Bobby Peru

He'd get on well with McCall, what with turning up pished for his work every day and all. Whups, did I say that?

quite agree - first one was a pen, second one was a shocking dive. no need for it either - the game was won. let's hope it's a one-off.

EE tonight has miller saying the cash will be used to tie up new deals for those out of contract at the end of the season. of them, i'd like to see barry nic and zander get bumper contracts, and miller and lovell told to get tae feck. jury's still out on clangers.

clangers was indeed outstanding last night. hopefully he's been chowing down on hot, steamy bowls of humble pie for the past three months, worked hard on his game and has sorted his attitude out. certainly looked that way last night. however, i'd still like us to bring someone else in, especially if, as looks likely, soutar is going. clangers can't expect to be rewarded for his behaviour with a new, no strings attached, deal. we need some serious competition for him - ideally so serious that he has to cool his heels on the bench if he doesn't keep up the standards he set last night. one good game isn't enough to convince me he's changed from being a disaster waiting to happen. he needs to bust his balls for the rest of the season and then MAYBE i'll think about welcoming him back as our number one.

one out of two, min - mike was indeed an ebbe special. noel was jc's second signing, remember.

Couldn't agree more if I tried. Without a doubt post of the day mate Paterson was Crap that's true. But Ebbe did also get us to Europe; I can't say his time was ALL Crap. being generous, i'd say that aberdeen under ebbe were at least amusing - largely for the wrong reasons. the only highlights i can remember from that whole time were that hysterical 5-6 game at fir park, beating a very good sellic 2-0 at home (the snowballs game) and beating the hun in the league cup quarter final. other than that, it was a pitiless parade of 5,6 and 7-0 horsings at the hands of the old firm (and livingston, for crying out loud) and the increasing hooting scorn of opposition fans of every stripe. it was frankly embarrassing being an aberdeen fan at the time, which is a situation i hope never to be in again. as for getting us into europe, it was a fluke - and one ebbe admitted at the time.

looks like this was a typical bunch of chick young horseshit. however, jc hasn't done himself a lot of favours by refusing to deny it. it was never going to be the case, although jc has in the past made much of the fact that he turned down the derby county job before billy davies landed it. i get the feeling jc has a much larger appreciation of his own qualities than anyone else does. however, i'd rather he stayed to see the job through, i must say. there are far too many blithering fools out there (largely on AN Other board, to be fair) with pitifully short memories who conveniently forget how absolutely rank rotten we were before jc took over. aye, we get the odd performance we don't like, but i'd rather have credible mediocrity than outright laughable atrociousness which we got under ebbe and paterson.

aye, it's important we do get up and running. and i do think we'll be too strong for thistle - complacency won't strike twice. they've just been pumped by both dundee and accies, so clearly mccall hasn't learned much about defending since he got there. but the seeds of doubt will continue to sprout if we don't dispose of 'em comprehensively. it's nice and close to my hoose too - although i'll be on holiday. boo!

just been told we've drawn thistle away in the CIS. not the easiest draw we could get, i think, although they have been pumped the past two weeks. thoughts?

Still a shadow of Brewster at Easter Road last week couldn't agree more, min. it was disappointing to see us try to play the same game we played at easter road last week, by hoofing the ball up to a target man. this worked well enough against hibs as the ball sticks to big brew, but miller is a tenth of the player he is. didn't work at all in the first half, and those clowns howling for miller and lovell to be played together should hang their heads in shame - there appeared to be absolutely zero understanding between the two and even less of a threat. still, derek young did okay, hart was excellent at centre half and considine was pretty immaculate. probably deserved the three points if only because killie were entirely without bite up front.

it's a hellhole, by all accounts, so i'll nae be going (besides that, i'll be back fae my holidays one day). however, i think it's a winnable game. I remember dnipro being okay but no great shakes from that hibees game, and a bunch of their goals came in the last five minutes while hibs were pushing up the park to get one back. pretty much the draw i thought we'd get - some doughty eastern european mob. i saw we take 'em and then make hay in the groups - remember, three from five qualify. bring it on!

could be worse - certainly winnable. still, nae much fun trip, like.

oh come on. you think the championship is some sort of football masterclass? mark mcghee said on setanta a couple of weeks ago that the WHOLE of the spl would compete comfortably in the championship and that includes gretna and st mirren. what makes you think one of the country's better sides (ie: us) wouldn't? remember, jc is frighteningly loyal to players (hence our team being stuffed with ex-dunf squaddies), so if he headed down south, i wouldn't be surprised to see him try to tempt seve, barry nic, jamie smith, michael hart, zander or chris clark to join him. even clangers, if they were still on speaking terms.

we did, min. it was a toss up between him and someone truly terrible like lauren d'jaffo, and guess which one we gave the contract to. actually, i don't think rocky was all-that past it - he would've only been 30 or something at the time, but clearly the fact that he was prepared to take a gamble on winning a gig at aberdeen (which was in an even worse state at the time than it is now) demonstrates that his career wasn't exactly skyrocketing. even though we had him for all of one afternoon, i still remember being a little saddened when he snuffed it. the boy had talent once upon a time, no doubt.

bad news. although surely the fact that brew has gone must mean there are a few farthings rattling around the biscuit tin? and why haven't we been working all summer to get that imbecile langfield out the door?

can't agree there, min. dadi was always rubbish - symptomatic of the depths we'd sunk to at the time.

dargo wouldn't have been a bad shout - especially if it meant getting the cutthroat island-sized flop that is lee miller oot the door. keeping the nautical theme going - that ship has sailed, though, and we need to identify some strikers available NOW.

unfortunately, though, we're not a terribly creative side. maybe once de visscher is fit, we'll see a little more football being played, but we just don't have the players at the mo to play a terrific amount of pretty stuff. therefore, the game we've had to play has been of the hoof-the-ball-up-to-the-strikers-and-hope-they'll-do-something variety. which suited brew very well, as he had the ability and the brains to bring others into the game. but without him, this doesn't work. with all of this in mind, it doesn't surprise me that we're not playing lovell. he had a chance against hearts to show there was more to his game and didn't take it. i'm acutely aware i'm not offering a great deal of answers here. lord knows who we're going to play up front on saturday, as no-one apart from brewster has looked even remotely threatening so far.

...according to the peej. can't say this news puts me up nor down. i think there's a tremendous willingness on behalf of the dons support for the boy to do well. but he's not done it, at least not often enough. there's little point in him staying if he doesn't want to be at todders. all he's doing is taking up a wage that could be spent on someone interested in playing and doing well for us. for all his faults (and there are many, if memory serves) scott dobie is at least keen to come to aberdeen, by all accounts. lovell's doing nobody any good sitting on the bench doing nothing. but we shouldn't be playing him week in week out on the off-chance he'll come good, as i've seen some other loonies on A.N. Other board suggest.

i'm prepared to be utterly wrong about this considering i know hoop about the boy, but he disnae strike me as a craig brewster replacement. probably stating the blindingly obvious, but shouldn't we be after someone with a bit of experience?

a new defender on the way too, it seems. can't say i'm surprised, considering the amount of goals we've let in already. any thoughts on possible targets? a left back or a centre half, do we think?

I like Lovell, simply cos he's shown in glimpses what he can do, and I'd have to say I'd take Lovell every day of the week over Stavrum, but that's another discussion for another day... Losing two strikers, potentially, and replacing them with Dobie and possibly Derek Young would signal we're stuck in reverse gear. Having to pick any two from Mackie, Miller, Maguire, Dobie and Young is far from inspiring, it's a sad day when Darren Mackie looks the most lethal out the lot of them. i'd probably agree it's not the most fear-inspiring front-line, but we've been doing okay without lovell getting a sniff of action over the next two weeks. in fact, few would argue our last two games when lovell has been warming the bench have been our best two games of the season. lovell's attitude strikes me as being all wrong. he was woeful against hearts and clearly doesn't look like he cares whether he's at aberdeen or not. at no time has he struck me as a player who you could rely on to get 20 goals a season (which at least stavrum managed, for all his faults). i'm not sure dobie's the answer. but, as some other smart fella has noted elsewhere, he's got a better goals tally than lee miller's managed. and miller and dobie is a combination that you just know wouldn't work in a million years.

aye, saw that in the peej. jesus. we've already got a big, clumsy pointless striker who doesn't score goals in the shape of lee miller. scott dobie is more of the same as far as i can see. lovell to southend, yeovil or bournmouth too, i note. to be honest, lovell has been a big let-down and i can't understand the fans' affection for him. he's never shown that he can be a consistently good goalscorer. put it this way, he's no joe harper, frank mcdougall, duncan shearer - or even an arild stavrum.

whups, never mind. gottit. good to see dan smith's the one likely to be booted: Manager Jimmy Calderwood wants a striker to replace Craig Brewster, although it won't be Irish teenager Mark McAllister. Calderwood has also targeted a defender and hinted a player could yet leave Pittodrie to make way for his new men. He said: "I'm fairly hopeful we will be able to get a couple of deals done by Friday. "Craig's gone so that leaves room on the budget for at least one new arrival. "Other things could also happen between now and Friday. "I will be speaking to a few people today and will make announcements when we are ready." Dan Smith, who has failed to hold down a regular place since signing from Sunderland, is a candidate to be moved on. It's also likely the striker coming in will be a youngster on loan from an English club after Calderwood decided against signing Dungannon Swifts hitman McAllister, 19, who rejected the chance to sign for Celtic in the summer. Calderwood said: "I saw him in Belfast the other night but decided he isn't good enough for us." Calderwood is also sweating on the fitness of skipper Scott Severin, Zander Diamond and Chris Clark after their epic 3-3 draw with Hibs on Saturday. Severin injured himself during the warm-up and was only able to play after taking a pain killing injection. Diamond and Clark suffered Achilles tendon injuries during the match. Calderwood confirmed all three are doubtful for Saturday's SPL visit to Kilmarnock. Calderwood said: "We will just have to wait and see how they respond to treatment but it is a worry." Irish defender Richie Byrne, who has been out for most of the last year because of a hamstring injury, was set to return to training with the first team squad today. Dutch winger Jeffrey de Visscher is also back in full training and should be available for the trip to Rugby Park.