clacher_holiday2

Where were we in the league when Hughes was appointed? I'm sure using CJT's resources you'll be able to have an old Courier or something in hand with a league table. On a serious note, what is the process for a fan to raise an issue with the club via yoursell's? How about a detailed explanation of the managerial recruitment process from the SPFL Chairman of the Year, what due diligence was taken with regards to Hughes? Did we contact the likes of Hamilton to ask why they didn't take him on? Was his multiple past failures at clubs of various sizes and leagues taken into account during the process? How intensive can an interview be when the response to "who will you bring in as assistant?" gets a reply of "a dinnae ken lyke, al hink aboot it fer 6 weeks"? Whats the story behind Bennett leaving?

I see you're still persisting with the false view that the anti-Hughes camp are suffering from rejection at the hands of Terry Butcher and that the man jumped ship before it had the chance to sink, preserving his ego. I think how we reacted as a fanbase after he left proves that first theory of yours as being BS, the threads are all recorded on here if you want to go back and find me the scores of jilted TB fanbois to prove me wrong. If you cannot then your analysis is wrong and nobody gave a sh1te that he left, the players themselves had a visible lift in spirits for a period aswell. This site was buzzing after Butcher joined Hibs, everybody was looking forward to what could come next after him, not desperately trying to cling on to the guy. As for our expectations being too high at the point Hughes arrived, thats garbage, we were points clear with games in hand of Aberdeen in 2nd when Hughes came in. We were comfortably the 2nd best team in Scotland at that stage and had qualified to face the worst team in the SPL in a semi final of a competition that Celtic had been knocked out of, we were 10/11 favorites to win the LC at the time with Ladbrokes. Expectations might have been high but they were realistic, nobody was talking about winning the league were they? If anything I would accuse our fanbase overall of having too LOW expectations, the majority clearly believe that Hughes was the best possible candidate at the time and is the man to lead us into the future, speaks volumes. Infact further to this post, wasnt it Steve Marsella that most on here were worried about losing, rather than Butcher? lol

I've already had this discussion and am not in agreement that anything was abandoned in our match against Ross County. The only real difference was that we had 2 fit wingers for the first time in a while and that, IMO, better facilitated the balance that Yogi has been striving for. The big worry there Caley D is we only really have 2 wingers and if one is out his whole system falls apart as in previous matches, and why play a system if he doesn't have fit players to make it work ? http://sport.stv.tv/football/clubs/inverness/256881-its-not-broke-dont-fix-it-says-john-hughes-after-first-win-at-inverness/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26877820 Time will tell. Im not here to be proved right that hes a trainwreck, I hope youre correct in feeling things are still moving forward in the right direction.

I'll repeat myself from earlier in the thread- my fear is that the first time we lose playing wide men and direct, Hughes will point to that as the reason we lost and use it to justify a return to 'total football'. Maybe Yogi is right, myself and other dissenting voices may just need to be educated?

Interesting to hear Warrens views on 'total football', despite how shocking the results, manner of goals conceded or the online outcry from a typically submissive support was in reaction to it. CaleyD, the win up at the pikeys came about due to abandoning the tippy tappy sideways stuff up the middle that Hughes just a week ago was keen to promote. "Togetherness" hasnt come from Hughes footballing vision but the footballing vision of the fans and the previous manager, if you want to talk about dismissing information relevant to a discussion for the sake of having a knock, then ignoring how we played to get our last win and how it contradicts the pass-it-in-circles stuff Warren and Yogi love.is doing just that. Hughes had to drop his own principles to bring us back on track, we aren't there because of them.

I'm getting sick and tired of the Butcher talk, why assume that people who dont want Hughes here are Butcher fanbois? I was delighted when he buggered off to Hibs and if you look back far enough I wanted him to bugger off to Barnsley over a year ago to prevent the mediocre end to last season we were surely going to have. I like all of you want whats best for ICT, what we have now is a manager who has to fight against his own principals and philosophy to pick a winning team, which will do no good for anyone in time. Between now and the end of the season, either the fans or the manager will be proved wrong. If we lose when playing direct then Hughes will whinge about educating the players and when we lose with his tippy tappy garbage, we'll whinge about him being stubborn. I for one can't wait for the no doubt exciting times ahead in the Yogi era, my biggest fear with him being such a hot commodity in world football is that future generations of ICT fans won't be able experience the vision of the man as he progresses beyond where we can take him. It takes a special insight and talent to notice that Barcelona are quite good at football, thus copying them might work, fantastic stuff.

As I said earlier in this thread, why compare to last season famous collapse? Regardless of what happened then or10 years ago, we should be aiming to win every single match.

lol @ Adams post match comments. Thought he was about to start crying when talking about that penalty. Lets hope Yogi learns a lesson from playing the two wide men, we'll see what he does next time. #fcukbarca

Been much better so far, 'kin great strike from Doran, cant believe he was left out.

Tonights the night, I'm backing us on skybet, shut me up please Yogi.

He was given the award before he hired Hughes and was praised by one and all on here. It is my opinion that his stewardship was not tested until Butcher left, he claimed the recruitment process was rigorous and left no stone unturned, leading to a man who was sacked by 3 other chairmen being the ideal candidate for a job running the 2nd best team in Scotland.. Thus he failed a major footballing test we would expect the SPFL Chairman of the Year to pass, as other details about the recruitment process have come to light it would appear they were flimsy in the extreme. What other full time team in Scotland would hire a manager that didnt really have an idea who his assistant/staff would be? Why was it footballing giants such as Hamilton Accies (and no doubt others that never made it into the media) turned down Hughes when he applied for the job there? If the decision was purely financial then fine, I can live with that, at least come out and say as much.

The articles been talked about on the SACKED thread aswell. The guys full of it. Who advises the SPFL Chairman of the Year on footballing matters I wonder? Sack them aswell.

That article has changed as I'm sure those who read it last night will testify, yesterday he was quoted as referring to a final between Inter and Barcelona. Inters masterclass is besides the point, its Barcelona he swoons over... ""If you look at the European Cup semi-final two seasons ago, Inter Milan against Barcelona, Barcelona total football, a team I would pay money to watch, and yet it's a boot up the park, a flick on and it is in the back of the net and the cup goes back to Italy," he said." Their passing it about style was ineffective, it was 2010 they played and in the first leg of the semi Inter beat them 3-1 and none of the goals were from a "boot up the park". I saw that BBC article aswell and it only refers to Barcelona without their best player for the spell over Christmas. I can only go by what I've seen on TV but they are alot worse off without him, this season it doesnt feel as much of a loss as he wasnt playing up to his usual standards until he came back in January. Regardless of the ins and outs of the details, theres no doubt that Hughes is talking absolute p1sh throughout the interview lol. The 'total football' he talks about (passing it about in circles) isn't played by any of the top sides anymore

Not only has he no real idea about what the 'Barcelona' style of play is given they have used overlapping full backs for years and all of their midfield go out wide but he obviously hasnt watched Barca lately without Messi playing. Run of the mill La Liga sides can take them apart without Messi in there, even Celtic almost got a result. People have been saying Barca are past their peak now this season, they haven't, its just that Messi has missed a few weeks of it

Without even checking, the last 4 finals were in order... Dortmund v Bayern Munich Chelsea v Bayern Munich Barca v Man United Inter v Bayern Munich

TBF to Yogi, I'll give him his dues, that Champions League final between Inter and Barca was pretty fcuking great 2 years ago.

It won;t happen yet, not until every excuse has been exhausted. edit- which is a failure of the pally nature of all local relationships between media, sponsors and anyone else who needs to stay in regular contact with the club. I guess its up to the SPFL Chairman of the Year and others with a financial stake/take from the club to shun people they don't see eye to eye with, couldnt blame them for it really, you cant critisise them from within.

lol @ "But we're not playing against Real Madrid and Malaga, no disrespect to the rest of the teams." I'm sure anyone aware of world football over the past 2 years would've said "Real Madrid or Atletico". What an absolute farce, you could pick holes in almost all of that, not even Barcelona, Spain or Peps new side play the 'Barcelona' way.

I'd go with the former, they didnt seem particularly bothered that he didnt have a clue who his assistant or other staff would be.

Bit different here.lol

lol I apologise for being factually incorrect but I don't see how that would change my thoughts about him being ranked lower than Pele and the 2 managers who took us to the SPL. It also doesn't change my opinion that the squad we had then should've been doing better. Christie's appointment was a bit of a shambles, for a lot of the same reasons Hughes has been. I was on the right side of history on that one, putting a guy with barely any full time experience as a player or coach in charge of a highly talented and determined SPL side who had never experienced anything other than forward momentum since being created in 1994 was a mistake. I think I'm right in saying our SPL home attendances were on average about 1,000-1,200 higher during that spell than they are now, which I put firmly down to the ambition the club had been showing in looking to establish themselves as a regular SPL side. We were all excited about what was possible in the coming seasons before a man out of his depth stopped us in our tracks/ Much like the ambition and positivity shown before Hughes came in at the back end of last year, tying up players on longer deals was as much of a statement in todays football climate as signing a guy like Nicolae was back then, we had the opportunity when Hughes was appointed to really make a step forward in the long term towards establishing ourselves as a club who should never be fighting relegation. All it would've taken, much like when Christie landed the job, was putting in somebody with good experience. Even if it would've required significantly more investment it would be worth the gamble, why not go all out and use the compensation money we received for Brewster/Butcher and poach some other mobs manager? Why plump for the cheap option when everything else is falling into place to make a sustained effort to change for the long term?

El Crapico on Friday is a must win in my eyes.

You'd replace Hughes with David Weir?

No way you can rank Christie above Robbo, it was Robertson who raised us a level or two fitness wise and brought in the likes of Bingham who we would never have gone for before. Christie inherited by far our best squad we've ever had with Cowie, Rankin, Black, Hastings, Tokely, Munro and Bayne in their prime aswell as having veterans like Wilson to call upon (Dodds aswell?). The time we were at our best sadly coincided with a lot of other teams being at their strongest in Hibs, Hearts, Celtic and Rangers, in this current league he wouldve had us up in 2nd or 3rd no problem at all. I'd rank the two managers who got us out of the 1st division ahead of the rest. Pele next for the players he signed and making us an absolute pleasure to follow.

Having loads of central midfielders on the books isn't a bad idea, it means you can send them out to get booked every week knowing there's replacements in reserve, either midway through a match or when the suspensions roll in.