CALEY Thistle manager Terry Butcher has turned his attention to Partick Thistle goalkeeper Jonny Tuffey as Ryan Esson dithers on his contract offer from the club.

full story here

Personally i'd be delighted to see Esson sign a new contract but if he doesnt i think Tuffey would make a good replacement.

We still need a number 2 as well!

Best Signing So Far!

Two Reliable Goal Keepers (Could be the first time in the clubs history)

Nothing on MFR though

They mentioned it last night (Tue) about teatime.

Club Press Release now online: http://caleythistleonline.com/news/footbal...s-in-safe-hands

Esson is number 1

With three Republic of Ireland players currently at Caley Jags -- Richie Foran, Johnny Hayes and Adam Rooney -- Tuffey becomes their first-ever Northern Irish signing.

I'm not sure that's correct actually. Was there not an Northern Irish Under 21 at ICT in the Pele days, about 2000ish?

Edit - Indeed ICT have had an U21 N. Ireland player. His name was Bryan Gilfillan and was called up for N. Ireland U21s in 2005. He was born in Scotland and qualified for NI because of his mother. So technically he would go down as Northern Irish player, but was probably still officially a "Scottish" player whilst at ICT

Edited July 14, 201014 yr by Renegade

absolutely delighted with this news. Didn't think we would get him. What a squad we are building. Well done Terry on this cracking bit of business.

There could be a fight for the number 1 shirt. There will be tears.

Tuffey wont be playing tomorrow but he'll feature soon.

YEEEEAAH!!

Makes sense to me if we're gonna be a serious spl club then we should have 2 quality keepers and a promising youngster. Good to have if we're planning to challenge in all competitions and a bit of healthy competition should bring out the best in them hopefully.

Also I'd rather we're putting money into quality signings than into the official website that we all know is p*sh. We get all the info first here anyway.

Defo need some defensive cover though....

Its great to see that we have a bit of money about is now! You cant tell me that teams like Aberdeen wouldn't have been looking at Tuffey, especially with all they're keeper problems. A couple more signings of this quality and we could be challenging for top 6

Defo need some defensive cover though....

Absolutely. What ICT need now is a couple of reliable, confident defenders. Then, there could be a chance of a top six finish.

Edited July 15, 201014 yr by Renegade

looking forward to seeing tuffey finally after hearing so much about him from mates at the partick games

Surely there's been some mistake! This is great news.

To sign a keeper with Tuffey's potential one does wonder what Ryan Esson's views currently are about his hopes of moving on at the end of this coming season.

ICT are not, apparently, a wealthy club so the question is whether or not they can afford 3 promising keepers whose demands are likely to increase as their performances improve. Frankly, if Johnson does really well I think that he will feature in the not too distant future more prominently for ICT and one of the other two will move on accompanied by a good fee for the club. So the club's thinking that all of these 3 keepers should be looked upon as an investment is a fair outlook with upside potential down the road.

This could be a very shrewd move on someone's part within the bowels of Bossland. All we may need now is a big new-Dodds at the back.

Excuse me if I don't join in the elation. I think Esson did a great job last year and I have no doubt he can perform well in the SPL. Clearly we need cover but it looks as though Max Johnson will provide that very nicely. I accept that in the SPL you probably need a third keeper but probably a young lad learning the trade.

Whilst Tuffey knows what he's coming to, I wonder if Esson and Johnson knew what lay ahead when they signed their contracts. Esson will not have signed to be number 2 and Johnson won't have signed to be number 3. I think we will have 1 or maybe 2 very unhappy keepers in the squad.

I also don't buy the competition is good line. Remember all the hoo ha about England and the lack of clarity about who the number 1 keeper was? Everyone was saying how this was a confidence thing and the keepers needed to know they were considered as number 1. The thing is that if you feel that any mistake means you're on the bench next week then you lose confidence and are more likely to make that mistake.

To be honest, I've not seen enough of Tuffey to make a judgement on whether he should be number 1 or 2 but although clearly he's highly rated I don't think we need him and I don't think Esson and Johnson are going to be too happy tonight. What we need is at least a couple of good signings in the back 4 and presumably the signing of Tuffey limits the available cash for that. I look forward to a keeper being sold in the January transfer window at a sizeable profit.

The new season can't be too far away - the moaning has started again!

definitely a moan

If Esson got injured in pre-season would you be happy starting the season with a 19 year old with no first team appearances?

I'm delighted the lad has penned a two year contract as he is certainly a talented keeper whose best is yet to come. Ryan Esson is number one at the moment but Jonny's here to put Ryan under pressure, to challenge for a place and to develop as a player.

Says it all really. Strong statement from Tel and suggests that Tuffey knows he is No.12 (for the moment anyway) and now Esson has the reassurance that he's numero uno.

Tuffey had 2 terrific games against us, from the 2 I saw at Fir Hill, but from what my mates tell me (and from what I've read so far on Pie & Bovril) he is far from the finished article but no doubting he will be a terrific back up to Esson. His wages can't have been great from Plastic Thistle and there is no mention that a fee has been paid so far... I don't think Butcher could have found anyone better to warm a bench

Edited July 15, 201014 yr by Harry Chibber

We signed him for nowt and on reduced wages!?

P&J Today

Amazing work Butcher!

We signed him for nowt and on reduced wages!?

I don't think we signed him on reduced wages (ie less than Partick were paying). Far from it, I'm sure. My interpretation of it is that when it appeared that we had to pay a fee to Partick that scuppered the signing, the player was willing to sacrifice some of what he was offered by ICT (possibly his signing on fee) to enable the deal to go through. Fair play to him for that.

The lack of fee/compensation payable to Partick is an interesting one, which was discussed earlier in this thread. If no compo is payable to them, why did we make 2 offers to them the week before last? And why did they reject them if they weren't entitled to anything at all? Were both clubs misinterpretating the rules quoted earlier?

It might be the case that the 09/10 season officially ended on Sunday after the WC final, meaning that after that date signings of players who turned 23 in 09/10 were no longer elgible for compensation. Anyone know?

There could be a fight for the number 1 shirt. There will be tears.

Tuffey wont be playing tomorrow but he'll feature soon.

From the P&J:

Tuffey is available to play at Clach tonight. Butcher will assess trialists Sam Oji, Callum Morris, Darren Lough and Andrew Milne.

Offical confirmation of the deal now on the official site, here

Great signing,

From memory JT is not the tallest of goalies, out of curiousity how tall is?

Great signing,

From memory JT is not the tallest of goalies, out of curiousity how tall is?

6ft 1, according to wikipedia, same as Esson

What really pleases me about this signing is the fact he chose to come here, despite serious interest from several other clubs.

He obviously sees ICT as a club on the way up, and with the potential to do much more than just survive in the SPL.

I can see either Tuffey or Esson, most likely Tuffey, becoming increasingly frustrated playing in the reserves with Max Johnston filling one of the under 21 spaces on the bench.

There could be a fight for the number 1 shirt. There will be tears.

Tuffey wont be playing tomorrow but he'll feature soon.

From the P&J:

Tuffey is available to play at Clach tonight. Butcher will assess trialists Sam Oji, Callum Morris, Darren Lough and Andrew Milne.

I heard that he may not be playing however he will be spectating.

I'm pretty sure keepers don't count for the under 21 rule so Tuffey would make the bench at least if Esson is first choice.

I can see either Tuffey or Esson, most likely Tuffey, becoming increasingly frustrated playing in the reserves with Max Johnston filling one of the under 21 spaces on the bench.

There is no reserve leage, so expect the backup keeper to play in closed door games/cup games and friendlies.

I'm pretty sure keepers don't count for the under 21 rule so Tuffey would make the bench at least if Esson is first choice.

Have you a source for that? because as far as I have been able to find the rule only stipulates that "each club must include 3 players under the age of 21 in their match day squad"