Ajja

Lets try Calderwoods reign as that is the issue at play and do you really have to ask about Hearts ? Their budget has been more akin to that of the OF in recent times so I don't think the comparison is fair. EDIT: Can we get the top trumps out next ?

Granted, there are players who will go to other clubs rather than us but I would argue that we have seen more established quality players come to Pittodrie in recent years than any other club in the SPL outside of Hearts and the OF. Who are the players that when they signed for UTD, Hibs, Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Falkirk, ICT......you genuinely thought 'thats a great signing I wish Aberdeen had been able to get him'. I can't put a list together that has any of those clubs with a list anything like the one we have.

I read that figure somewhere this week, Scotsman I think. No idea how real it is.

I'm not disagreeing with you and I am certainly not one to hammer home the idea that Calderwood has to go because we aren't always 3rd and winning cups. I personally feel that he has many limitations and that we could potentially be better under different management but I recognise how difficult that is to find and I am still willing to hope he can keep stumbling forward year on year, regardless of how frustrating it can sometimes be. My point is that to say Calderwood has brought back respect and a standard of football that is no longer an embarrassment has to be within the context of a changing league and the competition he is facing. Its easy to say that life is so much better than it was under the previous managers in recent years without understanding the climate. Whether you want to split hairs over the quality you should expect from different budgets which vary very little or not you cannot ignore it as a contributor. With the capture of players like Severin, Jamie Smith, MacNamara and more recently Mark Kerr (who UTD did not want to lose) I think Aberdeen FC have demonstrated that they can attract players from a better pool than most other clubs in the league. So in capturing establised players we have shown we posses a competitive advantage in my mind. However, somewhere in the management of these players or the scouting for uncut diamonds (ie youth) to compliment them we are allowing this position to erode at present. That for me is the glaring defficiency in the current management team at Pittodrie. It doesn't mean I am screaming for change, it does mean I am pragmatic about what we should expect but also what has actually been achieved to date.

Q1. When I was about 7 I had a good friend who I looked up to. He was a passionate Dons fan (I think he was originally from there) and his room was decked in all things red. I guess I was on the look out for a team to settle on and even at that age I was aware that the OF were all you ever saw locally and I was always one for taking the 'road less traveled'. Q2. Abso-fucking-lutely. I remember the day very well. My older brother is also a jambo and the despair in our house (apart from mine and FJ's bedroom ) that afternoon was palpable

Win bonuses are still outstandng from their recent run at £1000 per player per win thats a decent chunk of cash. Winning 5 games on the bounce probably wasn't in their cash flow projections

There are two arguments being used here which have to be linked together. The standard of the league has come down to meet us as much as we have moved up in quality. To state that JC has brought us back to stability and respectability has to be in the context of the quality of our league and the competition within it. I don't disagree that JC has dragged us up to an acceptable standard but you should acknowledge the fact that you are not comparing apples with apples here.

Aye he is up to his knees in it for sure. Personally, I think the club have taken the legs away from underneath him with their approach. With our crippling debt we can't really afford to be turning away good paying customers. The boy should stand up for himself but if he doesn't then I'm sure it will work out and he'll be back on his feet in no time.

What a time that was! Gary Hackett was immense also. I don't really remember my first game but it was def at Tynecastle as FJ says. I thought it was a 1-0 win and we sat at the back of the main stand. Was sometime in the early 80s. For 2-3 years we only ever got to see Aberdeen play Hearts until our Jambo dad took us to Pittodrie and we rinsed them 4-0 and the casuals booted the Yams all the way up and over the broadhill. After that we had to go ourselves, first game without parents was a 2-1 cup victory at Starks Park.

I'd like to see David Murray taking steps to address the issue

We could swap Darren Young for Derek Dods

Lets just shop the person that took the photos of the Motherwell fans being a nuisance. He could get a life ban and then we could all rest easy that the correct and just path had been walked

I'm looking forward to dancing in the streets of Raith

So if you film bad things happening you get punished. Great.......where did I put that Pandoras box ?

If it was me ad vent my frustrations at the board.

The ground has been pretty much rebuilt since those days. Remember being their when we played them in the cup and the Hibs casuals pulled the communications cord and jumped off the train, lept over the fence and started on the Raith fans in their end. Then the ASC came onto the pitch. It was mayhem, I was about 12 or 13 and FJ was 11 at the time and it was our first match without my dad. I remember thinking how exciting it was watching the Dons......

Last time I saw the Dons at Starks Park Frank MacDougall banged in an overhead kick.

As a businessman trying to navigate the stormy seas we are in I would have to say I support the idea that they take it one step at a time. In the current economic climate it's the only strategy that makes sense. Get the feasability study carried out and then go to planning sounds suitably prudent to me. As a Dons fan I say get a fucking move on aberdeen for fuck sake, all this fannying about is doing everyones nut in.

3,600 seats against a lower division team with character and history in the entry level round of the cup away from home that isn't further south than the Forth. That sounds like a defo MPB alert.... MADRID PANIC BUTTON ALERT

Does anyone know the relative capacities of the away ends at Raith and Alloa ? I might be eeking the MPB out from under my desk for this one, just to get a few panics going.

No doubt we will be reading about a training injury by the end of the week then

Actually think the OF will find it tough in their games. St Johnstone are doing well and the huns are rotten away at the moment. Dundee have been rejuventaed under Jocky Scott and will go at Celtic with a cup tie mentality. Here's hoping the top 3 in the SPL are out at the first time of asking

Thats the standard he sets for ALL strikers

Let us know how you get on mate...I think I speak for everyone on here when I say we would like to know what the fuck is going on with this project too

The draws at 14:30 is it ? That pig Sturgeon is going to be pulling out the balls.....always thought there was something of the shemale about her/him.