wokinginashearerwonderland

Aye, sounds about right in the current climate. Probably why we only scored 48 league goals last season mind. I would revolutionise the whole strategy if I was involved in our coaching set up. I would sign goalies who are good at saving shots rather than good with their feet, holding midfielders that can tackle, wingers who actually cross the ball and strikers that are hungry for goals. It's cutting edge stuff like.

Realistically, never going to happen. We have just signed the guy and he is our main striker at the moment, why are they going to put him out on loan 5 minutes later? Lazetic's goal record is shite so I don't think we can 100% hang our hat on him being the answer. My cynical nature tells me we have only signed this guy because AC Milan paid a few quid for him therefore he "must" have something about him. If you look at his goal record, you are never paying €5M for the lad.

Hmm, well, depends how you interpret it, I guess. I mean, I would be willing to "build" the city a new leisure centre if the council will lend me £20M over 99 years. Would bring in a load of money to the local economy.

It is pie in the sky stuff really. Cormack is of course (as he should do) just fighting his corner but in one breath he dismisses the suggestion that he wants the council to foot the bill then says exactly the opposite by suggesting all the club would contribute is the land that Pittodrie current sits on. Never going to happen. Probably impossible to really ascertain how much money the club brings into the city. You would think that for every supporter who comes in for a game, goes for a couple of pints beforehand and spends a bit of money in the town there are probably another couple who drive in from the surrounding areas, buy a pie and a cola at the ground then disappear away again without setting foot in the city at all. The example he makes with Man Utd is just wrong because they have already stated down there that any new "Old Trafford" won't be funded by the tax payer.

This chart is the sort of thing that gives me the fear about modern day football. It was what people took the piss out of Ian Cathro for at Hearts. I mean, it's great that this lad had 92 shots in the box in the Swedish league but what the hell does that actually mean in terms of whether he is any good and can adapt to the Scottish game? You could probably look at the stats from our game last Monday and make the argument that it was a pretty even game but with the benefit of having actually watched it, there was only one team ever going to win that game. The stats don't tell you if the guy has any hunger, desire, fight, commitment to the cause, nastiness, basic character. He might be great against a low block, fantastic during the transitions and wonderful as an ACM but will he have any fight if we are 2-0 down at Fir Park or will he just be asking to be subbed off? I really hope we are actually watching these boys that we are signing rather than just looking at stats and a couple of youtube clips.

Have to say, this guy really intrigues me and I don't see him as a bluffer or con artist at all in the same way as Romanov etc. The Brighton thing sounds decent, they are a modest club and have managed some good finishes in the EPL (8th last year, 2024 11th, 2023 6th, 2022 9th). Part of me thinks, well the TV money is astronomical down there and with decent management and a well run club, it would be possible to achieve such things. Not like they have gone and won the title or anything but good work nonetheless. But.......then you look at the club he is involved with in Belgium, Union Saint-Gilloise. The average attendance is about 7,000 and he took over in 2018. If you look simply at their transfers in the last few years it is staggering (€61M in player sales this year, €25M last year, €40M the year before). I have heard a lot of people suggest that Scotland is different and that Rangers and Celtic are on a different scale to the clubs in Belgium but if you look at the kind of money Anderlecht, Gent and Club Brugge are spending on players it is very similar. Brugge in particular are bigger spenders than Celtic. Based on what I have read on Bloom, I can honestly see Hearts challenging maybe in 2 or 3 seasons.

Seem to recall there was a point not long post Bosman where everyone was just flooding their squad with anyone that was non Scottish. Almost like we are at that point again. It’s gonna be like spot the Scot shortly in the SPL.

Yay Was that taken just before he asked to be subbed out of training?

Ten million euros. They’re having a laugh, is that all? Worth at least treble that. ….Somebody made an arse of that sell on clause.

I know it is partly to accommodate internationals but we really don't help ourselves in this country. When the weather is crap we play 15 league games from December to February, 8 games in 36 days between the end of November and start of January. When it gets decent weather, we play just 9 times between March and May. Not conducive to either pretty football nor getting supporters in through the gates.

Bayern 6-0 up at half time. Inverurie Locos would probably put up a better show. Football fucked.

Now that would be an intriguing prospect.

It is a highly rated Cameroon born ex French youth international who came through the Ajax ranks and was once bought by Juventus for £14M but got loaned out to the Italian third division and available to us for £800,000. Goal record to date is 14 in 248 games. Got options to sign for clubs all over Europe apparently but his dream was always to play in the Europa League qualifying rounds. Also went on holiday with Palaversa in 2017.

It is because curiously, fans buy into this myth that because we appoint someone from abroad or sign a foreign player, we will be getting something better than we can get from someone we already know about back home. Like goalies playing out from the back, centre halves who cannot head the ball away, inverted wingers, false nines, substitutions for the hell of it and Clarkson playing as a holding midfielder, it's all nonsense.

Surprised Thelin has not come in for more flak actually. If my maths is correct, after the initial new manager bounce, we took 22 points from 27 games (9th November onwards). Over that same time St Johnstone took 22 points playing 2 less games. Barry Robson got the P45 having taken 24 points from his last 21 games. The cup runs have papered over the cracks but we drew Queens Park (twice), Dunfermline, Elgin and Spartans. We would have had to lose against one of those not to have reached the semis of both cups. The team is powder puff. The defenders can't defend, the midfield too soft and the forward line not particularly potent - a horrific combination. All this despite replacing most of last season's players at a considerable cost (I would think maybe only three from Robson's last team will start against Celtic on Saturday).

Which part do you disagree with out of interest? I reckon we could all name a dozen or more players McInnes had in his Dons teams who would comfortably walk into this current squad….and a dozen is probably a conservative estimate.

So much bitterness towards McInnes by some in our support. He deserves a lot more respect for what he did for us. We were so bad before he arrived and just as crap in the years since. We had a team full of proper men under McInnes, now we have a team full of spineless foreign shite. Good luck to the bloke if he goes to Hearts. Best Dons manager in my lifetime by some considerable distance.

Guaranteed five as things stand I believe Al based on the coefficient. Plus the winner of the Europa league gets in as well. Looks feasible that England will have nine teams in Europe next season.

Looking at that list makes you realise what a strange season it has been. We started with a back four of MacKenzie, Devlin, Rubezic and Molloy and finishing with a four of Shinnie, Jensen, Knoester and Dorrington. The keepers have played half a season each. Shinnie playing a different position to where he started. Nilsen brilliant then shite. Clarkson shite then better. Morris in and out. Duk awol then a starter then sold. Devlin an international one minute then warming our bench! McGrath great then injured then away. Nisbet shite then great. And of course there is Ambrose .

I know we got a lot of dough in for Miovski and the rest but my god, we are fairly splashing it out on dodgy punts. If you believe the transfer market website, that's in excess of about £4M spent in the last couple of seasons. Lucky if you would be able to sell our entire squad for £400. We are like a littler version of Spurs when they got £85M for Bale.

It was not an insult, just a belief that what you say is not true. I really don't believe that the players would notice any significant difference between having 26,000 fans of each team in the stadium or 31,000 Celtic fans versus 21,000 of our own. I am not saying that it should not be a 50:50 split, just that it won't make any difference to the result. If it really made such a difference then our home record against them would be a lot better.

I don’t know why our fans place so much emphasis on the ticket split being such a great advantage. If you want proof of this just look at our record. At HOME, we have played Celtic 51 times since 2000/2001 and have won 5 of those games. Coincidentally we have also played them 51 times away in that period and have won 5 of those. If anyone really thinks a 60:40 ticket split for the final will make any difference to the result they are deluded. We might well win the final but the ticket split will make absolutely no difference to the result.

I cannot believe anyone at Brora would want the club to get into League Two. Apart from Elgin, who might even get promoted out of that league, every away game would be an 8 hour round trip. Not only very costly but would be extremely difficult to convince anyone to sign for them with all of that travel during a season.

Basically a Rangers reserve team. Should be winning this one.