Ramperbamper

This might be unlikely but maybe McLean said "show me how much you want me; give the mighty Dons a couple of shekels now and loan me back or I'll hold off signing until June to see if I get any better offers" or words to that effect. Unlikely as I say but can't think of another explanation that makes any sense.

I'd like to think that's true, especially given the amount of "he'll go to the Huns for free like Jack, the Hun cunt that he is" type nonsense he's had.

Good deal for us though, although I'm very much of the opinion he'll be difficult to replace, especially how the transfer market is. If the young Kenny was available from St Mirren now, the Huns would be trying to sign him, and even the Tims might be sniffing around as a "buy to let" type signing as they did with Morgan and Christie.

You really believe that? 

 

Even if that is true, and I don't believe it is for a second, why didn't he say to Milne long before now "Even if they come for me, I'm not interested. I've spoken to my family and it wouldn't be the right move for me." ?

Believe it, don't believe it, whatever helps you sleep at night.

I personally don't think a statement saying he wasn't going would've stopped either the press campaign or the Huns sniffing after him, irrespective of how much of a cunt he'd have made of himself if he'd turned down a job he wasn't offered. You can bet the Huns would've released a statement mocking him if he did that.

He's never going there now.

Critical analysis of the team, players and manager going forward is key. Nothing else really matters.

There's nothing to get over you zoomer. I thought it was a good time and opportunity for a change, he's not going - it's not put me up nor down. 

 

To pretend that everything is fantastic is the act of the happy clapper, FYI.

Mmmmm.

The poster you directed your "happy clapper" jibe at was on about respecting McInnes for the choice he made - didn't see anything which suggested he thought everything was fantastic on the pitch - unless every post needs to come with a disclaimer?

People can be delighted that he's here, but hope for an improvement on the park from the poor run of form we're on at the moment.

Does the fact he told them to do one mean that all the issues with the side disappear?

 

Why don't you take a look at the results and performances and team selection over the last 6 weeks instead of happy clapping around here telling the rest of us what we must think of him because of this decision which he allowed to drag on to the detriment of the side?

Get over yourself 

The team selections and results can of course be questioned, but him going to the Huns would have had ramifications beyond us losing a good manager to a rival. He picked us over them whether you like it or not, and you're ultimately just going to need to get over it.

Also, "happy clapping" makes you sound like a greetin' faced wee lassie FYI.

That's fucking great news! I just hope the supporters don't get on his back. That will be harmful to the club and team. He's Aberdeen FC's manager. That's all that matters. 

The supporters will have to get over themselves if they get on his back over this saga.

By all means question him on tactics, signings, results and all the other stuff managers get criticised for. But the impact and ramifications of him going there would have been massive, way beyond a team losing a decent manager to a rival club.

He picked us over that shower when faced with a straight choice, no matter the circumstances that's something to cherish and enjoy.

This will hopefully have a galvanising effect, starting tomorrow night.

To me it doesn’t matter what the media say. Had DM came out and said he doesn’t want the job, he’s not interested etc it would put many minds at ease. And he can say that in a respectful way without actually having been offered the job. He could have cleared much of this up. The fact that he hasn’t done so tells us all he’s interested. He knows the club is a shit show, all the drama etc., but still doesn’t distance himself. That tells me he’s gone if offered. Horrible situation now because we have a manager whose eyes are elsewhere and the longer this goes only hurts us. Like many have said, don’t see how DM comes back from this. The Rangers performances were tactically poor but more significantly , for the most part, gutless. Lost the dressing room since the players see he wants to be elsewhere?

Don't think it's as black and white as that.

My best guess is that he may be open to hearing what the Huns have to say, just as would be the case with countless other clubs should they have had a vacancy available. I don't think his chat about "due diligence" or about having a good relationship with the chairman was a front, I think he'd need to be mad to go there but he may wish to hear them out. The thought isn't a pleasant one, but it's probably not a million miles off where we're at.

If he turns them down, then he'll come back. Milne won't sack him, given he stood back and watched Blunderwood try and whore his services down south and McGhee's chat about Celtic on his opening presser. He'll lose a lot of goodwill and leeway from the fans, but if he gets us firing again then people will need to get over themselves, quite frankly.

Good work on shoe-horning in Kingsford, but you've missed my point. First, he's not saying he's not interested in any vacancies just now, because that would be ridiculous. He has no idea when another job might come up. For example, if he'd come out on the day the previous hun was sacked and said "I'm not interested in any vacancies just now" and then three days later the West Brom job was offered to him, I'm pretty certain he'd have taken it. The point being that as soon as you give a definitive answer to one piece of speculation then you're expected to give a definitive answer to every piece of speculation. Your example doesn't get round that.

 

If you need evidence, look back at the comments on here when McInnes was being touted for the Sunderland job. Everybody was suggesting that he should come out and say whether he would be leaving or not. He kept his mouth shut until an actual offer was made, mulled it over, and then decided to stay. As any professional manager would.

 

Although Donsdaft is obviously correct.

Nail on the head.

The clamour for him to come out and say something is ridiculous. I don't even think if he came out and said "I AM THE ABERDEEN MANAGER AND I DON'T WANT TO GO TO RANGERS" as folk are demanding that it would stop the Weegia pish at all - people seem to forget how much they fucking hate us, and how much fun they're having turning the fans against the club and unsettling us. People are playing right into their hands without taking a step back and thinking about what's going on.

Let's be perfectly honest, if he's enough of a cunt to go tho the Huns, he'd be enough of a cunt to pay lip service to the fans and pander to them and throw them the quotes they wanted to hear. What he says means fuck all in the scheme of things.

Actions will speak louder than words.

To be fair it's the bookies odds being reported rather than made up Weegia pish (this time)

I do wonder if DM had been planning to play two up top more often this season but binned it because it wasn't working.

This is what it seems like to me too. And 2 up top definitely didn't work.

"Why sign him then?" - the gaffer can plan as meticulously as he likes, sometimes things don't work that well in practice. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Shame for the lad but I'm glad he's not just tried to shoehorn him in to try and justify the signing.

He strikes me as the type who thrives upon the day to day stuff.

He'd also be a sensible choice, which probably rules him out.

Absolutely not convinced Stockley is the answer; really not been impressed by him and the little game time he gets may indicate DM has his concerns too.  But 2 up front would be good; 4-2-3-1 is just another fad, and whenever the coaching courses come up with something new to justify the ridiculous fees, all teams will fall into line with that. 

 

Playing 2 up should not cause us any issues against the majority of teams in our league, home or away.

4-2-3-1 has worked well for us regardless of whether it's a "fad" or not.

Our strengths are undoubtedly in the wide areas, it allows our wide players to play in advanced positons and two sitting midfielders gives further protection our defence (Taylor), and Maddison looks tailor made for the hole.

4-4-2 just means we have two strikers starved of service rather than one with the two wide men further back the pitch.

Not sure I quite agree, our form has been horrific since about what, late March?  So I wouldnt say that it's hysterical at all.  A bit premature, yes, but as Bobby says, when do you start having that discussion?  Finishing second last season isn't really something to brag about, especially with that Celtic team and manager.  We even nearly tried to fuck that up.  We've started as we finished. Very poorly imo.

 

P.s. welcome aboard 

Regardless of how poor Celtic were, it'd have been an unbelievable achievement to have won the league last year. So I'm counting 2nd as a stable, if unspectacular season with both unfortunate draws and significant room for improvement in the cups.

I get what he's trying to do with us, Jack's injury came at a bad time when he was really finding form and the midfield had a balance to it, we probably signed one too many strikers and it's a shame we don't have two O'Connors, but there's certainly a lot to be happy with too - perhaps back to basics and what served us well over the last two years (4-2-3-1), make the most of our excellent wide players and with the added boost of a threat through the middle in Maddison.

He gets more than six weeks leeway/goodwill from me - if we're nowhere near Europe come May then see where we are, but he's shown he's good enough to get us on a run more than once, so I'm still hopeful of a good season.

Good first post...

 

Of course I would. But I put it like that in terms of the wider support, the media, McInnes himself and of course board of directors. How will they all react? This is a discussion forum and I think we maybe need to generate a bit more discussion on here, but you maybe wouldn't know that if you've not been round here a lot...

I don't see the point in raising negative hypotheticals that may never happen.

In the real world, the sensible reaction would be to appreciate that this isn't the hysterical over reactive world of the EPL, over the last two seasons we've finished 2nd (where we should be budget wise) and the goodwill extended to McInnes would extend beyond a poor opening six weeks to the season.

As things stand though, it's a completely irrelevant point.

One win in his last 10 league matches arching over last season and this is frankly unacceptable. Next week is a huge week - away to a team we should stroll past, cup quarter final and the huns at home - a game with a full house and an angry and passionate crowd, the type of game we have wilted more than not. Fails next week, what happens?

Have the courage of your convictions - if he "failed" would you want him out?