baggy89

I've not been as confident going into a new season since 2005. A couple of comparative transfer coups, a decent striker to come in on a permanent deal, Aluko's wages still on the table for him and probably some EPL loans come the end of August. There seems to be good vibes coming out of the dressing room. We'll be difficult to beat and the bulk of our results will be 1-0 0-0 or 0-1 but I reckon we'll be top four and not too distant from the OF at Christmas.

Gonzalez, Mawene, Osbourne, Arnason, Clarke, Milsom. Given the strength of these signings I'd hope the striker to come in is decent also. A fit Pawlett, a fit Fyvie, Aluko still not signed up elsewhere, Foster back, Folly to come back, and likely some loans to come in. Mackie's even in the last year of his contract so we'll surely get 10+ goals from him. I'm almost not ashamed to admit to being an Aberdeen fan for the first time since Sigma Olomouc.

"looking forward to working with and learning from Gerry Taggart" A mate of mine used to drink with Gerry in his local while he was at Bolton, when I say he drank with him my mate drank pints of lager while Taggart drank pints of Whisky. Zander should fit right in.

At least we're looking at wimmers and not lorrers.

If we can combine this with our successful tie up with Jomo Cosmos for the best African talent , as well as the pick of the next Spanish superstars from Espanyol we should have this years SPL sewn up.

Aye, certainly is. Only other time I've seen it was on a flyer for a Weatherspoons real ale festival went to the bar and they didn't have it.

Where did you get that from? Used to love that stuff but after Safeway turned into Morrisons I haven't seen it.

Like ST says Foster seems bright enough. I was always led to believe he was Aberdeen (confirmed by Brown last night), and he has also proved on a few occasions in the past that he is not afraid to confront his manager if there is something he feels is not right. Last night confirmed that he's not prepared to take any shit. When you add in he is behind only Mackie in terms of Aberdeen appearances and has had the experience of playing in the champions league and being part of a championship winning squad, regardless of where this happened, I'm not sure if there has been a more obvious captain in recent history.

WDDLWW

If you look at Mackie's eyes it appears, while while Foster and Clark are smirking at Langfields get up, he's checking out Clarks package. He's probably thinking " I haven't ever been a gayer before, but if I was a gayer I'd probably think Chris's package was my favourite. "

Not fussed about this comment in the slightest, I'm sure CB is too experienced and far too long in the tooth to not have made it perfectly clear to the Aberdeen squad which players are part of "his" team and challenged others to prove to him they should be part of "his" team. I also doubt Considine is one of those hinted at, wasn't the comment from Brown when he came something along the lines of "Andy is a far better player than he believes he is"? Which would suggest that even if Broon does think he might not be up to the task he's not likely to come out in this manner to give him a kick up the arse.

Probably wishful thinking, but given his experience, an appointment that will have the ability to attract investment?

One thing I won't be watching is Haye Klitschko as SKY are a bunch of useless cunts. Won't let me purchase via the box, or online and their phone lines are rammed with folk presumably suffering the same fate.

Looks to be a typically Craig Brown (Scotland) team, 3-5-2/5-3-2. Aluko and Pawlet presumably could take the position of AN Other, Clark, Foster or even Fyvie, Jack can fill in any where across the middle, so to can Folly or at the back. The bulk of our wins will be 1-0 but I'd say we'll win more than we loose with that formation.

No definitely a good idea in the lower leagues. Although not twitter, Martin Allen did a similar thing when he was at Cheltenham and was one of his few good ideas. Plenty of lower league fans are football fans first and foremost and will go watch the local non league sides rather than sit in watching the telly. One of my best friends rarely goes a night without taking in a match and I know of several others at Cheltenham who do similar. When you consider the average L2 club and most of L1 have virtually no budget for scouting and a lot use a company (I forget what it is called but I'm sure an ex-Cheltenham player is involved somewhere) to scout players. Is it too far removed to have knowledgeable fans doing the donkey work for free.

Hopefully he can exorcise the disappointment of previous trialists and ring the bell of a new era at Pittodrie.

Cool. Could it be Langley then? Checked his Wiki and looks like he's signed for another Thai club so maybe not.

The goalie, Gonzalez.

I think Jaeger is pretty much correct. Bosman, contract law and this oddity FIFA law about buying out your contract in the 3rd last year, or whatever, have pretty much served the 'big' club interests as intended. A player is only worth the same as their contract. As I see it though there are other contributing factors, as bb has pointed out; The sell on clause - something the south American Spanish and Italians like so not sure if it would actually stand up to contract law in his country. Supply and demand - eg talented young englandshire players playing in englandshire Image rights - as a guess this is the reason for inflated prices of players such as Ronaldo. His contract may have been worth £35m but if you take into account the lost image rights it might be worth closer to the £80m in lost revenue Press interest - I'm sure the previously mentioned hibs transfers of Brown and Thompson were inflated due to the daily reporting of the whole carry on by the weegia.

Anybody else get excited when the email started "Congratulations! You have been allocated some of the greatest tickets on Earth!" ? I thought "Yass 100m final!!!" then scrolled down to discover I'd got boxing at the eXcel and a fitba quarter final in Cardiff.

yeah

Surely to christ the club should be looking to receive more than a paltry £500K for the best young prospect we've had in a over a decade. As far as I understood the average cost to get a player to the first team was £1 million, so this isn't even covering that cost. That said, if true, good luck to the lad. I'm sure Fulham will be able to find the correct footwear for the correct surface for him.

Aye they're fair plumbing the depths!

Turns out I got tickets for, I assume, more than one event given the amount that came out. Money didn't go out till the last day, by which point I'd given up looking. Just waiting on the cryptic crossword clues for what I'm getting to go and see now. I'm going to assume one is either the fitba qf at Cardiff or show-jumping as two of each of those were kids tickets, but that leaves enough for one of the athletics sessions or the team sprints at the velodrome. The whole process is still a pile of shit though.

Wasn't he Aluko's mate? A deal with the Dons? He's worth it.