MrCaleyjag

The result wasn't declared null and void, it still stands and will show on the record books as a Dundee Utd victory so no we will not have played one game less, they were deducted three points due to their error - it just so happens that it is the same number of points as gained from the win. Hundreds of thousands of pounds? Hardly, if we finish 8th rather than 7th it's a difference of £52750.00, the attached explains the values to each position and how it is distributed (I checked various sites but this one explains it the best) - http://stv.tv/sport/football/1331865-spfl-sides-to-share-record-21m-prize-money-payout-in-201516-season/ Also on the back of the above if we do finish 8th rather than 7th it'll be our own fault and not that of a decision made by the SPFL for an error by an opponent. A season is played over 38 games and not just 1 game. I think it's about time as well that we ditch the 'It's that lot up there, f'''''' them' attitude as it benefits nobody and to bemone that belief only keeps it going and fuels it more, we should be concentrating on ourselves and what we are doing rather than anyone else.

There should be clear guidelines set out in the rules stating the punishments for such offences occuring and to leave it up to a board to decide is nonsense especially in this situation as they were clearly swayed by the timing. If it stated the financial penalty along with points loss or whether the fixture should be replayed or not in black and white then there would be no argument. I don't agree that we should have got the points, regardless of who they fielded from their squad we are good enough to beat them and the performance wasn't good enough, I would have felt slightly embarrassed had we been given them. The deduction of three points applied to this seasons total is laughable however and has absolutely no bearing on their final standing, they're down regardless so in my opinion is should have been applied to next season making them start on -3 points.

I'm not sure it's really a question that needs to be asked as all football teams should strive to better themselves and move forward regardless of any pitfalls or obstacles that are put in their way. I do however agree with the content of the thread and most peoples thoughts and it's good to see a thread that isn't painting everything in a dark light like it's the end of the world. We all knew deep down that after last season there would be changes, players would move on, that it would be hugely difficult to emulate anywhere near what we did acheive but the extent was unknown and I think that's what's caught people on the hop. It's not like the club has died or gone into administration or been chucked into the bottom league or anything, still so much to be thankful for and to build on. It's imperative that we try and secure our more talented players on contracts past the summer that we haven't already and surely we should be looking already at targets to bring in and even be working on some as we speak. As well as this I firmly believe that we need to bring in another coach, where possible, that has good attacking coaching attributes as the exit of Russell Latapy is evident for all to see and an area that we really need to improve on. His influence where maybe not noticed last season is massively noticable now in my opinion. With regards the board and being more transparent with the fans, that's a difficult one to be honest and not something that can be answered directly I don't think. Yes in an ideal world they could come out and make everyone involved aware of the direction of the club and what they are trying to achieve and budgets and how the finances are but then they run the risk of opening this up to the wider football community. Suddenly everyone knows you have a bit of money to spend or you want to recruit the following way or want the club to play a certian way etc, there must be areas that are kept at board/management level and this goes for all businesses.

To answer your question in the title, in one word no for two reasons: firstly it would be very foolish in my opinion to make our next appointment an unknown commodity with no experience at managing a club and secondly I think at this stage it would be a mistake to get rid of John Hughes with all that he has had to deal with this year. I'm prepared to give him one more season then judge a little more critically and that's saying something as Caleyjag will profess as I have been a big critic this season but I also understand the reasons for our 'slump' if you want to label it anything. I've heard little to suggest or seen little to install confidence that RF would make any difference at all, it's not the type appointment that I would welcome. Maybe given a few years experience at coaching level or assistant manager level but not just now. I also think it's extremely disrespectful to talk about the next manager when we have one in place and to be honest we could be in a far worse position than we are just now, read my thread titled 'You're the manager, what do you do' as I'm not going to repeat myself again, you'll all be sick of it.

I think currently the team almost picks itself however I wouldn't drop Vigurs, I never thought I'd hear myself say that but he scored at the weekend, so would be harsh on that note, but also we'll be up against a strong physical team in Hearts and I just think he's offer a bit more going back and physically than someone like Roberts would. With Williams leaving what's the benefit long-term of playing him? Raven needs to be fit to play a Hearts team anytime which he won't be so i doubt he'll start.

I couldn't agree with you any more on the point highlighted above, I don't think we have any need to do so nor do we have anything to fear from any team in Scotland. It's almost derogatory towards our own players/squad - certainly needs to be handled differently in the media and drop the Mr nice guy attitude towards the likes of Celtic, Rangers and Hibs that has been shown in the past.

That's exactly the sort of response I was looking for and not as a away to big myself up, the thread was meant to be thought provoking and almost a two fingers up at those who have been calling for JH's head but without any real forward thinking on any real understanding of the task involved. It's interesting to see how few replies this has had compared to other threads especially those calling for change or ones pointing out where we've went wrong, it makes for a much better and compelling argument in my opinion if you can back up your thoughts.

So we haven't had the season so far that most of us would have hoped for, we haven't built from last season's success, we all are less than impressed with at least one thing at the club, we are all entitled to our opinions and we are all more than quailified to pass judgement on those running our club (he says tongue in cheek) but lets break it down and ask - what would you do if you were the manager? I've sat and read almost every post for a long time and hardly passed comment and where everyone seems to have an opinion on what we should do, has anyone truly sat back and thought 'if we did do what we are suggesting how would we do it or if I were in that position what would I do'? So for everyone that thinks we should get rid of JH or thinks the board should be performing better or thinks the recruitment policy is poor or has a belief that RF is capable of stepping up to the plate and becoming our next manager, let me ask the question - what would you do or rather how would you do the job? Forget about saying we should do this, lets all answer on how you would do it - it's easy to sit back and say what we should do but do you actually know how you would do it? All armchair fans/football manager style pundits step forward, this could make for a very good discussion. You're the manager: - what formation and style of play do you implement and why? Would it work with our current squad? Would you mould your style of play to what your squad can perform to or do make your squad mould to fit your style of play? - how big a squad do you have and what is the breakdown of this squad in numbers for each position? - do you build the team around one player? - do you promote from within and bring youth through? Are you in a position to do so or is it forced upon you for a number of reasons? - where do you recruit from? Who are your contacts? Can you afford who you are looking for? Do you build around a necleus of players and supplement with loan signings then recruit slowly to bolster already recruited talent that you can keep? - who do you bring in on the playing staff? Specifically of all those players who you would be able to attract name some you would bring in. - what training techniques do you install? Who do you bring in as your backroom team or do you stick with who we have? Do you run the training yourself and have your coaches oversee it or do you let them have free-rein to work within your perameters? Or do you have a mix of both? - how many backroom staff do you have? What coaching techniques would you want them to have? How many roles can they coach in? - what do you concentrate most on, cups or the league? Why? Do you have a preference or can you afford to concentrate on all? - how do you juggle your budget? Do you focus on signing free transfers and use any money you have on wages or do you try and buy with the little money you have one or two players on a smaller wage? - do you insist on having the running of everything football related or do you ask for help in the form of a Director of Football? - do you ask for more input on less football related matters? Do you insist on being involved in deciding the budgets and what would be the main focus on your budgets? - for youth teams/development league level, do you oversee this yourself or bring in a team to focus on this and have them coach their way with their tactics/formations or do you insist they stick to your style of play and tactics in the hope it helps younger players step up quicker/easier and integrate better? - do you rotate your youth between first team and youth training to help development? Do you have first team players mentor youth players on football and/or non-football related matters? - at what point do you decide who you want to keep at the club and when do you initiate contract talks? Do you decide early and set out your stall with very little scope to diverse and change or do you let things progress and see what happens? Now I'm no manager, nor am I at all in any way qualified to answer any of the above questions but I'm sure above are only a very few number of questions and scenarios which a football manager has to answer and deal with on a daily basis. Equally I would say it is harder to manage a club at out level with the budgets and constraints that we have than it is to manage at a higher level with a bigger budget. Yes I'm not happy with how this season has gone, I'm at times not happy with our style of play with no substance or penetration, I'm not happy with the quality of some of the players we have and the level they are at, I'm not happy with our lack of investment from the Christie sale, I'm not happy with our recruitment policy, I'm not happy with the way we deal with players going out of contract, I'm not happy with losing players on free transfers to other SPFL clubs, the list can go on but I am still in the camp that believes JH should be given another season to show us what he can do. Go on answer the above then pass comment on what we should do because it's all to easy to pass comment on what we should do without looking at it from the other side. I think sometimes we all need to take a reality check, evalute where we are as a club, be realistic about what we can achieve and how quickly we can acheive it and stop jumping on the band-wagon just because it isn't quite going how we want it to. Would we be having all these discussions had it not been for last seasons success?

I don't understand why near the end of March we are sitting with so few players tied up to contracts past the end of this season. I'm sure I am repeating most of what has been said, so I apologise, but I haven't read through the thread properly, there's a fundamental problem somewhere at the club when it comes to matters involving players and contracts and it's not one which has suddenly appeared as this has been happening for years now. It's even more alarming when you consider how difficult we seem to find recruiting or at least recruiting decent players that can offer something at first team level. I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with our recruitment policy and contractual policy and the way this season is going I don't see it getting any better, lets be honest JH's recruitment hasn't exactly set the heather on fire has it?

I could be wrong but I am led to believe that the reason Warburton is leaving Brentford, along with Davie Weir, is because the club has decided to restructure and bring in a Director of Football type person and wanted Warburton to become head coach or similar and he stated he was unwilling to do so nor could he work under that structure. Therefore both clubs agreed to a mutual termination of sorts at the end of the season and will push on with their plans without them. I would think that Warburton is on Rangers radar for the good job he has done there along with the fact that Davie Weir would go with him as assistant therefore having the Rangers connection that they clearly want. Whoever goes is in for a hell of a job that's for sure.

I still can't concentrate in work Think it may be like this until pre-season starts ................................... oh wait, nope, I'll revel in this glory for years to come.

Tug, it definately sounds to me like someone has had a go at you recently and like everyone else here I would have told them to do one as well. If someone has then in no way should you feel bad nor do you have anything to apologise for, you've put your money into the club in the past and surely will in the future when you are able to. I'm sure we all have a reason why we don't go to ICT games as much as we would want to and for the whole you'll find it's simply 'life'. I for one along with Caleyjag would love to go to more games but it's simply not possible anymore, we have a one year old daughter and live in Aberdeen so the chance of going to 20 games a season like we did when we went down then the proceeding two years after are gone for us or the season ticket Caleyjag had before moving for uni but we follow our club, buy merchandise from the club and listen to every game every week on the radio or at least what we there is on. The fact is you have put what money you could into the club and will in the future and you, like I, and everyone else can say that they are part of the rich history of the club and no one can take that away from you. Be proud that your money has gone into that and pay no attention to anyone else.

For me two strikers is a priority, one as a starter and other as back up/rotation followed by a left back then a versatile midfielder. I'm not sure JH will see a goalkeeper as top of the list although depends how much of a budget he gets and how well he can play the market for free transfers. With the amount of players that clubs are releasing there's definately a few bargains and gems to be had, hopefully we can get them in time for the start of the campaign.

I'm not sure this would be the case, you would need a season ticket increase of over 100% for anyone to struggle to get a ticket for a home match outwith Celtic games when we give them more of an allocation than other teams. I would think the club would be aiming for a smaller increase in overall ticket sales for games of around 500 and go from there, it's not just season ticket sales that the club should or will focus on. Whether we like it or not sales are driven by price, as much as 'the experts' say it isn't. Build in an incentive for an adult and child price (£20.00 for instance), adult and two children (£22.50 for instance) then families (2 adults, 2 children - £30.00 for instance). Remember every week the seats sit empty so any extra seats filled is all extra cash, the club needs to push to the youth and build from there in my opinion.

At the start of the 2014-2015 season I think it's fair to say that I felt somewhat underwhelmed by what I thought we were going to be watching and how we would fair, and I think one or two others would agree that they felt the same. We didn't exactly finish the 2013-2014 season to our full potential and outwith the highlight of getting to the League Cup Final, I still had the feelings of 'what if'. I was never the biggest fan of the appointment of John Hughes, I couldn't see how he could take us forward and while I support ICT through and through I posted before the start of the season on a thread that he had 8-10 games to win me over, I also recall going as far as stating that how he conducted himself in pre/post matches interviews and with the media needed to be drastically worked on. Well the 8-10 games came and went and now I owe John Hughes a huge apology for my comments and for doubting that he could take the club forward, wow was I wrong in the biggest way possible. I genuinely believe that there are more ICT fans who felt the same way and had doubts but here's one who will openly admit he was wrong. Big man, thanks so much for this season, you and the team have massively surpassed my expectations and provided me with some awesome memories.

Presuming the game is against Rangers I would have preferred it to be at a later stage in the competition however it's not a tie I fear, with McCoist at them helm at Ibrox I would fancy our chances every time just now, tactically we could easily have the advantage and take the game to them which they can't handle. If we have aspirations of getting to the final again we have to expect to play teams with bigger budgets, bigger squads and bigger support so I look forward to it. They were poor today and weren't that great by all accounts against Hibs midweek in the Petrofac Cup. All of this though is very disrespectful to Queens Park so we'll just have to see.

If the club wants to continue to grow and become a better brand then a top six finish is the minimum acceptance for the season, it is not acceptable to simply be happy with avoiding relegation. It's been no fluke that we have finished top six in the last two seasons however we took a back step towards the end of last season but then we have gradually each year for the last three made steps forward. To go from top six and a final last season to avoiding relegation this season would be a huge step back and no matter who the manager is with the budget he has a prgression should be expected. Saying that realistically I'm afraid i don't see it happening, I really do hope I am wrong.

I haven't been one to hide my feelings on John Hughes since he was appointed but someone should really coach him on what to say in the press because he does himself no favours at all, on one hand I can see what he is trying to do by deflecting the pressure from the players by saying that if we stay up he'll be happy and anything else is a bonus but on the other hand is he trying to create a rod for his own back? I don't believe for one minute he has told the players privately that this is the aim for the season and if it is then I'll be shocked, we should be aiming for a top six finish taking our last two seasons into consideration and we should be within touching distance of another cup final again. We have a strong group of lads who fight and work for each other and have a great relationship and understanding and I cannot believe that anyone of them would be happy with just staying up so there's no need for the tippy toe attitude with the press, the squad can handle some pressure from the manager and maybe they need it. Also to say that he thinks we'll win more games than we will lose this coming season is another stupid statement to make, I should think we should and we should be going into every game thinking we have the ability to win it otherwise what is the point? He needs to stop trying to be everyones best friend and grow a pair especially in the media - he's got 8-10 games for me to prove himself or help change my opinion but until then I'm afraid I have no confidence in him.

So I had a quick look on the forum and I can't see any posts with the same subject so as I love the World Cup and always pick a dream team I decided to set up a league. If anyone wishes to join it for a bit of fun and bragging rights it's with The Sun and the link is posted below, it's free to pick a team and once you have you can join the league using the following details: League name: Caley all the way Password: Inverness Pin: 8168187 http://www.dreamteamfc.com/ Feel free to post your starting team line up below as well for all to see.

If I even cared I would sit down properly and pen my thoughts on Neil Lennon and why Scottish Football is going to be a better place without him but truthfully I couldn't care at all other than knowing that thankfully we'll not have to put up with him anymore. With a club of their budget including their Champions League money which dwarfed the budgets of many clubs combined, the size of their fan base, the calibre of their players compared to the rest of Scottish Football, the number of signings he made, quite frankly what had he to moan about. Far better managers with less than the above could have done a much better job and truly dominated the Scottish game in the same position.

I personally think we shouldn't be setting our sights on shopping from a team that haven't been good enought to stay in the Premiership, we need players that are able to work together as a team for each other and not one of their players to me looked like they did that this season not to mention having better technique and ability than our own current crop. Undoubtedly they will release players but Hearts released better ones and I doubt we will make a move for them so why shop from Hibs?

We shouldn't be in a rush to sell unless we've got someone lined up to come in and replace him and it makes the club more stable in the long term from any money brought in. Everyone knows that January is an inflated window making it harder and more expensive to replace him although you could also say that this might work to the good for the club by using it to their advantage to get more money for him. I agree nothing less than £500K would be acceptable , goalscorers like McKay are few and far between and for that reason come at a premium.

I'm going to say it because no one else has and I can't help it but does that make us better than Barca? ........ haha Anyway great way to bounce back from last week, I never said anything about the 'well game as I was sure it was a blip and so did TB and he's been proved right. The whole squad and staff deserve great credit from the way they conducted themselves after last weeks performance and to turn in a result like they did today was magnificent.

Chelsea fans hate Rafa Benitez, do you think they'll see it as a great appointment? I doubt it plus I think a lot of them will be feeling extremely embarressed by this latest episode of ruthlessness. I do though sense a bit of sarcasm in your post Is it any wonder they conduct themselves the way they do regarding all the nonsense surounding John Terry and all these race claim allegations that were running around when their owner feels he can do whatever he wants just because he can brandish his colossal bank balance about, it all starts at the top and works it's way down.

It's a dump!!! The ground I mean plus you'll freeze your doggies off in January, and it's not equal travel either - it's roughly 40-45 miles further from Edinburgh to Aberdeen as it is from Inverness to Aberdeen.