RicoS321

The thing is, do we genuinely expect McInnes to solve every issue in the team every window, or should we expect that there are priorities? Up until this season (and probably even in the past summer window) left back wasn't nearly as much of an issue as striker, winger, midfield and centre of defence. Considine isn't an amazing left back, but his position wasn't the consistent area of concern across the park either - we had far greater glaring issues in striker in the summer (and still do arguably), central midfield (and still do arguably!) and in the forward wide areas. That we managed to get Lowe in was a huge bonus, as it lessened the extent to which the total fuck ups in other recruitment - midfield, striker - became an issue. I think that we're only now in a position where I'd put left back as the top signing priority, and that has as much to do with Shinnie being irreplaceable in our midfield by any of our existing squad than it has to do with Considine not being able in there. It is also conditional on the ambitious hope that between Cosgrove, May and Wilson we have enough to get some goals in the season run in. I think you're right that we should be looking for a long(ish) term plan for that role, as I think it's vital that we get at least one of our key deficient areas fulfilled in this window due to the fact that we might have several other key areas to fill in the summer. I generally assume that we can only fill 2 (Ferguson so far) key positions per season (and January is especially difficult for this) with long term solid signings, with others being either filled by loan or by adequate short term replacements like yer Balls, yer O'Connors, yer Stewarts, yer Hobans and so on. I think we are kidding ourselves if we think we can do more. If we get a loanee left back, than I'd expect we'll do some good further business in midfield or striker in order to bring in one good solid signing before summer - otherwise we'd have a very busy summer and we'll likely fail to get the required numbers in.

After all the hysterics on the various forums after Fraser left for nothing, it would be hilarious if he earned a big money move and bagged the dons their record transfer fee on the sell-on clause alone. Rumoured to be 22% or some such. The one downside is that he really seems to enjoy playing for Bournemouth, which might mean he doesn't move to a club who can pay the £20M+ that'd pay for our training ground for which he left due to it's non-existence.

I don't get the clamour for Gleeson in midfield. Weak as piss in any outing so far this season, with movement non-existent. Decent game against Hertz aside, he's been pap. He'd get run around by Christie, and slaughtered physically by Brown on previous showings. Considine at left back is significantly less risky than Gleeson in midfield. That said, neither are great options, and it shows the dilemma we have if Lowe isn't fit. I realise that if Considine goes to left back then we have zero central defenders though, so I sort of get it. I think we should just prop Lowe up on the left side and hope for the best - he's nae our player after all. Taking Shinnie out of midfield was not good for us against Hearts though, and meant we absolutely had to sacrifice a second striker. His workrate is phenomenal. Anyway, we'll fuck them up 2-0. Gleeson double.

You didn't answer the questions. Which of these clubs have a scouting network on the continent? I didn't ask you to name foreigners. Aberdeen are perfectly capable of signing the occasional foreigner on recommendation, and that's exactly what these clubs are doing (Kamara from Dundee, signed from England, probably recommending his Finnish u21 teammate for example). They aren't establishing a reliable network of scouts that would be required to get a significant return on the continent because they won't spend the money, whereas all of the above teams have English-based scouts. Of the above, only Kamberi could be classed as a legitimitally decent foreign import (and even he was weak as watery pish against us recently), but he was a loan punt in the January window. There simply isn't a club getting a good return on foreign investment at the moment in our league. The fact that we're pish at signing players shouldn't be answered by giving our scouts even more uselss cunts to look at.

I've asked on a few different threads in the past, and I'm still waiting for this mythical claim to be evidenced. Perhaps you can help? Which club in Scotland (or the UK if you prefer) have produced a regular return of players from a scouting network in central, eastern and northern europe? Which teams currently have a scouting network in central, eastern and southern europe? Which countries within that/those regions should we be looking at? What number of games would you expect a scout to be able to take in within an average week featuring players within our budget range? What would the distances travelled be and costs associated with that travel be (i.e what size of scouting network would be required)? Why do you think that players in mainland Europe or Scandinavia are a better fit for Scottish fitba than players in England? Do you think that this increase in suitability/fit outweighs the difficulty in getting a player to settle? Post Brexit, will we have to return them all? Thanks in advance.

It looked like the first one was aimed at the run of Ball, the second and third just pap. The worst thing was that he just threw the ball down on the corner spot without placing it on each occasion. You would never get McGinn or anyone else doing that. There could have been divots, one of the attempts was closer to the corner flag than any normal player would take a kick and if you can repeat a kick from exactly the same spot each time, why wouldn't you? It was like he was in a training environment.

I wondered if you'd spot that. I was in total agreement with you when you mentioned it earlier in the season, and I think that's the first time I've seen him kick the ball with any force toward goal. The only thing I would say is that it took a few steps to get his feet ready for kicking, so maybe it's an effort for him! Will see soon if it's a one-off, or he just needed a bit of confidence to get going.

Agreed. My hope is that Ball has done little wrong this season and McInnes wants to keep him happy as we'll rely on him in some big games. My biggest fear is that it was in preparation for Saturday. That we'll play Ball, Shinnie and Ferguson against Hearts rather than stick with the working attacking setup. I've said on many previous occasions that we should have a strategy for youth, which meant that if we are 3+ goals ahead in a match that our young players on the bench should be given priority. If we explicitly built this into policy, then guys like Ball, Wilson and Forrester wouldn't feel hard done by when not getting their ten minutes to shine. Neither Wilson or Forrester did anything to merit their appearances again and - Wilson especially - those minutes would be far better utilised on a return on our youth investment. If senior players aren't ready, then they won't ever be. With obvious exception for players returning from injury. Anyway, great performance last night. Battered them.

Is there nae a winter break in about ten days time? I'm in general agreement like, but we don't really have a replacement for Ferguson unfortunately unless Dean Campbell is getting closer to first team form. We saw against St Johnstone the dangers of arsing about too much.

As long as FPTP remains, there will never be a split of either the Tories or Labour. I've always thought that FPTP is an awful system, because it is. However, if it were to be replaced by PR it would actually make little difference given the lack of spread between large parts of the parties. As we see with this Brexit fuck up, there is a form of PR within the actual parties themselves. Currently, there is probably as great a divide between yer Blairites and Corbynistas (as they're both called) or yer Hard and Soft Brexiteers as there is between yer Blairites and Soft Brexiters. Yer left with this shite: HardBrexiters----------SoftB---LibDem---Blairites-----------Corbynites Basically all the decision making happens in that centre space, with a few limited foray into/appeasements to the right and left at times. That model above could easily be illustrating a 5 party system in a PR arragement, with a few limited forays into/appeasements to the left and right wings. Fit I mean is, that a split is unlikely as that would involve losing the power that is only possible through FPTP. However, if it happened, it would have to be aaccompanied by a shift to PR. Depressingly, I think we'd be left with the same shite regardless. That centre circle of Soft Brexit to Blairites can never be pulled far enough in either direction to provide solutions to the challenges that are actually required for us to become a next level fucking ace species. I think I should probably be in charge. This shit doesn't work.

Exactly. Fucking plastic pitch cunts.

Ball was absolutely rank when he played there earlier in the season and definitely isn't a better centre half than Considine. Considine was poor against St Johnstone, but so was McKenna and both were at fault for the goals last night (Considine more so obviously). Prior to that he was excellent against the Huns and Tims. Other than his fuck up for the goal (and miss) last night he was okay (in very windy conditions) and certainly not an area I'd be concerned about against St Mirren. Even his fuck up last night was just a poor touch rather than being way out of position or letting his man go. That type of error is more fundamental and can happen to anyone (I actually think Lewis could have taken man and ball). I actually thought that the second goal was far poorer as a defence than the first, with McKenna particularly culpable (although I'm certain their player was offside in the build up, we still had plenty of cover). Ball is very much a midfielder, regardless of where he played for Sevco in the diddy league.

I have to admit - and I haven't seen it back - it looked to me like Cosgrove moved his leg towards their player rather than the other way round. I was pretty close to it in the RDS, but Thompson is still the worst ref in the league - a total arrogant cunt. We were ace in the second half tonight though, really enjoyable. From the kick off they just pressed the shite out of Livi, with some excellent play by McLennan, Cosgrove and May. Great to see May creating opportunities for himself with huge effort. He's not had many good chances (in front of goal) so getting himself in those positions is the first step. Thought Ferguson was poor until he scored, but he worked hard, as did Shinnie. Considine poor for the first goal, McKenna for the second, but the effort from the whole team (apart from Wright who was shite) made up for it in spades. Finally, special mention to McInnes for getting it right tonight. That formation has to be what we play every time we play at home. There's no room for Ball at Pittodrie unless its as cover for Shinnie or Ferguson. We need to set up to win games at home. Even in the first half we created more opporunities than against St Johnstone, and that setup is absolutely vital to that. He also must have fairly battered them at half time, as we were relentless in the second half. More of the same in the next two games dandies.

I think snooker is completely different, and very easy to compare, similarly with golf or other individual sports that involve a scoring system. I don't need to have seen Joe Davis to know that he wasn't better than O'Sullivan or Hendry, the scores are there for everyone to see. O'Sullivan and Hendry both having far greater century counts and not in tables with giant pooches. Cheating Joe Davis fuck. He didn't even get to the crucible, the deed fuck.

O'Sullivan is also playing at a time where the players are significantly better than ever before. John Higgins is better than both Steve and his brother Joe Davis so is even the likes of Neil Robertson - even Steve Davis has said this on several occasions. The stats for 147s, centuries etc are far higher than ever before in individual tournaments at a time when the tables are getting faster and the pockets tighter (not like darts where they've increased the size of the beds #dartsConspiracy). Safety play is also significantly more accurate than in Hendry's earlier days, with long potting almost a given. You hear it in every commentary session from Taylor, Parrot etc who talk about modern players not missing long pots and so on. O'Sullivan's record is for most "triple crown" victories, which is just the three big tournaments where he is now ahead of Hendry, so number of tournaments is irrelevant (if anything, it's more of a hindrance). I'm sort of with you on the 7 world championships thing, but I've heard Hendry even acknowledge that he thinks Ronnie is a better player than he was, which is good enough for me. It's tight between them, but they're both miles ahead of anyone else to have played the game. I've always backed Hendry as the best but only because he's Scottish and I'm clearly biased - taking that aside, I think O'Sullivan edges it. A 147 in 5 minutes and centuries in actual competitive matches with your wrong hand is something beyond that which any other has done in the sport. I don't think it is about opinions though really. The stats are very very clear (certainly that he's better than anyone but Hendry). Your or my opinion doesn't trump those facts. Especially in snooker when you play yourself as much as your opponent.

O'Sullivan wouldn't make your top three snooker players of all time? That'd be strange. I think even Stephen Hendry would grudgingly admit that Ronnie was better than him, and there was no one better than Hendry, by any objective measure.

Or they could just call him (Sinclair) a liar like the Tims would do

Hun

That was a beauty of a pass and one that only him or McGinn or GMS would have made. That's what people like me see in him, but he's not doing it enough at the moment. There was one earlier in the game too, when he laid off an excellent ball with a deft touch to Lowe which was inch perfect for him to put in the cross - again not something others would have done. The problem on Saturday was McInnes dicking about with the setup every two minutes. Wright started brightly in the centre but was quickly shifted out wide and then to the other wing and then back again. He basically nullified Wright by confusing fuck out of him. My thought was that he did it to get Ferguson in the game more, but it didn't work. The problem with that approach is that Ferguson has had plenty of game time whereas Wright is just getting little bits here and there. McInnes needed to completely simplify the role given to Wright (and McLennan) at the weekend, sticking him in one position and keeping him there to make it easier for him. When he gets the confidence that minutes on the pitch brings, then consider shifting him about as you would with GMS or McGinn. He made it so difficult for the lad, it was frustrating to watch. As for Ferguson, he was poor again and regularly is in that role. He's not the attacking forward, he's the deep lying creator and passer that was completely lacking on Saturday. Ball had some nice touches and some decent play, but it always ended in a sideways pass or the easy/lazy pass out wide to a deep-lying Logan for another looped cross (not Logan's fault). Ball is cover for Shinnie, or for the away games where we require that extra number to break up play in midfield. It's frustrating that McInnes felt obliged to play him after his previous good performances despite it not being the best tactical approach in a home game against poorer opposition. We engineered our own loss on Saturday, and we'll need to undo that shite tomorrow.

You'll be steaming across to work in ten minutes next week with the bypass opening then? Although, there is no connection with the airse end of Badentoy though, is there? A straight route into Portlethen from the road wid have made sense. Off at Altens and straight into Hillside I suppose? I'm sure there's a thread for this somewhere...

I don't like to hand out other folks information online as I think that's a little bit dodgy if there are randoms watching in, but I could give you a clue given yer a loon fa kens the Aberdeen area you should be able to get it. It begins with "P" and ends in "ortlethen".

I think we need to be a bit more attacking for this one. I'd take out Ball and move Ferguson deeper, with McGinn in front. Wright and McLennan on the wings. Even if Devlin is fit, I'd keep Considine in for this one as a recognition of his performance in the last couple - give Devlin a wee bit more time. Whilst May has been relatively pap, I'd have him to score against his former team. Wilson shouldn't be in a dons top again after his cup final efforts, so I'd just take him out of the equation altogether. Anderson, for me, is still a little raw and should continue from the bench for now as I don't think he has 90 minutes in him yet and I think he's better fresh off the bench when others are tiring than vice-versa. --------------Lewis-------------- Logan--Consi--McKenna--Lowe ---------Ferguson--Shinnie----- --Wright---McGinn---McLennan --------------May----------------

Yep, good point. Although they're mic'd up, so I reckon they'll have spoken with McLean just doing whatever the fuck he wanted. Special mention to Shinnie for going down at Morelos' flailing arm like. Made sure he got the card. To be honest, I thought that between the cup final and January we'd just need to grind out as many points as possible against the shiter teams because of our lack of forward abilities, but if we can put in that type of battling performance then there's no reason we can't get ourselves within touching distance by the windae where we can hopefully get a striker. For all the early season hysterics about Hertz running away from us, we're 3 points behind them with two games in hand, which shows the tightness of the league at the moment. Hopefully McInnes will tie Wilson to a chair and force him to watch that game over and over again until he realises what effort looks like.

Nice min, cheers. I like the sound of Scolty. I was thinking of something slightly more inland depending on the weather as we already get a shite load of wind doon here. I might try the Banchory Devenick ones for a start to see how the wee bugger gets on. Bit of protection fae trees might be a nice change for her.

I ken fit it is min, but it's a heap of bollocks backed by no evidence (in fact all the obvious evidence points the opposite way). For raising livestock, it's fine, but it doesn't take into account the sheer volume of land that is required and the damage that is done by devoting that much land to livestock. Nor the fact that it couldn't possibly feed the world's population. It's hugely destructive, putting speed of re-growth over usefulness of calories and diversity of nutrition. It's essentially growing grass to feed more cows in a rotational grazing system, which certainly isn't anything remotely new. The obvious problem is that on that land you could grow significant multiples of calories in the form of plants that would carry far more nutrition, health benefits and hugely reduced emissions. If it's reversing desertification, then Geoff Lawton's yer man. If it's regenerational mixed farming, then have a look at Richard Perkins or thon types on youtube who provide a far better balance along similar lines, with significantly less livestock inputs. Or Bill Mollison - deed - for the permaculture approach, which is a far better "mimicking nature" approach.