wokinginashearerwonderland

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

So you think we should cap them immediately?

Nah, I'd rather we just did not pick them in the first place to be honest.

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Too many of the players in the team, or too many of them with the funny sounding names that you googled? I think most of have been around since at least the under nineteens if not long before. Which players, specifically, do you take issue with?

Cieran Slicker - born in England 

Dire Mebude - born in England, grew up in Peckham 

Jeremiah Mullen - born in England 

Lewis Fiorini - born in England 

I know what you are saying about playing for younger age groups but it means nothing.  Call me a big cynic but if the Man City boys become proper players they will end up reverting to England.

I see the under 21s were beaten 3-0 by Wales.  Makes interesting reading if you google some of the names on our teamsheet.  Not sure I would class too many of them as being overly Scottish 

13 minutes ago, redordead said:

He finished 12th in the EPL last season with palace. Improved NY each season 

Tam Courts got Kelty promoted and took Dundee United to fourth last season, knows the Scottish game and is available, affordable and would probably take the job. Is Vieira really any better a manager? 

2 hours ago, redordead said:

Paddy Vieira ? Don't get much bigger names. Doesn't need the money. Tries to play football.

Why would we want someone who has just been sacked after not managing a win in 12 games?

33 minutes ago, Panda said:

Sorry to be that guy, but you couldn't have picked two worse examples.

Rory McIlroy was last year's Race to Dubai winner (pretty big deal in golf) and finished in the top 5 in three of last year's Majors, and top 10 in all of them. 

"Golf fans still view him as possibly the best in the world because they remember what he has done in the past." He's ranked third in the world based on current achievements, so there's no sentimentality going on, he is up there as one of the best in the world.

Mourinho has won Roma their first trophy in 14 years and could still win this season's Europa League and secure Champions League qualification for the first time in five years through the league, which was Roma's aim at the start of the season. 

What I was getting at is that none of the achievements above come anywhere close to what either accomplished in the past and privately none of the two would argue otherwise.

McIlroy winning the Race to Dubai is nowhere close to winning a major.  Likewise Mourinho winning the Europa Conference League which  is a Mickey Mouse competition that no big club wants to be involved in.

25 minutes ago, Panda said:

They both have nothing in common with Paul Hartley.

Paul Hartley did once take a holiday to Dubai though and was sitting in the same row of the plane as Jose Mourinho.  Apparently Rory McIlroy was staying at the same hotel   

8 hours ago, Panda said:

Paul Hartley - once tipped to be a future Aberdeen or Hearts manager - is essentially at a backwater in Cove (I get the oxymoron there) after Dundee didn't go to plan, then Hartlepool after slightly restoring his reputation. 

It's fascinating how the fitba fan views managerial failure and kind of writes off people as a result.  Your comment above is spot on with how it works, Panda.

In other sports, I see people win something big then maybe go through a bad spell.  For example, Rory McIlroy last won a major golf event back in 2014 but golf fans still view him as possibly the best in the world because they remember what he has done in the past.  He has failed in the last 30 attempts.  Contrast that with Jose Mourinho, who has had a few poorer years by his standards and people claim he is a dinosaur who can't cut it anymore.  This is the same manager who won the Champions League with Porto and Inter and has even more experience than back then yet a failure or two changes the perception totally.    

To be fair to Strachan, though, he did not JUST appoint McGhee because he was his mate. It was going to do Strachan no favours at all if Dundee went down so he was hiring someone, rightly or wrongly, who he thought might keep them up. It’s similar to when Cormack hired Glass, again it happened to be the wrong appointment in hindsight but Cormack thought his pal would do a good job for us. In a lot of businesses people will bring in folk they are familiar with and can trust instead of risking it on an unknown quantity.

42 minutes ago, baggy89 said:

good coach(es) like Agnew

Where is everyone getting this idea from that Agnew is a good coach? Of late he has been Steve Bruce’s right hand man, who has been shite from Villa, thru Sheff Wed, Newcastle and West Brom.

Fox sacked on Sunday.  Goodwin appointed on Wednesday.  Really not that difficult a "prawcess". 

Seemingly cost 38 million euros to build, 18 years ago 

In today's money that is a lot of Ramsay's, Cosgrove's and McKenna's.

Looking at their last accounts, United desperately need to stay in the SPL.

I see it’s £20 on BT pay per view so there must be an appetite for it I suppose, SeaBass. I’m guessing most avid boxing fans won’t be interested but it may capture the imagination of the man on the street.

Trying to think of a similar situation in footballing terms. If next weekend the Dons played against a celebrity select side and marketed it heavily, I’d hazard a guess they would get a decent crowd, probably more than yesterday’s Livi game actually.

It’s fine as a one-off but on this occasion I’ll keep my £20 firmly in my wallet.

51 goals conceded in 26 games. Our defence is mince no matter what formation comes out of the tombola. May as well just stick three up top and take our chance trying to score more goals than Livi.

4-3 to the Dons. Duk with a last minute winner after being 3-0 down. 

1 hour ago, Slim said:

Is predictable mediocrity what you really want as a football fan though? Let Cormack worry about KPI’s and balancing the books, it’s our job as supporters to have hope and be excited about the unknown. I’d much rather roll the dice and make a risky appointment if it meant an extremely small chance at real glory. Cormack seems to be all about the fan experience, he’s not going to get much success on that front hiring the least shit plodder with SPFL experience.

We’ve rolled the dice twice and gone from regularly being in Europe to being 7th and pumped out of the cup in January by part timers. Cormack’s strategy so far has failed spectacularly, he could barely have made a bigger mess of it if he had tried to. If mediocrity means being in the mix for the European places again and the odd trip to Hampden then I’d take that.

5 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I sort of know what you mean, but I think that limits the pool significantly. There is zero outstanding candidates in the available category. Any manager is going to come with a level of uncertainty, where track record and interview is what we're going on. There simply isn't the available scouting on managers. Given that over half our team has zero experience of the game up here, I'm not convinced that the manager needs to either. Certainly not to the extent that it will make a difference. We should have enough knowledge at the club to bridge that gap.

I think you are massively overcomplicating it, Rico. 

If Cormack wants to employ someone in his software business, he doesn't go scouring Japan and Australia for potential candidates.  Nor does Stewart Milne if he wanted to recruit someone for a top job in his building company.  He would look at the applications, talk to people he knows that he can trust and use his knowledge of what he has seen in the industry.

I don't know whether there is an outstanding candidate or even whether there needs to be actually, our club is probably at a level where we could not attract such a person.  There are though several people who have taken the reigns at clubs in Scotland and done a decent job who, with the budget available to them, would be well capable of taking our team higher up the table.  We are not after all, looking for somebody who will win us the Champions League, just a safe pair of hands to get us into Europe and challenge for the odd cup.  I think a lot of our support are looking for what you might call a sexy appointment but in actual fact we really just need someone boring and reliable who is not going to be in danger of being knocked out of the cup by Darvel. 

I am not suggesting appointing on OAP but I would interested to know whether Craig Brown applied for the job after Mark McGhee left.  I suspect we just knew who we wanted and went out and got him.  It's surely not that difficult and not something that needs to take weeks and months.    

All we can hope for is that Cormack uses his brain in this next appointment.  My worry is that he will do something silly thinking he can somehow win the league if he finds a hidden gem.  I hope he takes all applications from outside of these shores and puts them straight in the bin.  Doing a google a search to find a manager from the Japanese league with a good win percentage is no way to be selecting someone to manage in Aberdeen.  It is a total needle in a haystack job.  Getting someone in who knows the league, players, culture and language has to be the way to go.  We are seventh in the league and the last couple of months having been nothing short of embarrassing.  The results against Darvel, Hearts and Hibs were even worse than back in the days of Alex Miller, Ebbe and Steve Paterson.  Personally, I would take Souness as manager with a backroom team of Durrant and Kris Boyd if it meant we would actually starting winning games again.  

33 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

and giving it to Strachan would be absolutely mental.

Disagree totally. If we could get a manager with Strachan’s pedigree we should not be hesitating. Total no brainer for me.

6 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

Some absolutely incredible chat on sportsound this afternoon about our next manager.

Allan Preston: why is it taking them so long? They should’ve appointed someone by now.

God: You’re right, I think they’re scared to make an appointment.

Michael Stewart: They need someone with experience and if Strachan is genuinely interested they should be snapping his hand off.

 

Don’t know where you’re coming from there, wee toon Red. I agree with every word above, they need to just crack on and appoint someone experienced ASAP. Really not sure what they are waiting for.

On 04/02/2023 at 21:30, Reekie_Red said:

Aye a cracking match, van det Merwe with arguably the best individual try in the 6N history. And in a World Cup year too, who knows what could happen. Just hope we can show up against the other nations 

Not a rugby watcher so can I ask a serious question to someone who I assume is?  I had to do a google search in the interests of curiosity after reading your post because the above named did not sound very Scottish.  How is it viewed by rugby fans to have non-Scots playing for the national team?  We obviously have the grandparent rule in fitba where players like Che Adams can play but I take it this rugby guy has absolutely no Scottish blood in his body at all?

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27 minutes ago, Panda said:

A 17 year old centre half would get ragdolled by 90% of the forwards in the Premiership. 

Jack Milne (who is a few years older at 20) is likely to be the next centre half to step up but we've sent him out on loan. He might get his chance next season.

 

Yes, if you don't do it in the right way that may happen but get them training with the first team and introduce them gradually.  I'm not saying stick in 7 youngsters and play them for the next 15 games but the likes of Considine, Anderson and Diamond all played a good few games well before they were 20.  I'd far rather watch a team with containing two or three of our youngsters than a team with five or six of another club's players in it being equally as shite.

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Which youngsters do you have in mind?

I'm all for giving youth a chance (McInnes sacking led to Ramsay & Mackenzie being introduced) but let's not forget we're in a four-way fight to finish fourth and qualify for Europe.

I don't have a clue what the youth team set up is Panda but is that not supposed to be the theory as to how the system works within the club with a pathway from the bottom up towards the first team?  If you were a 17 year old centre half for example in the youth team and saw in the summer that Considine and Gallagher were both released you would be rubbing your hands thinking you would get your big chance.  Now Stewart has gone as well but we have brought in what looks like two stop gaps in Pollock and MacDonald.  That to me is a bit of a slap in the face to the youngsters hoping to make a breakthrough.  If the young guys are nowhere near good enough to get in the first team then that is a failure of the system because surely all of the 16-18 year olds should be knocking the door down to get into that first team by the time they are that age.

We should not need to be playing Hayes and Kennedy out of position at left and right back/wing back whatever the hell we call it nowadays.  Back in the day , you would always be giving a young lad the chance to impress if you did not have your recognised first choice player available.  Why are we not pitching in one of our youngsters at full back given that Richardson is obviously not fancied and Coulsen is away in the summer.  Not necessarily away to Celtic like but between now and the end of the season.  The season has basically finished for us anyway, give a few young lads some game time.  Surely more to gain doing that than sticking square pegs in round holes or having a team with about 5 or 6 loanees in the starting line up.