RicoS321

Ahh, Ferrytoll, that's the one I had heard about a while back. I think that's good for driving down on the day rather than the night before - as I don't think there's anywhere nearby/walking distance to stay - and it seems to open at 6am, which will be too late for my flight if I was driving down on the day but it's definitely one for future though. Cheers.

I got your point, I think. I disagree about McLean, his entire final season was excellent and he had a couple of 6 months spells where he was good in prior seasons (from when he displaced Maddison and the start of the previous Rijeka season). Anyway, semantics on that one. What I was saying is that a lot of players are not bought to be the marquee signing, they are bought to be good first teamers or squad players to allow us to finish third. I actually think we've done reasonably well in the last couple of seasons in terms of getting points on the board with a very average squad. I actually think that our squad was similar to that of Hibs last season (and definitely the one before). We were probably about two players ahead of them in terms of player budget, but our awful recruitment mostly nullified that gap (as can happen when you have teams so close to one another in budget, which is what makes a league without the scum quite appealing). I'd argue that guys like Taylor, Flood, Ball, O'Connor etc exceded expectations in their one way, because we expected significantly worse but they turned out to be regulars who helped us finish 2nd or 3rd.

Cheers min, will check them out. Someone else mentioned Holiday Inn Express for their park, stay and fly option which might do the business too.

It's obvious though isn't it? It's to accomodate. In my mind, Wilson doesn't play because Cosgrove is much better. If Cosgrove goes to Man City, gets injured, has a dip in form or needs rested then Wilson comes in. When Cosgrove tires and we're two goals up, then Wilson comes on. That means Wilson spending a lot of time on the bench, so McInnes decides to try him out elsewhere - I wouldn't. It's not specific to McInnes either, all managers trying to balance squads do it. Heckingbottom was getting hassled for playing Allan out wide this season. McInnes wants to appease guys like Bryson and Ferguson by playing them every week, which means the no 10 role isn't freed up for Wilson, or Hedges, or Wright, or McGinn. It's all a bit of a juggle really. The difference between us and the Tims - for example - is that their players can do a job in the SPL in multiple positions. McGinn can play across the front 3 and I suspect Hedges can too, but the others struggle to and McInnes expect it of him. I mentioned last season that Steve Clarke was very good at getting players to play a single role very well and that's how he managed to get Killie to where they were. McInnes doesn't do that. He expects his foward players to be able to play across the positions and regularly changes them throughout games (I don't believe that Wilson didn't play through the middle at times against Killie, but I didn't see it). To me, it's hugely detrimental as players like Wright struggle with that chopping and changing. In my opinion, you need to get a player playing well in one role by giving them an extended run there before attempting to switch them back and forth. Get them confident in the league they're playing first. Wilson is obviously an exception to that as he was given a run at centre forward for 9 consecutive games last season and he was pish - which is why I don't think we should have signed him again. Wright, McLennan, Stewart etc are/weren't given that without moving them about throughout games.

Same question but for Edinburgh airport? Early flight means I need to stay overnight in Edinburgh, but will not be heading out in the city or anything as I'll arrive quite late on the Thursday, so literally a place for a few hours, but leave the car for a few days. Any suggestion appreciated!

Quite a few over the years. Robson, Rooney, McLean, Logan, Lewis, Cosgrove, Lowe, Maddison, Christie, Shinnie off the top of my head. I think it misses the point slightly though. It's a bit like youth development in many ways. You only really need one or two of your signings to excel in any given season. The rest you just need to form a part of the first 11 or, at worst, good squad material (O'Connor, Ball, May etc). As long as you can keep your core first team at an above average level, then supplement with one or two good signings to replace those that leave and hope to promote one good youth team player and one above average youth team player every year. If you can keep that in/outflow relatively stable then you're fine. Over the last three years, McInnes has made key mistakes in signing May, Gleeson, Forrester and - in my opinion (so far) - Wilson this season (I'll keep my powder dry on the rest of the signings, but at the moment I'm thinking Hedges will be the only one worth holding onto and maybe Ojo). Currently, we're having to make up our first team with guys that we can only hope will be good enough as our outflows have been far greater than our inflows as we (McInnes) let things slide for two years running. That should have been made up with by making more signings later in the window. Instead, we made those signings early in the window, locking ourselves into the hope that Gallagher, Ojo, Bryson, Hedges and Leigh will be good enough. In my opinion, what McInnes thought was a cautious and safe strategy of signing Main, Wilson and Taylor nice and early to ensure our squad remained no less than average, will actually turn out to bite him on the airse as he doesn't have the budget to get himself out of a hole.

Aye, with emphasis on the last few seasons like. He's basically been playing catch up for two years on his own poor signings since May-day. He might actually hit his targets for signings this season (50% return - I'm guessing), however when you still have May and Gleeson on the books and with little sign of any new youth development, it makes it very hard to get a competent squad resilient to injury. With that in mind, he clearly made some "safe" purchases in Taylor, Main and Wilson. It's here that I have the issue. These signings should have been made now when we'd seen how good our main (not Main) signings got on. Had we seen the current crop, I think we'd have been looking for a better striker than Main and Wilson with Anderson as backup if needed. Similarly, defensively, we'd probably be looking for a better centre half than Taylor with Devlin missing again. McInnes has taken the cautious approach of getting numbers in and, now we have numbers, we realise they're shite.

I don't think we need another centre half. If we've got Considine, McKenna, Vyner, Devlin and Taylor that should cover it. If the midfielder is an attacking midfielder, then I agree we need to get someone in that role. Failing that, a better wide player. However, I think we're short on quality more generally again. Lowe is a huge loss, we've got nobody being the captain in the centre of midfield and May, Main, Wilson, Wright and possibly McLennan aren't good enough to regularly produce anything of note in the forward areas. Unsure about Gallagher and Bryson so far. We need a player in the forward areas that is really going to be a first name on the teamsheet (like Cosgrove is at the minute). The ones above are all just filler really.

It's okay (only been in at lunch). Yorokobi just down the road is better if you're not needing a quick fix. Also, I've heard that the sushi place on Union Grove is good, but not been yet.

That's interesting. I was told a couple of weeks ago that it had closed down. That's good that it hasn't. It's a strange one, as I always forget that it exists for some reason. Must be its location. It's always been decent.

No he hasn't. Unless that was specificied in his investment agreement. Which would be weird. It sounds like we're honouring our future chairman. Which is weird. I doubt that the club hadn't considered naming rights though. The fans are getting to name the pitches though. I think we should call one "Pittodrie, 6 miles East."

^^^^This.

I actually thought they showed up more after McLean left, but I know what you mean about Jack being there. I'd argue that had a lot to do with Shinnie having to do the work of two players after Jack left because we didn't adequately replace him. Shinnie's role didn't change, he wasn't really asked to dictate, that was supposed to be McLean's role and it took a long time for him to get into that. When we had Flood and Jack, you could tell that Jack hated it as Flood was so unpredictable and would make the wrong move at the wrong time. That clearly wasn't the case with Jack and Shinnie, where Shinnie's game was easy to read and Jack knew when and when not to cover - they worked very well together. Jack is a better footballer than Shinnie though. Shinnie a significantly better captain. You're not really making your point very well. I'll say it again: I am not suggesting Shinnie is an amazing footballer, I'm saying he was very good in the SPL and one of the best in the league. That is borne out by him getting - deservedly - into the Scotland. Of course that is a small pool of players. I'm really only arguing that he is one of the best of about 25 Scottish based central midfielders. You're even using the case of when he was awful at left back for Scotland as an argument against him being one of the best midfielders. Is McGregor at the Tim now shite because he was guff at left back the other night? I have no problem with most of yer argument but when you say this: Then you just sound stupid. I might be wrong, but given the above evidence I've provided: his Scotland call ups, his move to a better club etc. it's clearly not the clear cut issue you're suggesting.

This can go here probably. Interesting enough read. https://aeon.co/ideas/if-work-dominated-your-every-moment-would-life-be-worth-living

Wilson is absolutely fucking horse shite. We'd have change our style of play to learn how to play with ten men. Cosgrove has taken the close season to work hard and vastly improve his game in every area. Main is a shite Stevie May and wouldn't close to the same results as Cosgrove. Cosgrove is winning headers, taking the ball down and bringing others into play, tracking back, not making rash decisions at corners and appears to have actually learned how to shoot too.

Except he was miles better than Flood, technically and positionally. His running was generally not headless chickenery, it was - for the most part - targetted and relentless. The times it wasn't were usually when everyone else had stopped working or he'd already run himself into the ground. A yellow card every 3 games is absolutely fine for a player that was regularly making up for others' lack of workrate, which he was (especially in that Motherwell game, where he was pap alongside a host of other pap). Two Scotland managers, and pretty much every pundit on the BBC agrees with me. You seem to be thinking I'm saying that he was the perfect player. I'm definitely not. Like TC, I don't think he'll suit the game down South either. The limitations to his game are more apparent down there and his obvious attributes of drive, strength, fitness and workrate significantly less useful. I think he'd also reached the peak of his game in midfield and I don't see any avenues for him to improve as his passing isn't good enough to be like Jack or Ferguson or the like.

He was one of the best midfielders in the league in every season he played there. Almost always got the better of his opponent over 90 minutes. Including - regularly - likes of McGinn and McGeouch at Hibs and held is own against opposition in Europe (Burnley, notably). He was very good for us. His workrate phenomenal at times, regularly running himself into the ground where his teammates stood watching. Pretty much every pundit would agree and most AFC fans. We can discuss his obvious limitations, but none of that takes away from the fact he was one of the best in our league when playing for us. He formed part of a team with a very clear role. His simple passing was absolutely fine, it was when he needed to play a quick pass or a difficult pass where his limitations were notable - for which we had others.

Interesting that Harvie is in there. 3 Ayr Utd players suggests some sort of link between the U21 manager and that club - fa's in charge these days?

He is a very capable SPL midfielder. He proved that over several seasons. How he fares in England doesn't detract from that in anyway.

Nonsense. It's just the company Bolton/Bury/etc that's dead, not the club. You just set up a new one, play at the same ground with the same strip and with the same list of honours.

Aye, absolutely. Jack in there too, just allowed the game to be played in front of him, covering Logan and even Considine when they went up the pitch. We've not replaced most of those players (Cosgrove probably doing the best job of replacing Rooney, as McGinn isn't replacing McGinn currently!).

I think there were 2 x 20+ yard trundlers on target thanks very much! I know what you mean though, I'd have thought that at 0-0 at half time there might have been a change in tactic. That said, and noticeably more so at Pittodrie, they were decent at retaining possession and very good at pressing in the midfield, which meant changes would have been difficult with existing personnel (Ojo, especially, struggled over both legs but then as did Campbell when he came on). McInnes does tend to err on the side of caution, and that seems to be the difference in games like these (Maribor, and Limassol spring to mind), but I don't think we should over-estimate our squad's ability either as appeared to be happening post-Hearts. I still don't think we'll get close to the team we had a couple of season ago with Hayes, McGinn and Rooney banging in shite-loads and Considine firing hat-tricks for a laugh. In the end, I think that is our major issue.

It's pish. It was always going to be pish. TV rule for the TV game. Plastic as fuck.

In my opinion, the bit about Rijeka being a worse team than us. I'd have put them better than us, and better than Hertz but probably not quite as good as the hun (this season). However, when you're in Europe, it's generally difficult to tell how good a team are going to be in comparison to your own team because of the differences between the leagues, early in the season etc. So a team like Rijeka who are at least as good as us, you would generally be quite cautious away from home and try and sneak a goal. You wouldn't go all out in case they turn out to be better than expected and you get a hoofing. You keep it tight and when they begin to get frustrated and start pushing forward more in the last half hour of the game then you catch them out with a quick break. We failed because of a total fuck up by Logan, before which they had about 1 shot on goal. I think those are acceptable tactics in a game like the Rijeka one. They failed, of course, but the decision to play like that wasn't illogical.

Shinnie worked his fucking arse off in every game he played in and ensured that those around him did the same. He led by example. Some obvious limitations as a player, but a very good player for us.