"The ICT Thread - From the Premiership to the Seaside"

[sophia]

What an ignominious end to the great geographical reset of Scottish football. Beyond the despair, the haunting sound that is reverberating around our highland capital is that of Norman Miller and Jock Macdonald resting uneasily.

The whole point of the club is to promote our area and talent, a platform denied to previous generations. It seems that they are to be abandoned once again in favour of something that is far from my expectation of the club.

I care not a jot which league we play in or the necessary structure of the club that is required to go some way to balance the books but so far from the solution is this that my first reaction on reading the statement was that a satirist was as clever with their pitch as they were with software fakery. 

There were fine margins that we found ourselves on the wrong side of over the last wee while but this is so far off the map that it leaves me questioning my commitment that, for the first time in more decades that I care to remember, is on the depressing end of doubt. 

 

[1320Lichtie]

16 minutes ago, Moorie said:

Any part time team that are in a small town and part time can completely understand why training is held else where, on Aberdeen based players the travelling for Blair Yule was getting to much when for you’s even going further back was the same for my pal Brain Thomson and that’s in the early 90s.

If ICT had went part time totally get them doing it but Inverness is a city crazy that the full time squad ain’t based there. I don’t know what kind of players they are going attract being in league 1 and still full time competing with championship teams where you won’t be on 5 hour round trips for your home games. 
cove had the same issue last season going full time the dross they signed up as that’s all they could attract.

I always picture the highlands a hot bed of young talented players which as you fa you’d think set them up better for league 1 than journey men looking for a good pay.

Isn’t Ferguson down the road after most games? This will suit him. Wonder where gardiner is based. Guy seems a right rodent of a man  

 

Yeah if Inverness has 80k like I’ve read that’s 50k more people than Arbroath. To be fair the hybrid players we have had the last two seasons came up and lived in the town, only problem is aside from Jay Bird and Marcel Oakley (who was on loan from Birmingham) none of them were any fkn use. We’ve scrapped that now. They used to get taken through to training in Edinburgh / Perth by a club employee in a mini bus!

 

What do you mean by down the road? Surely cannot be going back to England after a game on a Saturday?

[AuldReekie]

Absolutely brutal. If this were Dunfermline, I probably wouldn't be back. Feel sorry for the fans. Would sooner roll the dice investing all the money this is costing, including salaries on central belt players who don't want to be there, on a first class highland academy. A team needs to be connected with it's community. I know that's been watered down a lot in recent years but there has to be a line. Brutal. 

That said, if ICT still want to retain that city feel, and not slum it in the caves of Kelty, Pars have a new training academy that's available for a fee. Added bonus is you won't be funding a competitor in same league. Everyone's a winner!

[SandyCromarty]

10 hours ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Where did you read that the players would be bussed up and put in a hotel on a match day? It is all just starting to sound like a bit of a fkn farce. 
 

Tbh the remote training things not what I find mental. Just the fact they’ve chosen to pick Kelty and pay them for it, another league club and direct competitor (I get that when the talks started they probably didn’t think it was a possibility)

 

I have said I don’t give two fucks about Arbroath training at the Oriam but if Spartans were in L1 with us or whatever and we were paying them a figure to use their facilities it wouldn’t sit right with me. Just seems so fkn stupid. 

When we were promoted to the Premier the two new stands at our Stadium weren't complete so we had to play at Pittoddrie and pay Aberdeen £30,000 per game.

[bunglebonce]

Why Kelty in particular? 

[PB1994]

33 minutes ago, Moorie said:

Any part time team that are in a small town and part time can completely understand why training is held else where, on Aberdeen based players the travelling for Blair Yule was getting to much when for you’s even going further back was the same for my pal Brain Thomson and that’s in the early 90s.

If ICT had went part time totally get them doing it but Inverness is a city crazy that the full time squad ain’t based there. I don’t know what kind of players they are going attract being in league 1 and still full time competing with championship teams where you won’t be on 5 hour round trips for your home games. 
cove had the same issue last season going full time the dross they signed up as that’s all they could attract.

I always picture the highlands a hot bed of young talented players which as you fa you’d think set them up better for league 1 than journey men looking for a good pay.

Isn’t Ferguson down the road after most games? This will suit him. Wonder where gardiner is based. Guy seems a right rodent of a man  

Gardiner family still stayed around Dundee during COVID and I can’t imagine that has changed so I’m sure this will be seen as an opportunity to stay as far away from Inverness as possible.

12 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

What do you mean by down the road? Surely cannot be going back to England after a game on a Saturday?

He sure has been. Don’t know how often it’s being done to be fair but it’s happened a few times at least.

[Matty-RCFC]

15 minutes ago, bunglebonce said:

Why Kelty in particular? 

As Duncan Ferguson absolutely loves plastic turf, which he regularly mentions in his pressers.

[CALEDONIAN108]

1 hour ago, sophia said:

What an ignominious end to the great geographical reset of Scottish football. Beyond the despair, the haunting sound that is reverberating around our highland capital is that of Norman Miller and Jock Macdonald resting uneasily.

The whole point of the club is to promote our area and talent, a platform denied to previous generations. It seems that they are to be abandoned once again in favour of something that is far from my expectation of the club.

I care not a jot which league we play in or the necessary structure of the club that is required to go some way to balance the books but so far from the solution is this that my first reaction on reading the statement was that a satirist was as clever with their pitch as they were with software fakery. 

There were fine margins that we found ourselves on the wrong side of over the last wee while but this is so far off the map that it leaves me questioning my commitment that, for the first time in more decades that I care to remember, is on the depressing end of doubt. 

 

^^^^^
Actual tears brilliant

Sandy Cromarty and Sophia crying into their conflakes this morning turning the milk sour. 
Next step Administration/liquidation

 

[smpar]

[1320Lichtie]

1 hour ago, PB1994 said:

Gardiner family still stayed around Dundee during COVID and I can’t imagine that has changed so I’m sure this will be seen as an opportunity to stay as far away from Inverness as possible.

He sure has been. Don’t know how often it’s being done to be fair but it’s happened a few times at least.

Honestly who could be fkn arsed with all that travelling.

 

What do you think is the percentage of Ferguson staying? If that makes any sense, how much chance is there of him being Caley gaffer this year?

[Capital-ICT87]

Ferguson is staying 100%

[bdu98196]

7 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

What do you think is the percentage of Ferguson staying? If that makes any sense, how much chance is there of him being Caley gaffer this year?

Allegedly there's 5000 reasons for Dunc staying every week. He wont walk and those in charge like the spotlight it brings. No doubts dunc stays unless there is a top level change at the club.

[bdu98196]

Bollan is also a waste of a wage. All these years in Scottish football at the lower levels and doesn't know what tactics you need to win games or kind of player. Or too weak to speak out against Dunc and challenge his approach. Either way gtf.

[SandyCromarty]

8 minutes ago, Capital-ICT87 said:

Ferguson is staying 100%

As I've said I won't be as long as Ferguson and Gardiner stay, and there is many like me.

So with dwindling ST sales those Directors who were putting the money up last season will have to dig a lot lot deeper.

Or if they want to keep their money and get us back with ST's then the answer is simple.

GET FUCKIN RID.

[Otis Blue]

11 hours ago, Moorie said:

No way these guys are driving the nearly 2 1/2 hours for a 1 hour visit to a hospital or a 5 minute to hand out medals to a local Inverness kids team.

might not be end of the club but sometimes this is how these things start. Just ask th Clydebank fans 

Arbroath being part time makes easier for players to do the appearances at the ground etc plus most would be in hours drive at most to the ground? 
if ICT went part time after going down this would make sense similar like other teams that do it. Find it weird a FT team think it will work especially when funding a team in the same league.

think more will come of this especially when Gardiner is involved 

 

I think the way Queens do it is that they may also have some training days in Dumfries (in addition to mostly at Hamilton) and they'll probably tie in some local community work on those days - ie apply a bit of common sense to it.

How does being PT make it easier for players to make community appearances?  They have day jobs to do which monopolises their time.  Surely being FT (with no other day job) makes it very easy to do local community work occasionally - they train maybe 3 days a week and have plenty of spare time outside of training, and they're employed FT to work for the club that pays their wages.

[cal234ey]

What an utter mess of a situation and shows how far out of their depth the current board are. When we dropped into League 1 this year I was expecting it would be a chance for a bit of a reset and get rid of Gardiner, Ferguson and potentially others to hopefully bring an end to the appalling boardroom decisions over recent years. With this announcement it looks clear that none of them are going anywhere and they are blaming attracting players to Inverness as the issue despite being our lowest finish since the turn of the millennium. It looks to me like they fully intend to run the club as we will last year with a raft of utter shite jobbers on loan from down south and think Kelty is a better place to attract them than Inverness.

Under Gardiner we have finished 2nd, 5th, 3rd, 6th, 9th in the Championship with at least a year in League 1 to follow meaning we have finished lower in every season with him at the club other than 1.

The Kelty move only further alienates the city of Inverness who Gardiner and others pissed off with the concert fiascos and have annoyed the council with the battery farm.

It also glosses over what the plan is for our existing players who are settled up here and our youth system which has been one of the more successful aspects of the club over a number of years given the players we have brought through, all while paying money directly to a league rival. Kelty must be laughing their way to the bank

Get all involved so far to f**k before this decision can't be reversed.

I can also fully understand why some fans of other clubs are in point and laugh mode. I kind of want to laugh at the absurdity of it all if it wasn't so fucking bad for us as a club.

[houston_bud]

2 hours ago, sophia said:

What an ignominious end to the great geographical reset of Scottish football. Beyond the despair, the haunting sound that is reverberating around our highland capital is that of Norman Miller and Jock Macdonald resting uneasily.

The whole point of the club is to promote our area and talent, a platform denied to previous generations. It seems that they are to be abandoned once again in favour of something that is far from my expectation of the club.

I care not a jot which league we play in or the necessary structure of the club that is required to go some way to balance the books but so far from the solution is this that my first reaction on reading the statement was that a satirist was as clever with their pitch as they were with software fakery.

There were fine margins that we found ourselves on the wrong side of over the last wee while but this is so far off the map that it leaves me questioning my commitment that, for the first time in more decades that I care to remember, is on the depressing end of doubt. 

ICT always seem to produce some decent young players. Dropping to league 1 was an opportunity to give more of them a chance and keep older heads like McKay, Rodgers. 

I can't speak for Inverness fans but if it was St Mirren I'd be content for 2 or 3 seasons bleeding young players in league one and rebuilding a bit of identity.

[PB1994]

54 minutes ago, 1320Lichtie said:

Honestly who could be fkn arsed with all that travelling.

 

What do you think is the percentage of Ferguson staying? If that makes any sense, how much chance is there of him being Caley gaffer this year?

Probably about a 90% chance of staying. The current board aren’t sacking him and he’s not walking away. It’s probably a greater than 90% chance to be honest. I’m just hoping that the talk of Alan Savage etc taking things over is more than just talk.

[Arnold Layne]

A prospective League One player receives similar offers from Kelty and Caley (the Kelty offer having been boosted with money given to them by ICT). Does he pick the one that plays their 'home' games 2.5hrs away?

[PB1994]

1 minute ago, houston_bud said:

ICT always seem to produce some decent young players. Dropping to league 1 was an opportunity to give more of them a chance and keep older heads like McKay, Rodgers. 

I can't speak for Inverness fans but if it was St Mirren I'd be content for 2 or 3 seasons bleeding young players in league one and rebuilding a bit of identity.

Yeap I’d be quite happy with that too. We’ve got 3 or 4 promising looking lads coming through right now too. Would be an excellent time to get them starting 20+ games a season and see how they get on. Especially if we kept on the experience of Devine and Mckay. Unfortunately I don’t see any of that happening and we will end up with a bunch of failed EPL youth team players, who rather ironically, would have it easier to get home if they were actually based in Inverness.