Superstar Tradesman

Interesting one. Nice bit of advertising for Statoil considering they've just rolled into town. But it must be a bitter pill to swallow for the 1000 people they've let go over in Norway to read that they're chucking money about in Aberdeen. Great news for us though.

There are many life-long huns that still believe that they'll be back to where they were at some point. There is a certain amount head-in-the-sand about that fantasy but given their fan-base then it could easily be a reality. The problem is that they haven't addressed the problem that led them to where they are today. They're still spending way more than they need to and using funds that they simply do not have. Realistically if someone with a few quid bought the club over, started with a clean slate, paid marginally more for players than the rest of the league that they are currently in, pinching the cream of the crop like they used to and worked their way up the leagues with a tight reign on the finances, bankrolled by their huge, deluded fan-base, then there's no reason they couldn't pick up steam very quickly and be 'back where they should be' at the top of our league. Luckily for us they have no idea how to do this without spending money they do not have. Until they pull the plug once and for all then I'm still not convinced that isn't a possiblity.

Crazy Stupid Love (I think it was called?) Thought I'd been conned into watching a chick-flick but it was alright watching for a semi-reformed misogynist such as myself. Worth a giggle.

They've been given every chance to turn it around and continue to stumble from pillar to post. I've enjoyed the circus ride but like Nellie, I just want them dead and buried now. They're £8.3m in debt and need £8m to continue trading for the next 12 months. BAAAAAHAHAHA.

It took an Aussie mate of mine to tell me that AWB were Scottish. I'd heard the tunes here and there but he'd play them regularly and dropped the bombshell on me one day. Up until then I thought they were probably a bunch of black dudes from Detriot or the Bronx. Here, have some similar Starsky & Hutch type shiz from The J.B's:

It took the Dons 100 years to knock up that sort of debt and we were hounded about toasters. These fuckers have managed it in 6 months! When is enough, finally going to be enough? :popcorn:

Lone Survivor is great. Although it heavily backs up the question; is it all worth it?

I only skimmed through but I read it as being the Glasgow City Council rather than the government that lined their pockets.

The live off the profits of sectarianism. Why would they bite the hand that feeds them?

'Dumb and Dumber To' was better than expected. Especially after seeing the title.

And he's made a rod for his own back by saying he don't do walking away. Karma.

These date rape drugs sure take a while to wear off.

Thanks, don't mention it. Have they actually tried though, or have they just went down the route of 'we must move' and not even given much thought about redevelopment? That was my point. Little old me who knows the square route of fuck all when it comes to building stadiums managed to dream up a few alternatives or workarounds off the top of my tiny brainbox. Whereas I'm sure some cleverclogs who's paid to do this as a 9-5 could easily come up with a viable redevelopment plan. That is if they even bother to. Personally I think they're hell-bent on moving regardless of what the fans want. Again, that ain't my gig. But I'm guessing they'll still have to pull money off that money tree you're whimsically chuntering on about regardless of where they build because one football stadium sized bit of land, in a relatively cheap area of Aberdeen does not equal the costs of an out of town stretch of ground, plus an all singing, all dancing, shiny new stadium.

Why do we need more space? There is currently no seating between the Main and Merkland Stands, the Main Stand and Dick Donald, and the Dick Donald and the South Stand. That’s an additional what, couple thousand additional seats right there? If you’re still needing more space then there’s that large concourse out the front of the Dick Donald that I presume the club owns because they were laying fan’s plaques there a decade ago. Scooch (that’s the technical term in architecture) the whole stadium towards the beach, which will give the Merkland Stand more room to breathe for development. Again, I don’t get this negative attitude towards the redevelopment of the Pittodrie. We’re looking to knock down a 20k seater stadium to build a 20k seater stadium. All this talk of ‘you’ll have to close Pittodrie Street’ is nonsense as well. You’d only have to close the part of Pittodrie Street that is out the back of the Main Stand which currently has no residential properties there (there’s only the car park) so nobody needs access to their home. You could drive from King Street all the way down Pittodrie Street until you come to the stadium then do a loop around past the Merkland and back up to wherever. It’s all one way down that neck of the woods anyway. Access from King Street to Golf Road for emergency vehicles seems to be banded about as some sort of excuse but why can’t they just use the next road over, it’s only about 50m away? If that’s still a stumbling block then have the upper tier of the Main Stand cantilever over the road or with the consensus of the council we could have a tunnel like they do under the hotel in Monaco (the one they drive through in the GP). Severe lack of thought and ulterior motives at work here I think. The fans are being shafted on this.

I've still to read a decent enough reason to move from Pittodrie. For a town of 200,000 engineers who can extract fossil fuels from 20,000 leagues under the sea, deep in the Earth's core, they sure as shit make out that it's mission impossible to build a fucking concrete structure at street level, despite flats shooting up in a heartbeat all over the city. Close one stand, knock it down, rebuild it to suit, fill in the corners, open it the following season or whenever it's ready and close the next stand. Repeat the process until you've got a 360 degree bowl stadium with all the hotel/bar/hospitality facilities that you want. Training facilities you can build in any corner of Aberdeen or the North East because you're only having to organise travel plans for 50 or 100 players/staff instead of disrupting 20,000 fans. Personally I'd redevelop the Pittodrie car park out the back of the Main Stand. Make it multi-story so that you can charge more people to park there on match days and put the training facilities on the top floor with a nice tin roof to keep the seagulls and shite weather out. Job done.

AFC debt. RIP Peace.

Great news. But what are the facts here and where does that leave us? The debt is gone which I presume means we're not paying installments on that plus interest. I seem to remember a figure of £1/2m per year being banded about that went towards servicing the debt. Where does that 'extra' money go now? Stadium? Training facilities? Players budget? I can't say I've heard of WM Donald before, any of you guys have any dealings with them? Do they automatically get the contract for the stadium and training facilities? Do any of you know Willie and Elaine Donald personally? Are they regulars at games? Surely it can only be a good thing that they're locals rather than some two-bit, faceless consortium from out of town? It all sounds peachy but my only concern is that we're now debt free and we charge into building a new football facility (which the fans have never really bought into) and we're £20m+ in the hole and back to servicing the debt each year.

Fury is excellent.

Caught a bit of Seasick Steve, his drummer is an absolute animal! Great wee gig.

TBH honest, I can't think of anyone else that got banned other than yourself R_S and even then, you've always been allowed back in after a brief period of standing in the corner with the dunce's cap on. I'd be amazed if the moderators were/are to be blamed for the place being a bit quieter these days. There was definitely a rift between posters when the Calderwood thing blew up, that was very much when a large portion of when people walked. But again, I think that was them that chose to go rather than being punted. A lot of what Madbad says rings true for me; I grew up, I got married, I had kids, I'm in a different/difficult time zone, I have more important things to be doing that sitting on the web all day and I find it difficult to have the same passion for AFC as I once did as I've never seen the current squad in the flesh. I post now and then to help keep it ticking over. Nothing ever lasts for ever. C'est la vie.

He must have pictures of Milne. Regardless of how he plays, he seems undroppable, unlike his own handling skills. I'm amazed we keep finding 'keepers who are happy to play second fiddle to the bombscare.

Besides his name-calling (that he'll not admit to) I'm with Rocket on this. As he said, the Indie Ref 'was never about knowing what the future would bring, it was only about changing the course that we were on'. Now we're stuck in a cycleclic nightmare of illegal wars, fighting boogey men that multinational corporations had previously bankrolled to train and arm to fight the previous bunch of boogey men that they'd lined up for the chopping block. Meanwhile back home we're constantly spoonfed propaganda by the media these companies control, telling us we simply must eradicate this overseas 'threat' so that we can sleep soundly at night whilst the real issues at home like selling off the NHS, quietly passing gagging, fracking and surveillance laws onto the unsuspecting public. Why did our government go to court to defend banker's receiving their obsorbitant bonuses? Forget all that, what about ISIS? Inceasing poverty, increasing inequality, continual increases in the retirement age, decreases in basic human rights, decreases in democratic rights. Ahhh, but what about this one taxi driver that got his napper lopped off in a dusty hut somewhere in the Middle East? It's slight of hand, misdirection, smoke and mirrors on a grand scale and it's astounding how many are falling for it. As Rocket says 'you and your politically correct supporting posters would make Obama and Cameron proud. You are exactly the population they have engineered'. Call that a conspiracy theory if you like but I just call it a low threshold for tolerating bullshit. We had a real chance of seperating ourselves from all this nonsense and we royally fucked it up.

SaCk AnDrEw MMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That'll be Jazzer's influence.

What does it matter, there's no denying the result. I'd genuinely like to know the thoughts of the no voters now the dust has settled. Are they all still firmly in the no camp? Any detractors?