Slim

There’s a bit of a difference between supporting a 122 year old business with 100,000+ potential customers (AFC) and chucking a million or so at a guy with a burger van (Resident X). Didn’t suggest the council will “make money”, but was saying that they shouldn’t be in a position to lose money should everything be set up properly and AFC don’t take the piss. To put it simply, as long as the council can mitigate their risk exposure and receive a lease payment that at least covers the loan repayment then there shouldn’t really be any downside for them or the taxpayer. Certainly seems more viable than begging for donations from rich people. And if Cormack is to be believed, there will be private sector contribution brought to the table from the AFC side which is most likely going to be from local businesspeople acting with their heart instead of their head.

If the club take ownership of the construction cost risk and the lease payments cover the borrowing costs, where’s the risk against the council that makes it unviable? The risk of the club being liquidated and defaulting on the lease agreement is probably the main one. Another could be it impacting the council’s ability to borrow funds for other things (e.g. council house construction). Both could be addressed/dealt with. Most private sector construction follows similar principles. Investor funds the construction cost against a firm long-term lease commitment. The council’s pension fund are likely to be investors in such developments. Only issue I really see is if Cormack is expecting the council to underwrite the over-run in build cost and fix the lease cost up front. Also worth asking if the club can afford £1.5m (guesstimate) a year rent payments. I assume we have zero rent at the moment.

We must be in double digits now for misplaced passes going out for a throw. We'll never get anywhere if we don’t do better at keeping the ball when we have possession.

Shell site now in hands of Scottish Enterprise, being marketed as part of the Energy Transition Zone.

Yeah, I was more interested in validating that low interest loans are actually available. Organisations like SNIB, National Wealth Fund, etc are apparently not allowed to offer lower borrowing rates than commercial banks, at least to similar private sector projects of national importance in terms of job protection, energy transition, re-skilling, etc.

He's a few whiskys away from a late night rant calling council members "dumb" and promising to make Aberdeen "great again". He goes on about that play park more often than his role model goes on about wind turbines. Hazlehead Park is always absolutely rammed after they did the big upgrade to the playpark and similar footfall for the beach playpark will be a massive increase in customers for the existing businesses in the area. Would be interesting to know a bit more about this "low interest for capital investments". I've been involved in something similar recently, talking to same institutions providing these funds and the messaging has been quite clear that they are not allowed to undercut banks on interest rates. Might be different for public sector. Still think the site in question has too many challenges anyway, I reckon you'll be looking at several million in additional groundworks over more in-land sites (disclaimer - not a geologist) and looks to be a bit of a squeeze without carving out part of the Broadhill. If you can squeeze in the stadium there, there's a similar footprint between George Street and Skene Square if you can incentivise the businesses in the old buildings on Ann Street to relocate. Train track runs under where the "plaza" would be, opportunity for a stadium station, road to the west is planned to be dualled up to St Machar. Can re-use the red bricks from the mill in the facade (sustainability and heritage boxes ticked). A proper city centre stadium would be fucking ace. 4 steep stands, none of this bowl bollocks.

I don’t think anyone else will be paying that for him if this is his level, and I doubt they want to keep him. He’ll be available cheaper than that later on in the summer transfer window. Would hope there’s better players to be found though, especially with 2 x Head of Recruitment on our books.

Was Aouchiche really taking the ball to the corner flag on 87 minutes when there’s probably still 10 minutes to go? FFS that’s poor.

On the ropes a bit here. Needed more than a striker for a striker swap.

It’s early December, the club are at least 6 weeks away from identifying last minute panic signings.

This is the worst sentence ever to be written.

Probably wouldn't have made any difference, but can't help wondering. If you're faced with protecting a lead with 10 minutes to go and want to bring on fresh legs to press the opposition and keep them as far from your box as possible, why on earth would you bring on Nilsen ahead of Shinnie? Or choose to keep a broken Polvara on the pitch instead of replacing him with Shinnie at the same time as the other subs? If there's a single person in the squad you want to have charging about the pitch (or even shielding the ball and buying fouls) in those circumstances, it's Shinnie.

Most likely needed to keep teams like Iran and Haiti away from US venues.

He's a bit fortunate that quite a lot of time has passed now so for lots of Dons fans the initial hate has already turned to pity. He'll still be nailed on to score though.

That statement’s a bit desperate sounding and dare I say it, a bit “Trump-y” in places.

That land isn’t going to be worth much, especially if the buyer needs to cover the demolition costs.

I think there’s room to be a bit braver introducing young players to the first team. Dylan Lobban is 20, if we’d given him a chance this time last year, we could have saved over half a million on Jensen. I’d rather give Marshall the 2nd half of the season than sign another midfielder unless we sign someone proven/known like Watson from Killie. Even then I’d still prioritise kicking the tyres on Marshall over hoping Aouchiche produces more to justify a £1.5m price tag.

Is Armstrong drunk?

There’s plenty of it happening with technologies that are easily transferable (e.g. ROVs). Less so on drilling, production equipment, etc. Companies doing subsea construction, inspection, maintenance, etc, are likely to be coping a lot better than the traditional O&G service companies. Although even then everyone is struggling as the wind market is in the toilet also. A lot of the investment in offshore wind comes from oil companies trying to (or appearing to try to) diversify into clean energies but there seems to be a reluctance to invest more if the returns from oil production is drying up or being heavily taxed. Next 6 months are going to be grim for the city.

I think I read Mowbray has been with us since April on a consultancy basis, would be interesting to know how much input he had to our summer signings. I think I also remember reading that the current Head of Recruitment is based in Portugal full time which doesn't seem to be ideal if the only time he spends with JT is on scheduled Teams calls.

I’d take Barnes in our squad I reckon. Starting with the Euro 28 qualifiers. If he’s still interested with no World Cup trip then he should be welcome. Same goes for anyone else with zero caps.

Just send Lovenkrands home FFS

Probably, but this seems to be originating from Scott Burns and seemingly he's our mouthpiece.

Like Lyall Cameron, it probably doesn't go in our favour to have this interest broadcast in the newspapers.

I would say winning at home v Denmark is probably an easier prospect than winning away to any of those Pot 1 teams, except maybe Ukraine.