Reekie_Red

Surely a team bus would be better than making the team travel around on scramblers!

Beatles - Don't Let Me Down

From an Italian Football magazine, an interview with Marco Negri, about Rangers, and life in Scotland. LB- Luigi Bruno (Interviewer) MN- Marco Negri LB- Marco, you left Rangers under very strange circumstances, why was that? MN- Strange? There was nothing strange in anything that happened there, they simply did not want me there any longer. LB- Why was that? MN- The honest answer is that I didn't know then and I still don't know even today. Nobody ever explained why I had fallen out of favour. LB- Your goal record at Rangers was fantastic and when fit and available you were scoring for fun. I, and many others still do not understand why you left under a cloud. MN- Let's just say you are getting very close to why I think that I was frozen out. Scotland is a very claustrophobic place where everything is examined and analyzed endlessly. Scottish society is in many ways a backward place. LB- What do you mean by that? MN- The culture, the underlying culture of Rangers was not good. The first team players had a habit of drinking vast amounts of alcohol during the week. As you know here in Italy we have a different culture as professional footballers. We know that it is our duty to keep ourselves fit and healthy. Some of the players there like Paul Gascoigne and Andy Goram would turn up smelling of drink BEFORE training. I could not understand why such behaviour was tolerated by Walter Smith who was manager then". LB- Marco we are well aware of Paul Gascoigne's problems and it is sad to see his decline, we saw it earlier at Lazio. Are you saying that the players were out of control? MN- Absolutely, I tried to point this out to Walter Smith several times but he became very defensive and said that I needed to understand Scottish footballing culture. He would hear no criticism of Goram and especially Gascoigne who could literally do anything he wanted to and still get away with it! It wasn't just their drinking however, they had some really extreme political and religious views. LB- Could you elaborate on this please? MN- Of course. They hated Catholics. All of them. I never understood why they were so filled with hatred. Several of us who were Catholic players and all foreigners were told upon arrival, never to bless ourselves at Ibrox as it could cause problems for us. I began to understand that Rangers was an extreme club very similar to Lazio here in Italy. You know, a right wing club with right wing supporters. I personally am not a practicing Catholic but my wife Anna Maria is, and it used to cause me pain when I heard what they said about my fellow Catholics. Lorenzo Amoruso and Jorg Albertz, just kept quiet and kept their heads down. LB- What finally brought things to a head? MN- I was rapidly disillusioned by Rangers and especially their supporters. As part of my professional duties I was strongly encouraged to attend social functions which meant going to several Rangers supporters clubs. The last one I attended really brought home to me the fact that I had nothing in common with these people. The anti-Catholic feeling was venomous and the songs they sang that evening filled me with disgust. It was at that point I decided not to give my all for a club that condoned such behaviour. I went sick. Walter Smith knew the real reason for my 'illness' and he just ignored it. But I wasn't lying, I was sick, sick of Rangers and sick of what they stood for and that is the truth.

Remind your mate to go for an HIV test

Usual story. He's back in training on Monday. He'll make a cameo 22 minute appearance against East Fife on Tuesday, and by Saturday he'll be back to "Long term absentee Jamie Smith" that we have all come to know him as.

I've seen too many players promise to sign and then leave at the 11th hour of contract talks (Stephen Wright, spit). Likewise, I've seen too many players say "The deal to bring me to Aberdeen is dead in the water. My agent hasn't heard anything and that's that", only for said player to sign a few days later. I know I started this thread, but I'm just gonna take heed when Severin comes public with his contract decision. If he stays, good on him. If he goes, we'll survive ... eventually!

Sure? I remember a St Johnstone away match being postponed due to fog. Really sucked cos me and a mate from Edinburgh caught the bus up to Perth, grabbed a taxi from the bus station to McDermaid Park, and it got announced as called off as the taxi pulled up at the stadium! Bag of shite!! But that would've been about seven or eight years ago.

I'll take this fight for 3rd any day over the "should've been relegated, but for the league expanding" fiasco that was the 1999/2000 season. Don't think that was the season before, tbh. But I do remember that season. It was the end of the season before Hearts became a Lithiuanian team. Hearts couldn't get into Europe. Hibs could if they drew with Rangers on the final day at Fester Road. Even if they lost, it would take Aberdeen to win against Hearts by 6 or more goals to overtake Hibs. Rangers and Hibs were drawing and really couldn't be bothered playing, as the result suited both of them. Aberdeen, meanwhile, were trying their best to beat a Hearts team who were almost willfully passing the ball to Aberdeen players. But we just couldnae score enough goals. Then it was all over when Scott McDonald scored two at Motherwell against Celtic to hand the title to Rangers. What a weird weird final day of the season that was.

Was that by Queen? Thought it was a solo effort from Brian May a couple of years after Freddie died. Anyhow ... Queens Of The Stoneage - Song For the Deaf

Always is being an Aberdeen fan with a Euro run-in. We seem to be seeing more and more last-game-of-the-season spectaculars, where it comes down to the result with the Dons as to who gets into Europe, or who wins the title, or such. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm sure the last three seasons have seen Dons matches decide title-winners or Euro clinchers.

Feeder - Just The Way I'm Feeling

Reckon we've got a good chance in the first game vs Celtic at the Tattiebowl. But we NEVER take the same level of performance to consecutive Old Firm matches. NEVER! Hence why I said the 2nd Celtic game would be a draw ... at best

[quote author= link=topic=7453.msg118916#msg118916 date=1234438870] You are kidding, right? To be fair, first quote was about Miller. Second quote was about Mackie.

9 wins from 14? Pah, pessimistic approach. Let's get 14 wins out of 14. Anything less, and the players aren't fit to wear the red jersey of Aberdeen. Seriously, though. I reckon we can do it ... by the following means: Hearts (a) - D United (h) - W Killie (h) - W St Mirren (a) - L Hamilton (h) - W Hibs (a) - D Motherwell (a) - W ICT (h) - W Celtic (a) - W Top 6 Games: Celtic (a) - D Hearts, (h) - W Rangers (a) - D United (a) - L whoever (h) - W (we always win our last game of the season, regardless of who it's against)

£20,000? That's fuckall! It's not exactly as if Motherwell haven't had very long to get used to the weather conditions that happen at Fir Park. The state of their pitch is not only putting matches in jeopardy, it is threatening injury to Mothwell's and any visiting team's players when they deem the surface "playable". When Inverness CT groundshared at Pittodrie, the Dons pumped most of that groundshare money into a huge redevelopment of the pitch and undersoil heating/drainage. Aberdeen's probably one of the worst cities in the SPL for snow and frost and that sorta shite. Yet when was the last time a match at Pittodrie was postponed due to the state of the pitch? Sure, Pittodrie's pitch isn't the smoothest playing surface in the country. But at least we put a sizeable amount of cash towards maintaining it and making sure that it is ready for its purpose: hosting professional football matches on a Saturday afternoon. Motherwell's pitch has been a disgrace for years. £20,000 is fuckall!

Being perfectly honest, he's not a bad squad player. Certainly for the pennies we're paying him, we'd struggle to get any better players. He is Dons daft, he's got a knack of scoring in very very crucial games, and he gets paid as much as a Green Final paperboy. We've had a lot more expensive players on Aberdeens books recently who've done a lot less than Oor Daz

Is that a signature on the top? Looks more like a bit of last night's mince

Said in a way that only Kelt can say

Fat Boy Slim - Right Here, Right Now (is that another double-score?!)

Perfect opportunity to flog him to Coventry for 600k

The White Stripes - I Fought Piranhas

600k for a "59 goals in 279 matches" striker? JC's dreaming. Mind you, if that's the way to sell your players for the highest price, then go for it! Hey, it worked for Hibs and Hearts in the past couple of seasons. Why not us? Although I reckon he should put a price of 1.6million on Mackie's head. Maybe that'll encourage the financial idiots like Man City to come sniffing, hehe

The Seahorses - Love Is The Law

Stone Roses - How Do You Sleep (awesome choon!!!!)

Dinnae reckon it'll work. As has been said before, they'll be there for a month or two. But a cold wet Wednesday vs Hamilton? Won't be too long til they're back in the shelter of the RDU