wee toon red

Turns out the manager.

Wonder who’s going to get the blame this week…

With the Aussie boy coming in to hopefully replace morris, who despite having his moments really isn’t good enough over the course of the season, we really need to fill the front two positions. Nisbet would be great and we really need to replace Gueye, who I see in a similar light to Morris. Decent squad players but not starters to get us to where we want to be. Other than that we’ve the makings of a really decent side.

What’s the explanation this time? Women’s semis?

There’s no way Jensen’s a winger, he’s too conservative a player for that. Hibs will be a lot more expansive than Hearts were so having our pacy wingers from the start gives them a lot more to think about than having two full backs on our right would. I don’t think Jimmy will drop Jensen anyway but it wouldn’t bother me hugely if Devlin came back in. Controversially, I’d start McGrath as the Nisbett/Gueye 9/10 combo thing doesn’t work.

Is this a sign that we might not be keeping Okkels?

Deflecting from their bottom six shiteness and their horrifically put together squad.

There’s no limit in how far they’ll go to try and emulate their cousins along the M8. This one’s right up there with the best Rangers have come up with over the years.

Hearts have released a statement about Devlin’s sending off: https://www.heartsfc.co.uk/blogs/news/club-statement-scottish-cup-semi-final

I reckon they’ll start with a potential 50/50 split but pretty quickly claw “our” tickets back for them when it’s clear we won’t sell out (which we won’t). I’ll be there and i’ll be taking my eldest because imagine winning and not being there… and she’s now the age I was the last time we did win it (and I wasn’t there that time) so no option but to go really. She also enjoyed yesterday and, strangely, the league cup semi as well so potential defeat won’t put her off.

So Celtic in the final then, as expected. Four goals in 11 minutes for a 4-0 half time lead.

Aberdeen is the highest level Devlin will get so I can’t see him looking to move on just yet. He’ll be 32 in October as well so I would imagine the size of his wage will be important to him as he nears the end of his career. He isn’t technically proficient enough to fit this modern style of pass pass pass that we’re starting to play, whereas Jensen is the absolute stereotype of that kind of player.

Hopefully he’s not away in the summer and hopefully we see more of him over the next five weeks. Ok, it might not be too hard to play against 10/9 mine in extra time when you’re fresh but the guy was brilliant yesterday.

Funny how the game can look different from the stands to the tv. I didn't think anyone in our team was particularly bad - other than Mitov's first few attempts at playing out from the back of course. Unfortunately, Shinnie and Clarkson aside, none of them were particularly good either. I think criticism of Jensen is very harsh, he seemed to be involved in the entire game going in both directions and didn't seem to do too much wrong. Clarkson is absolutely our main man now and the player that someone with Palaversa's pedigree should be (but isn't). As a team we're starting to look very "modern football". Neat and tidy on the ball (at least for our level) but it's very sideways a lot of the time. We're very reliant on our fullbacks going forward, which is good when it works as it did in the first 45 last week, but when a team - or a shower of hammer-throwing shite - sits in like they did today it doesn't provide the best opportunities. We're sorely needing someone in the 10 role with a bit of guile about them. For me, Nisbet doesn't do nearly enough in that role and when he switches with Gueye it's even worse. They're not easy to find mind you but we'd be a hugely better team with someone who can create some space and pick a pass in that position. All that said, it was great to see the team sticking at it today and there's no doubt we got the result we deserved. As for Hearts, it's quite remarkable how they manage to consistently, from year to year and decade to decade, manage to fill their team with objectionable wankers. Devlin obviously but that nonentity Penrice giving it large to our section of the north stand when they equalised was out of nowhere. Get it right up the lot of them.

Cheers. Seems like parking over at the east side of the stadium might be the way to go. Kings Park is shite if they’re only putting on extra trains to mount florida. Expecting most Dons fans to be in buses and cars rather than trains I wonder?

Question for anyone who may have previous experience of the segregation setup at Hampden when we’re in the east side of the stadium (ie against the Protestant bigots): Our tickets are in section D, turnstiles 40-49, so the north stand. Anytime I’ve been on that side of the stadium before it’s been for Scotland games and the easiest way to that area is from the mount florida/cathcart road area. With the jambos getting into their end from that side, is there likely to be segregation outside and, if so, how else will the Dons fans get to that section? I’m sure it’ll be obvious on the day but trying to pre-plan where to park and approach the stadium from.

Genuinely confused - since when could var make decisions rather than sending a ref to the monitor?

Under the present - admittedly fucked, as well put by @RicoS321 above - setup, the 12 team league "works" as far as retaining some kind of interest for most clubs for most of the season. However, it's all just playing for crumbs really and the fact that Celtic can sit with almost £80m IN THE BANK and still lord it over the rest of the league should be all the motivation anyone needs for major change rather than shuffling the deckchairs per the "new" proposals. In reality, Celtic and Rangers fucking off to some new European league would be the only potential catalyst for any kind of meaningful change. However, I don't trust any of the other "big" Scottish clubs, including our own, not to try and simply step into the vacant, shit-stained shoes of the "old firm" rather than enact or lead a new setup which would achieve genuine sporting competition. In short, it's fucked and not likely to get any better.

We've got a championship-level squad plus a handful of one-step-below-top-tier central midfielders and two left backs who are on the way down. No goalie, no centre backs and no strikers of any note. Clarke still frustrates the life out of me with his team selections but he isn't exactly leaving Brazil 1970 on the bench. McLean instead of Ferguson was daft and you could have made a good argument for playing Tierney ahead of Robertson - or vice versa - from the start to try and nullify the young boy but I still don't think we'd have laid a glove on Greece. We need the aforementioned midfielders to be on top form for us to have a chance in most games but all of them, plus our other "top man" Robertson, were rubbish last night. Hickey and Doak should walk into the team when fit and that'll help a bit but not enough to make us a consistent "league A" team until we find some defenders and a centre forward.

Any idea when they're announcing which day is which? Daughter's playing football on the Sunday so hoping for the Saturday.

That’s a very pessimistic view of things. There’s nothing particular “shitty” about the whole day and even if there was, Fletcher Boyd getting half an hour and Jack Milne coming on provide plenty interest.

In general I tend to agree with you about Morris and it’s possible a championship team is his level, but he’s been really dangerous so far today and has two quality assists to his name.

I'd like to see Keskinen on the left to see if that helps his game but I'm a bit torn about that meaning Morris needs to play on the right as beyond his pace I really don't think there's an actual footballer there. However, Okkels isn't up to much either so I'd be inclined to go with someone else's suggestion of Devlin back in at right back and Jensen playing in front of him. Always suspected Gueye's run at the start of the season was nothing more than a Cosgrove-esque purple patch and it's looking that way, so I'd have Dabbagh back in ahead of him. And I still don't see "it" with Palaversa so get him out and Shinnie back in.

I take the point about Hibs but if they're using this money to sign Hoilett and McGrath then I'll sleep easily for a while yet.

A four year deal for an influential 28yo wouldn't have been ridiculous - but I don't consider him influential and clearly the club doesn't either so it's the right move for all parties. A good player and signing but one who should be replaceable.