RicoS321

Apart from the shite about Britain caring about democracy. It's an interesting state of affairs in Portugal right now, and he's right about the blanket ignoring of it in the media. Al Jazeera was the only place that gave a decent overview. There's only one way Europe is heading if they continue to ignore the rights of countries' citizens. It's a pretty fucked experiment. The legal requirement for surplus for individual Euro members is fuckin bizarre like.

The dons train at Countesswells, and had to put up some changing facilities separate to those used by kids I think.

Totally disagree. His ability to play in several different positions would suggest he has a good understanding of the game. His excellent runs off the ball, and the way he drops in to cover for other players shows a pretty good team player. His crossing has vastly improved since he first arrived, to the point his crosses more often than not hit the man (or the area where the player should be). Decision making and the occasional poor technique happen when you play the game at the pace that Hayes does. There's not a better left sided player in the SPL in my opinion.

Una cerveza por favor.

Just saw it again, I was spikkin shite, entirely Jack's fault. He did well to get back in and - sort of - put the Jute off.

Possibly one for the Jack thread, but fuck it. Thought Jack was a lot better today and got better as the game went on. Took responsibility for his misplaced pass, apologising to everyone on the pitch, twice, and McInnes which was quite amusing. I'd like to see a replay of the second one though, as I actually thought McLean was at fault as much as Jack. Jack was breaking from defence and running directly toward McLean. Instead of McLean turning and moving into space, taking the defender with him he just stood still waiting til Jack was a couple of yards from him with only a risky pass to Logan on - which he made a cunt of. I thought McLean was often the weak link out right, he seems far more comfortable in field. That said, I thought Pawlett's movement was excellent again today, keeping high up the park and stretching them at every opportunity. His passes were always in front of the player too (see Hayes' goal) ready for them just to run on to, and he got himself into the box at every opportunity. Hayes man of the match with Shinnie and Pawlett close behind. Flood was very good too, and him and Jack seemed not to get under each other's feet for a change too. Overall, a comfortable performance. I may even watch it again on Alba.

He also has a history of being a serious journalist and can think for himself unlike yer average news reader.

Go on. Yer only smoking it.

Apart from when asking: "how did an asset now valued at £62M on your books get acquired for £4M post oldco liquidation?"

Jebus. Huns release their annual results with a loss of £7.5M and a note showing that they'll need £2.5M further investment to see them through to the end of the season..... in order to hide the fact that today the EBT appeal by HMRC was successful thereby fucking over the oldco too. Awesome. Die you sevco fucks.

Nobody suggested they didn't deserve support. My suggestion is that they deserve different support (from the state for a start). That the two need to be separated. Given that I don't know anyone who died in WW1/2 - my grandparents were involved in WW2 in some capacity - I see remembrance as a tool to remind us that wars don't need to, an shouldn't, happen. In fact, that was what I was taught at school. As Rocket suggests, the poppy is effectively hijacked for use in later - avoidable - wars. Hijacked by a duplicitous prime minister (Cameron, and Blair before obviously) who is simultaneously stoking up support for a bombing campaign in Syria. Basically, I don't think it's enough just to remember. All that remembrance money going to monuments and funds to help the continuous stream of needless deaths is just perverse. The remembrance funds should be used to prevent more war - that would be the best legacy of WW1/2 and the best way to stop future deaths. Surely that's the point in the poppy? Could you imagine us going to war in Iraq if the previous ten years' poppy funds had gone into anti-war lobbying? Or, through education, we had an armed forces who were able to stand up and question the conflict that they're being asked to fight in; a mass conscientious objection, because they have been empowered to do so. That'd be worth buying a poppy for.

Stupid cunt - me - I meant tax threshold. Even then, it's not a great analogy! Why do you need monetary reward for performance? Especially as a team. It's absurd. It has absolutely nothing to do with competition, and it is entitlement. I pay money to play in a football league every week, and try and win every single game. The prize is winning, beating your opponent. Footballers expect a good wage (rightly so) and will often be seen as money-grabbing and so on, but that takes place off the pitch. There's not one player in a dons shirt of a weekend playing his arse off so that his parent club can make £100,000 extra for finishing above the club below them. They just want to beat Hertz, the Jutes or whoever. The prize is finishing above them; winning. Just as I don't turn up at work to increase the oil company I'm working for's share price. As for other sports, most are irrelevant. Individual sports aren't - for the most part - dominated by wealthy players winning everything. Andy Murray can't buy better tennis bats than Marin Cilic because he won more money at the previous tournament. But then I don't believe he still plays tennis for the money either. The US entry draft system is probably the only example I can think of where last season's poorer teams are given first pick. I have no idea what their prize structure is like. Not that it's relevant what every other league or sport does. I'd rather Scotland broke the mould, and tried something new. Given we're in our most sustained period of two team domination in the history of our game, we'd certainly do well to try something meaningful.

De-criminalise initially, then legalise and tax. We spend an absolute fortune on policing and locking up adults for taking and selling an arbitrary substance to other adults. Spend the savings on better social education and better provision of social alternatives to boozing.

Quite simple really. Just remove the phrase "prize money", and replace it with "distribution payment". In a team sport where money can make a team exponentially better over time, the notion of prize money is absurd. You're suggesting that fairness in sport isn't measured on performance of two teams with a similar sporting chance, but on one team's ability to overcome a severe initial handicap. In fact the fairness you're referring to is just perceived entitlement - the exact opposite of fairness. It's about as fair as the fat lazy cunt with wealthy parents fa's just benefited from an increase in inheritance tax.

I've said for years that that cash should be split evenly between everyone in the league so that everyone knows they're budget at the beginning of the season, and everyone gets a good payment. The nonsense that is cash per place is just anti-sport. Only the top 4 would lose out if the cash was split evenly, and only the top 3 significantly. Put another way: given an over-estimate of SPL player's salaries and expenses at £100K p.a., we'd be able to afford 10 more players than the Motherwell team that didn't get relegated in the play-off. These are just prize funds of course. It's safe to say that any increase in player's salaries etc. can be covered by increased attendances that roughly correlate with better performance on the park. If we want a more competitive league then a sporting prize fund is a must. It's not just the gap to the Tims that is the use.

I can't help but think McLean is shoe-horned in there because there's no one better. The further away from our defence he is the better I think. I don't believe he's good enough defensively to play deeper, but it may work versus the shiter teams. But I also think that Shinnie is better at left back (than Considine). It's the one position I think we're missing a good starter in. Every other position on the pitch we've got a guaranteed player that is good enough to start regularly, and in many positions we have two or three that could do a great job. Where you've put Goodwillie, I'd say is both McLean and Pawlett's best position too, and I wouldn't play them anywhere else (perhaps Pawlett on the wing if we're struggling for players). But it could be that Jack is the issue? Perhaps he doesn't do enough at defensive cover that a better player might, which means we can't afford the luxury of Kenny McLean and Goodwillie alongside him. If he had a bit more grit and was stronger in the tackle - pressing like Flood or Scott Brown - rather than slowing down the play to wait for support (which might not come), it'd allow us more room in midfield for ball players like McLean. Similarly, if we got in a strong defensive midfielder, does Jack have the ability to become the incisive midfielder capable of moving the ball quickly? I think we're a better team with Jack in it, but perhaps we're seeing the limits to his ability and maybe we're not pushing him to improve in the defensive areas of his game - or to fulfil one key role. But I'm probably over-thinking it.

Nor should it. Apart from the fact that wearing the poppy (unless you made your own) isn't about remembering the dead of WW1 and WW2, it's about raising money for charity to help veterans of all wars. In other words, you can't really wear the poppy without donating to the cause of more modern wars (all WW1ers are now deed, and WW2ers are dwindling, and the majority probably no longer in need of financial support) - they're financially inseparable. Not that I have a problem with giving money to soldiers of modrin war, even though I disagree with the acts of war in themselves. If poppies were free, I think that'd be better. Also, and I'm not denying you're authenticity here Manc, it's become so polluted by folk who wear it to be seen to be wearing it, that I think it's lost any meaning. If I'm really honest, I don't feel any great emotion or sense of feeling toward the dead of any war before I was born - despite enjoying many a book about lots, and getting riled by some of the stories. I suppose I feel that - by wearing a poppy - I'm hijacking someone else's emotion. Like being at a funeral of someone you met once in the pub ten years ago.

Couple of things. First, Rocket, your stats have Quinn not playing against the Tim. I thought he started? He certainly played - given he scored - and I was sure we'd started with the back 5 of Logan, Taylor, Quinn Considine, Hayes? Anyway, that aside, I think the stats show that in general the back four have been not mucked about too much other than in the Hibs game, where bad substitutions after injury were an issue. I have noticed however that we change our midfield nearly every week, and during games, which does seem to be causing problems. We had absolutely zero cover for our defence against St Johnstone and for large parts of the Motherwell game. I think that inconsistency is really affecting us, and Jack in particular. Whilst his own game has gone to shite, it's not being helped by the lack of a good defensive partner. In the last few games he's tried Flood, Shinnie, McLean and Hayes, and that lack of a permanent option seems to be pretty detrimental. I think McInnes needs to choose his preferred option and stick with it for a few weeks. Jack, in my opinion, is too weak to be captain and even too weak to organise his fellow midfielders. He needs to stick to the game he is very good at. Ball retention and breaking down attacks by slowing them down as a result of being in the right place. In order to do that, there needs to be few surprises as to where your team mates are going to be. I predict McInnes will turn it around, and we'll win all our games in November....

Do you have a badge under your poppy stating this?

Is Taylor injured? Always a threat at corners, so I'd have him in if available as I thought Quinn made a couple of errors against County and Motherwell when he came on. Think Reynolds did enough to keep his place. Whilst Flood is okay in this type of game, I think Shinnie was outstanding there in the home fixture, so I'd go Shinnie. I'd hook McLean for his poor performance against Well, even though he was playing deeper than should be allowed, and keep Pawlett in as I thought his movement was excellent despite his poor finishing. ---------------Ward------------------- Logan---Taylor----Reynolds----Consi ---------Jack-----Shinnie------------- --Hayes-------Pawlett-------McGinn-- -------Roooooooooooooney---------- I'd stick with that for a good 60 minutes, nae switching McGinn and Hayes back and forth, they're both significantly better when they hit the byline, and we're far more dangerous as a result.

Hopefully it'll have the same effect as last time.

Played there for ICT last season. And played well unsurprisingly. I'd rather see him there and Considine at left back, than McLauchlan, if Logan got injured.

Aye, pretty horrendous like. Shame.

Not strictly banking practice, but David Graeber covers monetary policy in the guardian today. Worth a quick read: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/28/2008-crash-government-economic-growth-budgetary-surplus

If it was the same rumour, then it was Ash Taylor's missus and it was started by some chunt on twitter. Given that Taylor dealt with it on twitter in a reasonably jovial manner would suggest that it was fuck all about nothing,so the players are probably not concerned either way. To me, it just looks like a severe dip in confidence, which has been made worse by inconsistent team (formation) selection and poor use of subs. It seems that, in an attempt to make us unpredictable, McInnes has actually made us less potent, disorganised and pedestrian. I thought at times at the weekend we started looking like an organised team again, and it showed in the creation of several good chances. The glaring issue for us seems to be the second holding midfielder alongside Jack. Unfortunately - because I think he's an ace left back - Shinnie is the only option in there just now with Flood good enough to provide cover against Partick and such like. MacLean and Pawlett are clearly either/or players not both on the pitch at the same time. The problem is that it had to be a flawless season from us to win the title (and a huge slice of luck), and we've let that slip. We needed guys like McLaughlin and Parker to be hidden gems. I think it was clear in the way that both were signed that that was never going to be the case, and the punt on them hasn't paid off. If we can keep the gap to Celtic small between now and January, hopefully we'll make space for another striker or winger and a centre mid. The difference between us and the Tims, or McInnes and Delia to be more precise, is that one has scope for error and the other doesn't. McInnes isn't good enough to have a perfect season, but I doubt many mangers exist that are.