DoofersDad

I agree with much of that but I don't think that letting Sekajja go indicated a confidence that Mckay would stay. There had been a lot of talk about people coming in for Billy and clearly he was being watched. Despite what were presumably the club's best efforts to get him to sign a new contract, he had not done so. I think it would have been naive in the extreme for the club to be surprised at Mckay's departure and I don't for one minute think they were. Sekajja either left because he wanted away or the club did not feel he was good enough to take on the role should Billy leave.

It seems to me that this is a tipping point for the club. We are where we are (which is punching above our weight), but do we continue to develop and grow as a team and as a club or do we drop back to what might be seen as a natural level for a club with our resources and fan base? It is also a tipping point for the manager. He took over a team that was 2nd in the league and was fortunate to be able to retain almost the entire squad for this season. He has also been fortunate that with the exception of Foran we have been relatively injury free. This is where he starts getting tested. I've said it before and I will no doubt say it again, but with The Rangers, Hearts and Hibs all out of the picture, this season and probably next offers a unique opportunity for success and a European place. Whilst I am all for sound financial management and adopting policies with the long term viability of the club in mind, I do think we should be seizing the unique combination of having a brilliant squad and weakened opposition to achieve something we may never have the opportunity to again. A European place might not of itself bring in money but it would bring kudos and make this a more attractive proposition for future players. It would, of course, be brilliant for the fans. What concerns me is the lack of information and the generally negative vibes coming from the club at this time of great opportunity. When interviewed after the dismal draw against County it was put to Yogi that we have a number of other players who are capable of scoring and that we might might not miss Billy too much. Yogi responded by saying that we certainly will miss him as he's a natural born goal scorer. From that one can assume that he doesn't see Billy's departure as being something that can be fixed from within. That being the case, what efforts were done to replace him? After all, they knew there was a very high chance he would be going. Yogi has previously stated that he would not be bringing anyone in unless he felt they were better than we already have and would strengthen the team. Yet it seems that the only player we know of who was pursued was a 30 year old squad player from Southend. That hardly sounds like a ringing vote of confidence in the players we currently have. Nor does it sound like a professional effort at replacing a player who they almost certainly knew was off. It does, however, seem like an admission that the club thinks we need to bring a striker in. In the interview Yogi also blamed the pitch and said that they would need to make changes to the way we play to cope with the stickier pitches at this time of year. These days, if the pitch is a mud bath the games gets postponed. If the pitch is deemed playable then it is exactly that - playable, and professional footballers trained in crisp passing of a football should be able to pass the ball on a soft surface. What is the point of completely remodelling the playing style if you then abandon it at the business end of the season because the pitches are soft. Soft pitches in a Scottish winter! Whoever would have thought it! He went on to say that we have been good at keeping clean sheets and that we need to keep doing that and nick the odd goal at the other end. That sounds very much like letting other teams come on to us and then punting it up the field for Marley to chase. A bit like what happened against the bottom team in the league on Saturday. The rest of the season sounds like it could be fun! Of course, if you want to keep clean sheets you need to have a good defence. We have that at the moment, but for how long? We know Shinnie is away next season but what of Meekings and Raven? We understand that Meekings wants a one year contract and the club wants a longer one so it should be something that can be sorted out easily enough. But the longer it goes on unresolved then the more likely it is that other more cash rich clubs will offer Josh a longer contract for more money and, much as he may want to stay for other reasons, he'll be off. As for the David Raven situation I have to confess to being baffled. He has been repeatedly quoted as saying he wants to stay but has not been offered a new contract. I find it almost unbelievable that the club would not have offered him a contract but yet to the best of my knowledge they have not refuted what Raven is saying. It really is imperative to get these two players and others who are out of contract at the end of the season signed up as soon as possible. The money we got from Billy should help as should the money we will get from a decent league position. If we can't do that the position will be looking grim. We have just lost arguably our most important player and will lose our acting club captain at the end of the season. Unless contracts get signed soon we could lose 2 more key defenders who actually want to stay here, and possibly others as well. In the meantime, we did not strengthen in the window and we have no word of anyone coming in for the new season. We have also yet to see anyone come in on a loan basis who does anything to strengthen the team. After over a year, we have yet to see any evidence of Yogi being able to attract players to the club who are as good as any of the current first team squad. Obviously I would not expect the club to make public announcements about the detail of contract negotiations or which players may be being chased with a view to summer signings, but I would expect some general information of what is going on. We may get some good news on contract extensions very soon, we may get news that players have been secured on loan or on pre-contract agreements and we might find that the change of tactics is to press the opposition harder and play football in the opponents half (Greg Tansey thunderbolts and Nick Ross nipping in to pick up the pieces - that sort of thing) but the vibes we are getting suggest otherwise. Which way is the club going to tip? Onward to an early season European campaign and a challenge for honours next season, or back next season to a bottom six survival scrap? Come on ICT - it's time to show the fans that the contingency plan involves a drive for the former and not resigning yourselves to the likelihood of the latter. We have a great squad of players at a time when the league is as weak as it has ever been. It is a time of unprecedented opportunity for the club so please, let's seize this opportunity and let's see some evidence of ambition from the club.

Agreed. And with money from Billy's move and the saving of his wages there should be a little more cash to offer the out of contract players. It is more important to secure some of these players for next season than to splash money on a second rate striker. Meanwhile who knows how Fergusson and Sutherland might develop if given a bit of first team experience.

Any news at this stage would seem like panic measures. But look on the bright side - nobody else has left!

I wonder how Newcastle Reserves will get on in the cup against Raith at the weekend? Surely no less that 5 payers heading to Ibrox on loan from Newcastle is making a mockery of the rules around the influence one man can have with more than one club.

One word is quicker to type than four! But in the unlikely event in there being anything accurate in what IHE is posting, we're probably both wrong.

Asda?

I see Wigan have signed Wolves striker Leon Clarke on loan. Looks as though Billy could be spending a fair bit of time on the bench. Maybe we could get him on a loan deal

Presumably Hughes sees the need for a striker given the unsuccessful bid for Southend's Lee Barnard. Was that the contingency? Having made it clear that we were looking for someone, not to get anyone will clearly represent failure in that strategy. Personally I'm not convinced that our style of play needs an out and out striker but it does need players to be more goal aware and be looking to shoot a bit more often. We have several players who are capable of scoring and playing a fluid system up front should give several players opportunities to score.

Judging by this forum at the moment the contingency plan is to forget about football and create an Inverness history club so that we can all reminisce about the "good old days".

Glad to see you back to your encouraging best DD! You obviously didn't walk on that pitch on Saturday but it was glutinous and heavy. As I 've already said, it's a miracle Tommy and Mattie got it playable in the fiirst place. Brave? If we had attempted to pay the usual passing game beginning with Esson playing short balls out, it would have been suicidal. Although County are a side getting to know each other, they are fighting for their lives and will pull out results such as Saturdays. I would have preferred to see subs used earlier, but I can quite understand why an inexperienced boy whose game is reliant on pace wasn't put anywhere near it. The key point here is that the pitch was playable. In making that decision the referee is checking that the ball is able to roll on the surface. The pitch was soft and heavy but there was not lying water nor were there large patches of glutinous mud. Balls passed crisply and acurately would run true most of the time. And, yes, I am genuinely being encouraging because I think our players have the quality to be able to pass the ball on a pitch like that. From time to time they did play some decent passing football - indeed the goal came from a neat passing exchange. What was needed was a modification of tactics and not a massive change. I agree with you about the passing from the back. As the pitch cut up a bit, occasional balls would be likely to hold up, particularly if played a little too tentatively and that would be risky at the back. So at the back, there would have been a need to get the ball upfield quicker but once upfield we should have been looking to keep hold of it and pass it around a bit. Where the conditions were likely to have an effect was in playing the ball in the air when it would be affected by a strong wind and then, coming down from a height with more vertical momentum it would be more likely to hold up in the pitch. So, we revert to tactics more prone to being affected by the conditions than our normal game! And I don't buy the bit about not wanting to risk a young player whose game relies on pace. In his interview Yogi claimed to have changed his team when he saw what the pitch was like and put in runners instead. That would seem to me to be exactly the situation where you would want a young lad with pace (not to mention one who would undoubtedly have relished the opportunity to show everyone what he could do. And County are fighting for survival. So what! Does that mean they are trying harder than our team? I sincerely hope not. Are we not fighting for a European place or even the title itself? Incidentally, on the keeper front I always wonder why our keepers rarely throw the ball out. Craig Gordon was using that technigue very effectively for Celtic yesterday on a poor Hampden pitch. Yogi's interview is really pretty depressing. On the back of a great run of form he is signalling a change of tactics in the coming weeks with a view to keeping clean sheets and hoping to snatch a goal or two at the other end. When pitches are sticky it is the goal mouths that cut up the worst. Even the best of defenders will get caught out and you simply can't rely on clean sheets. Billy may be gone but we have a midfield stuffed with players who can score. It would be good to see a much more positive attitude demostrating faith in the ability of the players that we've got rather than making these lame excuses.

I don't think Beaton had the greatest of games but whilst he got 2 important calls wrong I wouldn't criticise him too much for those. Referees have to feel pretty sure before they give a decision. Jervis probably did handle the ball but it is difficult to see when played on the highlights and it would have been difficult to have spotted at the time. As for the penalty I don't think he would have been sure Marley was clipped nor would he have been sure it was a dive. He may have seen it as Marley slipping or over stretching and losing his footing. Not awarding a penalty and not giving a yellow card is a perfectly reasonable position to take. I would criticise him for booking Nick Ross though. There were many worse tackles that went unpunished. However, the fact that the tackle gave the referee a decision to make was a reflection of a tougher attitude in Nick's play. He is getting stuck in a lot more and improving the physical side of his game which is good to see.

OK, so the pitch was soft, but let's not make that an excuse for a very poor performance. These are professional footballers who spend hours practising their passing skills and who should have been able to pass the ball on that surface. For a team that professes to have an ethos of possession football it is disappointing to say the least that playing at home against the the side rock bottom of the league, we had less possession than County did. The stats were a reflection of a kick and run game; aimless punts upfield in the vain hope that it might land at Marley's feet. There were a few occasions when they tried to string a few passes together and when they did that it looked as though they had the potential to pull County apart. County are a pretty makeshift side at the moment with players who still need to develop much better understanding between them. They were there to be taken apart but rather than do that we change the game plan because the pitch was a bit soft! Why? Hughes is forever talking about the need for the players to be brave in playing the passing game he's drilling into them, and yet just because the pitch is a bit soft he changes the game plan thereby showing no faith in his players to play the passing game on that surface. It was time for him to be brave and show some faith in his players but he bottled it. The pitch might not have been great but it was pretty windy as well and therefore a good day to keep the ball on the deck. Of course we could expect the ball to bobble occasionally but we have better players than County and could surely have coped with that better than them. Someone else commented that the County subs were quite effective. Why Hughes did not make better use of his subs I don't know. With a heavy pitch it is obvious players are going to tire and surely there is a need to make best use of the fresh legs on the bench. With all the chasing Watkins did he must have been shattered at the end. He could have gone off with his head held high with Doran coming on earlier. Williams impressed in the first half but was much less involved in the 2nd half. By the way, why no Ali Sutherland on the bench?

No worries for tomorrow as we still have two other players who have scored more goals than any of the County players this season. Would like to know what the contingency plans are the Chairman was referring to the other day.

When I heard there was a shower heading towards Inverness from the North tomorrow I assumed they were talking about County.

I suppose whether you are a cheque book manager or not depends on whether you are the manager of a cheque book club or not.

Malky Mackay reported by BBC as saying he hopes the deal with Billy will be finalised to allow him to play at Ipswich on Saturday.

The loans option would be consistent with the Chairman's mention of contingency plans. It would also be the only way you could get someone in for the weekend this late in the week. It may be that there was some agreement with another club for a player to come on loan should Billy leave. There are a number of English Premier division sides who have very good players who are just not getting a game due to the size of the squads etc. For instance Balotelli needs some regular game time to prove he is worth a starting slot for Liverpool. Maybe not quite up to Billy's standard but in these situations you have to take what you can get!

Why the very different attitude to Graeme Shinnie who served the club as well and for longer and who is at least staying until the end of the season ? 1: He's isn't moving to one of our rivals. 2: He's showing a bit of ambition and testing himself at a higher level 3: He's helping the cub financially by not signing a PC. Pretty obvious don't you think! It might be obvious why some people are having a go at Graeme but that doesn't make the difference in attitude fair. 1. Of course we would all rather he didn't go to one of our rivals but there is absolutely no reason why he shouldn't. He's from Aberdeen and it is perfectly reasonable that for family reasons he should want to move to his home town. Or if it is simply because they are offering him more money, why should he not take it? 2. Who says he's not showing ambition? Do you know what his ambitions are? His ambition may be to play in European competition and to lift national titles. He has more chance of realising those ambitions at Aberdeen than he does by staying put and certainly far more chance of acheiving that than Billy will at Wigan. And how do you know he does not have ambition to test himself in the English league? He is still young and success at Aberdeen would put him in a good position for a higher profile move down South at a later date. 3. How do you know that it is Graeme's choice to sign a PC rather than go now with a transfer fee? It may be that the club is refusing to release him from his contract because it would strengthen a rival team this year, or Aberdeen may not be prepared to pay an appropriate fee. Both Graeme and Billy have been great players for the club, so why on earth can we not acknowledge their contribution to the clubs success, thank them for it and let them pursue their careers with our best wishes?

Even the flags are just about the same. It does seem wrong that it comes down to the drawing of lots and there should be some way of separating teams in this situations. With just 4 teams in a group it is not exactly an improbable scenario. Perhaps giving the nod to the side that had the most corners in the 3 games would at least give an indication of attacking intent. At least the side that loses out will have the small consolation knowing that they went home undefeated.

Mckay struggled for quite a while here when the former manager had a style of play which involved lumping the ball upfield to the 6' 4" striker. After a while of this being pretty unsuccessful he finally realised that Mckay is only 5' 7" and we started playing it on the deck a bit more. There seem to be a couple of types of goals in the compilations here which represent the type of situation in which Billy will score. The first is having players who will clock his running off the ball and in particular his diagonal runs which invite team mates to slip the ball behind the defenders and into his path. The second is getting wide and drilling in low balls into the middle. But there is more to his play than just scoring goals and he has often made excellent contributions to games even when going through a bit of a barren patch in terms of goals. He works hard and pressures defenders, he can hold the ball up pretty well and lays it off well. He can also drift wide and take defenders with him making space for midfielders coming from deep. He loves to go for goal as all strikers do, but he has good awareness of others and is not selfish. One reason why strikers often flop is that folk expect too much too soon. Players like Billy score goals when they are on the same wavelength as their team mates. It can take quite a while for people to gel but football fans and many football managers can be very inpatient. If the crowd gets on a striker's back because they haven't scored in the first 4 or 5 games then they get to feel the pressure and either snatch at chances or hesitate. We're a patient lot up here and like to give players a chance to show that they can realise the potential the manager saw in them when signing them. Billy might not save you from the drop this season, but he may well be a major factor in you bouncing back up next year.

He's got a small k.

One can look at an individual match and identify that the reason for a defeat was that our team was so much less experienced than the opposition but it does seem that the development squad are really struggling this year. The feeder team for the 1st team has done pretty well in in recent years but suddenly as the first team reaches new heights the "reserve" team seems to have slumped. What is going on here? I think this is an important issue because we are a small club with limited resources and it is therefore important to nurture players through the development system who will be capable of moving up to the first team. On the face of it, results this season suggest there are very few players in the development squad who have the potential to make the step up. I admit that I have never seen the development squad in action so speak in complete ignorance here, but I would be interested to hear the views of those who have been. I guess it could simply be that other teams draw more heavily on first team squad members to give them game time, but I have another theory. Clearly Yogi has changed the playing style of the first team to put more emphasis on possession and passing. If young / fringe players are going to progress into the 1st team then they need to be adept at playing that way. I would assume therefore that the style of play for the development team will reflect the style for the 1st team? But what Yogi wants from his players is not easy and it requires high skill levels to pull it off successfully. It goes without saying that those in the development squad will not be as good as those in the first team and therefore they will make mistakes. When you make mistakes with this style of play you get punished. It also needs all the team to be up to standard - a bit like a weak link in a chain. Of course the development league is first and foremost about development and as long as the players are developing in the style of play the manager wants in the 1st team, then the results don't really matter. What would be interesting to know is whether the development team is playing the possession / passing game and if so, are there players who are beginning to look increasing adept and comfortable with it?

Don't say that. It'll just encourage him to ask for more than the club can afford!

It follows that if a club can get a player without paying a transfer fee then there is more money available to pay the player. Clubs will be able to offer players more attractive terms if they wait till the player is out of contract - hence the pre-contract agreements. If clubs can afford a transfer fee as well in order to get the player ASAP, players may question if what they have been offerred was really the best offer. As a club, we will only get transfer fees for our players if the club offering the money can pay what might more realistically be called a compensation fee in addition to what they are offering the player, and not many clubs in Scotland can do that. No doubt Aberdeen would like Shinnie to move by the end of the month but would they be willing and able to pay the sort of money that the ICT Board would be prepared to accept to allow Aberdeen to strengthen their side and for us to weaken ours?