The Long Man

Fecking brilliant! the best team won, despite the incredible setbacks. Considering we beat Aberdeen a few weeks ago, nothing to fear now!

Ah, a faux football supporter pops up

If we get through this it will surely be the finest game ever we have taken part in. 1st sending off was ridiculous, unwarranted and completely changed the game. 2nd was pure frustration arising out the position that put us in, and might have been a yellow.

And how many of his former players actively want to go back to the old school bullying and tactical stubbornness, I wonder?

One clue about whether Butcher and Hibs had colluded previously and privately over this is in the timing. If Butcher was offered and agreed to the Hibs job sometime in the last month, then what would be the best way of accomplishing it? Well of course the international break, when you have 2 weeks to settle in, is ideal. So with that in mind, you hatch a plan to approach ICT the week before the break, with the objective of getting your man in place at the start of the break. It worked like clockwork, and you have to ask how much Malpas was party to this, given his relationship to Butcher. And now Marsella as well? It does look like, in retrospect, a carefully planned coup, one hatched in the previous weeks, and goes a long way to explaining Terry's joviality in the Hibs hospitality area, when many ICT fans were deludedly thinking there was still a chance he could stay. He, of course, was buzzing because it all worked out as planned. And now, we're just a 'little club' who should be grateful to the great man and his Boy Wonder for patronising us on his incredible career path. History rewritten as the myth is burnished. The whole thing is too neat for coincidence. Kind of makes you want to gag.

What did he say?

Levein is risky. Went to Leicester, failed. Was good with DU, and made an absoloute hash of the Scotland job, not just the infamous let's get a draw formation. But what I didn't really like was his attitude while Scotland manager - it all seemed to go to his head, and he made some terrible selections and tactics, as well as alienating some players, which a Scotland manager can ill afford, and which I believe is a bad sign. Basically I would prefer not to have someone with a lot of baggage like that, who might think they are a bit better than we deserve, and needs rehabilitation. I would much prefer our earlier model, which was to match an up and coming team with an up and coming manager, one keen, ambitious and with a good playing philosophy. Any manager is a risk, I would prefer to risk the new, and not the old.

Mebbe not, but he wasn't a failure like most of our managers, post ICT. He's done alright, held his own, and is still a good player with a wicked shot.

Ha ha, well he went for the dollar, but he was a good player and got a Scotland call up. Still could be good, if he was in the right team, and not the car crash squad.

Yes, I feel a sudden affinity with Hearts. Tarts to stay up, Hibs to go down! lol

What, like Barry Robson and Don Cowie? Ian Black, John Rankin...

I don't suppose we will ever know but, given they only had six months to go on their contracts my guess is circa £100,000. Given the disruption to our season, the potential loss of income, the potential need to pay someone else's release clause, then I would hope we wouldn't have settled for less than £250,000.

i think he does owe ICT fans an explanation, after walking out with no warning, when we were doing very well. OTOH, I expect a dull, bland statement crafted by an agent.

Yes, all our former managers have failed when they thought they were moving upwards. I have no doubt at least 2 of them bitterly regret it. Join the club, Terry.

Agree. Butcher has made his move, happy to camp out with Hibs, before ICT, his employer have agreed anything with Hibs. I hope our board resist the pressure to do what Terry wants, and do what is in our interest, which is not to release him unless and until substantial compensation and anti-player and staff poaching agreements are in place. He seems to think he can do what he wants, when he wants, while still under contract. Given our position in the league and cup, and the potential damage that his move will make, and that he is under contract, then I do not see how he or Hibs can expect anything less than a very substantial compensation package is made. Until then, they can act as much as like as if the deal is done, but I don't see why ICT should be pushed around by these bullies. We hold the cards, I hope we play them properly. Let them sweat, we are in the right here, and shouldn't cave in to self-interested, disloyal demands, just because it suits them. What suits us is the important thing. Butcher could have made a private agreement to go to Hibs next summer if he really had ICT's interests at heart. Why the indecent haste of a turncoat?

Exactly. He could have gone out in a blaze of glory AND landed up at a much bigger and better prospect than Hibs. If he had just seen the season out. What's the hurry, when he appeared settled up here? Hasn't done himself any favours, or us.

ICT Not if we are League Cup holders and have enjoyed a foray into Europe under a new manager. I hope you're right

ICT

Butcher was under contract, and if they've no money where is the substantial compensation we're due coming from?

Well, it was always going to end sometime, but he should have gone out on a high, instead of scuttling out out the back door with no notice, not even managing the last match, and skulking along at Easter Road with the opposition before he's officially left. So, ends with not a bang, not even a whimper, but a moonlight flit. Very poor.

If he has the good of ICT at heart, we'll soon find out in the next transfer window, when I expect he will be doing some fishing in the Highlands.

If you're going to have 2 seasons like his first two here, then good luck with that.TB has a wildly varying track record, and will be under pressure pretty quickly, which he doesn't respond well to. He may not be the messiah you think he is, although he is definitely a very naughty boy. But sod him, no-one is irreplaceable.

I don't get Terry's sudden, and disloyal, decision to jump ship at a time when the season holds so much promise. Some silverware and a place in Europe to play for, a settled team playing good football. For what? More money, sure, but a poisoned chalice of a job if ever there was one, one where he likely won't have the total control and freedom he enjoyed here, with a team playing some woeful football. Maybe he retrospectively regretted turning down Barnsley, given the dip we had after that, but if so, Hibs is surely no comparison. Barnsley was a vastly superior offer for him. If he had determined to go, then surely he would have been in a far better position if he had finished the season with us, as per contract, taking us to perhaps our finest season and a place in Europe. Then he could have left with dignity, his stock high and had his pick from no doubt plenty of good offers, all with time for us to replace him. As it is, suddenly dropping the reins with no, as yet, explanation, and not taking us for his last game, is rank and very disillusioning. IMHO, he will regret it, but I hope the board choose wisely and are very firm in saying to him "Keep your fecking hands off our players! Find your own" I hope, in particular, that they write into any agreement, that he cannot take any in January. On the positive side, we must be a very attractive position for aspiring and established managers.

Gavroche - I love your use of 'automatism', please keep up the flow of French concepts into the SPL. Refreshing! What lured you to ICT?

We're missing Draper and Foran in the middle IMHO