What is happening with him?  Is he on his way out?  Will he be offered a new contract?  Why is he not playing?  Why is John Hughes not playing one of our most consistent players?  He would have made a tremendous difference on Saturday and many other games he was left out of.  I along with many fans want a new contract for Raven, and he has publicly stated that he wants one.   If we are going to let a solid, consistent, loyal player who is extremely popular with the fans leave then I am seriously considering taking my money elsewhere next season and finding a new hobby on a Saturday.

 

Raven must stay!!!

6 hours ago, Jaggy666 said:

I dont buy this "we have no money for players", the money is there, its just being set aside for other means e.g property. 

Do you mean the training camp near Costa del Moray Firth.

3 hours ago, Huisdean said:

Yogi is not perfect but the board are culpable on this matter as well.

Doubt the board have much to do with the signings they only agree to the finance and since we only have 7 signed players would doubt the money is the issue. Think this is yogi' s issues p*****g off players with his comments in the press who then do not have a desire to play for him ( Raven excepted) .

5 hours ago, ictfcsince94 said:

Well it was good to see him back in the squad. I noticed after that reception and the half time warm up he didn't get to warm up again. Was Yogi worried he was getting too much affection from the fans?

That would fair irritate anyone with narcissistic traits

16 hours ago, Huisdean said:

 

 

How the above could be classed as a quality post is beyond me. While I don't know the severity of Doran's injury, it does not look like it is career threatening and we are a much better team when he plays. If he is fit to play, we should sign him up. Why should we want to punt him and replace him with someone else who may not do the business. Again, why sell tansy unless he doesn't want to be here. He is one of our best and most consistent performers and can open up defences with his passing. Agree that Raven has justified a new contract but from some posts on here you would think he is a world beater. He is a good right back but no more than that. I don't like the way he has been treated but is this all down to Hughes.

6 contracts are with the board as indicated in the press and if so, could it not be the board are holding things up?. Were they waiting to see if we would be safe from relegation first before making decisions. Yogi is not perfect but the board are culpable on this matter as well.

I'm glad to see this has sparked some discussion.

To reiterate: in the ideal world, I would love to see all three of Raven, Doran and Tansey with us next year - no question. It seems, however, that Yogi has chosen to prioritise extending Tansey's contract and to get Doran tied down at the expense of Raven. Fair play - that is his choice and he is best-placed to make a decision on Doran's fitness since his injury. I'm not suggesting that Doran's injury is career-threatening, but it was really serious and players often fail to ever fully recover to their previous best in such circumstances. I hope Aaron gets a game or two before the end of the season to prove me wrong, but it seems a big risk on allegedly our top earner. I don['t think anybody is suggesting that DR is a world-beater, but IMO he is a good right back and retaining him would enable the Meekings/Warren partnership to be rekindled - so a double-whammy.

As for Tansey, he's been an excellent player for us too and I see why Yogi is keen to keep him. However, we constantly bemoan the fact that players leave ICT for free or at cut-price, generally because we fail to cash in on them before they sign pre-contracts (e.g. Shinnie, Vincent, Williams), leave on a free (e.g. Watkins) or are sold cheap because they're so close to the end of their contracts (e.g. Mckay). So, here's the rub: get a decent fee for Tansey now or let him go on a free in one or two years' time? I don't know the answer, I'm only posing the question.

At the bottom of all this, we have to realise that on gate and league "winnings" alone, ICT probably make a loss of ~£200k per season (I think others much closer to the finances than I have suggested as much and it is backed up by the fact that we only made very small profits over the past 2 years, despite higher than expected league finishes, good cup runs and the sale of Billy). That means that, following a lean year, we need to find £200k in "windfalls" - we're not going to win the cup every year, sadly, so we either have to reduce the wage bill or sell a player who is in demand. Put bluntly, nearly half of the earnings from Christie's sale has probably gone to fund the shortfall from this season.

Yogi has apparently opted for keeping the family silver and reducing the wage bill, which he is entitled to do. I simply put forward another option, which is to sell the family silver while it is still worth something and retain the core of the squad, with some cash left over to fund bringing in reasonable quality replacements. Either way, it is something of a gamble - you only have to look at United to see the risk of continually selling your best assets. Equally, I don't want to see ICT with accounts like Killie's (£750 k loss this year) or to have such a big rebuilding job every season as to jeopardise survival. Choices, choices...

On ‎23‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 8:27 PM, SteveA said:

John Hughes was extremely lucky to get the job as our manager in the first place. No other team in our position would of gone near him. In my view he is now degrading the club and our ambitions by his negative comments. This was our season to progress and establish ourselves as a Premier League club but this has not happenend. Hughes continually talks us down and his negativity must surely detract players from wanting to join us. When you have a solid, consistent and very good player like David Raven desperate to sign a new contract and you decide not to, in my view it is a disgrace. We are Inverness Caledonian Thistle, we know we are not world beaters and are not  going to win cups every season but we want to see players with heart and passion who want to wear our shirt and sweat blood and tears for us and David Raven is this kind of player. I for one feel Hughes is forgetting about the essence of our club and taking us down a road many of us will not want to follow. 

Seven pages, over a hundred and fifty posts, thousands of words but if you don't have the time or inclination to trawl through them all just read this brilliant one paragraph post. Absolutely nails it and sums things up perfectly. Well said sir...

3 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

Seven pages, over a hundred and fifty posts, thousands of words but if you don't have the time or inclination to trawl through them all just read this brilliant one paragraph post. Absolutely nails it and sums things up perfectly. Well said sir...

Not to me it doesn't as things are not quite so simple. Nothing said about the loss of quality players who we were going to struggle to replace no matter who was the manager. Some posters have never wanted JH and have not been prepared to give him ant sort of leeway. To be sure, this season could have gone better but, in reality, will have been no worse, in terms of league position than many others. Clubs like ICT will always struggle to achieve consistency and the good seasons will be outweighed by ones that are less good as other clubs will snap up our good players. Just look at Dundee Utd as an example of how quickly things can change.

The only way the club will really progress is twofold, by rearing more of it's own players and more fans attending on a regular basis. If that doesn't happen, enjoy the good seasons and continue to support the team during the bad seasons.

I think the whole episode relates to the money we are spending on the likes of Foran etc. Add up the BIG contracts (which the manager did not dish out) and deduct the total from the budget Cameron has given Yogi and you get a figure he has to offer the players out of contract and new players he wants to bring in. The answer to all that is probably pretty dire!

I heard at the game yesterday that Yogi's been told his playing budget for next season, is £80,000 lower than the one for this season.

1 hour ago, Renegade said:

I heard at the game yesterday that Yogi's been told his playing budget for next season, is £80,000 lower than the one for this season.

I heard the opposite - his budget is to be increased from last year.

1 hour ago, Renegade said:

I heard at the game yesterday that Yogi's been told his playing budget for next season, is £80,000 lower than the one for this season.

Smart move by the board if true IMO.

Given that Brill, Doran, Foran were all injured very early on and we had to bring in a keeper in Williams and cover in many areas across the park - R.Williams, Fisher, Hughes even the signing of Vigurs - are these players that if we never had the problems would have been here this season? I'm pretty sure the club increased the budget and dug into the 'rainy day; fund to ease our injury woes, therefore a reduction of budget for next season may not be anything more than going back to 'normal' levels.

If the budget is cut yet again we can look forward to championship football the season after next.

Well if this rainy day fund exists they should dip into it again and sign Raven up

6 hours ago, Hearach said:

Well if this rainy day fund exists they should dip into it again and sign Raven up

If it ever existed, looking at what's being said, then it's no longer there to dip into... If this is what happened, then I agree; reduce the budget and return to a more 'comfortable' financial position. The league in which we play isn't important ATEOTD, the existence of the club is what is important. 

There certainly isn't any rainy day fund. Accounts to 15 May 2015 showed a profit of £254k Year before was £28k and each season before that we ran at break even or loss. Last year our income was roughly £4.65 million Our costs including wages £4.4 million. That didnt include Christie sale or Cup moneys. It'll be interesting to see how the books balance this year.

As to Hughes strategy. I'm as baffled as anyone but inclined to think 1. Waiting to see exactly what position we finish before committing. 2. Offload a couple of high earners in the hope its easier to get loan defenders than strikers and have a bigger offer for striker. Being cynical here but I wonder if a certain Mr Stokes could be on the radar when his loan at Hibs is over. Dont know if he's got much left on Celtic contract 

On ‎25‎/‎04‎/‎2016 at 1:10 PM, Kingsmills said:

Seven pages, over a hundred and fifty posts, thousands of words but if you don't have the time or inclination to trawl through them all just read this brilliant one paragraph post. Absolutely nails it and sums things up perfectly. Well said sir...

Agreed.................100%

On 26 April 2016 at 5:17 PM, Alex MacLeod said:

There certainly isn't any rainy day fund. Accounts to 15 May 2015 showed a profit of £254k Year before was £28k and each season before that we ran at break even or loss. Last year our income was roughly £4.65 million Our costs including wages £4.4 million. That didnt include Christie sale or Cup moneys. It'll be interesting to see how the books balance this year.

As to Hughes strategy. I'm as baffled as anyone but inclined to think 1. Waiting to see exactly what position we finish before committing. 2. Offload a couple of high earners in the hope its easier to get loan defenders than strikers and have a bigger offer for striker. Being cynical here but I wonder if a certain Mr Stokes could be on the radar when his loan at Hibs is over. Dont know if he's got much left on Celtic contract 

I certainly hope a certain Mr Stokes is not on the radar. In fact I'd sooner see him anywhere else! When it was first mentioned he could come here I was one that was optimistic about it. Now, having seen wat he's done to hibs since joining, I'm glad he never came to us. And let's be serious that would be a hell of a wage to pay, a wage that would be better spent on David Raven and these forwards Yogi's talking about! 

Btw, if you go Inverness CT Loyal page on Facebook there's a petition to stop Raven getting released! And if anyone knows how we could get it to the club then I'm all ears. 

Have they copy and pasted anyone's name yet and passed it off as their own....?

3 hours ago, Renegade said:

Have they copy and pasted anyone's name yet and passed it off as their own....?

Justified speculation.

René Gade, 29th April 2016

 

who are you asking about? 

1 hour ago, DEANO96 said:

who are you asking about? 

I believe the question is aimed at whoever steals other peoples comments on Twitter and posts them on FB in the name of Inverness Loyal Army. In other words plagiarism 

18 minutes ago, Alex MacLeod said:

I believe the question is aimed at whoever steals other peoples comments on Twitter and posts them on FB in the name of Inverness Loyal Army. In other words plagiarism 

Together with the lack of wit to come up with anything worth saying of their own...

6 hours ago, Alex MacLeod said:

I believe the question is aimed at whoever steals other peoples comments on Twitter and posts them on FB in the name of Inverness Loyal Army. In other words plagiarism 

Oooh living dangerously there.  I called them out on it once and they banned me!