SeeBass

Trust me I know when folk are ganging up on me. I had to put up with nearly 12 years of verbal diarrhoea from folk at school plus the endless rubbish I get pretty much every week from folk who don't ever want to know the stuff I go through on a daily basis just to try and live a normal life yet still have a stupid opinion. A place like this is just for folk to agree with each other and if somebody like me disagrees I'm just pushed under the thumb and told to go away we don't want you here as you don't think the same way as all us sheep do. Quite ironic I use that word too. I just want to bloody watch my football team when I can physically manage it. I'm sorry if I don't live up to all your high expectations of being able to fork out £150 to £200 every fortnight to be classed as a true fan. My journey as an Aberdeen supporter will always be different to the average Joe in the support. Just give me the chance to follow my club whenever I can or so wish. None of this secret society garbage. As one former employee of the club said to me just an hour or so ago; "I'm so glad we're out of the club. I honestly don't miss it. Pittodrie hasn't been the same for a very long time."

Look doesn't matter what I say I'm going to always be wrong in the eyes of you guys. I'll just leave you to your bullying private gentleman's club I've honestly had enough of the crap.

So you're telling me with the club's own admission that if we take the season ticket total for next season 10,000 right now that 2,000 aren't there for some reason or another every game? And you wonder why I get angry guys. You've just half explained my argument for how this system is not fit for purpose!!

You can laugh at me all you like. You know there are days because of my condition I don't want to get out of bed. It is amazing I've been able to attend as many matches as I have last 25 years. I have recently said to former club officials that I probably think about killing myself pretty much every week. Whether this is anything to do with my 33% brain injury I don't know but by God it must be a contributing factor to my overall mood especially when I feel like life is treating one badly. Do you lot know how bloody scary that thought process is? I was pretty close to doing something stupid less than 24HRS before we were due to head to Easter Road February 2018. With the help of Angela and Fiona at the NHS initiative The Distress Brief Intervention Team who worked with me in person and over the phone spanning 17 days I'm still here to tell that horrendous story.

Big Al, I have a friend called Roy who bought a season ticket last season. He lives in Glasgow and attended in his words; "ABOUT SIX." of our twenty two matches at Pittodrie yet he is deemed a better more loyal supporter than me because he's paid money up top. Not having this. I don't even know why he bought one because in all the time I've know him he hasn't bothered with a season ticket. What's the point in forking out over £400 when you're only attending 27% of our home matches? I actually met him in 2009 at Barrhead train station car park after our service to Kilmarnock broke down and I jumped into a taxi with him and another two Dons fans in a race to get to Rugby Park which we did as were sitting down just as players came out tunnel to kick-off. I honestly don't know what the answer is but supporters like me can't keep getting denied tickets for away matches or big home games or what is the point in me supporting the club overall if I'm not allowed to attend certain matches. Below is a photo of me paying £350 on a taxi to watch us play Chikhura Sachkhere at Pittodrie because that morning there was chaos at Edinburgh Waverley with an out of control Caledonian Sleeper and Berwick-upon-Tweed train station staff couldn't guarantee me being in Aberdeen in plenty of time as all services as a result were either cancelled, delayed or diverted. I was lucky LNER compensated me for the whole £396.20 (outward bound train ticket also given back) but told one it was a one off and I should have waited for some replacement bus service or an announcement about trains arriving in Berwick-upon-Tweed. THANK GOD we won 5-0 that evening. Please don't ever anybody ever question my desire to be at a game again. Had I not had some of my Mam's inheritance leftover there was no chance I could have afforded £350 to get up and undoubtedly would have missed the game completely. Disabled or not I deserve to be treated better by my football club.

Well Tyrant if it all about who pays money upfront it is something I will need to consider walking away from altogether because this is not the Aberdeen Football Club I know. You can't keep rewarding the same group of folk just because they have money at their disposal. As I've said to club officials both past and present it is like trying to get into a private gentleman's club at our place these days. A couple of people who don't work at Pittodrie anymore actually agree with me and do feel I'm being unfairly treated especially given where I live in the country. I've also had people who don't like football say that it is appalling that it appears that the club don't do much for disabled supporters like myself in even providing them with a reduced season ticket price or some other help with cost to attend games. We are supposedly living in an equal opportunities world or maybe we ain't. Just because something has always been doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Time for change.

My friend helped me take a photo 68 years later. Our blood goes cold knowing I'm so close to some Aberdeen Football Club history. Maybe some of you should come down and see the mammoth task it takes me just to get to Pittodrie while also seeing some of your club's heritage.

So you guys reckon if we drew Juventus from Pot One and say Aston Villa from Pot Two in Europa Conference Group Stage that when it came to general sale I'd be able to obtain a ticket if we're going to have nearly 11,000 or 12,000 season tickets come the draw? Got to remember those sides we meet will be wanting a 2,000 to 3,000 away allocation for their support like Rangers and Celtic get leaving less than 5,000 tickets for general sale. No way am I getting to go with those odds. I've always tried to make a point of coming up to the opening home league and last home league games of each season plus any midweek league games at Pittodrie, any midweek League Cup or Scottish Cup replay in Aberdeen in addition to potential European matches only because it allows me opportunity to stay over while travelling up and down in safer conditions on public transport and up until 2017 I was able to get tickets for Kilmarnock, St.Mirren, Motherwell, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian. Even done Partick Thistle and Falkirk a load. A trip to Dundee United by myself on August 4th 2007 actually changed my life FOREVER when after turning down two other offers to take my night down another road we ended up saving the girlfriend now wife of a 2019 England World Cup winning cricketer from being stuck in a big city she knew nothing about. For some godly unknown reason our lives collided in St.Andrew Bus Station, Edinburgh where I was denied a seat on a National Express coach like we were told one would be OK to do so. Before you know it there's a 20 year old drop dead gorgeous American blonde girl approaching one before asking me on chatting for two minutes did I know 'a Paul Burns from Duns' because my home of last 31 years was where she needed to get to at 9.30pm on a Saturday evening! She was/still is from West Chester, Philadelphia and I wrote a 4,500 word story called 'phiLEEdelphia' about our three hours together which has not been published yet but many folk who've read it say it deserves to be made into a short film. We are still long distance pals with this lady sixteen years later. We talk once or twice a year online as she's so busy with her famous husband. I also had my debut short stories collection 'Hemiplegic Utopia' published the morning we played Bayern Munich Last 32 of UEFA Cup 2008 and I came up that same day to attend the match as way of celebrating my achievement. I saw my footballing heroes draw 2-2 with the SEVENTH RICHEST CLUB IN THE WORLD at time. Yeah we got shagged 5-1 in the return (I actually watched the second leg in Munich LOCKED INSIDE A DARKENED independent bookmaker's shop because it was on Setanta Sports and my local pub didn't have the channel but my heroes delivered for me personally on that special occasion. Knew the guy that was a bookie and he entrusted me to lock up and bring the keys back to shop the morning after once game had finished. He however insisted all lights were turned off so nobody thought he was open for business with kick-off being 6pm that night. Buy my book and read the chapter 'Hat-Trick' where I talk about three away victories in a month against Falkirk, Motherwell and Kilmarnock by myself. I was up and away for seeing Kasper Schmeichel at 8am, not home from Motherwell on a Tuesday or Wednesday til 1am after getting two lads I knew to pick us up from Waverley station at midnight to bring us back to Duns, spent twelve hours up and down the country to attend Rugby Park too. And doing all this ON MY OWN AND HAVING A CASE OF MILD LEFT SIDED CEREBRAL PALSY AND A 33% BRAIN INJURY TO BOOT! And don't forget on their way to losing the 1954 Scottish Cup Final 2-1 to Celtic The Dons were drawn to play Duns here in Berwickshire in Second Round. I live less than thirty seconds from pitch where this 8-0 win was played. So please excuse me if I just want to see my bloody football team once in awhile whether away from home or during a European adventure like we're preparing for. They have actually SAVED ME FROM KILLING MYSELF this last 34 years. I've more than showed my loyalty to the GREATEST FOOTBALL TEAM there has ever been.

Some of you guys are honestly deluded like. As long as you keep telling yourself all the lines you're throwing out I guess you'll be fine.

I follow Citeh as my Mam used to call her team from a distance since she died ten years ago. I'm loving the chat from opposition supporters of all the other clubs about how Manchester City are now a 'cheat code' and whose success can't be deemed genuine. Out of the 23 players named in that Champions League squad at the weekend how many of them are actually 'world class' that the media like to tell us they are? In my eyes you'd be lucky if it is six or seven. Ederson, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Silva, De Bruyne, Stones, Gundogan, Rodri, Grealish, Haaland, Foden, Walker. Subs: Carson, Ortega, Phillips, Laporte, Alvarez, Gomez, Mahrez, Perrone, Palmer, Lewis.

Well I do if it means I miss out and that is as simple as the argument is.

Come on you so called Aberdeen fans what are those that played/were in squad in our last European Group Stage game against FC Copenhagen doing nowadays???? Jamie Langfield. Michael Hart. Richie Byrne. Zander Diamond. Andrew Considine. Barry Nicholson. Scott Severin. Chris Clark. Sone Aluko. Jamie Smith. Lee Miller. Ricky Foster. Chris Maguire. Derek Soutar. Lee Mair. Karim Touzani. Daniel Smith. Steve Lovell.

Who are all these UK players Barry Robson is supposedly going to be going after to keep a definite British based feel within the squad?? I know you can't judge on just one decent season and the fact I've lost a lot of love for my club given the way they've treated me last five or six years but surely more Duk and Miovski combinations all around the starting XI might be a good thing. What is the point in having all these youngsters like Aaron Reid and Alfie Bavidge if they aren't ever getting a bloody game? Why haven't we consistently been nurturing the next homegrown goalkeeper, central defender, winger, midfield maestro??? Been a very long time since anybody has truly made a telling breakthrough from the academy set up.

Slim, we will need to agree to disagree on this one I'm having nobody tell me any different. It has nothing to do with circumstances. I don't ever moan about the cost of what it takes to come up whenever I do. I pay it because it is what you do but as I said to an ex-Aberdeen employee who worked at the club nearly thirty years I should not need to keep proving my loyalty in order to be able to be at some of the big moments in our club's journey. I'm sick of supporters telling me that fans have all different choices to make these days as to what they do with their spare time. Supporting a football team is not a part-time hobby. You don't just turn up when it suits. Or when things are going well. Doesn't wash with me.

Trust me it is as fake as it comes.

I don't do supporters clubs or buses. I tried it a couple of times. With Capital 1903 have never felt more unwelcome in other people's company like we were those couple of times I travelled. Don't drink and the last thing we wanted to do was sit in a pub for hours before a game. I'm a one man band. Plus some of the behaviour from our supporters embarrasses me. I can't afford to get into any sort of confrontation with rival fans given my disabilities just because some of my own can't behave in public properly. Yes I've spoken with Lynn Fiske don't think she gets it.

I used to speak with Dave Macdermid often for well over 20 years but he ain't there anymore. That guy did so much for me to make sure I didn't get overlooked. The club like to give off this impression they look after their most vulnerable fans but they've got a funny way of showing it. Remember during Covid-19 Lockdown when they made a big fuss on social media about making sure all their supporters were OK by phoning them? They apparently reached out to 10,000 supporters right? I wasn't one of them. Out of sight and out of mind nobody gives a damn if you're not in Aberdeen. I live alone have done for 24 years but with the disabilities we do have surely to God I should have been one of the first people they made sure was alright. But nothing. You not think it would have gave me such a boost if Derek McInnes had called me for ten minutes? Just saying.

Lets just say the real lack of class from the club when it comes to making games accessible for disabled fans like myself that live four hours away from Pittodrie. If things don't change I will probably need to give up on the club and football altogether. I'm sick of not being eligible for certain matches because I'm not deemed 'loyal enough'. If what was announced about season ticket sales is true and we get a couple thousand more the likelihood is I won't be going to any of this European adventure at Pittodrie because I'll not have enough 'loyalty credit' for want of a better phrase to be able to purchase a ticket in first place because they'll all be gone by time my phase comes round in general sale. You want to understand the physical toll it takes on me as a 43 year old guy to make just one match on my own with all the other stresses of this messed up world? I have a 33% brain injury from birth plus left sided cerebral palsy all down that side of the body and it takes me two or three days after a game just to recharge all my energy and go again so I'm sick of all this loyalty chat about folk from the city that go every two weeks and should get priority. And because I'm not deemed 'loyal' enough in the eyes of the club I'm not able to enjoy my number one passion watching my football team which has probably stopped me from killing myself all these years. I think about ending it all pretty much every week. You know I've not been allowed to buy a ticket for my nearest two away grounds in Edinburgh since May and October 2017 respectively. I spend nearly £200 buying a train ticket, organising overnight accommodation, paying for match brief, plus covering food and drink (not that I take alcohol) but you know what I mean every time I'm at a home game. Because my local council has taken off the last three bus services to where I live on a weekday a few months ago we will now need to pay about £35 for a taxi from Berwick-upon-Tweed station even though I have a disabled bus pass and until recently used it to get home on last leg of journey back. So please don't talk to me about the loyalty I've shown this football club since 1991. I don't expect any of you to get my argument. I mean how could any of you relate to a guy with my lifelong health issues but I'm more than bloody angry at the way I've been treated as a supporter last five or six years.

Sorry TLG, still not an excuse for me. I've been having a few discussions about the unfairness of certain aspects of our football club with various personal at Pittodrie past and present. I hope these chats bring about change because the way some supporters get treated like me is not on.

You can read about my 6-5 Fir Park experience among other Aberdeen tales in one's short stories book 'Hemiplegic Utopia' so please consider purchasing a copy some time soon!

It is amazing what guaranteed European Group Stage football does for 'record season ticket sales'. It is this fakeness of a football fan that really does my head in!

Probably Stenhousemuir and Q.O.T.S. Scottish Cup Semi-Final loss are dead level for me. I've been to nineteen European games at Pittodrie between 2007-09 and 2014-19 and must say out of the two losses I've seen (Real Sociedad the other which despite the way it came about I can just about accept given their quality) the Sigma Olomouc defeat still annoys me 14 years on and don't know why.

Taking Darvel debacle out of the equation I'm interested to know what everybody's lowest point as an Aberdeen fan is.

If these advertising boards were in operation from 2019-2020 season when I was last at Pittodrie they really messed with my vision because of our epilepsy. So bloody distracting.

Can somebody explain to me what is exactly happening in terms of stadium improvements. Have I heard right but is there going to be flashing electronic advertisement boards going round the pitch itself? If so that is not going to help myself as they can be very dangerous for having epilepsy.