Good riddance to season 2023-24 – for Caley Thistle fans, it has been like watching a 10-month long car crash.
The club we love has in so many ways lacked ability, leadership, common sense, entertainment value and customer focus.
They have now returned to the third tier for the first time in the 21st century and what the future holds remain unclear.
I cannot blame the players.
A massive influx of young loanees in January failed to improve the club’s fortunes, and it was unfair on these inexperienced lads to be thrown into a relegation fight.
Meanwhile, a couple of the players, those in charge at Inverness were happy to let go helped guide Queen’s Park to safety.
He may not have been here long but this was Duncan Ferguson’s team, and he has to take responsibility for it.
Big Dunc’s appointment made little sense when it was announced and makes even less after Saturday’s 5-3 aggregate Championship play-off final loss to Hamilton and relegation to League One was confirmed.
His previous brief time in management had not gone well.
He was also, surely, the most expensive candidate to appoint. For a club whose finances are not in the best of shape, it was hard to get your head around.
Just to add insult to injury, others who were linked to the job, such as Dougie Imrie and Callum Davidson, guided other teams to safety.
The club’s proposed battery farm scheme seemed like a good idea to me that would bring large sums of money Caley Thistle’s way, but Highland Council eventually decided they could not approve the plan.
Friends in the know about such matters assure me this was never going to be passed, and perhaps the whole concept showed a degree of financial desperation at board level.
Caledonian Stadium will be a miserable place today.
Jobs will inevitably go and that saddens me greatly.
I am so glad the season is over.
However, my parting shot is this – if you think Caley Thistle are at rock bottom and the only way is up, well I’m not convinced. There may well be more pain to come.
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