Slim

It's close to the city, it's well served by about a dozen existing bus routes, has an existing park and ride facility and it would be handier for me to get to. The parking at Kingsford is extremely limited due to regulations and the additional spaces are in an industrial estate a fair walk away across a busy dual carriageway. The AECC has thousands of spaces already there and sits in an industrial estate that will be largely empty during matches. Could even open up the big paved area in the Barracks. Far more parking than Kingsford, and probably Pittodrie too. Other than the number 13 bus, I can't think of any bus routes that serve Pittodrie that wouldn't also serve BoD. How many bus routes currently serve Westhill? Traffic you have the A90 and AWPR to the north taking the bulk of the non-city supporters, the Parkway to the west taking everyone west of Kittybrewster and King Street/Beach Esplanade taking everyone else. Far more accessible than Westhill. There's a benefit to the council from just handing over the site in its current state and walking away with some cash in their hipper. We won't need much facilities in the stadium, can easily knock off a couple of million from the construction costs. Plus we'll have a tower. How many stadiums have a tower?

I still think the AECC site is our best option, and we can make use of most of the existing facilities to cut down on costs. A stadium the size of Pittodrie plonked over the existing main conference hall still gives us access to thousands of existing parking spaces and all the space in the world behind each stand. If we use: The red highlighted building for changing rooms, medical facilities, gym, players canteen, etc. Make use of the existing bridge and connect it to the stadium. The blue highlighted building for main entrance, corporate offices, function rooms, etc. The purple highlighted building for club museum, supporters bar, club shop and keep the viewing tower. The green highlighted building can be converted into indoor training pitches. Then we can minimise the amount of stuff we need to incorporate into the stadium, basically just the seats and corporate boxes. The yellow area we can try to purchase from the army for outdoor training facilities, we train there often enough anyway. Still have the Park & Ride facility already on site, plenty of buses going both north and south within 5 minute walk of the stadium, the AWPR starts a few miles to the north too. Not much local residents to complain about it either, and if they're willing to put up with Olly Murs putting on a concert in the car park directly next to their houses, I'm sure they won't worry too much about a stadium. Lobby the council to sign everything over to us on the cheap to save them demolition costs and having to construct something else on the site. Tap up our new neighbours GE Oil & Gas for stadium naming rights and use that cash to buy out the owners of the 2 hotels. I've thought of everything! If we've already bought the Westhill site, just pave the bit of it closest to the houses, put a locked gate in front of it, and it'll be turned into an unofficial gypsy camp in no time.

I can see it from both sides. His number one responsibility is to earn as much points as possible from each match we play, so he feels he has to play the strongest team possible at all times as long as we have something to play for. If we were still mid-table cloggers, this probably wouldn't be so much of an issue. On the other hand, he's spent the last couple of seasons filling the squad with absolute dross (Jeffrey Monakana, Josh Parker, Alan Tate, Wes Burns, etc) on loan that he then feels duty bound to give them match time ahead of our own young players. Scott Wright has been knocking on the door for a couple of seasons. If he's going to bring in someone on loan that keeps him out of the matchday squad, at least put him on loan to a Championship team for a season to get some competitive first team football under his belt.

Can anyone actually imagine GMS and Stuart Armstrong having a rowdy night out? They come across as 2 polite lads who probably tip the toilet attendant every single time even after their seal is broken. He's done something a bit stupid but I don't think we're looking at Noel Whelen having his Beemer nicked after an attempted coked up threesome in a west end hotel level of debauchery. So far the explanation that he was running away from people fighting and jumped over a wall without realising there was a river on the other side seems the most plausible. That said, it is a bit worrying if he is stupid enough to jump into a fucking river unintentionally.

This Project Aurora thing is all well and good but wouldn't the money be better spent making sure the planning application complies with all the regulations and is water tight?

McClaren would be a very good manager up here I reckon, would much rather they went with Hartley or Pressley.

I think Rooney's good enough to score enough goals to get us to 2nd/3rd in the league. If Motherwell are wanting £500k for Moult, I don't think he adds £500k worth of value to our team between now and when we can get him on a free. We do need Rooney to stay fit though.

If the weather was an issue, then we should have been flying out there a lot earlier than the day before the game to ensure we get a couple of intensive training sessions in that climate under our belt. Considering Arnason has just spent 6 months playing in the Cypriot league with experience of the climate and the atmosphere in the stadiums, and the playing style of the opposition, he should have been starting (assuming he is match fit).

Video of the fighting at the end:

That header on the 95th minute was our first attempt on target. Just not good enough.

We got going in Bosnia because we took off Stockley and were forced to stop pumping long balls up to the useless cunt.

All those bodies in the box but no-one picking up the boy standing on the pen spot.

It was a similar philosophy we used when it came to goalkeepers like Mark Howard, Scott Brown, Derek Soutar, etc. "He's done nothing to deserve being dropped" which means we're left waiting for the inevitable to happen, usually at the worst possible time. Hopefully I'll have some humble pie to eat in 2 hours.

When they came up with that idea, what was the time frame they had in mind for this re-organisation? If they didn't foresee a tough teething period when they appointed Cathro and bought into his vision for the club, they're idiots.

We seem to be passing rings round them with the ball on the deck, I'd like to see us try to play the ball out of defence a bit more, the O'Connor punt to McLean isn't really working, just gives away possession too cheaply.

Not on Premier Sports?

Looked a much better team when Stockley went off so we were forced to keep the ball on the deck and stretch them with pace.

I'm not sure letting Logan take set pieces ahead of Christie is a particularly good idea.

Not looking forward to this match at all.

You'd think if we're paying a decent whack of money for a 26 year old, we'd get him on a longer contract than 2 years. Not a huge fan, but here's hoping he proves me wrong.

Hopeful of getting someone else in by the registration deadline tonight.

He was in talks with Grimsby before we swooped.

His age doesn't bother me too much as he seems the sort to look after himself. Davie Weir strolled it in this league well into his late 30's and Russell Anderson didn't do too badly either despite being made of chocolate in his later years. I'd stick to a 1 year contract though.

We'll be on next week then, aye?

We tend to play with a front 4: Rooney, someone behind Rooney and 2 wingers. If we have taken in Christie, Maloney, Stewart and are targeting the signing of another winger on top of that (as per McInnes), you'd think if McLean stays then he'll find himself playing a bit deeper. When he played deeper last season to accommodate Maddison, he was largely ineffective. If he is willing to sign a new contract then great, but if not, we need to sell now and use the funds to sign a high quality defensive midfielder to either allow Shinnie to move back to left back or play instead of Tansey if he's not up to it. I think Christie is more likely to find himself out wide with Maloney playing behind Rooney.