"The ICT Thread - The Championship Years"

[Paul Cicero]

14 hours ago, SandyCromarty said:

Over the last months we have seen major upheavals at our club

Relegation, a manager fired and a new one hired, players leaving and new young and older players brought in, the development league disbanded and three chairman in three months.

At times like this we need stability and responsibility from those involved in the day to day running of the club.

The latest statements from the board have shown a clear disregard of duty and care to the club, to issue silly statements regarding a small section of fans, all young boys, which only served to bring a bad and adverse press to the club is wholly detrimental when in fact the board should be conducting themselves in a proper and professional manner by bringing positives to the club and especially to the fans.

There are a very serious set of posters on here, unlike mesel, who have repeatedly stated on here that they do not condone the boys behaviour in any way but do feel that the board have significantly mishandled the situation and brought, during a difficult time for the club, unwanted press attention by their actions.

For me, as I've learned throughout life, there are two absolute truisms, one is 'People in glass houses should not throw stones' and 'You reap what you sow' and in my opinion this board have sown on stony ground.

I'd ban the aftermatch Domino's especially after shipping 4 goals in a pumping Sandy me old mucker 

[SandyCromarty]

5 hours ago, Paul Cicero said:

I'd ban the aftermatch Domino's especially after shipping 4 goals in a pumping Sandy me old mucker 

You're right and after that thrashing our lot probably couldn't win a feckin game of Dominos.

[CityDave]

8 hours ago, sophia said:

Was Draper really short of fitness when he took to the road north?

 

Good point. It could just be Draper short of fitness maybe he was carrying a small injury and probably had been away from the training ground longer, also lacked match sharpness which you can only get by playing 90 minutes, but it did slightly alarm me even just a few months into Robbo's time as manager with us as I well remember Craig Brewster's comments on the squad when he arrived in 2004.

When Craig Brewster and his management team took over from Robbo back in 2004 the major issues with the squad were fitness, discipline and lifestyle. Brewster took us to another level when he got our players as fit or even fitter than our rivals. Terry and Mo were also big on fitness, so its a no brainer.

Someone at work was saying that a few weeks ago the Caley Thistle squad turned up at the Aquadome, hang about for a bit, didn't do anything and then left.

See here, I'm using Robbo's first time as manager as an example, rather than see what he can do now, he should be a better wiser manager than back then. This I'm sure a lot of people will do over the next few months especially if little progress is made. There might not be a problem with fitness in the squad.

[CityDave]

9 hours ago, Paul Cicero said:

I'd ban the aftermatch Domino's especially after shipping 4 goals in a pumping Sandy me old mucker 

I don't see the problem with ordering pizzas, comfort food. The players would have been absolutely gutted with the result, especially if all the effort and opportunities were there in the game and then the roof collapsed after had we came back twice. Can't let the heads go down.

 

 

 

[SandyCromarty]

45 minutes ago, CityDave said:

Good point. It could just be Draper short of fitness maybe he was carrying a small injury and probably had been away from the training ground longer, also lacked match sharpness which you can only get by playing 90 minutes, but it did slightly alarm me even just a few months into Robbo's time as manager with us as I well remember Craig Brewster's comments on the squad when he arrived in 2004.

When Craig Brewster and his management team took over from Robbo back in 2004 the major issues with the squad were fitness, discipline and lifestyle. Brewster took us to another level when he got our players as fit or even fitter than our rivals. Terry and Mo were also big on fitness, so its a no brainer.

Someone at work was saying that a few weeks ago the Caley Thistle squad turned up at the Aquadome, hang about for a bit, didn't do anything and then left.

See here, I'm using Robbo's first time as manager as an example, rather than see what he can do now, he should be a better wiser manager than back then. This I'm sure a lot of people will do over the next few months especially if little progress is made. There might not be a problem with fitness in the squad.

Brewster never impressed me as a manager as his disciplinarian attitude towards fitness didn't go down too well with some of the players, morning and then afternoon training for instance. And dropping Barry Wilson telling him he was overweight was a joke as Barry was our main man at the time, I think Brewster when he was player/manager selfishly had to be the main man on the pitch with all high balls into the box directed to him.

I also just looked up his stats and they are not that impressive, probably they are in line with other managers but they do not indicate that his attitude to fitness brought us great success.

2004 - 2006               17 wins in 50 games at 34%

2007 - 2009               22 wins in 64 games at 34%

No I never took to the man as a manager as I felt he was far too self centred.

If you had tried as I did on a few occasions to enter into conversation with him you would have realised that.

[bunglebonce]

On 09/09/2017 at 23:15, sophia said:

Was Draper really short of fitness when he took to the road north?

 

Judging by a) how much ICT wilted in the last derby, b) how Draper looked close to his best on Saturday, after flagging badly after 20 mins in his first appearance nearly a month ago, and c) how McIntyre has talked about Draper's fitness levels in the press more than once, I'd say yes.

Edited September 11, 2017 by bunglebonce

[sophia]

9 hours ago, bunglebonce said:

Judging by a) how much ICT wilted in the last derby, b) how Draper looked close to his best on Saturday, after flagging badly after 20 mins in his first appearance nearly a month ago, and c) how McIntyre has talked about Draper's fitness levels in the press more than once, I'd say yes.

Oh dear.

I was rather hoping it was more the case of rubbing the city team's nose in it but the above is compelling.

I reject my good friend Sandy's assertion that it is a digital construct of fitness or flair,  indeed it's my recollection that Barry Wilson came around to the fact that a higher level of fitness is an essential foundation to top level success.

Perhaps in Draper's case and I suggest this on the evidence of last season, he was somehow below par. I'm not suggesting that he had chucked it, but perhaps he was of a negative mindset.

 

[SandyCromarty]

On 9/11/2017 at 19:32, sophia said:

Oh dear.

I was rather hoping it was more the case of rubbing the city team's nose in it but the above is compelling.

I reject my good friend Sandy's assertion that it is a digital construct of fitness or flair,  indeed it's my recollection that Barry Wilson came around to the fact that a higher level of fitness is an essential foundation to top level success.

Perhaps in Draper's case and I suggest this on the evidence of last season, he was somehow below par. I'm not suggesting that he had chucked it, but perhaps he was of a negative mindset.

 

What happened to Barry under Brewsters management is outlined below;

Wilson joined St Johnstone on a one-month emergency loan in March 2008.^[3] He returned to Caley Thistle after his loan spell with St Johnstone to win himself a new contract and went on to produce some outstanding performances in the closing games. This resulted in Craig Brewster awarding Wilson with a new 6-month contract. In December 2008, it was announced that Caley Thistle would not be offering Wilson a new contract and thus he would be free to move on when his current contract expired.

Barry then moved on to Queen of the South for a couple of years in 2000.

Basically Brewster fecked him over, the reason is unclear but I personally would put it down to Brewsters massive ego.

Brewster was sacked in 2009, as far as I know the only ICT manager sacked.

[Highland Capital]

Hearing our new mascot is named 'Lionel Nessie'!

[bunglebonce]

On 11/09/2017 at 19:32, sophia said:

I reject my good friend Sandy's assertion that it is a digital construct of fitness or flair,  indeed it's my recollection that Barry Wilson came around to the fact that a higher level of fitness is an essential foundation to top level success.

 

On Wilson's longevity:

“The second thing was Craig Brewster,” he adds to a little surprise. “It was well documented that Brewster dropped me when he first came in at Caley for six weeks. We didn’t always see eye to eye. At this time I was learning the game and although I was never any problem, I gave my real opinion rather than what sometimes managers just want to hear.

“I suppose I was a big name at Caley at the time and Brewster probably wanted to set a precedent, that if he could drop me he could drop anyone. He said I needed to lose half a stone and got me fit. But he added two years on to my career without a doubt. I’ll always be thankful to Brew for that.

From my own interview with Barry a few years ago.

 

[ATLIS]

On ‎10‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 09:02, CityDave said:

Good point. It could just be Draper short of fitness maybe he was carrying a small injury and probably had been away from the training ground longer, also lacked match sharpness which you can only get by playing 90 minutes, but it did slightly alarm me even just a few months into Robbo's time as manager with us as I well remember Craig Brewster's comments on the squad when he arrived in 2004.

When Craig Brewster and his management team took over from Robbo back in 2004 the major issues with the squad were fitness, discipline and lifestyle. Brewster took us to another level when he got our players as fit or even fitter than our rivals. Terry and Mo were also big on fitness, so its a no brainer.

Someone at work was saying that a few weeks ago the Caley Thistle squad turned up at the Aquadome, hang about for a bit, didn't do anything and then left.

See here, I'm using Robbo's first time as manager as an example, rather than see what he can do now, he should be a better wiser manager than back then. This I'm sure a lot of people will do over the next few months especially if little progress is made. There might not be a problem with fitness in the squad.

We're a team that like to up the tempo of games, play the ball up the pitch and fight in the middle of the park. We've got Mullin down the wing who's going to run at your wingbacks for days and we've got Mullen up front who's going to try and turn away and run at defenders given the chance.

I really do hope ICT are lacking fitness as it could make Saturday interesting but I severely doubt it's as bad as you guys think it is.

I don't know much about how you guys play at all, if you play down the wings or if you tend to be direct but whenever we've seemed to play someone the strength has came from the middle of the park, making teams look bad. We play three in the middle, likely to play our 352 with two wingers tracking back.

Should be an interesting game given you guys were pretty highly regarded at the start of the season, but I see this as the kind of games we should be winning to stay up/challenge play off spots

[Highland Capital]

I was told that Nick Ross is back living in Inverness yet has no retention of returning or using the club's facilities.

[Dunning1874]

Is there any suggestion that Robertson could be in trouble this season? For example, if you were firmly in the relegation battle at Christmas would he be under serious pressure, or are you in another Foran situation where the club are going to stick by him no matter how bad it gets?

[Silverton End]

Looking forward to playing you teuchters @ The Rock Dome next Saturday.

Beware of Greek/Cypriots bearing gifts.

[Bring Back Paddy Flannery]

Is there any suggestion that Robertson could be in trouble this season? For example, if you were firmly in the relegation battle at Christmas would he be under serious pressure, or are you in another Foran situation where the club are going to stick by him no matter how bad it gets?

Was genuinely coming on to this thread to ask the exact same question.

[Worktheshaft]

Is there any suggestion that Robertson could be in trouble this season? For example, if you were firmly in the relegation battle at Christmas would he be under serious pressure, or are you in another Foran situation where the club are going to stick by him no matter how bad it gets?

The strange circumstances surrounding the appointment of Robertson and the fact that the club is in an absolute state with no vision or leadership at boardroom level would suggest to me that he is probably safe for the season.

[RiG]

Robertson is a political appointment by the powers that be at ICT now. They were waiting in the wings over the summer for the club to offload high earners before they would come in to invest. Robertson was their man and that is allegedly why we turned to him for the manager gig despite him not even applying for it.

Because of this, unless he walks away, he will be there almost irrespective of the results. We saw last season the dangers of having a manager who was too close to the chairman who wouldn't act when things were going south. No reason to think why it couldn't happen again with Robertson and Savage.

[Highland Capital]

Savage and Robbo are milly vannilly - everyone knows that.  In fact, Savage pulled Orion's sponsorship of the club a few years back when the board appointed Yogi Hughes over Robbo (who was his employee at the time).  This is almost identical to last season...just with an even lower standard of football.

[SandyCromarty]

As I've said on another thread Robertson should be given no more than three games to bring positive results, if not he should be fired, 4 out of a possible 18 points is a feckin joke from a full time team with only one win against a part time team who probably all train together twice a week if that.

[SandyCromarty]

8 hours ago, Silverton End said:

Looking forward to playing you teuchters @ The Rock Dome next Saturday.

Beware of Greek/Cypriots bearing gifts.

The Rock Dome??

I thought the stadium was called BOGHEAD?