Council Juice

If what you mean is that KC wasn't very good at keeping to a stringent budget and struggled to say no to the manager when they kept asking for more then I'd probably be inclined to agree there. Once the budget is thrashed out and agreed upon it is then up to the manager to find appropriate talent in that budget range. It did seem quite often last season that the chairman was very generous in trying to get Foran out of a hole. As for giving him a 4 year deal in the first Place? That was ridiculous no matter who it is getting the job, never mind a rookie. 2 years initially and then extend it at end of the first season if deemed worthy.

While the challenge cup may not be the most glamorous, or the most lucrative in terms of prize money and revenue, it can be a good opportunity to rotate the squad a little and if we do well, like win it, it can act as a springboard towards the rest of the league campaign. Players tails go up and such. I find myself not even looking at the website for information tbh. If it can't even keep a match date, time and venue up to date then it becomes almost pointless.

- OfW- - McKay - Elsdon - Warren - - Raven - - Seedorf - Vigurs - Trafford - Calder - - Baird - Oakley -

Obviously the chairman/board sets the budgets but it's the manager that identifies the players who they can get for that budget. And whilst the chairman might block a signing because of financial reasons "sorry we can't afford him" it's clearly undermining a manager if they are having a say on signing the player due to quality. "NAH sorry boss he's guff." Generally the money men will trust the managers/coaches/head of recruitments judgement regarding the player and then try to ensure the contract falls into the budget. They might go back and say he wants "x" to which they all might come to agreement he's not worth that percentage of the player budget.

Any official website has to up to date and accurate. Breaking news such as signings should be announced on site before there's anything near a media tip off. And any necessary changes regarding departures needs to be kept on top of. The process should be a statement and then have the media team remove any necessary material straight away. If anything pictures should be removed before the announcement is published. Getting new signing news via digging around secondary journalistic sources shouldn't happen.

I've got to agree with RIG there. The final decision on signing players has to lie with the manager. Especially considering that he'd be the one to assess what he needs and if those being looked at are suitable. If the chairman doesn't trust the managers judgement then you'd have to wonder how the manager got the job. If the manager asks for a player to be signed and the club can afford it they have to go with it. If not its a relationship that won't work. However If I remember correctly that when Hughes was signing utter nonsense like Lopez and complaining that he didn't have the resources to sign an adequate goalscorer, it was in fact Cameron who located Miles Storey. Not Hughes. In hindsight it's worrying that one of the most successful signings during his tenure was done by the chairman. I'm baffled how we're able to offer 3 year deals in the championship. Most teams generally stick to 2 years, as a) it presents less risk, you don't want to be stuck with a dud for 2 years or pay a contract up to release them. No budget room. and b) it motivates the player to earn a new deal. Contract extension clauses can always be added if they prove successful. When Butcher was signing players most were brought in on 1 year deals initially. We didn't actually lose many of them at this instance. It was usually at the end of their 2nd deal. The longer term deal that Draper got has earned us 100k. So that's a positive. As for Raven, if his wages are an issue, and he's still capable of delivering on the pitch why not offer to swap his remaining 6 month contract with a 12 month deal on lower wages and appearance money? As someone settled in the area having a years contract, despite earning less, might be favourable.

I personally thought OfW had a positive impact in his first season here. Unfortunately last season the defence was woeful and he struggled with 2 very restricting injuries for a keeper which really impacted on his overall form. Certainly overall as much as a positive impact as Jordan Roberts anyway.

Hopefully the Dunfermline game acts as a watershed and we can push on and at least challenge for the playoffs once the new signings settle in. Unfortunately we've lost most of our spine and 3 of the other remaining players are out injured. Which makes it all the more bewildering that we won't use Raven. Surely a bit more game time gets him match fit and in the shop window if he's still surplus. At the very least utilise his services until his contract expires in January (unless he has an appearances extension clause in his deal) and we've long term injuries back.

Is £228k a year really a lot for what is being paid for. I'd have thought rental rates for a building that size would be significantly more. Or at least they would in Edinburgh. I've not much idea of the current Inverness business rental market. Maybe this is really why we've been "donated" them. The rates have now more than covered Tullochs costs of building the stands and maintenance. It's essentially paid off.

Had Malpas been brought in to help sooner we might have stayed up. All ifs and buts now of course.

I know Danny McDonald has been appointed General Manager so that the CEO role and this could be separated. I don't know if it's more a business side of things or entails the DoF role in the same type of way that Adriano Galliani did at Milan. What I'd like to see is a model whereby one person links all sides of the football operation so that they work seamlessly with one another. Make ict an attractive place to develop young stars of the future and as a next step for emerging talent. A model also needs to be found to capitalise on successful players who are departing. Far too many star players have left for nothing making it extremely hard to replace them adequately. Hopefully with different voices on the board these things can be looked into.

So who's this new Romanian international that's coming in then? I'd still like to see someone in a DoF role. Although maybe not Grassa. He's had his time. I've mentioned him before but I think CC would be quite suited to that role. He's got a long term connection to the club. An affinity with the club and lives locally. He'd be in for the long haul. He's articulate and intelligent. Has a good bond with fans. Has football knowledge. I'm not saying it has to be him but he ticks a lot of boxes for me. We need someone who could combine a DoF/head of recruitment/head of youth development type role. Someone with a model and general oversight of the football side and scouting. Leave first team football to the first team manager. He still has final say on players. However the DoF is the one doing the graft of inviting players for trial. Collating scout reports etc. I think it's high time that the club developed a model of football business. A philosophy that generally dictates signings and youth development up to the first team. Hopefully the new board recognise this as the last few years have just been a continuous run of false starts in that regard.

Personally I'd look at a 3-5-2/3-4-3/3-4-1-2 formation of sorts. back 3 of Raven, Warren and Mckay, your wing backs being Seedorf and Calder atm. Vigurs anchoring the midfield from deep playmaker role. At the moment Polworth is the only real option in there. Front 3 of Bell Baird and Oakley. Swap one of them for a midfielder in certain games. If this Charlie Trafford arrives and can do the business it would be nice.

Maybe we should bring back Steve Paterson in a head of recruitment role? There's a man who had an eye for a player. As for the last good signing. Hmmm, perhaps the woefully underused Alex Fisher? Looking back over the last 2 seasons signings it's very hard to pick out any success stories. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/inverness-caledonian-thistle-fc/transfers/verein/2451/plus/0?saison_id=2015&pos=&detailpos=&w_s=

I get that with relegation we'll have costs to cover and I applaud the board for acting swiftly to secure the finances to cover this. I do wonder however what happened to all the Christie cash. 500k is not an amount we get regularly so has it been put towards previous shortfalls or reinvested badly in playing staff? Robbo also previously stated that once a high earner or 2 left he'd be able to bring others in. Now one had left for a 6 figure sum (not anticipated) will he be able to move to bring players in now? As to the talk of 1400 season tickets. Does this figure not seem about right considering our home gate averages maybe only up to 1000 more than that? It's probably more than half our home attendance week to week. Does the board more importantly consider this a good figure in terms of sustainability in the longer term.

Wasn't at the game but maybe the calls to get Seedorf in midfield are correct because if the highlights are anything to go by he can't defend to save himself. The midfield is clearly a problem as too often our defence was left open to runs from their attackers one on one. Mackay especially looked totally isolated for a few of the goals. He might have been poor but he wasn't helped. Absolutely no organisation in there at all. Massive gap between the midfield and defence. As to Mulraney, aside to a couple of blatant fouls on him in there that the ref ignored there's not much to say. He did seem keen to drive into the box. The main worry was a complete lack of fight. Backing off and chasing shadows, getting shrugged off the ball with half hearted effort. Even after having won the ball back, their players would win it again due to our lack of conviction. At what level are players taught to stand off someone lining up a shot? Robbo had get the ship shaped up pronto if we're going to stand a chance this season.

I'd defo agree that a flat midfield 4 is generally very difficult to implement in the modern game without a midfielder that can replicate the job of 2 players (Kante at Leicester for example) and that if we do go down the 4-4-2 route a diamond with attacking full backs would probably work better. The 3 deeper midfielders being used to drop back and cover for the full backs. Maybe I'd go with Oakley as a 10 behind Bell and Baird. The only issue with this formation is that we do have several wingers who might not be able to fit into this system. Could always divert into a front 3 though and still have the midfield Base. I'd definitely like to see if Raven could adapt to another role, either at CB or DM in the same way that Tokely was able to later in his career. He might be more suited to a RCB role in a back 3 than a centre half in a back 2 though.

Maybe we should have brought Tony back (as opposed to Ridgers)? I still can't see why we brought Ridgers in if there were no offers for OFW pending. The latter is a solid enough keeper who didn't really need replaced. Granted he's on good money, but now we've 2 first team keepers and one still on good money and not playing. A lot has been said about his dodgy form last season which tbh is a bit unfair seeing as he was willing to battle through groin tears and back spasms to play. I'd love to see how others would compete with those injuries. He was good enough previously to get in the Wales euro finals squad so he's certainly capable. Our transfer policy has been very muddled since TB, MM and Steve Marsella left and it's slowly crept up on us.

Could we switch to a back 3 and play Raven and Calder/Tremarco as wing backs? Put Seedorf in alongside Polworth and Vigurs and play 2 up top? Maybe Mulraney could be transformed into an attacking wing back? Granted we'd likely need to bring in another centre half and midfielder but that's probably the case anyway.

I accept that finishing 3rd and winning the cup is probably around as good as it gets for a club our size and appreciate that we will not always be able to maintain that, but the complete complacency shown by the board since winning that has now come home to roost. Rather than build on the cup win the club saw key players depart and not sufficiently replaced. The same can be said for the club facilities. They're maintained at a basic running level. Just enough to be usable and then fans get fed up. They put up with substandard facilities to a point when there's product on the pitch but when there is neither they stop attending. Then the crowds dwindle, meaning less money to invest in better players, and less to upgrade facilities. the caledonian stadium has always been treated, in my eyes, as a temp fix by the board and that it will do "for now" meaning that we haven't made, as a club, a substantial effort to make it a home in terms of getting it up to scratch - they can't even sort a tannoy! That's farcical! Now I'm not going to completely slaughter the board because in other terms, for a long while they managed to balance the books, keep us solvent, whilst being able to let the manager put a competitive team on the pitch. They've done a relatively good job of that over the years. It just seems that there's no real direction this summer. Relegation is something that as an ict fan I accept is always going to be a possibility. What I don't accept is the club seemingly having no plans for it. We were rock bottom for most of last season. Contingency plans should have been put into place. And now fans are that worried that they fear fighting relegation again. I could accept having to rebuild. Maybe not going straight back up but that's something we shouldn't have to contemplate. You only imagine the real reason the club have had no open day is that they realise if fans knew the Board of directors were there it might turn into a protest at this summers shambles.

Well let's look on the bright side.... ......... .......

Jog on troll. Not surprising that a Staggys first port of call would be a Caley Thistle fans forum though.

The thing is he's asked to leave and his contract was running down. We could have kept him but we'd risk having an uncommitted player who'd eventually leave for nothing. I imagine like most he would have been happy to stay but unfortunately the reality of relegation means that clubs will look to poach your better players for reduced fees and offer the chance to play in the top division. Once that happens it's often likely the player will leave. I imagine he'd have stayed and fought if no offers were made. I don't think he actively sought a transfer. While I dont think the club had much choice and had to reluctantly let him leave, I'm annoyed that it's clearly been done so cheaply.

Ross Draper joining Ross County subject to passing a medical. Reports state an undisclosed 6 figure fee was agreed after the player handed in a transfer request.

Scratch all that. He's off. Put in a transfer request. Judas! Et tu, et tu!