sanction is unlikely to be more than a modest fine comparable with that which would be imposed for a minor road traffic offence. Although a bad example might be being set, in my opinion that is a reasonable sanction to impose on an otherwise law abiding person who has trangressed to that extent. As far as the sporting authorities are concerned, I understand that they have the ability to act and indeed impose bans if it can be eatablished that an athlete has used drugs. However, it seems to me that n the case of an individual dealt with under the criminal law, who will not have been blood tested, there can be no proof of use, merely possession. In my opinion, if an employee of a football club was to be found guilty of possession of a class C drug then the criminal sanction combined with the public shame would be punishment enough.

Gary Farquhar was an enigma. I agree that he merits a mention in this thread but I still feel that he had the potential to be a top level player if he only applied himself even a little.

My favourite ICT player is, without doubt, Jimmy Calder. The best, or at least the most skillful player to have played for us is, in my opinion, David Bingham.

Still doesn't explain why it's not Burgh Briggs.

Apparently Scotland does not exist .

:003: :003:

In a word, no.

A bit of a cruel thread but who, in your opinion was the least skillful player ever to pull on an ICT shirt. Personally, I find it difficult to decide between Vetle Andersen ane the woeful Marco deBarros.

Dargo is a striker approaching 30 with perhaps three or four years left in him unless he's fortunate enough to last as long as Craig Brewster which, given his injury history, is unlikely. In these circumstances I don't think he can be faulted for signing for the highest bidder and he, or at least his agent, seems o think that there are higher bidders out there than ICT. That said, there is still the malevolent side of me tha wouldn't be too disappointed if he fell victim to the "Highland curse".

Maybe the same valve could be used to pump up other areas that might not be quite as developed as desired.

McManus yes but as far as Mensing is concerned are we not already well provided for midfield players ?

Interesting thought.

That, however, begs the next obvious question.

I'd love in if we could unearth another Anthony Stokes even if we had him for half a season. However, I doubt that there's such a prospect lurking in the reservers or youth team of any SPL club. The English Premiership may be a different proposition altogether.

He's possibly just a late developer. Craig Brewster went "undetected" in part time football for long enough.