Sweetchuck

I guess that overall, the point which I'm trying to make is that during all the time that we were getting gubbed under Aitken, Skovdahl and Paterson, there was a feeling that things could - if not necessarily would - improve in some way, shape or form. There was always a sense that a corner could be turned. Under JC, what has developed is a sense of futility in two key senses. Firstly, the sense that no matter how long we persist with him, he'll still be unable to learn the kind of lessons which would stop us getting humiliated in the cups and frustrated so easily in crucial league games. He simply doesn't have any answers to the questions which are asked of him in management. Secondly, there is an ever-growing sense of futility in terms of the fans' ability to effect change. Calderwood is constantly bleating about how nobody dares approach him in the street, but when he is tackled (eg. EE fans' forum, Scotland match in the Netherlands) he simply acts like a spoilt kid and refuses to acknowledge even constructive criticism. Worse still - from my point of view, although I accept that it is not a view shared by everybody on here - is the fact that no matter how bad things get, there is a feeling that so much executive footballing power has been has vested in Willie Miller (which he, in turn, has entrusted in Calderwood by making it clear that if JC goes, WM goes too) that nothing will ever change. I simply do not believe that Calderwood and - albeit to a lesser extent - Miller have the club's best interests at heart, and consequently, I don't believe that renewing my ST would be in the club's best interests either. That - and the resultant sense of abject futility and angry exasperation on my part - means that I simply can't bear to let the club think all of the fans are prepared to let them continue in this vein.

Heard about this from someone who was at the game. When I saw our lineup I thought it was due to the age of the lads (most are under-19s) but was then told that the Hearts team was exactly the same: a load of young lads being blooded at reserve level. Thank God Willie Miller's 5 years of 'overhauling' the youth setup are finally paying dividends. Still, at least this latest embarrassment can't be covered up by massaging figures about how many youth internationals we have, as is the usual practice.

No. They all offered something which Calderwood's reign does not. In the case of Aitken, we competed for (and won) silverware. In the case of Skovdahl, we got to cup finals, got back into Europe and were treated to some wildly entertaining football (albeit also a few outrageous gubbings). In the case of Paterson, there was a degree of understanding as the budget with which he was told to work was a pittance, particularly in comparison with that lavished on Calderwood since he took over, which has subsequently been pished away on useless nobodies like Derek Young, Tommy Wright, Stuart Duff, Neil MacFarlane and Lee Mair. Under Calderwood, there is no entertainment, no anticipation before a match, no humility, no sense that he has any clue as to his deficiencies or how to address them, and no sense that it is ever going to get anything other than worse under his stewardship. Sometimes the easy and obvious thing to do is not the right thing to do. My opinion is that by renewing my ST, I'm explicitly endorsing JC's reign for yet another year of tedium, frustration and outright anger, and as I said, it's as much for the good of my own health as it is for that of AFC. Because I love the club so much, I find it exceptionally difficult to tolerate the kind of football and rampant egocentrism which Calderwood represents.

No chance whatsoever of me renewing mine unless significant managerial/boardroom changes take place this summer. I still love the club and always will, but supporting Calderwood's tenure is in the long-term interests neither of AFC nor of my blood pressure. I'll be back when we have someone in the dugout who is capable of putting club ahead of ego in his list of priorities. Being able to string a sentence together without sounding like a total fucking arsepipe would also be a significant improvement.

Fair enough - should have read more closely. Like you, I seriously doubt that Charlie Allan will bring any intelligent perspective to bear upon the matter. He'd be hard pushed to read it, let alone spell it himself. The other points - about the financing and the pathetic attempt to make the report sound meaningful and important by quoting the shit-for-brains consultantspeak - still stand, though.

So this report - on which AFC has spunked the best part of £1m due to the Council's refusal to pay - has now confirmed what an earlier, equally expensive report told us? It's full of meaningless consultant wankspeak ("enabling opportunities") and says nothing which previous studies and common sense haven't already shown to be the case. The most important section - which Charlie Allan (why break the habit of a scab lifetime) fails to address - is this: "Potential" funding from "prospective" partners? In other words, we still can't afford it, and are basing our plans on assumed contributions during the worst economic downturn in almost a century. The Council has already ruled itself out. We won't get central funding because there are no plans to host a European Championship. Our debt stands at around £6-7m, which would gobble up around 2/3 of the proceeds of Pittodrie's sale, and possibly even more, given the commercial property slump. I would be delighted to hear which organisations the club thinks will be prepared to piss away £30 million on a community stadium. This report from the EE - if not the full report itself (haven't read it yet) - is full of smoke and mirrors and doesn't say anything noteworthy which we didn't already know or suspect. The bottom line is that without local authority funding, how on earth do we seriously expect to fund this?

The Batistuta one took place in August. I remember because I was on holiday when I saw it. That was back when we all used to chat on the forum at afc.co.uk (now sadly defunct) and one guy who logged in was inadvertently logged in as AFC Admin and decided to have a bit of fun.

Robert Fik? Think it was his wife who vetoed the deal as she couldn't stand the way Aberdeen looked. Robert Fleck was a permed, mulleted Hun wank striker from the 80s; uncle of current Hun wank-protege striker, John Fleck. As with most dyed-in-the-wool Huns, he had the kind of smug, perma-cunt, 'awrightbigmanmoanraglesgaraynjurs' face a good claw hammer would never tire of kissing:

Hreidarsson was at Pittodrie for a trial in 1997. We offered him a derisory contract; he told us to stuff it and went back home. Crystal Palace then became interested and offered him a deal which we could almost certainly have matched back then (think Hignett), if we'd had the foresight to realise he would have become the kind of player who would one day command a £4m transfer fee. The Thierry Henry story is the same old nugget that gets trotted out once every few years about how AS Monaco were pimping Henry and Trezeguet around Europe as youngsters. The story goes that the pair of them were available for £500k, but Alex Miller decided they would never amount to anything and weren't worth the outlay. Very little substance to the story, of course, even if the Alex Miller claim is entirely believable.

I am so fucking sick of these idiots from outwith Aberdeen FC telling us that our unhappiness is hasty and that this is some sort of snap protest being made on the back of the Dunfermline defeat alone. It's not. From my point of view, it's the eruption of a syndrome which has been percolating for years now. For the benefit of incoherent arseholes like Alex Smith, that simply means that we've been putting up with this for quite some time now, but it's reached breaking point in much the same way our patience snapped with you in 1992 when you progressively undid all of the good work done (presumably by Jocky Scott) up to the final day of season 90/91, taking us to mid-table ignominy and the start of our slide into European humiliation. Since the end of JC's first season, we've endured persistently bad results in the domestic cups. As a result of this, we have already lost out on enormous revenue (the QoTS game costing us European qualification this season, for example). We've achieved mediocre league positions despite (relative) enormous investment in the playing squad and JC being allowed to spunk transfer fees that the likes of Steve Paterson could only have dreamt of in the grip of a vodka-induced delirium (and subsequently free transfer practically the lot of 'em). We've played atrociously unentertaining football and then been told that our expectations are too high when we get gubbed home and away by Hamilton. HAMILTON, for fuck sake. We've had to put up with a litany of excuses, and JC's constant repetition that "I would never make excuses, but...". We've had to put up with favouritism and cronyism which would make the freemasons blush. We've had to put up with JC persistently refusing to accept any responsibility whatsoever for our lack of footballing savvy and off-the-pitch squad direction, not to mention responsibility for treating the fans as the people whose enormous investment of time, love and money are what gives him the phenomenally privileged position he currently occupies, rather than thinking that we exist merely as a means to satisfy his ego. Oh, and if Alex Smith is to be quoted as an authoritative voice on matters related to Scottish football, let's just take a sneaky peek at his CV: Stenhousemuir: sacked Stirling: did nothing of note St Mirren: sacked Aberdeen: sacked Clyde: sacked Scotland U21: sacked Dundee Utd: sacked Ross County: sacked Why the fuck does this perennial failure think his opinion matters a jot to us or Aberdeen FC? Fuck off back to your career's worth of jotters, you incoherent, mumbling prick; and don't even dare to think that you know better than us what would be best for Aberdeen FC.

Always happy to oblige, gents. Incidentally, a mate has just told me that Hateley is guest of honour at some function for the pond scum bigots in Peterhead this weekend. The level of support which the Govan filth commands along the NE coast is absolutely shameful.

Farina's perhaps not the worst shout, but getting Australia to qualify for the World Cup really isn't any great achievement. Plus, they had already qualified at least once before: back in 1974, if I remember correctly. Anyway, back to qualification: have you seen their qualifying groups? For the 2006 World Cup, the Oceania qualifying pool was made up of the Solomon Islands, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Tonga, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, American Samoa, New Zealand and - of course - Australia. From now on, after topping that group, you play the 5th best team from the Asian Federation (which was Bahrain in qualification for 2006) and hey presto; Bruce is your father's brother, mate. Seems like even less of a challenge on paper than our Cup draws have been in recent years, and yet Farina actually managed to get his team not to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.

He's definitely a son of Ibrox, Reekie. However, he's one of a rare breed who can actually be referred to as a "Rangers fan" as opposed to a "Hun". It's pretty hard to support a club like Rangers without legitimising all the nonsense that they stand for, but Speirs' attacks on the hierarchy at Ibrox (not to mention on the froth-mouthed FTP brigade in the stands) show that it is in fact possible to support Rangers without being a total, utter, cunt about it. A rare breed, right enough. The fact that the Huns have disowned him for his exposing of what they are and what they stand for says far, far more about them than it does about Speirs, and means that even as a Rangers fan, he's gone up in my estimation. Graham Speirs:

I can only presume that this is because the only possible public response to this is: "Er... Yes, but... Um... Top 6... Ahhh... UEFA... Ehhhh... Hold on; you're right; this guy has exhausted the patience of the fans, who are an infinitely more valuable resource to this club than Jimmy Calderwood ever has been or ever will be to anyone other than his own ego". Or something along those lines.

8)

7. I know it shouldn't be the case, but beating the Huns on the last day of season 2007/08 to ensure they had no chance of winning the SPL was almost as sweet as winning it ourselves. 8. Breaking our home drought against Rangers, courtesy of Jamie Smith's screamer past Waterreus.

5. I would argue that rather than being another addition to the list, my point is is at the core of all that is wrong with JC. Every manager makes mistakes, but it is through learning from those mistakes that you improve. However, JC's unflinching ability to accept any criticism or accept that his approach is flawed is his major failing. This is why we constantly see a tactical tombola; this is why we constantly match our formation to lower-league opposition; this is why we get under-performing players in a comfort zone; this is why player performance or ability has no bearing on team selection; this is why players get victimised by the manager; this is why we get the same old excuses trotted out time and again; this is why things will never improve for as long as JC is in charge.

Correct, although the Huns absolutely despise him and are paranoically convinced that he's a 'Trojan Tim'. First sentence, fourth paragraph.

Apologies for lengthy cut 'n' paste jobbies. I wonder if Milne, Miller and Calderwood are starting to get the message?

This. The article is totally lacking in any real journalistic insight and basically reads thus: - I hate Aberdeen - They used to be pretty decent, but never as good as me and my mates - I hate Aberdeen - Aberdeen have lost a few games to lower league clubs in recent years - This shouldn't really be happening - By the way, I still hate Aberdeen - Their players are obviously having problems with motivation - Did I mention that I hate Aberdeen? - Did I mention how much I love disabled kids, and how an Aberdeen fan tried to murder them and me whilst I was making daisy chains and counting bunny rabbits with them? - Er... That's it. IjusthavenoughtimetosayonemoretimehowmuchIfuckinghatethosesheepshaggingcuntsfromupnorth. Why does he feel the need to tell everyone yet again that he was kicked on the ankle by a Dons fan? Those sections stand out as totally irrelevant, with no link whatsoever to the broad sweep of the piece, let alone the sections in which they're located. What possible relevance does this have to the article, other than demonstrating once again how much of an axe he has to grind against AFC, rather than the other way round? That, combined with his trotting out the old "Aberdeen only really raise their game against Rangers" pish means that his opinions can safely be filed away under the "ignorant, lazy, brainless, arse-faced, shit-for-brains OF jizz-hoover" category. The mere mention of this discredits any article whatsoever as it is by far the biggest myth in Scottish football; even more of a myth than Kirk Clubfoot's "talent". All I can say to Hateley is that I'm sorry it wasn't your throat that got stamped on with an ice-skate, you dirty, cheating, lank-haired fuck. Get back to your failed shithole bigot Hun wife-beaters' refuelling stop and don't dare to think that your opinion holds any sway whatsoever with the Aberdeen support, no matter how retarded and catch-all your points are. Turgid, blinkered, fact-lite journalism at its very, very worst.

Indeed; I think I may also have mentioned this previously. Willie Miller will no doubt enter head up arse in sand mode again and claim that attendances and ST sales have dropped because of the recession. This is patently bollocks, however: if it were really that bad, average SPL attendances would not have risen over the past 12 months. AFC's attendances, on the other hand, have fallen at an average of around 1,000 per season since JC took over, and we'll be lucky if we only see a drop of 1,000 between now and this time next year (assuming JC stays in charge). The recession is a nice handy excuse though, which is why I'll be e-mailing Willie Miller directly to let him know that whilst the recession may well be affecting me, I would always manage to find space in my hipper for a season ticket, if I thought it was worthwhile. As things stand, it's not even remotely worthwhile as far as I'm concerned.

As I already said, it's lip service to placate the fans. If you look at the article, he takes no responsibility whatsoever for our situation. It's all the fault of Aluko, the pitch, the SPL, the other teams for knowing our game too well. What's important to me is not him writing some half-witted pish and wind in the Retard about how he will always take responsibility for results, despite never actually doing so. Saying that you do something is entirely different from actually doing it. Actions speak far louder than words, and Calderwood's inability to accept even moderate criticism and change his flawed approach shows exactly how much responsibility he really takes for the club's performance.

Incisive and accurate journalism from Spiers, as per usual. He and Gabriele Marcotti are by far the two best football journalists on the go at the moment.

I stopped taking the article seriously right here. What a load of utter, utter bullshit. Calderwood has never stepped up to the plate and accepted his share of responsibility for our club's tactical ineptitude, bizarre team selection, pointless signings and awful, awful style of play. Even in this article, he says that the buck stops with him, but then deflects blame onto (among others) Sone for being tired; the pitch for being stamina-sapping (our away performances after all have set the heather on fire); it's because the SPL is too small; it's because of inconsistency which is nothing to do with him. How many bullshit excuses is this clown going to exhaust before he finally accepts that he's to blame and changes his fecking approach, instead of just paying lip service to the fact that the fans have now seen through him? As for the "attacking football" guff: give it a fucking rest. You might have pulled the wool over the eyes of your chums in the media, who all spout about how much of an attacking tactical genius you are, but there are 3,000 Dons fans who have stopped coming to Pittodrie since you took over who know better. Watch that figure swell even more this summer. Accepting the blame? Attacking football? BOLLOCKS.

Is that right Willie? Think how much more depressing it is when you actually have to pay for the privilege of watching the garbage served up on a regular basis there. Now that is depressing.