We are signing Hagi and Popescu!!

[RossP]

.... as scouts.

here

Please let me be the first to post this story!!  :crazy07:

[chris123]

:019:tears of joy

think we could get them to play for us

[Pele_Is_God]

This is brilliant news. :crazy07:

[kencar]

Nice story. Let's just wait and see...... :023:

[mikeyrob73]

is this going to be like our sheffield link up?? didnt see very much come from that did we ?

[Yngwie]

An interesting comment is the quote that we expect to bring in 2 players on loan, 2 East Europeans and a replacement for Dods.

[Harry Chibber]

Another Vidic would do the trick!

Please let this be true... imagine all the youth players from Barca that could get shipped over :024:

[Harry Chibber]

This should easily be in the main ICT related page to get everyones opinion on what is the biggest story regarding ICT since feb 2000!

When was the last time we made the back page of a central belt paper??

[Kingsmills]

The troube is that we are far from the only club looking to eastern Europe for cheap aquisitions. I'd be surprised ifanything came ofthis.

[beachcomber]

Replacement for Barry Wilson ?

and this guy could stick them away .....

[chris123]

This should easily be in the main ICT related page to get everyones opinion on what is the biggest story regarding ICT since feb 2000!

When was the last time we made the back page of a central belt paper??

feburary 8th 2000 i think :004: i am also quite excited about the united link, think of the young players that didnt make the grade there and are now championship regulars

[Guest Get_off_the_park_Wyness!]

This sounds a bit dodgey to me. You only have to look at Dundee Utd, Airdrie Utd and Livi to see the damage that these hairbrain schemes can do if you let them get out of control. A dressing room full of foriegn mercenaries is a recipe for disaster.

I'd prefer if we focused on developing LOCAL youth. Remember, Celtic managed to win the European cup with a whole team of local boys. It's best for team spirit, its best for local kids and its best for the identity and soul of the club.

[beachcomber]

Agreed GOTPW.

I'd be more enthused to hear that we'd signed up an A. Gunn or A, Sinclair from Wick and a Willie-John or John-Willie MacRae from Stornoway as scouts to get a grip on local prospects before announcing this sort of speculative headline grabbing stuff.

While I'm at it, the chairmans obsession with Man Utd. grates too.

[caleyboy]

Spin - Spin and yet more feking spin! We can't find players from the Merkinch (Ridgers) never mind thousands of miles away  :symbol_exclaim01:

[FortressICT]

that would be great.man u aswell.get in!!

[tm4tj]

:rolleyes02:

[buckett]

I'm with the sceptics on this one - we should be nurturing local talent, not picking up bargain foreign mercenaries looking to put themselves in the shop window.

And being of the tribal mentality, I'd have great difficulty declaring loyalty to a team of foreigners who happen to be wearing the Inverness shirt. Not that it's ever likely to happen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . thankfully!

[Pele_Is_God]

If they are good quality players,  I couldn't care less what nationality they are. Alan Savage seems ambitious, and I for one would be happy if this was to be pulled off.

[Guest sophia]

I don't think too much about local v global.

I'm more concerned with the irregular flyers that come from the club's management on deals with big clubs or names. Thing is, nothing keeps happening afterwards.

Coincidentally this press release comes alongside the announcement on tickets for next season.

The portacabin was still parked outside the front door the last time I looked.

[Harry Chibber]

f*ck sake!

Everyone was happy to complain that the club had a small team mentality when our scouting system came in to question previously, and that CC doesn't have a big enough 'name' to attract big players.  Now the club has made strides to set up a scouting system with 2 world renowned names in the game and all you miserable ba5tards can do is...  well.... be miserable ba5tards!!

This might all be bollox but it at least shows ambition, if they can produce one decent player and it benefits the club then I'll be delighted no matter what nationality he is.  Currently the Scottish and English markets are too expensive for us to compete with other teams in the division so why not tap into a market that could offer us something different for a more reasonable price, makes perfect business sense (obviously depending on how much we are paying the Scouts :024:).  Remember this is not just an Eastern European connection, if Hagi has still got ties at Barca we could see a Cesc Fabregas, maybe asking too much but surely it is worth taking a chance :001:

[FortressICT]

buckett - "we should be nurturing local talent"

hard to do that when our manager is not playing them when he should be i.e games like dunfermilne tomorrow.

[FortressICT]

very good point Harry Chibber

[beachcomber]

not long back there was talk of a big overseas investor - we got a player from Cowdenbeath

now it's exotic world cup stars scouting for ICT  - we'll probably get - another player from Cowdenbeath

I prefer to see them present some real done deal instead of all the hype

[dead_ball_specialist]

We're sending scouts out to Kazakhstan? This is the kind of story that the Courier used to print on April 1st. Absolutly bonkers. The lunatics are running the asylum at TCS.

"Graeme Bennet is flying out to Romania in the near future, where he is set to meet up with two of the countries most well-known internationals for talks about bringing players to Inverness."

Why can't he e-mail them? Phone them? Video link with them? What nonsense. Just another excuse for Grassa to go jetting around the world with our gate money. It stinks. I'd love to see a list of his expenses over the last couple of seasons.

How do we know that Popescu and Hagi have any scouting ability? Why do we need TWO scouts in Romania? Whats to stop them from feeding us players who's agents have given them a sub? Won't all the best Romanian players be picked up by the likes of Dynamo Bucharest? How many other clubs have scouts there already? Is Romania even a member of the EU? Kazakhstan certainly isn't. I thought the rule was that a non-EC player had to have played in 70% of games for his international side to be eligible to sign for you, or to have been exempted by a special appeals panel (the same draconian panel that jarred Mario Jardel and Jason Scotland).

How many good players has Kazakhstan produced? Is there a single player in the Kazakhstan national team good enough to play in the SPL? How did the captain of the Romanian national team Daniel Prodan fair when he played in the SPL?

"Savage also revealed that talks have taken place with English Premiership champions Manchester Utd about the possibility of taking some of their most talented young players on loan next season."

Nothing will come of this, it's absolute pie in the sky. Utd already have a feeder club in the Belgian Premier league, and we'll be competing for their players with half of the clubs in the Premiership and Championship. Even Rangers are sniffing around Old Trafford for loan deals like they had with Bardsley and Lee Martin.

I don't think you can blame Charlie Christie or Donald Park for any of this nonsense, Savage seems to be one of these successful businessmen who walk into football with extravagant, conceited delusions of personal brilliance only to end up with egg on their faces.

He's obviously a smart guy looking at all he's achieved, but you can't always transfer skills from one field to another. Forging links with Eastern Europe worked for him in the oil industry but is it a sensible strategy for a provincial Scottish football club? Only time will tell. I'd love for him to prove me wrong but from what I've heard from him, I'm not convinced that he knows what he's doing.

[Harry Chibber]

Only time will tell. I'd love for him to prove me wrong but from what I've heard from him, I'm not convinced that he knows what he's doing.

Exactly, would it not be worth waiting to see what comes from the speculation before shooting Savage and the board down on something you really know nothing about?