Fraz

Always good to see a new moderator join up. Or isn't backseat moderating against the rules?

Agreed, someone working at 26 as a teacher at £40k+ isn't likely going to pack that in, go FT in the 3rd/4th tier, to get paid much the same or less until they're 30ish and have to retire and then go back to that profession anyway. However I don't think the assertion is that they give up their day jobs. I think it's more a hybrid model where we have full time pros, Academy grads and PT players. Training would have to be adapted to suit of course. Could easily switch to a couple of evening training sessions a week or something similar, if they can find training venues.

The Brora maneuver.

New TWS podcast dropped from Moff and the gang inc interview with Scott Young- I'm listening to The Wyness Shuffle | The A Team on Podbean, check it out! https://www.podbean.com/ea/pb-jvm28-1716c21

To be fair, those things have been happening from a fans perspective for several years anyway.

It was clear to me from the Pixalot farce that Gardiner wasn't capable of being the CEO and was either negligent or just incompetent. His comments that 'it wasn't that bad' just reeked of ignorance or narcissism. I won't reel through his long list of failure (I've done that previously). What I found astounding was when I asked Morrison at a fans Q&A at the Caley Club about Gardiner's performance and horrendous attitude to fans and The Supporters Trust he seemed shocked that I even could suggest such a thing. This was compounded by his comments on the TWS before he resigned and he said just last week incredibly that Gardiner his been 'villified'. I can only surmise that either Gardiner has the most silver tounge in the land, Morrison and Gardiner have a relationship much deeper than simply professional or that Morrison is one of the most willfully ignorant or gullible people on the planet. There still need to be answers as to why there was ZERO accountability or oversight for years. What CEO gets to write their own contract!? The whole situation is frankly incredible. I wouldn't trust Gardiner to run a kids birthday party.

TBH the SLO shouldn't be a board member at all. They should be independent in that regard, most clubs don't operate that way. I've no clue if he was a dissenting voice the past year or not. It would be very interesting to see the minutes of the board meetings these past years but I wouldn't be surprised if they're never properly recorded as we don't seem to operate in a professional manner. I will say that he's stepped up at the most challenging time in the club history when other 'more experienced businessesmen' have slithered away. That says a lot to me.

I agree with you regarding the board with the exception of Scott Young. He's only been on the board a year or so and has been the only one making the effort to try and be transparent and speak with fans starting with the fans meetings at the Innes Bar. He's been the only one who hasn't hidden away and he's probably the least 'business man' in the group. Dissapointed with Grassa as I'd thought he'd have more sense than to let things get away like this and Fyfe is, with all due respect an empty chair and contributes zero. I won't articulate my thoughts on the members who have slinked away before facing any scrutiny. They are contemptible.

I doubt the stadium would have ever been in a 'great' position. Even if ICT was offered somewhere like the bught planners would likely never allow it anyway due to traffic management etc. Even the new community hub has been held up and revisited due to traffic concerns from some locals so a full blown stadium would be magnitudes worse.

The relationship that the club has with the city has been discussed many times. There are a multitude of factors working against the club that they cannot control and can do little about. These include the location of the stadium, the quality of the stadium (financially there's little we can afford to change), people supporting other teams and of course, after 30 years refusniks who are still greeting. There are things they have some control over like the catering, ticket prices, quality of performance on the pitch etc There are some things they can control more fully such as the way they treat the community, way they engage with businesses/sponsors, how they treat loyal fans, how they responsibly use money for the good of the club. Aside from the work of the Community Trust and I'd also say the Women’s team/Academy (who in the interests of transparency I'm on the committee of and coach for) which are both separate entities from the club, the club itself has done the grand total of fk all to try and reach out to the city in at least the last 5-6 years. There's been nothing in terms of even the simplest kid's fun days, Christmas parties, bowling nights, school visits, fan events, regular hospitality or even proper sponsor evenings. The club has to make an effort and with Scot Gardiner (and Yvonne Crook) at the helm the last half decade or so has undone much of the good work that others took years to try and develop. It won't be quickly turned around, particularly if the fayre on the pitch is woeful.

Good win today for the ladies.

That's what I don't get. What petrol and living costs is he covering that the club normally would? Does the club pay for all players fuel as soon as they step out the door? Seems ridiculous to me. Especially for a L1 club. In my job for example I get milage from my 'Base' outward but not from my house (now mainly WFH). When I worked in Aviemore I could claim miles from my office there to say Kingussie or Grantown but I couldn't claim from my house in Inverness to Aviemore. Maybe footballer contacts include all travel from their front door but that would seem a ridiculous expense for us to cover as a club. Their travel from the stadium to training and away fixtures is obviously covered. I wonder if what DF is really referring to is expenses for his son?

A good day out and a good result can be very different things. These days as a home supporter only there's been little of either. Only thing that's made the last year or so bearable has been the craic with the friends I go with.

1-0 win. Fantastic stuff, well done to the players for focusing on the job at hand. Gutted I missed it.

Maybe you misunderstood my point. Why would the club be paying for players petrol anyway? They get a minibus to training from the stadium and a coach to away games so where does the fuel costs come in? All staff are still being paid are they not? Or is it standard for clubs to pay for all players fuel?

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/ict-administration-could-last-three-months-364172/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Already mentioned in the Next manager thread. Why is he paying petrol costs anyway? Makes little sense.

I noticed that and it made little sense to me. Players meet at the stadium and are taken in a minibus to training I understand and are on the team bus for away games so what petrol costs are the club expected to pay? What other basic costs do the club cover? As far as I'm aware, all staff are still being paid so what's the issue? Odd.

Exactly this. Why would anyone come in now and take on the full ridiculous debt the moronic predecessors (and some current board) got us into rather than wait a bit and likely get things at a reduced cost?

Next up Michelle Mone will be bidding with her taxpayer COVID millions from her yacht in the Bahamas.

Gardiner: ‘I have a fantastic relationship with countless Caley Thistle supporters’ Fking he is.

If Ferguson really wanted to help the club out he'd quit. Working for free does not entitle him to be free of criticism. We'd be better with a cheap semi competent manager than a (temporarily) free, terrible one. I didn't expect we'd take much from the Livi game so to take it to penalties isn't terrible imo. What's awful is Ferguson's repetitive excuses. If it's not the young players, it's the referee's, if it's not the referee, it's the pitch. How does an astro affect a professional footballers ability to convert a penalty I wonder? Anyway I'm off to see if the Scotland game is on at the bar in my hotel here in Turkey. Fingers crossed they don't, not sure I can take more dissapointment

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/caley-thistle-community-trust-and-women-s-football-venture-g-363692/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook Some positive ICT news, will be advantageous to the women's team and in particular the ICT Community Trust. I know that they have put a huge amount of work into it and have already moved there as their admin base of operations away from the stadium.

It's pathetic And tedious.

The problem with using that metric obviously is the away fan numbers which will skew it massively. There's definitely a drop off in home fans as we go down the leagues though, no question. Home numbers have never been great.