Ajja

The wife got the weekend off then ?

UTD fans would laugh harder than they did when they took Dodds for Winters if we took Duff off their hands. You should always give a player a chance to give it a go at a new club, I seem to remember he was quite a prospect before UTD got their grubby hands on him. However, we could make real tits of ourselves with this one. Just go on footymad (UTD board and ours) to see how he is valued. I'm sure Aberdeen footymad are talking about setting up road blocks to keep this fucker away.

Is anyone else becoming increasingly concerned about the discussions about the 'spine' of the team coming out of Pittodrie. I mean, I'm all for a spine but would it not consist of a keeper, centre back, MIDFIELDER and striker ? OK, so Seve is tied up but noone is mentioning the midfield. Then again why shouldn't they ignore the midfield, our players apply the same philosophy on a weekly basis.

Does that mean we have been given the Gazibo up the sideline as well ?

I'll be with you there mate

My thoughts exactly but it stopped me thinking about the wage structure at Aberdeen FC for 5 minutes

Oh the tedium of it all. Get your heads into something more interesting.

He is very injury prone according to Hibs fans I know. Don't rate Ian Murray either. The Falkirk boy Cregg would be my choice.

If Clark plays lets hope he puts in one of his customary shots aimed at the corner flag that bounces off legs and ends up in the bag. Falkirk is his favourite venue for such precision and excellence.

Quite like this little puppy too

Half day sounds like a plan. Might take a piece of that action.

BRING IT ALL ON, ALL DAY, IN SPADES. BEER AND FOOTIE...YAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I'll give you that but it would be folly to expect that every player at the club would have such strengths that formations could be dictated by them. Have a look at the Motherwell squad and try and pick out 5 players with any tangible 'strengths', then flip to the highlights of them taking Dundee UTD to pieces and you will see what a manager can deliver. OK so they haven't achieved anything in real terms but a manager like that could arguably do more with our set up. I'm just not convinced the future is necessarily orange. PS Chris Clarks's strength is that Plymouth are willing to shell out £200K for him, does it get any better

The article posted today had Miller suggesting that the players budget was increased by around £1m each year did it not. Attendance revenue must be getting it in the arse and I can tell you first hand that general running costs of a company are not going down these days (property costs, utilities, wages etc are all rising). In order to increase a players budget by £1m you would have to be draining a reservoir of cash somehwere.

My reasoning precisely. I'm confident we can turn Diamond into a quality player and sell him on for a large fee. Nicholson is never going to command more than £250K (what we paid for him). I think a lot of our players would perform better under a manager who played a consistant formation, played to the players strengths rather than the oppositions and who didn't repeatedly rubbish them in the press.

Diamond.

I'm with you dude. Just trying to be pragmatic about the whole situation. I wish for the same regarding investment but the club are setting out their stall conversely. Could be worse, Hibs have raked in £10m and are getting jack shit to invest in a team who will be bottom six due to playing staff resources. Yes, they have a training ground but their players will be plundered before the egg has cracked. Beers and good times at Falkirk and fuck the rest of it

Interest payments are still part of our outgoings. You can choose to park them as non-operating costs but they are still costs. I don't believe, having looked at the financials, that we are breaking even. We may be 'operating' at breakeven point but that is an accounting trick. I seem to recall our debt was gradually increasing up until Anderson's transfer and European income although I may be wrong.

The point is, it is not likely to be a few players. I'm with you on offering key players like Zander and possibly Barry a little bit more to keep them as I'm not too convinced we would replace them with equivalents. However, the club have to secure long term financial health and, like it or not, they are working from a very very low base. If Aberdeen FC put out a message that contracts offered on a final offer hard line basis can then be renegotiated then all the players at the club, their agents and any prospective signings are acutely aware that there is money to be handed out. We will gradually erode all the work that has been done to screw things down and we will be worse off financially in the long term. Its a hard sell but Scottish football has not been living within its means for a long long time and even at £2-3K a week footballers are paid over the odds in terms of Scottish football (outside of the other 3 teams who operate in a different market). Aberdeen have to cut their cloth accordingly and if that means higher earners on £2K a week instead of £3K then thats what it means. Its not pretty but a readjustment is going on all over and it will eventually come to bear on English football as well.

That would be the long term finances of our club, and Scottish football as a whole (outside the obvious cuntage)

Was there not some information (not sure how reliable) going about that the club had offered deals with bigger bonuses in place but had not improved the bottom line and that's why Hart and Clark were bailing ?

Exactically. No sense spunking our load on the first 'reasonably good midfielder' who suggests he might stay if the offer is right. The managements negotiation position is instantly fucked if they demonstrate a willingness to stretch what has always been a 'final offer'. They appear to have done this with Zander and already Barry is knocking at the door. Can you imagine Miller's thinking ?

I guess at some point we have to address two facts. We have an enormous debt to reduce somehow. We were operating at a loss up until what has to be considered an exceptional revenue season this year. We cannot afford to project £1-2M revenue from Europe every season.

Its a tricky one though. On one hand you think just give him the extra but on the other its a downward spiral as the pressure to 'just give it to them' comes from everyone. In saying that, £200K for Clark has to be seen as a lottery win. Thats £1300 a week over a three year contract. Give that to Barry and bring a player from the reserves to replace Clark. Job done.

I'm off to book a train ticket to Plymouth with Clark's name on it. Plymouth hand promptly in mouth. Can't argue with what has been said in that article. Its a shitty situation but that's the reality of it. Doesn't look good for other players (like Miller etc) though as, from what Barry Nic is saying, it looks like the club are actually tightening the budget rather than offering a little bit more on top.