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.

For all those not renewing because of JC, I assume you also boycotted the Skovdahl / Paterson / Aitken years fan we were in a much worse position?

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.

Chuck the above was copied direct from afc.co.uk.  I presume, however, that Allan will print the story pretty much verbatim in the EE tonight

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:

The capital costs are lower for Loirston than the King's Links - £38million, compared to £42million (and the latter figure excludes third party relocation costs). There is potential funding from prospective partners for a significant proportion of this capital spend and commitment to a deliverable site could allow AFC to bridge this funding gap.

"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?

Some folk still believe we almost signed Gabriel Batistuta.

 

The auld stand-free.co.uk site reported that we'd signed a keeper from Oldham called Hugh Oakes.

 

Funnily enough, both of these signing rumours occurred on 1st April of their respective years.

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.

Speaking of ones who got away, Robert Fleck (was that his name?) who refused to sign cause we offered crap wages, his flatmate was my Taxi driver in Holland 

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:

When were we linked with Thierry Henry and Hermann Hreidarsson? 

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.

+1

 

Priceless response, Chuck! Probably the biggest smile I've had whilst reading DonsTalk in about a year and a half!

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.

I'll push the boat out and say Frank Farina. He's currently managing Queensland Roar, and prior to that he was the first coach in the history of the Socceroos to get his nation to the FIFA World Cup finals.

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:

Club have stated they will not be making a public response so we will probably not get any info on this.

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.

17. His Tan!!! 

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.

He has admitted to being a Rangers fan before.

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

First sentence, fourth paragraph.

Brian Viner: Brave prophet spreads the word against Rangers' bile

 

The Scottish Premier League season begins today and among some of the Rangers fans travelling up to the Highlands for the match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle, the topic of conversation will be a book published two days ago called Paul Le Guen: Enigma – A Chronicle of Trauma and Turmoil at Rangers.

 

I should confess here to an interest: the author, Graham Spiers, is a close friend of mine. I have known Graham – until recently the chief sportswriter of The Herald, now relocated to the sports pages of The Times, and a regular broadcaster on radio and television football programmes north of the border – for more than 25 years.

 

In the early 1980s we were fellow students at the University of St Andrews and struck up a keen friendship despite the regular clatterings I used to give him in Sunday league football games.

 

Graham was raised a Rangers fan; indeed, he and his father, a Baptist minister, used to go to Ibrox as religiously every other Saturday as they went to church every Sunday. In the late autumn of 1984, Graham asked me if I fancied hacking over to Glasgow with him for an exciting midweek match, a Uefa Cup tie against Internazionale. It was my first visit to Ibrox, which had just been redeveloped and I remember being awestruck by the size and majesty of the stadium. By then I had been to most First Division grounds in England, but none, not even Old Trafford or Highbury, held a candle to the cathedral-like home of Rangers. For a lad brought up to believe in the innate superiority of English football over Scottish, for whom Scotland goalkeepers such as Alan Rough and Stewart Kennedy seemed like figures of fun no less than Tommy Cooper and Eric Morecambe, Ibrox was an eye-opener.

 

So, too, however, was the behaviour of a particularly vocal section of fans. The Inter midfield that night was graced by the marvellous Liam Brady, who had committed the sin, as far as the Copland Road faithful were concerned, of being baptised into the wrong brand of Christianity. When Brady went to take a corner in front of them, they subjected him to the kind of hysterical anti-Catholic abuse that in supposedly less enlightened times might have accompanied the public burning of a heretic.

 

When Graham and I drove back to St Andrews the following day, I recall him saying that the pleasure he felt as a result of Rangers' 3-1 victory had been mightily tarnished by the antics of some of his fellow supporters.

 

Neither of us could possibly have predicted on that journey that Graham would one day be in a position to make plain to a much wider audience his feelings about sectarianism at Ibrox. He was a divinity student, and of course a son of the manse, so I suppose I could have guessed he might one day deliver sermons attacking the bigotry of those Rangers fans who chant about wading through rivers of Fenian blood, but not that newspapers, radio and television programmes would be his pulpit.

 

From it, he has delivered an unequivocal message repeatedly and fearlessly for some years, for which his reward has been the respect of the many (including plenty of sensible Rangers fans, as well as, inevitably, numerous Celtic followers) but the blind hatred of the few. He was threatened with extreme physical violence on one of the more loopy unofficial websites run in the name of devotion to Rangers.

 

In fact, around the time last year that the club were investigated and in due course prosecuted by Uefa because of the behaviour of the so-called FTP ("Fuck the Pope") brigade, the threats to Graham's well-being, from thugs of severely limited intelligence who considered him responsible for provoking the interest of Uefa in the first place, reached such a pitch that his editor at The Herald advised him to involve the police.

 

All this helps to explain why, in the first few weeks of this SPL season, there are likely to be people in replica blue shirts standing outside football grounds handing out leaflets advising their fellow supporters not to buy Graham's book. To call it an orchestrated campaign would be to dignify it. After all, the vast majority of Rangers fans will ignore these leaflets, and some might simply look at them and wonder why a book ostensibly about Le Guen, the astute Frenchman whose tenure as Rangers manager last season was such an utter failure, should provoke such ire.

 

They would be right to wonder although, in his story of Le Guen, Graham does not shirk the issue of bigotry. He praises the Rangers' high command for responding in many ways impressively to Uefa's strictures, but laments the fact that, in the 21st century, action was taken only at the point of a bayonet. I could not agree with him more.

Apologies for lengthy cut 'n' paste jobbies.

MANAGER MUST ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAILURES AND RECOGNISE THE CLUB IS NOT MOVING FORWARD

BY PAUL THIRD

 

Published: 25/03/2009

 

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood and his coaching staff should be sacked after the club’s Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Dunfermline.

 

The Aberdeen FC Supporters’ Society has asked Dons director of football Willie Miller to act after last Wednesday’s penalty shootout defeat at Pittodrie.

 

The society, formerly the AFC Trust, wants Miller, a member of the group, to hold his manager to account for the failure to deliver in cup competitions in his five-year tenure at Pittodrie.

 

Society board member Gordon Duncan says members want a change of manager.

 

He said: “Jimmy has done well to restore respectability at the club in the league and the Uefa Cup run last year was memorable.

 

“However, the cup performances year on year show no signs of improvement.

 

“In the 10 cup campaigns we have had, Aberdeen have started as favourites on five occasions – against Dunfermline, Queen of the South, Queen’s Park, Kilmarnock and Motherwell – and lost all of them.

 

“The club can point to being in the top six every season, and rightly so, but we are not seeing signs of the club moving forward any more.â€

 

In the letter sent to Miller, the society states: “He (Calderwood) appears to be tactically inept, continually changes team layout, players and tactics, creating confusion on and off the pitch and appears to be incapable of motivating the team for crucial games. The team performs as if it has no idea how it is meant to be playing, has no passion, commitment and very little skill. This is further demonstrated by his substitutions. How can a team that swept Celtic virtually into the North Sea a few weeks ago capitulate so meekly to Dunfermline and in some of our other disasters this season?

 

“We, as long-suffering supporters have had enough, are fed up being told we have unrealistic expectations and somehow this is our fault.

 

“We do not expect to be winning the SPL, however we do expect to be beating lower division opposition in the cups rather than losing to them in successive seasons.â€

 

The society believes Calderwood’s failure to show any culpability is a major factor in supporters wanting him removed from Pittodrie.

 

“We are fed up of Jimmy’s continual blaming of players, the pitch and anything else that takes his fancy, rather than taking personal responsibility. We were collectively dismayed Jimmy and the management team were given lucrative long-term contracts, presumably based on last season’s run in Europe.

 

“We are sure you must accept this was a big mistake now. The team is no longer improving and although it will be costly to move the entire management team, we must bite the bullet and do so. Action is required now.â€

 

Dons director Miller is disappointed the society has ignored its previous approach of engaging in dialogue with the club in favour of a more public condemnation.

 

He said: “The club, myself and Duncan Fraser (managing director) have an open-door policy within Pittodrie as far as the society is concerned. We have had regular meetings with them in my five years at the club and have always been full and frank with them. We will contact the society, of which I am a member, and ask them to come in for chat about their concerns.â€

Dear Willie

 

Open Letter from AFC Supporters Society concerning AFC Performance

 

Since its inception all that AFC Trust (now AFC Supporters Society) has asked for is change for the better and some progress, on football matters. Largely, since you took over as Director of Football, we have left you to get on with it and trusted you to deliver. The establishment of the AFC Youth Academy was a welcome and positive step.

 

However, after a few days reflection on recent events, we can no longer tolerate what is happening on the pitch. For three years in a row, we have been dumped out of cup competitions by lower league opposition and also humbled by Kilmarnock and Dundee United. Losses to Queens Park, Queen of the South and Dunfermline, in the circumstances that they occurred are simply unacceptable, and the supporters need to see some accountability for such results. Similarly, we have flattered to deceive in the league alternating from good spells to some atrocious football.

 

There is no evidence of further progress, rather the reverse. There is very little evidence of young players coming through or being given a chance. On paper, with McDonald, Kerr, Miller, Aluko and (when fit, Smith), we have some of the best players in the league. We also have some of the worst and as a team, we are mostly ineffective.

 

Whilst we recognise that Jimmy Calderwood joined the club when it was at a low ebb, stabilised matters in the league and has ensured top six finishes in each of his seasons, it is now clear that he has taken this process as far as he can and we now need to get fresh blood to take the club to the next level – which is competing in cup finals and being credible third place challengers (and who knows, following Hearts example, perhaps higher). He appears to be tactically inept, continually changes team layout, players and tactics, creating confusion on and off the pitch and appears to be incapable of motivating the team for crucial games. The team perform as if they have no idea how they are meant to be playing, have no passion, commitment and very little skill. This is further demonstrated by his substitutions in recent matches. How can a team that swept Celtic virtually into The North Sea a few weeks ago capitulate so meekly to Dunfermline and in some of our other disasters this season?

 

Last seasons run in Europe was welcome and exciting but we have failed to capitalise on that with subsequent performances. The coffers will suffer as a consequence meaning next season will again be difficult.

 

We, as long suffering fans have had enough, we are completely fed up being told we have unrealistic expectations and somehow this is our fault. Lets be crystal clear we do not expect to be winning the SPL, however we DO expect to be beating lower division opposition in the cups rather than losing to them in successive seasons. We are also fed up of Jimmys continual blaming of players, the pitch and anything else that takes his fancy, rather than taking some personal responsibility. For a long time, we have been looking for some leadership from him, some humility and some dignity.

 

We were collectively dismayed that Jimmy and the management team were given lucrative long term contracts, presumably based on last seasons run in Europe. I am sure you must accept this was a big mistake now. The team is no longer improving and although it will be costly to move the entire management team, we must bite the bullet and do so. To stand by and hope things get better is not an option.

 

Action is required now.

 

Yours sincerely

 

AFC Trust Society Board

I wonder if Milne, Miller and Calderwood are starting to get the message?

I have absolutely no interest in that cunts opinion on either us or the club.

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.

I suspect that if JC is still here in the summer that the credit crunch will be blamed for the drop in ST sales and attendances.

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.

So why did he say...

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 pick the team and as manager have to take responsibility for results and I'll never run away from that.

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.

Pittodrie is a depressing place, says Aberdeen FC chief

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.