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Cinderella is going to the ball. We have acquired tickets for the home support in a part of the ground close to the away support, so will be giving it large to the sheep shagging bastards (Ovci Sujajici Bastardi) in there

Biggest island of the small isles,but only about 40 inhabitants who mostly live in Kinloch the harbour village.The rest of the island probably too rough or exposed id say.Fantastic mountains.Not huge,but challenging and great views.A few cyclable tracks go to various sides of the island.Definitely going back next year to hill climb,too soggy this year.And aye theres about 1000 deer on the island.Nae good when youre trying to kip during rutting season,lol Mother and baby dolphin on the way over.Minke whale juming out the water near the mainland

Aberdeen never gives youth a chance, I fear for Jess's development

We're slowly getting closer to finding out what our strongest line-up is. Problem is, with Tobers injured and two games a week, we won't necessarily see it very often. For now, Knoester-Milne-Dorrington at the back is secure enough, Gyamfi and Devlin as the wing backs. Karlsson finally showing he's not the new Okkels, and Lazetic and Nisbet both massive upgrades on Yengi. I wonder if there's a way to get Karlsson-Nisbet-Lazetic all playing together. Biggest surprise has been Milanovic not quite cutting it yet. The midfield is still a nice problem to have due to the number of options. I like Clarkson, I always think we're better with Shinnie in it, but Armstrong has been far better than I thought he would be considering his lack of game time before coming here. Interesting that Clarkson has at times played further forward and out wide, because he's not the dynamic box-to-box Armstrong and Shinnie are - if only they were both five years younger (but if they were, they wouldn't be at Aberdeen). Clarkson is the new Jamie McGrath in that we know he's good but aren't sure where he fits in, especially in this new three-man defence formation. Aouchiche is another conundrum, and for all his critics I think Keskinen is one of the hardest workers in the team. Okay, maybe we aren't any closer knowing our best XI after all.

To the cocks in the Red Shed that think it is acceptable to boo one of our own players on to the pitch, get the fuck out of my club

Agreed. No-one is pretending it ain't shit at the moment but as far as I'm concerned this is the time to hold our nerve and stand tall behind Thelin. There is more than enough evidence from his time at Aberdeen and how things went in his first two seasons at Elfsborg to warrant giving him the two seasons we were told we needed to give him by those in Sweden when we appointed him.

Whenever Jimmy goes - hopefully in 5+ years after managing to pull off the unlikely and turn this thing around but even if it's next week - the new manager simply cannot be appointed until the technical director position is filled.

I was at peace with him going until I realised that both Ambrose and Yengi were staying.

I'm pretty nervous about it 2bh Al. A win would be massive and really gives us impetus going into the Athens game but they have a great record against us. A draw wouldn't be awful but a defeat would have a back to square one feel to it. Their form has been a bit more patchy than usual though and as long as we stick to 3 at the back I can see us coping with their physical front line pretty well. If we show up going forward like we did against Dundee in the first half we have a great chance.

Pretty sure it's Graham Potter's if he wants it, which from his comments yesterday he very much does. (He lives in Sweden having started his managerial career there). Thelin still has at least two, probably three, and potentially even four or five, more trophies in him at Aberdeen first.

JJ Bull's best work

Hun

I think the more pressing question is how bad is Kowalski’s hangover this morning.

Not to be pendatic, but I believe it's Ryan Judas Fraser.

I've rewatched Karlssons second a few times I must admit. Love the twinkle toes

I'd have shagged prime McGhee, but he'd let himself go by the time he returned as manager. Is that the sort of thing you're after? What about Robson's body, with Willie Miller's face?

What just happened. Ball went in the netty thing at the end of our park and people are dancing?

You're right. It gets harder and harder for players to shoulder charge since they had to slice off their unnatural arms a few years back.

A run of matches? He’s had three windows with significant squad change, and over 20 new players. Add nisbet Armstrong and karlsson, key players, plus lazetic and gyamfi who were injured, these guys have hardly been with us a month. I think giving him to Xmas is fair before we can fealty make comment, but I also think he’s here three years minimum and has been given assurances. Pretty sure we’re not sacking another manager without him being given the chance to completely overhaul the squad, and try to develop a full new group over time.

Really fair assessment Al. For the last few seasons we have collapsed in the autumn and winter then changed our manager. Then we get all excited about the prospect of a new guy coming in and clearing out the players we don't like and who are pish. It was a never ending rollercoaster of emotion. So when Thelin csme along and everyone overwhelmingly thought he was a great appointment I genuinely did think we would get some stability. Absolutely gutted it is working out this way and also keep thinking please turn it around as I cannot stand us having another new face in February next year!! Hopefully 2 away league games will suit us better!!

Nevermind the game, there are bigger issues that need to be discussed.

I was gonna say this at full-time while lamenting not winning the game, but then Lazetic became a hero. I like Polvara, but I did watch today and think I'd quite happily swap him and bring Killian Phillips back. Phillips isn't a goal scorer, but that constant running, tackling and drive brings others into the game.

Yes, Aberdeen did it in 2026.

Agreed, and I think everyone here thinks devlin is a better option than Jensen. The latter is certainly a good squad player to have with his position flexibility, but especially with tobers injured and the return of a back 3, I feel there’s plenty of devlin game time ahead which we all appreciate. Both will be on the field a lot together too. i also think second factor is Armstrong. I believe he’s better than we all expected, and with devlin Armstrong Milne and shinnie is our starting 11, I do think that Scottish core gives a work ethic mentality strength and identity that we were lacking.

I doubt Armstrong is on his radar 2bh given the wealth of cm's we have.

You might get to fifty percent of the roasters though, or the folk that sit next to them, who might tell them to shut it. I think the "three year project" line has helped Thelin until now, and if we can say that we're implementing a strategy to give X number of minutes to young players, then the fans will at least know the justification for playing a youth team player that might not otherwise be afforded game time.

I don't think we need to worry about a Hearts title win. They've played seven games and in three of them have needed a last minute winner. That says a lot of teams are capable of causing them problems and their run isn't sustainable. They were terrible against Hibs, and they've a tough run of fixtures now with four of their next seven games away from home (one being at Pittodrie) and Celtic visiting Tynecastle. Will be a couple of defeats in there at least.

Bad enough seeing him at Tynecastle

Was thinking the same when I read that. Maybe we’ll check in on tlg after the weekend

Posting stuff like that, you better hope they don't have access to this site

Im pretty sure this topic has never been raised before. Happy to be merged if so. And for the Begbie record, I mean this in a purely heterosexual manner. We have a knack of making managers look aesthetically more pleasing than when they arrived. I mean, Roy Aitken, Alex Miller, Ebbe and co are definitely discounted here. But I must admit that in the McInness era, there were quite a number of Dandies who sported stylish beards and rakebacks. As shit as Goodwin was, he definitely upped his silver-fox rakeback look when he was with us. And now Thelin. Even when he appears in press photos sneering at the Red Army, he is sporting a stylish gel look with a comb back and a well kept beard. Is this part of what distinguishes a "top 3 team manager" look vs "other ranked team manager" look?

Just back fae Rum,first visit.Dolphins,Whales and Eagles within the first couple of hours over.Its a rough,often wet island though.Veered between shite and fantastic during the time there.Trench foot aside,highlight(on the one fairweather day) was the coastal path from Kinloch to Dilbidil bothy on the East coast. https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/islands/dibidil.shtml

Aye, it's obscene. It was always going to be. There's still a huge volume of people who won't admit it though, and blame the people operating it, or suggest a few tweaks, or say that it should only be used for really clear and obvious errors. We wouldn't have got our pen last night of course, but that's probably the first one this season that I can think of that VAR has intervened where there is little contention on clear and obvious. Two things about the Tim one also: it took about 3 minutes to make the call. We were watching without commentary in the pub and couldn't work out what they were trying to adjudicate on, because the ball very clearly hadn't touched a hand. Any life left in the stadium must've been drained out in that period. The second is that even if the ball had actually glanced off his arm in that incident, so fucking what? Does anyone really think it was a deliberate unsporting act to gain advantage? Or did it just bounce up and hit him, as happens all the time in the sport? Again, it's the absolute inconsequential, subjective, shite that 90% of the calls get involved in that is the big issue.

That’s the problem with the data-driven football decisions, there’s no statistic for “yass min” which means you end up with Jensen starting more games than Devlin. Nicky was immense tonight.

YASSSS NICKY DEVLIN. Lazetic unlucky with his effort

Tobers out for most of the season. Really not had any luck since joining us. Dorrington into the squad

He was responding to the point where you suggested Thelin was inept, and giving examples to show otherwise. We haven't progressed, nobody is suggesting that, just that it might not be down to ineptitude. Similarly, the massive financial advantage isn't necessarily of benefit to the manager though. Nor a source of criticism either. How that budget is being spent is of far greater concern to me than the current performances for example. Of our new signings, none really look capable of coming into the current team and performing well (maybe Armstrong, and probably Karlsson?). Milanovic, Aouchiche, Nisbet, Gyamfi, Yengi, Lazetic, Bilalovic (the last two maybe have something) all look like distinctly average players that would need a lot of work. They're toiling a bit, through lack of confidence, but I haven't looked at any of the summer signings and thought we'd signed a player. They all look like squad filler players who might have a good run at some point, but we'd likely be trying to offload next summer, or shortly thereafter. For me, the biggest issues surround recruitment and squad building. We've got old players and young players, with little in-between. Project players and more project players. Zero balance. That is a hindrance on any budget. That is on the club, not the manager. Or at least it should be.

Yeah, cracks which were there long before Thelin arrived, and that no-one expected Thelin to fix in one season. That he won a cup regardless of that was pretty good management. Okay we're just ignoring Celtic's fortunate goal, that Celtic had shown what they were capable of at Hampden when they blew St Johnstone away in the semis, they hadn't lost a Scottish Cup game at Hampden under Rodgers, that mere months before that game that same Celtic team went very close to knocking Bayern Munich out of the Champions League, that after our goal we actually had four very good chances to win the game before penalties, and are just describing a very good defensive performance as "barely got a kick" because it doesn't suit the agenda? We beat a treble chasing Celtic team at Hampden. That we didn't dominate the game doesn't make it any less of an achievement. Since you know so much about last season, can you post how many times Celtic:- a) conceded at home in the Premiership b) dropped points at home in the Premiership? It won't take you long, it's a short list. I wasn't celebrating it. You asked for reasons why I didn't agree Thelin was "inept". Going and achieving things very few managers did last season, or even in previous seasons, is a strong argument against that. We also were not the only team to lose heavily to them last season. Is going out of the Europa League seemed a failure? We lost to the Romanian champions, who last week won away from home against the Dutch Cup winners. Are we just finding every single negative we can think of here, while dismissing any positives? I didn't actually say that. Perhaps a better example of being mental would be seeing and replying to things that aren't actually there...

The Scottish Cup win. The eleven league games without defeat and sitting top of the table, having beaten Rangers, and coming back from 2-0 down to draw at Parkhead. Surely though you didn't need me to remind you of that? Or are we just saying everything good he did was a fluke? I'd say calling a guy who took a team that finished seventh in the previous season to the brink of third place is clearly not inept. He's made mistakes, by fuck is he getting punished for them, but this is where we'll see what he's really made of.

Still raging I didn't get into the arm slicing off business when it was in it's infancy.

If you read the bottle, one of the symptoms is seeing Irish defenders on benches, who aren't actually there.

Bit in bold has to be done quickly whether we are getting a new manager or not.

I certainly think that the stats hide a lot, because we look nowhere near fifth place, but do look good enough to finish eighth. The stats will be inflated by the chances we created last night after we'd already thrown the game away for example, which weren't testament to our ability really. One thing in our favour, though, is that our defence probably isn't as bad as it seems. They are being put under a lot of pressure because of our failure at the other end. It's relentless for them, and there's that inevitability that we'll concede simply because we haven't scored. It's a psychological issue, and one that can be targeted, especially at set pieces. There's zero breathing space for them.

But crucially, it is his.

Agreed, I don’t think he’s in danger. We pursued him for a couple of years, and we’ve gone all in on him. A three yr project was spoken about, and it’s been a total squad overhaul. We’ve allowed him to build his type of player and squad I believe, including signing ex players, you don’t then can the coach. To be honest, I’m sure his start last year was a surprise to jimmy and cormack, and a cup win was unexpected. It’s a three yr project minimum and we’re only starting year two. Add to the fact we’ve signed bilalovic kjarten and frame, all who I think are ones for the future, I think the club is all in on long term jimmy.

Defo stay. I don't actually think he's in any danger at the moment anyway as my feeling is Cormack is committed to the project. He will know this exact scenario happened at Elfsborg and have far better data on the full in's and outs of this period, indeed a sticky spell like this was probably expected from the off. All the chat from Sweden when we hired him was "you need to give this guy 2 years before you see what one of his teams is really all about" and, when you consider the investment we have made with him, I think it would be crazy not to see it out. FWIW I think we will come good under Thelin and I'm happy to give him the season. For me the team at the moment is like an engine running with little to no oil, particularly when we get to the final third. Confidence is clearly becoming an issue now as well to compound things but that would go away if we could just fucking start scoring.