Panda

46 minutes ago, OxfordDon said:

Xabi Alonso rules himself out of the Aberdeen job.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68692969

Plays three at the back, would split the support too much anyway.

1 hour ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

  You seem to dismiss Lennon because he had a good group of players yet make allowance for some of O'Neill's poor results because he has a young team. 

No, you were criticising O'Neill's recent run of results, I was pointing out he has a young team and they are in a period of transition.

1 hour ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

O'Neill qualified for the Euros by winning a group that had Romania, Hungary and Finland as the big teams. 

Romania, Hungary, Greece and Finland may not be seen as major nations to Scotland, but they are all significantly bigger than Northern Ireland. You were the one comparing his management record to Callum Davidson and Tommy Wright. 

1 hour ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

He then played 4 games at the finals and lost 3. 

Are you serious? They lost to Germany and Poland by a single goal and beat Ukraine 2-0. Again it's Northern Ireland we're talking about here.

They lost narrowly to a Wales team that went and beat Belgium 3-1 in the next ground.

1 hour ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

 

He has had over 80 games in charge now and only Stoke have come calling which for me says a lot. 

Does it? Where's all the management offers for Steve Clarke? Or Neil Lennon? 

1 hour ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

As I said above, I am not against the guy but I think in this country we are far too quick to dismiss and write off others that have won trophies because they are not fashionable names.

Like who? If you mean Lennon I can think of many, many reasons and him not being a fashionable name isn't one of them.

On 25/03/2024 at 01:46, KWT15 said:

Appreciate that's how you earn your livelihood, but if this is the case, it is just as big a problem as any Board indecision/incompetence.  Anyone in the club that has sufficient clout to be that in the know, who is also providing/giving/selling info of that type to the media (or trusting others with it that are), is a HUGE issue and no amount of improvement in technical structure will change that.

It's not the club leaking anything. They have nothing to leak except bad news.

9 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Ach, not against O'Neill per se but I don't see what makes his CV any better than someone that has actually won something with a premier league side in Scotland whether that be Callum Davidson, McInnes, Lennon or even Tommy Wright for that matter. 

What is the bigger achievement?

Winning a cup in Scotland, or not only taking Northern Ireland to their first major tournament in 30 years but then taking them to the knockout stages? They qualified by topping their qualifying group where five of their opponents had significantly bigger populations and a larger player pool to pick from, losing just once, then beat Ukraine at the finals.

He's achieved more than all the names above and I include Neil Lennon whose record at clubs outwith Celtic has been poor. Lennon in his management career has never punched above his weight.

And by the way, since you compared him to Callum Davidson, O'Neill also has two league titles at two different clubs in two different countries*

*or the same country if you're that way inclined.

9 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

It is probably easier to build a case against appointing O'Neill than it would be to convince someone that he is the best man for the job.  He's done ok to a point but even his Ireland record is a pretty mixed bag (3 wins in his 10 games back so far before getting thumped 5-0 tonight) and it was not long ago he was fired by Stoke.

A lot to unpack there.

"He's done ok to a point" - as above, his first spell was sensational. He also took them to a play-off to get to another finals (though left before it because of Covid/Stoke).

In his second spell he's having to work with a young team. Is it not an average age of 23 in the last two games (1-1 draw with Romania and beating Scotland).

Let's not forget Northern Ireland are minnows. They have less than a 2m population, and even a large proportion of that would refuse to play for them and would instead choose the Republic if given the choice. 

As for Stoke, he actually did well there initially. He got sacked because towards the end they got into a rut that he couldn't get them out of. It certainly was no disaster. 

9 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

As much as I'd like O'Neill as manager, it's not happening unless we pay big bucks to get him. It may come to that if we continue to struggle to get someone.

Michael O'Neill rumours doing the rounds, mainly based off his Northern Ireland press conference today where he didn't rule out the Aberdeen job.

I had heard a few things weeks ago but was under the impression it hadn't come to anything and any interest was now over. 

But I would be delighted if there was substance to these rumours and it was him. The day Robson was sacked I tweeted two names - Jimmy Thelin & Michael O'Neill. 

1 hour ago, OrlandoDon said:

That would be autocorrect, ‘they can speculate…’

no clue if he’s still in the running. We’re all frustrated with the season and for the most part the last 3 years, and we’re impatiently wanting a resolution to the situation, but unless you are directly involved then it is pretty much speculation. I don’t know the inner workings of signing a manager or director of coaching, don’t know who we have spoken to, the process etc. I’ll judge when we appoint, harshly if it’s lambert, John Hughes, Billy Davies etc.

we’re all armchair fans who think we know more than we do. I think many of us are extremely naive when it comes to coaching, managing, and running a footballing business. It’s a very unique situation. it takes even more time given how our last couple of months have gone, we had an audit and that’s a process hence we haven’t hired someone. I dont think the length of time is a shit show (although in hindsight warnock was.) I’m also sure most potential targets are wanting to know if we are relegated or qualifying for Europe for example. Due to the public nature we all have an opinion but that’s just that, but it’s a slow process.

We're just making excuses for the club here.

Never in my whole life have I known a football club to take this long to appoint someone.

Now I should say, I'm not criticising them for this week and the time it's taken them to whittle down their shortlist and get it over the line, because that's fine, that does take time.

But we appear to have sacked Barry Robson with little imagination as to what to do next bar giving the likes of Lennon and Warnock a call. We've needed a German company to come in and say "yeh, you see all that success there you're targeting, you might need a good manager and a proper coaching structure to do that."

1 hour ago, wee toon red said:

Aye but have they though, or is that another assumption?

Have they what? Pissed about? Absolutely.

28 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

It appears a shit show from the outside but do we really know? We can speculate but are we lining up a manager? Technical Director? Both at the same time? One or both under contract? Had to wait until they were out of a cup, Europe, safe from relegation etc…. All takes time.

As far as I'm aware, we're appointing a manager before a technical director.

28 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

again, it looks like a shit show but we can only speculate. Much like the media appear to have no fucking clue and haven’t identified who we have narrowed it down to.

Not all of it is speculation and the media may have more of a clue than you think. Maybe not about who will be manager, but why certain others won't be.

28 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

 

They can’t speculate jimmy thelin has ruled himself out but if they knew that then surely they’d tell us who was still in the running?

Do you think Jimmy Thelin is still in the running?

4 hours ago, wee toon red said:

Much better to take however long is necessary to get the right guy than to rush into something to appease the fans. 

But that's not what has happened. The club aren't simply "taking their time". 

They had five months last season to pinpoint targets. They've put an interim in place this year and made little move to get their new man while Warnock was setting the place on fire. They have began interviews two weeks after their interim fucked off because he was dismayed at what was going on behind the scenes.

2 hours ago, dons8321 said:

Tickets go on sale tomorrow...better hurry as they may all sell out in the first hour

Crafty of the club to hold off announcing the new manager until people have bought the tickets.

Monday will be 11 years to the day Derek McInnes was appointed Aberdeen manager.

You think we're waiting until the anniversary to... you know? 

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Souttar was honking when he came on. Was McKenna injured, before they took on a right footer to play on the left?

Yeah, Souttar replaced McKenna in the squad. Hanley also pulled out.

13 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

There is a subtle difference between someone saying we can beat anyone on our day and a headline writer using that to say we are close to the best teams in Europe and you know exactly what I mean by that.

But that's not what happened. And no-one has been stitched up.

Porteous says we're getting close to the best teams in Europe. Gordon says we can beat anyone in our day. 

13 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

 I suspect if Clarke saw that headline he would be raging.  

He was literally asked about it today. He wasn't raging. He answered we've shown we can be competitive against the best teams.

You're getting yourself annoyed at nothing.

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Division between the supporters and team perhaps? Creating unrealistic expectations, that sort of thing. It's not a big deal of course, but the whole point in a public broadcaster is that it should be able to set an example and not have to resort to clickbait. Generally, the Scottish football page isn't that bad for headlines, comparatively speaking.

Craig Gordon has said that Scotland can get a result against anyone on their day. That's his actual quote.

Shall we burn down his house while he's away with the national team or wait until he returns to lynch him for creating unrealistic expectations?

16 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

 I thought they might be trying to back our team not create divisions by taking what he said totally the wrong way.

Which divisions have been created? Do you think half the squad aren't talking to him now? 

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Aye but McInnes was likely in significantly more than Glass was, so shits and roundabouts.

Would JET have been on big wages? He would have been on commission minimum wage & relying on tips at Livingston.

Just read that back and hardly any of that made sense

Been a loonnngg day.
 

7 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

Disagree, Ramirez's wage alone proves we started spending bigger the moment Mcinnes left. That season we also payed fees for besuijen, Jet and bates as well I think? Brown would have been on a higher wage than anything Mcinnes could have offered either.  

I agree however Goodwin was given even more to play with but of the three Mcinnes clearly had the smallest pot and imo it's because Cormack wanted to move him on.  

Aye but McInnes was likely in significantly more than Glass was, so shits and roundabouts.

Would JET have been on big wages? He would have been on commission minimum wage & relying on tips at Livingston.

2 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

  I can't help but wonder if he has instructed journalists before any interview not to ask him about it.

He hasn't. 

2 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

 

 I think a big reason for that now is that cormack kept the purse strings tight as he wanted to bring in his own man.  

Bit of a myth really since Glass was his own man and we didn't spend big until Goodwin arrived.

2 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

How would everyone feel if it was DM once again? 

I'd give up. 

He gave us some good times, but it's time to move on.

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I think it's a little revisionist to say that Robson had Clarkson punting long balls for Miovski to chase. Firstly, Clarkson doesn't really punt, he's an extremely good passer and, secondly, it worked very well in the run in last season with two high midfielders. The two wingers point is valid to a degree, however a back three is fairly pragmatic in Scotland and the two wingers were replaced by an on fire Duk and McRorie bustling about fairly high up the park too. You take all those things out, and add in a defence that doesn't really like defending and you've got to move to plan B. For whatever reason, that took Robson up until the day he was sacked to realise.

But there was never any progress in the tactic under Robson. IF (and we don't even know, I suspect it wasn't) Robson's long term plan was to play a similar way to Thelin, then we saw little example of any sort of improvement or a team evolving.

It's not revisionist to say it was punting long balls because that's what it was. The defeat at Tynecastle in September was a glaring and obvious example of a team punting it long without any real idea what they were trying to achieve. That's not all on Clarkson, these punts were coming from everywhere.

I have my doubts his plan was to play like that. It looked more like a "hit it long to their back line and try win the second balls". 

What alarmed me about the Dundee game (I know we're post Robson but it's still his legacy) was we would hit it long, lose it, and did little pressing to win it back. So many players stood and waited for Dundee to hit it back to us. That's not just down to wrong personnel.

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Since we've moved to a 4-2-3-1, it's been fairly obvious we don't have the personnel to play the way Thelin would like, and he couldn't just magic those attributes into the existing lot. A summer of recruitment will be very unlikely to get us from here to there either, so if we do employ the guy he has to be aware that he's probably going to have to do plan B for a while, and the fans are going to have to be patient. 

Well aye, we do have to accept it'll take a few transfer windows.

Glass I backed because I felt that's what he needed. Maybe it still would have turned to shit but I still feel he was sacked too early.

Goodwin & Robson, it was clear more transfer windows wouldn't fix what were managers who weren't good enough.

That all said: Jimmy Thelin - I think if we have already began interviews and haven't even approached this guy, then he's probably not going to be the next manager. Which is a real shame as I think the style he plays is actually more realistic for the Scottish game. 

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

That's basically what Robson attempted but failed. 

It may have been what he thought he was attempting but he went about it in a completely different way.

Robson played three at the back and punted the long balls for Miovski to chase. And no wingers (except for when Shayden Morris was thrown on as a game changer). They were aimless long balls.

Thelin appears to play a 4-2-3-1 with wingers staying high and being the main recipients of the long pass. 

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Also, what does he do when Livingston sit inside their own box for ninety minutes? 

Hopefully we would pass the ball instead of what we did on Wednesday where it lumped hopefully into the box in the hope something might fall.

But who knows, maybe Thelin doesn't have a plan B which is why he hasn't moved on from Elfsborg yet.

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

2 hours ago, STFU_Donny said:

This is just trying to deflect from last night. Who in their right mind would come in to our basket case club at the moment.

Well the guy was reportedly interviewed last year when we were also a basket case of a club.

Stop pissing about and go get him.

6 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Thank fuck for the international break.

Who is going to break it to him we've another defeat and shite performance on Saturday to come first?

9 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Scottish football needs them to avoid each other. Or certainly that's been the narrative since I can remember. There's nothing bigger than an "old firm" final. The greatest derby in the world.

That may have been the case back when you and Neil Warnock were kids, but not these days.

If anything, the two sides meeting in any other round of the competition is better for the broadcasters than it is them meeting in the final.

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

I don't think that it still exists, but there was certainly a higher than chance avoidance of one another up until about the eighties. Since the new entity, it's actually been imperative that they play each other as soon as possible before sevco got pumped out. Now that normal service has largely been resumed, they'll need a new way to ensure they avoid each other. AI or some shite.

Why would they need to avoid each other?

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

The real question there is how often have the other two teams in the draw been the scum? For most of Scottish football history, the hot ball would have been play to keep them apart.

There's not been an Old Firm Scottish Cup final since 2002.

Since then, this is the first time they have been kept apart in the semi-final. On the previous five occasions they have been drawn against each other.