RicoS321

I wonder who will get the number 83 shirt?

Nae announcement yet, ye certain?

Ferguson did look knackered, but there were also no alternatives last season with Gleeson being pap. If Ojo and Bryson are as good as we assume that they would be, then Ferguson can be rotated with those guys further back, or rotated with Wright or Gallagher further forward. Campbell also seems to be progressing nicely, so I'd rather see him used as a good backup if he's not going out on loan. I'd rather we signed a striker as I don't think Cosgrove is quite good enough, and I don't think Wilson is the answer to many questions.

Well done LA-Don. I'm away to check the likely opponents in the play-offs.

Bojo. Jesus christ.

For me, it's a case of bad recruitment rather than wrong useage or tactics. I don't think we should have had to adapt our system completely in order to accomodate May, but I think we'd have probably had to in order to force it to work and I don't think he'd have been worth it. St Johnstone might want to adapt their system to get May scoring, perhaps alongside a bigger partner in a two up front. That may make the difference between them finishing bottom 6, top 6 or being in the play-offs. We've reached a ceiling that May returning 15 goals would be of little use to us as he simply isn't good enough to take us beyond the levels that we reached with Rooney there - no amount of tactics would have helped us in that regard I don't think - where we had a striker that was good versus the bottom 9 clubs but not good enough against the Tim and in Europe. We've seen that replacing him with Cosgrove can get us back to that 20+ goal a season that Rooney had us at. I don't believe Wilson will take us beyond that either and I'd like to have seen us sign a good striker that could take us further than Cosgrove. Good luck to May like, a hard worker and good professional.

Probably not, but the huns have a better team than us and should overcome the Danes, so it'd have been nice for them to have had a much harder draw. I'm assuming that both they and us would be unseeded for the playoff game now though (I don't think we'll get through for what it's worth)?

I think that it is bad luck for this to have its own thread. Especially as we don't have a round two thread yet.

Decent enough performance in spells. We should have scored 4 or 5. Cosgrove poor (although improved in the second) - he's just nae very bright. Gallagher looked good, will be a handful for quite a few teams with that pace - looks a bit weak on finishing. After a good game, Logan gave away a stupid pass, but Ferguson was very poor defensively the whole game and gave the guy too much pace to make what was an excellent pass. Definitely need another midfielder. Some pretty nice stuff from us times though and moving the ball quickly, which was nice to see. Wasn't convinced by Hedges, he was okay in parts, but didn't seem to understand the defensive side of the game at all, it was like watching Stewart. We need to just deal with them over there, we're a far better team than them. The back four looked decent, but little protection from midfield. Campbell could do with a loan move to get used to the pace of the game at first team level. Good to see Wilson wearing number 8, which should mean Gleeson hasn't been given a strip.

That's more like it: A foreigner, palindromic surname. Can't get better than that.

Aye, yer right. Sunderland and der hun would easily match what we're paying him obviously, but his options are indeed limited. It's a bit of a rock and a hard place for any prospective AFC manager I suppose. It'd be a huge jump to get anywhere close to the Hun or Tim in spending power (to the point of bankruptcy) and so the base target for any manager is third with a high of 3rd and a cup (in terms of the realistic targets that could be placed on a manager). If he got to the Europa League then I expect a few might take note. That's what the club will be aiming to do. The notion that we wouldn't be is ridiculous - we try and win every game, but we quite quickly lose points to the point it becomes mathematically impossible quite early (generally speaking). However, if the club produced an equivalent to their recent strategy document that said the aim was to be winning the league, what benefit would that produce? Would it make it more likely that we would win the league? Would we make McInnes and the players' bonuses contingent on winning the treble? Or would that just sow division and make the players perform worse? What exactly would the point be of setting a target of first place in front of the wider public?

This'll set the cat up the hoops of the pigeons. I suppose it is deserved. Milne trying desperately to avoid having to choose another manager in case he fucks it up like every other appointment. Despite his detractors in this regard - and regardless of whether ye think he's worth it - McInnes has fairly shown a decent amount of commitment to the dons. He clearly enjoys being here.

What a bizarre/irrational attitude. Why would any player or manager who doesn't support the club think of us as anything other than a finite part of their career? The only issue with surrounding McGhee's appointment was the fact that he said it to the press instead of just saying he was sorting out his family situation or some such. But it's a fairly unique example and one that isn't really applicable to a manager. Logan didn't want to come to Aberdeen, GMS's form wasn't affected by him not wanting to be here, Shinnie knew he wasn't staying beyond the end of the season and many other examples - in fact the overwhelming majority of dons players. Stewart wanted to be here last season and turned out to be pish. The only relevance is whether a player wants to give his all when he's here and I don't doubt McGeouch - with his work ethic - will be an issue in that regard. If he joins any other team, then he can go and fuck himself obviously.

Do we really need players to be absolutely committed to the dons as their number one choice without looking at any other options or assessing their personal situation? If it takes a few weeks, then it takes a few weeks. It's quite a big decision to move town, especially if there is family involved, so a few extra days isn't the end of the world.

My team would be: ---------------Lewis--------------- Logan---Devlin--McKenna---NewGuyWho'sNameICan'tBeArsedLookingUp --------Ferguson--Bryson-------- Wilson-----Hedgeees-----McGinn ------------Cosgrove-------------- I think Wilson makes for as shite a winger as Stewart, but we might as well gie him a shottie.

I'm intrigued more than excited. My expectations based on last season's signings at the start of that season were low, and I'm in that same mindset this season. I'm with you in that I think we're a few signings short and the ones that we have made are fairly average. A lot will hinge on two signings for me. If Wilson turns out to be good at fitba then that would be a massive bonus and if the left back is anywhere near as good as Lowe then that'll be a boost too. I'm not seeing any other areas in which we've strengthened so I expect us to be worse.

You did not.

Ach, there's no harm in setting yer stall out on individuals before the start of the season. It's fine to be wrong now and again too. I think Main will be largely used as an impact sub to charge around and upset defenders and that's fine - hopefully we won't need that for most of the season. I think he might be cheaper than May too, which is why/how we've managed to add Wilson. May was an expensive backup like. I'm a bit concerned that we haven't shipped out May and Gleeson yet. I don't like to see us with a massive squad at this stage and we need to use the next couple of games to figure out where we're still lacking. I think Wilson might be a wide player this season, and so I expect and attacking midfielder to come in. I'm not convinced by the signings I'll be honest, I think that we're worse off than last season. I'd take a good midfielder and a good wide player before the end of the window, but I think we could still struggle for goals as ayrshire suggests.

It don't think he did, I think that he was "ordered to pay" and he was prosecuted. Would you prefer that everyone got sent to jail for everything?

I think that when you see something that flammable-looking too, the curiosity is just there. Setting on fire wid be fucking sair though.

Been unlucky with injury, but I don't think Frank Ross will make it like, he's nae quite got enough pace and I think that'll do it for a player in his position. Similar level to Cammy Smith in my opinion. Ethan Ross has the attributes to make it I reckon. If Frank could trick Ethan into going to Ayr instead of him, then he might get some game time before McInnes notices.

You guys clearly weren't at the Skonto Riga game. Absolute classic. Torino was a good game. Don't remember any other decent ones in the 90s.

It would have to be a hell of an improvement to see him anywhere near our first team. The reverse is that if he goes somewhere and does nothing (which is currently the most likely scenario given the last 4 years of his career) then even fewer clubs will be willing to take a punt on him, thus we only get 10% of his salary covered, as opposed to the 20-40% we might get by getting rid now. He's not been unprofessional in any way whilst here, just nae been good enough. Offload him and reduce the numbers in the squad thus giving Anderson a chance.

Nine times out of ten, that "technique" ended in him launching a shot 6 miles over the crossbar because he clearly hadn't perfected it in any match setting. He tried to do the modern style kicking under the ball technique on numerous occasions and was only succesful once (he had a great connection against Killie in the final game against them but it was too close to the keeper). It's really not that useful unless it's consistent and isn't done at the expense of all other parts of his game (which it was). Goodwillie also had great technique. Ferguson is just as good, technically, as Wilson in my opinion but backs it up by playing the game with his teammates in mind.

Given that we generally play a 4-2-3-1 and we only have Hedges, McGinn, Wright and McLennan to fill the wide areas (and at least two of those are actually better through the middle) I think that you could be right. I don't think we need May and Main, so I would get rid of May. That'd leave Cosgrove and Wilson fighting for the main striker role and Main to do the May position of filling in just behind/alongside dependent on the opposition. With Anderson as the first sub with a view to him getting more game time and hopefully more goals. Not necessarily true. Some strikers thrive on being a sub and some have useful attributes that can see them changing a game when they come on. Guys like Magennis for instance generally confused the shite out of defenders with his battering ram style. I could see Main being useful in that regard. In terms of Wilson though, I agree, he doesn't really have anything worth bringing off a bench. He's neither clever enough to fit straight in to an attack (Cosgrove is, because he has a very defined role) nor relentless enough to force a tired opponent to make mistakes.