Drake

5 hours ago, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

So the Drake Plan is to keep paying their wages and wait until they get fed up and go ? Does protesting at matches have any effect ? A boycott may significantly affect the club but there is no club with these jokers at the helm. Better to scuttle the vessel and resurrect HMS Sneck. There actually is a brave enough crew to do that. And can't wait for Drake to walk the plank. Aye aye me hearties. Get out the rum rations, the voyage is about to begin.

There is another option Johndo.

Nobody (on here anyway) seems to be considering a scenario where it all works out. 

There is a good chance that with our new pool of player recruitment, we gain promotion in the same season where we also win the battery farm appeal. Credit will then be due. So, as I have said previously, let’s give this plan a chance and for goodness sake let’s WELCOME the new players and give them our backing!

8 minutes ago, STFU said:

Someone's sounding desperate.

Resign before YOU kill the club.  At least the fans would then have a chance to undo the mess you've created.

Me?! what am I supposed to resign from?! I’m just expressing my view as a season ticket paying supporter. 

4 minutes ago, old caley girl said:

Sorry. Its too late. Even if this decision gets reversed tomorrow I'm probably done. Supported the club in 2 guises for a long long time and have never felt so disenfranchised from it ever. Been building up for a while now tbh with the CEO and board not giving a thought about us at all whilst gambling the clubs future. Withholding my money is the only power I have so will not be spending a penny in the near future. 

I understand your view and your commitment and support to the club through the years is obvious.  But if everyone takes your current view, it won’t just be the near future that you won’t be spending a penny, it will be forever, as the club will go bust. Are you genuinely content to risk that? Board members, coaches and players come and go. The current board won’t be here forever. Big Dunc won’t be here forever. But the fans will be…. Unless the club goes bust due to literally a lack of fans buying tickets. Worrying. 

Whether you’re a fan of training in central Scotland or not, the alarming issue is if enough supporters boycott, then there won’t be a club left. 
 

I feel strongly that we should support the team through thick and thin. If you really don’t like the training idea or if you really want certain figures gone, then perhaps try something else. Maybe protest at the matches. But the danger here is if enough regular season ticket holders boycott, then once the boycott ends there won’t be an ICT left. 

Depriving the club of money risking it going bust is certainly a bold move to get rid of the current CEO / Chairman / Manager / whoever else.

They will be gone, but at this rate so will ICT. I think everyone really needs to take stock here.

2 minutes ago, Stephen Malkmus said:

**** off out of our club

Excuse me, I have been a Season Ticket holder since 1994.  I won't be going anywhere!  We all have our opinions on this matter, and i am expressing mine.  Just because you have a different opinion to me, i'm not going to tell you to stop supporting the club!  

10 minutes ago, jagster said:

I’m not sure how long CTO has been going. A very long time. Have you never felt compelled in the last 30 years to post as there has been many topics I’m sure deserving of your input. Maybe I’m just an old cynic and find it strange how you join now and basically tell us all that the club are right in everything they do 

"tell us all that the club are right in everything they do"  

I've only commented on this specific topic as you clearly point out as well.  So your statement makes no sense.  I just want what's best for the club, and that is the club going back up the leagues again.  This is a clearly a positive step to help with recruitment.

If fans however, en mass want to challenge it and demand that the club just carries on what they are doing for the sake of some sort of Highland togetherness feeling and if the fans are content that this approach will most likely lead to staying in the lower leagues then so be it.  It appears that the majority on here would rather we stayed in the seaside leagues and try and patch together the youth.  We have had few good youth players but nowhere near enough to build a winning team right now.  We have such an unambitious support.  At home games it's weird.  Surreal.  Fans are vocal.  They are very VERY vocal at voicing criticism of the referee for example if he makes a mistake.  Or if they are unhappy with a substitution etc.  So there is clearly some sort of passion there.  But we score a goal and its a small cheer, maybe 15 seconds of clapping and everyone sits down again.  The club make a positive approach to sign players and there's utter meltdown.  I've seen comments on Twitter with fans saying they'd rather be in the Highland League etc etc.  Crazy.  Is there any other club in the entire country with such an unambitious support?!

Just now, jagster said:

I always find it strange that people like drake and charleyfarly or achfary appear out of nowhere to completely try and validate the clubs position new members new posts and try and tell us all that we should accept the clubs point of view   Vested interest I reckon 

I hate to break it to you that many Caley Thistle fans don't post on here at all.  Many will read, many won't even bother.  But times like this will make more quiet fans like me want to say something.  I have no idea who the other two names are that you mention but i supported Caley and I have supported Caley Thistle since the merger.  My opinion is not less worth than people who type words on a keyboard more often than me.  

31 minutes ago, Starscape said:

We were offering more money when we were in the division below League One (whatever it was called then)? Maybe we should move lock, stock and barrel to Glasgow if winning is all that matters? Sod the fans. Money is all that is important.

We went Full time at the start of the 1997/98 season.  Our first season in 2nd Division / League 1.  The seasons before that in 3rd Division / League 2 we may have been part time but there was some serious cash being splashed.  We were even in the position to pay transfer fees.  The quality of the Highland League was much higher then as well.  We could sign the likes of Ian Stewart, Brian Thompson, Mike Teasdale etc etc and they could all do a great job in the bottom two leagues.  Now, the Highland League just isn't producing these types of players.  But yes, I believe we were able to pay higher wages in the early years than we are currently able to do in 2024.  

Less wages, less appeal, higher logistical costs for moving, worse economy and less talent in the Highland League in 2024.  Our competitors have the pick of the best and biggest proportion of the population and can even offer less money and they will still have the upper hand in signing them.  

The point is the club aren't moving lock stock and barrel to Glasgow.  Nor, are they offering stupidly high wages.  This isn't about money.  It's about getting the right players in to WIN. 

11 minutes ago, Starscape said:

How did ICT manage to get to the SPL, win the Scottish Cup and qualify for Europe? Just better managers?

Much bigger budgets and cash flow than we have now.  Bigger attendances.  Better economy.  Whilst in the Premier we could lure players North with the incentive of playing in the Premier.   That's how we won the Cup and got Europe.  The recruitment playing fields have never been equal, but the appeal of Premier football on decent wages was.  Pre-2004, we were spending a lot of money on wages.  Attendances were higher than now as well.  Now, the money is not great, yes it's full time wage but still not a great wage, and to get someone to up root and come North for it is just not going to happen.  The realities are that we are not on an equal playing field with most League 1 rivals in terms of recruitment.  If we offer a player a wage of say £1200 per week, and another team in the same league offer £800 there's a high chance the player will pick the smaller wage for logistical, family and even financial reasons.  The cost of uprooting North, finding somewhere to rent etc etc is clearly going to be more expensive than the £400 difference in this scenario.  

8 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

They will be a Fife-based team who just happen to play on a pitch in Inverness every couple of weeks.

I am just not seeing it like that.  Yes, literally the first team will be training in Fife.  But youth teams are all still training in Inverness.  Every other department will still be in Inverness.  For logistical and recruitment reasons having the first team train out of the City really doesn't bother me if it helps improve recruitment.  The Club is still in Inverness.

I appreciate this is completely different but I have the exact same feeling towards this as I do about Scotland international players playing elsewhere such as England.  John McGinn is based in England and pops up to Scotland every now and again to represent Scotland.  I really don't care.  Similarly, I really don't care where our first team meet up to train either.  They'll come together elsewhere but every Saturday home and away they will be representing us the fans.

9 minutes ago, snorbens_caleyman said:

I would remind you that the first word of the club's name is "Inverness".

I said recently that I hoped to support my home town team for years to come.

This is now simply NOT MY TEAM.

Where the first team players train and where they come from is irrelevant.  They are still playing and representing Inverness.  They will still play all their home games in Inverness.  They will be wearing Inverness jerseys.  The youth squad will train in inverness.  The operations will be based in Inverness.  If most fans are content with having local club for local boys only then cracking.  Maybe the club should listen and then put this in place.  But fans have to realise this Highland utopia dream of having Highland only youngsters will lead us to either stagnation in the seaside leagues or worse.  

We cannot attract the main pool of the population North.  So they either don't come and we never see the Championship or Premier again, or we try and do something radical.  

14 minutes ago, buckett said:

Exactly!

And a town the size of Inverness, with the whole of the Highlands and Islands in its catchment area, should be able to produce a team of local players able to compete at Division 1, or even Championship level.

 

The Highlands and Islands may be big, but population wise it is far too small.  If we limit ourselves to only using players from a very very small population pool, then yeah maybe we will feel some sort of Highland identity... but we can carry that on all the way to the Highland League.

8 minutes ago, FrontRow said:

Did any of Ferguson’s signings or the style of play we had to endure give any indication that this would improve. Did it hell. It was rank rotten, his signings were awful, his man management abysmal and his overall performance pathetic 

This is exactly why the move will help. Big Dunc wasn't able to get the players in.  Previous managers as well will have experienced it.  How can he get good players to come in on loans or short deals when we don't have the money to pay as well as not being a desirable location for Southern footballers.  Statistically due to population most footballers play and want to play South of Inverness.  It was so difficult to get players to come up and train here.    This will solve the location problem.  

Wow!  Talk about an over reaction from some of our fans! 

We can finally attract any Central Scotland based player that we can afford.  There have been season after season so many players within our budget that will have said no due to location.  Why would a player move himself and his family up here on a semi decent wage but they have to find accommodation etc for family.  We are losing out to teams in Central Scotland with lower budgets than us!  This is a MASSIVE game changer.  

I agree it's a shame we have had to do this.  But we no longer have the finances and the appeal of the Premier League to entice players North.  County can still do this due to the fact they are in the Prem (at the time of typing) and have a reasonable amount of financial backing.  We have been propped up financially for years by various folk but the money is dry and the lack of the Premier league means we are losing out.  The lack of fans coming through the gate as well has not helped.

Hopefully in a few years the club can relocate to Inverness, but if we have this small team mentality being shown on here and don't go for this, then who will sign for us?  January transfer was a disaster.  If we are to rely only on youth players coming up then we won't get out of this league never mind back to the Prem.  We'd probably be in a relegation scrap down to League 2.

So, the way I see it is, that yes this is an unfortunate but necessary move. There's 2 options:

Option 1:  The fans get their way.  The club stays.  By remaining Full time and on semi decent wages and based fully in Inverness we get hardly any quality signings and we are on a race to the bottom of no return.  We are patched up by random loan signings, youth and short contracts and all togetherness is lost anyway.  Then part time and bust.

Option 2:  The move goes ahead.  We remain full time, give semi decent wages and based in central Scotland.  A fair amount of quality players sign.  Players that would never have considered us before.  Even players from our fellow League 1 rivals will look at it as a bigger move without even moving!  We mount a title challenge and hopefully go up.  Players stay around for longer due to location and we actually get togetherness back!  Eventually promotion back to the Prem and a full relocation to Inverness where quality players will once again be lured North for the chance of playing in the Premier League. 

I fully support this as a way to secure the long term future of the club.  As for the youth teams, they can still train and be developed in inverness! I believe that if we had made this move sooner, we would not be in league 1.  We have missed out on so many signings over the years that it's possible that we'd be back in the Premier League by now if we had done this in 2017.  Time will tell if this works, but I say give it a chance and get behind Dunc and the team!

Alan Kernaghan has applied. 
 

Interesting.