Reekie_Red

DT now has the copyright to publish the fixture lists. Woohoo! I've posted them in a new feature of the site ... look at the "Fixtures" link at the top for more info

http://www.footballtransfers.co.uk/transfers/released.php

Soutar probably the only one we can afford to let go. The rest? Sign them up on 5-year deals and have everyone on at least a £300k get-out clause. Do what Hibs do. I'm sick of us losing half-decent players for peanuts (and less sometimes). Everyone in our senior squad aside from Derek Soutar is worth at least £300k. If we can get near that for any players leaving to Barcelona, Sunderland or St Johnstone, then I'd be a wee bit happier.

True. The name Colin Woodthorpe springs to mind!

Dinnae care what people say about him, he was a class act. To many Dons fans who were too young to experience the Fergie days, Jess is the only legendary player these fans have seen in an Aberdeen shirt ... Russell Anderson aside. The notion that Aberdeen only ever raise their game against Rangers is probably never a truer statement when Jess was at the club. He was infuriating when we played the diddy teams of Scotland. But against Rangers, he was always magnificent. He was the sort of player who could do nothing for 88 minutes, and then just turn the magic on for two and win the game for us. He could play as a VERY effective striker or midfielder and is probably the last player we had who could effectively take the ball from defensive midfield and create something out of it.

I just think football "State Side" will never become as big a game as it should be for a nation with that kind of population. I can fully understand your excitement at the way the game is heading over in the US and Canada. I have the same sort of experience down-under where I regularly watch cracking games from Australia. New Zealand is shit at football (finally, he says, a sport that NZ is shit at!!) but the Aussie game has come on leaps and bounds. The Australian game has only really been around in international terms for a couple of decades, and with a population of 21million, they're only now starting to show their worth. But the US game has been around for a lot longer than that. With a population in-excess of 302million (!!) surely they should be producing a dozen teams that can be world champions!!! Instead, the US seems to be stuck in their ways of playing games that no other nation plays (baseball, gridiron and basketball, for example). If they ploughed as much effort into the world's top sport as they do their own sports, they might actually be a force to be reckoned with ... and not the 29th place that they currently occupy (might've changed by the time you read this cos those rankings change more often that I have hot dinners). Don't get me wrong, I think the US MLS league is great. It's got a lot of innovative ideas that the rest of the world could well do with adopting, such as wage-capping, winning-draws, etc. But for a league that is supposedly almost perfect in its structure and organisation, it still produces poorer quality teams than a corrupt, biased and financially crippled league like the SPL.

Aye, but he's captain Manure for how long? It's nae like he's brand-new to the sport! He's been around for a long long time as a player. He more than most people would've had to get the measure of players pretty quickly to suss out how to play against them. He proved at Manure that he had this capability in abundance. Now I'm pretty sure he'll take this trait into his managerial career. Good luck to him and Russ. I will wait with anticipation for the day the Sunderland fans are made to eat their hats. Right now, they can go and eat their own shite for all I care. They've taken our captain and most valuable player for a pittance, and they dinnae even like him!

One-off matches, mate! A semi-okay Aberdeen side held a very poor Hertha Berlin for about 176 minutes. Doesn't mean we would've been able to hold our own in the Bundesliga!

Aye. But he'd still be better than Clanger ... even though he's 6ft under! If nothing else, he'd be fantastic entertainment value. I'd just get him to recite the "Four Candles / Fork Handles" sketch and that'd be me entertained for an hour and a half. Much better than watching Clanger for an hour and a half (stag night, or not).

I really hope Anderson plays brilliantly for them, but hands in a transfer request because he hates the place ... and goes to Newcastle or someone else who would actually appreciate him!

Does the name Keith Birkenshaw spring to mind?

Damn straight! I'd easily give up pogo-jumping with 60,000 Gremio fans to enjoy the one-man-and-his-dog effort that is Køge and Farum

Haha! What a joke! Boom boom! Rather have Ronnie Barker. Surely he'd be a better goalie than Clanger.

Sorry Drewsome min. But the debt was clocked up long long before "Pele" Paterson (more like Pogo Paterson fae Grange Hill!) arrived at Pittodrie. As huge a fan as I was of Ebbe, he spent big-time! He was the best-paid Aberdeen manager ever when he signed for us. Even after taking his pay-cuts, he was still on more than Aitken or either of the Millers were on. But it was Roy Aitken and Alex Miller's big-spending that crippled us. Whilst Aitken did crazy things like spend close to £5million on transfers to bring in the likes of Kiriakov, Tzvetanov, Bernard and Gillies, Miller went one better and placed those losers on massive wages. The pair of them tried to match the Old Firm's spending using a club whose income was less than a tenth of what either of the Old Firm took in on rainy days.

Knowing the Dons' history of signing goofs, we'll probably end up going for the wrong person and will end up signing Ronnie O'Sullivan or Richard O'Brien

He clearly sat down with his wife and said: "should I? It's probably the last chance I'll ever get to test myself in the world's top league. And look at the pay!! I love Aberdeen dearly ... but LOOK AT THE PAY!! This could set us up for life!!! And think, if we don't like it, we can always come back!" I can't blame him for wanting to move to the biggest league in the world! I'm not going to hold a grudge against him. I'm just in a shit because AFC have looked a gift-horse in the mouth yet again and have sold our most valuable player for peanuts. Oh yeah, and the fact that the Sunderland fans have already started slating Anderson REALLY REALLY irks me. I hope Newcastle snap him up in six months time and he shows his goalscoring prowess once again to hit the goal in the Tyneside derby that relegates Sunderland. Ungrateful fuckers

Deal

I reckon he would've loved his football and the lifestyle at Newcastle, as the city's pretty good fun and the fans are fanatical (not to mention grateful). But Sunderland is a hellhole! No other way to put it. Everything about that place sucks!!!

Thank fuck for that!

Some papers are saying our debt is £13m. Che Willie just said our debt is around £9m. I was under the belief that it was around £7m. What's it to be?

Aye, I do ... and yes I did. But when he was with Barca, he didn't really get a chance did he? I mean, twenty-odd appearances in the two years he played there. And that was despite the fact that he scored a dozen goals in those twenty-odd appearances. I just get the feeling that, regardless of what he does, Russell's nae gonna get a chance with Sunderland. And I know he's nae exactly the sort of player who's happy to sit on the bench and just collect a wagepacket whilst his talent gets wasted in the reserves.

One thing's for sure, he's not going to be too happy sitting on the bench for too long. If the same Russell Anderson goes down to Sunderland that left here, he's gonna be pushing the first-choice defenders all the way. And if he doesn't get a chance, he'll leave! There's no way a player of Russell's caliber will be happy sitting on the bench. Then again, I said that about Henrik Larsson. Now look at him at Barca. Mind you, Barca or Sunderland. Nae exactly twinnies, are they?!

Good luck Russell. You're always welcome back if things dinnae work out there!!! Or even if things DO work out, but you "do a Heikkinen" and get homesick. FAO Sunderland fans, thieving gits!! You got a £4m player for £1m. You'd better be grateful!!!!!!!!

What is our debt? How come it's £7m one day and £13m the next?

Didn't we get £1.6m for Jess from Coventry?