DoofersDad

Fully support Bughtmaster's post above. One of the things that stops talent emerging is the fact that young kids just don't spend anything like the hours we used to kicking a ball about in the street, the local park or the school playground. Any chance you got, lads were out kicking a ball around. Formal training was a rarity but the sheer number of hours playing developed skills whilst the number of lads playing ensured that those with the real talent emerged and got noticed - although sadly not in my case. Then there was the competitiveness. Life was competetive. You played in leagues for everything and school was competetive - in primary school we had a weekly test which gave you your place in the class and determined where you sat. Now that seems to be frowned upon because it makes those who do not do so well feel inferior (apparently). Absolute nonesense of course. You don't need to play sport competetively or have tests in school to know that other folk are better than you at certain things. What is important is that children have the opportunity to experience different activities be it sporting, academic, creative or technical etc. Given the chance, kids will find things they like and are good at and those skills can be nurtured. Competition encourages kids to do better and crucially, motivates the best to stay at the top with the result that the best get better. Let's face it, life is still competetive. If you are in business you have to compete in order to make a living and far from stifling competetiveness, schools should be encouraging it. Together with that comes a respect for the rules and authority. We would play hard but fair and never, ever question a referee's decision. There are still parents and teachers who instil these virtues in the children but they are becoming fewer and further between. As a result the number of players who can cut the mustard at the top level are also getting fewer. Frankly, I don't see that changing

Good advice there but totally wrong about Villa fans. Ross County are the B'ham Sh*tty of the North - forever in the shadow of their bigger and better neighbours. There was a small fire one night at St Andrew's when Karen Brady was the Chairman and she was allegedly phoned by the Brigade in the wee small hours to inform her. In a panic she said "Whatever you do you must save the cups" to which the Fireman replied "It's alright, Love, the fire's nowhere near the kitchen."

Not perfect but a definite significant step in the right direction. Having some concession to a pyramid system is a massive step forward. It has certainly vastly improved the English game and it is interesting to see just how many teams there are in the Football league which were lower level teams 20 years ago. As for what happens when a North team gets promoted and a South team gets relegated there are a number of options. In England a particular league division can look very different from one season to the next depending of the geographical location of the clubs being promoted or relegated into that particular tier of the pyramid. Clubs in the English Midlands playing in regional leagues at level 3 for instance could find themselves staying at level 3 for 3 years but being placed in a league with Truro one year, Penrith the next and Maidstone the next. Other teams sited more securely in the geographical heartland of a particular league won't be shifted to a different league. It's just the price you pay for ensuring teams stay at the right level. It is far better than saying you won't promote or relgate certain teams because it upsets the geographical balance. A scottish scenario for this could be if Montrose were relegated from division 3 and Whitehill Welfare were promoted then Montrose could be placed in the Lowland league. However if the following season East Stirling were relegated and Cove promoted, East Stirling could be put into the Lowland leage and Montrose transferred to the Highland League to replace Cove.

Yup - Ryan Esson.

Is it just me or is Richie Foran getting to look more and more like Ross Tokely?

Having a young and inexperienced side makes it easier to find an excuse when we lose. On a more constructive note, if this intake produces the same proportion of first team regulars as the trawls of unheralded players have in the last 2 or 3 years, then I will be well pleased. It is a strategy that seems to be working.

Roberts is one of those frustrating players who has great basic talent and vision but just seems to lack the heart and motivation. If Terry and the rest were unable to instil that into him when he was here then there would be absolutely no point him coming back. A great talent wasted IMHO but the lad only has himself to blame.

I read an article the other day regarding the effect all the overseas players were having on the English game and there are now far fewer English players than ever playing in the top English leagues. What that means is that there are some pretty decent English players who are finding it harder and harder to find a club in England above conference level. The top Scottish players will naturally want to play in the big money leagues down south and with less money in the Scottish game to attract overseas players, there is a bit more scope for the next level of Scottish players to sign up for the richer Scottish clubs. Given the population reasons Luke mentions, there really aren't that many decent Scottish players around. It therefore makes sense to trawl the English market and it seems to me that ICT are doing that pretty successfully at the moment.

In addition, the biggest island of the British Isles is Great Britain which is the island on which most of us, including Charles and Lawrence both live. In the event of a "yes " vote in the referendum, they will still be able to call themselves British by virtue of the fact that they live on Great Britain.

Should have merged the blue and red and painted it purple.

I wouldn't have thought the club would want to let Billy go for any less if he has 2 years on his contract but it does sound like a believable and tempting price. Also, Bournemouth might well be the sort of club to be interested having just won promotion to the championship. But they are not without their financial problems and I would be surprised if they would want to pay that sort of money for a player who has had just the one good season. Maybe with £500k in the bank we could afford Higdon's wages.

concrete

Bughtmaster has nailed it. Personally I think these clips are generally pretty meaningless. Most of us on this site will have played football at some time in our lives and I am sure most of us have stand out memories of goals we scored, tackles we made, inch perfect through balls we played which if filmed and shown together would make us seem like the next Lionel Messi. Truth is that whilst a poor player may be able to do something special once in blue moon, quality players display those skills on a regular basis. I am sure that the lad has genuine potential (just like our other signings of obscure players from down south) but if he was as good as some seem to be expecting then he would have been obviously a class above players in the league he was playing in and an obvious target for richer clubs than us. The recent history of our club suggests that of the new signings, some will do very well, some will be OK and some will simply not live up to the promise seen in them. If they come good, then great - let's rejoice in that. But if they don't, let's not knock the club for signing rubbish players or knock the players for not meeting our expectations. Let's give them support and encouragement when they are here

The youngters on the forum want to learn who we are signing for next season, what the new away strip will look like and whether or not smoke bombs at derby matches are a wise idea. Then no doubt they will read the threads that talk about those things. My advice for folk who are sick and tired of the merger debate is not to look at threads about the merger.

B - A secret agent in the pay of a rival SPL club with a mission to attempt to sew discontent among ICT fans Well, Charles, there's an interesting concept - sewing discontent rather than sowing discontent! Does this mean that where discontent exists it is an attempt to mend it and to bring or merge the two sides together? Or is it just another good old journalistic typo?

posh

He's a lot better than bang average. Flood has won a player of the year award with Utd and if the fans are now saying they are not bothered then that just reflects the typical reaction to fans when good players leave. Of course they are bothered. Flood played very well against us and it could be that had he not been in the Utd side for our last home game, the result would have been different and we would be looking forward to Europe with OTJ still in the squad. As for OTJ, I am sorry to see him go. He was more effective than many gave him credit for. He certainly looked as though the work rate was not as good as some but he read the game well and generally his distribution was good. I did, however always feel he should have delivered more in an attacking sense, particularly with his poweful shot which seemed to come from very little backlift and which therefore could catch keepers off guard. He's a bit like Shane - seemed to promise a good bit more than he delivered. We just have to hope that neither delivers on the promise at our expense.

I've got a cousin whose best mate's nephew's girlfriend knows a girl at her work who's Mum is a friend of the mother of the girl who does Terry Buthcher's wife's hair - and I can assure you there's nothing to worry about - Billy's staying.

With the problems getting across the bridge in the evening these days, we could do with a ferry here.

Jeffers must be one of the best bits of business Everton ever did. Sold for £8million to Arsenal in 2001 at the age of 20, Jeffers has, in the 12 years since, scored fewer goals than our own Billy MacKay scored this season. He must be a prime example of what the margins are between success and failure. It is quite a sad story really. In his early days at Everton he showed huge promise, including 13 goals in 16 games for the England U21 side but he has been useless since then. He clearly has the raw talent, but whether it is a consequence of his injuries or a psychological thing, he has never been able to find the scoring freedom of his youth. I don't see the comparisson with Kevin Phillips. Phillips has been a class act throughout his career and has scored wherever he's been. He has a far superior record than Jeffers. It may be that as Jeffers heads towards the end of his career, he gets back into the frame of mind to simply enjoy his football and not think too much about it. If he lets his inate skill come to the fore he may start knocking a few in again. I wouldn't put my money on it though and I very much doubt that the club will either.

Brilliant news. I think he has been one our most important players this season. Sure, his final ball is often not the best but that will improve. What is so impressive about Doran is his ability to make himself available and to get involved with the play. He may not be as exciting to watch as Jonny Hayes on song but he gets far more involved and contributes far more to the team than Hayes ever did. I also think Doran has been a key factor in the more obvious success of MacKay and A Shinnie this season. I would have been delighted with a further one year contract but a 3 year contract is just fantastic news. It could be just about the best bit of business the club has ever done.

It didn't seem to do much harm this season did it? Yes it did. 5 draws and 2 defeats in the first 7 games is the sort of form that makes challenging for a European spot very challenging indeed. It is remarkable we did as well as we did this year after that start but we shouldn't think we will go on a superb run like that in the coming season. We need a much more solid start if we are going to be competitive next season. You can get some understanding of new team mates against lesser opposition but to my mind it is important to get 2 or 3 tough matches against quality opposition to get into the right mindset of what is expected and to test out the new found relationships under a bit more pressure.

Sometimes what Butcher says is best taken with a pinch of salt. I think we should call him Tequila Terry.

I understand where you are coming from but this thread is titled "The Inquest". That implies that despite this being our best season ever, it could, and perhaps, should have been better still. It is therefore reasonable to express views as to why that might be and whether there are implications for next season. If you don't want to contribute constructively to that kind of debate then you should have given this thread a miss rather than have a pop at those that do. I've looked to the light and thoroughly enjoyed it - but what a miserable life if you don't aspire to better still.

Of course it's not a blessing. I fully accept his point that we are not geared up for Europe as a club but that spectacularly misses the point . None of us would be expecting success in Europe - it would just be nice to be there for one round even if we did get gubbed by some team from Moldova I've never heard of. Apart from an early pre-season there would be no gearing up neccessary. All the club would need to do is turn up on the day and enjoy the experience. For ever after the club and all the supporters could say we've been in Europe.