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"On a day of many memorable images, there was one that springs to mind. Minutes before the end of normal time, and with his side clinging to a 2-1 lead like a man hanging from a cliff-top, Butcher walked to the edge of his technical area and started flapping his arms madly, like a big old bird attempting to take flight.

Flap, flap went Butcher and flap, flap went Butcher's players. Flap went his defenders as they hoofed the ball clear with the composure of men whose trousers were on fire. Flap went his midfielders and his strikers, devoid of confidence and any semblance of leadership.

This has been the way of it all season. Those panic-struck moments were the year - the era - microcosm. A flapathon."

Tom English from the BBC website.

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I made a special trip to Tesco earlier.  I had reached for a bottle of whisky to pour a drink to Terry and his achievements this season, then realised I needed a bottle of Crabbie's.

 

I now raise my (xth) green-tinged glass of whisky mac to next year's Edinburgh derbies.

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Is there any other country in the world where the capital city doesn't have a team in the top flight?

 

Malta?  Valletta may be champions, but they play at Ta' Qali stadium, over 5 miles from the capital.

 

The big comparison for me is last night, when Madrid played Madrid in the Champion's League Final.

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I had the fortune of watching the highlights without knowing the score! I'm still trying to digest the ramifications of this development! A stunning outcome....

 

Butcher looked a broken man in his post-match interview! And Petrie looked dismayed, embarrassed and angry. I wonder what he's now thinking re. Terry?!

 

As much as I loved Butcher at Inverness, I feel no pain for his predicament - a situation that's significantly of his own making.

Schadenfreud!!!

 

I loved Terry 'talking up' our club, Inverness and the Highlands in general. He was a boon and certainly increased our profile - I'll always be thankful for that.

 

Steve Paterson went to Aberdeen which was utterly gutting but grudgingly forgivable as managing the Dons was a long-held ambition of his.

John Robertson went to Hearts - a 'Jambo' legend!

Craig Brewster to Dundee United - Huge United icon (at the time!)

 

But Butcher to Hibs? Absolutely no connection! Sheer greed and a misguided perspective of potential success with a club rotten from the core - so no sympathy from me!

 

I wonder if he's got the stomach to carry on? Or, one day, admit he made a big error of judgement.

Rumours that he's going to quit will now grow. His managerial career may well now be in tatters.

 

A job-for-life at a progressive club, with a life-style the envy of many. The renewed respect of his work in Inverness from a football community who still found him 'relevant' enough to invite onto network TV England games.

 

Cowdenbeath and Alloa is now the reality for Terry, If he still has a job!

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I made a special trip to Tesco earlier.  I had reached for a bottle of whisky to pour a drink to Terry and his achievements this season, then realised I needed a bottle of Crabbie's.

 

I now raise my (xth) green-tinged glass of whisky mac to next year's Edinburgh derbies.

 

Just to clarify my position (to Terry):

    (pre-Butcher) Ship jumpers:  That's life - I've spoken to OTJ since he left, I still think he's a good man, and I likely always will.

    (post-Butcher) Ship jumpers:  Malpas and Marsella - no hard feelings - i hope all goes well for you in the future.

    (Butcher):  If only you'd not been having a jolly with your future employers on 9th November 2013, while pretending you still hadn't decided, I and many others would wish you all the best.  However, the reality of what you did that afternoon makes us all rejoice at your current plight.  I briefly felt sympathy for you when I saw your picture during the penalties earlier, and then I remembered  how you shat on us.  South American team to win the World Cup?  Argentina for me.

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Not being an expert on the finances of Scottish football, will Hibs be much of worse financially next season with games against Hearts and Sevco? Of course if they don't bounce back up the following season might not be so lucrative. 

 

As for Butcher, no sympathy for him after the way he left us.

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Petrie's statement seems to suggest that Terry is still the man. "Leeann Dempster has already been appointed as chief executive to lead the club forward. She will join us in the next few days. Leeann achieved sporting success at Motherwell and will work closely with Terry Butcher as the club begins the task of assembling a competitive squad for next season."

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On 29th May 2009 I sat at TCS and witnessed Butchers team get relegated. On 25th May 2014 I sat at ER and witnessed Butchers team get relegated. I was there yesterday as a guest of a Hibs fan and watched, what was like, a team of schoolboys on their first ever coaching trip. There was no skill, no desire and certainly no fight to hold onto the two goal advantage. Indeed they were more like a group of people who knew this was their last day at work and so chose not to perform.

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I would doubt there would be a clause in his contract which allowed the club to relieve Butcher of his contract so early without compensation in the event of relegation.  To sack him and Malpas now will not only cost money which is needed on players but will require a search for a new manager to pick up the poisoned chalice. 

 

The irony here is that the type of manager they need in the situation they are in is exactly the type of manager Butcher is.  That is someone who can bring in underachieving players on the cheap and realise their potential as part of a team that complement each other's strengths.  He did that well here and our drop in form since he left is perhaps a testament to just how good he was at that.

 

At Hibs he has not had a chance to do what he is good at.  Appointing Butcher could well have signalled a recognition from Petrie that unless you are a very rich club, you cannot buy success, you have to build it.  He would have considered Butcher as a long term appointment. There was always going to be a big clear out of players at Easter Road for Butcher to develop his team with his players. Neither Petrie nor Butcher would have expected relegation but Butcher was always on a hiding to nothing for the rest of this season, after all, if you make it crystal clear that there will be big changes to the playing staff you can hardly expect the players to be particularly motivated.

 

If Petrie can keep faith with Butcher I can see relegation being almost a blessing in disguise for the club.  Rebuilding a team rarely brings instant success but you can be sure that had Hibs stayed up there would have been an expectation for Hibs to be top six at least next year with failure to achieve that putting pressure on his position.  Down a level gives a better opportunity to rebuild over time.  With Both Rangers and Hearts in the mix, not winning promotion next season would not be a disaster but yet after 2 seasons in the championship, Butcher should have been able to produce a strong team that will be a real force in the top flight the following year.  Butcher would have that advantage that players are more likely to want to move to Edinburgh than to Inverness and the club will be able to pay more to attract and keep the players Butcher wants.  If he can repeat what he has done here but with the added bonus of being able to attract better players, then Hibs could be a pretty formidable team in a couple of years time.

 

The question is whether Petrie has the guts and the patience to give Butcher the chance to do what it was he originally hired him for, or will he take the coward's way out and use Butcher as the scapegoat to appease the anger of the fans.

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Is there any other country in the world where the capital city doesn't have a team in the top flight?

 

OK, we got Wales and Australia. India is another one.

 

I could twist the question to : Is there any other country in the world where the only top flight team to play any home games in the capital city actually comes from a different city altogether? But that would be a bit convoluted, even for me.  (Celtic will be using Murrayfield for Euro qualifiers)

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Comments from Kevin Thomson on being released today:

 

"I'm disappointed, everyone knows how much I love the club. Unfortunately the manager has a different opinion from a lot of other people"

"It's not a surprise [to be leaving]. That's only natural with the way he's been with me over the last six or seven months since he came in."

 

 

And a dig from McPake as well :

 

"I'm just disappointed I never got the chance to help the club stay in the division. I've been fit for 10 weeks and I could have contributed."

Edited by Yngwie
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Aye.....two Peebles laddies feeling very different right now. One scores the decisive goal in the scottish cup final and the other tamely paddles his penalty towards the grateful keeper at the start of yesterdays penalty shoot out............who would be in their shoes?

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Don't fret about Butcher - All of this will not affect him in the slightest. His co-dependents in Mispass and Vaseline are under his spell and they will be suffering emotionally - but they knew all along what was on the cards and they played along with it from the start. They are as much to blame.

And perhaps I can now state what I couldn't before and it has been conveyed by quite a few - Butcher left becos he lost our dressing room and he had "plans" for a few as he did with Tokely and Munro - but he underestimated the togetherness of this squad - which gets clearer and clearer by the day,

But I do feel fer the Hibee fans but. I can certainly say to those who came on here and disbelieved me and berated me - "I feckin told you so"

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I thought in many ways that it was fitting that Butcher left ICT under a cloud.  He left loathed and ridiculed and that's all he deserved for his treatment of Russell Duncan, Grant Munro and Ross Tokely.  His treatment of them was nothing short of disgraceful.

 

I've alluded to this before, but Butcher's way of offloading Tokely was petty and bitter.  As I said on here in 2011, Butcher wanted Tokely gone with Munro and Duncan.  I heard this from a couple of sources, one of which was from the inside.  The only reason Tokely lasted one season longer was because of a clause in his contract that meant he got a years extension after playing X amount of matches.  After the backlash from the fans over the Munro/Duncan debacle, Butcher offered Tokely a deal he knew he would turn down, so that "officially" the choice to leave was his.  That deal was 50% of his current contract, though I have heard rumours from elsewhere that the deal was even more than that, somewhere in the region of £300 per week.  Remember, Tokely (without revealing the figures) referred to the offer as an insult.  That was the reason why.

 

It's also interesting to note what happened when I leaked this information on here.  Many totally dismissed it at the time and even when Tokely did go (for the reasons I stated), I was mocked and had my credibility attacked.  This was of course, from posters who believed everything Butcher said and believed he could walk on water.  Wonder if they feel that way now?

 

While I wish no ill will on Hibernian or their supporters, I'm pleased to see Butcher's image tarnished.  The way he treated this club, it's fans and it's players was nothing short of a disgrace.  He is a classless and disloyal manager, who thought he was not only too big for ICT, but for the Highlands in general.  Nothing better than the sweet taste of schadenfreude.  The chickens have come home to roost.

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Can"t comment on currant players but on the Munro, Duncan and Tokely situation I personally think it was the right decision at the time and the progression of the club since has proved this. Still doesn't stop me laughing at Butcher and Petrie. Butcher in the stand at Easter Road when still our manager has come back on him now.

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