DollyLongstaffe

At least Milne is being consistent. He's always wanted to play this down as much as possible and only the fans' anger forced him give up support for his preferred "punishment" of admitting Newco to the Championship. For this and on the 10-2, no matter what else he's done, for me he goes down in history as the single worst thing that ever happened to Aberdeen Football Club.

Of that lot, probably Archibald. I'd want to interview Tommy Wright though and give him the chance to convince me that the style of football Saints play is down to budget and he'd know how to play a more expansive game if he came here. He's terrific at putting a highly motivated, one-for-all-and-all-for-one side out on the park, and that goes a long way.

Hearts shockingly poor after we scored. Can't see Cathro being in charge for next season. Thought we were good in the first half, superb in the second. Whole team played well apart from Rooney, who is worryingly starting to look like a problem. Very difficult to leave a finisher of his quality out of the side and he's deservedly a fans' favourite for his contribution over the past few seasons, but something seems to have gone missing with him. He looks less likely to score and when he doesn't he's not making enough of a contribution to justify being picked. Thought Stockley was very unlucky, just frustration trying to disentangle a guy who was fouling him and had the misfortune to catch him in the face. Wasn't intentional and wasn't really dangerous but the way the game is reffed these days it was a bit stupid.

Great news if true. Might make sense for the player as well. He's played in England before and it didn't work out. Also, it doesn't seem to be well remembered, but he was widely thought to have had a disappointing first season here. Maybe he's a guy who needs time to adjust to new surroundings, and he might not get that at a club with more money to splash about. It's a short career and money matters, but here he knows he's going to get picked and is highly thought of by the fans. The alternative might be spending the later stages of his career sitting on the bench or in the stand at a club whose fans barely know who he is.

I don't believe Christie's been brought here with a view to sitting on the bench. Nor do I believe McLean will drop out of the side, although he may be moved positionally. How Deek finds a place for him time will tell. There must also be the possibility that Rodgers doesn't think he'll make it at Celtic and we're trying to get into pole position for his signature if he's let go.

My initial reaction to signing Christie was pretty positive but the more I think about it the more I suspect it might be a mistake. The tweet doesn't bother me personally, but I think it will seriously reduce how many mistakes or poor games he'll get before a section of our fans gets on his back. If we end up in a situation where the boy has a couple of poor games to start, the crowd gets abusive, and everything turns sour I can see the media having a field day, largely at our expense. There's also a point of principle I don't like here, which is that Celtic, as by far the richest club in the country, could be seen as influencing what goes on elsewhere in the league. In theory there's nothing to stop them from lending us players we couldn't afford in an attempt to deny Sevco second, which would delight their own fans. I'm not suggesting that's what's happening, and Sevco are the last club in the country entitled to squeal about sharp practice and manipulation, but loaning players within the same league just seems wrong to me.

I don't understand the Easton interest if he's another Considine. I don't believe Considine has a future as a central defender at Aberdeen under McInnes. Deek has shown a marked reluctance to play him there. I'm sure he believes (quite rightly IMO) that Conso is not good enough to be a first choice centre back for us. Following a real loss of confidence/form by our other centre backs Conso was given a wee run in central defence this season, but that was a gamble by a manager not liking the look of his other options. He started off promisingly enough but then had a few stinkers and was removed from the danger area. I think that will have solidified in Deek's mind the idea that Considine is not the answer in central defence. I just don't buy the idea that Easton would come here to free Conso to play central defence. If we get a good left back, Conso is on the bench. Assuming Deek doesn't play the new left back as a striker of course.

My memory for detail may have let me down a bit, but this is exactly what I thought at the time (that he was tinkering with the team and playing disenchanted players to appease them) and at that time the facts would have been fresh in my mind. I'm sure if I went through the history of team selection in detail I could reconstruct exactly why I thought so. Flood played some games but was clearly very unhappy that he was no longer an automatic pick. There was absolutely no logic in playing Pawlett in as crucial and tricky tie as Hibs away, and both players had the body language of malcontents. Quinn had gone by January, clear that he was in effect emergency cover. LA Don, you may be right that a different manager could keep a bigger squad pulling in the same direction, and no doubt a leader or two would help. But on balance I think the problem is more likely to do with the limitations of the club as a draw for players rather than the manager. Deek doesn't get enough credit for getting players to come here and stay here. Some people seem to have forgotten the difficulty we had in holding onto players who showed even a smidgen more talent than the workmanlike SPL average under Calderwood, McGhee and Brown. We couldn't even persuade shite like McDonald and Kerr to renew their contracts here and the likes of Nicolson and Clark were off as soon as an English club showed an interest. Against that backdrop bringing the likes of Hayes, Rooney, Logan, Lewis and Shinnie to the club, and getting the first 3 to sign renewed contracts is impressive. Hayes explicitly said he was happy to stay here as long as McInnes was the manager. McInnes has improved the club's ability to attract and retain players, but not to the point where above average SPL players are happy to be fringe players here. Frankly I doubt anyone could pull that off.

He needs to re-think the type of squad we need. In the past couple of seasons our bench - on paper at least - has been occupied mainly by the kind of players who'd be automatic starters for about 3/4 of the league. That was not the case under previous managers. My initial reactions was well-done Deek, but now I have serious doubts. Last year we had an 8 match winning streak, but guys like Quinn, Pawlett and Flood were not getting picked and getting more and more agitated about it. Under pressure the manager started finding places for them. Disaffected, not match fit and having had their confidence dented, they were predictably not on it and we had a horrible run, ejected from the League cup at the first hurdle and dropping a stack of points in the league. Unfortunately the days when players would rather warm the bench at Aberdeen than get a game for a "lesser" SPL side are long gone. Quinn forced Deek to let him go back to County to get a regular game. Flood dropped a division rather than sit on the bench. This season the same problems are surfacing. Guys like Brown and Stockley will have been sold a move to the club, no doubt on the assumption they would be playing. Pawlett, who outside a half-decent 45mins against Killie has been sub-standard for about 3 seasons is getting picked. When Stockley, for example is picked we not only lose Rooney's goal threat for a poorer player, we dent Rooney's confidence and commitment. I don't think it's coincidence than an in-and-out-of-the-side Rooney has been a lot less effective than the automatic-pick Rooney of old. Driven by a need to be fair to the individual players, Deek is regularly weakening his first 11. I think we need to go back to a smaller squad. That should free up some wages to improve the quality of it. The bench should include 2 or 3 promising youngsters who are ambitious but accept that they are at the early stages of their career and won't throw their toys out of the pram if they don't get picked. Yes that goes against conventional wisdom that you need an in-depth squad but what's right for Chelsea or even Celtic isn't necessarily right for Aberdeen. Yes it means relying on youngsters if their are injuries and suspensions, but surely that's no worse than relying on more experienced players who can't get into the first 11 on merit and have been sitting on the bench getting out of match practice and feeling bitter about their lot.

Don't disagree with much of that, but you're not the only person I've read who's being much to kind to Maddison, who had an off day as did all our potentially creative players. Hayes, McGinn, Pawlett and Maddison were all poor for me. Short passes going astray, electing to pass to team mates who were too tightly marked, electing to dribble at the wrong time, just not getting past their man. No doubting Maddison's talent, but his decision making is poor and he looks at times like he's playing for himself, not the team. As for St Johnstone, it's not their tactics that grate, it's their cynicism and the fact that it was indulged by a weak referee. If a few Saint's players had been booked earlier, as they deserved to be, it might have been a different game.

Can't see the point of criticising players for anodyne stuff like this. They will be told they are representing the club and can't just tell the Press to fuck off as no doubt many would prefer to do. The media have ways of getting their revenge on clubs and players who don't make their jobs easy (unless they operate out of Mordor and are deemed by senior staff as being too important to kick). They will be fed leading questions by reporters. They will be told by the club to be unremittingly positive and offer no hostages to fortune. "So Johnny, realistically all a club like Aberdeen can't win the league and will have to settle for second at best in future years". Headline sought: "Aberdeen's Hayes admit the club will never win the league". Hayes, defusing that, "No we'll be looking to win it in future". Instructions followed, job done.

1. Firstly he didn't start Shinnie in his best position but who would have had the imagination to start Hayes there instead? It's not the first time we've seen Johnny at LB but possibly the first time he's started there? Hayes has certainly started a few games at left back, although not, as far as I can remember, under Deek. Pa Broon played him there a few times. Maybe he was the one with the imagination.

John McMaster. For me the epitome of a player who flattered to deceive. Elegant, head up, leaning back slightly, struck the ball very well. Nice guy and popular with the other players. Fooled most fans into thinking he was a player. The phrase "Scotland's best uncapped player" got bandied about. Still fondly remembered by nostalgic Dandys the world over. In fact an absolute responsibility shirker who knew the more ambitious the pass or shot the less you'd be held responsible if it didn't come off, especially if you looked good doing it. Developed the elegant long ping into space behind the defence into a fine art. The fact that there was practically never anybody in a red shirt close enough to get on the end of it mysteriously overlooked by most fans. Also mastered the art of putting the ball 6 inches over the bar from 25 yards. Unlucky! I lived in fear of a good chance coming to him in the box, because you knew he might put float one in from 20 yards once in a blue moon, but if he was in a position where he was expected to score he'd be like a rabbit in the headlights. Especially remember a game against Dundee Utd at Pittodrie. Not that long to go, 1-1 iirc, and we got a pen. Yesss! A couple of likely takers were out for some reason, so we weren't sure who was going to take it. I literally could not believe my fucking eyes when I saw McMaster lining up. I totally knew he would miss it, and of course he did. "He always puts them away in training" said Fergie in his post match interview. I thought, how could he not have worked out what the guy's like by now? Pretty sure he never took another pen. To be fair, he has one stonker of a game against Oldco that will live long in the memory. Not yet a first team regular, he ran the midfield and passed them to death, and we won 4-0. I really thought we'd found a player.

No enthusiasm for McLeish. Hibs fans and Motherwell fans I know were glad to see the back of him as bright starts petered out into mediocrity. His reputation is for negative, functional fitba and his recent record is even more abysmal. I'd be wary of Wright as well. Sometimes a club's success isn't down to the manager. Some clubs seem to go through periods where for few years there's a really good feel about the place and whoever gets appointed does well. ICT were like that for a while, as were Motherwell. We appointed Paterson, Brown and McGhee from these clubs and they didn't shine here. Saints are another club who seem to be going though a period of doing well no matter who's at the helm. I might be being unfair to Wright, but I just suspect it's a pretty easy gig in Perth just now. I'm far from convinced Deek's departure is inevitable though. Moderate Scottish success won't count for much down south, and his one stab in England didn't go well. He's on the short list for the Scotland job according to the bookies, but he's not at the top of it, and rivals won't have a contract to buy out. Besides, even if offered it, would he want it? He's still a young manager and it's a bit of a poisoned chalice, the job description involving sow's ears and purses. Sevco would be a more serious threat, but I occasionally pop into Rangers Media for entertainment when they get some bad news or a shit result, and when the next manager is discussed they seem pretty lukewarm about Deek. A minority fancy him, but most are either hostile or unconvinced. Sevco's first thought will always be, is this a name that puts bums on seats short term, and can we avoid paying compensation. I'm not convinced Deek is their guy. His main Hun-minded cheerleader seems to be Speirs, but Speirs is about as popular with the Orcs as a bacon sarnie at a Bar Mitzvah. I'm not saying England, Scotland or Sevco couldn't come calling with a offer he can't refuse, but I still think it's long odds-on he'll be here for a while unless he does something spectacular, another trophy or two or beating a couple of clubs we've no right to beat in Europe.

Best player or favourite? A lot of players I loved went on to do stuff that undermined my liking for them. McLeish (Hunnery). Strachan and McGhee (arrogant, paranoid, hostile to the club and its fans). Black (bribery scandal). Harper and McKimmie (ambivalent about the club and its fans, weird, bitter). Miller (fans' spokesman against a complacent board until co-opted at a fat salary, at which point he turned 180 degrees; bankruptcies; ageing lothario round town). Miller IMO is our greatest ever player although Harper also in with a decent shout. But as a favourite I'll go for Peter Weir - great player who always supported the club and as far as I know has never done anything to tarnish the memories.

Unfortunately I think we're close to if not at the glass ceiling we can expect to get to with the budget we've got in the modern game. Deek has assembled the strongest squad we've had in many years, but compared with the best they are still very limited players. I doubt we have a single player who'd get a game for Celtic, for example, and they are being quoted at 13/2 tonight against a team that's 11th in the Bundesliga. It's a sober reminder of where the team that was among the cream of Europe in the early 80s is in the football pecking order now, and that the reason is money, pure and simple. Our extra quality will give us an edge against most of the SPL, over the course of a season, but the differences are too marginal to make the odds much more than 55/45 or 60/40 in a one-off game. We may have a few quid more than some of our competitors but we're all shopping in the same bargain basement. We'll win more than we'll lose, and what determines whether we do will be more to do with luck and individual form variations than anything the manager does, although the manager will predictably get it in the neck for every reverse. We're probably much of a muchness with Hearts and Sevco. My worry is that Sevco have matched us for points despite a general feeling that they've underperformed while we've delivered closer to expectations. We also beat them at home but it would be hard to claim we deserved to on the balance of play. I don't especially fancy our chances against them at Mordor, and I think the balance of probability is they'll finish above us, and however much we rationalise about budgets etc that would be very hard to take. I'd tip us to finish 3rd. I can't seriously see us winning the league cup final, the gulf in player quality plus virtual home advantage for Celtic and the usual refereeing bias make it a 10-1 shot. In short my gloomy prognosis is we're a limited side, but that is mainly to do with things outside the management's control. There are areas I'd criticise Deek, but the good - strengthening the squad, retaining our better players, keeping the team motivated, presenting a professional and positive image of the club - far outweigh the bad. There's more scope for things to get worse than better and in the medium term I'd wager they will, with or without McInnes. Any significant deterioration from where we are will doubtless see the back of him, but those who think that will lead to improvements on where we are now are deluding themselves in my opinion. The one thing we haven't had in many years is the kind of player who's obviously destined to play at a higher level coming through our youth system. I know it's not easy but other SPL clubs have managed it sporadically. I'd give Deek a B+ for playing a weak hand very shrewdly and solidly if not spectacularly.

Didn't think we had much ground for complaint. We were undone by a where-did-that-come-from piece of skill in a pretty even game, which always feels unlucky. I wouldn't criticise Deek's tactics, which were designed to make us competitive against a team with a lot more money and, let's be honest, quality out on the park. He was obviously worried about the quality and pace they have on the flanks and thought we needed runners. For the first half at least it worked - apart from that exceptional strike we gave them very little sight of our goal. They had a period of dominance in the first 20 or so minutes of the second half where they worked some decent opportunities and we were a bit lucky not to concede a second, with Joe Lewis immense. What a find he's been. We really came at them for the final 15-20 minutes, had them on the back foot, and should have had a pen but a lot of it was rushed, headless chicken stuff. Can't agree with folk complaining we didn't start like that - if we had Celtic would just have soaked it up and easily picked off a tired team once the storm subsided. You can't sustain that for 90 minutes. They got the break with a bit of magic and we didn't. I felt we deserved something from the game but if I was a Tim looking at the possession stats and which team had the better clear cut chances I'd probably be feeling we just about deserved it. Oh and the referee was a disgrace.

Porterfield's main problem was he was a cautious guy who couldn't make the transition to a team expected to win things in a league dominated by 2 or 3 sides. You could see he was bewildered by the stick he got after draws especially. For most clubs in most leagues, an away draw is a good result and a home draw a disappointment but not a disaster. For a club hoping to be champions in a two horse race, every draw (except maybe away to your main rivals) is is a bad result and a home draw is a real body blow. He couldn't grasp that and kept sending out teams primarily set up to not lose. I agree he was on a hiding to nothing though. Even Fergie could see the writing was on the wall and that the financial gap was widening to the point that a better manager wasn't going to be enough to close it.

You are reading stuff into my post that isn't there. My point was simply that even Miller couldn't miss that Smith had it all wrong. That Miller went on to make his own, completely different, mistakes is not the issue. I didn't think Aitken was a good signing either, and I don't rate Miller any higher than Smith as a manager, although he did manage a significant short term improvement that he couldn't sustain. Gillhaus had decided within months of signing for Aberdeen that he had come to the wrong little club in the wrong, parochial little backwater. From that point he was counting the days to his move to a club befitting his sense of his own importance. Miller despised him no doubt: he was getting paid a lot more than club legends like himself and McLeish and not trying a leg half the time. His departure from the club was inevitable and long overdue.

It's all about opinions but I wouldn't have Smith in my top 6. Turnbull inherited a club that was a basket case. With the league structure we have now we'd have been a mid-table Championship side. We were drawing crowds under 4,000 for some matches. He ruthlessly cleared out the dross, signed some excellent players and introduced modern tactics to the club at a time when most Scottish managers were still picking a 2/3/5 and telling the players to go out and enjoy themselves. Admittedly he never got very close to the Lisbon Lions Celtic side, but that's a very tough yardstick, especially considering where we were coming from. He laid the foundations for all the good stuff to come. Smith OTOH inherited a club that was used to success and had an incredible pool of talent at it's disposal. All we needed was fine-tuning. Instead we got namby-pambyism. In bringing in new players technical ability - especially the ability to pass the ball - valued above every other characteristic, so that the need for pace, for physical presence, for ability in the air, for will to win and clinical finishing was completely disregarded. We had too many great, self-motivated players for it to sink us straight away but gradually and inevitably we turned into a pretty team to watch that couldn't win matches. Where we were in the league by the time Smith was deservedly sacked was a disgrace considering the quality of player he inherited. Willie Miller, who was supposed to be learning the ropes from Smith, in fact knew he was mismanaging the side. His first three signings - Aitken, Paatelainen and Shearer - were the opposite of Smith signings, all about bringing an injection of steel, will to win and clinical finishing. As he said at the time, football is about more than just passing the ball. Unfortunately by that time the financially doped Murray era was fully underway at Mordor, and he couldn't close the gap with the type of player we could afford to bring to the club. No surprise whatsoever that Smith's managerial career went into freefall as soon as he left the club, although he could be relied upon to pop up in the press fairly regularly to whine about how rottenly he was treated by Aberdeen.

Shame the cut-off point excludes Eddie Turnbull, IMO by some distance our greatest manager if you exclude Fergie.

IMO, Eck's main qualification for the job is that he isn't Deek. And for that reason I'd be delighted if he got it.

Cheers guys. Looks like the train then. Taxi might be ok to get there, but I suspect you'd be almost back to town by the time you managed to flag one on the way back.

Ages since I've been to Hampden and usually drove down on the day. This time we're going down on Friday and will be in central Glasgow - what's the best way to get there? Train to Mount Florida perhaps, or will they just be too crowded? Taxi?

I was a big fan of Danny Ward, but I think you could make a good case that Lewis has been even better than Danny was in the equivalent spell last year. More authoritative, fewer mistakes. Of course Danny was still a kid learning the trade. My only reservation is you have to judge a keeper over the long haul. Lewis didn't get an England cap by not looking very good, but he didn't drift from there to the SPL without some real form reversals either. Confidence slumps, who knows. I just hope those are permanently behind him.