Panda

Huge week. Anything less than nine points from the next three games (St Johnstone, Hearts, Dundee) and I think we can forget any notion of third, and yes that means winning at Tynecastle. We could actually be 20 points behind them on Saturday night, the games in hand would mean little. Robson likes to say "We need to start winning games". Aye well we are definitely at that stage now. Same team that started v Clyde is fine with me, maybe I'd play Jensen ahead of Gartenmann and Pollock over Rubezic providing the club have signed him and have just forgotten to announce it, but should be fine enough. McGarry is injured.

I am currently nearing the end of a five day break, so it didn't happen on my watch.

I see Uefa have quietly closed their investigation into the alleged racism towards Gueye https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/67980477

This one might make everyone nervous. Don't do it Barry.

Semantics darling. My point still stands. You can't say he has great awareness when he clearly lacks it, is too lazy / lacks the desire to track back, and is part of a defence where only two Premiership teams have conceded more league goals this season. Jury still out on him I'd say.

A lot of praise there for someone who doesn't bother their arse tracking their marker.

Fun fact, his mum was my next door neighbour when we were kids. I never played football with his mum though so probably can't take all the credit for his rise to fame.

Klopp on Rhys Williams:- I will have to talk with him about why his loan spell didn’t work out, that was obviously different and the boy I know I would expect to play in Scotland, 100 per cent, from the first to the last second if it is not Celtic or Rangers where it is always slightly different, and he didn’t. “I will have to talk to him about that and I didn’t do that yet, but it will happen, definitely, and then we will see what’s the outcome of that conversation.”

Besuijen is a better player than Morris. And you all know it.

Why ruin a perfectly good post with that?

We're back.

A back four. Barron, Clarkson and Shinnie all in the same team. I want to be excited, but only if Shinnie is the deepest of the trio and the plan is to pass the ball. At least he's trying something different.

I think we'll be 2-0 up inside 20 minutes and then will play shite the rest of the game. Miovski to score. Happy new year everyone.

For anyone who hates themselves and wants to watch it, Ross County are offering it on PPV. https://ppv.rosscountyfootballclub.co.uk

I mean, we do have four games in hand on Kilmarnock... No, we moved on because for three years he finished below teams with a smaller budget than him, we scored once in 17 games or something, he didn't give youth a chance (Calvin Ramsay and Jack Mackenzie made their debuts in the very first game after he left), he played the same tactic for seven years trying to recreate the 16/17 season, and many other reasons. He is doing OKAY at Kilmarnock. Not great, not amazing, just okay. Is that our ambition, go get someone who is doing okay? I don't even care if you're on the wind up, I'll bite anyway because his time has gone and we need to move on and find better.

I would take Kjell Knutsen in a heartbeat but he has been linked with Ajax, Celtic and Rangers this year, and is currently being touted for the Swansea job. It would be a major surprise to the whole of Europe I think if he rocked up at Aberdeen, who would arguably be a step down from where he is at the moment considering he has Bodo/Glimt in the knockout stages of Europe, and I think has just won the league and therefore is in the Champions League qualifiers next season. Ricardo Rodriguez - not 100% sure as never had it confirmed by anyone, but I think we did approach him and he turned us down. Maybe he just needed a sabbatical and would be more open now.

In the spirit of the thread. Tony Mowbray: Those who know him say he has no interest in managing in Scotland again. I'd like to think we'd at least offer to buy him lunch and put a proposal to him. Alex Neil: Conflicted with him. At Stoke he wanted to be in control of everything, an old school manager, restructured the whole club how he wanted it. That seemed to be his reason for leaving Sunderland for them. I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing but ultimately didn't work at Stoke. Put together a decent squad there too but tinkered too much which was his downfall. The others. Jack Ross: Was very close to getting the job before Goodwin did. But a no from me. Very average success rate and not someone to galvanise the support. Neil Lennon: No, never. Ian Murray: St Mirren was too soon for him, but he went to Norway as an assistant, and is now on an upward trajectory as boss, arguably the top performing Scottish manager this season. Probably not done enough to be on Aberdeen's radar though. Derek McInnes: Let's get this out of the way. Has done well by Kilmarnock's standards this season, but I don't think he's done enough to suggest that by Aberdeen's standards he would improve on the underwhelming final three seasons he had here.

If they're going to sack him, then they'll do it today. If not then he'll be in the dugout v Ross County. My hunch is they'll give him more time. If Goodwin can convince the FMB after Darvel to stick with him, then Robson can. Was interesting that Willie Miller said on the radio (before the game) that the fans are still with Robson but a loss might see him lose some goodwill. I think it's gone far beyond that. Lose an early goal v County in midweek and the board will certainly hear what the fans think.

I wanted Glass to stay too. That's not to say he wasn't making mistakes - he didn't have the players to play how he wanted, however you have to adapt when that's the case. I also think he gave Scott Brown too much power - when Brown was fit, he played, and he played in central midfield and roamed where he wanted because he was Scott Brown, and Glass was never gonna reign in his mate. However, he was trying to play possession football, he was pretty attacking and aggressive against the Old Firm, his substitutions generally worked well which showed he was reading the game well, and given a few transfer windows he could have shaped the squad nicely, while Scott Brown naturally would have retired into the dugout. Since then Goodwin and Robson have been a downgrade, and we're back to where we were when we decided McInnes had to go. Just bored shitless with the same old guff every week.

Yeh I think the board, understandably, felt that Agnew coming in was the big help their inexperienced manager needed. I don't really criticise the board much here. They gave him three months in an interim role, Robson smashed it out of the park. At the Hearts game (probably the best performance under Robson) fans were chanting his name, making it clear to the board who they wanted. The transfer funds were made available. We tried to sign all the successes of last season - Shinnie, Clarkson, MacDonald, Scales and Pollock. We got three out of five. They maybe always had the mind to give him to January, which was fair enough too. But we've won five league games, which is relegation form. It's not a small blip, it's been the whole season. The run to the cup final was as unimpressive as I can ever remember, and the final performance itself was poor too. Europe - we did okay, but at the same time I don't remember a top performance there either. We were shite for long spells home and away v Helsinki and blew a lead v PAOK. The tactics are woeful. The subs have little thought behind them. The style of play is hard viewing. The long ball football is just lazy, like it's too much hard work to work on a more effective style. The team selections seem very much like he's just picking his mates. He was worth a shot. Coaching experience, experienced assistant, and I actually still believe he's a better manager than Goodwin. But it's time now for a change.

In short: "We need to win games. I know that, the players know that."

Disgraceful start to this game. Them missing the penalty doesn't change that.

I answered this on the other thread. Edinburgh v Glasgow in the rugby.

Shame, was just about to hit form.