RicoS321

Well, aye, but they're nae all good enough though. If McKenna gets a hard time as a still developing young player, and Cosgrove, do you think a team of home-grown young players would be afforded time when we're sitting near the bottom of the table? Our best youngsters come in the shape of Wright, Ross, McLennan, Anderson, Campbell and so on. I think Campbell will make it out of those, maybe Ross too. The rest probably won't be good enough and no amount of forcing will make them so. There is a happy medium in there somewhere of course, and I think McInnes has the balance wrong, but our youths are never going to be good enough to make up the majority of our first team. Worryingly, the signings of McGeouch and Hernandez suggest that even Cormack isn't going to force the issue. Virtanen and Campbell should have been the focus for those two positions.

I believe McInnes has earned the chance to have a season or so of mediocrity, but I even I think that's a generous summation. The squad is decent, but hugely overloaded in midfield, which results in constant chopping and changing and shoehorning to keep players happy. McGeouch was a signing completely lacking in imagination for example. It's a congested squad, at best, and one without a settled and obvious starting eleven. I'm prepared to accept that we were miles off the pace yesterday (Ojo by far the worst offender). Our first game back in difficult circumstances, I'm not going to read a lot into it. A really shite fixture for the opener too. If Cormack is really as ruthless as you suggest then that can only be a good thing. McInnes is perfectly capable of putting a good team on the park, but he's so concerned about losing that it's stifling at times. A bit of pressure on him will hopefully see some risk taking and attacking. He'd build a lot of goodwill simply by allowing us to play a bit when we're ahead against teams we expect to beat, it should be an easy win for him. For example, I imagine Edmondson will start against st Johnstone. If we go a goal up, then bring Anderson on alongside him to try and finish it rather than congest the midfield and manage it out. McInnes' game management has been very successful in terms of points gained, but there's no real evidence to suggest that further attacking would gain less points, whilst being more enjoyable. In fact, the season we got our record points and goals is evidence that we can win big. It's annoying, McInnes can do better. He shouldn't need to be in this situation. He's bringing it on himself.

So they cheated to stay up, and still stay up? A bit fucked up.

Nae idea what to expect today like. Hate having this as the opener, with no prior look at how we might set up. I think we might see a very flat back four today: ---------------------------lewis------------------------- Hoban------taylor------mckenna-----consi --------------------------ojo----------------------------- Mcginn-----ferguson----hayes---kennedy ------------------------anderson---------------------- A 4-1-4-1 with Hayes and Kennedy interchangeable, getting up in support of Anderson. Looks horrendous like, but exactly the type of thing I'd expect. I've left Hernandez out, as everything I've seen so far suggests he's nae very good. Although not much to go on from pre-season, the screamer far Hibs shows Hernandez playing primary school fitba in the lead up, headering back into his own box under no pressure. We simply can't afford pish like that against the Huns. His debut showed a player that didn't know how to play right back at all, I think Hoban might be seen as the safer option. Hopefully I'm wrong. 2-0 the dons, Hernandez double

Gogic is an absolute hoofer. A slow one at that. He's like Anthony O'Connor. Agree about McGeouch though, I think he was a poor signing. Although he did have an excellent game in our last one v Hibs. Ojo came onto a game after January too and Ferguson improved also. Bryson to outshine them all (by not getting injured more than 6 times).

I don't think you need a 4-4-2 to get someone up there close to him, like McGinn or Kennedy, but with the workrate to track back and niggle when Jack drops deep. I'm unsure about Anderson to be honest, I can't quite figure him out. I don't think he's got the pace to really make it, but then neither did Rooney. His finish against Livingston was really, really good; his use of his body to get in front of the player, his touches and then his finish top class. Every other time I've seen him, generally speaking, he's not cut it. I think he'll need 4-5 games to prove himself, and we gave pap like James fucking Wilson (and many others) that time so why not Anderson? He's a fucking dandy too, and hates the hun, so that alone means he deserves his chance. Do we need a target man? I'm not convinced. Main was a fucking atrocious target man as he had zero game intelligence, his runs were awful, he played on his heels and his touch was brutal. And even he managed to turn out a couple of good performances.

Yep, it is. Unless you get a side-letter of course. I mean, do folk just ignore reality? How the fuck can Cormack pay for an employee in another business? Saying that, Fletcher isn't outwith the realms of possibility. His agent was touting him toward the Tims last week though, so I very much doubt it. I think it stems from a rumour on some of the other forums from a "I know someone on the board" type about an international striker joining. I'd like to see Anderson against the Hun and for the next few games. Give him a chance to sink or swim.

Kept missing it when it was on normal telly, so just started it last night. That's what the BBC is capable of. They just need to cut out the other 99% and they'd be onto a winner.

Can we nae get that French team to take him still? Throw in Curtis Main if it helps.

It's a ridiculous statement for a referee to be making. More ridiculous that it's seen as perfectly normal and acceptable.

If we sign Hoban before the weekend, there's a good chance that taking the knee would end his season

Etc 67 - Rico

I may have made it up

Fuck him. Hun.

I think they're unfit for purpose, but I don't think they were wrong on this one. I'd agree, that the decision was made too early - before they had any idea what was happening - but I think they got the right decision. I don't think the Scottish Government would have given much leeway on starting next week, especially given the few airse ups on testing so far, which has been fine for the handful of friendlies. I did read your previous responses, but I don't think you addressed the contract situation. England can just afford it, so they're not really an example we can go by. Hamilton and Killie have had to let players go in the double figures. There's no way they could have finished the season with the same squad from March so either way you look at it the final positions would have been contrived/unfair. Basing it on actual games that had happened seemed fairer than playing the remaining games with teams weakened or completely changed.

Harvie is a strange one. In a period where we struggled for fullbacks, I thought he looked promising-ish. Certainly worth a run. Didn't think Ross had it unfortunately, despite that awesome free kick.

You can only really compare with England, as they are the only country with a pandemic timeline similar to ours but with the Scottish government putting a much later start date of 1st August compared to England (I doubt our clubs would have been suitably prepared any earlier, and I don't think the SG would have responded well/favourably to pressure). I'm not sure how finishing the season would have worked, what would your suggestion be? The two - almost insurmountable - issues for me would have been player contracts and the new season. In order to complete the season, beginning August 1st, we'd be looking at end of September for a finish. That would have meant a 3-4 month contract extension for all SPFL players. This would be non-mandatory - for obvious reasons - with good players possibly leaving if other offers had arisen. Obviously, new signings would also not be allowed to play (otherwise Hearts just buy themselves a new team to avoid relegation). With a short break between seasons (two weeks, let's say), you'd be looking at mid-October for the new season to start, with either a reduced number of games or a move to a summer calendar. Both options would have a significant impact on season ticket sales as it's unlikely that fans would pay as much for a reduced season (even though that's effectively what we're getting in terms of viewed games), and they would likely have waited to purchase their new tickets until closer to the start of that new season presenting a serious cashflow issue for many clubs (again, you can't compare England, Germany etc). I'd be interested to hear your resolutions to the above, as I can't think of a nice way to get round them. I also wouldn't class the solution as mismanagement, either, they've come to an answer and dealt with 90% of the issues. Perhaps not the way you would like, but a reasonably acceptable outcome given the situation. I'd characterise it more like Sturgeon/SNP's failure to prevent care home deaths rather than Johnson's complete ineptitude.

Fuck me, was that Hernandez that headered it back into the box from the right back position? That's primary school fitba.

I too have high hopes for Bryson. Been very fit his entire career before joining, so I don't think he's a Hoban type risk. Just seemed a bit unlucky last season. There's something about him in the brief glimpses that suggests he's played before. Hoban worth a punt too, just in case he goes somewhere else and turns out ace. I think McInnes will pack the midfield against the Hun so it doesn't surprise me to see so many kicking about. Sounds like Logan might be struggling, so perhaps Hoban might be the square peg to fill that hole if Hernandez is still pap (hopefully not!). Looking forward to it in a weird sort of way. Hate the new site, it's too modrin.

You need to understand statistics if you're going to quote them. Are you saying that black people are more likely to commit violent crimes because they are black? If not, then what do you take from this statistic?

They've given up, haven't they? The Cummings thing just ended any pretence. They'll have their herd immunity, or die trying. The argument will now move to whether we should have had a lockdown in the first place, making sure we don't lockdown again. A few things learned: our economy can't cope with a pandemic, it lacks any resilience whatsoever. We're now a domesticated pet, completely unable to subsist other than on a hyper complex global system and any disruption to that will see most of us starve. This pandemic should have been a test case for future crisis, and we've utterly failed; we'll never be able to cope when a worse pandemic hits or the worst effects of climate change begin to bite. We've not set course for something better; nothing has changed.

Probably one of the worst debuts I've seen in a dons' shirt, allowing for money paid (the boy Anderson signed by brown was worse for example, but a free punt). Tommy Wright or Pepper maybe. Rabbit in the headlights falls way short of describing it. Was like he had never played right back before. Young loon though, a big move for him and thrown straight in unprepared so with a pre-season we can hopefully see something from him. Logan's concentration actually seemed to improve once he joined too, so he'll have to be decent to keep him out.

Jesus. Could you imagine? There's not enough room for all Levein's signings at Tannadice. If you socially distanced a Levein squad, they'd stretch around the entire planet.

He was buying rowies. When asked how he'd like to pay, he said: "contactless, you hun cunt". I may be putting two and two together of course.

I'd take that with a pinch of salt. I saw him shopping for food the other week and he looked fully committed to the dandies. For what it's worth, I think we should take a good offer (£4-5M) if it arises. It's got to be the model that we're looking at with the new training facility. If we can get good money for the likes of Ferguson and Cosgrove, then that'd be great too. Obviously, try to stagger the sales of our best players. I don't think McKenna over Considine makes the difference between finishing third and second or fourth and is an area we can probably afford to lose in if it stabilises the club for the next year or two. If Ferguson has another good season then expect the same to happen with him next year. If Cosgrove gets a run of form then I expect a bid might come in January and we'd just have to see how we sit in terms of league position and finances. It's fantastic to see us have players with actual valuation >£0 at the club. Big Ronnie will makes us £10M once he learns how to play fitba too. I can see Campbell coming good soon too, despite some pish, he had a couple of games last season that showed he can be a cracking fitba'r. I think he'll kick on when he works out the level required. Hopefully fetch us enough to put in a new main stand.