hislopsoffsideagain

Very, very pleasing news.

According to the P&J today, Davidson, Nicolson and Corner, who all have long-term injuries, have been offered deals to January 2026

So the current squad status is as follows (contract expiry in brackets; players who haven't played for the first team not included):

GOALKEEPERS

Szymon Rebilas (summer 2026)

DEFENDERS

Daniel Devine (summer 2027)

Sam Nixon (summer 2026)

Matthew Strachan (summer 2026)

Jack Walker (summer 2026)

MIDFIELDERS

Ben Gardiner (summer 2026)

Shae Keogh (summer 2026)

Luis Longstaff (summer 2027)

Adam MacKinnon (summer 2026)

Calum MacLeod (summer 2027)

Robbie Thompson (summer 2026)

FORWARDS

Billy Mckay (summer 2026)

OFFERED CONTRACTS: Musa Dibaga, Jake Davidson, Lewis Nicolson, Remi Savage, Paul Allan, Charlie Gilmour, Ben Corner

LEFT CLUB: Ethan Cairns (released)

LOANS ENDED: Alfie Bavidge, Ben Brannan, Keith Bray, Connall Ewan, Marcus Gill, James Nolan, Alfie Stewart

I actually found this a stark reminder of where we're starting from for next season.

Of the guys who have signed so far, I'd only have Devine, MacKinnon and Longstaff down as League One starting XI quality (maybe I'm being harsh on Strachan?). Everyone else aside from Mckay, who is of course also assistant manager, is still very much developing.

Think we may have to really push the boat out if we want to keep any of the Big Four there. All have done enough to attract offers at a higher level than this.

We will have a lot of work to do in the summer, which is why we need to nail down that CVA pronto and make sure we don't fall behind in the free agent market. And we need to be as good at using the loan market as last year too!

Some highlights for you!

I actually went to the County home game that day and had Open All Mics on the radio. Our first goal was so quick that County hadn't even kicked off. By the second half whoever was updating the score was in fits - "it's six-nil and some Caley fans have invaded the pitch...it's seven-nil and ALL the Caley fans have invaded the pitch now!"

Who we can and can't keep will depend firstly on being out of admin and secondly on which division we are in.

As stated, MacKinnon is the only player under contract.

Bavidge, Brannan, Bray, Ewan, Nolan and Stewart will finish their loans; I'm not sure any of them will be rushing back for another season in League One (let alone League Two)

Assuming Kellacher continues as manager, it seems possible - likely? - that Billy Mckay could continue as his assistant, which would seem like a good moment to hang up his boots. He'll be 37 in October.

I expect other clubs to be sniffing around Dibaga, Allan and Gilmour; holding on to some or all of them would be a pleasant surprise.

One thing is for certain: there is no stopping him; Alan Savage will soon own ICT.

And I, for one, welcome our new Orion overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted football blogger, I can be helpful in rounding up other fans to toil in their underground recruitment caves.

Managing to get all those folk around the same table without any blood being spilled is an achievement in itself.

The optimist in me thinks this might be an attempt to put public pressure on those who are holding out over the surrounding land and having loans repaid to back down.

The (much bigger) pessimist in me is now far more worried that we are Donald Ducked.

3 hours ago, LisleRightPeg said:

I’m not going to pretend I fully understand that document but it doesn’t read well. I fully expect us to lose a few players in the January transfer window to acquire money 

Clubs around our level can't afford anything much in terms of transfer fees - a few grand at most. We're more likely to lose players for nothing if clubs are willing to take on their wages, but if that weakens the squad and makes us more likely to be relegated - making us less valuable to a buyer - then the administrators may well decide we're better off holding on to those players.

The administrators will want a cheap option - ideally someone who is already employed by the club who can take on the extra role with minimal extra remuneration.

Charlie Christie would have been an obvious choice but he's now got CEO responsibilities.

Sounds like Bollan and Garden are gone too (Ferguson said "my two coaches have left") so that would leave Kellacher as an option.

There's also the possibility of asking senior players whether they would take over management duties - Billy Mckay has already been involved in coaching the youth teams...

Remember, what's important is not how many goals we score, or how many points we get, but how many slow sideways and backward passes are made #Duncball https://t.co/XukxEXVX9I

— Narey's Toepoker (@Nareystoepoker) August 10, 2024

Things we know so far:

Seventy7 Ventures has a website that is big on fancy, exciting sounding words and pretty small on detail. It's most recent accounts don't show a lot of money and suggest that Mr Makwana, at the time, was their only employee.

A man called Jimmy Nguyen, an Vietnamese-American lawyer who owns a company called New Win Global (which, like Seventy7 Ventures, mentions blockchain a lot) and who is on the Seventy7 Ventures' executive board, bought a chunk of Seventy7 Ventures in May. In June the company took out a loan from a private investment firm called Factortech.

A third person who is on the website as being on the executive board, Michael Jacobsen, actually resigned as a director in September 2023. He is still a shareholder though.

Seventy7 Ventures appear to have been involved with Hayes & Yeading United (in tier 8 of English football) last year. Mr Makwana made posts on LinkedIn in the autumn of 2023 which seemed to suggest he owned the club. In December however he published a tweet that seemed to suggest that the takeover process was still ongoing and there doesn't appear to be anything since to confirm whether he is still involved or not.

Things we don't know so far:

How will they go about investing?

Where's the money actually coming from?

What on earth would they want with a dysfunctional Scottish League One club?

After forensically examining the company and the people involved (and definitely not just googling for the last half an hour and seeing what I can find) I share the concerns of others.

I'm also not entirely sure how they manage to acquire a majority shareholding, unless either there's an agreement to buy out a dozen or more of the people/groups who own the most shares, or if there is a new share issue that allows them to gain equity for their investment?

16 minutes ago, SMEE said:

There is more exciting football on show in the above clip, that what i saw on show at the whole of Euro 2024. Could you imagine teams now trying to deal with attack minded players rushing at them, at pace. Shows how much the game has deteriorated over the years

Indeed. If only a tricky, speedy attacker like Nico Williams, or Bukayo Saka, or Jamal Musiala had been involved in the tournament 

Going back on topic, Hayes might be my favourite ICT player ever. The goal above was a particular highlight, but I can think of others: the way he terrorised defences in our promotion season; a late equaliser against Dunfermline in the cup where he deflected the keeper's clearance into the net and then ran off to the corner flag with his hand over his mouth; a win over Hibs where he gifted them a goal with an errant pass and almost instantly demanded the ball from the kickoff and promptly set up Adam Rooney to score; more than one occasion where he raced 70 yards at full speed to halt an opposition counter-attack. There was no messing about, no pointless tricks or showboating; just a guy who worked his ass off for 90 minutes every week, with and without the ball. We were privileged to have him for a few seasons.

Maybe the lack of information about 'new investor(s)' is necessary, for confidentiality reasons. Unfortunately the club's current custodians have not earned the right to receive any benefit of the doubt from supporters. There are still an awful lot of important questions left unanswered even from the snippets of information in the public domain. For example:

- Are we getting actual new ownership - as Ferguson seems to be suggesting - or just new people investing in the club? Are these new investors current shareholders or people from outside?

- The accounts state that new investors will provide funding via a share purchase. But this would either be through a purchase of existing shares (difficult when there are so many minor shareholders) or through the issuing of new shares (and can the board just do this without getting agreement from current shareholders?)?

- How on earth can David Cameron have stepped down as a director in 2022, yet Companies House not be informed until a few weeks ago? And why have the club continued listing him on the website as a director since then? It's not as if the page hasn't been updated, as new directors have been added in the last two years. Has it anything to do with the fact that Mr Cameron is, along with our former chairman, a director of the Battery Farm company?

And that's just the finance stuff. We still haven't got an explanation as to why Aaron Doran and other departing players were treated so dreadfully.

Dan Wagaluka

From the limited info available, here's my educated guess at what Caley Thistle's retained/released list would look like pic.twitter.com/xfuBRg4OTu

— Narey's Toepoker (@Nareystoepoker) June 25, 2024

Argh, somehow I left Ridgers off the released list

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/it-is-only-right-that-people-know-the-truth-caley-thistl-316520/

Flashback to a year ago, when Shane Sutherland complained about the manner of his release and the club made a big song and dance about how they not only offered players formal meetings to discuss their release (if they had been at the club for 2 or more years) but also that they required to by employment law; there was even a SPFL template letter to use.

So, how are they doing with fulfilling this requirement this time around?

Not starting preseason till next week is not so strange when you consider our season ended a fortnight later than most other clubs'. From social media it appears that most clubs returned to training this week.

However the lack of any news on signings/player releases and our manager disappearing off the face of the earth are hugely concerning. It'll be hard to do preseason without a goalkeeper, for a start.

I would normally expect a fit, active adult in their early thirties who had sustained an ACL rupture and who saw an NHS orthopaedic consultant to (after a long wait, of course!) get an ACL repair - regardless of whether they are a professional athlete or not. Having a ruptured ACL and a potentially unstable knee has ramifications for any sort of physical activity, both recreational and as part of employment - and also results in an increased risk of osteoarthritis in the knee within the next decade or two.

So for Aaron to be told - by a retired orthopaedic surgeon, no less - "to try and rehab it" - well...draw your own conclusions as to why that was suggested to him as an option.

Every day I think that nothing about this club and the current situation could appal me any more...and yet every day they manage to outdo themselves.

34 minutes ago, Fraz said:

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/sport/ridgers-hurt-by-terrible-ict-communication-352847/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

Shameful but exactly what I'd expect.  

It's a disgrace. Even if we're not in a position to offer players contracts the club should be making this clear instead of leaving them in the lurch. Just another embarrassment in a very long list of embarrassments over the last few weeks.

The last time we were relegated I believe the players who were released only heard about it when the club put up a list on the website - I'm not sure this is an improvement.

Hopefully there will be some clarity from the club today. At the time of writing, we have no chairman, our accounts are overdue and a major income stream from Statkraft has fallen through, while we don't know which players have been offered new contracts (or if any actually have been offered new deals) and any player recruitment is surely on hold until Keltygate is resolved.

I suspect - and hope - that Alan Savage is positioning himself as the club's saviour, or at least as the figurehead for those who might step in and rescue the situation.. His youth academy gesture has got him some credit with the support, and he's publicised his disgust with the Kelty plan and with Gardiner. But the outgoing board will want some of the money they've put into the club back, and their replacements will not want to give them a penny because of the mess that they wlll have to clear up. The longer it takes to sort that out, the weaker our position will get and the more likely administration becomes.

Indeed. I know of previous club physios who have been local and who were employed by the club - while they were in the top flight - without having previously worked with a full-time sports club at any point.

17 minutes ago, CaleyCiuin said:

Includes manager, assistant manager, physio, sports scientist as well as non local players who have a prescribed budget for accommodation. The current physio (about to change), when his job was advertised recently, the advert included accommodation. Surely these same individuals will need housing in the Fife area too?????

Forgive me if I'm being dumb, but can we really not find a physiotherapist locally? The last advert I could find online (from 2022) for a new club physio didn't mention accomodation then.

£200k/year on accomodation (as per Morrison's comments in that interview) sounds like quite a figure. Going rent for a 4 bedroom house (surely bigger than what is needed) in Inverness seems to be about £1300/month. So that would be equivalent of paying entire rent (not just contribution towards it) for nearly 13 houses?!