‘A door we thought was closing has re-opened’ – Inverness Caley Thistle’s academy director Charlie Christie delighted at deal to save future of the club’s youth set-up
Charlie Christie says it feels like a closing door has been re-opened with the news that former Inverness Caledonian Thistle chairman, and current head of the Orion group, Alan Savage would safeguard the club’s academy.
The agreement will see Savage cover the shortfall that would have been left by Caley Thistle pulling their funding for the academy, with no set figure but has been estimated to be anywhere between £50,000 and £100,000 per year.
It is a deal slated to last for an initial three years, with an annual review built into the terms.
In previous years, although contributing the significant share ICT did not solely finance their academy, which also takes income from Scottish FA grants, sponsorship and their own fundraising.
None of those external sources of funding will be affected by Savage and Orion’s contribution.
That money goes towards the cost of employing full-time coaches – a Scottish FA requirement for the level Inverness are at – as well as kit, facility hire and travel to games for close to 100 children across roughly 250 games per season.
Christie, the head of Caley Thistle’s academy, was naturally delighted with the development, and says parents of the youngsters currently in the set-up were informed of the deal last night.
“I’ve been liaising with Alan for two weeks now, and we still have to meet with one of the directors of the club to go over the machinations of the whole thing but it’s basically all systems go, and it’s brilliant news,” Christie explained.
“The parents have been asking what’s happening for a month now after the chairman said it was under threat, and they had been desperate to hear some news about it.
“They are all delighted. Sometimes we underestimate how big of a part training with the club plays in these kids life.
“I disagreed with the thought process of the board moving to Kelty, but I’m not an idiot and I know that finances are extremely tight here – we’ve read that many times over the past few months.
“I just felt there should be ways of keeping the academy going no matter what, but Alan Savage has taken that pressure away now.
“I’s just tremendous that we can keep it going, because not having an academy for the first time in 25 years doesn’t bear thinking about.”
There was an element of good timing in bringing the deal together, as shortly after ICT chairman Ross Morrison had suggested that the future of the club’s academy could be at risk, Christie bumped into Savage while out socially, sparking the conversation that would lead to Orion’s investment.
As part of the agreement, any further sponsorship or fundraising that is done to benefit the academy will be ring-fenced to ensure it goes towards developing the next generation of talent – and promoting a healthy lifestyle to a large number of children in the area.
Based on current performance, where the Caley Jags are on course to beat Premiership clubs to the under-16s league title with just a couple of games to go, Christie feels that there is plenty of potential for the Inverness first team to reap the rewards of that continued investment.
“When Alan intimated to me that Orion might look at it and could we discuss it, I just thought ‘you beauty’,” Christie said.
“He will have his standards for the academy, but the academy staff are right up for that. We like that idea.
“We need to be looking at getting two or three boys into the first team every couple of years, and in the academy office we think that’s possible.
“It’s a door we thought was closing, but Alan’s deal has reopened it. The parents are over the moon
“Alan has been quoted as saying that input will be somewhere between £50,000 and £100,000 per season. That is an awful lot less than probably every other club at our level.
“Some years what I’ve read has been absolute poppycock about what that figure is – there is a perception of what it is, and sometimes it has been nonsensical.
“We are one of the less expensive academies. The SFA audit three years ago said that what we do with the budget we had should be applauded, so it’s not as if we’re spending excessive amounts of money.
“We’ve had help in the past. I’ve not said this too often, but Ryan Christie has picked up the tab for a few things in 2024 when we have struggled to get kit. Credit to him for that – it’s not huge amounts, but it’s money that wasn’t there.
“The quality and professionalism of our teams is top notch. The fact that we, as a club, were thinking of letting that go, I was gobsmacked by it, but now we don’t have to because of the Orion group.
“Our coaches are really looking forward to the future now. We are all really determined to kick on.
“We’re hoping that Caley Thistle are going to gain out of this over the next two or three years, because we know we can produce another Cammy Harper.”
While the future of the academy itself is secured, there is still some uncertainty over what the pathway will look like from the youth set-up to the first team squad.
That will be made even more complicated by the planned move to Kelty for first team training, with Christie adding: “It’s all very well the club saying these things, but how are the mechanics of that going to work? I’ve been told by the chairman especially that the pathway must open.
“We’re in League One, let’s not beat about the bush. Liam Polworth, Ryan Christie and Nick Ross broke into the team when we were in the top six of the Premier League, and two of them got us into Europe.
“We’re not idiots, we realise that boys have got to be at a level. I refuse to push boys into the first team squad, or even into apprenticeships, unless I think they’ve got genuine potential.
“The mechanics of that pathway still have to be discussed – but I did ask, and Alan Savage has said his input would not be dependent on that because his main driver was a healthy lifestyle message and doing right be kids in this area.
“If we get a real diamond, and myself and Ross Jack have our eyes on one or two, how do we fast track them?
“You see 16-year-olds coming on and scoring winning goals for teams like Barcelona. They are not big guys, but they have huge technical ability so they got fast-tracked.
“I am intrigued as to how the mechanics of it will work here. I have heard Scott Kellacher is going to be involved in that, and I have known Scott for 30 years, but we will need to utilise our academy coaches as well to get that development right.”
