ForCaleySake

If this has been iterated before then apologies...Was the game maybe on the radio today? When I got back to the car it seemed as though it may have been judging by the talk on Sportsound. It was certainly on BBC Alba. This may also have something to do with it. I was a little stunned by all this too - I went down the ticket office on Saturday to get my ticket and thought that the ladies in there were just having a laugh with me when they said that we weren't allowed to say certain things. So...someone is offended by these words or chants? What about all the course language that has been going on in ground since the year dot? What about all the other clubs who sing either vaguely offensive or downright racist songs? Of course people chant 'Gypo' at the County fans - but I expect to hear 'Sheep-sh*gger' shouted back. Am I complaining? Well...I guess I am now considering I pay ?15 that I barely have at the moment to go and watch my favourite fixture and then have to be entirely polite...don't get me wrong - I can see some adults who have brought their children cringing at some of the language, but if you go to a game then you know what to expect. To be honest though, the 'Gypsy chants' welled up toward the end (after some very, very dubious tackles fae County and even more dubious lack of action by the ref...) and the stewards who were there just pointedly put their fingers in their collective ears... If the club is facing a fine as it has been previously suggested, then maybe our record (i.e. lack of crowd trouble) should be taken into consideration. Racist factions in our support? Individually, there are most definitely bound to be some, given that we are part of the human race and all...but collectively? It's not like we're there every game shouting "we're up to our knees in gypo b...", is it? I think...and really, REALLY hope that this was all to do with the television coverage. Edit: Hmmm...maybe should have looked back over the entire post...it wasn't TV - it was folk complaining. Ahhh B'Jesus. Tell you what though...either way it makes me sad

All I can say is welcome back Golly. I understand he is nearly 35, but considering his status here in the past - and his consistancy here (can't comment on his time at Livi or County - didn't see him play more than a couple of highlight programmes) - I've always liked him. Could well be wrong, but his experience may well prove vital in the short-term especially considering most of our first-team is fairly new. He knows what it is to play for Caley and I look forward to seeing him in a Caley shirt again...and hey, plenty of players of his age have been succesful in this division before. I believe he can do the job!

...Heh...well someone's gotta defend m....him :/

Well...my name's not actually Robert...it's Chris! I understand what you are saying about Butcher's career stats - he has not been particularly successful at numerous clubs...although interestingly enough with a little research I have found in his 26 games in charge of Caley spanning from and including the 0-0 draw against Celtic he has won 10 drawn 8 and lost 8. More of a winner then for us! As far as the squad goes - of course it's down to everyone: the players, board, managers, etc, etc whether we were to get relegated last season...and of course Butcher has to be partly responsible for that too...but we needed a change at the time and it's very, very easy for us to sit a theorise who would have been better now that we are actually in the first division, or even which decisions to make after the game has ended! Incidentally, we also lost a couple of players because they wanted to go (Morais, Black, Kerr), and despite cutting our trading losses from ?432K to ?113K last year (in spite of the recession), that is still a loss. Not only that but a loss at a club which has mostly lead by example in Scotland in how to be successful on a tight budget. Our playing staff was never going to be as good as we wanted it to be this year. It's hard enough to keep players if you're relegated let alone bring new, quality ones in. Besides, I'm fast becoming a fan of a couple of the new players (Hayes particularly). Thing is, we did get relegated and for now we do belong in the first division and there is a good chance we will struggle (apologies for all the italics!). Hard as all that is to take we have to accept it and be patient. We have - in the lower divisions - had some fair success in the past and when that didn't transpire in the SPL a lot of us became pretty negative (as did the football in the last couple of seasons). Personally, I choose not to be that way, even if I do get pissed off sometimes (last Saturday for example. Lost my voice shouting). We've a long season ahead of us and we're gonna be stuck with who we have for a while yet. Butcher still has my support. Look on the bright side: We've a chance to win the Challenge Cup again!

A couple of points here - sorry if reiterate anything which has already been said: As far as losing faith in Butcher goes we cannot expect miracles from Someone who hasn't been in charge for even one full season, and certainly not with an altogether new team. Obviously he knows what he wants for the club and unlike our previous two managers has a fair amount of experience (nothing against them for that) in this game, also with working on a tight budget when he was at Motherwell. Obviously we didn't want to be relagated - but at the end of last season when we actually did Butcher came out and said the club had prepared for this outcome (fair enough considering the season we were having - they'd have been daft not to). This clearly meant limiting the squad and therefore the wage bill. So we lost a few youth players like Vigurs and Wood who I also agree had great potential, but this could have been down to any number of factors (like the size of squad and hence how many players needed in those positions). Besides, he has already this season introduced a couple of very young players (Ross, Shinnie, Sutherland) who have a chance to flourish and possibly gain more first-team experience at this level. Who knows - he may even have set a quota for the number of youth or under-19(?) players he can have in the first-team squad. You only need to look at Motherwell and his time there to see how well he brought the youth on before. It is typical of the current climate in football these days that people lose faith so quickly. We lost faith in Brewster because of his results against the poorer SPL teams, style of play, etc, and knew beyond reasonable doubt that we didn't have a chance of avoiding relegation. We still gave him a chance (two actually!) though. With a new set of players we have only lost one of our competitive games - and quite frankly we will lose more in a division which I always remember as being the most competitive in Scotland. It will take the team time to gel, but if and when they do, under Butcher we can start to enjoy watching Caley again - he will want to play attractive football and score goals...he may well have the players to do it too. But even without me speculating - Our manager could do with our support and without us losing faith so damn quick.