rocket_scientist

Yeah, it's based on a true story.

Yes, from the uni at Boston. Face recognition software got them kicked out of a casino in Monte Carlo. They were card counters.

Absolutely spot on. Sad sad day to lose Anderson.....he was so much to AFC. Losing him to Motor Neurone disease was the start of the decline of Aberdeen Football Club.

I can't offer my support directly as I never knew the respective men, but popular opinion would seem to suggest that you're both correct.

Interesting that you both acknowledge that AFC plc is in decline, something I've been thinking myself. Will you acknowledge that the reason we're in decline is not exclusively the fact that the business of football has changed dramatically in the last 30 years? The opinion that I offered, that many vehemently argued against, was that our chairman isn't the most ambitious for the football club, and may have a different set of priorities from the fans.

The decline has been, coincidentally, ever since Milne got on board. Ian Wood, who does not have aspirations to AFC plc, philanthropically gave £50m away last year. Milne is not like this, by all acounts. He is more of the "grasping" businessman mould.

So if it's not the chairman's fault, and you say that AFC plc is in decline, why are we in decline?

I'm not wearing any underpants.

Jesus H. Polluting a thread marking our finest moment. There is no end to your depravity. Once I wipe the sick off this keyboard, I'm going to my cellar.

Either one of two responses to your post, kelt. I could use one of those applauding smileys and say fuck all, but I prefer this...

Tell us something we don't know. State the fucking obvious why don't you...

Well, put it this, compared to others in the side he has had a great season, that is what i meant in my first post.

I agree he's probably been our best player, but he's had some shockers, and still prone to some howling mistakes e.g. 2 days ago, although much less these days.

This has been his best season, and he needed it, as a couple of years ago only, I had real reservations that he may not have been good enough.

Apparently when he got MOTM at Pittodrie towards the end of 2007, one of the corporate customers congratulated him on his improved form and asked if there was any specific reason behind his improvement this season. Zander pointed to the bevvy on the table, indicating that he doesn't do it nearly as much as he did.

Shouldn't have been doing it at all then, the stupid giraffe. Duh! Professional athlete on the bevvy? Suggests lack of self discipline and lack of management.

Does no-one else read the first 6 lines of these epic diotribes and just scroll down to see how long they are and just give up ? I feel like less of a fan when I see the 'great article' posts but I simply can't be arsed 

Two possible reasons. Well three, but as I have already discounted that you are not a thick idiot, from your generally otherwise very good posts, two options only...

1) Computer Games generation = reduced attention span. Can't even read short articles, let alone dissertations, and forget books.

2) Cool to appear "to be thick". Scotland's comprehensive school system does a wonderful job of allowing peer pressure to influence others to underachieve. Tall poppy.

This is a non debate. Best for AFC all that matters. When we're in a position where we can not influence our own destiny, then we want other results to go OUR way, irrespective of who play in the games that influence our benefit. Total and utter waste of energy to continue this discussion.

More wonderful stuff re the pinnacle of AFC. Met Hewitt at an amateur golf open three years ago. Really unaffected, great guy. First "met" him over 30 years ago picking the ball out of net three times. Did save his penalty though, but couldn't prevent his hat trick. Hilton were the best with him in it.

Most interesting thing I've ever seen on fitba forums. Excellent. Interesting twist on the board's inaction and lack of vision.

I've been waiting to to read a quote like that since he signed. Keep it up Karim. 

Madrid 90 minutes, Celtic 1-1 home (first half), he was awesome. But if you play a player so infrequently, how can you possibly expect consistency.

His lack of contribution this season isn't his fault. Like Walker, he's already convinced me of his quality. Just can't understand why utilisation so low?

I am not a member of that 5-1 club. I was a member of the 0-0 club 25 years earlier, but the interesting thin is that 5,000 of you went, and only 1,500 of us were there at the Olympic Stadion. OK, you got more goals than us, predictably, but the amount of you that went really made me chuffed.

I reckon if we even got half decent as a club, with even a fraction of the requisite ambition in the boardroom that the fans seem to still have, then how good could we be?

Anticipating the incredible negativity that pervades this country's pysche, in some areas more than others, the same negativity that also creeps its way onto internet chat forums, duh, cheap air travel does assist the numbers. But instead of dwelling on reasons to negate, think about the positives.

I think there's a latent big base of support waiting to get behind the team. Our dwindling attendances therefore don't concern me as much as they might. We can turn this AFC plc around. Well, WE can't. But we can...

I don't think we can use the Coopers and Hewitts as good examples of blooding youngsters relating to the team today. They had the strength and experience of Miller, Mcleish, Bobby Clark, Joey Harper, Bill Scanlon, Stewart Kennedy, Drew Jarvie, John McMaster etc - experienced pros who were GOOD players who took the pressure off the young lads. The problem today is that we have no good experienced players to take the pressure off - we throw in the youngsters and expect them to produce since they have shit around them.

If we stuck a 19 yr old Eric Black or John Hewitt up front today I'd half expect they'd be booed off the park for being pish - the expectation, pressure, and lack of service and quality around them wouldn't help and it would be too difficult.

Y'know the smiley that puts a couple of hands up to applaud a previous post? Well I wish to engage that right now. I would also wish to emphasise the correctness, the very essence of truism, with wot u wrote in the wurds that I highlighted in a bolder text than the rest of it... copied, pasted and altered... above.

I'd rather that we gave one of our own 18 year olds a chance to see if he can cut it. I refuse to believe that none of them deserve a run out.

 

Our youngsters seem to be there to fulfil an obligation and just to make sure we don't default fixtures. It hardly seems worth it.

 

I even remember Ferguson giving young lads a chance, Wright, Porteous, etc and that was when we had a good side. Surely it should be a sink or swim oppurtunity.

 

I suppose the wee shites would probably all drown.

 

He also gave a 16 year old Neale Cooper a game, at Anfield! John Hewitt was also given a berth at 17. Can't remember if either of them cut the ice...

I hired a car from the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, from the Dollar Rent a car desk. They gave me a Chrysler Neon. It was shite. But not as shite as getting charged for four days when I only hired it for one, to get to Troon North. Paid by Barclaycard, thought no sweat, they'll fix it. They didn't. I couldn't be arsed after one letter and a phone call and put it down to experience. Never used Dollar or Barclaycard since. Cunts.

I'm not that arsed about Nicholson leaving either. My main concern is whether we can get as good a player to replace him. If we bring in someone who can fill that slightly dirty midfield role and dominate games, hold up play and allow others to bring progressive, forward thinking play to the team then we will be asking 'Barry who ?' 5 games in to next season. If we put Stuart Duff in there then we will all be posting threads about how Nicholson is getting on at Luton. Its all relative.

Wow. Didn't realise BN had got fixed up already. Luton eh? Jesus, our best midfielder can't get better rated than Luton. Hard times indeed.

I agree totally with you that we need much more than a kid with excellent potential in the middle. You weren't the only one about Walker but I may be the only one with this opinion - "Am I the only one who doesn't give a fuck about seeing the back of Nicholson"?

It's a measure of the degree of mediocrity that we've become that many think Barry Nicholson is a quality player. I predict that he will not succeed at the English Championship level, assuming anyone is stupid enough to sign him and pay him £6-8k a week.

He wasn't quality when he came to us, and over the whole period at AFC, has not shown that he is capable of playing in a side that could compete to actually win anything. He's so over-rated, it just shows how piss poor we have become. I would agree that he's been the most consistent midfielder we've had over the last year and a half, but lets face it, how bad have the rest been. He's never put his foot on the ball and dominated proceedings, he's never inspired others to raise their standards, and as part of the JC mob, is a part of the mediocrity problem, not part of the potential solution. The occasional goal and occasional burst of enthusiasm and energy does not make a good player.

Am I the only one not really fussed over whether we keep Walker or not?

Apparently not. KGB and TF, you obviously don't see him as any better than what we've got or will be likely to get. His debut was a real eye-opener. Stepping right into an established team, as an 18 year old (as he was at the time) and takes EVERY free kick, and Captain Seve was happy to let him. He showed great hunger, a quality hugely absent from many of the estblaished team on the majority of occasions this year.

His appetite for the game was tremendous, but his first touch, and his passes inside, showed to me that this is a kid with great potential, and imagination, another quality that is sadly not part of the established midfield that we've been plugging away with week in week out, bearing no fruit. He was playing a different game to the rest of them that day, and was deservedly MOTM.

So he keeps his place. And he delights against Bayern, particularly in the first half, but for some reason, known to him and the fat orange one, and probably to Captain Marvel, he gets hooked before half an hour at Rugby Park and never gets a start again?

In the handful of games he started for AFC, he showed fantastic potential, and with the right encouragement and management, would surely prove to be a very good player, and worthy of a regular start, if not first pick on the teamsheet, for AFC. I wasn't at the 1-5 but I doubt whether an 18 year old could be held responsible for that result, but he's already played well enough, and shown sufficient class for me to be a very welcome addition to next year's campaign.

Do you guys see particular weaknesses in his game that results in your apathy? You could well be right. Football is a game of opinions after all, but I would be interested to learn what aspects about him you think mean he would be no great loss.

I thought we played really well against Bayern, at home anyway, away we were pish. I think more than anything, I'd like to remember how we did, cos I was usually quite tanked.

The home game was amazing. I hugged the al mannie to my left at Walker's goal whilst thinking the clock had been turned back 25 years.

Is that someone's back garden they're playing in?

It looks to me like one of those purpose built multi football pitch complexes that literally litter Holland and Germany.

We can't do that here because Stewart Milne's persuaded the non corrupt council to give him first option on anything that doesn't move.

Investment in sports facilities, eh? JC was right when he said this in the P & J a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, one decent comment or sentiment from a fat mouth that usually delivers utter utter utter utter nonsense, does not a swallow pigs ear silken summer handshake make.

Mmm so they can do a double DVD on Gothenburg which has already got a few DVDs and videos about it but cant rake together a DVD for this seasons UEFA cup run?

 

Probably missed the boat on that one now, the buzz has died down and we're back to the monotonous grind of the SPL.

It would have been insulting to sell us a DVD on this season's UEFA cup run. We got tanked heavily more than once, won one game - totally out of nowhere and totally unexpectedly - and drew the rest, playing a standard of football that was not memorable.

Do not confuse the enjoyment of the away trips with the quality of the football. During a campaign that ended with a predictable thrashing, we didn't do nearly enough to merit commemoration.

Was he not part of Dunfermline's coaching staff in recent years? I am sure he was caretaker manager before the guy Kenny came in? I could very well be wrong. Robertson was another player who had talent but who was painfully slow.

Either slow or lazy. He was full time selling about 4 years ago, and I understood he'd been with the company for a couple of years at least back then.

Miller's old drinking buddy, a man out of football for many years, working as a salesman in the construction industry. He can't be any worse than the scouts over the last few years, despite any tenuous qualifications he might have.

I haven't seen anybody worthy of an award either. Not one of them has had 3 consecutive great games, let alone a whole season. Zander by default.

Because he has played at a high level of football and has a SFA "B" license coaching badge, I am prepared to accept that I am wrong in my opinion of who the better player is, much as you would with people of any profession.

Surely in most cases it is obvious who is better than who, whether he has played professionally or not, doesn't mean his opinion is right. If you've played the game, grown up with it, watched it for many years, in the flesh and on the box, then surely you're entitled to have an opinion and pass comment? Some opinions you will have are stronger than others, but you have to believe in something. And as for coaching badges, they mean jack shit.

Kwolity with a Kapital K. I could hear Sir Alan speaking! Brilliant.