Fraz

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/delay-to-meeting-that-would-see-caley-thistle-exit-administr-382481/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

2 hours ago, DoofersDad said:

I think The Rangers' problems go deeper than the coaching staff.  Think they need a new CEO.  Does anyone know of a CEO who has lost his job recently?

He certainly has the staunch credentials. 

4 hours ago, US_Exile said:

Hi there,

It just came to my attention that its the 25th anniversary of that match down at parkhead (which i attended as a schoolboy) and the sudden urge to force my wife to relive it with me came about. I used to have a copy of the Going Ballistic VHS and i remeber it being excellent but now I have neither the VHS or the means to play it. Ive spent 20 minutes searching if anyone has made it available online but I havent had any luck, does any here know if it can be found?

 

Pretty sure the club shop has some DVDs. Could drop them an email, I hope to pop past next week for something so could check for you. 

9 hours ago, buckett said:

Wonder what Big Dunc's doing with himself these days

 

Getting another club relegated probably. 

Great result and reaction after last week's game. Credit to the players and fantastic to see Bavidge scoring on his debut.  

Bar before and after game was busy but service was quick and took card payments without a hold up. What difference from a few months ago ago when it was deemed from the club not worth opening.  

3 hours ago, Drake said:

Thing is, as far as I’m aware, RM may be well off but I don’t think he’s exactly a multi-millionaire.  He’s invested a huge amount of his personal wealth to keep the club afloat over the last few years. Perhaps he’s not in a position to simply cut a deal where he loses huge amounts of wealth? Perhaps it’s his contributions to the club that has stopped it from going bust in the first place. 

Sorry, it was under his stewardship that we got into an untenable position spending left and right on 'big name' managers, Sports Director and an impotent CEO. Plus reducing income from hospitality, bar and other commercial ventures.

Should he not have implemented belt tightening measures and some reliable means to generate income rather than gambling on concerts, battery farms and park and rides etc without any assurance they would succeed?

Quite frankly any 'businessman' putting money into to a club our size and expecting a return is naive at best. 

16 minutes ago, STFU said:

Another thing I don't understand is why Savage chose administration. Despite what the administrator said (and of course he's going to support action that's giving him a healthy pay day) the money Savage is set to lay out in all of this could have paid Morrison off.  If others had been willing to write off unsecured debts and we'd sorted the spending then we'd have avoided this whole saga and the 15 point penalty.

I assume that AS did attempt that and all but announced that an agreement had been reached with RM et al, however that seemed to collapse. I that left little choice. I doubt AS was desperate to spend hundreds of thousands if it could be avoided. However I do get the distinct impression that AS does not want to give any of his money to those who put the club in this precarious situation and would rather things were cleared out through a legal process. 

With the amount of BS and mismanagement going on behind the scenes at the club at CEO / board level it probably needed to happen. 

18 minutes ago, STFU said:

If people want to support some of these local businesses then they can do it directly. Buy gift cards/presents for Christmas type thing.  That way you can be sure they get every penny.

Well, I've just spent over £150 on hospitality so I'm sure Red Poppy will get a reasonable share of that. 

Not sure the kids would be enamoured with a D&E gift card

11 hours ago, buckett said:

I wonder if it's too early for another crowd-fund thing.

Although the last one raised a fair bit of cash, it didn't come anywhere near meeting the stated target.

But contributing at that time was just a shot in the dark - nobody really knew where the money they contributed was actually going, nor what it would achieve. Most of us I think just heeded a cry for help from our club and responded with a random, affordable donation.

There was also the fear that our contributions would end up in SG's pocket, which made many of us reluctant to donate.

Now, however, the picture is a little clearer and we can have a more reliable indication of how much is required and why.

I personally would be prepared to donate again, probably more than I donated last time, although I'd need a few weeks to recover from the expenses of this season of goodwill!

I'd certainly be more keen to contribute to the crowd fund if I knew it would be used to help pay off local businesses we owe money to rather than the pillocks who got us into this position.  

45 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Thanks for this Fraz and well done, however, I've reached page 26 and now going for a lie down.

I never said I read (or understood) it!

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC149117/filing-history

Shout out to the U14 ICTWFC Reds who were crowned champions of the Rachel McLauchlan North League today, after a 3-1 win in a play-off with Forres.

Good win and a special congratulations to Freya Soden who made her 1st team debut at only 15. 

12 hours ago, Yngwie said:

I see Keith Haggart has joined Nairn as head of commercial.

I'm sure he'll make them the commercial powerhouse that he did with us.

It's an interesting question. 

The issue that we didn't let Hughes go to DU is one that that I can understand why people consider. However I think that if we did let him go and things still went pear shaped, people would be looking back and asking 'why did we not do more to keep him!'. In my view Hughes was the person who was in the wrong in that situation. 

Foran as manager was a mistake and KC has admitted as much. I said to him myself that I felt it was too soon for him and it would have been better to have him as assistant to a more experienced manager. 

As a club we've made poor decisions but usually balance them out by making good ones too. It seems that all we've done since signing Robertson as manager (not a bad decision but keeping him as DOF was) has been one bad decision after another taking an administration event to force change. 

To answer the question, in recent history I would say the decision to make Graeme Rae chairman. Without that we don't end up with clueless Yvonne Crook and then of course he brings in the man himself Scot Gardiner and the massive list of terrible decisions and unchecked consistent failure for over half a decade. 

55 minutes ago, Scotty said:

ours isn't much better ... shame we didn't have a camera gantry, capable camera person, and people willing to commentate before buying the pixellot system ... oh wait 

#TheGardinerEffect 

9 hours ago, tm4tj said:

 

Good lord I wish some of that crowdfunding could be used to buy a camera that's above 360p and has an optical zoom. 

18 hours ago, STFU said:

Given Savage was talking about people enjoying the view etc I think it was very much a sit in style affair he was talking about.

If we wanted to do fast food then one of the concourses would surely be better suited.

Everything is worth exploring I just find it strange that during such a press conference it would be placed out there front and centre as a big idea especially after commenting that we'd have no more sideshows.

We were told that about the concerts and battery farm.

Stay as we are and face no loses until the venture fails the space ends up out of use during any eviction period and not generating income and then we have to pay to convert it back into something it can be used for.

I know more people say they trust Savage but we had people saying the same when Muirfield came in and then when Crook came in and then Morrison came in (we had someone else among that too but I forget his name).

'Give them a chance' hasn't served us very well the last few years and this is a red flag for me.

Having a pop-up restaurant franchise may or may not work. Look at something like Tiger on The Wall which started during covid and became very successful. Doing takeaway initially then sit in later when allowed. 

The Caley Club also have a similar setup where the restaurant pays X amount a month (presumably under some kind of rolling contract) to use the kitchen and serve food within certain times. 

The kitchen facilities at the club are at best used once a fortnight during the season, or at the moment not at all. So it seems reasonable to use that space to generate some income. No different than if we had a 4G surface as a pitch and let it out when not required. 

So long as there's no risk financially or reputationally to the club and it doesn't take up huge amounts of staff time to manage I don't see the harm in exploring it.

The main issue with the Concert Company and BESS was that the board seemed to bank on these for the financial future of the club before it was guaranteed that they would be successful, causing a huge crisis when they have failed. I very much doubt that'll be an issue with renting out a kitchen space. 

While I'm delighted that non football staff have been kept on, we really need to up our game quickly in the commercial dept. It's been awful in terms of promotion or offering for ages. Any kind of revenue streams need to be looked at and local promotion of the club and associated activities addressed. Need to be more professional and proactive. 

I was speaking to someone from a business recently who has advertising boards at the club and dispite contacting the club several times, hasn't received an invoice to pay them for over a year. Madness.  

I know and see far more about the activities of the ICT Community Trust than I do about the club itself.  

Was starting to get irritated by the lack of info about the 12 noon press conference. 

Then I remembered I'm 2 hours ahead

1 hour ago, BaliDee said:

Hello, I'm a Dundee FC fan and would just like to confirm what the previous poster has suggested - Gardiner, or 'Spoofer' as we referred to him was an absolute cretin to staff and club supporters and there's not one of us that wasn't delighted when he left. He got lucky when the club was sold to the current owners and he left when he realized he wasn't going to be allowed to do whatever he wanted anymore

It has been genuinely astounding to most of us that he was ever allowed near a football club again. Incompetent to say the least.

It saddens me to hear of ICT's plight and hope things improve for you.

However, the second period of administration for Dundee FC led to an amazing undefeated run which helped us overturn a 25 point penalty and finish 3rd or 4th in the Championship using a skeleton squad with youth and trialists playing every week.

The situation injected a determination into the side and it was a great time to be a supporter as we knew that every player on the park was cutting it above their weight.

So hopefully we'll see the same at ICT, good luck!

Thanks for the input.

Many fans from Dundee/Hearts warned us of Gardiner's 'abilities'. However we had two successive chairman/boards who seemed to be quite happy to sit back and literally give him 100% latitude with zero KPIs, targets or accountability. To this day the previous chairman says he's been vilified . Despite the evidence being that he's not done ONE THING that's improved or furthered the club in over half a decade. 

We've been failed by Gardiner due to his arrogance, narcissism and hubris but we've been failed by the board too with their inaction and utter gullibility. 

Some fans saw this coming ages ago but were dismissed as trolls etc. What did they know eh? 

11 hours ago, ICTPaisley said:

try this 

Thanks, eventually got it to work.

Seems to me he's under the impression that there was a 12 month 'budget' that would be in place if we went to Kelty. My take is that he thinks it's crazy we (fans/board) didn't back the Kelty plan. This is similar to what Gardiner has said in the press that there was a 'recovery plan' that would have saved the club. 

Of course any sensible person could see with little scrutiny that this was doomed to failure. Just like the Gardiner backed Mr Phygital. 

Like most things over the past few years the club's saving grace was always just round the corner - Concerts, BESS scheme, freeport, park & ride, Kelty, Makwana etc. All of which failed spectacularly or were plainly ridiculous. However I get that Ferguson is probably just looking at the small part he's been promised on face value. Which as most fans realise is worthless with the Gardiner/Morrison cabal. 

4 minutes ago, ICTPaisley said:

Yeah one thing I didn’t quite read from him was if he was having a go at Ross Morrison for making a unturn, or if it was because we didn’t back the Kelty plan. 

I can't get the video to work, Internet is a bit hit and miss here in Turkey. However just going by the quotes he (Ferguson) seems to be under the impression that going to Kelty would have solved all our issues, cleared the slate, given him a budget for presumably 6 central belters who could/would not come up here. But the board (via fan pressure) went against Morrison and 'decided for admin' so, he then took his ball and went off. 

It's nowhere near as simplistic as he's making out. Other factors push us towards where we are, not least of course him being the manager who got us relegated worsening our already fragile situation but he's hardly going to highlight that.

I've some sympathy for him in the sense that he was most likely sold some story when headhunted for the job (I still think it was a huge ego massage signing for SG) about all of the SG/RM schemes working out and he'd get a huge transfer budget, his 3k a week, gold plated training cones and the like. And why would he doubt these local titans of business and football club management?

1 hour ago, ICTPaisley said:

I feel like Dunc is finding it hard to hold back his laughter in this interview. 

Much of what he says does indeed, deserve to laughed at. 

Doesn't it?

The fairytale that Morrison was going to bankroll one more year of huge losses, only if we move to Kelty, with Gardiner at Ferguson at the helm is hilarious (and monumentally daft). Then all would be wonderful. Just like all the other hair brain schemes what worked out.

Didn't they?