Caley Thistle podcaster Stevie Riley has slammed the now League One club’s decision to train in Fife from next month.
Inverness were relegated from the Championship after losing the play-off final 5-3 on aggregate against Hamilton Accies.
Furious fans wanted change, with The Wyness Shuffle podcast team calling for manager Duncan Ferguson to go hours after that defeat sent them down.
The club announced it was remaining full-time last Monday then at the end of the week threw in the shock news that from June, they will train at the home of fellow League One side Kelty Hearts in Fife – 136 miles from the Highland capital.
The club aim to attract a better quality of player and pinpointed high accommodation costs for players as being another deciding factor for the shock shift.
Riley says the announcement has caused anger among the club’s support.
He said: “Apparently, even if the club stayed up, they were moving to Kelty.
“It’s a crazy decision – a joke, to be honest.
“The club has proudly used the ‘Together-ness’ tag for years, but this decision is the exact opposite of togetherness.
“The club say they are keeping the youth system on, but how does that work? Do the youth boys train in Inverness?
“What about players like Billy Mckay? Is he going to do a five-hour round-trip to Fife every day?
“We’re a Highland club and if players don’t want to move to the Highlands, look elsewhere. It makes a mockery of the city we’re based in.
“Elgin and Peterhead have trained away from their home towns for years, but they are part-time clubs in League Two.
“It worries me that we were going to do this even if we stayed in the Championship. This alienates the fans even more.”
Players will move to sign for the club
Stevie says players will be willing to relocate should they want to find a club and doesn’t agree that housing costs should be considered too high for ICT.
He said: “Is Inverness that expensive? If we get a player up from England, they still have to rent somewhere.
“If you’re in the Central Belt and young, you can still move. Adam Brooks (former Celtic player) did that last year. I just don’t get it. It’s not as if there are no houses to live in in Inverness.
“We have Fort George and Inverness Royal Academy to train in, so why move? There are plastic pitches at the academy (seven League One clubs play on plastic, including Kelty).”
‘I get the feeling fans don’t matter’
Equally stunned by the decision is ICT fan Lynne MacDonald.
She said: “I am absolutely dumbfounded. I have supported ICT since the start and was a Caley supporter prior to that.
“I just can’t believe we have worked so hard over the years and been a community club, producing our own young players.
“After losing to Hamilton, you felt we’d hit rock bottom, then you find there was more to come. It is such a dreadful idea.
“I get the feeling we don’t matter any more and it’s all about these big business ideas.
“The problem is the team are only going to be in Inverness once a fortnight. I get why they’re doing it as it is maybe difficult to attract more quality players to Inverness, but are the players already here now facing a five-hour round trip to Kelty to train? Surely there must be another way.
“I wasn’t happy when many of our young players went out on loan this season when Duncan Ferguson came in. A club like ours should always be running an academy to bring through our own players.
“Maybe Duncan has been comparing players here to what he had at Everton’s academy – but that’s like comparing chalk and cheese.
“I won’t be buying a season ticket. I almost didn’t buy one last year. I feel it’s like the only power fans have got – although I’m not sure we even have that power any more. I’ll probably just go to away games now, which is really sad.”
‘It’s like ICT don’t want our money’
MacDonald added: “We have our wee group called the Caley Ladies and we’ve been twice to Clach’s hospitality now and to their dinner the last two years. You are made so welcome.
“That’s money that could be going to our club if there was anywhere to spend it. Even if it’s not a lot of money, Clach seem to appreciate your support.
“We support Caley Thistle home and away and you see, for example. Partick Thistle’s sports bar rammed. They have their own branded spirits and cans of beer. At the end of the game, players come in.
“At Ayr United, they have a sports bar, they’ve a beer garden and they sell pizzas from a shed in the garden. It’s like Caley Thistle don’t want money – we have totally lost our way.”
