http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aberdeen/9280013.stm

 

Derek Young fears Craig Brown Pittodrie cull

 

Aberdeen midfielder Derek Young admits he and his team-mates fear for their Pittodrie futures under new boss Craig Brown after their latest humiliation.

 

The Dons were hammered 5-0 by a ruthless Hearts side at Tynecastle with Brown and assistant Archie Knox watching on from the stands.

 

And Young is worried a major cull is on the horizon.

 

"If the manager comes in and sees someone he doesn't like then that's how it'll be," he told BBC Scotland.

 

The Tynecastle mauling was Aberdeen's seventh straight loss and left them anchored at the bottom of the Scottish Premier League on goal difference, with Hamilton having a game in hand.

 

It is now four points from a possible 42 with those most recent seven defeats yielding an aggregate score of 23 goals against and just two for - relegation form in anyone's book.

 

And Young was first to admit the club is in serious danger of dropping for the first time in its proud and illustrious history.

 

"We're bottom of the league - that's a simple fact," he said. "If you're losing goals, not winning games and getting points then the confidence is going to go in some players.

 

"There's more than enough quality in our changing room to make sure we can climb the table.

 

"But talk's cheap, we need to go out and do it on a Saturday and hopefully that will start next week."

 

Brown and Knox will address the media on Monday morning before beginning what some have already described as a job too far for the pair.

 

While that is a fairly dramatic and pessimistic statement, the worry from the terraces is that the players were just as poor at Tynecastle, if not worse, than when the beleaguered Mark McGhee was in the dug-out.

 

In fact, having watched both matches, they actually played better in the 9-0 obliteration at Celtic Park.

 

That provided more evidence that it was not only the previous management team who were culpable.

 

However, the club would appear to be in safe hands now with the former Motherwell and Scotland boss, who made an appearance in the technical area during the first-half in Gorgie.

 

The pair also addressed the squad after the game.

 

"They had a lot to say," said Young. "But most of it was positive as that's the way they look at it.

 

"It was obviously frustrating for them to see the team they're taking over getting beat 5-0 but they've noticed things they need to work on already.

 

"And come Monday that will start and hopefully from then, the only way will be up."

 

Young's vocal tone belied the words, however, and there will be a squad overhaul beginning in January, though probably not at the rate the supporters would like to see.

 

Former Livingston defender David McNamee is likely to be first aboard with the Dons minus a single senior full-back - a shocking but real situation.

 

Young admitted an attitude change has to come if the current team are to haul themselves out of the horror situation they find themselves in.

 

"We need to start fighting for each other again the same way we did at the start of the season when we were top of the table," he added.

 

"We've had a couple of injuries but I'm not going to use that as an excuse.

 

"We need to stop losing silly goals like against Hearts when we were 2-0 down before the 10th minute, so we need to keep it tight and build from there."

 

Young ended his post-match chat with a message to the Dons support who once again travelled in good numbers.

 

"Just stick with us. We know it's disappointing, the boys are all gutted," he said.

 

"Even if we were never going to win the game it was important we put in a decent performance - we thought we would as training had been good.

 

"But with the new management staff arriving this week, hopefully it'll be good times again."

now you're saying we shouldn't be talking about this because he needs all the support we can give?  Essentially, there is no point in us talking about anything on here, it's not going to change anything, so maybe we should just shut the site down?

 

Not at all.  I'd think it's quite clear from the points I've put across in this thread that I am giving an alternative view. You are entitled to disagree if you so wish just as everyone else is (even though you're not particularly disagreeing), and just as I have the prerogative to put my point across in whatever way I feel is necessary.  For example my comments in the "Does Nobody Care Anymore" thread to which you refer here, my comments were designed to be deliberately inflammatory to try and stir up some kind of passion and debate about what we want our team to be.

 

You wont get much argument from me with regard to Young's limited ability, and if he goes in January, so be it.  But if he stays he deserves the same clean slate that our new manager will give him.  What I'm talking about is getting back some of the spirit of '95.  OK, we had a much better squad of players back then, but most, if not all of them would say that the fans truly were the 12th man during that run-in.

 

I don't criticise anyone for turning their back on the team during this dismal spell, nor do I like to criticise those who wish to let their feelings be known about players, christ knows I've done it often enough myself, as many of the posters here will testify - I am simply advocating that we should trust our manager for the next few months and give the players a clean slate until such time as we can see that Broon and Knox cannot tangibly improve their performances.

 

In the meantime there isn't anything to be gained by slagged each other off when a sceptical, more questioning view is put forward. After all we are all here because fundamentally we are Dons supporters. I'm not saying that we should all be agreeing but we should be slagging off the opposition, not each other.

 

I don't think either me nor BB are slagging each other, just healthy debate that's all.  BB I think did take exception to some things I said in the above mentioned thread but he's very much entitled to take that view and like I said, it was designed to be inflammatory, but for all the right reasons, as I'd like to hope that he himself as a good poster on this site, would understand.

Less o' this pish BTR, lets just take him roon the side an kick his cunt in!