4ize

i rate esson, tokely, munro, hastings, black, cowie, duncan and the jury is out on one or two others but we have not got a feckin clue in the last third. we havnt been an exciting side since Pele departed but we have been an efficient side at times.

we need a wind of (attacking) change. when were an attacking side i used to enjoy it even when we got beat 3-2 as long as we gave it a go

i am absolutely confident in the players abilities to get us out of trouble. there is quality through the squad, not in huge amounts, but more than hamilton and possibly falkirk. with a new manager, they will all get a lift and hopefully win a ocuple of games, which is all we need at the moment.

agree that robbo isn't the way to go, brewster is the definitive example of what happens when you re-employ a manager. most of 'his' players have either left or are going to leave soon and i've never rated him as a man-manager. the only reason he wants a job is because he can't get any others.

totally agree on robbo but we need a new mngt philosyphy based on entertainment

We still have the midfield to play some serious attacking football - till the end of the season, at least - and as long as we can decide on a striker or two and stick with them, find a decent formation that's efficient and get that spirit back, there has to be hope. The utterly gut-wrenching, demoralising thing has been to see a side which always had fight and spirit and ran everything to the last fecking second and played for each other, to see the spirit leeched out of that and to see apathy and the wheels fall off after a goal was conceded. Some people have suspected from the start where the fault lay, many have come across recently and the suspected cause of the malaise has been removed.

The key question now is, who will the players best respond to, immediately, without any introductions? It sounds like the removal of the training regime alone will be a breath of fresh air, but of all the candidates who's going to get a point at Tynecastle? Robbo watches every home game - there's your caretaker.

[scotty or Don may know different but I doubt you can even say that a majority of the support log on here and take a look. Old Sneck is still a village dressed as a city and there's a lot more goes on in pubs, offices and sewing circles to contribute to the herd direction than is said on these boards.

Our normal viewing rate is about 10-15,000 page views per day. Over the last month or two I would say that this has steadily increased in parallel with the discontent the fans are displaying. Over the last few days it has peaked at around 30-35,000 per day. Our new registrations since January 1st have also been at a higher rate than normal (250 from Sep-Nov, 151 in Dec, and 196 so far in Jan). We are now seeing somewhere between 600 and 700 of our 1627 registered (and active*) users logging on every day and a fair proportion of the rest logging in every few days.

We might not represent the majority of the fans, but our userbase is pretty sizeable ...... for a club of our size

[*active: if a user has not logged on in 90 days they are classed as inactive and not included in our "active member" total. If they fail to logon for a further 90 days, the account is deleted so our membership level is not bloated like some other forums with users who havent been seen for years !!!]

Now, there's lies, damn lies, and... :thumb04:

I just think we're navel-gazing if we believe that letting off steam/venting spleen on here constitutes direct action or has done anything beyond reflect what the granny in the row in front is getting from her son and telling her friends.

To put it mildly the board don't seem to be a very professional set up at all. Time for a change and some new blood.

Sorry to be a lazy fekker and not research this, but Scotty's online and can no doubt clear it up in a minute - how is the board appointed and what's the likelihood (as if I didn't know) of change being forced by anyone other than the Capo di Tulloch?

I appointed them. You got a problem, like?

Brought to you courtesy of Matthew Gloag & Son

Only finding out where you live and organising a mob, like :thumb04:

To put it mildly the board don't seem to be a very professional set up at all. Time for a change and some new blood.

Sorry to be a lazy fekker and not research this, but Scotty's online and can no doubt clear it up in a minute - how is the board appointed and what's the likelihood (as if I didn't know) of change being forced by anyone other than the Capo di Tulloch?

Afaik, Grassa's on a non-related trip to Glasgow which he had to go on, rest assurred they're not sitting on their asses doing nothing. Personally, I'm quite happy that they do all their business behind doors and professionally without any leaks - previous leaks and comments to the press have certainly not worked in our favour! Plus I'm enjoying all the guessing and speculating in the meantime...

Thank you for attempting to answer my questions.....

So glad you're enjoying all this!

Sorry Johnboy, I'm high on the 'umm'-free air.

I'd prefer the board to be getting on with finding a new manager to them telling everyone that they're getting on with finding a new manager. Whether they are or not is sort of a Schrodinger's Cat job.

They don't seem to realise that there is little or no time to spare. We are sitting at the bottom of the league and staring relegation straight in the face. Can they not see that? What are they doing about it? Why can't they explain what they are doing?

Is this a fit and proper body of men to be charged with the responsibility of running a football club?

You're right. They can't see that relegation is a real danger and have just sacked Brewster for a laugh. From what I've heard, they've all gone on holiday to the Carribbean, which is why they're not attending any press conferences. What an utter disgrace.

I agree with your sarcasm

Absolutely. Why aren't they going round town knocking on doors to explain themselves in person ("Har har Caley, ahm a Cellic fan, Bennet yer windows are sh!te"), or walking round with a handcart shouting "Bring out your managers!"? At the very least they could be camped out on Paul Chalk's doorstep, shouting updates through his letterbox. Amateurs.

Pretty much confirms many of the rumours I had heard but not posted over the last few months. An almost obsessional focus on fitness with little or no emphasis on tactics or set pieces etc. He lost his best tactician when he replaced Park with Thomson and the rest, as we know was downhill from there. If anyone had the audacity to complain, or make constructive criticisms they were (allegedly) fined or dumped from the team and hence we saw an ever dwindling group of players who were in the good books and who would play at any cost .....

I agree with others that any new manager will actually inherit a good squad and if he has man management skills, is prepared to be a little more democratic rather than autocratic (to a point) we could very quickly see a lot of that team spirit come alive on the pitch again. In any workplace, its hard to perform if you perceive your boss as a clueless ******* .... whether that perception is right or wrong !!!

Good luck to the new man, and whoever it is, lets get right behind him.

Scotty, your last statement is the important one!

The 'getting rid' element, on here, has now got their way - the most important part now, is the recruitment of the correct, for ICT, manager. We are an unusual club (family feeling, with this being our first sacking of a manager for instance) and our feelings were normally focused on the end result, with little personal criticism of the players/ managers/ board.

Now that the power of attack, via this type of medium has been experienced, I fear the future will not reflect the past!

A bad result, in someones view, will result in a verbal attack on here, with the managers past life, wifes past, grannies past, all being posted and used as ammunition and of course, 'and he's lost the dressing room' and this will result in pages of 'I knew this before we signed him' 'We could have done better'

Hope I'm wrong But..........!

Sorry, but I think you are. I hope you are. This site has always, as far as I can remember, carried a minority of people who'd mump and grump about managers, players. This is our pressure valve, after all, those of us who blow off from time to time. Scotty or Don may know different but I doubt you can even say that a majority of the support log on here and take a look. Old Sneck is still a village dressed as a city and there's a lot more goes on in pubs, offices and sewing circles to contribute to the herd direction than is said on these boards.

What's unusual about this time is the breadth of agreement on this site alone that something was going horribly wrong, and all pointing in the same direction. When you get a lot of people who usually fight like cat and dog mostly saying the same thing, the chances are that opinion has been re-inforced by what they're hearing from friends and colleagues and family.

That's why I think what's been said on here and at the Trust meeting has been no more than a weather-vane for a more widespread unrest. I just can't see truth in the idea that a few folk voicing discontent on here or organising a meeting would influence what's essentially a closed shop; what sounds more credible is the idea that the board have been hearing for some time, from a majority of people they know, that Brewster is taking the club down and they're daft for doing nothing. That that sentiment should be echoed on here is obvious, because we mostly talk to people in the same community, and I'd be interested to see the ratio of ex-pats to still-locals who opposed Brew's sacking.

Bottom line, I think these have been extraordinary circumstances and I doubt we'll see their like again in the near future, including the sustained singling-out of a club employee for grief. We're better than that, and hopefully still good enough for the SPL.

Peace love fitba.

I was online, bordering on feeling suicidal by the lame offering of the new single from my hero's U2, after a 5 yr wait. Was really dissapointed, so thought ad tune in to CTO......only to see the thread stating brew was sacked. I must say tho....i do feel bad for him, but am also relieved that after 18 months of relative torture for me, is now over

Elvis Costello's PUMP IT UP rip off - like others though it gets better with a few listens but wouldn't say it is a classic....

God no, Elevation was a good tune to re-announce yourselves with: this is poor, another Zooropa flirtation of the kind Clayton claimed everyone but Bono hated because they just didn't get it. Duran Duran meets Garbage and Iron Maiden - help!

Ahem, anyway, sitting at work wondering how to organise a decent network of programmers in the north, speculating gloomily on the Downadup boom and wondering whether putting in a summer holiday request was just an act of hopeless optimism - then came the text at 12.25, confirmed by a look at the BBC site, and a wee ray of sunshine pierced the gathering clouds. We might all be living hand-to-mouth come August, but there's a chance, at least, now, that we might still be following a team in the SPL.

talking absolute sh*te. the new billy dodds.

Terrible, terrible piece, though not alone among BBC blog-style articles from contributors of a certain age - I've seen a number which approach the genre (ugh) in the same way Wogan approaches, well, pretty much everything.

To be fair Traynor, too, tonight sounded rather baffled about the baying for Brew's blood, so it may just be a general failure to understand the sort of despair which had crept through the support during months of watching a side losing its spirit faster than Chick Young's drinks cabinet. Charlie B put him right.

Yes, it's time for a change .........

But NOT a change of Management, a change of attitude amongst certain elements of the support.

Let's put the mistakes of DJS and his comrades behind us before any lasting damage is done.

We are NOT Rangers, we are ICT. We should not feel aggrieved when we lose games, whether it is single games or a run of games. We should not believe that a driving instructor with little knowledge of the game has the right to dictate terms to the Board or Manager.

With the SPL setup we need to work within our resources and whilst we do we will continue to struggle. Some seasons we will perhaps scrape into the top six, other seasons we may get involved in a relegation scrap. Can we please just enjoy the ride and hope we stay up as long as possible. The fact that we have a good chance of surviving our fifth consecutive season in the SPL is remarkable. Can we stop getting suicidal when we lose a few games, can we stop having totally unrealistic expectations?

Sure, most football fans would love to run their clubs and feel they may be tactically better than the Team Manager - but please accept, you're probably NOT.

During seasons, like this one, where we are involved in a bit of a scrap ICT needs its support. It needs the belief and commitment of the support. It does not need so called supporters running to the Board and giving the media an opportunity to relish the thought of our relegation.

The support was good today. It contributed to a tricky cup win. We need this backing as much as possible. You don't need to be watching Manchester United to enjoy your football. A dedicated Stirling Albion supporter can have an equally good match day.

As for Brewster ...........................

We all have our own ideas on the best team selection, tactics and substitutions - but remember Brew sees a lot more than we do throughout the week and has more information to make his choices on. We are never all going to agree with him - that's life.

He HAS made good signings. All three new recruits on show today look to have excellent potential - so well done Brew, a while before the window closes and you are already delivering your promise.

So, come on. 2009. A new year, with new hope. Let's all get back to supporting the club we love. Let's get behind the players and Manager, and let's start enjoying ourselves.

Interesting sentiments, and laudable, but that's about all there is.

I paid my membership to the Supporters Trust the first time round but, despite my regard for DJS and the rest, I can't see this making a difference with a very small core support (about 1900 was it, today?).

I do however have a lot of respect for the driving instructors, council workers, businesswomen and all the rest who give of their spare time - on top of the time and money the rest of the regular fans put in - to do this sort of thing. It's easy enough to sit here and type a few paragraphs in support of the manager or against him, but it's a step beyond to get off your erse and do something about it.

We know fine that there's no divine right held by ICT or any other team to stay in the SPL - we removed that, if you remember, the season we won promotion - but I cannot see any reason why the core of a team which was working as a well-drilled unit, 'grinding out results' as the pundits have it and showing the effort and enthusiasm which made us a nightmare fixture, why that should have fallen apart when Brewster and Thompson returned, unless they're the problem.

As for enjoyment, you may enjoy seeing players out of position, the defence losing the plot, a toothless strike force completely uninspired by Brewster, watching your side lose while playing mostly sh!te football, and the rest. I do not. There was a time when I would watch us lose a goal and think 'now we'll score three'; these days I can more readily see us conceding another two. That is not my fault. That is not the fault of the people around me. That is not the fault of the Supporters' Trust. Something has changed at this club, and all the rah-rah-rah cheerleading for Brewster and boo-boo-booing of those trying to address the problems will make not a whit of difference, except to take us further from reality and closer to the first division.

Wake up.

Maybe someone should head up the Heathmount with a Lithuanian phrasebook

He speaks Lithuanian as well as Latvian ? (according to Wikipedia (I know ! I know !) the two languages are not "mutually intelligible" which is a phrase I must save for a better day :thumb04:

Hence the wink and the Monty Python quote - is your usual sharpness buried in Canadian permafrost, o wise one? :018:

The 28-year-old started training with the club yesterday and has already impressed manager Craig Brewster.

He has become disillusioned with life on the fringes of the first team and wants to try his luck in Scotland. Brewster, who admits he is pursuing a long list of transfer window targets, said: "Pavels trained with us this morning and I have to say he's looked decent. He will be here for an indefinite period."

An FK Ventspils official claims Mihadjuks may be well- suited to the SPL. "Pavels is still under contract, but I don't think the club would stand in his way if he wanted to move to Scotland," he said. "I understand Inverness are bottom of the Scottish top league and require to strengthen their defence. Pavels is a strong and commanding presence and can also play football.

"He only came to this club last summer from Riga and has been unfortunate in not being able to break into the team regularly. He sees next season as important and believes the Scottish game may be suited to his style."

Source for that please, Marty?

Never mind, just realised it's the Herald article I hadn't read

Would a team of Brewsters rejects actually beat us? They'd certainly give us a run for our money.

----------------ridgers--------------

paatelainen--mcaffrey--rankin----

wilson---hart-----juanjo----morgan

---bayne---wyness---mccdonald---

Whatever happened to Paatelainen? is he still here or did we release him?

Markus was released two or three months ago - he'd been recuperating and training in Finland and wanted to stay there, and the club agreed to it.

Can't seem to find any info on him on the net, I presume he will be on trial to at least the end of the week?

This is all you get from the club:

http://www.fkventspils.lv/?p=players&id=27

The og was here

http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/11369/

Very little info at all. Maybe someone should head up the Heathmount with a Lithuanian phrasebook

My hovercraft is full of eels!

Full story in The Herald

Inverness Caledonian Thistle have taken Latvian Pavels Mihadjuks on trial.

The 28-year-old started training with the club yesterday and has already impressed manager Craig Brewster.

The defender joined FK Ventspils a year ago from Skonto Riga. He helped the club pip Skonto to Latvia's Premier League title in 2008, and played in a Champions League second round qualifying defeat to Norway's FK Brann...

Pavels Mihadjuks, 189cm, 88kg (6ft 2" , 13 stones 12lbs) is a reserve player for FK Ventspils. He was bought from Skonto Riga a season ago for 50,000euros (45,000 pounds). He is a former U21 international, and played against Scotland in 2001 where the Scotsman reported, "Gary Caldwell then made a well-timed penalty area tackle on Pavels Mihadjuks as the big No5 surged forward chasing a one-two." He is a defender, but described as a central midfielder on some websites, leading to the conclusion he is a central defender.

FK Ventspils have been Latvian champions for the past three seasons, though Champions league involvement was a first qualifying round 4-1 aggregate win over Llanelli of Wales then lost to Brann Bergen of Norway in the second qualifying. The previous season, They won on away goals rule in the first qualifying stage against New Saints, also of Wales, 4-4.

The way we're playing at the moment Llanelli would be a big challenge. Plus he scored a goal, once. In his own net, so I suppose 'once' is a compliment.

Besides, maybe he just needs the right boss to bring out the best in him...

We're not going down

Still got half a season to go

Once we get a new manager a new Defender & quality striker we're Sorted !

It's like Chinese water torture on here these days.

Well no harm in trying to be a little positive !

If only they'd do away with second halfs to games :thumb04:

I agree with the sentiment - First Division football was a feck of a lot more enjoyable than what we're seeing just now. It was a 'we're going to score one more than you' attitude which made for some great spectacles. As long as you're not dicing with relegation to the Second (and that seems to be fairly easy to bounce back from) it's tailor-made for crowd-pleasing footy. But it's a bugger of a league to win. You'd get worse odds on Shergar making a come-back than on us bouncing straight back to the SPL. A number of factors, on the pitch and off it - not least Tulloch and their chairman - came together at just the right time to get us there by the skin of our teeth. That perfect alignment might not come for another ten years, if it ever does. Part-time football at the Bught is breathing down your neck. If there's anything to be done to avoid it - and there are clearly some things which can be done - then now is the time.

Monty Python's Isn't It Awfully Nice To Have A ***** (for a boss)

was thinking something similar earlier. where do you think this team would finish in division 1? certainly not top. our title winning team was streets ahead for example. must be some transfer kitty the board have to get us out of this

Three players would get us out of the sh!te, and you know fine what they are, and they should have been in place at the start of the season.

1. Replacement for Dods.

2. Replacement for Wyness/Bayne/Dargo.

3. Replacement for Wilson.

While you can't blame Brew for taking Dods with him to Tannadice, you can cast a glance over the rest of the list and start to ask questions - unless you have a majority shareholding/seat on the board/sawdust for brains, that is.

Couldn't care less about Roy McBain...to me he is more done than Wilson ever has been.

We will probably end up keeping Proctor. But Blacks an Edinburgh lad and i fear that as long as Brewsters still dismantling our team in January he will be away, Cowie too. If that happens my faith in the long term future of ICT goes with them.

No, it's fine, he was just getting rid of the dead wood at Tannadice, and he's doing the same here. It'll be fine. There's no place like home... there's no place like home...

Myself and my Sister-In-Law invented a word by mistake using the T9 predictive text on mobile phones a while back which might just fit the bill.

"Gulbfooly"

No where near harsh enough.

Dumbassery.

I think this would be a great thread for the Anything Goes forum but at the risk of becoming a total hypocrite (Black leaving thread) I think we should keep posting suggestions here. (Only because we know this thread is being watched )

Really... that's just pure brewsumptiousness and craigfoolery.

I may be getting all misty-eyed but, by my reckoning, if anything, fans had more influence in the past than they have today.

Once upon a time, before sponsorship (and players' wages, and the PFA) really took off, it was the gate that paid the wages and the bills, made up where necessary by a whip-round among the directors. If a factory or yard or pit had problems then the club - as part of the community - did too, and if the support stayed away it wouldn't be long before the folk in charge asked why.

The frustrating thing is that it's not long since that was true: there's no wee lad in cloth cap and breeks here, running down the cobbles to the New World Symphony; my dad remembers it well; I remember going round putting up seats after the game as a nipper, with dropped coins going into a pot for the kitty, and sitting on the dressing room floor, singeing my face on a two-bar fire while the the envelopes were passed out. This was lower-league football, getting on thirty years ago. Not long. And the fans were what it was all about.

Supporters' Trusts haven't been established as some massive innovation or in response to a deep, untapped need which has only just surfaced; they've come about to address a problem, because some clubs have ended up run by mercenary pillocks who've forgotten whatever interest or roots - if any - they once had in the community and are more interested in schmoozing corporate sponsors to pay daft wage bills than they are in the supporters.

The Chelseas, Celtics and Cardiff Citys (umm...) are never going to get back to that community focus, because the communities have changed beyond recognition, but after all the acrimony this outfit went through to become a possible alternative to Dad's Favourite Team (what's *your* religion? ), you'd think reaching out to the supporters would be top priority. Instead what happens? CaleyD gets a Stewardcide Squad sent to stand in front of him for ten minutes, for sitting there with a cardboard sign reading 'Brewster Must Go'.

Anyway, Brew's Man in Aberdeen can take comfort from the fact that his pal is now bankrolled and secure until we hit the SFL and his side returns to being the only one in the North that other teams dread playing (cos it's such a long way to go).

Good post, but I think whatever the method fans mattered if whatever period unless of course you now support ICT

Not sure what you're saying there. It appears to be that fans don't matter to ICT - which I'd agree with 102% (just to be ahead of those 101% guys who can't can and do count past 100). My point really is that a guy of Jimmy's age and hue should know fine that, where possible, fans have been shunted to the erse-end of the pecking-order over the last couple of decades, and that slinking to Brewster's aid with what boils down to Brew's own 'Fans are morons' argument just makes him look daft, and isn't likely to endear him to his own fractious crowd. Maybe there's a point of saturation in daftness, as in sun-tan lotion, beyond which you cannot go.

I may be getting all misty-eyed but, by my reckoning, if anything, fans had more influence in the past than they have today.

Once upon a time, before sponsorship (and players' wages, and the PFA) really took off, it was the gate that paid the wages and the bills, made up where necessary by a whip-round among the directors. If a factory or yard or pit had problems then the club - as part of the community - did too, and if the support stayed away it wouldn't be long before the folk in charge asked why.

The frustrating thing is that it's not long since that was true: there's no wee lad in cloth cap and breeks here, running down the cobbles to the New World Symphony; my dad remembers it well; I remember going round putting up seats after the game as a nipper, with dropped coins going into a pot for the kitty, and sitting on the dressing room floor, singeing my face on a two-bar fire while the the envelopes were passed out. This was lower-league football, getting on thirty years ago. Not long. And the fans were what it was all about.

Supporters' Trusts haven't been established as some massive innovation or in response to a deep, untapped need which has only just surfaced; they've come about to address a problem, because some clubs have ended up run by mercenary pillocks who've forgotten whatever interest or roots - if any - they once had in the community and are more interested in schmoozing corporate sponsors to pay daft wage bills than they are in the supporters.

The Chelseas, Celtics and Cardiff Citys (umm...) are never going to get back to that community focus, because the communities have changed beyond recognition, but after all the acrimony this outfit went through to become a possible alternative to Dad's Favourite Team (what's *your* religion? ), you'd think reaching out to the supporters would be top priority. Instead what happens? CaleyD gets a Stewardcide Squad sent to stand in front of him for ten minutes, for sitting there with a cardboard sign reading 'Brewster Must Go'.

Anyway, Brew's Man in Aberdeen can take comfort from the fact that his pal is now bankrolled and secure until we hit the SFL and his side returns to being the only one in the North that other teams dread playing (cos it's such a long way to go).

Goals, apparently, are the only thing we're lacking. In the words of the next generation, "Duh". When you strip all the experience from the squad you can expect a lean period till the side knits together again (under someone like Craig Levein, possibly) - the only problem is, if you're Hibs or Killie, say, you can get away with it for a while; we can't.

It may be that we get some amazing signings in the transfer window and that none of the doom-mongering will have any bearing on our season. Anyway, I'm away to clear that flock of flying pigs off my car.

I've not been to a game since Mike Smith mortally offended me the day we relegated the Pars. Doesn't sound like I've been missing very much

Mm, I've always thought we'd be better off with Simon Mayo, or maybe even DLT.

Mentioned what to the players?

The weather forecast