Jump to content

"The ICT Thread - The Championship Years"


Recommended Posts

I wasn't excited about the Chalmers link but he would be a handy deputy for Vigurs.  As long as he isn't considered a left-back.  Old buddies with Marcus Fraser, for what it's worth.

The Donaldson chat has being doing the rounds for a few weeks.

Edited by bunglebonce
Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, Snafu said:

Must be only a dozen County players signed up for next season, what's happening is this title winning County side breaking up with a complete rebuild in the summer or are the deals going to be done 11th hour just before the players go off on their hols?

 I can see three or four new faces into the deemed first choice XI and half a dozen replacements in the rest of the squad. Maybe 10 in, 10 out.  Who knows. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, bunglebonce said:

I wasn't excited about the Chalmers link but he would be a handy deputy for Vigurs. 

This is the only rationale I can think of for it if it is true, and it's still a weird one: he has had a solid season for us, but I reckon his lack of pace and reluctance to tackle could be badly exposed in the Premiership. Vigurs himself seemed to struggle with the pace and discipline of the Premiership in our last season there, although admittedly that was within one of the  shambolic, ill-managed ICT teams ever assembled.

The Donaldson one is a no-brainer though; some Utd supporters might have written him off as a dud, but he was what, 19 or 20 when he joined them and 22 when he left? He probably needed the relative lack of pressure with us to get his career back on track, and apart from the odd lapse in concentration or tendency to overplay (which experience and maturity should continue to iron out of him), he's looked a cut above for most of the season.  

It's a sickener that we're probably going to have to try to rebuild again and replace someone of his quality for buttons, but it's the financial reality we're in.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, alternative maryhill said:

This is the only rationale I can think of for it if it is true, and it's still a weird one: he has had a solid season for us, but I reckon his lack of pace and reluctance to tackle could be badly exposed in the Premiership. Vigurs himself seemed to struggle with the pace and discipline of the Premiership in our last season there, although admittedly that was within one of the  shambolic, ill-managed ICT teams ever assembled.

The Donaldson one is a no-brainer though; some Utd supporters might have written him off as a dud, but he was what, 19 or 20 when he joined them and 22 when he left? He probably needed the relative lack of pressure with us to get his career back on track, and apart from the odd lapse in concentration or tendency to overplay (which experience and maturity should continue to iron out of him), he's looked a cut above for most of the season.  

It's a sickener that we're probably going to have to try to rebuild again and replace someone of his quality for buttons, but it's the financial reality we're in.  

Vigurs was magnificent for us in the top flight. Absolutely smashing.   I have no qualms about him going up a level.   

Not sure about Chalmers at all.  Donaldson is an obvious move, and I'd have thought either Morris or Semple would make the move in the other direction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love Donaldson but he has at least 1 brain fart in him each game. Most of the time it's just a bad pass out of play but sometimes it can be a ludicrous tackle in the box to concede a penalty. When he has been on form and with McCart alongside him our defence has been superb.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, RiG said:

I love Donaldson but he has at least 1 brain fart in him each game. Most of the time it's just a bad pass out of play but sometimes it can be a ludicrous tackle in the box to concede a penalty. When he has been on form and with McCart alongside him our defence has been superb.

That's an upgrade on Jay McEveley, who had at least six a game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, alternative maryhill said:

This is the only rationale I can think of for it if it is true, and it's still a weird one: he has had a solid season for us, but I reckon his lack of pace and reluctance to tackle could be badly exposed in the Premiership. Vigurs himself seemed to struggle with the pace and discipline of the Premiership in our last season there, although admittedly that was within one of the  shambolic, ill-managed ICT teams ever assembled.

The Donaldson one is a no-brainer though; some Utd supporters might have written him off as a dud, but he was what, 19 or 20 when he joined them and 22 when he left? He probably needed the relative lack of pressure with us to get his career back on track, and apart from the odd lapse in concentration or tendency to overplay (which experience and maturity should continue to iron out of him), he's looked a cut above for most of the season.  

It's a sickener that we're probably going to have to try to rebuild again and replace someone of his quality for buttons, but it's the financial reality we're in.  

Spot on and I couldn't agree more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, Tarmo Kink said:

IMG_4853.jpg

Our U18s have won the U18 ‘Performance’ league which contains sides such as ourselves, County, the two Saints, Ayr, Dundee United, Partick and Morton.

Seems like a lot of them are doing well, esepcially MacGregor and Machado. D McKay wasn’t playing, is he injured?

I’m also not sure on this, but this may mean our U18s are promoted to the ‘Elite’ league containing the OF, Edinburgh clubs, Aberdeen, Accies, Well and Killie.

I was talking a couple of weeks ago with someone who is a very decent U-18 player whose team have played our U-18s twice this season, and he says that McGregor and Machado have really stood out among the players he's faced at that level. No guarantee how well they'll progress, obviously, but it sounds encouraging. It's pretty annoying when people on CTO say in all seriousness, 'why don't we just play the youth players?' as if they're just going to magically have the physique and game management to match experienced senior players, but it would be great if we had a couple of players who could make the step up and bring something new.     

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Tarmo Kink said:

 


The lack of funds to have a reserve team is obviously a big problem for us as we can’t bridge the gap between U-18s and the first team. I also suspect our U-18s are helped because many other teams in the league use some of their U-18s in the reserves instead/as well.

 

This is a really important point and it's one I think a lot of people miss when they're suggesting that youth players could make the step up wholesale. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Tarmo Kink said:

Machado hasn’t even played at all. Especially when we’ve been having meaningless games for a few games now. Maybe we’ll see them on Saturday.

 

I should think so.

There are many who would be delighted to see a Brazilian at the weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Vigurs was magnificent for us in the top flight. Absolutely smashing.   I have no qualms about him going up a level.   

You may well be in for a surprise then.

As much as I loved his cerebral footballing ability, his heavy legs and indiscipline cost us recent premier points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...