Caledonian F.c. Thread

[Jimmy Shaker]

wheres the inverness thistle memorial topic

Most Thistle fans departed football the day their team died (a 2-0 home defeat to Lossie) and are unlikely to get involved with a forum like this. Caledonian fans only chip up as the current shower of shite are dragging the historic Caledonian name through the gutter.

[RiG]

maybe he doesnt like plastic pretend teams fuckwit

Oh dear

[RayBees]

PRS, some insanely exciting news has just come my way. My folks own a B&B in Inverness and who is staying there in 2 weeks time? None other than Mr Kevin Mann himself!!

I'm trying to think of excuses to 'pop in' for a cup of tea as many times as i possibly can and not to appear as the slobbering creepy stalker that i undoubtedly will be. What questions should i ask him??? Christ i hope he isn't signed up to p&b!

[PRS]

PRS, some insanely exciting news has just come my way. My folks own a B&B in Inverness and who is staying there in 2 weeks time? None other than Mr Kevin Mann himself!!

I'm trying to think of excuses to 'pop in' for a cup of tea as many times as i possibly can and not to appear as the slobbering creepy stalker that i undoubtedly will be. What questions should i ask him??? Christ i hope he isn't signed up to p&b!

You lucky b*st*rd. A cup of tea with Kevin, more like sipping nectar with a God. Anti merger as they came was Kevin. Bloody loyal, travelling 14 years from Aberdeen to Inverness and prone to singing the odd Caley songs in Aberdeen hostelries into the bargain! More bloody balls that a lot of the home based players who meekly followed the line of voting in favour of Merger United. As an aside, looks like this could be the beginning of the slide into obscurity for ICT. What a shame.

[RayBees]

You lucky b*st*rd. A cup of tea with Kevin, more like sipping nectar with a God. Anti merger as they came was Kevin. Bloody loyal, travelling 14 years from Aberdeen to Inverness and prone to singing the odd Caley songs in Aberdeen hostelries into the bargain! More bloody balls that a lot of the home based players who meekly followed the line of voting in favour of Merger United. As an aside, looks like this could be the beginning of the slide into obscurity for ICT. What a shame.

Yeah such a shame i spent much of Saturday chuckling quietly to myself. I propose that in order to become an established SPL side, complete the empty side of their stadium, and to make sure the 'singing section' have enough fans to be heard by the away support, ICT FC should amalgamate with County and Clach to be called Inverness Dingwall Merkinch Citadel Caledoniannacuddin Thistle. It's surely the only way to progress, anyone who sees otherwise is being naive and shortsighted.

Anyway, enough of that shite. Apparently think Mr Mann is up for some ex players trophy giving jamboree. I'll try and find out more as the time gets closer. Exciting!

[PRS]

Anyway, enough of that shite. Apparently think Mr Mann is up for some ex players trophy giving jamboree. I'll try and find out more as the time gets closer. Exciting!

Still think you are a lucky b*st*rd. Take it you will be trying to attend the event as well.

[Guest clacher2]

As an aside, looks like this could be the beginning of the slide into obscurity for ICT. What a shame.

pre merger stayaway talking about obscurity!

so bitter. 14 years is a long time to hold a grudge

couple of

random football videos

[RayBees]

Sorry clown but even your ictfc fan website can't maintain itself due to laughable internal squabbling about how bad you really are. That champions video must seem like a distant memory now...

[Caley D]

On this thread I think you have 2 kinds of pre-merger Thistle and Caley fans. You have the older guys who had spent a large portion of their adult life following one or other of the teams and that number of years would outstrip the 14 years ICT has been on the go. You also have those who would have been in their mid teens at the time of the merger and had maybe only followed Thistle or Caley for 8 to 10 years, most of that time as a kid who was more caught up in the excitement of the occasion than having developed any real passion for the team.

Personally I was against the idea of the merger and I think it would be fair to say that the vast majority of others were also against it. So why does the vote show in favour of the merger? I think that comes down to two things. A genuine and justified fear (on both sides) that neither team on it's own would be successful in it's application to join the SFL and an overriding desire of wanting to see your team performing at a higher level. A mindset that many of the "pro-merger" groups on both sides spent a lot of time developing among everyone.

As is evident from the results of the vote the majority of people were drawn in to the hype and fear of both of the above possibilities.

Would Thistle or Caley have had their application accepted on thier own?

Would Thistle or Caley have proved as succesful on their own as ICT have done?

We all have our opinions, but the truth of the matter is we will never know. Whether you accept what's happened or not then you have to move on. That doesn't mean you have to forget the history or memories of the whatever club you followed pre-merger, but the only person you hurt by remaining bitter about the whole thing is yourself.

Thistle and Caley may have had a longer history but anyone under the age of about 35 will have spent more years supporting ICT than they ever did supporting one of the pre-merger teams. These are the guys who are the current supporters and who will be producing the next generation and most of them don't give a toss about yours, mine or anyone else's views on the merger.

Most of us take great pride in our personal heritage and I'm sure theirs not one of us that doesn't have an awkward or embarrassing twist in our family tree - that doesn't change the fact that we have pride in our roots.

My passion for ICT was born out of my passion for Caley but I'm more than happy to celebrate the history of both clubs and you can hear me joining in with the rest of the fans whether we're chanting Caley or O2B.

Like it or not, those who remain bitter about the merger are in the minority, you claim to know "many" others who share your view, but when it comes down to it, that's no more than a couple of dozen people tops, even if it was to amount to a couple of hundred it counts for feck all in the grand scheme of things.

Was it worth it? That's a view that will likely be dependent on which of the two groups mentioned in the opening paragraph you fall in to. I have to say that there's a lot of the stuff from the Highland League days that I miss but they are outweighed by what I am experiencing now. When things are on a low I sometimes feel I'd happily give it all up and go back to how things were, but when we're on a high it is better than anything I ever experienced as a Caley fan and I wouldn't want to change that.

You are part of the history and it's up to you if you want to be a part of the future - make your decision one way or the other and move.

[Guest Hansa]

Like it or not, those who remain bitter about the merger are in the minority, you claim to know "many" others who share your view, but when it comes down to it, that's no more than a couple of dozen people tops

[Jimmy Shaker]

So why does the vote show in favour of the merger?

You honestly don't know why the merger vote was successful? There were people at the vote who didn't even know where Telford Street was, going from memory.

Would Thistle or Caley have had their application accepted on thier own?

Would Thistle or Caley have proved as succesful on their own as ICT have done?

Caledonian were well prepared to go it alone, and had a bigger support, better ground and potentially first dibs on nearly every player within 100 miles in every direction. Chances are they'd have made it someway towards where The Plastic (Somewhat less than) Fantastic are sitting now. Jesus, Peterhead and Ross County managed it and neither of them were even close to the status in the HFL that Caley were at.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle has no roots, no history and nothing beyond what it has achieved since entering the league. It is an example of franchise football, formed out of a need for a commercial gain rather than as a natural forward step in a clubs development, and single handedly buried two long standing clubs. Due to the nature of its existence, at the first sign of trouble and potential relegation, everyone will disappear from the dump as quickly as they arrived (tho thats not fast as theres still no bridge over the road for pedestrians ). It is a product, a concept, a throwaway piece of nothing, and its demise will bring a smile to many.

[Caley D]

Your entire argument (I use the term loosely) is based on assumption and "what if" scenarios - come on back over to the real world and lets have a discussion based on fact and not some jealousy fueled rant because Lossie will never achieve what Thistle or Caley ever did, let alone what ICT are achieving now.

And while your at it, draw a 100 mile circle around Inverness and see just how stupid that comment really is - unless of course you think 3rd division Caley would have had more appeal than St Johnstone, Dundee, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen....

[badgers apprentice]

a wid jist like to make it clear that a ken feck all aboot the heeland leeg ken,nae botha

[RayBees]

Your entire argument (I use the term loosely) is based on assumption and "what if" scenarios - come on back over to the real world and lets have a discussion based on fact and not some jealousy fueled rant because Lossie will never achieve what Thistle or Caley ever did, let alone what ICT are achieving now.

And while your at it, draw a 100 mile circle around Inverness and see just how stupid that comment really is - unless of course you think 3rd division Caley would have had more appeal than St Johnstone, Dundee, Dundee Utd and Aberdeen....

What exactly did Jimmy Shaker say that makes him 'jealous'? That was a rather pathetic cheap shot.

Look Caley D, thanks for the tiresome post re-inforcing your own need for reasons to support the merger just like i predicted back in July - "i know ICT fans will come on here blabbing crap like "boohoo", "bitter, blinkered Caley fans afraid of progress", "just look at the unbridalled success story of ICT now" and "aren't Tulloch Construction brilliant at pre-fab staiums" yada yada yada.... but here goes." The point is, i don't care. Even if there was only me or a couple of dozen fans who were "stayaways" i would still do it as i have some principles against selling out and time won't change that.

Also, why can't you move on and accept that some people just don't like ICT. I would much rather teams like County and Elgin had some success so just ,y'know, accept it. Your team needs all the help they can get right now so why don't you concentrate on supporting them?

Edited September 9, 2007 by RayBees

[PRS]

pre merger stayaway talking about obscurity!

so bitter. 14 years is a long time to hold a grudge

I'm not bitter, just do not like plastic teams or plastic people. By the way, brush up on your use of the English language. Your post should have read post merger stay away. Pre merger, I most certainly did not stay away.

[Guest clacher2]

pre merger stayaway talking about obscurity!

so bitter. 14 years is a long time to hold a grudge

I'm not bitter, just do not like plastic teams or plastic people.

ferrymuff but youve still got a hoora gurn on about ict. i dont like fleeces or rugby but i never bang on about them, your bitter and need to move on big time pal

[Caley D]

Raybees, I wasn't in support of the merger and would rather it had not happened, but it did and there's diddly squat you, me or anyone else can do to turn the clock back.

I celebrate being an ICT fan for what they have achieved in the last 14 years, but I will never forget the teams who made it possible and who's history lives on in the new team. Supporting any team is about taking the bad with the good and Thistle or Caley "die-hards" like yourself will tell you that they are so against the merger because their team was in their blood.

ICT may be the b*****d offspring, but like it or not Thistle and Caley are part of the history of ICT...in fact, you could say "it's in their blood".

My shot at Jimmy Shaker may have been cheap and pathetic, but it fades in comparison to his wishing extinction on ICT, or any other football team for that matter.

[Guest Hansa]

The thing from a Ross County perspective, and maybe I share this view with other Highland teams supporters, is that the people that initially ran ICT (and perhaps still do) were not 'football people'. They simply had the aim of making the new team a commercial success.

I've heard that behind the scenes, the directors, shareholders etc of ICT aren't particularly liked...maybe for reasons of jealousy but more probably due to the fact that they aren't really a community club.

[Guest clacher2]

the guys in charge of the club are football people, but very much in the modern era premiership/old firm mold where they dont give a p1sh about the average punter compared to balancing books and making the odd headline. have to say im pretty comfortable with that, long term it could be a good move, even though basic customer service and local pr could improve the ground work has to be laid down now for the club to grow further in the future.

if we didnt bring in somebody who had one eye on the balance sheets we could well be left behind in the spl and never fulfill our potential.

i believe our best years are still ahead of us, as much as raybees or prs may deny it ict and inverness football is in better shape now than its ever been and though support within the town has been stagnant this past year or two we've seen decent increases in support traveling from moray and even ross shire. as the years roll on within inverness, the memories of the highland league will fade and the citys population will continue to grow, to claim theres no future in ict and all talk of us 'disappearing' is ludicrous.

which is why those bitter, angry little people who have never seen a teamfrom inverness beat the best in the country, play in the top league, play at hampden etc etc should give it up

[Guest Hansa]

the guys in charge of the club are football people

Mike Smith?

Think on Clacher. You can have all the success in the world but if you don't have respect, you have nothing.