15 Reasons & 66 Points

The Wyness Shuffle is back with news of the Caley Thistle resurgence under Scott Kellacher and Billy Mckay. Join Andrew Moffat, Andrew Young, Stevie Riley, Sandy Sutherland, and Lee Tarling as they discuss consecutive wins, Ferguson binned, the15 point penalty, and Dumbarton joining us in Admin hell. Plus 30 years-worth of ICT references packed into 2 hours and 24 minutes of wild conjecture and mild distraction.

00.58 Intro and Highland Highlights

There is sunshine on the horizon as we shade our eyes against the beautiful highlight highlights. The boys talk about their personal highlight from the last month including Big Musa’s arms, Adam McKinnon’s chest, and cardboard boxes.

08.03 Game by Game

We kick off by talking about the cold snap and the late call-off of Queen of the South away, before moving onto consecutive wins over Alloa and Cove away, the form of Charlie Gilmour, Adam Mackinnon, Paul Allan and many more, before discussing the changes the new Head Coach has made, and comparing the cold hard facts, stats and differences between Duncan Ferguson and Scott Kellacher’s football.

42.04 Administration

We cover the next steps of the administration process, the 20 interested parties, the crowdfunder, player and staff departures, and the power of work of the ICT Supporter’s Trust and Bar 94. And will the administrators be included in the ICT Secret Santa?

01.03.52 Dumbarton

There hasn’t been an insolvency event in Scottish football in some 12 years, then two come along at once. Dumbarton FC have been plunged into administration – after years of behind-the-scenes uncertainty. We spoke to Dumbarton fan and Lennox Herald and Daily Record reporter, and Terrace podcast contributor, Fraser Clarke, about the situation.

1.29.00 Duncan Ferguson: The Inquest

Duncan Ferguson arrived in a frenzy of publicity. A big name, big personality, but no pedigree in Scottish football, and at the time we said maybe when you’re as big as him then you don’t need a pedigree. Turns out you do. We discuss the entirety of his tenure, and why did it all go wrong.

1.54.22 The Number 15

A 15-point penalty doesn’t always have to be awful. It could also lend itself to some mildly amusing gags.

1.56.11 Talk to Me: Roddy Macgregor

We hope to get players and coaching staff from ICT onto the pod in the coming weeks and months but in the interim we spoke to a player (and a fan) who we all wish was still wearing the red and blue.

2.10.08 League Lookahead and Season Predictions

We look ahead to Cove in the Scottish Cup, and Montrose, Arbroath, and Stenny in the league, before pondering over where we will finish come the end of the season.

There’s it.

THE A TEAM

Inverness Caledonian Thistle is officially in administration as of Tuesday 22 October 2024.

On 2nd October, (then) interim ICT chairman Panos Thomas issued a club statement summarising the key findings of financial consultant Alan Savage’s forensic audit, announcing the launch of a ‘Save ICT’ crowdfunding appeal and warning that ‘unless the Appeal can raise £200k immediately, and certainly by Wednesday, 16th October, then Administration is inevitable.’

On 21st October, after several days of rumour about last-minute investment, (now) interim chairman Scott Young confirmed that the administration process had begun.

In this epic episode of TWS, recorded on the evening of the 21st, host Andrew Moffat is joined by Stevie Riley, Andrew Young, pod original gangster Ross Mackenzie, The Press and Journal's Paul Chalk, and some special guests to discuss what administration will mean for the staff and supporters of Caley Thistle, how the club got to this point, and what the future might look like. Is this the next stage of an inexorable decline, or the start of a much-needed reset? And despite it all we do try to have a bit of craic as well cause you've got to, haven't you?

Let’s shuffle!

00:01:07 – Introduction and initial thoughts. Moff introduces the panel and gauges feelings about administration now being a reality.

00:08:18 – The October 8th meeting. At the recent open meeting in the stadium’s Highlander suite, Scott Young, Alan Savage and Charlie Christie spoke to supporters. We discuss the key points that emerged from it and the mood among those in attendance.

00:18:51 – What will administration look like for ICT? Insights from the interim chairman. We are joined for this part of the podcast by Interim Chairman Scott Young, who talks us through the potential timescale and structure of the administration process, the role of the administrators, the implications for club staff and for the club’s SPFL status. He also reflects on his short but eventful time on the board and what his role might be going forward.

00:43:12 – The squad: what next? An inevitable consequence of administration will be the loss of some players. We discuss what the criteria for retaining or releasing players could be and what the squad might look like after the administrators’ work is done. And if the manager, as he suspects, has already had his last game in charge, who might succeed him?

00:54:40 – The view from the north stand. Some die-hard ICT fans discuss their feelings about the imminence of administration.

00:56:35 – The A-Word: a fan’s perspective. We are joined by Livingston fan Liam Innes, who reflects on what it was like to watch the club he loves go through administration – twice!

01:17:23 – The old regime(s). So how did ICT get to this point? We consider not only the mismanagement and negligence of the most recent regime, but also how the seeds of ICT’s decline were probably sown much further back in the club’s history.

01:30:20 – Talk to me. ICT groundsman Dale Stephen talks about work and life at the Caledonian Stadium under the shadow of administration.

01:59:00 – More views from the north stand. Our ICT die-hards share their hopes for the future.

02:00:40 – Game by game. Finally, some discussion of matters on the pitch! We review the recent games against Arbroath and Annan in the league, either side of the narrow Challenge Cup loss to Livingston.

02:16:50 – League Lookahead. A very brief chat about the upcoming fixtures against Dumbarton, Kelty, Cove Rangers, Alloa and Queen of the South.

02:27:20 – The New Era. Once the administration process is over, what might the future look like for ICT and how can we make it work? We share some thoughts and hopes.

02:38:09 – Competition winner. No competition in this episode, unfortunately, but we do reveal the winner of the 30th anniversary away youth top donated by Alan Savage.

02:39:50 – Final thoughts. A few last reflections from our supporters and from this episode’s panel.

The Season Starts Here.

The Wyness Shuffle is back! Andrew Moffat, Sandy Sutherland, Andrew Young and Lee Tarling are joined by guest panellist, the SPFL’s number one emergency assistant referee Jamie MacKinnon for a mammoth pod of ICTFC stuff.

On this pod: We talk about all the football: all the draws, and a lesser spotted win, an update from the Supporter’s Trust, league lookahead, famous interruptions, team selection, tactics, opportunities for young players, plus finances and the dreaded ‘A-word.’

And above all we have an exclusive two-part interview with the man, the myth, the legend Alan Savage.

02:10 Headlines: Since last we did a podcast a lot has happened in the world. We talk about the big headlines: Trump, Oasis tickets, sausages and strictly.

05:20 Game by Game: Stenny and Cove: The boos rang out after the home draw with Stenny. We talk about what was one of the poorest showings this season, Lee tells us why he’s had enough, before we move on to Cove and a slightly better performance the week previous but the same result.

24:00 The Emergency Linesman/Assistant Referee: We are joined by the brilliant Jamie MacKinnon, who answered the call in the recent Cove home game and ended up running the line for 30 minutes! He gives us the lowdown on his experience.

33:43 Game by Game: Alloa, Stirling, and Queen of the South: A couple of wins in here but it feels like long ago. Alloa wasn’t too bad but we discuss how the points were thrown away.

40:38 Talk to Me: The Consultant Part 1: Savage in name but pragmatic in nature, Chairman of Inverness-based engineering recruitment business, Orion Group, former Chairman of ICTFC and now The Consultant talks about Investment, legal issues, crowds, the fan experience, land, and the council.

01:14:35 The Disruptors: The Cove game was interrupted by an injured ref, which put Jamie in an entirely unexpected position, but what other interruptions have there been in the beautiful game over the years or where have people popped up unexpectedly? Richie hart’s dog, Yogi Hughes naked, Darren Jackson, big holes, locusts, Tory politicians, Alsatians, injured pigeons, dead racoons, Gerard Butler, Nacho Novo, Rottweiler care, Henri Anier’s chat up lines, a big bag of condoms, and Jamie's Uncle.

01:24:00 The Supporter’s Trust: The Supporter’s Trust have had a long summer, having been heavily involved one way or another in the changes at the club, they’ve gained record membership numbers, been more public facing than any ICT fan group has ever been and are now running the bar at the ground. We caught up with Trust Vice-Chair Laura Grant.

01:47:17 Talk 2 Me: The Consultant Part 2: In this part Alan focuses on the Youth Academy, the return of old players, going to war, the club’s debt, his expectations on the football front, and ‘a reset.’ We then go off on a tangent and moan about the manager.

02:17.00 THE A-WORD: We discuss Alan Savage’s recommendations to the board and take a very prophetic guess as to what they may be: administration, and what that might mean. What does ‘a reset’ mean in reality? Could we claw back a 15-point deduction? We thought ‘something big is on the table’ and it looks like we were right.

02:23:18 Game by Game: We discuss who has the heating on before looking forward to Arbroath, Livingston, Annan, and Dumbarton

02:35.41 Competition Time! The return of Competition time, in which you can win a kid’s 30th anniversary shirt. Courtesy of Mr Savage.

02:37:42 Final thoughts and bye for now