OrlandoDon

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

No we don't. Close thread. Nothing to see here. The season ended, we finished a respectable eighth. 

8th is appealing right now…

Think we have a game tomorrow, anyone care??

no clue what to expect but always the optimist!

2-1 us and a change of fortune, miovski and shinnie

I was one of the few who felt what we are doing made sense, a review of the whole footballing side of things with an experienced head to see us through to the end of the season. Warnock has been in this type of situation many times, a team closer to the bottom of the league than top and see them to safety. His man management skills were emphasized too, someone who would get the team some confidence.
saying that, what the fuck is going on?  It’s pick names out of the hat and throw them onto the field. Six midfielders tonight and a 3-6-1. Each game a different fuck up. He benched Devlin and Mackenzie who, in my opinion, have been two of our better performers this season. It’s clear he has no fucking clue about our players, how we play and have been playing, and what has/hasn’t worked. Each game is just a repeat of a Robson fuck up.
If we wanted an old master to see us through until the end of the season we’d have been better off with Willie miller, someone who knows the team club and players….i think! Then again, if we were more concerned about personality and team bonding I am sure there are plenty of others out there, say John Hughes (joking really) who know more about the club and players than warnock.

he seems totally clueless, it’s no better, arguably worse, than Robson. As many including myself have said, we don’t have the time for trial and error. What structure is in place now? Who supports warnock? Are any of our back room staff giving him any feedback?

fucking comical. And seriously worrying.

Wtf tonight. 6 midfielders to start, including 5 center mids if you include Milne. We have to stop fanning around with formation, you cannot chop and change both formation and personnel and expect consistent performance….maybe consistent shite. This isn’t preseason, what the fuck are we doing?

curious what happened with devlin not starting tonight, he’s possibly our player of the year…??

where do we go from here. 4 points off 11th….!!

20 hours ago, Panda said:

As poor as we have been, surely even we can't fail to gain enough points from what is a very favourable run in to the split.

St Johnstone (home)

St Mirren (away)

Dundee (away)

Motherwell (away)

Ross County (home)

Livingston (away)

Dundee (home)

Even being pessimistic I'd still expect a minimum of 15 points from that which may be enough to make the top six.

There is simply no excuse in losing to this St Johnstone team. If Warnock can't even win this then sack him tomorrow and give it to Kris Boyd just to really mess with us.

I thought you were extremely optimistic before tonight, now I’m wondering if 1.5 is more realistic. 
hard to see where any points come from, form is worst in the league I’d assume??

Not much to say. We’re fucking rotten. 

Back 3 can fuck off too, permanently. We have to play 4 and go what players are more comfortable with.

Well that first half was a treat. Can’t fault shinnie and certainly cannot really fault Jensen for the penalty. 
Midfield as a whole pish, Hayes and Milne offer very little going forward, very little from Barron McGrath and clarkson. We have to dominate in midfield to win games and despite 6 midfielders it’s another poor effort.

1 hour ago, Kowalski said:

At the time, I was content to see the back of McInnes, he had run his course. 
 

But at this rate we be as well bring him back as I haven’t heard any better suggestions, which in itself is concerning. Doing a very decent job with Killie and has them punching well above their weight. 

You’re looking at your ex cos your single, sitting in the pub a little depressed with the boys, in has walked your ex looking fit and tanned, holding the hand of a good looking bloke who drives a nice shiny merc. You think what could have been. Go home for a wank, you’ll feel better.
we were shit under mcinnes in the end. We were a good side but that was in the past - Lewis Logan considine Reynolds’s, jack, McLean, shinnie, mcginn, Hayes, cosgrove, Rooney etc were old aging or gone. We were an awful long ball team, poor on the field and failing to bring in quality new players. Gone were the days of having some of the best players in the league in their positions , mcinnes was talented but also lucky. Consistent second and one trophy while everyone bar Celtic were going through troubles and had been relegated. You could argue he also underachieved. Definitely a nice spell we all enjoyed but that had gone well before we finally said goodbye to mcinnes. We also were all happy to see Milne go.

we cannot compare mcinnes at Kellie to us, very different expectation and mcinnes isnt a dummy. Our league isn’t strong, we saw that when Robson went on a run last year. Hearts are on a run, killie too, but next year they could be us, bottom six pish, killie could be relegated, you never know.

cormack is learning quickly that running a club is hard. Give him credit though he appears willing to spend. He loaned in a bunch of players and got push back, now we’ve signed a bunch of shit and we’re in a bit of a pickle with a bloated squad of pish. We’re failing with managers but you fail and learn. he’s learning, but also needs quality senior management to help run his club. I have to believe he’s evaluating structure as it’s been three close to identical situations where we punt a similar manager in a similar timeframe.
i believe we are not the club for a new manager to learn how to manage. We need someone who knows what they are doing, has some battle scars, and has seen a lot already. They also have a good network and connections in the transfer market. I’ll give mcinnes credit, I think he’s the type we’re looking for, but not the one. I don’t support going back to an old club and trying to repeat the past, that’s hard. I see Alex Neill as an option. I’d also take a punt on any of the Scandinavians mentioned before Lennon lambert and the usual names, although are they just Scandinavian Goodwin? I was even intrigued but the Rodriguez bloke who is in Asia. Provided there’s a management structure in place that prepares a new guy, foreign may be an option. Clearly support didn’t happen to the last 3, even it appears with warnock.  We can’t go to the usual names we’ve heard for three years, nobody in their right mind wants a part of that.

the season is written off, we won’t make top six or Europe, and based on yesterday, plus 3 losses out of 3 without a goal scored against killie, hard to believe the cup will be successful. its time for cormack to give a club update. What’s the current situation, what progress are we making re new manager and potential new structure or changes? He’s got to get ahead of this because with every week it’s getting uglier with the fans and people will turn on and target warnock very quickly if they havent already. Warnock isn’t blameless but the finger has to get pointed at Gunn, cormack, and warnock to a point.

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

A direct conduit to and from Cormack, aka a yes man. I think he's there to form a barrier, and not to have ideas of his own. Or, he has ideas and is heavily involved, but is simply pish at his job. 

It's fairly clear that the director of football was a really important role for the way we structured the club post McInnes. It's failed to assist three inexperienced managers and has overseen a total mess in recruitment.

I just dont buy he’s a yes man. Cormack is a successful businessman who lives primarily stateside, I have to assume there are those who are at the club daily who are empowered to make decisions. I think this delay, intern, is to review footballing matters. As you say, it may simply be that Gunn is just push at his job and cormack is taking a step back to assess more than just the manager.

1 hour ago, tlg1903 said:

1.  I wasn't talking to you droppy.
2. Swing and a miss! I didn't actually say anything negative about Warnock, I merely offered my opinion that what we were seeing was fairly standard fare for teams managed by him to one of the other adults in the room.
3.  Why don't you give it a rest?  I'm sure I can't be the only poster on here that is long fed up of your empty drum makes the most noise happy clapper shite. 

Happy clapper??

bring something to the table, you haven’t said much more than person insults at warnock and that he’s a fucking dinosaur. Repeatedly, which gets old. I’m willing to give the guy a chance, as I did Robson and Goodwin despite openly and repeatedly stating I didn’t want either, but gave reasons. I’ll always do that, you don’t need to agree with me but I’ll back up an argument with reasoning. Far from a happy clapper, I’ll bitch and moan more than most, but I’ll give any new guy support and benefit of the doubt initially, that’s only fair.

warnock will get old quick. Yesterday was worrying as was his post match interview. While I agreed with his after match comments, which thankfully wasn’t a jovial and light hearted chat, as has been mentioned, we’ve been pussies for a while. If that’s the case and he feels our team is lacking there, why not play Phillips? Not saying he’s a star player but he’ll put a shift in. He’ll get booked too which warnock asked for!! Didn’t bring him on either?? And to state this isn’t his type of team, I think he could have clarified that comment, as that can be taken as a total deflect comment which is a bitch move.

were in a situation which is all about heart and graft. If we don’t have it then it’s on warnock to create it. Very difficult, pretty much impossible, to make nice guys hard bastards. But warnock has been in these types of situations before, unlike leven for example, hopefully we benefit from his experience.

what is becoming clear is that he doesn’t know the players, didn’t do homework, and hasn’t been given information on what has been failing us to date. We don’t have the time to wait, for him to figure it out, and the failure to prepare is both on warnock and on the club. Which leads me to point the finger at Gunn again……but again, what is gunn’s job??

Honest and fair, and serious, after match interview with warnock. Acknowledges we’re a bunch of pussies and a hell of a summer ahead. Made the comment that it’s not really his kind of team, lacking physicality and battlers, which is worrying given that’s what we need right now. 

39 minutes ago, Panda said:

Is it Gunn though? He seems an easy person for others to hide behind.

What is his remit? If it's to go and sign the players he's told to sign, well we've signed a lot of players.

Cormack is the guy that wanted an interim rather than a permanent boss asap.

I feel that way except cormack is easy to blame. What’s gunn’s job? What is cormack’s?? Cormack hires guys to do jobs, I assume cormack isn’t directly hands on with the team, manager, players, and transfers, i‘m assuming that’s Gunn.

i assume it’s cormack’s job to create a structure, plan, and vision. Then hire people to implement. It’s not working so time to reassess, which I assume means assess manager, director of football, and the structure.  

I assume cormack wants the intern to give him time to assess without having a permanent manager in place wondering what the fuck is going on. I know I’m in the minority, but what I’m assuming cormack is doing right now makes sense. 

like we all are good at, lots of assumptions.

33 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

It's the sign of a guy who has come in and not done his fucking homework. Long punts for every free kick and tactics that have proven not to work all season. I think we (Cormack, specifically) has been sold a charlatan with Warnock like. 

But what were we sold on? He’s here until the end of the season. And he’s 75 and semi retired. Did you expect a fully committed 24/7 manager producing free flowing football, us to become Fort Knox at the back? What are you expecting from a 4 month appointment? I think we have to be realistic here. It’s the same players and to implement new ideas/tactics etc with this group takes time. Hard with multiple games and limited practice in a week. Saying that, we had a week to prepare for killie and we were fucking rank, that is very concerning. And you are correct, things like the long throws, long free kicks etc should have been binned immediately and, much like you have discussed before, who is giving the manager support right now and providing insight from a disastrous season to date??

It’s not cormack, he’s stateside much of the time, it is Gunn. He’s the man in charge of the footballing side that has failed with 3 managers so far. And is failing with warnock based on the start to his tenure and the same mistakes. It’s cormack’s fault if he doesn’t make serious footballing structural/personnel changes because it’s broken.

im assuming a caretaker manager takes the team while an internal investigation takes place and potential structural changes. Can’t really do that behind robson’s back hence the intern.  Just my take. 

8 minutes ago, Panda said:

Rico is more than entitled to give his view on this shitshow. 

Appointing Warnock was a disastrous decision, which most of us predicted.

It could have been Neil Lennon were it not for his Rep of Ireland talks at the time. He may have been marginally  better but he's another dinosaur, and that these two men are the first choices Dave Cormack could come up with shows the backwards thinking at our club.

If this four-month nonsense ends with Stephen Robinson appointed, then just close the doors.

 

It’s not Rico I’m addressing. Saying that, Rico will debate and discuss, it’s the endless bitching and moaning with little more substance to posts that is irritating. People are entitled to their opinion, of course, but discuss rather than just repeat the same endless moan. 
I am one that finds warnock entertaining in press conferences, but there’s a time and a place. Warnock’s humor time has passed and I expect a serious and committed manager at these conferences now. We’re not far from second bottom and based on today we dont have a team with any real fighting spirit. We also dont create a lot in games, plus we have a really poor defensive record. The bottom 6 will be a scrap and I won’t lie, it’s a serious concern being only 5 out of that relegation playoff.

The long throw can fuck right off too. Have we scored off one this season? We’re not good in the air yet that’s our main and really only tactic from throws. Fucking stupid and ineffective.

21 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

It's standard warnock football if you ask me.  

Give it a rest man, you’ve made your dislike clear on warnock endlessly. 
we are shit now and were shit before warnock. It’s clear he didn’t know the players coming in and think expectations on him from above aren’t high. The season has been written off and it’s now rebuild the team, back room, and footballing side of things.

Massive failure on the recruitment side of things this year, and really over the last two at least. You can’t make massive changes in tactics and personnel right now, you can only piss with the cock you are given. the timing of Robson leaving was really poor too, the January window was a huge disaster. I dont blame cormack, I blame our director of football or whatever he’s called. The overseeing of footballing matters has been rotten.

were poor in the air at the back, cost us the first goal, missing ruby or even Macdonald. What the fuck is the story with Macdonald? I also don’t see gartenmann as a central defender. From what I see we do not have a team willing to fight for the cause, too soft and the fire/passion isn’t in this team. Warnock himself said it’s only really shinnie with that and that’s a massive failure on building a team/squad.

Zero enjoyment watching us. Better team ahead, don’t think we’ve created a single shot?? What the fuck do we doing training? Belt it long and hope for knock downs, second balls, and scraps?? Shit tactics and zero success. Duk is shit too.

33 mins gone and pretty certain we have not played 3 consecutive passes. We’re a fucking poor side and a horrible watch.

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I agree. If we point him at just the right angle and tell him to keep running, he should end up at Prestwick airport.

I guess for me he hasn’t had an extended run and given our complete lack of width he offers something. Not sure if hoilett plays on the right but I believe width will make things a lot easier for us. Mcgarry looked poor defensively but mcgarry and McKenzie playing together may be worth a try?
Not a fan of polvara wide, but it is what it is. Another game full of central midfielders.

Very little chatter on this one, says a lot about the season to date. Hoping a full week of training will have helped, I’ll go with my heart over my head and say 2-1 us. Miovski and clarkson. Would certainly like a back 4, and if fit like to see mcgarry given a run off the bench at left mid in front of Mackenzie. Takes the pressure off him to defend, plus I really dont want to see duk play anywhere other than up top.

14 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Again, it goes down to another missed window. January should have been used to carry forward the work of the recruitment team, building on what was done in the summer and further offloading the dead wood. That didn't happen, and we start again, again. That's now Glass, Goodwin and Robson who've had to do major re-builds (maybe Goodwin didn't have to, but he had pissed off most of the squad!), all of which have ended in their sacking. The board should have been managing expectations in each of those situations, and providing significant support to the young management teams that were in place. Expectations should also begin to be managed for next season, with an understanding that building a team takes time. That won't happen, that much is clear. The club have allowed the myth that "backing the manager" is simply a case of spunking cash in a single window - shit-throwing to see what sticks. The fans have largely bought into it too, helped along by ignorant pundits, which is extremely frustrating. We were constantly told that Robson "was backed in the summer" and talk of player budgets and other such shite. The transfer window is a lottery, where 50% at least are going to be shite or require work (Rubezic!). Against any established side, you're always going to struggle. We still haven't found a left centre half that's performed to the level of Considine since he left, for example, and we got rid of the deadwood of likes of Watkins and Kennedy to replace them with much worse players. That's not a reason to retain any of the above, just to highlight what "backing the manager" actually entails much of the time. @OrlandoDon's original post highlights perfectly the problem we have. We're already pragmatically looking at retaining guys that are not very good because of the volume of turnover of players, instead of looking to replace those areas. That always happens to an extent of course, but it's a fairly large extent for us! We've got guys like Richardson and Besuijen still kicking around on long term contracts that are dogshit. Morris and Gueye are two others that we'll have to deal with too. Rubezic, Jensen, MacDonald, Polvara are all guys that in another world we'd be culling back and attempting to sign better players. Instead we're relying on them to form key parts of our team for another season. It's going to be incredibly difficult for the new manager, and I suspect that it'll be someone from outwith Scottish football and thus the signings might be even more erratic. Our best signings this season have been McGrath and Devlin, who were both known quantities with plenty SPFL experience (probably the only two that Robson had any real input to), without those two we'd have been significantly worse (imagine a McGarry equivalent at right back, or another Polvara or Philliips ahead of McGrath).

I still think if you put a good keeper and a good midfield infront and behind our defenders, and play a back 4, they’re better than average. When you have a shit team and shit tactics you’re bound to struggle and that’s been our year. Put in Lewis in his prime, even a 32 yr old Hayes, and say a hedges at right mid, along with shinnie and Barron/clarkson/mcgrath, I think you’d see a better defense. I think Macdonald is decent, not sure what’s the issue with him this year, ruby is raw but decent, and I think Jensen is better than considine (fans favorite but still a very limited player who benefited from quality around him.) 

If we can find a good keeper, and a right mid, left mid, and a physical and imposing center mid, I think we have the makings of a decent. Big if though to find 4 quality guys when arguably we haven’t signed 4 quality guys in the last 4 windows. 

20 hours ago, Panda said:

Waiting four months to appoint Alex Neil when he's a free agent and available the entire time would be peak Aberdeen.

Normally yes but given we chose to do a review I still wouldn’t rule out Neil or any manager currently available. No point in meeting/hiring a manager only to change structure in the coming months. They may even get a new manager input, and i’m sure the new guy will want to know what structure he’s working under. not saying they will do what a new manager wants obviously but plenty of conversation and planning to be had prior to simply replacing a coach/manager.

Hodgson available, worth a look??!!

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

A lot will depend on whether MacDonald will be happy spending another year on the bench. I don't think he's good enough to start in a back four, like Jensen he's too slow to move the ball. In that regard, Gartenmann has the most about him. I don't really think any of the centre backs are that good. 

Agreed, our central defenders aren’t that good but three are under contract. Given our squad needs significant work, do we really want to start again with defenders too? I think we build on the defense and get a new keeper set in. I also think punting morris and gueye will cost us, unless we get offers for Jensen, ruby, or Macdonald, they are with us next year.