nude_as_the_news

That's an excellent article, and it's good to see so much space in a national newspaper devoted to it. Without a doubt, much of our recent success has been down to Broonie, and he's probably our most valuable player. Who else kept 15 clean sheets in the SPL?! Walter Smith what are you thinking?!

Yeah, we can now focus on giving the players a proper break and getting a full pre-season under our belt. Should help us make a solid start in the league.

Bit pricey yeah, but my mate who's a Leicester fan has bought a shirt from them, and it's pretty good quality. I like it too, quite stylish, but what's going on with that collar?! On a side note, do you think the club will get any money from this? Do they own the copyright to the old Caley and Thistle badges and names etc.?

I really like all the ideas here for reducing costs for children. How about reducing tickets for certain matches (to say five quid), then handing out vouchers for reduced parent and child tickets for the following game. Holding a competition for schools in highland region to design an away top would also generate quite a bit of interest, I reckon. And it's not a new point, but why on earth are there no public busses to the stadium (e.g. ones running from the town centre)?! We also need a signal crossing on the road outside stadium, so people don't have to risk life and limb playing frogger to get accross. Why are these still issues?!

This thread is the stuff of nightmares :017: ! Dargo's transfer request?! Brewster in for Proctor, Black, Dods and... Rankin?! Think I'll just go for a lie down in the corner of the room, rock back and forth and hug my knees for a bit.

Managed to get tickets at the last minute, so was at the game. Surrounded by 50,000 Japanese fans but wore the Caley Jags shirt with pride! Actually thought Alexander was excellent tonight - strong positioning and a few good stops. Only spilled one long range shot (from Ogasawara?). Anyway, that said, should have been watching Brown!

Not sure about that, Sam. With the size of crowd we get, and our overall budget, then yes, we should just be thinking about survival. But we could have said the same thing when we were in the second and first divisions too. The fact is that the current squad have twice shown they're good enough to finish seventh, so shouldn't we be focusing on higher targets? It would start to change the way the club is perceived (in the press, with future players, and even with our own fans) if we started to showed a little ambition. Let's state top six as the target and see how we do.

If we can keep the squad together, as is now looking more likely, and bring in a couple of fresh faces, then sixth would be a possibility. As Barry said in the Brewster GIRUY interview, "The aim now is to break into the top six. Last year we finished eighth and this time around it was seventh, so going one better seems like the natural progression." Not sure if we'll hear the same words from CC, though!

Just want to add my support for the players to what’s already been written. They might not be super-stars, but for everything that they’ve achieved over the past season and before they’re heroes. Three managers have gone on to so-called ‘bigger’ teams and, so far, failed to equal the success here. This shows just how much players are putting in week in, week out. And when it comes to a situation when some of our players feel happier playing in away games rather than at home?! How badly does that reflect on us? I know that we would give anything to swap with the players for even a couple of minutes, and try to influence the game from the pitch, but we can’t (my park football skills just wouldn’t cut it in the SPL!). All we can do is get right behind the players, and if you hear some supporters getting on a player’s back, then just make sure you shout louder in support of him!

Barry's a hero! I realy enjoyed reading those comments, and hope to see more when, in a few years time, he takes over from CC as manager, and continues our Liverpool-like bid for domestic and European domination!

Fourth! We'll finish fourth, I say! What more to add, other than congrats to CC and Parkie. Fantastic season!

I agree, and think people are being a bit harsh here. He's only 18! Rory needs time to develop and giving him the contract now should help him feel more settled. I think he's quite skillful, but just seems to lack a bit of presence. The physical side should come with more experience in the first team, though.

Oh, god. A return to a top division of only 10 teams, playing each other four times, will have everyone dying of boredom. Not sure of the reasons for splitting an SPL 1 and 2 of just 10 teams each. Surely there's not that big a gap between the bottom of the SPL and the First Division? And Scotty, why don't you work for the SPL? Lots of good suggestions there. I'd like to see a non-league set-up in Scotland, similar to the Conference in England, and perhaps with a Northern and Southern section. The threat of relegation would put an end to any East Stirling type situations, and allow some more ambitious clubs a chance to show what they can do. Sadly, our leagues seem to be something of a protectionist racket. They fear change!

Think Romanov might try to keep the current manager, so he can continue in his role of evil pupet-master, and then try to bring in a bigger name as a Director of Football. This should help appease some of their disgruntled fans. Not sure why he isn't a bit more upfront with things and just appoint himself as manager though!

Let's hope that he's allowed to keep his place on Saturday then.

I agree, 16 teams would create a more open league. There'd be a little less fear of relegation for teams in the upper-half of the table, which would hopefully make for some better football. It would also mean a lot more chances for young Scottish players at the top level. And we could say goodbye to the split! What's to loose? CC makes some interesting comments on the topic here.

Yeah, come on Gretna, and ha! Rangers! Ha!

He's waited a long time to get this first start. Well done for keeping a clean sheet! Sadly I could only read the reports, but it sounded like he was quite involved and made a couple of good stops. What did anyone watching the game think?

Surely it's far too quick to be making those kind of statements. All three players have a way to go before establishing themselves as regulars, but I am just proud that we won with three local lads in the team. So congratulations to Fraser, Sutherland and Soane. Looks like we'll have some healthy competition for places next season!

Yeah, and you'd also have to divide the vast legions of **** on a roughly 50/50 basis for both sides of the old firm. Are statistics even available for this?

Hi Chook. Tried to get tickets today, at Lawson and Pia, but it's totally sold out. Even the 9,000yen tickets and all away seats! Time to use any Japanese connections you might have...

Ah, Teletext. Makes you go all fuzzy for the pre-internet days, when the biggest thrill on Saturday afternoon was waiting for zeros to turn into ones...

Was checking him on the SFA website and it turns out that Italian ranks as his "tastiest food", and the "person he'd most like to meet" is Nelson Mandela. What no favourite colour? Takes me back to my Smash Hits days.

Latapy's already made their provisional squad of 24 (with only one player to drop), so he'll be worthy of a cheer! I'd really like to see Fraser get a start, but perhaps with an experienced defence infront of him (e.g. no Parrat). Won't this mess with Brown's consecutive appearance record though?! When was the last time he didn't play?

I second that. We should be very, very proud of what we've done this season with practically no cash. And don't want to tempt fate, but we've also not been hammered by anyone yet. Outside the top three, can anyone else claim that?