Eagle4Caley

The start of my relationship with Caley   

2 hours ago, Renegade said:

I don't think anyone truly expects us not to sign a couple of donkeys every season but injured or not, my God was Zschusschen bad.  

If you think this guy is bad or money has been wasted....my other team Palace signed Jordan Mutch from QPR about 3 years ago for nearly £5million and very good money, he's had a handful of games, rarely impressed, not scored a goal, not been injured so far, but has been pretty much consigned to the U23 side under various Managers...doesn't seem to play even there, despite being named in our 25man first team squad, and we can't seem to get rid of even on loan, he still has another year and a half on his contract. I know that in the moneybags EPL we shouldn't be bothered by money constraints but we are, to the extent that we keep haggling to hard in transfer windows and missing out on players.

Such is football I guess

We got Austin in pretty early and have tidied up the squad with 'big wage' earners David Raven and OFW off the books plus obvious deadwood/no-hopers Eldson, Cooper, and 'Susan' released or leaving. Coll Donaldson has been secured with a longer contract. Interestly some had Calder marked for an exit but he seems to have really up his game in January. With Daniel Mackay getting some game time and his first goal that is a plus along with Doran's continuing rehabilition. Presumably Zak Elbouzedi will come back from Elgin City have had some game time.

Overall I think we have done a decent job over two windows trimming the squad to suit income and rebuilding.

Ross County do seem to have snapped up a lot of players (fairly average ones though?) in an effort to stay up...but could cost them later, and so far doesn't see to be having any affect

4 hours ago, Biggin said:

Indiscipline cost us again as well as failure to take chances that we had early on looks like play off places now a distant dream  will settle for safety this season. Mulraney idiotic behaviour

Actually the play-offs are no further away than when we kicked off today, and that includes 2nd place, just one less game to achieve it....the red cards are a problem and are costing us points, JR and the club need to sort this quickly without losing the competitive spirit.

We have to be careful now... from the BBC text it looks like we're losing our heads as a team... need to avoid more suspensions and limit goals against

Just now, snorbens_caleyman said:

Followed up by the other classic gaffe - conceding a goal as soon as the second half starts.

By giving away a penalty

8 minutes ago, Scotty said:

apparently we have more reds this season than any other team in Scotland !!!!

Don't you mean all of Scotland?!?

Still at least we are used to playing with 10men

19 hours ago, HawkeyeTheGnu said:

The premiership side get a bye to the playoff final. 

There is 1 QF - Champ 3 v Champ 4

1 SF - Champ 2 v QF Winner

Final - Prem 11 v SF Winner

So the only real advantage is to finish 2nd and have 2 less games  

 

I think that's a useful advantage!

We play Dundee Utd twice before the end of the season...that gap is close-able

We probably didn't think it at the start of the season, but (injuries and suspensions aside) we probably have the squad to get through a long play-off, with decent enough strike options in Bell/Oakley/Austin(?) and yes even Baird. Nice options on the wing with Doran and Mulraney, defensive strength, and not a bad looking midfield with Vigurs, Polworth, Chalmers and Trafford. (You can tell I'm also a CPFC fan ...relentless optimism!)

On 21/01/2018 at 10:04 PM, Caman said:

But if they keep up their current run of form they'll be doomed long before that. Shame!! 

I have a sneaky feeling we'll be playing RC in the Play-off final!

I get the feeling that Chalmers and Inverness are a good fit for each other.... strikes me as a player you miss when he's not playing. Guys like Chalmers (and Trafford) do the work that allow the other more creative players to prosper.

We can all see now that the club and Robbo have done a pretty good job of rebuilding the team. I'm excited by the potential.

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

Interesting that after that remarkable run of clean sheets (10 in 11 matches) we’ve now gone 6 games without one. Not that I’m complaining, as overall the team seems to be playing better now.

TBF it's no more than a goal a game....and three of those games, we were down to 10men, the settled backline that had that great record,  hasn't been settled in those 6 games, so I think it's still a solid run, defensively...seems that Calder has settled in and looked good past couple of games, and if Seedorf could stay fit he has real potential.

Great to see Doran score today. he looked pretty good against Falkirk as well...it's almost like a new quality signing

Has to be said after a shambolic season last year and a difficult summer and start to the season, the team has come on leaps and bounds, and in Donaldson, Bell, Chalmers, Oakley, Seedorf, Ridgers and Calder we are seeing additions that are looking worthwhile having been given a bit of time (I think Trafford is in the same category, but hasn't played much recently, Baird I think has done OK, Austin obviously to soon to tell). Both Mulraney and Brad Mckay seem to have kicked on this year, and for all the criticism of him Polworth looks an increasingly important player for us. Vigurs and Tremarco have been stella for us, but I'm looking at the newbies and the youngsters

Not only am I up for the Falkirk home game in March...but I have managed to sort another trip up for our last home game against Dumfermline, my gut feeling is we'll have secured a play-off position by the end of that game, the play-offs are of course a marathon if you finish in 3rd/4th, and I don't think it's been done very often, but I can see us going the whole way (which I didn't expect to be saying a few months ago) if we are lucky with injuries, and suspensions.

2 hours ago, standbydave said:

Its a long time since I have seen us score 3 first half goals,great team play for them too,and I was pleased when Baird got a goal too

Looks like Nathan Austin is already having an effect! Oakley does seem to be finding the net quite regularly now

Overall a great result .... I think we've killed any prospect of relegation, and now seem to be looking more likely as a play-off contender with 3rd place looking very attainable.

Gripping stuff following that at work, I guess I would have taken the point given the sending off...if we could have just kept 11 on the park!

Still thinking we'll eventually get into the play-offs

Seems like a good move

On 26/12/2017 at 11:59 AM, RiG said:

It's absolutely nothing to do with this fictitious last man "rule". Unfortunately it was a clear red card, one of the few times the referee actually showed a degree of authority and got the decision right.

Watching the highlights Mortons No.9 blocks Tremarco deliberately during one attack to stop him covering the wing play, then holds him back....Tremarco puls him over to get clear...the ref sees that but misses both infringements by their player

Ridgers pulled off a couple of great saves...one from a free kick showing a fleetness of foot that would shame my other team's so-called Welsh No.1

Hard to tell from a few hghlights but Seedorf looked OK, particularly going forward

So far we have only been beaten in the last 12 games when we have been down to 10 men.

James Vincent always seemed a bit injury prone....probably not a good bet

His run up the pitch to score the winning goal in the Cup Final is the memory we should let linger in our hearts for eternity

From the highlights, which admittedly will probably have painted a rosier picture, we looked pretty decent and could well have won by a couple more, with Ridgers only having to make one pretty decent save to keep us in front. A 10th clean sheet in 11 games though....alright not against the mightiest of opposition, but in anybody's book that's pretty impressive stuff!

Coupled to a thumping win for my other side, made me as happy as Larry...oh and what a way for Celtic to lose their unbeaten run!

Just seen on Twitter, Carl has penned a two year extension to his contract. Great news, that's half the defence sorted

We're going in the right direction

If we get Connor Bell tied up soon, that'll make a good Christmas

Fantastic!... I enjoyed letting the guys in my London office know about this. They gave me a slightly bemused response!

Something rather awesome about a team that got relegated rather badly, faced all sorts of upheaval over the summer, with a large turnover of players with a lot of newcomers of perhaps questionable pedigree (by that I mean experience and quality) having had a terrible start to the season, and earning strong criticism from fans, questioning both players and managers competence, now completing 9 shutouts out of 10games (with the one loss aided and abetted by incompetent officials)...with the latest after a horrendous journey down. if there's such a thing, this season is becoming a bit of a mini epic, one that makes me proud to consider myself an ICT supporter.

By coincidence my other team also earned a battling draw after a difficult journey away, but just a mere 2 and half hours stuck on a train in the cold and dark!

Chuffed for Baird, and Oakley....Bell on target again, and another clean sheet. It might be 'only' Brechin, but actually they've rarely been stuffed this season and got a decent draw with Dundee Utd at the weekend. With Brad's goal that is more tonight than all our previous home league games!

I tend to like the Big Man/Small Man combination which would suggest Oakley and Bell together.... be interesting with Doran on one side and Mulraney on the other

However I've liked what I've seen of Baird in recent games, if both Baird and Oakley could start scoring goals we'd have a nice problem on our hands

Yes good work....... Obviously spurred on by the 'Robertson Out' thread

On ‎04‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 8:32 PM, Charles Bannerman said:

Good question indeed, Blair. Let's first state that a club playing high level Scottish football in front of 3-odd000 in Inverness isn't fundamentally financially viable, before going back a bit to start the financial thread.

 Input from Tulloch disposed of a £2.3M debt in 2000 and thereafter, combined with good housekeeping, got the club playing SPL football debt free in a compliant stadium in Inverness. Even by 2006/07, I understand that Charlie Christie had a £650pw wage cap imposed on him. Thereafter, with the club needing to stand on its own two feet, it became a case of relying on windfalls to balance the books (roughly). These principally took the form of performance windfalls for league placings and cup runs, player transfers - most conspicuously Ryan Christie's - and the sale of the Social Club. CJuice raises a valid issue about other possible transfer revenue and, albeit in the context of guys simply going for nothing on pre-contracts, performance in this respect would be worth evaluating - remembering also that your team takes a hit every time you sell a player.

I get the impression that expanding player budgets began under Butcher who seems to have been adept at persuading chairmen - but in return made some very effective signings and brought in performance income. The real problem, in my view, began with Yogi and continued under Richie Foran. Here the signings were far poorer value for possibly still increasing money and, I suspect, began to pressurise the finances - with decreasing effect on the field after winning the Cup, largely with Butcher players. These were replaced by YH and RF with inferior but at least as expensive signings who effectively earned the club a very expensive relegation.

This year's accounts - presumably due soon - should make interesting reading although they are never required to be as revealing as many would like. Notwithstanding, they are likely to continue a story of the legacy of the club having, under YH and RF, paid more and more for less and less.

In the end of club of ICT's size needs to have a 'selling' policy to survive, whilst sustaining any sort of premiership ambitions. So we need to identify those players who've we bought in, that look like having future resell value and ensure they are given longer (rolling) contract extensions quite quickly...guys like Bell, Mulraney, and Donaldson probably fit that profile. Obviously there's a limit to how many we can do that with, and there has to be an acceptance from supporters that this is a necessary evil. Mind you transfer fees of £50 to 200K don't fit the bill, and we would still need to be able to employ one or two 'old hands' to steady the ship.

19 hours ago, Row S said:

Much improved from 5 weeks ago, yes, but oh how we desperately need a forward who can score regularly taking these chances being created by our resurgent and rampant midfield.  The misses by Mulraney and Bell were woeful. That said I didn't see how Bell was off-side for his "goal" in the first half.

I see that Alex Fisher was warming the bench yet again for Motherwell on Saturday. This may increase our chances of getting him back (at least on loan) in January.  

 

1 on 1's are not certain goals, Bell was pretty close to Alexander with a tight angle, whereas Mulraney probably could have done better, although it looked like the ball got stuck under his foot when he went to shoot. ....if he was playing more regularly of course he may have done better as situations like that become more instinctive. ....that disallowed goal against Bell must have been the tightest of decisions, it looks to me on the replay there is at least one outfielder and the goalie in front of Bell. I think one or both of the officials played safe. I agree with RiG, Livi were definitely hanging on!