AKA The Mark Ridgers Show!

Welcome to the third of our Caley Thistle Crisis pods, following on from the record-breaking download numbers of Long Way Down and 136 Miles from Home.

Since we last put a podcast out, the Kelty plan is off, the Chairman has gone and the CEO is going. We talk about all of the dramatic events of the last couple of weeks, look back at our last two pods, the innovatively defunct Kelty Plan, the ringfenced youth academy and focus on what the future may hold in terms of investment and the dreaded threat of administration.

And we do all that with ICT Number One Mark Ridgers! The now out of contract goalkeeper talks about this past season, offers his opinions on the current goings on and what the future may hold for him. Join Mark, along with Stevie Riley, Andrew Young, Lee Tarling, and Andrew Moffat as they dissect all things ICTFC.

01:30 Mark Ridgers: Mark talks the disappointment of relegation, the manager, teammates, and the fact that he is now out of contract but no one from the club has been in touch with him.

06:44 Worries: What is the main thing worrying the boys at the moment? Will we have a club to support? What is the bronze license? Is administration inevitable?

10:15 Downloads: Thanks to everyone for listening over the past few weeks. Some 3,200 people downloaded Long Way Down, our pod about Relegation and the Kelty announcement, and some 2,300 people downloaded 136 Miles from Home, our pod with now former ICT Chairman Ross Morrison.

11.17 Recap of events: A potted history of the series of events that led to this before we analyse the 137 word statement the club issued on 5 June. Mark gives his thoughts on the Kelty plan and the fact he and fellow players were not consulted.

20:18 View from the Fans: Liz MacRae, Jonny Campbell and David Moffat (nothing like a bit of nepotism, or maybe we only added these at the last minute because we forgot to ask for any) offer their opinions.

22:03 The resignations: Ross Morrison has resigned, Scot Gardiner is leaving, we discuss both men and their efforts behind the scenes, while reflecting on Ross’ appearance on the last podcast. We go on to talk about the current situation both men are leaving behind and the football club’s desperate need for cashflow. Mark also reflects on his time at Hearts when the Jambos went into administration, before talking about his seven years at Inverness, and his thoughts about Duncan Ferguson and this past season.

59.04 The Youth Academy: Alan Savage, chief executive of Inverness-based Orion Group, has come in to save the youth academy, pledging to cover any shortfalls with sponsorships of various types from £50,000-£100,000 and make sure the youth system is protected. We discuss.

1:08:43 View from the fans: The finances

1:09:46 Price of Football: We managed to speak to the UK’s number one football financial expert, Keiran Maguire from one of the country’s most popular podcasts, with Kevin Day, The Price of Football. Kieran is a British academic, author, and broadcaster. He specialises in the accountancy of association football and wrote the book The Price of Football. His expertise is frequently sought within English football media. So what did he have to say about the situation at ICT and how worried should we be (the answer is very)?

1:27:40 Investment and Administration: We reflect on Kieran’s comments, the realities and processes of administration, how it could be avoided, debt, assets, other financial related stuff, how the situation affects current players and potential players, and what the likely scenarios might be for the football club.

1:53:03 Feedback: Amid the carnage of the last few weeks, as a podcast we’ve received some great feedback for the recent pods. Thanks for everyone whose dropped us a comment or message. We read some out.

1.55.15 Final thoughts from the Shufflers. ‘The Kelty battle has been won but there’s a bigger fight ahead.’

An interview with ICTFC Chairman Ross Morrison.

It’s not often we record two pods in four days (as in never), but desperate times call for desperate measures.

With the support still reeling from the ICT board’s announcement that it intends to move all football operations to Kelty, we managed to get 35 minutes with the Chairman before he headed off to another board meeting.

Andrew Moffat, Stevie Riley, Sandy Sutherland, Andrew Young, and George Moodie from the Supporters’ Trust, sat down with club Chairman Ross Morrison to put some of the fans’ concerns to him and give him a right of reply.

The discussion begins with Ross’s explanation of their reasons for the move; from there, we ask how much support the idea had from the rest of the board, about the extent to which alternative funding streams and alternative playing squad models were investigated, why supporters were not consulted at a far earlier stage, and whether the deal can still be reversed.

The conversation also touches on the place of the academy and youth development at Caley Thistle going forward, and whether it has been possible to do anything about contracts for last season.

We talk about the financial position of the club more generally. Above all, we ask Ross if he really appreciates the anger and sense of betrayal among the supporters over the Kelty scheme and the way it was announced.

We also ask about the potential impact of the likely boycott on season ticket renewals should it go ahead, and we emphasise the widespread feeling that the CEO’s position is no longer tenable.

We did our best! Let's see what happens...

#BringItOnHome

Caley Thistle have been relegated to the third tier of Scottish football for this first time this century. Truly the saddest day in the club’s 30 year history, that was until the club announced that they would be moving the football operations to Fife!

This podcast was originally planned to focus on the relegation, to discuss where things went wrong, to examine where the blame lay and to look at how the club and supporters could regroup and come together as one to look to the future.

All that went out the window with the Kelty announcement. Never has there been a more universally derided statement from the football club.

Join Andrew Moffat, Andrew Young, Stevie Riley, Sandy Sutherland, Lee Tarling and many special guests as we discuss all that and all of the below in a 2 hour 30 minute pod (honestly we couldn’t cut it further).

Please do note that this is a very rough outline. Topics pop up all over the place, much like Billy Mackay last season.

Also please note this episode is full of emotion and as such has a lot of colourful language. If that's not your thing, this podcast probably isn't either.

LINE-UP

02.00 Kelty: The football club is moving football operations Monday to Friday to Kelty Hearts Central Park from the start of June. We talk housing, fan reactions, the manager’s role in this, the CEO and the Chairman, community outreach, mercenaries, youth players, Inverness based players, club staff, and we might get a bit emotional.

32.43 The Game: We talk the Hamilton and Montrose play-off games, plus the angry scenes at full time on the last game of the season with some fans invading the pitch and making their views known and very clear to the directors. We also talk statements, how long it took ICT to come out with one, what that first one said and reflect on the call for unity. Good one.

34.43 I’m Going Down: We get the views from the fans on this past season, the football and the manager.

37.55 Duncan Ferguson: We talk the Manager, his ineptitude, his questionable decisions, his excuses, his tactics, Billy Mackay, and Lee goes on about Champagne football versus lemonade money.

49.47 Talk to Me: Barry Wilson: An interview with a member of Caley Thistle’s coaching staff this season. An absolute Caley Thistle icon. 353 games and 83 goals over two spells with the club, a league winner and a legend and most recently, assistant manager

1.13.50 Talk to Me: Falkirk Daft: We speak to someone who has been there and done it and bought five t-shirts. Falkirk took five years to get back up to the championship. Falkirk were a basket case, and they’ve just gone undefeated in winning league one. We talk to John McInally from Falkirk Daft.

1.42.55 Long Way Down: The fans are back with their views on the Club, the CEO and the Chairman and where we go from here.

1.48.56 Next Season: 30 years of ICT. Should be a time of celebration, should be a programme of events over the course of the season celebrating the achievements of the past incumbents of the football club. We discuss that and the painful indifference of those running the club. We talk season tickets, will the boys renew? We talk the CEO and the Chairman. We look at the practicalities of Duncan Ferguson managing in League One. We focus on contracts and what recruitment might look like.

2.08.41: Captain my Captain: Lee Tarling makes a call to arms with the best 5 minutes this podcast has produced in years!

2.13.50 League One Opposition: Alloa, Annan, Arbroath, Cove, Dumbarton, Kelty Hearts, Montrose, QOS, Stenhousemuir. Looks like a lot of fun. We discuss whether to support or not to support.

2.21.08 The Legends: Four heroes of yesterday return to offer their thoughts on the relegation.

2.27.31 Where do we go from here?

2.34.00 Bring it on Home