Alex MacLeod

Happy Birthday Mairi. It doesn't hurt from here on in, apart from the creaking bones and increasing senility levels.

Black, Bingo and Juanjo

It is very difficult to accurately say what %age of a town or city are fans of the local team. Indeed many residing in Inverness are County fans. What I have tried to do though is look only at the hard core fans who attend their team week in week out. Yes Aberdeen had an attendance average of 13000+ but take away the away fans and you'll find the home support is about 11000. In Dundee its 8000 for Arabs and 3000 for Dees. Hibs have a hard core of about 11000 whereas Hearts is about 16000. As Scotty says the area of Inverness has a greater population than the city and many fans travel from outlying areas. As is the case with Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh. At the same time that travelling support is also ofset by the numbers who travel from all those cities and towns to watch other teams, mainly OF. If I were to design the questions for the next government census I'd include the question 'Which team do you support'? Mahonio, I was referring to the areas where Inverness, the city, can be expanded. The city cant expand north because that would take them into Ross-shire.

Population of Aberdeen is around 215,000 and their fanbase around 11000 or 5.1% Population of Inverness is around 65,000 and the fanbase around 3,500 or 5.4% Population of Edinburgh is around 472,000 and a combined fanbase of around 27000 or 5.7% Population of Dundee is around 150,000 and a combined fanbase of around 11,000 or 7.3% Falkirk, Killie and Motherwell all also work out at 5 - 7% of population. Glasgow is too complicated to even attempt it.

The main reason training gear and keepers jersey's etc are not available is because the club cannot guarantee to be able to sell the quantity they would have to buy. Most of the teams around us have the very same problems. I remember Falkirk's shop near their ground closing down with a lot of the stock left in the boxes. They tried to provide everything but it just doesn't work for smaller teams.

Will we ever be a big team like Dons Hearts Hibs United? No. At least not until we see rows and rows of houses stretching from Inches to Culloden and Daviot. From Merkinch to Lochend and every other direction, except north, out of the city. The city just isn't big enough to provide the 10,000 + fans needed to make us a big team and without that sort of fanbase investors aren't so keen to give of their cash. To be fair though there's nothing wrong with being on a par with the rest.

I doubt it very much. There's no way Inverness could sustain another Football league team.

Rig, why do you think Dundee will win the league this season as opposed to any other? Dundee were going to come straight back up and have been going to win the league every season since but have failed. They've let a few players go and brought in a few this season but nobody of any outstanding quality. They are all, at best, 1st division players and will win games but they will also lose games. Partick, Dunfermline, Queens and County will all take points of Dundee this season as will we.

Let it go guys. No amount of pleading or wishing is going to get Morais back to ICT this season. He knew at the end of the season he wouldn't be staying. 1st div is beneath him. http://sport.stv.tv/football/99194-filipe-morais-abandons-relegated-caley-thistle/ ://http://sport.stv.tv/football/99194-...aley-thistle/

Oh ye of little faith.

Our squad at the moment Keepers Esson, Allison Defence Tokely, Munro, Zadi, Hastings, Proctor, Duff Midfield Cox, Morrison, Gillespie, Duncan, McBain, Imrie Front Sutherland, Park, Odhiambo, Foran, Barrowman, Rooney I dont know how good Kyle is as a stand in keeper so cant really say if we desperately need another. I think we're safe enough with the defenders we have. We've more than enough strikers so what we really need is two quick wide players to make for a pretty formidable squad.

I believe its under 16 though I also think concessions are also available to those in full time education over 16

What??

Quote from Highland News: Also pledging their futures so far this summer to Caley Thistle are Roy McBain and Odhiambo, with Michael Fraser, Brian Kerr, Ian Black and Filipe Morais moving on.

Actually a bottle of Bud or Miller is his prefered tipple. I suppose that will be yours as well then Alex. :024: No...............Guiness and whisky for me if your buying.

He'll be 34 by then.

IMO the biggest problem to any deal is the fact that the top two clubs get 40% before other monies, i.e. league position payments etc, are divvied up. I understand that the new deal will be worth ?40m less, over five years, than the ?125m that Setanta agreed to over four years. So, if Setanta were to pay around 30m a year, Sky/ESPN must be offering around ?17m a year. That 13m drop ia a lot to make up elsewhere.

Hopefully he'll do very well and come back ready to show us what he really can do.

The one question not yet asked is do we have a keeper other than Kyle. Everyone is assuming Esson is staying but I haven't seen anything official to say he still has a contract or has been offered one.

Morais name has been of the official site first team list for a couple of weeks now.

Actually a bottle of Bud or Miller is his prefered tipple.

..............there will have to be big cuts. Glad we're not in it just now. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/2009/07/02/sky-and-espn-to-link-up-for-cut-price-spl-tv-deal-86908-21488235/ ://http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/footba...908-21488235/

I dont think Foran would have come out and said it either had the paper not asked him. In defence of Barrowman I think he was played all wrong last season. He is not a lone striker. He's a poacher who needs someone to feed of. Foran could well be the feeder. I reckon Barrowman would have worked well with Bayne or Wyness had he got the chance. Rooney was brought in as one for the future so didn't get the chances he maybe should have. Unfortunately, too long was spent with stupid tactics and disinterested players so we never really got to see what a few could do. Hopefully, with a much depleted squad, we'll see different next season.

If you have ???,??? then we can talk about him singing What songs will he sing for all those pounds?

Yes but can they give what they haven't got?