Merger Talk

[gordieict]

And one more thing if those that don't want to read about the merger or complain about this thread why open it, the title of the thread gives you a good idea about the subject.

[12th Man]

Well thank goodness two good pedigree clubs merged from Inverness. 2 single entities doing their own thing, get married and go from strength to strength.

Its not the death of a club more of a marriage.

 

Maybe it would be good to have a wall of fame with the seperate clubs, progression through the years right up to present date. A bit like putting the family photos up on the wall.

 

Could you imagine if it was with a club further afield, Victoria Pk may have been our home stadium.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Well thank goodness two good pedigree clubs merged from Inverness. 2 single entities doing their own thing, get married and go from strength to strength.

Its not the death of a club more of a marriage.

 

Maybe it would be good to have a wall of fame with the seperate clubs, progression through the years right up to present date. A bit like putting the family photos up on the wall.

 

Could you imagine if it was with a club further afield, Victoria Pk may have been our home stadium.

It is the death of two established football clubs - as Mike Noble appears to suggest it was a forced relationship that many feared would be short lived. And again as Mike alludes to it would have died a death if it was not for financial intervention.

But it is just like the thought of amalgamating and playing in Dungwall - how many TODAY would have voted for and end up supporting that type of allegiance.

[old caley girl]

It is different tho Johndo? Back then the big incentive was league football. It was a surprise when County got the other league place probably aided by a good SC cup run that year.

[Charles Bannerman]

It is different tho Johndo? Back then the big incentive was league football. It was a surprise when County got the other league place probably aided by a good SC cup run that year.

I'm not sure it really was much of a surprise that Ross County got the other league place in 1994. Granted their Cup victories over St. Cuthberts and Forfar came at extremely convenient times, but I'm not convinced that experienced Scottish football politicians were going to be especially influenced by this short term consideration. One thing that is certain is that County's bid, which I was quite well across at the time, was extremely sound and persuasive - and of course has delivered a lot more even than it ever originally implied. I was certainly in no doubt at the time that the bids from Inverness and Dingwall were the best by a distance. Remember also the voting figures in the January 1994 election - Inverness 68, Ross County 57, Gala Fairydean 35, Elgin City 10, Gretna 2. This clearly shows that County in second place were a lot nearer the first placed Inverness bid than they were to Gala in third place.

The concept of a merger with Ross County has been tentatively raised in this thread. In an area of very low population density with uncomfortably high allegiance to central belt clubs, limited economic turnover and two Premiership clubs both now averaging crowds well below 4000, the commonsense, financial case is overwhelmingly for a single club in the inner Moray Firth area.

But that will never happen for several reasons. Firstly, and in line with an observation OCG made, there is no hitherto unobtained status to be gained. Secondly, the amalgamation of Thistle and Caley was of two clubs which may have been robust rivals but they were from the same community and their joining together was to the overall benefit of that coherent community. In contrast, ICT and Ross County represent quite distinct communities which it would be a lot more difficult to join together. Thirdly, both these clubs are now limited companies and I detect no desire at all among their significant shareholders to depart from the status quo.

As I say, an Inverness-Dingwall merger would probably make local football a lot more financially viable than it is now and is actually a logical solution - EXCEPT that football clubs need fans and for reasons 1 and 2 above, such an arrangement would, I believe, have little attraction for them.

What might happen if one or both clubs ran into serious viability issues is rather more intriguing though, since then you would have a hugely compelling financial case ranged against the same overwhelming opposition of the fans.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Thistle and Caley were robust rivals but to say that they were from the same communities is saying that about Wednesday and United or City and United or Athletico and Real. It may well have been to the financial benefit but that does not lessen the hurt and the feeling of both sets of fans that there was hidden agendas and a serious lack of consideration of the effect on many. Just read the last two paragraphs of the CB response. The only thing I agree with is that football clubs need fans and mergers have little attraction to them. That is why we have so many refuseniks who continue to influence their friends and their families.

[CaleyD]

I thought merging cheese and jam would never work until I actually tried it.

 

Same thing with gin and bitter lemon.

[Charles Bannerman]

 That is why we have so many refuseniks who continue to influence their friends and their families.

I find it interesting that the "refusenik" theory, having failed with Plan A, now seems to have moved on to Plan B which is the claim that the second generation of this proven tiny minority are now apparently staying away in their thousands. The big problem, even with the original argument, was that if refusenikism ever was a significant factor, far more people would have had to stay away from TCS than ever went to Telford Street or Kingsmills in the first place!

Look.... it's the tourist season. Why can't we just content oursleves with that other local myth which is the Loch Ness Monster?!

Edited June 19, 2014 by Charles Bannerman

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Plan A and Plan B are both correct and are evidently linked. I never alluded to thousands but hundreds of born and bred Invernessians who are influenced by the experience and bitterness of the older generation in their families. They are being brought up to look at ICT as being an inbred establishment born out of local politics and power building and those individuals are more prone to follow the big teams originally followed by their forefathers and spreading the anti ICT message to their friends and probably to their offspring.

I have never suspected that this explanation to be understood by the posters who have never been part of that family or privy to the psyche since the merger. Sometimes stories are more about the fans rather than looking at the politics and the management, especially when displaying them as saviours and beyond reproach - a bit like Terry Butcher perhaps ?

And when you have a historical following of separated cheese and jam locally but can savour a menu of delicacies at a national level - you encourage others to go for the latter - especially if you feel that you have been forced to eat the cheese and jam whether they like it or not.

And there is only one monster and that is the individuals who wear blinkers about the merger and get paid for writing fairy tales.

[CaleyD]

Grab the popcorn.....

[Kingsmills]

Nah..think I'll give a miss. Seen this film several times before....

[Big G]

Nah..think I'll give a miss. Seen this film several times before....

Yeah, but never seen the end yet.

[Charles Bannerman]

20 years on, I really prefer just to boil the merger down to four brief statements.

 

It happened.

It was controversial at the time.

It worked.

It has brought football in Inverness on light years since 1994.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Now all of that I full agree with and long may it continue. But it is good to see that the likes of Mikey Noble remembers and appears to have the understanding missed by detractors, sceptics and people who think and act as if they are qualified to share opinions but basically are brainwashed as they were when it was happening.

CaleytilIdie - Bring on Birmingham City. Unless they merge with Villa in the interim.

[dougal]

Mikey Noble is basically reiterating what I've been saying for years and the usual suspects can't handle it despite it being so glaringly obviously

So the likes of AC and Inter, Real and Athletico, United and City, Liverpool and Everton etc etc are all doing it wrong seeing their fans are from the same community

As the years pass Bannerman just gets more and more embarrassing, my advice would be for him to stick to commenting on the commonwealth games , something he allegedly knows something about although that's probably debatable as well

He doesn't know what it's like to be a football supporter and he NEVER will hence why he comes across as a pathetic little weasel

Dougal

[ferben1994]

Mikey Noble is basically reiterating what I've been saying for years and the usual suspects can't handle it despite it being so glaringly obviously

So the likes of AC and Inter, Real and Athletico, United and City, Liverpool and Everton etc etc are all doing it wrong seeing their fans are from the same community

As the years pass Bannerman just gets more and more embarrassing, my advice would be for him to stick to commenting on the commonwealth games , something he allegedly knows something about although that's probably debatable as well

He doesn't know what it's like to be a football supporter and he NEVER will hence why he comes across as a pathetic little weasel

Dougal

Ouch

Still can't work out who Douglas supports tho

I guess after personal abuse like this tho the banhammer will be out. :-D

[Renegade]

 

Ouch

Still can't work out who Douglas supports tho

I guess after personal abuse like this tho the banhammer will be out. :-D

 

 

I think I've cottoned on to who Dougal is actually.  I'm not going to name names, but once you realise who it is, it becomes fairly obvious.

Edited June 23, 2014 by Renegade

[ferben1994]

Ouch

Still can't work out who Douglas supports tho

I guess after personal abuse like this tho the banhammer will be out. :-D

I think I've cottoned on to who Dougal is actually. I'm not going to name names, but once you realise who it is, it becomes fairly obvious.

Oh come on at least a clue would be good lol :-D

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

And it is not me as others have wrongly conjectured - but we do go back a long way and still go to some games together. And it wasn't personal abuse it was a fairly accurate chacterisation.

[Charles Bannerman]

 

Mikey Noble is basically reiterating what I've been saying for years and the usual suspects can't handle it despite it being so glaringly obviously

So the likes of AC and Inter, Real and Athletico, United and City, Liverpool and Everton etc etc are all doing it wrong seeing their fans are from the same community

As the years pass Bannerman just gets more and more embarrassing, my advice would be for him to stick to commenting on the commonwealth games , something he allegedly knows something about although that's probably debatable as well

He doesn't know what it's like to be a football supporter and he NEVER will hence why he comes across as a pathetic little weasel

Dougal

Poor Dougal   He really is having such difficulty coming to terms with the stunning success of the merger-catalysed transition from a few hundred fans shouting abuse at each other in the relative anonymity of the Highland League to a high profile team in the top half of the Scottish Premiership.

[12th Man]

I suppose the other option was caley join div3, caley move to the longman, caley becomes inverness caley, inverness caley go bust.

[old caley girl]

I suppose the other option was caley join div3, caley move to the longman, caley becomes inverness caley, inverness caley go bust.

How do you work that out to have been a possible scenario? I still believe Caley could have gone it alone but would they even have got over the first hurdle of league membership? Not sure tbh. Doubt they'd have gone bust either as were always well run as far as I know and did put a million pounds into the ICT pot.

[12th Man]

I worked that out to be, a possible scenario because it isnt an impossible scenario. If they couldnt even reach league membership then they wouldnt be in a position to go it alone and would still be in the highland league.

I should have written another option as opposed to the other option.

 

I wrote more but I deleted it because its been done to death.

[ICTPaisley]

I suppose the other option was caley join div3, caley move to the longman, caley becomes inverness caley, inverness caley go bust.

They may well have done just as well as Ross County, or then again they might have been like Elgin. Either way I can see why some old caley fans could be annoyed. Waiting a few more years would almost certainly got them into the set up eventually.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

All that I have been trying to put across is that it still hurts and it always will - and the scab gets itchy when peeple who either do not have a clue or are embellishing the facts come around. Plus the ploy of some to deride any suggestion that the merger continues to have a negative effect on today's support and attendances.

Do not forget that Caley and Thistle had been around since the late 1800's. The average crowds had dwindled significantly in the end and it was a case of hundreds attending games. BUT as was witnessed at the Scottish Cup replay in Perf there were and still are THOUSANDS of Caley and Thistle fans locally. I would say that it is only a minority who have chosen to follow ICT or "allowed" their offspring to do so.

And Caley and Thistle fans are annoyed that two local institutions were torn apart and it was the callous manner in which it happened was the annoying part.