Something to ponder over

[Alex MacLeod]

You are the manager of a team, like ours. A team thats seen by many to be in some backwoods with little transport routes and miles from civilisation. Much like the rest of the country see ICT.

Most of your players live within the locale, even though they come from all corners of the country. You desire a couple of very good players on one year deals but they will only sign if they dont have to uplift and move their family. You agree to there request that they be allowed extra time to travel to see their families during the week. No problem there. The guys are professional and you know they will commit more to training and matchplay when they are around the club.

There are times, in the week, you may want players in for extra training or the club may be asking that you provide players for a bit of PR or community work. No problem. There's plenty of local guys you can ask to do a bit extra.

And this is where the problems start. Some of these local guys object to the fact that you've agreed with a couple that they would be exempt from this so they can travel south to visit family as per the agreed contract. These local guys are unhappy, and begin to rock the boat a bit, because they see it as unfair that one or two are not doing the extra work.

Thats the scenario so, puting your best managers hat on, how are you going to deal with this situation? I know what my thoughts are but I'm interested in the thoughts of others. And I dont want to see members slating other members for what they right. Just good honest answers to this dilemma.

[Yngwie]

It's a tricky one, and we should be glad it's just a hypothetical scenario........

[12th Man]

You remind the ones that do the pr for ICT, that they are the nuts and bolts of the club and thank them for being such good ambassadors,being visited by a professional SPL footballer really is a memorable occasion and something to take pride in, if your lucky enough to be chosen.They are a far better person than someone who stipulates that they wont do it, If family ties prevent pr work then perhaps the shoe will be on the other foot when our younger players reach their peak and travel back to Inverness for family reasons whilst playing in the EPL.

It would also do no harm for these players to make a token gesture appearance even though their contract says otherwise, to help the togetherness of the club and to give a little back to the community. You cant make them turn up but morally its the right thing to do and will be a far better person for doing it.

[Oddquine]

Bearing in mind I know nothing about football.and your hypothetical is pretty woolly anyway......I have an opinion.

Is it in the normal contracts of all players that they are obliged to do PR stuff for ICT in the community if requested, or is it an optional extra they can refuse? And by extra training, do you mean the extra training "punishment" the day or so after a really poor game?

If the first is not the case, then all players are, it seems to me, at liberty to refuse participation because they are volunteers. If I were manager, I'd be noting those who volunteer to participate and adding brownie points to any decision making process as to their contract extensions so that those who are decent players. but not interested in/prepared to participate in club/local community cohesion are less likely to get contract extensions than those who do.

But I'd be much more worried about team cohesion, in your scenario, if some team members p1ssed off after the Saturday game and turned up again on Friday for the next game (particularly if they were not just permanently bench warmers)....so I'd not be allowing any employee of mine to dictate their work practices, however fantastic their abilities were....because if those abilities do not translate into playing in a system for which they have never trained to understand, and nobody else in the team have any idea where they fit into the system they have spent all week training towards implementing......what use are they really? If you could just pick good players up and throw them into a mix without any team training...why do International teams bother getting squads together to train for internationals at all?

If the first is the case, then it should be possible to organise it so the player who doesn't want to move to the area can still meet his obligations during the likes of school holidays, when his family can come up with him.(if he is Messi and you are prepared to have him dictate what he will accept). But having said that. I wonder if there is a tendency for the club to use the more popular players to the exclusion of others,,.. because, bearing in mind I can only go by what is reported in the Courier, it seems to me that, of the whole squad, relatively few are consistently reported in community activity articles...and mostly the same few.

In the second case, re extra training...nobody should be exempt.and the player who would normally be heading down the road after a game should just have to accept that he has to put his travel plans off a day or so.

But I have to admit, if it I was manager...and an prospective player said " I won't sign up unless you let me do this, that and the other" ..I 'd be advising him to find himself a team which thinks, as he does, that he is an individual more important than the team and the club.

[+DoofersDad]

No training. No play in next match.

[Tug]

interesting "hypothetical" theory.....

firstly it would depend on how long the locals had been at the club... if they were long time veterans then i would cut them a little more slack and reduce the number of there appearances but to work with that i would use the players based further away to do more media engagement stuff at away games thus meaning that the guys who had come down the road wouldn't have to be stressed with added media after the long trip. should the players make too much noise on this it would be reminded to them that there are plenty of people out there just waiting to step into there boots

it would also be prudent to have the odd occasion where by the local players do get some sort of perk to reward them for there loyalty and effort that may not necessarily be given to players based further away. or along a similar line the club would hold a families event where the distant players would be invited to bring there families up for a weeks holiday and run some events round the club to give them a taste of the family atmosphere and friendly nature of the club

[Sorted]

I wouldn't sign players that were not willing to relocate (themselves not necessarily their families). That solves the problem.

[Alex MacLeod]

So you identify a player who can help you achieve a short term objective but because its short term he will not uplift his kids from school to relocate. He is willing to stay up for some of the week but wants additional time to be with his family. You just say no bearing in mind that he is what you need?