ymip

The Stade de France is not available as it's the main venue for the 2007 rugby world cup. I think England are playing South Africa there two days after the France - Scotland match.

Nice one. The Parc is a great stadium to watch football in. Generally a much better atmosphere than the Stade de France which is impressive but a bit too cavernous. I'd guess the SFA will get about 5,000 tickets. Not sure how that'll work as the away section holds a lot less than that. They might allocate a bit of the adjacent main stand. I'll be somewhere in the home end as per 5-0 game at Stade de France. Just need to sort out my contract extension on Monday :001: I guess chez ymip is going to be rather busy that week!

Before anyone gets too excited I would point out that Mr. MacDonald was Chief Executive, not owner, of these two companies and as such his share of both sales would be a fraction of the sale price. He’s undoubtedly a very wealthy man but I don’t think we’re talking about the next Abramovich. As an ex Caley man do you think he might insist on dropping the J*gs :004:

Before I forget...........Grant Munro a.k.a. The Lion of Mile End. Sneck's finest. :clapping04:

Best comeback since Cowdenbeath in '96. :001: Hats off to messrs. Christie and Park - inspired substitutions when we looked dead and buried. If you fancy a laugh look no further: http://www.onefinfalkirk.com/phpBB2/viewto...asc&start=0

As I said last January we are standing still thinking that we can get by on the squad we have when all around are strengthening. It's absolute folly imho. When will we ever get our act together on transfer day.....? :007:

The MSI/Abramovitch connection is well established. Assuming they don't bomb in the premiership, which is unlikely, you'll see both players at Stamford Bridge next season. There were rumours here in France that Chelsea/MSI were going to acquire Tevez and loan him out to Stade Rennais who they have links with after the Peter Cech deal. I'm sure the 'appy 'ammers are not complaining.

I remember this lad being on trial many moons ago after he'd been released by someone down south. I also remember seeing him after he was pointed out to me at le stade. He certainly never played a first team game. Neither of the pics posted on this thread are of him. If you go back about five or six players you'll find the real Leon who might be using some artistic licence on his CV. :004:

Watched the game in the auld alliance on Italian Sky Calcio 2 with Italian commentary. Very bizarre experience with the commentator giving us several, "Charleeee Chreeetsteee" and "Caleeeey, Caleeey..." shouts throughout the game. Thought we came back into the game later in the first half and more than held our own in the second half. Forza Caleeeeey...... :clapping04:

Me too DJS. I still have the programme for that Golspie game in my old dear's loft. I was also present at the 12-0 routing of Deveronvale and I believe an 11-0 victory over Rothes around about the same era. Ah, the memories.... :009:

Pinxten would have been a good signing imho. He's gone back to Belgium and signed for KVSK United who play in the second division. I'm quite surprised that he's ended up at that level considering Serie A side Livorno were reportedly looking at him last Christmas. If we're going to let Dods, Proctor and Black go I'd prefer we did it sooner rather than later in order to give us enough time to bring in suitable replacements before the transfer window closes. If anyone thinks we can let them go without bringing in quality replacements they're living in cloud cuckoo land. The failure to bring in fresh faces last winter arguably cost us a top six place. Let's not get caught out again this time around.

According to the official site the deal has finally been done. A decent signing imho. I just hope the lad is given time to settle in before the whingers start casting up the price tag. Hopefully not the last signing this Summer.....

Bruce and his family were all big Caley fans back in the day. I don’t know if they now follow ICT or watch Bruce at the Clach but I would urge everyone to head along and support a worthy cause.

I would guess Rankin's agent is demanding a cut of the transfer fee due to the fact that players are generally due a percentage if they have not asked for a move. This would have to be thrashed out between County and Rankin. As such there's not much we can do to reconcile the disagreement.

I believe we’re playing either A.S. Montecatini Valdinievole or MontecatiniMurialdo tonight. They both appear to play in the Tuscan regional leagues. I’d hazard a guess at Highland League standard but better looking. The fact that A.S. Montecatini Valdinievole play in sky blue and white is about as much info as I've been able to unearth. Watch out for their Ultras Charles :015:

I'm no fan of Fatboy Slim but as the Dude so eloquently puts it in The Big Lebobowski, 'I hate the f*cking Eagles, man'. :015: RiG coating off dance music is hilarious given most of the utter gash he lists on the laughable 'what are you listening to' thread. :001:

Caley Thistle could face Serie A side Fiorentina during their pre-season training camp in Italy next month. The Highlanders will definitely play a local regional league side from Montecatini, where they will be based for a week from July 3. Talks have taken place regarding an additional friendly against the Viola, who will play in the qualifying rounds of next season's Champions League after finishing fourth in Serie A last season. Inverness director of football Graeme Bennett is optimistic he can strike a deal. He said: "We are working with Fifa-licensed agents to get a couple of friendlies sorted out. One of the teams that has been mentioned as possible opponents is Fiorentina because our base is only 20 miles from Florence. "The only thing is that it might be a bit early for them." Come on Grasser get it sorted :001:

That’s pretty weird. UEFA have changed their story since this morning as the above text was copied directly off exactly the same page of the site. It looks like the Greek FA have also pulled Larissa out of the competition which might give us an opportunity. As much as I’d like to play in the competition you really start to wonder if they’re ever going to nail down the entrants.

The wikipedia site had Auxerre down as Palermo’s replacements yesterday, if not before. The French media have also been suggesting that Auxerre were first reserve. I’ve no idea where this idea that we were first reserve came from – SFA ?, Clueless media ? or just a combination of chinese whispers and wishful thinking . Who knows…. I hope I’m wrong but I can’t see there being much chance of a decent friendly in Italy in early July. It’s way too early for Italian clubs to be back in training as their season finished weeks after us and the new season doesn’t kick-off until much later. In fact the Serie B promotion/relegation play-offs are not even finished yet.

Posted on uefa.com this morning: “France gets two Intertoto chances Friday, 9 June 2006 The fixture list for the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup has been confirmed after the 49 participating clubs were put forward by their respective associations. Two from France France will be the only nation with two teams taking part in the revamped competition after Italy declined to enter a side. A second Ligue 1 club to join Olympique de Marseille will be finalised on 15 June, two days before the first round of the summer competition gets under way. There is also no entrant from Portugal, Liechtenstein and San Marino. The eleven winners of this year's competition will all go forward to the UEFA Cup second qualifying round, to be played on 12/26 August. “ Looks like the Tuscany training camp is a goer. Can someone from the club please confirm if we'll be playing any meaningful matches while we’re over there?

I don’t quite understand why anyone would want to start rotating goalies. If you have a good one you stick with him. If Brown was to depart then we’d either have to promote Fraser/Smith from the bench/reserves or go into the marketplace and find an alternative. Chopping and changing a winning system just to keep the back-up keeper happy is nuts. Look at the problems Man United had post Schmeichel until they installed Van der Saar and stopped tinkering with the irst choice keeper. I wouldn’t read too much into Charlie giving Fraser a run out in a meaningless end of season game. Unless he scarpers this summer he’ll be the man betewen the sticks for the foreseeable.

..blah, blah....Goughie...waffle, waffle.......Hendry...yadda, yadda....Rankin.....continue ad nauseaum........zzzzzzzz...... I think we have some credibility issues here, Scoop. :001:

Of course it’s minging it’s a jags top :004: I think we need to re-dress this shocking pro-jaggy imbalance and get them to re-produce a couple of Caley ones. I feel an e-mail to TOFFS coming on. It’s a bit harsh saying they’re ‘fakes’. Those TOFFS shirt look a lot better than most of the monstrosities available today and the quality is generally a lot better too.

I had a top notch day out yesterday. We started off down at the Trocadero where the UEFA champions festival had attracted quite a lot of fans, especially of the Barca persuasion. Had popped down on Saturday before the crowds and the ymip under fives almost managed to knock the champions league trophy off it's plinth. Cue distressed security guard and a shart exit for the ICT crew. Hung around down there for a bit before heading in to town for a few beers. There was plenty of supporters knocking about but a far cry from my experiences on Scotland away trips (minimal pi.shing in fountains and zero puking in flowerbeds). Quite a few gooners boozing around chatelet les halles but quite sedate stuff. The Ar.se seem to have quite a high nerd factor with plenty of clueless nic hornby wannabees. Very unlike the likes of chelsea who visited Paris last season with a very different type of crowd. Strangely enough there was a fair few kilted up "jock gooners". I got the impression the cockernees were none too impressed with the skirted interolpers. Headed out to the stadium for about sevenish, uplifted our replacement tickets (originals nicked in the post!) and scoofed a few proper beers as we had the foresight to sort out a wee carry-oot thus avoiding the alcohol free rubbish they punt outside the ground. Got around to the Arsenal side of the ground to find one poor gooner had tried to scale the perimeter fence but had obviously fallen off a ticket office roof and impaled himself on the fencing! It looked quite nasty and there were a lot of police and paramedics trying to dislodge him. He was up there for ages and I haven't hear how he got on. Spotted ex Senegal boss Bruno Metsu with a stunning young African dollybird and also bumped into Tony Mowbray who was obviously thrown by my "Alright Mogga" shout. I thought the game itself was decent enough if not a classic. I think the reason that everyone’s commenting on the ref is that the British media have all been mumping about him as the gooners lost. If they’d won nothing would be said. The gooners in the ground were as dull as the ones we encountered in town. Their response to Campbell's goal was pitiful. I turned around to one clueless beaut behind me and said "I guess that's Almunia coming on" when Lehmann was sent-off and he looked at me blankly and passed me to his equally clueless mate. The Barça fans were a different kettle of fish and were bouncing the whole time. I was pleasantly surprised as we visited the nou camp on my stagger for the barca - espanyol derby and the atmosphere was pretty dire. I have to say I was well chuffed when Barca got the winner and there was clearly no way back for the Wengerboys. All in all a very pleasant day/night out.

If we were to lose Black, Proctor, Dods and Dargo then it would obviously be a bit of a body blow to the club but at the end of the day there are plenty more fish in the sea. It’s undoubtedly a buyers market this summer and I have every confidence that suitable replacements would be brought in by Charlie and Parky. I just hope at least a couple of the aforementioned players have the good sense to avoid the Tanandice black hole. Chances are Brewster will be gone by Christmas…..