bloo_toon_red

Charles Green basically bribing SFL clubs to accept Colt teams:

It's important to get the right person so it should be as and when that person is willing and able to join us. Ideally that is as soon as possible but I guess we just need to be patient unless that targeted person is out of work.

Ha! I remember pooping my pants for similar reasons just a couple of years ago... Logical enough, as I said yesterday Tommy Craig was at the game on Tuesday, so there's a not-completely-unbelievable tenuous link there...

Levein a great manager at club level? Not sure that I agree with that. At the time of him being touted for the Scotland job, I told anyone that would listen that his Dundee Utd team did not once finish above Jimmy Calderwood's Aberdeen. That being said, I do think that he has to be seriously considered. Steve Kean? Again, I wouldn't say his record with Blackburn was awful. Yes they were relegated but their squad was stinking. They were second in the Championship when he was sacked. Look at them now. But, not sure I want him. I think alot of the problems there were related to what was going on inside the club and his relationship with Jerome Anderson. Collins I know has got some great ideas. If he has learned from his early mistakes at Hibs, as I'm sure he probably will have - such as sitting the first team down, stripping himself to the waist and explaining that they should aspire to have a body like his (true story) - then perhaps he should be considered. I think if we go for Derek Adams, we'll need to take his old man back as well, as I reckon he could well be the brains of that operation.

Wot no Jim Jeffries!? Here's a not altogether unrealistic name from left-field: Antoine Kombouare I'm liking the idea of a foreign manager, or a manager who has not necessarily played at the top level, or someone who has managed in an unfashionable but forward-thinking set-up. What about Steve Nicol?

Game over. http://www.afc.co.uk/articles/20130314/craig-brown-to-retire-_2212158_3108670

Thing is, all SFL clubs are voting in self-interest. SFL3 teams want 18 team league to get their home game against Rangers next season, SFL2 teams want 10+10 so they can get 2 games against the filth. SFL1 kind of split on it. There's currently no prospect of the majority they need. The game is just rotten and beyond salvage.

Does he still live at Kepplestone? I was of the understanding he didn't own his house there (instead owned by SM himself), but that may have changed.

My copy of Glory in Gothenburg is up for grabs on Amazon if anyone would like it. Mint condition, was read in one sitting. £6 plus £2.80 delivery. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1845024702/ref=dp_olp_all_mbc?ie=UTF8&condition=all

Quick, close those stable doors!

I concur, and having been the perpetrator of a very similar type foul a couple of seasons ago playing amateur which got me an unwarranted yellow card (a clash of heads when completely blind-sided by an opponent careering in at speed), and a subsequent second yellow when I argued about it, I have sympathy with Nani. I didn't even consider Nani's "challenge" worthy of a booking. A foul, yes, but given he was blind-sided, even a booking would be harsh. The foul looked far worse than it actually was. It's not beyond the stretch of the imagination to say that Arbeloa was responsible for the foul insofar as he put his body on the line to win the ball. The problem is that referees don't use common-sense, it's as if they've never played the game before and don't understand the pace and intensity of games at that level. FIFA need to seriously look at things like this - where are we heading now - players can't challenge for the ball unless it is on the ground?

As we stare down the barrel of a fourth consecutive 9th-placed finish, I point-blank refuse to believe that Aberdeen Football Club cannot attract a manager who is not better than our past two. Just because the fans can't think of one, doesn't mean that person doesn't exist. None of us would've wanted Steve Lomas, Kenny Shiels, or Pat Fenlon, but they're all doing the type of job that we need an Aberdeen manager to be doing - challenging towards the right end of the table, getting to cup finals. All these guys are hungry to do well. I do have a dark feeling inside that our next manager will be a choice of two former Hearts managers, one of which is currently out of work, and the other isn't getting paid on time.....

Haraldur Ingolfsson is rumoured to be disconsolate at missing out on the final XI. Are you for real? It was bad enough he couldn't kick the ball straight, but he was so bad, he even once chucked a throw-in out of play on the same touchline.

Time's up. I no longer buy the "but we're 4pts off 2nd" argument, the same problem has been apparent all season, right from the word go when so many said "aye but we played them off the park/hit the post/had bad luck/the potential is there". I've tried & tried to keep the faith but it's been blind faith. You could say there's still a chance of making top 6, and there is, but the form AFC are in, only the most hardened optimist would believe it will happen. Brown has no ideas on how to make it better. He's signed too many players whose careers are on a downward curve; Hughes, Rae, Naysmith, Anderson, Clark; hasn't got the best out of Hayes, Vernon, Langfield; hasn't given a chance to McManus who's scoring for fun in reserves; signed total duds like Mawene, Fallon, Chalali & Uchechi. The signing and subsequent form of McGinn has been excellent but along arguably with Kari Arnason who had a good half season, Brown has failed in the transfer market, failed to promote youth, failed to make Aberdeen better. A big part of the problem for me is that we have an uncreative and non-scoring midfield. Rough career stats - Rae scored 1 goal in every 11 games, Clark 1 in every 29, Milsom 1 in 35, Hughes 1 in 14 & 0 in 31 for AFC, Osbourne 1 in 188, Jack 1 in 21. 6395 in attendance tonight all of which being made to look like mugs.

Dundee have had some real managerial horrors over the years. They just never seem to get it right. Stainrod, Bonetti et al. They've had plenty of chances to get someone actually pretty good. They should be a big club in the Scottish context but have been so badly run for the last 20 years. John Brown was a shite player, a worse manager and proved what we all thought of his uber-hun tendencies last year. I feel sorry for Dundee fans. There were some decent names in contention, but they made a massive mistake sacking Smith in the first place. WHAURSATITLEDEEDS!

Absolute stick-on, stonewall, sure-fire penalty denied. It's one thing not awarding penalty but if ref suspects McGinn of diving he needs to be absolutely certain before booking him. And because yellows can't be rescinded (?), if McGinn ends up with a needless suspension further down the line because of this booking, a "professional" referee should be subjected to legal action. It happens in almost every other "profession" so why not here. Referees are simply protected far too much in football. Euan Norris is rapidly turning into a real cretin. I'm fucking disgusted.

I was wondering whatever happened to Luca Toni (cunt) the other night...

Wenger's stock is on a real downward curve. He hasn't adequately replaced his bigger players and is now left with a side that has nobody who is genuinely world-class. All the teams above them in the EPL have a few (Spurs maybe only one or two). In that regard they're kind of on a par with Everton now, with Everton having done brilliantly well without world-class players for so long. Wenger hasn't been able to do what Fergie has done and successfully re-build because he has failed to keep a spine in his team. I know he's been hamstrung with Arsenal's notorious wage structure but I guess Arsenal need to decide what kind of a team they want to be, because they wont win anything for a long time until they get some real men in their team that are willing to roll up their sleeves and get in about teams. Arsenal aren't Barcelona and England isn't Spain so it's time for a different approach there I think.

Barry Smith deserves the freedom of Dundee for keeping them in the First Division a couple of years ago. And given the lack of time he had to prepare his team for the SPL it's no surprise that they're so far adrift at the bottom. Pretty harsh in my opinion.

Only last week, Aberdeen City Council set aside £21m or so for the upgrading of Dyce Drive. There is a current feasibility study into re-opening the Formartine & Buchan railway line thus increasing capacity and catchment for rail passengers. The new ABZ business park (infrastructure work already in progress on site) will see more traffic movements towards Dyce therefore justifying the above. Planning gain payments from large-scale developments such as ABZ, AECC & AFC would more than pay for the required improvements to the Haudagain. Everybody speaks about the Haudagain, but Bridge of Don at the AECC is no better and neither hardly is Bridge of Dee. To say that it is a stupid idea is itself stupid. If it is a stupid idea, Planning wont approve it. If Planning do approve it, it will be because all the necessary infrastructure improvements will have been dealt with. I happen to think that Dyce would be an excellent location for the stadium, especially with the AWPR passing by. Dyce itself could be about to see a massive growth. And just to throw this one in from left-field - the land that the Rowett Institute is on could be a goer.....

During our travels over the country, I'm sure we've all been in a number of fine pre-match watering holes and an equivalent number of absolute dives. For a project I'm looking into that captures a football crowd and wants to draw in more families through the week, I'm trying to think of some of the better places I've been to on a matchday - specifically places where groups of guys having a pint and a laugh can happily co-exist with families having a meal; the kind of place that will be buzzing on a matchday and then you'd happily take your wife to for a quiet drink or a meal through the week. One that springs to mind is Behind the Wall in Falkirk which seems to have a good vibe about it. There are a few in Perth like Ring o Bells/Wetherspoons. Any other good bars of this ilk come to mind?

At this moment, only Dundee are worse off than AFC in the form guide over last ten games. For the good of AFC, I really want the management to turn this situation around but it seems each week there's yet more negative stats going against them. I'm becoming more and more alarmed that Scott Vernon, who has nothing to prove as an SPL striker, seems to have regressed, through no particular fault of his own making. The system that Brown continues to deploy is patently ineffective in an attacking sense. Tonight he's speaking about going 11 games (There's 12 to go?) unbeaten. I couldn't give a fuck about unbeaten if it means more 0-0 draws. Our season is now royally fucked to the point that even making the top 6 has now become a doubt. Nineteen goal-less home games in forty-one. Five transfer windows with no discernible improvement. Home crowds at lowest in twenty-five years. Two wins in ten in the league. Only 3 teams have scored less goals. No denying that Jack and Considine are a miss, but we have a full compliment of midfield & forward players and still can't score. I see absolutely no way forward for Brown unless he performs some kind of minor miracle.

"The 3 games this week will shape our season" - Clark Robertson, Friday 25th Jan. Yes, haven't they just. Craig Brown says we were "unlucky". The last bastion of the condemned man.

This Goncalves chappie at St Mirren looks a bit tasty...