"The ICT Thread - The Championship Years"

[Worktheshaft]

Apparently Nick Ross is a trialist for us. Get him signed.

It was reported in the Courier last week he was training with us.

If there is money there and he is willing then we should bring him home.

[sophia]

^^^

There's a song there somewhere  ....

Bring him home, bring him home, bring him home to Inverness Caledonian Thistle

[Ritchie Sacramento]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

Apparently Nick Ross is a trialist for us. Get him signed.

I'd be delighted if we gave Cooper the dunt to get Ross in. 

[SandyCromarty]

1 hour ago, Nod said:

I'd be delighted if we gave Cooper the dunt to get Ross in. 

Cooper tonight played a very good game and got injured late in the game and was subbed, on what he did tonight and if the injury isn't too bad he deserves a bench.

Good to see Nick Ross back and I'm sure he will be offered terms on tonight's performance though maybe due to lack of games he wasn't as sharp as I've seen him in the past.

Doran looked good and got our second goal,  he was playing wholly in midfield though I like to see him on the wing, but Robertson had Elbouzedi on the left and Cooper on the right wing, Elbouzedi was great in the first half with some lovely runs and moves and Calder linked well with him but he faded in the second and was subbed with Daniel Mackay. Andy Macrae got a run out with five minutes to go and for the life of me I don't why he's playing for Forres when he should be on the bench.

All in all it was a good open game regardless of the score, our passing in the main was good though a couple of their goals was down to poor defending on our part.

We packed our end with I would say around the 500 mark, maybe more, and it was absolutely great to have the boys back who were in great voice throughout the match and noised up Davies who reacted to it..

Best man on the park for me was Schalk, that little fecker is sharp.

Goalless Billy Mackay continued to show his goal scoring ability for Ross County much as he did for us in the latter half of last season, I reckon he'll be gone by January, hopefully not to us. 

[ICTChris]

Good run out and hopefully a few quid for Maggies.

[PB1994]

I’d take Billy Mckay in a heartbeat in January. We are crying out for someone like him up front. He should have scored tonight apart from a great clearance/slide tackle from Warren.

Wasnt that impressed with the left winger though I am putting that down to lack of fitness/match practice. Thought Doran did ok and he should be played in a similar role when back in competitive action. Never been a winger in my eyes. Not got that much pace and is always scared to take on a man.

Cooper was much better in the second half when he realised he was allowed to hit the ball with his right foot.

Would love to see Nick Ross sign up for us, would be far too good for this level imo. He has said he wasn’t interested but hat was back in the summer when he could have been waiting for a better offer. A deal to the end of the season could work well for him to get himself a better move in the summer (depending on where we end up)

Pretty frustrating at the goals we conceded. Went 1 up and totally switched off and conceded twice within 5 mins of each other. For the winner what the f**k was Seedorf doing!? Not doing himself any favours in trying to get back into the first team.

Was a reasonable attendance so hopefully it raised a few quid. Whoever set the smoke bomb off in the Jailend should have to done a months wages to the charity.

[RiG]

Seedorf really isn't very good. Extremely concerning that he will be our right back if/when Raven leaves in January.

[SandyCromarty]

7 hours ago, PB1994 said:

I’d take Billy Mckay in a heartbeat in January. We are crying out for someone like him up front. He should have scored tonight apart from a great clearance/slide tackle from Warren.

Wasnt that impressed with the left winger though I am putting that down to lack of fitness/match practice. Thought Doran did ok and he should be played in a similar role when back in competitive action. Never been a winger in my eyes. Not got that much pace and is always scared to take on a man.

Cooper was much better in the second half when he realised he was allowed to hit the ball with his right foot.

Would love to see Nick Ross sign up for us, would be far too good for this level imo. He has said he wasn’t interested but hat was back in the summer when he could have been waiting for a better offer. A deal to the end of the season could work well for him to get himself a better move in the summer (depending on where we end up)

Pretty frustrating at the goals we conceded. Went 1 up and totally switched off and conceded twice within 5 mins of each other. For the winner what the f**k was Seedorf doing!? Not doing himself any favours in trying to get back into the first team.

Was a reasonable attendance so hopefully it raised a few quid. Whoever set the smoke bomb off in the Jailend should have to done a months wages to the charity.

And how many times did we see that last season? 

Looking at his stats he had his best period from 2011 - 2015 with us when he made 121 Appearances and scored 54 goals.

Since then he has had 80 appearances with various teams and scored 16 goals, which to my thinking does suggest he peaked with us.

From the start of the 2016 season to now he has scored four goals

There is no doubt that we need a striker but for me Billy is not the answer

[PB1994]

40 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

And how many times did we see that last season? 

Looking at his stats he had his best period from 2011 - 2015 with us when he made 121 Appearances and scored 54 goals.

Since then he has had 80 appearances with various teams and scored 16 goals, which to my thinking does suggest he peaked with us.

From the start of the 2016 season to now he has scored four goals

There is no doubt that we need a striker but for me Billy is not the answer

What exactly did you expect him to do with the service he got for us last season? Same with his time at Dundee United. The tactics of shocking managers badly let him down.

Plus we are now playing at a lower level. I reckon if he arrived in January (he won't) he would hit double figures.

No doubt that it could be classed as a gamble but one I would be taking

Edited November 9, 2017 by PB1994

[SandyCromarty]

12 minutes ago, PB1994 said:

What exactly did you expect him to do with the service he got for us last season? Same with his time at Dundee United. The tactics of shocking managers badly let him down.

Plus we are now playing at a lower level. I reckon if he arrived in January (he won't) he would hit double figures.

No doubt that it could be classed as a gamble but one I would be taking

We're all entitled to our opinions, you have your's possibly based on sentiment from Billy's 2011-2015 time with us and believe me I was a big fan of his then.

BUT, Billy was signed by Wigan in 2015 and did not score in that season, he was then loaned to Oldham for the 2016 - 2017 season and again failed to score, Wigan then released him on a free.

In July 2017 he signed for Ross County and as you saw last night strikers for them receive great service from the midfield, and yet in the 13 games Ross County have played so far this season Billy has only played in three of the 13 so it would seem that the coaches at RC are seeing problems in training.

So if the board and Robertson were to look at signing him they would have to look at those same stats plus what  he gave us in the latter half of last season.

Your wish may be granted if RC loan him to us on a vastly reduced loan fee and I really would want him to do well but I have my real doubts as to his ability to score nowadays.

[PB1994]

8 minutes ago, SandyCromarty said:

We're all entitled to our opinions, you have your's possibly based on sentiment from Billy's 2011-2015 time with us and believe me I was a big fan of his then.

BUT, Billy was signed by Wigan in 2015 and did not score in that season, he was then loaned to Oldham for the 2016 - 2017 season and again failed to score, Wigan then released him on a free.

In July 2017 he signed for Ross County and as you saw last night strikers for them receive great service from the midfield, and yet in the 13 games Ross County have played so far this season Billy has only played in three of the 13 so it would seem that the coaches at RC are seeing problems in training.

So if the board and Robertson were to look at signing him they would have to look at those same stats plus what  he gave us in the latter half of last season.

Your wish may be granted if RC loan him to us on a vastly reduced loan fee and I really would want him to do well but I have my real doubts as to his ability to score nowadays.

Not based on sentiment, based on the fact that he was a quality striker for us.

He hardly played for Wigan due to the fact he wasn't good enough for the Championship, which I think we all knew would be the case but you just can't turn that down. He scored 12 goals in 29 for Dundee Utd which is a pretty good record considering how bad they were.

It was pretty well publicised that he has hardly played for Ross County because of an injury. The problem for him is he needs a good run of games to get sharp and get his eye in which he will not get at County as they have a decent number of options and since they are in the bottom half they can't afford to give a striker time to find his feet.

Last night for example we put 3 or 4 great balls in the box just gagging for someone to be on the end of and that is the service he thrives off, which clearly Oakley doesn't as he was nowhere to be seen.

It is all hypothetical anyway as there is no way he will be with us this season.

The issue we have is we need a striker with a proven record of scoring and we won't get one without taking a risk on someone like Mckay, who hasn't played or scored consistently for the last few years, as any striker on form wouldn't even look at us right now as they will have much better offers on the table.

I do remember Aaron Doran constantly saying when he first joined us that he was a striker so maybe we could give him a go.

[ICTChris]

We won't be signing Billy Mckay.  We have Connor Bell, who is a similar style of player but younger and cheaper.

Doran could get a run out as a second striker, playing behind Bell or Baird, but I like B&B up front, their runs pull defenders out of place and I don't think Doran would give you that.  He is better on the ball than either of them though.  Doran has basically been injured for two and a half seasons though so we'll need to ease him back in very slowly.

Nick Ross would be a good signing, versatile and talented.

[RiG]

Hardly surprising that Mckay barely scored for us last season after he came in considering all he had to work with was balls blootered up in the air for him to chase.

[PB1994]

1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

We won't be signing Billy Mckay.  We have Connor Bell, who is a similar style of player but younger and cheaper.

Doran could get a run out as a second striker, playing behind Bell or Baird, but I like B&B up front, their runs pull defenders out of place and I don't think Doran would give you that.  He is better on the ball than either of them though.  Doran has basically been injured for two and a half seasons though so we'll need to ease him back in very slowly.

Nick Ross would be a good signing, versatile and talented.

I just have my doubts about the amount of goals we will score with Bell and Baird up front. We have already seen it against Falkirk and Livingston that we are lacking that cutting edge up.

With the way they play we are really going to be relying on our Midfielders getting 10-15 goals a season which I just can't see happening.

[SandyCromarty]

On 11/9/2017 at 11:38, PB1994 said:

I just have my doubts about the amount of goals we will score with Bell and Baird up front. We have already seen it against Falkirk and Livingston that we are lacking that cutting edge up.

With the way they play we are really going to be relying on our Midfielders getting 10-15 goals a season which I just can't see happening.

Totally agree with that, Baird especially just buzzes about the park trying to shake off defenders, Bell I like, he's young and ambitious and always goes for goal.

And where the feck is the striker Zschusschen since July? is he injured or has he moved on/loaned out? or is he up in Lapland helping Santa out.

 

[ICTChris]

And where the feck is the striker Zschusschen since July? is he injured or has he moved on/loaned out? or is he up in Lapland helping Santa out.
 

He’s ‘injured’ but I doubt we’ll ever see him again. Off to the German fourth division in January I bet.

[SandyCromarty]

What's happening with Nick Ross? I thought we might have seen him on the bench last night.

[Alert Mongoose]

David Raven heading down the A9 to Tannadice in January. Any reason why he hasn't played much at all this year? Looked OK against Falkirk at the weekend.

[Highland Capital]

5 hours ago, Alert Mongoose said:

David Raven heading down the A9 to Tannadice in January. Any reason why he hasn't played much at all this year? Looked OK against Falkirk at the weekend.

He's played quite a bit in the last couple of months.  While he's still reasonable enough at this level, his legs are really starting to go.  I'd like to see us retain him until the end of the season, but I think he maybe only has another 18 months or so at this level.  I have wondered if he could be re-born as a centre-back similar to how Ross Tokely was for us in his last few seasons, but sadly it doesn't look like we'll get that chance.

[RiG]

12 hours ago, Alert Mongoose said:

David Raven heading down the A9 to Tannadice in January. Any reason why he hasn't played much at all this year? Looked OK against Falkirk at the weekend.

Money is the main reason. We tried to move a lot of last years high earning leftovers on like Fon Williams and Raven but no one came in for them. As a result they were frozen out as we played guys who commanded a lower weekly salary but were also poorer all the while hoping that someday we could move OFW and Raven on to free up some more cash. Eventually, Raven had to come back in because of injuries/suspensions/poor performances (as did OFW for a bit) and we looked better for having them back.

However, Raven is only here until January and with money still an issue the chance to free up some more cash will probably be too much for Robbo to ignore despite the player apparently being keen to stay even if it means taking a wage cut.

As Highland Capital says he's definitely declining but is still a decent player at this level. I'd love to see him stay until the end of the season but I suspect that won't happen.

Edited November 15, 2017 by RiG