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Watched Hacken 3-2 IK Sirius. Hacken won it through an own goal in the 96th minute. Wasn't impressed with Hacken at all. Sirius (who are 12th in the Swedish league) played a back five which Hacken struggled with, just knocking it aimlessly before launching balls into the box. That the Sirius' defence was pretty gash is how Hacken eventually got through. But at the other end Sirius would play long balls down the side to their two front men, drill it across the box, and the home defence really struggled. They scored two and could have had more. At 2-1 up they hit the post and had a goal ruled out for offside, but replay appeared to show he was on (no VAR). Aberdeen can definitely get goals on Thursday. Hacken do have a few players with good movement and we're not defending too solidly just now, but if Hacken play like that against us we've got a chance.

Back under way this weekend. Ylber Ramadani's first game is at home to Lazio tonight. Lewis Ferguson's Bologna at home to Milan on Monday. Think Inter might reclaim the Scudetto. Roma hopefully can get top four. Three possible Italian teams Aberdeen can face in Europe. Roma or Atalanta in the Europa League. Juventus were in the Conference league but got kicked out, replaced by Fiorentina. Any of those trips would be dynamite.

But didn't play, not even a 15 minute cameo to get some minutes in the legs ahead of Sweden.

Defence will be interesting, as can't see Morris being dropped, Devlin likely plays too, but MacDonald surely comes back into the team. Is it a straight MacDonald for Rubezic swap or does Robson try and include both? In the absence of McGarry and Hayes, and Duncan not quite hitting the heights at LWB, I'd actually be inclined to play Morris on the left. He can't cross anyway so doesn't really matter what side he starts on. It would allow Devlin to start RWB, and MacDonald and Rubezic to both play. (that away strip is difficult to recreate)

I don't know if there's any actual truth in the Rocco Vata rumours, but I would suggest that if he's willing to turn down a new contract with Celtic, and has Club Brugge and Torino being interested in him, it would be some coup to get him.

I dunno Rico, I kinda like the sound of that. It could be quite fun.

Fair enough, he never actually replied so clearly didn't want it enough anyway.

I've messaged him.

How much? It's not for me (I'm working) but know someone local to Stirling who was looking the other day.

Explain how wanting Aberdeen to win everything "ensures that Aberdeen's chances are limited". Also explain how Scotland's coefficient going up does the same.

Yeh, supporting Aberdeen is self interest. I don't sit and hope that over the next 5 years all the trophies will be evenly shared out among all the clubs.

This sums up the world's problems.

If they don't this season then they are due to at the end of next season when Scotland are projected to fall to 14th, because this is the last season where our coefficient ranking from 19/20 - when we scored a fairly impressive 9.75 points when the old firm both made the knockout stages in Europe - is counted. We need a very good season this year and next to stay in the top 10. Being 14th would mean losing the automatic group stage spot for cup win/third place. Fall to 16th and we'd drop from five teams in Europe to four. That's ace. If you think Aberdeen alone can carry the coefficient then crack on. But I dunno, I guess I kinda like knowing we've got guaranteed group stage football until Christmas, rather than fighting hard to knock out a Swiss team only to find Aston Villa standing in the way.

Less than a year ago we were debating if Roos was any better than Lewis, suggested Polvara had never seen a football before joining Aberdeen, and if Morris would never be spotted in a red shirt again.

Robson saying that McGarry won't play (despite him wanting to). Said he's now on a two-week pre-season, so doubt we'll see him until the St Mirren game.

No, you saw a parody account (or people you've seen talking about it fell for the parody account). The same account also said Michael Beale was getting a two-match ban by UEFA for sectarian singing.

League average was 15,628. We had nine games last season where the crowd was above 16,000. Yeh, sure, if you need more evidence.

Two takes from this. Hearts are a small club. And Dave Cormack can get his 16,000 capacity stadium idea right in the bin.

Mackenzie and Polvara, the new McLeish and Bett.

Gustaf Lagerbielke due to arrive in Glasgow today to sign for Celtic. He's a left sided central defender. I would imagine once he's signed up then Liam Scales will become available.

Because last season he played 12/21 games at LCB. In 2020-21, Stewart played 15/33 games at LCB.

No, people are being positive because they can see it was a good performance, and there's a confidence there that we may be in for a decent season. We don't have to be negative and miserable because we lost one game.

But like I've just said in my original reply, we probably aren't targeting another LCB. We have Mackenzie and Williams to play there. Stewart too if you like. If we sign Scales it'll be us making room for him in the squad because Robson likes him. So there's no need for us to hand out deadlines - there's one coming up on 31 August anyway.

But why 24 hours? Carter-Vickers has just done his hamstring, can't see Celtic being in a rush to let a central defender go. We don't need Scales per say, but if he's available we should sign him. We're probably not going to sign another LCB as we have Mackenzie and Williams capable of playing there, so we'll sign Scales on the basis that we'll either get him permanent now or potentially in the future. If we hand out a deadline, it passes, then he becomes available, do we just let Hibs or someone sign him instead?

Are we doing a separate match thread for Stirling or just extending this one? It's a good fixture to have because we'll likely have McGarry making his debut and McDonald, and possibly Williams, getting minutes after injury. So good to have them doing it here rather than away to (likely) Hacken. That said, be harsh to drop Duncan after a promising showing v Celtic. But I guess with two games a week coming up there'll be plenty of game time for everyone. Would like McGarry and McDonald to get 45 minutes at least in what is essentially a second pre-season for them.