Caley Thistle – not for the first time this summer – have left me with more questions than answers after their announcement on their incoming new majority shareholder Ketan Makwana.
The announcement from the club on Friday the board had agreed to an offer from businessman Makwana was a welcome development.
But the more I hear about the prospective new majority shareholder, the more concerned I’m becoming.
For starters, the revelation Makwana has made six previous attempts at owning a football club in the last three years, which have all failed, is a huge worry.
It seems he just wants to own a club – any club – rather than have any affinity for Inverness.
I’m also concerned that he didn’t know anything about Caley Thistle at all.
It is troubling it appears, based on his comments, he was not aware they were the Scottish Cup winners of 2015 and also reached year’s cup final at Hampden against Celtic.
Questions need to be answered – including on Scot Gardiner’s future
There are alarm bells ringing for me – but that’s because I don’t know what Makwana’s plans for the club are, or most importantly, whether he has the resources required to take the club forward.
Who are his backers? How does he intend on tackling the debt at the club? Will there be funding available to take the club forward?
Those are three questions right off the bat which I think everyone associated with Caley Jags are seeking answers to.
Then there is the small matter of chief executive Scot Gardiner.
His ongoing presence at Caledonian Stadium has been a major bone of contention for a large section of the support.
Makwana needs to let the fans know whether his arrival will hasten Gardiner’s departure, or if he will have a future once the regime change has been completed.
I’m hoping this deal is good news for the club, the staff and the supporters, but like everyone else, I feel like all I can offer is hope.
The devil is going to be in the detail on this.
Cup campaign shows how far Caley Thistle have fallen
On the pitch, Saturday’s 6-0 mauling by Dundee in the final Premier Sports Cup group tie illustrated the size of the task facing manager Duncan Ferguson this season.
From Scottish Cup finalists to playing in the third tier of Scottish football represents a huge drop-off for Inverness, and the gap between the club and the Premiership is huge.
There’s no getting away from it – Caley Thistle have a young squad and when so many youngsters are playing every week then clearly there are going to be dips somewhere.
Saturday was one of those days, as Dundee, led by Simon Murray, put Inverness to the sword.
The one consolation is Caley Thistle, being two tiers away, will not face teams of the quality of Dundee on a weekly basis in League One.
But it is important they dust themselves down and go again on Saturday when they start their league campaign against Dumbarton at Caledonian Stadium.
Dumbarton suffered an equally heavy 6-0 defeat on their visit to Aberdeen, so both sides will be feeling a little fragile.
But if Caley Thistle have serious aspirations of being in the hunt for promotion this season then they have to improve their home form, which was patchy at best in the last campaign.
Ross County need a quick start
Four wins out of four represents a strong Premier Sports Cup campaign from Ross County and they are well placed to progress after being paired with Spartans in the last 16.
Losing Simon Murray was a big blow for the clu,b but with Jordan White and Ronan Hale among the goals in pre-season, Don Cowie can head into the new Premiership campaign with a degree of optimism.
County have a tough start to the season and their trip to Fir Park to face former boss Stuart Kettlewell and his Motherwell side on Saturday will be fascinating.
I said it last year, and it needs repeating – every point is priceless for County and there can be no casual approach to the new season.
It’s easy to think: ‘It’s early days, we can recover’ if you lose the first couple of games, but, as the last two years have shown, every point matters.
In the Staggies’ case it has been the difference between survival and the drama of the play-offs.
All signs now pointing to a Bojan Miovski exit from Aberdeen
There can be no other reason for not playing Bojan Miovski other than Aberdeen expect him to leave the club.
I could see the rationale behind Jimmy Thelin’s decision to leave Miovski out of the side for the Premier Sports Cup opener at Queen of the South given the speculation about his star striker.
But I can’t believe Thelin would not play his best forward unless something is in the works behind the scenes at Pittodrie.
Ester Sokler’s four-goal haul in the cup games is welcome, but he is not at the same level of Miovski, who scored 26 goals for the club last season.
That’s not a criticism, it’s just stating a fact.
Sokler has shown he can get the goals if he gets the service and added another two goals to his tally in Saturday’s 6-0 win against Dumbarton.
But if you have a player of Miovski’s quality available, you play him. The only reason not to is if you don’t want to risk an injury jeopardising a move.
Put it this way, I’ll be hugely surprised if the window closes on August 30 with the Macedonian international still at Pittodrie.
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