wokinginashearerwonderland

B team or no B team we should be capable of beating a team that finished third in last year's Championship. There were no young loons in that team. We only managed one shot on target. Realistically our only chance of silverware is in the domestic cups and yesterday, added to the Utd Scottish Cup exit last season is pretty poor stuff. We would have never lost those games under McInnes. Qarabag have been in the group stages of both the Europa and Champions League so will be a massive step up on Thursday night in the searing heat. There is the potential for a hiding in that game if the players do not give themselves a serious shake. Escape with a one goal defeat at the very worst and we will take them at Pittodrie next week.

We can’t win it though, that’s the reality. In an ideal world Forres Mechanics could win the Scottish Cup but their players and fans ideally want an away day at Ibrox rather than a home tie with Cove.

A few years of group stage football, Champions League, You been drinking?

You’re spot on of course but we’re fitba fans, not directors sitting around the boardroom. Since when did the club getting in a couple of million pounds become more important than getting a right good tie against a team from one of the top leagues? As a player as well surely an Andy Considine would far rather test himself twice against Bayern than getting half a dozen trips to Azerbaijan and Iceland.

No, that’s not what I mean Rico. The teams we are playing are a fair reflection of our level, they are certainly competitive and I am not saying we are too good to be playing these teams. There’s just no real glamour or excitement there which was what Europe always meant for me. It’s like we strive every season to qualify then once we do, the opposition is very uninspiring. I’d compare it to Scotland qualifying for a World Cup, getting excited about the draw and then getting grouped with New Zealand, Finland and Saudi Arabia. I guess it used to feel like your reward for a good league season was getting a crack at one of the big boys which seems to have gone. It was not that long ago St Johnstone played Monaco, Raith Rovers drew Bayern and Motherwell played Dortmund which at the time seemed like massive ties. I’d far rather be in Europe once in every five seasons if we could get one really cracking tie (like St Johnstone getting Galatasaray) than being there every year to draw some dross from a minor league.

Anyone else underwhelmed with the whole European journey? Growing up and just missing the glory days, I was never expecting to see the Dons win a European trophy but the lure of qualifying for Europe was the possibility of a glamour tie. We played the likes of Torino, Bayern and Atletico Madrid over the years and seeing some of the great players at Pittodrie was magic. Even the tie against Burnley was glamorous in a funny kind of way. Now I really start to wonder what is the point of qualifying in the first place in this Micky Mouse Conference League. So far we have negotiated some unknown Swedes followed by a similarly underwhelming draw against a team from Iceland. If we qualify for the group stages we’ll make a good bit of money but as a fan the balance sheet does not interest me, it’s the fitba I signed up for. Some talk the other night about the lower turnout being due to the ticket price but is that the case or like me, does a game against some Icelandic nobodies have little more appeal than a Scottish Cup tie away at Alloa?

He's still a poor man's Stephen Glass ?

The commentators are sugar coating this a bit much. I must be watching a different game because I reckon we have been pretty lucky. A lot of the time we can't seem to string more than two passes together.

Agree he is a decent player HaarDon but not sure what he has done to justify your valuation. I was more concerned about losing GMS when he left than I am at the prospect of Hedges going. I’d like to think it would make McLennan think he had a real opportunity to stand up and make himself counted because if he doesn’t screw the nut in the next 18 months he will find himself playing for Caley or Hamilton.

Great discussion with Steven Gunn, well worth a listen https://lnns.co/ilAdYn74F3v

The Rangers doing well tonight

Fucking hell SeaBass he will need a decent improvement on the 5 goals he managed last season

Fair comment. Like Shane Duffy and Roy and Robbie Keane before him, James McCarthy is only going there because of the Irish connection (even though he’s Scottish) not to further his career. Always rated him as a player and actually thought he would end up at Man Utd one day. Looked a fantastic young player but 30 now. Hart is just there to top up his pension.

Hopefully you are right but you've got to give him time, he's played one league game. I can remember folk saying exactly the same about Devlin and Gallagher (Jon) then slating them further down the line. You can't properly judge a player until he's played 25 games. I'll be interested to see Ramirez handles Livingston's plastic pitch on a Wednesday night in January.

Just too many things there this time that should never be Olympic sports. The Olympics for me should be the pinnacle for your sport so no need to have sports like golf or tennis in it. No way a gold medal at the Olympics can compare to winning the Masters or Wimbledon. Also the idea of an Olympic medal for BMX, skateboarding and three on three basketball is ridiculous. These sorts of sports being included devalues the famous gold medal achievements of the past. They might as well just include darts and e-gaming whilst they are at it.

Brown has played over 250 games in the last five years, probably more than most players in our squad have played in their entire careers. He’ll be fine. I’d be more concerned with guys like Hedges who seem to injure themselves getting off the bus.

Surely Brown can cope with playing on Thursday then on Sunday, even at 36 this early in the season. His last Celtic game was on May 12th, that's over two months rest. Too much is made of squad rotation by guys that have been spending too much time playing Championship Manager. At a club like the Dons we really don't play two games a week that often during the course of a season, unless we were to qualify for the group stages of the Europa obviously, it's not like we are Man City and playing 60 games a season. If you look at someone like Andy Considine, who generally plays most games, he has played an average of about 42 games over the last six or seven seasons.

I can remember the Merkland stand used to have benches, I seem to recall sitting on those when I first went to Pittodrie as a bairn.

Stevie May and Nicky Maynard. An unforgettable partnership, hard to separate them in terms of their goal scoring prowess. ?

A poor Celtic is irrelevant to us, they are in a completely different galaxy in terms of spending. They have just spent more than £8M in the last week. I think you totally underestimate how close the gap is between the bottom 10 teams in our league and I think Dave Cormack does too. Hibs are decent, Hearts will be no push overs and St Johnstone won two cups last year.

Remember Glass did not take over a team fighting at the bottom of the league. You make it sound like he inherited a total shambles when in actual fact we finished fourth and not that far off third. We were also 11 points clear of fifth place. On the basis of your Fergie example, you can’t honestly suggest you would be happy with four seasons of rebuilding just so we can then start qualifying for Europe again in season five because in reality if we finish sixth this year and have a poor start to the following one you would be calling for a new manager.

I hate that phrase, it is just an excuse for being shite really. Glass got this job in March so has had four months to get his recruitment sorted, which is ample. The problem with calling it a transition season is what do you judge as acceptable? Do you fire Glass if we finish sixth?

I get concerned any time signings from abroad are mentioned. (Very) Generally speaking, foreign signings just don’t work long term for us unless you go back to the Snelders, Gillhaus days and let’s not forget these guys were top internationals which we can no longer afford never mind attract. Whenever we sign from abroad they are either crap from the start or have a very short period of effectiveness before they become crap. Can think of very few who have been successful for a long spell. Even the likes of Zero and Stavrum, who you could say bucked the trend, were barely here before they moved on. I’d far prefer we stuck to British or Irish players.

I am totally the opposite and really unenthused by the last few people in the door. Jenks, Gurr, Ramirez just look like a continuation of the crap we signed on loan in January. Was really pleased to get Brown and Gallagher but these other guys?? Looking at his stats on Wikipedia, looks like Ramirez has done very little since 2017. 14 goals in the last four seasons - Darren Mackie would be disappointed with that ?

They did well but I think everybody seriously under estimated Croatia. In reality, the games were getting harder in our group each time and we really needed to win the first game which was what everyone was saying before the tournament started. The first game was by far the easiest, progressing to England then on to the runners up in the world cup. Croatia are a good side and could easily end up making the semi finals. We are bang average but on a positive note, we are getting better.