DoofersDad

The SNP's objective of winning even more seats in Holyrood is undoubtedly made much easier by the way Labour have simply self destructed. To have any chance of success in Scotland, the Labour Party must be strong and credible in the UK as a whole. But it has lost a lot of strength and credibility and looks like it will lose a whole lot more by electing Corbyn as their leader. Regardless of whether you agree with his policies or not, the fact is that the majority of the parliamentary party do not want him as their leader and are fundamentally opposed to some of the policies which Corbyn wishes to introduce. It will be interesting but probably thoroughly depressing to see how this will translate into the performance of Labour MPs at Westminster. A lurch to the left will mean they become even more un-electable South of the Border and the Tories' success at the next Westminster election is all but guaranteed. Assuming Corbyn is elected, there will also be precious little common ground between Corbyn and Dugdale which will further damage Dugdale's credibility. All of this suits the SNP down to the ground. Until Labour are a credible united force again or unless something remarkable happens to vastly improve the popularity of the Tories or Lib Dems, there will be no meaningful challenge to the SNP in Scotland. The SNP may be regressive, centralist and incompetent but there is simply no other party which has the credibility with the electorate to get the electorate to either understand that or vote for an alternative manifesto.

HT 1-1 FT 3-1 ICT Lopez Celtic Commons Time 19 mins

I'm sure that learning his craft here and emerging as a key player in the first team has been good for Christie's development, but to be honest, I don't see that he is going to develop a lot more here. He works his socks off most of the time but all too often there is such a lack of movement in front of him that he is forced to play safe balls square or backwards with the result that he creates relatively little end product. You can see the frustration at times. I think he has reached the stage where he needs to move in order to develop. He needs to move to a team with a more attack minded philosophy with players in front of him who can pull defenders out of position and create the spaces for the incisive passes he is capable of delivering. I can see the attraction of offering him a 2 or 3 year deal on a much higher salary in the hope that it leads to a significantly higher bid in a couple of years time, but there are a couple of huge risks in that. Firstly, with our limited resources, paying him significantly more means there is correspondingly less for others. He needs good players round him to bring out the best in him and we will not attract and retain good players if we can't afford the wages. Secondly, he may get injured or simply fail to fulfill his potential. If that happens then we keep paying a high wage for an asset who is not actually worth too much. Personally I think the best option for him and the club would be for us to cash in whilst we can and get a realistic (7 figure) price for him in this transfer window. With Vincent, Doran and Roberts all due to return from injury, with Williams potentially available for midfield duties on Tremarco's return from injury, plus the re-signing of Vigurs, we have a lot of decent players in midfield. Where we have a problem is up front. With £1m+ in the bank we have the opportunity of attracting a better striker. We also have far too many players on contracts which expire at the end of the season and this would also give us the opportunity to offer a little more to players the manager is keen to keep. In selling Ryan, a loan clause would be an option but not an important one as far as I'm concerned. What would be far more important is to get some clause for a cut in any future sale of the player. Yes, we would miss him if he went but personally I think the benefit of the major cash boost would more than compensate for that. He is now at the stage where he will develop more without us, and with the cash boost his sale might generate I think the club would develop more without him. It's time for him to move on with our very best wishes for his future.

"Not getting too despondent yet and I think once we get Dorran, Vincent and Roberts back things will change." This seems to be a commonly held view but in a way it illustrates just why some people are quite concerned at the moment. Last season Doran started just 15 league games and Vincent 13. That's about 1 in 3 matches for both of them and yet now suddenly we're hanging onto a hope that when they return, our attacking play will suddenly step up a gear or two. But we did OK without them in the starting XI lest season, so why are we looking so bereft of ideas up front without them this season. Getting Tremarco back and releasing Williams into the midfield will help but I really don't think you can pin our lacking of effectiveness upfront this season down to our injury "crisis"

We tend to well against Celtic because they adopt the attitude that they are better than anyone else and focus on simply playing their way. They come at other teams and that creates space for teams to exploit - if they are good enough. This takes us back to John Collins and comments about how Celtic need to play deeper against European opposition. The point here is that we can expect there will be space to exploit when we get the ball. The defence for Lopez has been to some extent that playing against teams that sit deep makes it hard for our front men to find space and for the midfield to get the ball through to them when they do. Against Celtic, the problem is getting the ball in the first place, but when you do, there is always space to exploit. If our creative midfielders can be given the role of being "cutting and dynamic" then there should be opportunities for Lopez to show what he can do. I therefore hope that Lopez is given the opportunity to start on Saturday as it may just be the opportunity he needs to show the fans why Yogi has put his trust in him. I sincerely hope he comes good but if not, then it will be time for a change against Hamilton.

28% meat and 2.5% Buckfast! What about the other 69.5%?!!! Talc

Does this include training sessions?

Yes. A game of football actually broke out. And the crowd responded. I even got a little bit excited for a while!

So what he is in effect saying is that Lopez does not have a physical presence, isn't a quick runner and doesn't want to chase lost causes. It therefore rather begs the question of why he signed him.

Given our difficult current situation, one player I might have expected more of is Greg Tansey. Last season he was one of the lynch pins of the side and was a major, if often under appreciated, contributor to our success. This season he seems to be less effective at a time when we really need him to step up and impose himself on games. He is offering little going forward and seems a shadow of the player he was last year. Despite the fact that we are currently weaker than last year with departures and injuries, his place in the side must be at risk with the way he has been playing. Polworth was significantly more effective against Partick. Lets hope he can rekindle last season's form - and soon.

We've stretched our unbeaten run to 2 games! Agree with Alex.

I also think he could be a good signing and will perhaps offer a little more creativity for that final ball. He may have had an attitude problem in the past but hopefully he has matured a bit. It was encouraging to read the Yogi was surprised by his good fitness level because that suggests he has really applied himself to keeping himself in shape whilst not signed up with anyone. No doubt there will be those who are unhappy with his return but folk at the club know all about Iain and I am sure they will not have taken him back unless they were convinced he will be an asset to the club.

Good on Ms Dugdale. It needs more people to be vocal at showing up the SNP for what it truly is. This thread was started simply as a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from the disruptive and irresponsible behavior of the rabble we have elected to misrepresent us at Westminster. Any attempt to make a rational argument that the Labour party were making a poorer stab at being an opposition party has been stopped in it's tracks by Laurence's excellent post and so the SNP apologists revert to their typical one liners having a pop at someone who holds a different view. Of course, the Holyrood elections are not that far away now and the political focus really should be directed at the record of this dreadful reactionary and regressive Government we have at the moment. The election should be about the Government's record and the parties' plans for progressing within the Union and utilising the increased devolved powers. Instead the SNP will want to deflect attention from that and make the election a referendum on a referendum

HT 1-0 FT 2-1 ICT Christie Partick Pogba Time 41

HT 2 - 0 FT 2 - 0 Ist ICT None Ist Opp Cummins Time 41

It sounds anything but promising to me. Firstly it suggests that the number and likely duration of the injuries is such that the manager feels we cannot cover the problem without getting players in on loan. Secondly, and more importantly, it suggests that he has already asked the Chairman through the usual internal communication route but that the chairman is unwilling to release the funding. If the Highland News reports Yogi as saying that he has permission from the Board to get players in on loan, then fine. But if he is "asking" via an article in the press then that would suggest a significant breakdown in the relationship between chairman and manager. We shall see.

I would rather see the striker we have actually signed score some goals.

The fact that this thread is up to 27 pages illustrates what a concern our lack of a decent striker is. I am loathe to make an opinion on players until they have had time to adapt to their new team's style of play and get themselves to full fitness but whatever Lopez's attributes may be, he does not look to me like a main striker. When Billy was not scoring, he always looked as though he might. Lopez doesn't. Excuses have been made for Lopez that he is not really match fit but if that is the case then it really shouldn't stop him getting into goal scoring positions - it would stop him coming back from those positions! Loy scored a brilliant poacher's goal for Dundee at the weekend and it reminded me that Billy could score goals like that. Unfortunately I just can't see Lopez scoring that sort of goal because he does not appear to be an instinctive striker. It may be that he is playing deeper than he usually would because of the lack of service he is getting, although when we did manage to get the ball in the box, he was often absent. There was one incident late in the 2nd half, when we should have been pressing for an equalizer, when good work from Mutombo down the left led to the ball being played in to the box. The ball hit a defender and ballooned up as it was diverted. The keeper came to collect at the edge of the box and, if I remember correctly, had the luxury of allowing the ball to bounce before collecting it. Someone near to me asked incredulously "how is the keeper being allowed to collect that!" Lopez was nowhere to be seen and there was no other Inverness player close enough to make a challenge for a slow looping ball at the edge of the box. That to me sums up what our problems are And the worse our injuries are at the back, the more important it is that we create and convert chances at the other end. Personally, I would like to see Christie play more forward. Amongst all the players he is the one who has the awareness, anticipation and turn of pace to get in the right place at the right time. He has demonstrated he can shoot but sometimes lacks composure in front of goal. Getting one or two under his belt would help in that regard. If we can't afford or can't find a new striker we have to work with what we've got and in Christie I think we have the potential for an instinctive goals scorer.

Was listening to the news headlines on Radio 4 earlier and was astonished to hear that our injury woes had made the UK national news! But then I realised they were reporting the latest on the Calais crisis.

Yogi was saying during the week and in the program notes that it would be wrong for fans to have unrealistic expectations about matching last season's achievements. Perhaps this was a deliberately poor performance just to make sure nobody is expecting too much?

Excellent summary by RiG, Of course the injury crisis is a concern but it will pass, What is of more concern to me is the lack of creativity, 3 attempts at goal when you are behind for most of the game at home against the team that finished 11th last year is woeful. We could have carried on all night and still not had a shot on target. There seems to be an obsession of playing balls to feet all the time. Nobody seems to want to play balls into the spaces, nobody seems to want to take the responsibility to take players on or to look to shoot from distance. The one positive I would take from the game was that at least Mutombo looked promising. He at least seemed to understand that we actually needed to score a goal.

Probably just gone down the road to take in the game at Celtic Park tomorrow. Expect them back by Sunday.

I might be wrong but I think the scheme in Highland which Fraz refers to is a sort of long term pilot and the legislation in the Children's and Young People (Scotland) act is aimed to build on this type of experience. The problem is that it appears to extend beyond what any pilot schemes do and the legislation is written in a very loose way and is open to considerable interpretation. There is therefore a lack of clarity of what the named person should do and what they can do. The Highland leaflet is aimed at families and states that the Named Person's job is "to maintain the child's development record and to look into any concerns about the child's well-being". It goes on to state "If you have any concerns about your child's well-being or development then the named person is the person to speak to." This clearly gives the impression that the named person's role is to work with the parents and children when they feel they need support. The new legislation states that the role is "doing such of the following where the named person considers it to be appropriate in order to promote, support or safeguard the well-being of the child or young person." Amongst "the following" is "discussing or raising a matter about the child or young person with a service provider or relevant authority, and such other functions as are specified by this act or any enactment as being functions of a named person in relation to a child or young person." The act would appear to open the door to the named person "interfering" when concerns are raised by other people rather than when the family seeks support. As I said before, all sorts of agencies have made representations regarding the lack of clarity and the implications of different interpretations. By giving a named person a legal responsibility for a child's welfare, the legislation opens a can of worms about liability where the child's welfare is not being addressed. For instance, how can the named person be assured that the child's well-being is fine unless there is some proactive assessment of the child's situation? This would be quite different from the situation Fraz describes and would be time consuming for the Named Person. It would also be seen as state intervention in family life with the need for specific justification which is currently required. This is why it is essential that roles and responsibilities are more clearly defined. In addition the police have also raised serious concerns that where named persons already exist, serious issues of abuse are not being picked up on and the involvement of the named person in the affairs of the family is hampering prompter action by police and social workers. I am sure most people would support the general principle of having an identified person that children and parents can go to for support and information and who can coordinate an action plan with other agencies if required. That appears to be what has happened in Highland and it would seem the scheme has worked well without too many problems. However, despite the experience of the Highland scheme (and others) agencies who are involved in these schemes are very unhappy with the legislation and is is clear that a major examination of these concerns needs to be carried out if the legislation if it is to properly meet the needs of children.

HT 0-1 FT 1-1 ICT Warren Motherwell McDonald Time 41 mins

Astra will be disappointed to only draw against a side who were taken to penalties by the no-hopers from Malta Seriously though, it is dreadful that the side that qualified through the fair play rule have had a player sent off in each of the last 3 Europa league qualifiers. If big Sam was still there they would have sailed through no problem.