Ajja

I totally agree with what you have said about his achievements and I support him all the way despite not being that fussed on tennis per say. I certainly don't want to see him fail but aside from the emotive response I stand by the fact that Andy Murray is a frustrating player who can storm through several ATP tournaments and beat the best tennis has to offer en route. However, when he steps up to the bigger tournaments he has recent form of....let's call it under performing if the word choke is too upsetting. This is particularly true last season where he lost to players who are significantly below him in the rankings in 75% of the majors, 50% of these in the 4th round (hence my comment about this tournament). Arguably, he has performed worse last year than the previous when his ranking was lower and his standing less although his 1st round exit in Australia was particularly honking.

OK Kow, I was being loose with my assertions. I may have been tough on Murray but as I have gone to great lengths to establish in subsequent posts his last 2 years at the 4 majors are not hugely impressive. I'd say at least 5 of his 8 exits have been poor...dare I say chokey ?

I agree, if you lose to a better player thats it. They were expected to be better and they were. If you lose to a player you are expected to beat (ie seeded above) then I use the term 'choked'. Maybe it lacks understanding of the finities of the game of tennis, I can concede that as I'm not a fan of the game. Its Friday faternoon though and I'm bored rigid not to mention being an argumentative shite. So hear is the work I didn't have to do but decided to anyway 2009 Aus: Verdasco (4th round) - I'm gonna say choke US: Cilic (4th round) - again, I call it choking French: Gonzalez (QF) - Pretty much choked Wimbledon: Roddick(Semi) - I might give you that but lesser seed at the time I think 2008 Aus: Tsonga (1st round) - practically strangled US: Federer (Final) - beaten by a vastly superior player - agreed French: Almagro (3rd round) - who? choky-choky Wimbledon: Nadal (QF) - better player - agreed I make that 5/6 from 8 in my own personal measurement style....

OK, I'll go with that theory. Obviously I have to now try to back up my flippant remarks with fact so lets test it and I'm happy to be wrong. If being beaten by a better player is not choking then losing to a player who is not better is, OK ? So in the last 2 seasons of the US, French, Australian and Wimbledon events how many times has Murray lost to a lower seed (can we assume that being seeded lower constitutes 'not better' ?). I'm afraid I don't know how to find out the results but my memory is that the last 2 Australians have seen him lose to lesser players, last years US and Wimbledon were to lesser players I think, last years French also. Nadal may have beaten him two Wimbledons ago and Federer two Frenches, can't remember US two years ago. Anyone have real stats rather than made up shit ? I'm interested, genuinely I am. EDIT: Sorry, it was the US he lost to Federer two years ago. He 'choked' in the French to some dude called Almagro.

The last two Australians, the French last season and the US I think. Oh and Wimbledon in last 3 years. Just when you think Murray is going to finally deliver on a 'slam' he chokes. With the exception of the final he reached (French 2 years ago I think) although he certainly choked against Federer in that too. If you have evidence of him winning one of the 4 majors then I'd like to know, I missed them.

He will do his usual and choke in the next round. He is playing against that 6'9" US guy (Isner?) who is on a great run of form just now, think he won the lead up tournament and beat Andy Roddick recently. He has a collosal serve and will blow Murray off the court.

Good point. He has been seen out on his men's trail cycle recently but the rest of the squad had been worried, one of them asked 'we haven't seen much of you late-ly Zander, how's the fitness ?'

I agree. Aside from the buzz of watching us starting that climb to utter dominance I really enjoyed the way they marketed the programme as 'the year everything changed'. The conclusion at the end that the OF final was some sort of desperate last bastion of success in what was to be a barren period and that the rioting was a collective tantrum at the loss of their throne was brilliant. I have a lot of time for Cosgrove, he is an ineliigent commentator of the social aspects of football and very much enjoys the anti-OF sentiment.

I can't see past JC winning this particular bout of psychological warfare. It will be a real shame if our support decide to boo him. I remember when JC left Dunfermline to come to us and their fans booo'd him. Our support was perplexed at this as he had taken them from being a shit club to top 6 and Europe. At least they had the reasoning that he walked out on them, our fans don't even have that. I'm pretty sure there won't be any applause but boooos...only shows the idiocy of our support.

Things are so bad now that even our made up rumours and idle speculation has us signing Kevin Kyle.

Why are we not rushing Diamond back ? Surely his injury that kept him out for so long was sorted a long time ago and he has been missing for the last 2 months due to a rather bad nose bleed ? Get the fucker back on the park, if need be ram a fucking lillet up his snout and get on with it.

Billy Dodds was banging on about us wanting Dobie on BBC radio Scotland last night.

Maybe so but its not that long ago he signed his current deal and he is 16, having been thrust into our first team and received some rave reviews. Hard to blame the boy for taking some time to think it all through! His star is rising, he knows it and so do other, bigger teams. By all accounts we did well to fend off the likes of Arsenal last time around. I'd be surprised if he commits to us.

Its not so long ago that we were heralding the likes of Aluko, or more recently Pawlett and Fyvie as exciting. Its a thirst that can never be quenched for too long.

Fair play (bad choice of words!). My dismay is not in any way aimed at your opinion.

Oh please. I appreciate you are only presenting facts but really, I'm crushed by the pathetic nature of it all, really I am. Cooper needs to make the young boys watch some of the European games from the 80s. The Bayern Munich game at Pittodrie is full of challenges that would have players in hospital for weeks in the modern game. Total girls.

Midweek game in Kirkcaldy should reduce the ticket panic

Was it our girls team that were playing out there ? FFS. What a bunch of pussies. Since when was spitting classed as violent conduct ? I'm embarrassed for them, truly I am.

Nature abhors a vacuum. If nothing is said, someone will say something and it will invariably be shite. We are not privy to the truth in any of these negotiations, we have no real grip on what is truth and what is speculation and then counter speculation. With media channels being as intrusive as they are, agents playing mind games and the internet playing chinese whispers endlessly who the fuck knows what is going on let alone who is to blame for it. There is no sense in comparing now to 2 years ago let alone 5 or 10, its a different world and we are no different from any other club in terms of this transfer roller-coaster. It has got much worse since the purse strings were tightened so severly. However, I think the 'disaster' has been in place for most clubs since the advent of the transfer window. It takes all the speculation and conjecture and concentrates it into a short period, thereby intensifying it and focusing eveyones attention.

Roughly translated as: Please help me to drag myself from my quotidian existance

I'd say offload Miller and pay no attention to what he does the minute he walks through the door at Pittodrie. Is there any historical evidence for strikers scoring regularly against us who we sold ? Certainly in recent years I cannot recollect one. Johny Stewart might have scored once in the SF for QOS. Lovell choked big time against us when he was at Falkirk.

So there is no point being short-sighted and building a road to cope with todays traffic needs but they should be accounting for 'moronic' driving when building it. I'd love to be at that traffic planning meeting.

I think we can have breath a collective sigh of relief. As much as I don't think RA would be the right direction for us to take I would have hated to see him line up against us.