RicoS321

Does that mean we can get rid of this unnecessary thread?

Good idea. It's my wife's car, so it's her that they'll go after. I'm contemplating going full gaslight and asking her how she doesn't remember the day out she had in Dunfermline only a week ago. Maybe hide some of her things and remind her about the great time we had at various events we never attended.

Parking fine arrived for parking at Halbeath retail park. Time restriction, apparently very well sign posted. I didn't see anything. Fuckers. Anyway, info for when we get them in the playoff. I hope the owner of the car park dies in horrible circumstances. Absolutely parasitic form of rentierism.

Aye, you're probably not wrong. However, it's difficult to understate the precarious nature of the world's resources now, and in the near future. China spent the last two decades positioning itself perfectly to be the new dominant power, and Trump's term has coincided with that becoming existential. The relatively seamless intervention in Venezuela swung the balance back to the US. Iran is a different kettle of fish, but China is a significant beneficiary of the particular type of oil that comes out of that country. It will hurt them, but they've got the capacity and economic structure to outlast the angry US public when prices rocket. Prices don't convey physical reality though, and the Chinese will be hurting if this continues as expected, even if it isn't obvious on the surface in the way it is elsewhere. Europe, obviously, faces serious collateral damage, the UK particularly, but Europe has always been an afterthought for the yanks, which makes its continental policy of the last fifty years even more inexplicable. Australia is an interesting one too, as they look to be seriously screwed if things don't sort themselves soon. I think you're right, that the democrats wouldn't have gone all in quite as quickly, but this type of conflict was only a matter of time and they'd have done what needed to be done (with complete disregard for everyone else) when the time came. They'd have "diplomatically" have couched it in professionalism and done more to build up the propaganda beforehand, but the end result would have been similar. Because there is no choice. It's a complete rewrite of the global economy, or war, and both parties choose war every time.

The people behind him will be perfectly happy for him to do whatever he likes, the more divisively the better, as long as their objectives are being met. The Iran war has already seen another large transfer of wealth, however it might have been a miscalculation that - without hyperbole - has the potential to take down the entire global economy. Those behind Trump will be well insulated because of the focus on Trump, so it might be worth the risk to them. If they can add Cuba to the list shortly then that'll be another transfer. That the US public is collateral, and even Trump, is of little concern. Nor is it of significant concern if they get another four years of a compliant democrat party.

I don't see a significant amount of decline from ten, twenty or thirty years ago. He has always had the mind of a child.

Not sure that's completely fair on Clarke. We've had Devlin x 2, Considine and Mackenzie all called up. As was Bowie when he was playing for dross like Hibs. Let's not forget Brophy has a cap too. I'm assuming he wanted to look at a winger with Doak having legs made from toilet roll tubes and Curtis has a bit of form. He also usually takes a youngster along with the squads to give them experience in case they turn out to be good, which I think is a good thing. I'm guessing most other youngsters are sitting on the bench of some English second string side. Can't think of another wide player that would be better to have.

Aye, it's the McInnes approach, basically. Which is actually the approach of most Scottish managers. I've been saying for years that we need to enforce quotas if we're to get any value from the youth system. There really is no benefit to a manager from letting a youth player make errors in the first team. Not compared to winning games with a few athletes.

Why would Dave Cormack be to blame for @Jute dragging every team he supports down to a level worse than they could ever possibly be?

Milne's excuse is inexperience. With more and more game time, aggression is the one thing that is possible to build on. Considine was really weak when he first came into the Dons side, and he worked hard at being aggressive in the challenge. Milne has the physique, he just needs to use it. This is his first season of top flight fitba, and Robinson is the right type of manager to work with on that side of things. It looked to me like Graham had prevented him jumping by challenging early. I suspect a more experienced defender would have gone down to make sure they got the foul. He'll learn. I'd say it's been a decent enough season for Milne overall. There's been a lot worse at the club, and I hope we try to continue his development. I think he could turn into a really good player.

Unusual for a Goodwin side to lose two late in the game.

Yes. Very wrong.

The sporting director model should include the ability for a manager to recommend players that he's either had experience of, or scouted, previously. It has to be a blend. The player should go through the recruitment team who do their research based on data and videos and additional scouting, and then he gets presented to the sporting director for final sign off. I guess they could apply weighting based on recommendation etc. For me, the sporting director needs to be the one that's on top of the overall balance of the squad and playing devil's advocate by asking how particular players fit into overall strategy and so on. He's there to make sure a robust process is in place and followed, ultimately refusing a signing who might be good, but would end in us having three similar players for example. There's no reason that a manager shouldn't be - in effect - signing players, there is every reason to prevent a manager from signing most or all of the players. It's about balance. Within that balance there must also be a commitment to not blocking the pathway for youth development.

I would say that if you split a circle into individual degrees, then mainstream political parties would all sit somewhere within a 3 degree segment. The difference between US democrats and Republicans is simply the velocity at which they enact their destruction of the planet. Hence why their donors comfortably flit between them. But, yes, the US Republican party is a detestable institution.

I'd like to see that one back. At the game it looked like Graham threw himself into Milne as he was about to jump, with no attempt to play the ball. Anyway, it wasn't a beautiful game today by any stretch. Robinson has clearly put the brakes on any attempt to play football, which is completely fine given the circumstances. No short balls from the keeper, very little through midfield and relying on the forwards with the midfield winning second balls. All fine at this stage, although I can't help but think that our last 4-5 managers haven't been given that freedom, with the insistence from within the club that they have to play "entertaining football" (which apparently translates to passing it until we lose possession). A bit of pragmatism was, and is, required. Thought Lobban really struggled today and probably shouldn't have started. A lot of okay performances, with nobody standing out. Lazetic wasn't absolutely terrible, but wasn't great and I'm surprised that Jensen and Olusanya didn't appear at half time. Geiger was okay too, but should have been off a bit earlier, as I don't like to see guys like Nilsen (or Shinnie) getting ten minutes as it often takes them that to get going. Really difficult to say much more than that we were okay. A draw a fair result, and a really good cross and header for their goal, albeit one from which we had plenty of opportunities to close down and deal with.