Contract Situation

[RednBlackComeback]

Can't help but feel disappointed at losing both. Vincent will always remain a club legend in my mind for scoring the cup winning goal, and Williams, as mentioned above is such a versatile player to have in the squad. It's galling to see an entire team of former players regularly playing against us now:

• Reguero (think he's at Hibs?)
• Shinnie
• Robson
• Hayes
• Rooney
• Cowie
• Williams
• Vincent
• Ross
• Mckay
• Ofere

Meanwhile we have just 6 players secured for next season!

.......and I was thinking this season was difficult!!! 

[Hearach]

Any news on David Raven contract? We really miss him in the team and hope he recovers soon.

[RiG]

Reguero left Hibs last month I think.

No news on the Raven deal. Was it not November last year he was talking about how he hoped to sign a new deal with the club?

I think we will see a lot of familiar names moved on in the summer. Raven, Doran and Brill might all depart for pastures new.

[PerfICT]

2 hours ago, RiG said:

They would have been daft not to go for those. Vincent I'm not too fussed about. Too injury prone over the last 3 seasons although I am worried that, despite these problems, we at least knew he was a good player and I don't feel that Hughes is able to adequately replace players we have lost. Some of his signings have been dreadful.
 
Williams I am more disappointed about. He's not an excellent player but he's decent enough. Versatile as well and that has helped us out a lot this season. Probably better as a left back than a midfielder as his crossing is surprisingly poor. Again, I've little confidence in Hughes in the transfer market to replace him. We obviously wanted to keep him so I'm puzzled by why we never offered the guy a deal until Dundee did. Pretty poor from us.

Hopefully we learn from this and offer contracts to players much earlier than we generally seem to do. Also, if we stay up, the board will need to support Hughes in the summer to replace the players we've lost. I'm not expecting silly money to be banded about but we've lost a fair amount of the players from our most successful seasons and they've never properly been replaced with some sticky plaster loan or short term signings used to paper over the cracks. This summer could be a very important one for ICT.

Agree with RiG regarding our re-active rather than pro-active activity here. Assuming that everything we read is true (BIG assumption), it appears that we only offered these guys contract once Dundee were in the frame. We have known the situation since the day they signed their contracts with us, so why wait to be gazumped before offering decent players contracts? Yes, there's a bit of a risk if a player picks up an injury in the meantime (e.g. Richie Foran), but our budget means that we simply can't compete with any of our rivals if it comes to a shoot-out. The only edge you have as the club in current possiession is the ability to act before the last 6 months and get players you want tied up. I don't get our retention policy and I have no doubt that the others that are out of contract and worth keeping will also receive better offers. 6 players confirmed for next season at this stage is not good enough IMO.

Edited March 22, 2016 by PerfICT

[+MrCaleyjag]

I don't understand why near the end of March we are sitting with so few players tied up to contracts past the end of this season.

I'm sure I am repeating most of what has been said, so I apologise, but I haven't read through the thread properly, there's a fundamental problem somewhere at the club when it comes to matters involving players and contracts and it's not one which has suddenly appeared as this has been happening for years now.

It's even more alarming when you consider how difficult we seem to find recruiting or at least recruiting decent players that can offer something at first team level.

I'm becoming more and more disillusioned with our recruitment policy and contractual policy and the way this season is going I don't see it getting any better, lets be honest JH's recruitment hasn't exactly set the heather on fire has it?

[Huisdean]

This is where we really need the board/manager to have done their homework for next season and identify players now. This has been alluded to by JH but some of this has to be driven by the board. While I accept they have a difficult job to do, I genuinely think they are not proactive enough in football matters and we need a more aggressive figure to lead the board.

[LundavraJag]

This summer will be huge for us, I don't have too much confidence. Ravens situation staggers me, we have a player that is desperate to sign on, he is a well known reliable player for us and has been for years yet it sounds like he is not wanted. Why risk that only to get a complete unknown, untried and untested player in in his place? I'm not surprised Vincent and Williams have decided to move on and certainly not for 3 year deals but I'm disappointed at losing Danny Williams.

 

Edited March 22, 2016 by LundavraJag

[Dargo20]

This is an extract from todays Scotman on Vincent and Williams

Pretty accurate I would say

 

"One of Vincent’s drawbacks is his tendency to get injured quite frequently, making the three-year deal dished out to him a little surprising. However, he’ll likely come cheap and will be a good character to have around the squad for the duration of his deal.

Williams is a left-sided player who can operate just as adequately at left back or left midfield. He arrived at Inverness CT as a winger, but was pushed back at the start of this season to cover for the loss of Graeme Shinnie. He does tend to impact games a little more when operating from deep, since his technical and crossing attributes don’t quite match up to the better attackers in the top flight. When he plays from deep, he provides a valuable out-ball and always makes himself available with a terrific engine and work rate.

Defensively he’s not brilliant, but he’s fared better in the position than many anticipated. This is because he often displays a good understanding of the game and it enables him to remain disciplined in the role, knowing when and when not to bomb forward and support."

 

[RiG]

Found this:

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/David-Raven-aims-for-new-deal-to-end-career-with-Caley-Thistle-08122015.htm

So it was December that Raven was hoping for a new deal. I know that doesn't mean he will automatically get one but it's interesting that there seems to have been so little movement. Also interesting is that, since this story, we signed up a further two players on new deals since then (Draper and Polworth). That's pretty poor going to be honest.

[ICTRoughi]

The team needs a bit of freshening up, so wouldn't be all that sad if more players from the Butcher era vacate our club. 

[old caley girl]

58 minutes ago, ICTRoughi said:

The team needs a bit of freshening up, so wouldn't be all that sad if more players from the Butcher era vacate our club. 

 

58 minutes ago, ICTRoughi said:

The team needs a bit of freshening up, so wouldn't be all that sad if more players from the Butcher era vacate our club. 

Maybe but imho the calibre of player coming in nowadays is nowhere near the same standard as those departing?

[Sneckboy]

Bizarre stat of the day:
The 3 subs we brought-on at Hampden, in the Scottish Cup Final, were James Vincent, Danny Williams and Nick Ross - all of whom will be playing for Dundee next season!

[Renegade]

I don't know who wrote that Scotsman article in this thread, but this idea that we built Williams into a left back is untrue.  Apparently that was predominantly his position prior to him signing for us.

No talk either on offering Jordan Roberts a new deal - not to the mention the fact that he seems to have fallen out of the team all of a sudden, despite playing quite well. I'd like to see him signed up long term actually as he looks to me like he could be a right good player for us.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Renegade

[Kingsmills]

3 hours ago, ICTRoughi said:

The team needs a bit of freshening up, so wouldn't be all that sad if more players from the Butcher era vacate our club. 

That is the most ridiculous post on this thread. Say what you like about the Butcher regime but one thing they did do was recruit very well and secure talented players on contracts of reasonable duration usually in pretty good time.

 

We won the cup last season and qualified for Europe with a squad almost entirely recruited and secured under the previous regime. It's a real concern that so many of those players have now left or are not being secured for the future especially as the replacements brought in so far on a very similar budget are much more miss than hit.

 

Concerning times.

[RiG]

1 hour ago, Renegade said:

I don't know who wrote that Scotsman article in this thread, but this idea that we built Williams into a left back is untrue.  Apparently that was predominantly his position prior to him signing for us.

No talk either on offering Jordan Roberts a new deal - not to the mention the fact that he seems to have fallen out of the team all of a sudden, despite playing quite well. I'd like to see him signed up long term actually as he looks to me like he could be a right good player for us.

Craig Fowler of The Terrace podcast fame.

[ICTRoughi]

Whilst I can see where people disagree my opinion, I'm not meaning guys who have great value in our team i.e: Meekings, Warren, Draper, Tansey, Tremarco, Foran 

My opinion is based on players like Dean Brill, Danny Devine, Aaron Doran and David Raven. 

Just think we as a club needs freshening up rather than relying on the same old faces. There are great gems out there like Miles Storey and Owain Fon Williams. In my opinion the newer guys need time to gel as a squad and again that's down to management to sort that out sooner rather than later. 

Edited March 22, 2016 by ICTRoughi

[Renegade]

Aye.  Let's get rid of someone who, on his day, is one of the best wingers in the league and one of the most reliable and solid full backs we've ever had who also claims to want a new deal.  Good thinking.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Renegade

[bdu98196]

Sadly its inevitable that a provincial club like ours with such a small fanbase and remote location (in relative terms) will struggle to recruit and in the event of success, certainly like we have retain players or a higehr calibre. The loss historically of our better players has happened for years, Robson, Cowie, A.Shinnie etc, more recently G.Shinnie, Mackay, Watkins, Ofere.

While its disappointing not to keep players but its a fact they may get offers better than we can provide, whether salary, environment, location etc. We should be delighted to have key players like Tansey, Draper, Meekings, Warren signed up as I believe all are outstanding talents at our club and demonstrated to be SPFL quality or better so could have left to go elsewhere.

We may be back to a summer or rebuilding but thats the price of success - look at Southampton after their good season when almost a full team left, expect the same with Suprs or Leicester this year - closer to home look at DUtd, Hibs,Hamilton all teams who did well and built some success only to loose the heart of their squads. Unfortunately for us we dont seem to be good at getting transfer fee's but when there are better or more appealing offers the club can only do so much. Like any business we have a wage structure, budgets and limits on what we can do - just like any walk of life someone will leave if offered something they percieve better for whatever reason.

[CaleyD]

A few people with very selective memories in regards to the quality of some of the players who came and went under previous managers.

[caleyboy]

2 hours ago, Sneckboy said:

Bizarre stat of the day:
The 3 subs we brought-on at Hampden, in the Scottish Cup Final, were James Vincent, Danny Williams and Nick Ross - all of whom will be playing for Dundee next season!

All on money we can't afford - simple

[Renegade]

We could afford to keep Williams, though I'm told it was the length of contract that was the deal breaker for him to go to Dundee.

[Kind of Blue]

Would have been happy had Williams stayed.  As for Vincent, he is a quality player but the club just cannot afford to have a player who misses large parts of the each season through injury.  It will be interesting to see how often he is injury free for Dundee.

[rocky1]

45 minutes ago, Renegade said:

We could afford to keep Williams, though I'm told it was the length of contract that was the deal breaker for him to go to Dundee.

That's  not what the Dee's fans down here are saying -£3000 per week which I believe will be double what we can offer 

[Kind of Blue]

14 minutes ago, rocky1 said:

That's  not what the Dee's fans down here are saying -£3000 per week which I believe will be double what we can offer 

If they're paying that sort of money, then Administration will be knocking on the door again.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Kind of Blue

[Renegade]

Never in a month of Sundays will Dundee be paying Danny Williams £3,000 a week!