hislopsoffsideagain

Think it's safe to say that both Gardyne and Vigurs are well past their best and are only going to decline further. Draper seems just too injury prone now. Mckay is an interesting one but I'm cautious about signing a striker who will be 33 in October and whose game is primarily based on pace and movement.

I could see us showing an interest in Callum Morris, who has done well at this level before. Jermaine Hylton would be an excellent signing as a wide player but I don't expect he would be interested.

An updated list after today's news of new contracts and yesterday's news of Daniel Mackay's impending exit.

Contract expiry dates:

End of 2020/21 season: Cammy Mackay, Kevin McHattie, Brad McKay, Aaron Doran, James Vincent, James Keatings (already signed a PCA with Raith), Miles Storey, Shane Sutherland, Nikolay Todorov

End of 2021/22 season: Mark Ridgers, Daniel Devine, Wallace Duffy, Ryan Fyffe, Cameron Harper, Harry Nicolson, Lewis Hyde, Anthony McDonald, Roddy MacGregor, Sean Welsh

End of 2022/23 season: Robbie Deas, Scott Allardice

End of 2023/24 season: David Carson

With Keatings leaving, there are eight players whose status at the club for next season remains up in the air.

14 hours ago, Satan said:

The commentary was poor, but the actual video package/picture & camera quality added to the lack of replays made the commentary seem semi professional. 

The club have had the ability to broadcast the game live with the cameras they use for highlights and with replays too since December (presumably with no added expense). However whoever it is that makes the decisions has decided that the Pixellot system, which the club is paying for, is the better option. Presumably they know best.

As a massive stats geek, this is tremendous news. Thanks, guys!

What we know:

- Raith Rovers' Iain Davidson got sent off against us on 16 March for a foul on Todorov.

- There was a bit of a melee afterward in which Davidson grabbed Sean Welsh by the throat. The referee showed a second red card for that.

- On 24 March Davidson was served a notice of complaint by the SFA for Excessive Misconduct. The hearing is on 15 April. It was reported in the press that this was related to "discriminatory comments made towards an Inverness player".

- Today Nikolay Todorov was served a notice of complaint by the SFA for Excessive Misconduct. The hearing is on 29 April.

- Aamar Anwar is the solicitor acting for Todorov. Anwar is representing Glen Kamara in the case of Kamara being allegedly racially abused by a Sparta Prague player.

According to the ICT statement:

- "it is alleged that Nikolay was subjected to racial abuse which left him shaken and upset. The alleged abuse was witnessed by others"

- "Nikolay chose to follow SFA procedures and immediately reported the matter to the match referee and accordingly a tribunal hearing into these allegations is to take place on the 15^th April 2021."

- "The present allegations are viewed as cynical, in that it has taken nearly one month for them to appear after an original complaint was made by Nikolay"

What we don't know:

- What has Todorov allegedly done that constitutes Excessive Misconduct?

According to the SFA, Excessive Misconduct "Means the commission of an offence listed in the Schedule of Offences in Annex C where there is an aggravation of that offence. Such aggravation may include, but is not limited to, (i) prolongation of the incident involving the commission of the offence and/or (ii) where a combination of different offences listed in the Schedule of Offences in Annex C have been committed and/or (iii) the continued use of offensive, abusing and/or insulting language and/or behaviour and/or (iv) calling a match official a cheat and/or implying that a match official is a cheat and/or calling a match official’s integrity into question and/or implying that a match official’s integrity should be brought into question and/or (v) failing to comply with a match official’s request and/or (vi) adopting aggressive behaviour towards a match official and/or (vii) the existence of any racist, sexist, sectarian and/or otherwise discriminatory element to the offence and/or (viii) the degree of any physical violence (ix) committing Unacceptable Conduct"

- Why has it taken nearly a month for them to cite Todorov?

Let's see how this pans out...

Contract expiry dates (I believe):

End of 2020/21 season: Cammy Mackay, Ryan Fyffe, Kevin McHattie, Brad McKay, Harry Nicolson, David Carson, Aaron Doran, Lewis Hyde, Anthony McDonald, James Vincent, James Keatings (already signed a PCA with Raith), Miles Storey, Shane Sutherland, Nikolay Todorov

End of 2021/22 season: Mark Ridgers, Daniel Devine, Wallace Duffy, Cameron Harper, Roddy MacGregor, Sean Welsh, Daniel Mackay

End of 2022/23 season: Robbie Deas, Scott Allardice

Here's the article confirming Welsh is with us for next season

6 hours ago, hislopsoffsideagain said:

Called it.

This feels very much like what happened to Partick Thistle last season, and Falkirk the season before.

I am feeling pretty worried.

We have:

- a thin squad that we can't reinforce

-a defence that lacks confidence and rarely keeps a clean sheet

- no reliable goalscorer

- a pretty exhausting run of matches

- managerial upheaval

- no fans to rally the players

This seems like the perfect recipe for a complete collapse, to be honest. If relegation can happen to Falkirk or Partick Thistle, it can happen to us.

The game on Saturday is huge; lose that and we are in massive trouble.

11 minutes ago, Row S said:

What ever happened to the potential for Caley Jags TV taking over the stream, commentary etc? The current service is worse than ever.

Obviously I'm biased because I commentated for their audio stream last season but it is just bizarre. They even ran a successful test broadcast of the Dundee game to prove they could do it - with on screen graphics and in-game replays to boot!

And yet the club still chooses to pay for Pixellot instead of using skilled, experienced volunteers...even though they're filming the game anyway. Then they use the CaleyJagsTV highlights too, which just emphasizes the difference in quality.

It is a really, really strange decision by the club.

I'm worried.

We were the only club in the Championship not to sign anyone in January. It's not like we have a bloated squad - we have just 15 players aged over 21 on our books. Having lost Kai Kennedy, we were a player down from the start of the month. And ever since the summer Robbo has talked of signing a striker. And yet, nothing.

I don't agree that there are loads of free agents out there - certainly there aren't many whose previous club was Scottish.

We are still able to loan players from the Premiership, but aside from Kennedy we do not have a good record of signing loan players under Robbo - and we have barely signed any in that time period. I appreciate that for most players finding them somewhere to live is an issue but Ayr and Morton managed to bring in loanees from English clubs so why can't we find any?

At the moment our best hope of reinforcement seems to be that Yogi might lend us a couple of guys that he doesn't want at County? But they don't really have much in the way of wingers and strikers to spare now.

My biggest concern is that we can't afford to strengthen the squad; if that's the case and everyone else is managing to do so then we have a big problem. Lose to Arbroath tonight and we're probably in a position where we're more likely to be in a relegation playoff than a promotion one.

2 hours ago, RiG said:

It wasn't a very dynamic team that we had out there on Wednesday. Solid, disciplined and any other bland cliches you can think of yes but a midfield triangle of Vincent, Welsh and Allardice is fine for knocking the ball around and protecting the back four but it won't pick a pass through a tight midfield and unlock a defence. 

I like Danny Mckay and he took his goal very well but again he isn't a particularly creative wide man. Doran should offer more but it's a big task to ask him to be the main, if not only, creative force in the team. There is a massive Kai Kennedy shaped hole in the team already such was his impact when he was here. At the very least a Tom Walsh type would be very welcome as it would offer some attacking threat on the opposite flank from Doran.

No pressure Robbo...

This is spot on.

With Kennedy having left we are already down a wide player compared to where we were at the start of the window. Robbo has also previously said he wanted another striker, and I can understand why.

If anything, the defence is the biggest problem. We continue to concede too many soft goals, especially from set pieces. The trouble is that a chunk of budget will be taken up by McHattie and Toshney who have spent the whole season injured.

I appreciate finances will be tight just now, but the trouble is that in football you have to run just to stand still. In this window already Alloa (Innes Cameron), Arbroath (Jack Hamilton), Dundee (Jason Cummings), Hearts (Armand Gnanduillet) and QOS (Dapo Mebude) have brought in forwards who I fancy are better than any we have. If we end up not bringing in any reinforcements then I cannot see us getting anywhere near the playoffs.

A wee bit of positive news, I hope - Andy and his team (who do the highlights filming from the A9 side of the ground) invited me along on Saturday to act as the 'commentator' for a test run of their new software which allows them to live stream the game with those cameras with some graphics (not Sky Sports-esque, but still pretty decent looking) and also run instant replays of incidents as part of the live coverage. They even set up a monitor so I could actually see the stream and the replays during commentary.

Everything seemed to work great and as far as I can tell there's no reason why their cameras can't be used as the source of the live stream for matches moving forward rather than the Pixellot camera.

Well, that was a joy to watch. There was a little too much last-ditch defending for my liking at 1-0, but we were the better team in the first half and absolutely turned the screw in the second. According to the BBC, QOS didn't even have a shot on target.

I particularly love the way the forwards are swapping positions and causing havoc with their movement. It was the same against Raith and is a sign of a very well-coached team, I think. It was also clear that we had a plan for how we we could hurt QOS, so more kudos to Robbo.

Its unreal to think Kennedy and MacGregor are still only 18. Hopefully the amount of action Kennedy is getting will convince Rangers to let us keep him past January because he is some winger. Putting a 36 year old emergency full-back up against him just seemed cruel. I thought last season was too early for MacGregor but he clearly belongs now. That finish was stunning, especially given the ball sat up in front of him.

Great stuff lads. Bring on Dundee!

1 hour ago, Moogthurso said:

Done a back to back comparison of these cameras recently on a live stream. 

The west cameras streamed quality was much lower definition for the duration but the camera was zoomed in 200% more and tracked effectively. 

The autotracking and lack of zoom on pixielot was the major problem but clarity and definition much better.

So there did seem to be streaming issue with that feed. The ICTFC highlights later were glorious and sharp so definately a live stream issue at that time. 

How did you manage to get to watch a game live on the west cameras, and how do the rest of us get to do so as well?

38 minutes ago, RiG said:

I can only imagine there must be some reason that the cameras on the A9 side can't be used for streaming games. What they would be I don't know but it's a question that's well worth asking the club because the difference in quality is night and day.

The cameras on the A9 side can definitely be used for streaming games - I know because I commentated on one that was being streamed live as a test run last season. 

Have the club got some sort of agreement in place with the providers of the Pixellot system that requires them to use the camera for every live broadcast?

It's a shame because Andy and his team do an amazing job with the highlights and I expect would be able to put together a fantastic package for live coverage as well if given the opportunity.

Our attacking play looks really terrific. Keatings, Storey and Sutherland look like they can swap positions at will, while Kennedy is clearly a player. Its certainly more pleasing on the eye than playing with a more static target man.

Also looks like the midfield didn't miss a beat, even with Welsh not fit to start. McGregor clearly did a good job in a deeper role, while we need to sign up Allardice on a long-term deal pronto.

There's still weaknesses that will be exploited by better teams, but there's some very promising signs here.

29 minutes ago, Scotty said:

First impressions are that camera is a bit shaky/jerky and on one occasion it reset and took me back to the start of the game just as there was some action in the box. Other than that not completely terrible. I still think @ANDYCAM does a better job from the other side of the park though. 

commentary is a bit flat but he is doing his best I think. Better than most of us would be able to do in the same situation. Can hear the rustling of pages as he checks things and to be fair he did admit to having difficulty working out the EF players due to their strip colours. Also think commentary is always better when you have a second person to do the colour commentary and so that they can feed of each other. 

The trick for working out who the opposing players are is to watch footage of/read up on previous games (so you know what likely position each player will be in), to check photos online beforehand and to watch the warmup and identify players with distinctive haircuts/boots.

Devine was never anywhere near the level of Warren or Meekings in his first spell with us, and has been lousy at Partick and then Dunfermline for the last few years. I wouldn't trust him as a starter at this level at all. We now have three players - McKay, Devine and Toshney - competing to start alongside Deas in central-defence, but I wouldn't trust any of the three of them (in Toshney's case, because he is made of glass).

We didn't need another centre-back. We need a right-back. Really badly.

19 minutes ago, hislopsoffsideagain said:

Me yesterday:

"It's fine that we're not signing anyone because there's still two months left in the transfer window, there's going to be lots of players available at cheaper rates come October so we'll be in a strong position".

 

Me today after hearing Tom Walsh has signed for Ayr United:

"IT'S THE END OF THE F*****G WORLD!!!"

That said, Robbie Deas was great for Alloa last season, and he's only 20. Really pleased with that move. If we're handing out three year contracts we can't be too short of cash...right?

The club is pleased to announce the signing of Robbie Deas from Celtic

Full Story https://t.co/87MCHqQAsV

@TMPfoto pic.twitter.com/0S60GqYs35

— Official ICTFC (@ICTFC) August 6, 2020

Me yesterday:

"It's fine that we're not signing anyone because there's still two months left in the transfer window, there's going to be lots of players available at cheaper rates come October so we'll be in a strong position".

Me today after hearing Tom Walsh has signed for Ayr United:

"IT'S THE END OF THE F*****G WORLD!!!"

52 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

I am not convinced that, good as consistent as Ridgers is, that goalkeeper is ever the best position for onfield captain.

If Doran is up for it  I would be inclined to hand him the armband.

I would be disappointed if a modern football team still relied on one individual to be the team leader on the pitch. I would be expecting several experienced individuals to take leadership roles as and when required.

Outside the UK it's very common for the captain to either be the star player or the longest serving player at the club, because it's more of a ceremonial role. Doran fits the latter and I'd happily give him the armband on the assumption that plenty of his teammates would also provide leadership on the pitch.

On 7/11/2020 at 1:04 PM, RiG said:

The only team in the league making any real signings is Dunfermline and that's because they sold Nisbet to Hibs. Everyone else seems to be very cautious and I think we are hedging our bets to see what league we might be in. I seem to recall Gardiner saying something along those lines?

Anyway, we are in a better position than someone like QotS who have three players signed up for the coming campaign.

Indeed. By my reckoning, Dunfermline still have fewer players aged over 21 (12) than us (13). And yes, Queen of the South have just three players. Ayr, Morton and Raith are still furloughing their squads but I expect a lot of players to leave the former two clubs at the end of July. 

We are starting from a pretty okay position, at least in terms of numbers.

This is definitely going to be a buyers market. There will be a lot of free agents who will have to accept much cheaper contracts this season than they normally would have done. The loan market is also going to be important, especially if they cancel the reserve league this year and Premiership clubs need to find somewhere for their youngsters to play.

1 hour ago, RiG said:

This was the thing that puzzled me. Tremarco, IIRC, was still on a contract from our final season in the Premiership (I'm not sure if he signed a new deal after relegation?) so a new deal on those wages was clearly a non starter. I don't understand why we didn't offer him a new deal on a reduced wage, maybe saying this is the most we can offer you and see if he would take it. That article appears to confirm that it was simply a case of the club were letting him go and ho no interest whatsoever in retaining him which seems quite strange. His performances last season were still of a good enough standard to warrant one more season at this level. Not offering him anything at all seems an odd move. 

For one thing, I believe the club is very, very big on Cameron Harper. If they fancy him as the starting LB next season then it's not good value for us to hold on Tremarco even on a reduced wage, when that could be used on another part of the squad (the rest of the defence, for example!!!)

Whilst Carl is very bullish about his own ability - and to be fair he was very good last season - he is nearly 35 and is already clearly a bit slower than he was at his peak. He's only going to slow down further and he's at an age where the legs can go very quickly...and plays a position where athleticism is vital.