The Long Man

It wasn't the 'old boy regime' who stood firm against hooking Foran, it was one person, who eventually fell on his sword.

' crisis and risk management ", 'understanding of system failures and loss control events in terms of identifying what went wrong and sometimes why it's still going wrong, leading to fit for purpose corrective actions and improvement opportunities to prevent recurrence' Sounds about right for his new job.

I think it is a pretty fair statement. Reading between the lines, it is obvious they realise the mistakes and lack of communication has cost them a lot of trust and goodwill. It is easy to be cynical, as some will be, but as a statement of intent it is a big improvement on the past, and I think you have to give them a chance to follow it up and deliver what they say. I also have to say, I have no idea where this money is coming from, but surely a very welcome development at a time when we really need it. If it is put to good use, then happy to give them credit for getting that in. As for the questions, hopefully people will be able to ask that at the promised Q & A session. Graham Rae is a former Inverness Royal Academy pupil, an invernessian who was in the oil business, and is now retired, I believe, so will have the time to devote to the club. Good luck to him.

Yes. He was asked about taking players on loan, and said he wouldn't, especially from the big two and Hearts. The reason being that if they play, as Charles says, we pay them £350 a week. If they don't play we have to pay them £850. For high-handed arrogance that takes some beating. If we take a player on loan, in order to benefit the player and his parent club, we are fined, or blackmailed by £500 if he doesn't play, even if he turns out to be a dud. What a farce, and a ridiculous attempt to force small clubs to play their players or be charged. I wouldn't mind an incentive to play their players, but that should be the other way round - e.g. the parent club contributes towards their development, but we don't suffer if the player is injured or not a useful addition. Well done, Robbo, for saying so. And given the amount of players the big two hoard and whose development is stunted because of their confinement to the reserves, then it is also deleterious to the Scottish game.

I'm surprised that nobody has raised the comments from Robbo about the ridiculous demands of the top clubs about loanees. That was quite astonishing, and good for Robbo to call it out. .

The pessimism is premature, and unnecessary. We narrowly lost a game to the favourites, thanks to a hotly disputed penalty. We showed some good football, DU inevitably sitting back. The next three games will be a far better indicator of where we are, and our new look side will improve.

Storm. Teacup. Once it was a public matter, they had to issue something like that. It's really not worth getting so excited about, or using it as a stick to beat them with. If they hadn't, and it was all over social media, you would have been gurning about them saying nothing, and how embarrassing that was. It will be forgotten by next week.

I would wait and see. Robbo seems much more pro-active, and may get more out of players by finding their best positions and playing to their strengths - qualities sadly lacking for the last couple of years.

Good grief. A manager who is articulate, shrewd, talks sense, is analytic and positive. Pass the smelling salts. I had forgotten what that's like.

It refers to Bridge and Castle and Butcher.

#pedant alert Your signature is rather out of date

FFS, between Boden and Doumbaya, combined with the freezing out of Fisher until the end, Richie really screwed up. A couple of decisions which probably cost us staying up. Facepalm.

Was he a Hughes or a Foran signing?

Agreed. Neither of our last two managers had good contacts or knowledge of the lower divisions for finding new talent. Robbo, thanks to his passion for the game has extensive knowledge of the game from youth level upwards. So I am very hopeful that he can built a third generation ICT to rival the last two. No doubt there will be lots of ups and downs, and maybe more of the latter first, but now he's in we have to give him a bit of time and support to get it right. Sure, some people have reservations, but that would be the case whoever we brought in, and at least a decision has been made relatively quickly so he can get on with it, rather than an extended period of uncertainty which has happened previously.

There is no doubt about Robbo's passion for the game and his attachment to Inverness. One of his merits, and I trust it still is, was his in-depth knowledge of the Scottish scene, including youth football and the lower leagues. So maybe that is what swung it for him, given we have to rebuild a team, and I hope he can do exactly that. The thing is nobody knows when you hire a new manager if they will be a success, but we have to support him and see what the new season brings. Certainly it is more hopeful than keeping the last incumbent.

I have no doubt he will thrive there, as he would have done here, if given the chance. I also believe he would have scored enough goals to keep us up. Thanks, Richie.

Do tell us more, this sounds good.

What did Mrs Mann do?

I don't know for sure, but I am heartened that there appear to be some quality candidates to choose from. The usual question will raise its head - how many of these candidates want the job, and are willing to come to Inverness - that has been an issue in the past with both managers and players. But I believe we have a lot to offer an aspiring manager, so bring them on.

Of course you have to feel for him on a personal level. No doubt he had great dreams of establishing himself as a great ICT manager, and it must be painful to accept the reality. However, time is the healer, and I hope he finds something where he will prosper. But it had to happen, he backed himself into a corner and there was no realistic prospect, or indeed evidence, that he could get the club and himself out of it. It was always too much too soon for him. Maybe he will feel a relief at the pressure being taken off him - management is unbelievably stressful, and the last months can't have been much fun. I have no doubt the board were also cognisant of the fans' views on the matter, which was almost universal, and it would have been next to impossible to carry on with such opposition, liable to spill over into an unpleasant and uncomfortable atmosphere. But now we can look forward to what was always necessary - a clean break, with new faces, and some real optimism and hope for next season. We made some terrible mistakes last season, but we have the core of a great club, with a great, if short, tradition. There is no reason we can't regain that and get back to where we were. What a relief.

No, Ken.

Quite honestly the atmosphere around Foran is so negative that I would take just about anybody as an improvement. He has set the bar low for a replacement. The most important thing is that we start again with an atmosphere of positivity and optimism, so I would welcome somebody like Sheerin, Hartley, Dodds or even Eustace P McGargle.

With the change of leadership at board level, this is an ideal time to refresh the structure of the club, make some changes and start afresh with optimism.It is impossible to see how RF could be part of that. Even he must be aware of that. Hopefully this week will see a lot of change and a clear out. In many ways RF is part of the old Butcher ethos, which although it might have worked under Terry, was also a rule by fear atmosphere which Foran never had the authority or experience to implement. Maybe he thought he could imitate his old boss. We have to move on from that old style, we are better than that.

fascinating. thanks, Bronson. It has the ring of truth about it, and explains a lot of things that have had most of us baffled. In my view it makes his situation untenable, and even if it costs us money we can ill afford, we would be better to make a clean break and start anew with none of this resentment and bad feeling. Very sad, really, that it came to this, and only underlines how unnecessary it all was, given that we could have saved our season without the stubborn mule refusing to listen to wiser heads. I feel for the players, put in a really difficult position, but who of them will want to stay if this carries on.

Well, if you were a board member doing your job you would, if you haven't already (which would be the forward looking strategy), be making discreet enquiries with players and coaching staff to gauge what, if any, support there is for Foran. If the consensus is negative, and would entail losing players who might stay otherwise, then you have to report that to the board and take a decision with that in mind. If the consensus is overwhelming, then Foran's position is untenable. Of course it is also your responsibility to ensure financial stability so you have to balance that with the costs of letting him go. However, if the long term goal of getting back to the SPL is achieved more quickly without him then the short term loss is balanced by the gain of getting back up. Nobody can guarantee that, of course, but you have to look at the balance of probabilities. You might also consider that if a manager like Hughes was sacked for his disruptive attitude, then the same principle might apply here, given that car crash interview.