Ajja

Did we not play Foster at CB a few times last season ? Maybe he will do a McNaughton and excel there......

The second half of 'I am the Resurrection' would be good.

There are alot of IFs in that one GS but there must surely be some shocks in this round. Fingers crossed because, as you said in another thread, we are putting a lot of store in what looks like a fucking big ask in the next round. Mind you, Dnipro were something like 4th favourites for UEFA when we dunted them out were they not.

PRobably best to hope for at this stage is a good tie with a side who will command a decent TV deal in the final qualifying round and take it from there. Who are the Ethel Merman teams in the final round ?

Ach well, I'll hold off on purchasing that V+ box for a week or so then.

It most certainly is. This is fuckinA as I have just purchased a beautiful Samsung TV and look forward to the HD action. Is our game with Timothy on ESPN or is that one of the Sky games ?

I see the BBC are now running this story.

...or possibly we are about to sell Langfield to generate some much needed funds ?

I wouldn't disagree with that at all. The point I'm trying to make is that we do not have all the levers in our possession. We can't control what the market does and in the current climate, with our resources we are trying to push water uphill with a fork. Most of all we, as mere supporters of the club, have very little insight into how these dealings are actually evolving. We can't say with any confidence that there was doubt over this signing in the early stages and we can't say that McGhee didn't have targets outlined and has fallen flat with the resources on offer and the changng market place. Sure, we can guess and we can certainly allow our emotions to ride over the top of logic but at the end of the day we should give the club and manager some level of understanding as to the extremely difficult trading environment they are in and be patient.

I'm increasingly thinking the same, although I have to say I never saw that coming from last season. I have a niggling worry that it knocks ZD's spirit a little....we don't need that for fucking sure.

My understanding of the world of football agents is limited so I may be off the mark but I don't think that clubs are provided with exclusive access to players. In fact the exact opposite is more likely. If a player is being courted by a club then you can bet that their agent (if they are doing their job properly) is talking with as many potential other clubs as possible. The more clubs they can get interested the more they can use that to attract further interest. The idea that somehow the club or manager could have just kept his mouth shut and then nobody would have known that we were trying to sign this guy is laughable. I sometimes wonder what the real world looks like from the perspective of some posters on here. The perceived 'logic' applied to the commercial activity of a football club, its transfer dealings, all of its relations with external bodies, how information is communicated and controlled, the loyalty and commitment of its staff is like some sort of Peter Pan Neverland that you would never expect to see operate anywhere else.

What did McGhee do wrong here ? I'm confused. Do we know he is focusing on one player at a time ? You can't possibly be so naive to think that if a club with more money than us goes for a player then we have some kind of rights to signing him. From the outset the club have been looking for a fee and we have no cash. Seems to me that we have worked hard to try and sign a player with little to offer and the club has found a buyer with more to offer. What is there to be angry about ? Disappointed yes, frustrated yes but to suggest that McGhee has fucked this up seems a little hysterical to me.

MacDonald took over from ZD on Saturday when he went off injured. It looks to me like MacDonald is nudging ahead in this race.

Out of respect for Padre's own personal holiday spot I shall be staying at home.

We should have enough in the current squad to take care of either of those teams so there shouldn't be a panic.

I'd personally prefer we just mastered the 4-4-2 for now. Something smells a little tactically naive about 4-3-3 and while it pays great service to the demands for attacking football you have to be able to ensure you can control a game as well as run about like schoolboys looking for goals. I fear we will get out muscled in midfield by too many big teams who will play a dull but effective game against us. Huns, Hearts and UTD will all out box us if we play a sloppy 4-3-3.

Love it. Bleached jeans and cock dusters a plenty. Little wonder they were all in tears.

I'm not so sure that the thin squad is a deliberate tactic here (although, granted I haven't examined McGhee's record at other clubs in detail). Lets not forget he has come to Aberdeen under some fairly exceptional circumstances. A global recession has bitten hard into clubs ability to generate income, a lucrative TV deal just collapsed and we have entered into a poorer deal subsequently. All this on top of our club trying to manage a huge debt, plan for a new stadium and generally cut our cloth accordingly has meant that any manager coming in was going to find the cupboards worse than bare. We should look to give McGhee our full support but if there is still reason to be critical then lets at least apply some understanding of the position he is likely in when trying to assemble his squad.

Surely he is just softening the landing for adding very little to the squad with the comments about having good players already there. Either that or he is confident that he was able to achieve a number of decent performances out of a paper thin squad of average players at Motherwell so Aberdeen's squad almost appears to be an embarrassment of riches in his eyes.

Eboneeeee and Ivoreeeee...live together in perfect harmoneeeeeeeee.

I received Setanta as part of my XL package on Virgin Media. Hopefully they will be looking to replicate the deal otherwise my TV deal just got a little less value for money.

Again, you can't make assumptions about the commitment of every individual based on your own levels. There are infinite shades of grey when 'supporting' a team. In the grown up world people are balancing all sorts of options and outcomes when they point their moral compass. Its just not as black and white as 'cut me and I bleed Aberdeen'.

Nobody did, I was simply applying a non-complex frame of reference for my off-hand commentary. Can I go now ?

Austrian trialists will hardly have me dancing but lets see what the man can do. I'm all for trialists if they are being selected by someone who has half an idea about how to actually unearth talent rather than waiting until someone else has and then paying through the nose for them.