Sweetchuck

I purchased some insensitive incense from the shop once. Paid full price too.

Obvisually not a very cencible thing to do.

I don't really buy my season ticket on the basis I save myself money over the season, although I accept that there may be others that do. I like my season ticket for getting the same seat every week in an area of the stadium I want to sit, close to friends who I like to sit beside. This is my insentive on purchasing a season ticket rather than playing Russian Roullette every week and ending up sitting next to the missing link with Tourettes.

There's actually a wee guy quite near me in the RDU who fits this description incredibly accurately.

I already know that when I buy my season ticket, I get into a few games for free over the course of the season compared to paying at the gate each game.

Surely the opportunity to watch your club at a net reduced rate should be enough of an incentive in itself? What more incentive should you need in order to do indulge in something you love?

He was moving alright in Soul Bar on Friday night, along with Bebo.

I'm sure he was just going through Stuart Hogg's fitness programme.

Taken from 606 on the BBC, written without any hint of irony whatsoever:

I'll support Murray because he is British but not as passionately as I would support him if he was English especially after his anti-English comments. But then that is very normal. I view Murray as merely a person to give Britain pride and to allow me to wind up my foreign freinds on other tennis messageboards, especially the American ones.

 

So Murray is merely a means to an end for me. If he loses, I can always just say that he is Scottish anyway.

So apparently it's okay for them to wind up other nationalities, but not for Murray to do it to them: the classic Little England paranoia. That's without even discussing the 'Scottish if he loses' nonsense.

And although I loathe his paper with every ounce of my being, here's an explanatory article from the Daily Mail's Des Kelly, the (English) journalist to whom Murray originally made the infamous "anyone but England" remark:

Why Joke is Wearing Thin for Andy

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1033143/Des-Kelly-Federer-8217-s-winner-taking-defeat-like-man-son.html

 

Let me return to the topic of Andy Murray and this whole anti-English argument for what I truly hope is the last time - although I doubt it.

 

Some of the nonsensical criticism Britain's No 1 has received is laced with such misplaced venom and outrage that it makes me despair.

 

So, for the hard of thinking, let me state here that: I did the interview with Andy Murray and Tim Henman a couple of years back where Murray talked about 'supporting whoever England were playing against'.

 

It was a clearly a sarcastic remark. He was responding to teasing from your columnist about Scotland's absence from the 2006 World Cup and derisive laughter from the mischievous Henman.

 

It was reported in that context in this newspaper at the time and the exchange was run as a transcript.

 

A couple of days later a red-top got excited about the comments, lifted a couple of them into a 'story' that took on a life of its own and from there the truth was lost.

 

It is astonishing how this has run and run.

 

An extremely talented columnist pal of mine declared unequivocally the other day that: 'I don't think his remarks about England were a joke. There are some people who just don't like the English and I believe in my marrow that Murray is one of them.'

 

Based on what?

 

I did the interview - and it was a joke, as I have said before. And what marrows have to do with it I don't know, but it is certainly time to call a halt when vegetables like David Mellor pop up on the Today programme to lecture Murray about how to wave a Union Flag.

 

Murray has been variously decried as 'disgusting' and 'yobbish' for doing nothing more than show a bit of Celtic fire during a fabulous comeback by people who clearly have no understanding of the excitement sport generates.

 

They are the same Phillipa Space types who used to accuse Henman of lacking passion.

 

The critics also ignore the fact that Murray has improved greatly at Wimbledon this year and is Britain's best and only hope of success for years to come.

 

He doesn't drink, behaves himself off court, has a steady girlfriend, a fine family and has just moved back into the world's top 10. Something to be proud of, I'd say.

 

As for this England v Scotland thing, personally, after some of the twaddle I've read this past fortnight from 'patriotic' Brits, I wouldn't hold it against him if he decided to become German.

Last summer I was at a boozy BBQ just after Wimbledon and were talking about Murray. My friends boss was there and being English has a dislike for him as he said he wanted England to lose at the football in the past. He waited until it was just me and another random guy there before really letting rip and his argument ended in "I wish Thomas Hamilton had shot that cunt". At that point anger descended over me and I just had to leave the party as I was going to smack him.

I find it hilarious that so many of the English get so bitter about people in Scotland not supporting them. When they come out with shite like that, it just makes me want to keep heckling them a bit more.

What they fail to understand is firstly that what Andy Murray said, he said jokingly; and secondly, that by getting so riled and descending to that kind of level, they make themselves look just as stupid - if not more so - as someone who genuinely does want England to lose at everything.

For that reason and that reason only, I would love to see Murray win Wimbledon, just to shove it right up those bitter, narrow-minded bastards who whine about him not supporting England in the World Cup. To see the look on their faces would be a thing of beauty.

Not sure how good an idea it is to bring Zander back for this one, but hopefully he makes his way through the 90 minutes without taking another knock.

Women's final already rained off (postponed until tomorrow) today, so doubtful that this will go ahead tonight.

In case there's anyone out there who doesn't know the answer, we can save you the embarrassment of having to ask, by giving you a hint.

So, as a homage to Scotsport's sorely-missed retardathon competitions, take your pick from:

a) Andrew Considine;

b) Ming the Merciless; or

c) General Augusto Pinochet.

Is there not a huge risk of theses tickets getting into the wrong hands? Seems very dodgy.

Last season's UEFA Cup Final in Manchester showed that even when Rangers do distribute their tickets, their fans can't be relied upon to behave like members of the human race. The disgraceful behaviour of their away fans at SPL grounds also serves as evidence of this, and goes to show quite clearly that any quality control mechanism which RFC has in place when issuing tickets doesn't justify us paying them a 5% surcharge.

If paying that 5% meant that Rangers would send us respectable human beings instead of the filth that regularly lurches its way drunkenly into Pittodrie for matches against them, then I would gladly pay it. Until then, I doubt any of the SPL clubs could do a worse job than Rangers.

Off topic, why all the negativity toward Charlie Allan?  Has anyone here ever spoken to him, or does anyone know him? 

NUJ picket, 1990.

Let's not forget that McLeish thought that Ostenstad, Capucho, Emerson and Mladenovic were good enough for a Champions League side.

He couldn't spot a decent youngster if he was being robbed at gunpoint by Theo Walcott.

The Daily Retard never fails to amaze in its attempts to do AFC down. I'm amazed they haven't made up a quote from Aluko about Durrant deserving everything he got, to be honest.

A paper written by bitter, blinkered mongoloids, read by bitter, blinkered mongoloids. Shame on anyone in this neck of the woods who actually reads it.

Aye.

Lanzaat close to Dons loan deal

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aberdeen/7575131.stm

 

Aberdeen will make a decision in the next few days on whether to take Dutch defender Quido Lanzaat on loan from CSKA Sofia.

 

The former Ajax and Borussia Monchengladbach man impressed on trial after the clubs agreed a temporary transfer, initially until January.

 

Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood told BBC Sport: "He did alright and improved throughout the week.

 

"You don't play in the Bundesliga for eight years if you can't play."

 

The 28-year-old Lanzaat has only spent a year in Bulgaria after joining from MSV Duisburg.

 

"He is available because of problems he has had in Sofia," said Calderwood.

 

"He has returned to Bulgaria, but we've told him we will be in touch next week."

 

Lanzaat came through the Ajax academy and was capped by his country at youth and under-21 level.

 

He moved to Borussia Monchengladbach in 2000 and, two years later, joined Alemannia Aachen before spells with 1860 Munchen and Duisburg.

 

It was while with Borussia that he was banned from football for three months after failing a drugs test.

 

But Calderwood stressed: "A lot of people make mistakes when they are young and I'm sure he learned from it. He has a good pedigree."

 

Meanwhile, Aberdeen's Charlie Mulgrew is very doubtful for Saturday's visit by Rangers.

 

The left-back required five stitches in a head wound after being stretchered off during Scotland Under-21s' 3-0 victory over their Lithuanian counterparts on Wednesday.

 

Striker Tommy Wright and the versatile Scott Severin face late fitness tests, while defender Zander Diamond will definitely miss the game through injury.

If Tim Bakens' experience is anything to go by, JC will be in touch with Landzaat again around Christmas time.

Also, why do we seem unable to ascertain the contract status of players? Is he still under contract, or what?

First we were told Maybury had been released by Leicester; then it emerged that he wasn't, and that Leicester were looking for a fee; then it transpired that they weren't looking for a fee, but that he was still under contract.

Now with this lad, we are told firstly that he's been released by CSKA Sofia; now it seems that he's still under contract; next we'll be told that he'll only be here for a season, if at all.

Why does our club seem to create so many problems for itself in the transfer market?

Aye, we raise our game against them so much that we haven't beaten them away from home in 13 years. What a load of old bollocks.

Anyone who still comes out with this "raising their game" guff just shows themselves up as either a) being on the wind up, or b) knowing fuck all about football, and buying into lazy Daily Retard arguments specially designed for Old Filth IQ levels.

Why does anyone even give a shit what Broadfoot thinks, anyway? He's a no-mark footballer whose ongoing presence in a Rangers shirt causes me much amusement; it's like asking Darren Mackie about thermonuclear physics.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-the-old-firm-bully-tactics.html

As you will have seen in the press. This season, Rangers and Celtic sent proposals to all other SPL clubs asking them to pay a 5% surcharge to distribute tickets to their own supporters for away matches.

 

i.e If Celtic played Hearts at Tynecastle last season. Hearts sent tickets to Celtic and Celtic sold them. The money for these tickets then went back to Hearts.

 

This season Celtic would only send 95% of that money back.

 

All of the SPL clubs disagreed with these plans.

 

This morning (1st August 2008) Dundee United have stated that they have had to accept this 5% charge as Celtic have told them "If you don't pay, we don't take ANY tickets!" which stands to cost United £100,000.

 

In other words. The two biggest clubs in Scotland are now standing together to BULLY the smaller teams out of money that most of them can ill afford.

 

It's time for the 10 other clubs to test the resolve of Rangers and Celtic. If they threaten to send no fans. Fine! Sell those tickets to your own fans. Create an atmosphere that is as biased as the ones you face at Ibrox and Parkhead. Or close those areas of the ground that they normally take up saving money in policing and stewarding costs.

Are you allergic to commas?

Just tell your club to do what ours has done ie. think about it and come up with a scheme which fucks their fans over for the money.

The only way that the Filth are going to learn is by hitting them in the pocket the way they want to hit us in the pocket, not through poorly-written online petitions, which - without wanting to piss on your chips too much - never achieve anything more than the square root of two thirds of 20% of fuck all.

No, I don't see it, at all in fact.

So you haven't seen any of the following?

- Chris Clark at RB

- Severin not only as a centre back but also as a striker

- Foster at LB/RB

- Duff at RB

- Considine at LB

- Mackie at RM

- Jamie Smith as CM

Those are simply incidents which I recall from last season. I could go back further if you like, but there's not really much point. How anyone can deny that JC plays players out of position is, quite frankly, beyond me.

What effect that has on our results is obviously open to debate, but I don't think many people would argue that a team of players played out of position performs as well as a team of players playing in their preferred positions.

Sounds good to me.  That way the ball would run out for a throw in or goal kick for us rather than Foster keeping the ball in and then passing to one of their midfielders.

 

No, seriously.

 

 

Players up and down the country get heckled every weekend and it's usually the same ones.  Some for annoying the away fans, some for disappointing home fans and some because of the size of their head, the colour of their hair or which church in Glasgow their Grandparents used to attend.  If Foster doesn't want heckled then all he has to do is keep it simple and pass to a red shirt like he did a couple seasons ago when he started to win people over.

 

It really is that simple.

But this is just another example of the hyperbole which surrounds Foster. You make it sound as if he never gets a single pass right, which again is ridiculous. He had a couple of misplaced passes on Saturday but overall, he cost us far less possession than Jamie Smith and Mark Kerr did.

People seriously need to start thinking about whether it makes more sense to get angry at the rusty scalpel being used to remove your tonsils, or at the surgeon who's chosen to use it in the first place.

Do you honestly believe that Foster is good enough to tell JC which position he's playing next weekend?

 

I'm not "having a go at him for seizing an opportunity the same way we all would" I'm saying (as I said before) - chances are he knows he's lucky to be on the park at all and will take any position that's offered to him.

No; and I don't believe I'm so stupid that I would ever make quite such a bizarre claim.

My point was rather that Foster is prepared to accept significant personal abuse from the support in order to help the team. Do you think it would be much fun to have your every pass heckled? Of course not. He has no right to tell JC where he's going to play, but equally JC has no right to make him play at LB/RB. Foster gets paid more than a living wage regardless of whether he plays or not. The fact that he plays despite getting significant abuse suggests a commitment to the team above self which appears sadly lacking in many of our other players.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think Foster is the kind of quality we should be aiming for, but the abuse the guy takes on here for not being a meritorious player in a position he dislikes is simply ridiculous sometimes.

Take one example: having Foster on the pitch is 'worse than being a man down'. Perhaps we should play with ten men and no RB whatsoever next week to test that proposition.

JC in todays Daily Ranger

 

We have brought in quality and it will shine through

 

In all seriousness, does this guy never get tired of the sound his voice makes when it's talking pish?

...sorry to be a pain guys, but isn't engaging in a collective dialogue a way of building bridges and gaining (gradual) trust, in the long term it must surely gain more than lots of frequent battles without a positive conclusion..?

 

We hoped to do this when a fans' representative (Chris Gavin) was taken on to the board at Pittodrie... And that was the last that anyone ever heard of him.

Our board is full of tokenistic gestures, but at base they know that they have got a hard-core of loyal supporters which will rival that of Rangers and Celtic when times get bad for them (see Celtic's 12,000 attendances in the 1980s, for example). Why worry about your customers when you have consistently treated them like shite and they have kept coming back for more?

Collective dialogue is great when you're talking about people with fairly similar amounts of leverage, but when the power imbalance is so skewed, it takes an extremely visionary board to see the merits of sharing that power out a bit.

When I think of the term "visionary" in the same sentence as our board, I can't help but choke snotters out of my nose in contempt.

By the way, did anyone hear on the radio(Original106) earlier that Stewart Milne said - you'll like this one - funds avaliable?

Jesus. Calderwood has more money to spend. Now there's a scary thought.

I fully expect to see Scott Wilson in a Dons shirt for the game against the Huns.

Can I just throw something into the melting pot? 

 

Having seen first hand the kind of performances against Bayern and Copenhagen as a result of a full house`s backing....is the lack of silvarware or a decent season this past fourteen years not our fault yes the fans for not turning up to the week in week out mundane home league matches?  Maybe if we did and got behind the lads wouldn`t have diabolical results like Saturday throughout the campaign on a regular basis.

Pittodrie wasn't packed to the rafters when Fergie was in charge and we rolled over some of Europe's best teams with ease.

End of argument.

I'm not defending him.  The line-up and formation was the one I suggested in the Inverness thread (albeit with Wright or Mackie starting ahead of Maguire).  It could/should have been good enough to beat ICT.

I agree; it should have been good enough, but when you combine players out of position with poor preparation and little confidence in their own abilities, you are asking for trouble.

I really can't understand how JC remains oblivious to the fact that the players seem to be in completely the wrong frame of mind, don't appear to have any sense of purpose when attacking, and are inevitably hurting the team's cumulative performance (however unintentionally) by being played out of position.

JC: Aberdeen will get it right fucking up them from a manager who knows what he's doing at Fir Park

Pumped out of Olympics in first round from some unknown Chinese Taipie player in straight sets.  He can be British this week then!!

Does anyone know who the reigning Olympic tennis champion is?

Nope?

Does anyone care?

Thought not.