clacher_holiday2

"Having some outsider castigating the people of Scotland and saying he's glad he's not here is just simply insulting." I consider the no voters gutless cowards, not the people of Scotland as a whole. Every time I hear or read the supporters from the No camp, I'm half expecting them to burst into tears.

"I also have a problem with the European project. I was very much a Euro-phile, where the EU had an interest in federalism. Now it's an over-centralised, anti-democratic institution, where a central bank can fine an elected government for following voted-on policies. In this situation, having Scotland have to satisfy the current regime to gain entry means we can't be on the side of reformers. So, in that case, it's a not yet. Not everyone is so entrenched as a Yes or No. In fact, I'd say the majority are in that field." So you are anti-EU but want Scotland to remain within the UK because of the problems associated with re-joining the EU? Whos to say Scotland would even rejoin the EU as a full member? Were the time to eventually come round to applying you can be sure there will be a referendum on it, Norway isn't in the EU and if you've ever been there you'll see they're surviving just fine. What you have described above is the status quo, the EU is an undemocratic nightmare, a nightmare which the glorious United Kingdom has been in from the start and has never wielded any influence over, even when there was half as many countries and the UK was twice as rich as we stand today. The argument that staying in Union with England, Wales and Northern Ireland gives us a louder voice in Europe is a mute point when you consider the decades of ineptitude shown by the UK at the EU level. You sound like you want change but advocate sticking with what we already have? If you want your opinion to be valid in my eyes, stop contradicting yourself.

I still don't understand why people in Scotland are looking to vote No in the majority, are you all worried you'll be losing your dole money? People in Scotland are gutless, its no wonder so many of us leave.

I'd sooner wear that horrific commonwealth games outfit than the begging rags the no voters lining the streets and underground in London covet lol

is he a good honest laddie though?

Think thats going to happen, not one person has messaged me asking for it lol. 12th Man, you have my address already.

The buildings in Dundee arent lying all over the street lol

No chance its going on ebay, even for a charity auction, I do want the shirt myself but I know theres many more deserving of the prize. Even if it raised a couple of hundred quid in a charity auction (at the most), what good will that do a local charity? Not much. I/We need to figure out how best to decide where its new home should be. I'm open to suggestions.

A bit cosy for my tastes but I'm sure somebody will take you up on this generous offer

Birmingham is without doubt the most miserable and derelict City on this island. Cracking fixture though.

Quite a few but I am too polite to name them. Another suggestion would be to give it to one of the overseas fans who rarely if ever get a chance to watch games other than on TV or Internet links. Id much rather let somebody who has suffered for the cause claim the thing. That means lots of travel, not being retired, being anti-hughes etc lol Im a mere 500 miles away myself.

This could get complicated. Give me a few hours and I'll figure out the best way to find the most deserving person of the signed shirt.

Theyre the last people I'd give it to auction. Tbh its a rare thing so I'd rather it went to the most deserving person rather than the person with the deepest pockets.

I doubt that'll be topped. What other animals have people taken to the football this past year?

I appreciate that 12th Man but the shirt should go to somebody who deserves it more than me, its not the sort of prize that comes up on here very often . So who on here went to the following matches? October 2013 Sat 5 A St. Johnstone League 0 - 4 January 2014 Wed 1 H Ross County League 1 - 2 February 2014 Sat 8 A Stranraer Scottish Cup / 5th Round 2 - 2 March 2014 Sat 1 A Celtic League 0 - 5 Sun 9 H Dundee Utd Scottish Cup / Q-Final 0 - 5 April 2014 Sun 27 A Celtic League 0 - 6

Seems to be my kind of luck these days. Superb stuff. As much as I'd love to own it, I've hardly been the most loyal fan over the past couple of years, there will be a more deserving owner. How about running an auction on here, with the money going towards a local charity? Do any of you know somebody with a real hard luck story who would be cheered up somewhat by the shirt? Would there be any interest? If there isn't likely to be interest, then I'll have it for sure lol. I might even bid in an auction myself.

You joke but what about any of that isnt fixable?

I think you're all missing the real issue. As I've said before, we're in competition with Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid etc and its a competition us and the rest of world football are losing heavily (Old Firm included). Busing schoolkids from Tain to watch football will not work, when they can easily sit on the toilet and watch Real Madrid on their phones for free. We've been living in a globalised world for years now and its really starting to take its toll. Part of the reason the Old Firm readily found new recruits all over the country was the blanket media coverage given to them by the Scottish Press, there was always something to talk about no matter how pointless the gossip. You're more likely to see kids/teenagers in Inverness and everywhere else wearing Chelsea or Liverpool tops than either of the Old Firms. As the influence of the printed press in Scotland decreases, the number of new fans who gravitate towards the sides most overly hyped in the media they do take in, is going through the roof. Once upon a time the fans of the Inverness clubs had a 'big' team which continued over the years until we were on a level playing field with them. Nothings really changed in that regards, as a huge number of our younger fans will call on the likes of Liverpool or Arsenal as their 'big' team. You cannot compete with the investment the TV firms globally have made into the top sides propoganda, so why bother. A switch to summer football for me is the only easy solution, 3 months with no EPL games on TV and the chance to catch potential new fans attention. You cant fault somebody in Inverness thinking 'f#ck this' when having to choose between sitting down the dump in the freezing cold for £20 on a Saturday afternoon or waiting until 5.15 for the evening EPL kick off while having a drink, with their feet up.

Our club is no different to other small clubs in Scotland, Ireland, Norway, Thailand, India or Mauritania, that is suffering at the hands of the EPL's propaganda. Theres been lots of talk over the years about Inverness based Old Firm fans but the town will be no different to everywhere else in the world, in that young people are picking a shade of Red or Blue to support from down south. The Old Firm themselves will continue to suffer a loss of new fans to these clubs as the years roll on, even in areas of Northern Ireland where wearing one strip or the other was once considered a school uniform, the kids are all decked out in Liverpool or Man United tops. You see it in Glasgow as much as anywhere, just step into a pub on a Sunday afternoon when theres a 'big' game on and you'll find dozens more people taking in the EPL than whatever Scottish game Sky is taking pity on that day, even if the Old Firm are in action. The facts is that all entertainment is global and easily accessed anywhere, at any time, for virtually free on a phone or at home in any quality of coverage you choose to pay for. You wouldn't expect somebody to only go see Scottish Films, listen to Scottish Music or watch nothing but BBC Scotland, so why should football be any different? Theres no way to compete with the investment Sky and now BT have made, sadly joe public in general has the attention span of a ADHD goldfish and like nothing more than having their entertainment spoon-fed to them. Raising or loweirng ticket prices will have no affect on crowds now or in the future regardless of who the first team coach is, in the short term there will be a section of fans that it might encourage along but over time they will be bred out of existence too. The last throw of the dice for Scottish football IMO is a summer league, where we get 3 months of EPL-less football to make a name for ourselves in. If clubs worry abotu losing the festive revenue then surely something like the League or Scottish Cup games could be re-arranged to be played over Christmas, like pre-season friendlies?

Where else in Inverness would be a worse site for a stadium? Out Bunchrew way? I can't think of anywhere worse than what we have now.

The year the 10k rule was dreamed into existence up, the lowest average attendance in the SPL was St Johnstone's, at just over 7,000. The whole thing only became a real farce when Falkirk were denied promotion even after agreeing a ground sharing deal with Airdrie.

I agree Davie, all this worrying about the future of this club potentially being squandered for the sake of Yogi's vision is hardly worthy of our time. Lets go talk about stripes or no stripes elsewhere. The happy clappers complacency is mind boggling, if anything I'd suggest they go support another club in the Highland League who are in dire need of people willing to clap along to any old guff. The post match interview with Hughes after the Celtic game has given me nightmares this week, the "reporter" should've asked him how many goals Celtic have scored from 80 yards down the park after a clearance this season. You clear it and push up, its not rocket science, every team up against a superior opponent does that and sometimes it works. When do they ever outplay them with tapping it about?

When did Aberdeen last play in front of a crowd like that? They suffered with the pressure alot more than we did until the spot kicks. We almost beat Celtic down there early in the season in front of more people. The rest of your points about Hughes positive influence on affairs are laughable, the stats don't lie. I can't think of anything positive that has come from the Hughes era besides wins over Ross County, which we've been doing for 20 years anyway. Scarlet- I did actually ask somebody from the trust earlier on this thread how I would go about having the chairman answer some questions about the recruitment process and never got a reply. Agree with IHE- the next CaleyD round-table chat should be with the chairman, its possible to ask serious questions without being cheeky about it or offending, it would certainly shut a few of us up if KC can tell us what the plans are going forward.

You do raise an interesting point in amongst your waffling, where are all of the Hughes supporters? I'm not sure where to start on the rest of this, at what point did Hughes earn this respect you say he deserves? You bring up IHE as an example of an established poster on here showing respect, yet IHE himself openly has more personal digs at our previous managers psyche than anyone else on here, how is that showing unqestionable respect? Why assume that people are not posting on this topic because they think it is beneath them? I'd say its safe to assume most people on here are firmly on the fence on this issue and thats only after our rousing win up in Dingwall, after that Dundee United game the pitchforks were out in force. You have totally misread the vibes coming from the support as a whole. "The Board is NOT going to react in the same way that they think because the members of the Board are mature business persons and rational and reasonable people NOT usually likely to go into orbit with knee jerk reactions. And NOT young bucks feeling their oats and letting that feeling overcome their brains." I guess you could say the the board demonstrated some rational thought in bringing in a guy on the cheap, who had been shunned by the rest of Scottish football after multiple failures. Tell me SP.. in all this talk of yours of being fair, rational, respectful and downright gentlemanly when discussing the merits and potential of Hughes, at what stage do you sit down and look over the stats? There has been a swing of 17 points and 1 trophy between ourselves and Aberdeen since Hughes took over, we were clear in 2nd place with games and points to spare, where are we now?

I think this pretty much sums up the shallows of IHE's psychological 'insight', he stubbornly drags up our reactions to Butcher leaving as the major cause for this thread yet talks about the guy more than anybody. Why do you want me to answer questions about Terry Butcher? If I did enough digging around on here I could find you dozens of posts I made during the Barnsley debacle that mirrored my thoughts on his move to Hibs, I was right in saying he had taken us as far as he could but we needed somebody else to push us further.