bloo_toon_red

A fit and confident (Scotland U-21 international) Peter Pawlett can very easily replace Fraser. Indeed had Pawlett not had his injury troubles to seek, I am convinced we'd have been unlikely to have seen Fraser much at all. With Hayes, McGinn & Megginson in the mix we're arguably better served in wide areas than we've been for a few yrs. Yes Fraser was a good prospect, and as sure as night follows day, he has most certainly had his head turned, but that's life in football I suppose. In the same vein he won't be missed all that much as I dare say because he's been in the team for two minutes we won't know what we've missed. Life, and AFC, goes on.

Fair play to the boy for showing a bit of ambition but he's only played a handful of games so he has developed an over-inflated sense of worth if he thinks he has the ability to transcend the SPL. Exciting though he was, we can't be sure just how long his good form would last for nor if he truly is the real deal. I wont lose any sleep over a player who's barely kicked a ball for us, and maybe that's where the club was coming from in offering him such a measly contract. The club's fault here is that they have allowed yet another promising young player's contract to run down, but are they really in the wrong to have waited this long? He did nothing last season to suggest he'd be an important player this year. It's just a sign of the times. The SPL is a dead duck. He's injured just now anyway and with Megginson and Pawlett back, I'd move him on in January and wouldn't play him again - let these guys stake their claim for a place.

<cough, cough/>

All good players that I'd like to see at Pittodrie, Mackay could certainly light a fire under Vernon. Personally unsure if Wotherspoon is realistic though, his star is rising and I see him moving to OF or down south if and when he moves. Certainly worth an enquiry though, we should be taking a punt on good Scottish talent. How good is Danny Rogers? It seems to me that we don't at all treat our reserve keepers well here. Wouldn't it be worth giving him a run out in the League at some point - if he's a competent keeper, what's the worst that could happen - he drops one anc chucks it in? I'm by no means a Langfield-basher, quite the opposite in fact, but we all know he's just as capable of doing that. Try out Rogers in a home game against Dundee or St Mirren, let him save us some money.

It is a good thing if they spend a chunk of that money in Scotland. As in they pay going rate on transfer fees for Scottish players rather than going abroad. With a healthy dose of cynicism, I seriously doubt that they will spend any of it in Scotland. Scott Brown from Hibs apart, they have an illustrious history of shafting Scottish clubs in the transfer market. It's good from the point of view that Charlie Mulgrew, Kris Commons and Scott Brown get exposure of playing at the highest level of club football and acquire the appropriate experience to apply to their times with the national team. But Celtic have no interest in Scotland, no interest in positively contributing to the Scottish football economy, on interest in improving Scottish players nor providing players for the Scottish national team. Only one of their last seven permanent managers has been Scottish and they don't actually want to play their football in Scotland. They are actually less Scottish than what Rangers are.

Isn't it because Utd committed the heinous crime of asking Rangers for c£80k that they were owed, Rangers asked for more time, and Utd said no?

Are there even any English people in Corby?

Yer spot on min. We all love the game, but in Glasgow, it's not just a game, it's a way of life, a tribal thing. To a huge element of Rangers (& Celtic) supporters, football is the single most important part of their lives to the extent that they have very little life outside of it. Rangers and Celtic are not just football clubs, they are causes. In the context of Glasgow, why do we think that Partick Thistle never been successful?

Not a bad player, he could do a jobbie for someone.

Some good points in there MBT, but this one: I agree, it is not workable at all in this day and age with EU regulations etc. BUT (you may tell me that I'm wrong) in America, isn't it the MLS who pays the players rather than the clubs? If this is the case, could a creative wage structure be put in place? Clubs pay a proportion of gate receipts and forego a deal of sponsorhip in order to have a zero wage-bill?

Ironically enough, I actually believe that introducing more wee teams to the top flight actually will make it more repetitive. Quality will be poorer, attendance will be lower, sponsorship will decline and the big teams will just get further and further away. The Old Firm will still get their away games televised every week, and there will be a spike for teams like Hamilton Accies and Livingston who'll have their day in the sun somewhere down the line, but there's nothing in there that's going to improve prospects for Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, Hearts, Hibs - the traditional non-OF big clubs, or Motherwell or Kilmarnock or St Johnstone etc. The rich will stay rich, some of the wee clubs will get a bit more money but the others in the middle will see no discernible change in quality, spectator experience, or revenue. The national team wont benefit at all because overall quality will be poorer. How many countries with a demographic and climate like Scotland have a 16 or 18 league top-flight set up? One way of looking at the 8-8-8 set up is that it is a quasi-16-team-league. Four teams from the lower division of 12 will get to play 14 games against those who drop down with the opportunity to make the top 12 much easier than would normally be possible. Every game will be meaningful. I've seen a quote that this structure was adopted in Austria in the 90s and that it was "boring". Well, I've been to Vienna and it is the dullest city I've visited so I'll take their opinion with a vat of salt. I agree with the pyramid structure, and that is what should be in place below a 2-division, 24-team (or whatever) SPFL. This country of 5 million people and 42 professional clubs is unsustainable. There are only around 22 full-time clubs in Scotland. Let the full-time clubs flourish and let the part-time clubs aspire to making the big time. I think what we would end up seeing, in due course, would be mergers, new teams being created from the lower leagues in an effort to make the big league. I'm not talking about a Gretna, but say an East Kilbride, or a North Ayrshire (Irvine), or a Glenrothes - big-gish towns un-represented in professional football. The argument, that a 16 team league is better because it's the least embarrassing option, is itself embarrassing. If we all had attitudes like that, we'd still be living in fucking caves. Mind you, I've been in Padre's flat....

What are the positive aspects of having a 16 team league? Genuinely don't see any personally but being an open-minded kinda chiel, I'm interested why you all think it's such a good thing for a) aberdeen fc, b) the national team, c) fans, d) finances, e) "scottish football"

Thumbs up from me. I think it's a great idea, as per my previous post on it.

I think it's a little bit of both and that's where the frustration lies. We've started the game well (1st 10 mins) and looked up for giving Celtic a game. Then for the next ten minutes we've got sloppy and gave the ball away in really inoccuous areas, under very little pressure to do so. That shows either poor concentration or poor technique. For example, in the first half, Reynolds, thirty yards out from his own goal and under no pressure whatsoever played a poor-ish pass to Jonny Hayes who was 5 yards inside own half which came up very short. Still, Hayes was unmarked and was able to come in and retrieve the situation, only for him to take an extremely heavy first touch and the ball to fall to Charlie Mulgrew to put a cross in. Reynolds, Hayes, Magennis, Clark and Considine were all guilty of stupid pieces of play like this, passes not reaching their man, and in my opinion it was a lack of confidence and just as Craig Brown says, born out of showing Celtic far too much respect. Celtic didn't dominate the game and it has as BB says taken a fortuitous ricochet for the ball to land right at Lassad's feet for the first goal (defenders could arguably have reacted quicker?). But we didn't create any clear chances and the ones we did create weren't well taken. One shot from Niall McGinn where he tried a low trundler where you just know a bit of composure to bend it in the far corner would've been better, just thinking "ach Vernon would've had more composure there" (sod's law) - like a goal that Vernon scored not too long ago, can't remember against whom. It's frustrating because the only constructive criticism we can take out of it is that we know we can, and we will, play much, much better. If we beat Hibs on Saturday, we'll be second and things wont look as bad. Also bear in mind, we're one of only 3 teams to have played Celtic twice so far and yet we're still right in the mix.

It wouldn't be very fair to say who the root source was for the obvious reason that you're speaking about someone else's salary, but yes, it was muttondressedaslamb who told me, and knowing that person as well as I do, I have absolutely no reason to doubt it. The story goes however, that he wants to sign the deal.

He's apparently been made a very poor financial offer. "Kids wages" was the phrase used.

Strachan apparently uninterested in Scotland job, preferring to stay in club management. I'm quite relieved to hear this. There were rumours of him going back to So'ton.

The Henry Smith Method ...might be lost on our younger viewers...

The red is too red. It's going nuclear on my eyeballs. If I develop cataracts, I'm suing.

I don't think that this is that bad an idea. What we need to see is all the good teams playing each other. We don't have enough quality in Scotland to sustain a top league with more than 10 teams. The above model means that with the leagues kept really tight, (22 games to split then 14 after) every game would be meaningful. Nobody will want to be in that drop zone come Christmas. The top 8 would all be battling for European places and it would also be interesting if as an incentive to reach the big 8, they could also take part in some kind of "Euro League" with teams from Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium to give teams some European experience. Looking at the next 8, if you look at the SPL & SFL1 tables right now, Ross Co, Hearts, St Mirren & Dundee would be fighting for their lives so not to be joining Partick Thistle, Dunfermline, Morton & Raith Rovers. And who's to say that those four SFL1 teams wont have the cojones to upset the "SPL" teams and all make it into the big league on merit. Those left at the bottom would likely be left to play for pride or another mini cup competition. I quite like the idea. It's radical, it's not actually a massive departure from the "top6" scenario we have right now and it gives those in SFL1 a realistic opportunity to get into the top league. How good would it be for a fan of a team like Partick Thistle or Morton to be going away to play Ajax or Anderlecht in a (admittedly Mickey-Mouse) Euro Cup competition? And how good would it be for us as fans of AFC to be going to new places every season like Cappielow or Starks Park rather than the same old trudge to St Mirren & Dens? Needs more thought, but this is exactly the kind of radical idea that's needed. EDIT: I may have missed something - this is all assuming the two leagues of 12 are SPL1 & SPL2, and not infact SPL2a & 2b... Cos that would actually be pretty shit.

We knew years ago that Romanov was going to bleed them dry but very few Hearts fans listened. Why would they? They've had a comparatively successful period after all, made some good money on transfer fees, had European football most seasons. But enough is enough. Heart of Midlothian FC in their present form need to be allowed to die. If that takes a Rangers-style ressurrection for them to come back into existence, so be it, but it is complete and utter madness for any Hearts fan to pay £110 on a share, at this time of year, knowing fine well that all you're doing is paying a tax bill on behalf of people who can't effectively run a business. One of the things that has actually impressed me over the Romanov regime is that Tynecastle Stadium has been pretty well attended - there were a couple of seasons where it was full for almost every match. So, it's not as if you can say the Hearts fans haven't already been supporting their team. Why should they dip into their pockets again? If Aberdeen were in the exact same predicament in the exact same circumstances, unless I could afford to throw away £110 with no consequences, I wouldn't do it, because to do so is to support the failed regime. If this doesn't work out for Hearts, they will come back in another form a la Rangers. If that happens, expect more to go to the wall and football in this country to be shaken to the core. Kilmarnock and Dundee Utd aren't far behind them from what I can gather. We need to keep banging this drum for an Americanised form of league re-construction and summer football. We have failed to modernise the game here for too long. We don't offer anything different at all. But back on topic. No sympathy for Hearts fans. They haven't stepped up and challenged the regime and they're pretty culpable in my book.

They are 163 days old today. This is an incontrovertible fact.

If I was to say Lord McAlpine fucked little boys, that would be defamatory. But I didn't. I said that there are mentalists on the internet that are saying it. That is not tantamount to I or anyone else on this website actually believing it. What it is though, as per my post on page 1, is saying that if these allegations do turn out to be true, then how many other allegations made by internet bampots will then be given air-time? Internet bampots such as David Icke, has published books full of this stuff, and made a bit of money out of it - now that's defamation.

Ah, censorship. There is a reason why every post is qualified with "alleged on other websites". You can't be prosecuted for making reference to information freely available and conceived elsewhere. I wouldn't worry about it. Peter Sutcliffe once claimed to have almost been caught by Jimmy Savile while fleeing the scene of one of his crimes.

There are also some whispers, and there have been for some time, that all of this might be linked back to Jill Dando's murder in 1999. There are also allegations being published on the internet that Justin Fashanu was involved in a relationship with two Tory MPs who were implicated in these kiddie-fiddling parties, a blackmail plot arose and he was bumped off by MI5 and made to look like suicide... Morbid as fuck, and probably all sensationalist, but fascinating.