At the moment, Caley Thistle (the club, not the fans) are probably rather relieved that the Gretna fiasco, the problems at Fir Park, and Rangers' European run rumble on with no signs of stopping for a few weeks yet. It means that the press have completely failed to pick up on the fact that ICT are currently in freefall.
It's difficult to know exactly why this is the case. However, it is clear to those of us that sit in the stands that all is not well on the pitch. Since New Year we have won just one out of eleven matches, and that was against Gretna, so it may even be expunged from the records! The last four home games have produced one goal. And the team are currently playing with all the courage of an Italian soldier in the second world war. People are walking off the pitch in a sulk when subbed, slagging off each other during matches, and look so disorganised that you would have thought Berti Vogts was in charge.
Meanwhile, our esteemed manager stands on the touchline, hands in pockets, occasionally shouting "Come on". Now, my experience of football management stretches about as far as taken Montrose to the first division on FM2007, but even I can see that he looks as helpless as a new born baby. Every week it's the same 4-2-3-1 tactic, where our midfield actually sits in a line of five only 35 yards from goal, allowing the opposition licence to get that close before being pressed. Our lone striker is so isolated he needs a mobile phone to communicate with his teammates. At Inverness, we are used to seeing a side which lacks the quality and technical ability of most other SPL teams, but which makes up for it with a high energy, pressing game and, as Gordon Strachan once pointed out, "five minutes into injury time, they're still running". Now it appears that we don't even start. I'd swear that none of our players had even broken sweat by the final whistle of Saturday's turgid defeat by Falkirk.
And that's just the problems on the pitch. But form comes and goes, I hear you say. Remember you had an amazing run through November and December, I hear you say. That's true. But now it sounds like we're being crippled on and off the pitch.
Quietly, yesterday evening, the club released to the press the news that Dennis Wyness' new contract offer has been withdrawn. Now, it has been known for weeks that Denzil was on the brink of a new deal. A Caley legend, the clu's all time top scorer, Wyness has been a feature at Caley for a decade, apart for a two year spell at Hearts. He blows hot and cold, and he's had problems with injuries over the last year, but he's a darn good striker to have. Wyness would have signed the contract on Friday, but a club official failed to get the paperwork there on time.
Wyness was subbed five minutes into the second half on Saturday. It was his first appearance for a good few weeks and he didn't look all that sharp. However, the service he got was pretty much nil. But, on the outside, this one mediocre performance seems to be the one change in circumstance from last week. On the inside, though, there may be more than meets the eye. Rumour and innuendo is rife at the moment, but everyone knows that his family are settled in the North, his oldest kid is about to start primary school, and he has been happy to tell people how pleased he was to be staying.
The story that is currently doing the rounds is that Wyness, who normally looks about as likely to get angry as a sheep, let rip at other underperforming players in the dressing room, players that are Brewster's favourites. You can guess who they are - Duncan, McGuire and Hastings spring to mind. These are players who have consistently been poor for this whole run, and before it, but who remain in the team every week when everyone else has been dropped for a time (save goalkeeper Fraser and captain Munro). The plot thickens - it has also been suggested that Graham Bayne, our beanpole forward who lacks quality but certainly doesn't lack heart, supported Wyness' comments about the efforts of other players. Bayne is still under contract for next year, but will he survive these events?
This is not the first time this year it has become clear that a player has fallen out with Brewster. Veteran Barry Wilson, in a testimonial year, made a number of useful impacts off the bench and promptly disappeared from the radar around Christmas time; he is now on loan at St. Johnstone. How we have cried out for his skill and flair recently. Brew also attempted to freeze John Rankin out, then, having recalled him and been rewarded with a string of excellent performances, Brew made it quite clear he was keen to sell. Rankin is now a fixture in big Mixu's Hibs midfield. We have not won a game since Rankin left.
And to cap it all, there are one or two goings on that suggest that Niculae (who has worked harder than most, to be fair) might not be a one-off. The company that subsidise his wages are increasingly influential in the club, and there are fears (not entirely unfounded) that Caley could just become a Romanian version of Hearts.
As I said before, a lot of this is rumour. We might never know what is actually happening in the bowels of the club (to extend the metaphor, though, they are quite clearly full of crap!). But one thing is for sure at the moment. The team itself are playing poor, boring football, and they are losing game after game with an attitude that suggests they couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. This is the first time in my life that going to a Caley game has felt like a chore, and if that's still the case at the end of the season then I'm going to have to question just why I should spend 320 quid to do it again.
L.
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