I know Tup got this first and rightly posted in the player update thread but thought this would be worthy of a thread of it's own.

Six month loan deal with fee agreed to purchase at end of loan apparently according to The Record

It's naive at best by McCrorie, he's just digging his own grave doing something like that. His brother was never going to play so that one is just a convenient get out. He's been at our club for over a year now and will be well aware of the bad feeling there is for his former employers, no excuse for being a plank.     

Remember the days before social media when it wasnt so easy to shoot yerself in the foot, and only yer immediate family would be bored by yer holiday snaps?

Edited May 20, 20224 yr by tom_widdows

Holiday snaps eh 😉

The good old days of sticking your spools into Boots to be developed and waiting to see what the fuck actually happened on holiday as you'd been pissed for a fortnight and didn't have a clue.

Once you got them back nae fucker got to see them ahead of removing anything embarrassing, cringeworthy  or downright incriminating 😂

McCrorie has done absolutely nothing wrong. He’s a human being who went to support his family and friends. 
So what.  Get fucken over it. 
This obsession with the old firm players and particularly players associated with Rangers is fucken embarrassing. 
It’s the same as has been mentioned in a separate topic with the lack of love and support shown to Lewis Ferguson even though he’s been our players if the year (yes he has!) this season and scores plenty goals for us. 
The support are happy to sing about Ojo who has been pish for us but conversely don’t dare sing for Ferguson who apart from one season, has been very good for us…all because of pettiness. No doubt McCrorie will be the same now!  Beggars belief!! 
As long as they are ‘Aberdeen’ on the pitch when they are doing their job, that they are paid to do, then that’s what matters. 

12 minutes ago, sheepheid said:

McCrorie has done absolutely nothing wrong. He’s a human being who went to support his family and friends. 
So what.  Get fucken over it. 
This obsession with the old firm players and particularly players associated with Rangers is fucken embarrassing. 
It’s the same as has been mentioned in a separate topic with the lack of love and support shown to Lewis Ferguson even though he’s been our players if the year (yes he has!) this season and scores plenty goals for us. 
The support are happy to sing about Ojo who has been pish for us but conversely don’t dare sing for Ferguson who apart from one season, has been very good for us…all because of pettiness. No doubt McCrorie will be the same now!  Beggars belief!! 
As long as they are ‘Aberdeen’ on the pitch when they are doing their job, that they are paid to do, then that’s what matters. 

Yep, but unless it's an issue that the club are willing to tackle then the problem will still exist. I'm guessing that the hatred may even be profitable for them. I mean it's fairly difficult to turn off, even for the most sensible of fans. I'm correctly expected to hate the Huns in every single way until the brief period that one of them joins us, then he's ours. I'm expected to hate Jack and Wright for doing the opposite of McRorie. I was very happy when they lost in Europe, but should I rethink that position? Because, let's be honest, the whole partisan thing is total bollocks that should have been left in the playground, but it's also why we're Aberdeen fans. It's really difficult.

1 hour ago, sheepheid said:

McCrorie has done absolutely nothing wrong. He’s a human being who went to support his family and friends. 
So what.  Get fucken over it. 
This obsession with the old firm players and particularly players associated with Rangers is fucken embarrassing. 
 

You're right about the Rangers thing sheepheid, there absolutely is an obsession about it amongst our support.  This incident is not just about that though, it's about publicly showing support for one club whilst being employed by another, the fact that it is Rangers as well will just rub our fans up the wrong way.  I think it is wrong for any player or manager to be seen to be supporting another club.  If Steven Gerrard turns up at the Champions League final, that would bug me as an Aston Villa supporter, in the same way as if Frank Lampard had been in the Chelsea end at the FA Cup final, it just looks unprofessional.  

I don't have an issue with it. Saw the picture the day of, and my reaction was meh!

That said. If it had been a former Don's player and supporter who'd fucked off to play for the huns and tried to come and watch us in a final, a la judas Robertson, I'd be very vocal in telling him to fuck off and making it as hostile as I could for him.

44 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

You're right about the Rangers thing sheepheid, there absolutely is an obsession about it amongst our support.  This incident is not just about that though, it's about publicly showing support for one club whilst being employed by another, the fact that it is Rangers as well will just rub our fans up the wrong way.  I think it is wrong for any player or manager to be seen to be supporting another club.  If Steven Gerrard turns up at the Champions League final, that would bug me as an Aston Villa supporter, in the same way as if Frank Lampard had been in the Chelsea end at the FA Cup final, it just looks unprofessional.  

I would imagine, given the family and personal connections, there could have been corporate options available (that would have hidden it), which maybe wasn't offered given the club McCrorie plays for and the reaction it might get from us.  

On 19/05/2022 at 19:03, RicoS321 said:

Fucking ban them. It's only old cunts that post on here anyway.

 

On 19/05/2022 at 20:12, manc_don said:

Steady, not even 40 yet

And 40 is still incredibly young.

Isn't it?

shit...

I have zero problem with McCrorie going to the game. There's a video of him joining in with the bouncy though which I would say is just fucking stupid - not because I don't think he's allowed, but because it's just asking for abuse, and he'll be a target now if he has a poor game against Rangers in future.

If you're going to go to the game and be in the public eye, then be sensible about it.

What perhaps is interesting is McCrorie can be in the middle of the Rangers end and presumably get no abuse. Wonder what the reaction would be if Scott Wright rocked up in the Aberdeen end for a game...

I'm old enough to remember (fuck sake Rico) David Robertson having to be escorted from the Aberdeen end and given a seat in the Celtic end at the 94 LC semi due to getting pelted with coins and spat at.

On 19/05/2022 at 20:15, manc_don said:

Pretty much my thoughts on it. I don’t care who they support, but rather not see them attend matches. I’d probably excuse this one though, it’s a European final, hardly gets bigger than that.

This for me too!

As long as he doesn't make an appearance at Hampden this afternoon!

On a more pleasant note my middle daughter is a nurse and was on nightshift on Wednesday and  said there was an almighty cheer from all the patients and the staff when that german penalty went in which did make me smile 😃 

 

I'd be interested to see if there are official guidelines at the club for players. It is virtually impossible for a player to go to a game and not be photographed in today's society, so there is no way that McRorie could have gone without it getting back. There are also bound to be situations outwith the player's control in terms of song singing, crowds etc that will occur when they are there that might show them in a worse light than intended. All that is very obvious, so it makes me wonder if the club have protocols or if they don't give a shit either way? For example, not commenting on the other SPFL premiership teams on social media, having to seek permission to attend a rival's game etc. Or do we think that the "training" is very basic? 

Hand on heart I don't give a fuck Mcrorie went to seville.  

Interesting reading the various comments on here and Social Media in general. There has been quite a bit of vitriol surrounding the whole thing, McCrorie could be the Captain this coming Season, not really basing it on anything other than the way Goodwin spoke about him and the fact we'll have a rather different squad next Season, but there's a good chance it could be him. Does that change anyone's opinion, probably not nowadays as it's not seen as important as it was, or should be! 

 

Do you remember when Gary Neville blanked Peter Schmeichel in the Tunnel when the teams were the wrong way round? United vs City, Neville was cold as fuck with him despite their bond and friendship from playing together and winning all sorts as teammates for years prior to this, you can absolutely bet that SAF himself made sure that friendship meant fuck all, he was the enemy now. That mentality has gone from the game now, I am absolutely with Roy Keane when he rants about players cuddling and laughing etc... before the game and after it, I am sure you've seen it, there's plenty of it going around on YT, then you've got absolute nobodies like Micah Richards laughing at him and taking the piss, Micah Richards for fuck sake 🤦‍♂️ I suppose I am veering off topic here, but in a round about way, I'm not. 

 

Our potential future Captain, in my opinion, shouldn't be videoed celebrating when Rangers scored and showing disappointment when they lost, or having photo's with Rangers fans etc... I completely appreciate his Brother plays for Rangers, and no doubt his Family would have had it planned to go over and support him as well as have a Holiday, but could he have been a bit more discreet about it, knowing as many of you have mentioned what it's like nowadays regarding Social media and the very, very good chance that he'd be photographed and videoed & knowing that it would have had this sort of reaction from a percentage of the Club that currently employs him, fans. 

 

I didn't like seeing McGinn sit with Celtic fans, more recently our current Manager sitting at a Celtic game, and now McCrorie too, I'm sure there's more, but do I doubt their commitment to Aberdeen, absolutely not, especially not McCrorie, boy gets battered, stuck in, knocked over and back up again at full pelt, he gives everything, I would have zero objection to him being our Captain, I would like though, to see that mentality back, which I alluded to with SAF and the Neville/Schmeichel tunnel incident, I think it's sadly lacking these days and it should come from the Manager and be drilled into the Players. I accept this is a long post which is mainly a pile of pish, but I hope you understand my point and why I absolutely see it from both sides. 

 

 

McCrorie shouldn't be the next captain anyway. Not because he went to Seville, but because we don't even know his best position yet and we haven't actually had a good season out of him (winning POTY was more of a personality vote than anything).

Therefore, asking him to lead the side is too big and too early for him. 

Goodwin hopefully will be signing a captain. 

On 09/05/2022 at 23:10, Panda said:

On the McCrorie to right-back debate, this was a really interesting article written just over two years ago when he was still at Rangers, by the excellent Jordan Campbell of the Athletic.

Is Ross McCrorie's Rangers future at right-back?

It is a bitterly cold September night in Paisley and Scotland under-21s captain Ross McCrorie is looking to get home and focus on the next game against their Croatia counterparts. That will be a much tougher proposition than the 2-0 win over San Marino under-21s he has just strolled through, a game of attack versus defence in which he played centre-back and saw as much of the ball as anyone on the park.

In a brief two-minute chat on the stairs below the St Mirren Park press box, I ask the Rangers defender three questions. One of them, a rather clumsily-worded way of enquiring whether being played in midfield on loan at Portsmouth was improving his distribution, rightfully provokes a sharp reply.

“What do you mean?” was a fair enough initial response but once rephrased, McCrorie went on to say that he “feels comfortable on the ball”. There was merit behind the question, though, as just a couple of months earlier, he had been in a meeting where Steven Gerrard and other members of the coaching staff outlined his options for the season.

McCrorie, who had made 30 appearances in all competitions in 2018-19, could stay and play a limited role where he would possibly feature in only seven or eight games or he could go out on loan to a club with similar pressures to Rangers and improve his distribution as a midfielder.

Numbers and charts were produced to illustrate how impressed they were by his physical attributes and ability to be a destructive force in the middle of the park but Steven Davis had been brought in earlier in the year to change the role of that position to a playmaker. McCrorie was tasked with learning to not only destroy but dictate.

Gerrard inherited McCrorie as a centre-back — one who had only recently suffered at the hands of Moussa Dembele in a 4-0 Scottish Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic. He was playing there under caretaker manager Graeme Murty because of injuries and a lack of quality rather than by design but Dembele’s use of his body was too much for him and led to the game’s first two goals before McCrorie was sent off early in the second half for a foul on the same player.

That spell at centre-back, as results unravelled towards the end of the campaign, could have “destroyed” a kid still making his way in the game, Gerrard said. He saw him instead as a central midfielder, his own old position, and it is understood that the Rangers management team still consider that his primary position.

But he has not been playing there for Portsmouth boss Kenny Jackett as much as was hoped when the loan deal was done.

So, now 22, where does the McCrorie’s future lie? Not in terms of which club he will be at but which position he will be playing in.

He is approaching the age where versatility stops being a bonus and morphs into a career sentence as a utility man. He does not want to be shunted around as the perennial makeshift piece for the next decade but the difficulty is that he possesses a bundle of traits that are yet to prove a total match for any single position.

The plan was for Portsmouth to play McCrorie in central midfield. Competition for places and injuries at a club chasing automatic promotion from the English third tier have meant that has happened in less than half of his league starts there — but may also have inadvertently helped answer the question as to what his long-term position is really going to be.

After being sent off on his debut, McCrorie was in and out of Jackett’s team over the next couple of months. If he wasn’t on the bench, he would be playing midfield one week and right-back the next. That was until October, when he also started both Scotland under-21 games at right-back against Lithuania and Czech Republic. Portsmouth knew he was versatile but that’s when their assistant manager Joe Gallen realised that he could be an asset at full-back.

“We watched those games and I had a chat with (SFA performance director) Malky Mackay about him,” explains Gallen. “We play him right-back because his ability to run with the ball has been a big feature of our recent performances. His athleticism is his biggest trait. He has a fantastic ability to get around the pitch and, with his acceleration, he can literally just take off. He has been gaining us 20 or 30 yards within three seconds and his ability to pick the right pass and put in good crosses has got us a few goals.

“We need our full-backs to fly forwards as we play with two holding midfielders, so they have the freedom to go all the way. I’ve been telling him to get in at the back post as he’s a threat. We think he can play as a No 8 galloping around the pitch as well as the holding role but he looks different class when he’s driving forward.”

McCrorie has made 22 appearances for Portsmouth in all competitions this season and is now on 103 senior games — a more than healthy total for a player to have come through the youth academy of a club the size of Rangers.

He was a centre-back as a youngster but that has gradually evolved. Every coach has different interpretations of what profile of player they like for each position and Gerrard was keen on having a destroyer-type midfielder when he first arrived to deal with the physicality of the Scottish game, which is why Lassana Coulibaly was brought in to compete with McCrorie. That thinking has changed but there have been games in the second half of this season when McCrorie’s combativeness could have been useful.

“We don’t think he can’t play there — we just happen to have a player there in Tom Naylor who is very good (he is also Portsmouth’s regular captain),” says Gallen. “We wouldn’t hesitate to put McCrorie in there but his best performances have been at right-back. Youngsters need games to improve on these areas. If you’re going to break up play and then give the ball away, that is the defeating the object. He certainly has improved on the ball, though.

“His athleticism is so good that perhaps, as a holding midfielder, that might not be natural for Ross. He wants to go. He wants to run. He wants to close and press, and off the back of that, get ahead of the ball. He’s an intelligent player, so he can adjust his game but it’s usually best to know what the player is naturally good at and let them loose at doing that. We feel we have let him loose by letting him go box-to-box.

“At some stage, he will have to settle into a position but I have no doubt that he has improved in general. He has certainly grown up since moving away and it has increased his confidence. I was a little worried that he was so far from home, especially when he wasn’t in the team at times but he’s a a first-class bloke and a very straight person to work with. With his hamstring injuries, he’s had to be a bit more diligent in the gym and get a programme together but he is an absolutely natural-looking footballer.”

If McCrorie does develop into a right-back, he will join the growing trend of players who move there from central midfield, including Trent Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool and former Bayern Munich and Germany captain Phillip Lahm, where they are more comfortable receiving the ball facing the play rather with their back to goal. McCrorie would then be competing with current Rangers skipper James Tavernier for a place but, while the latter can be accused of being too relaxed when defending, McCrorie is the opposite.

After that red card against Shrewsbury Town in August, McCrorie vowed not to change his committed style. However, while he wouldn’t be the same player if he lost that edge to his game, it is believed people close to him have urged him to be more selective when it comes to lunging into tackles because he risks injury with the way he stretches into them while off balance.

Rangers’ loans manager Billy Kirkwood has been down a lot watching McCrorie and Gallen said he cannot recall a game where there has not been a representative from Ibrox in attendance. Kirkwood has witnessed McCrorie’s development in the academy but Partick Thistle manager Ian McCall, who coached him four years ago at Ayr United in the first loan spell of his career, predicted he would eventually become a right-back.

“I’m almost sure he’ll be a right-back but I have been wrong many times before,” says McCall. “I always say to people that he had genuine pace — I mean, very top-level pace. That’s how quick he was. At that time, we played him central midfield, in a midfield three and right-back. If he keeps progressing, I’m pretty sure he could be a good right-back for Rangers but Rangers have got a boy in Nathan Patterson who is probably the best young right-back in the country.

“I think he (McCrorie) can play that sitting role but we believed he could get forward and get in the box. I’m not talking once or twice a game — I’m talking seven or eight times a game. He was so quick and had such great endurance to get up and down the pitch. In terms of the attributes needed to play at a high level, he had a good few of them.”

Former Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha predicted McCrorie would be captain the club and Scotland when he first broke into the side in 2017, which put unnecessary pressure on the teenager.

While it may now be more realistic to say that when McCrorie returns to Rangers, he will simply be fighting to prove he deserves a role in Gerrard’s plans, at least his spell on the south coast seems to have moved him closer to finding out what exactly that is.

Apologies for the extra long quote although the original article was posted in a Calvin Ramsay thread.

After the debate last season, and him being played in both attacking mid (league cup) and defence this season, is McCrorie now finally in a position that suits him at right-back? And will Goodwin actually keep him there?

If he does, with Shinnie in the door too, I think we're a centre half away from being a pretty good team. 

On 08/01/2023 at 19:28, Panda said:

 

If he does, with Shinnie in the door too, I think we're a centre half away from being a pretty good team. 

👆This

Edited January 10, 20233 yr by tlg1903

1 hour ago, tlg1903 said:

👆This

Just need a manager to work out how to use them then.

Corrupt cunts uphold red card.

Not sure why we bother 🤔

19 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Corrupt cunts uphold red card.

Not sure why we bother 🤔

Was always a long shot. Especially with VAR having recommended the red card. 

Just now, Jute said:

Was always a long shot. Especially with VAR having recommended the red card. 

Doesn't make it right Jute.

I am fast starting to lose interest in the game. Goodwin had the right idea calling out cheating

Remember when Morelos got his red card for booting McKenna reduced to yellow on appeal? 

There's no way in hell it was ever a red in the first place. Yes it was a yellow cos his elbow struck Dunne in the face (although played at normal speed, its actually Dunne's face that struck McRories elbow), but there was no malice whatsoever. McRories elbows were up to balance himself in expectation of a physical challenge. I honestly thought VAR would sort these corrupt fkn refs out, but they've actually made them even worse 

8 minutes ago, Reekie_Red said:

There's no way in hell it was ever a red in the first place. Yes it was a yellow cos his elbow struck Dunne in the face (although played at normal speed, it’s actually Dunne's face that struck McRories elbow), but there was no malice whatsoever. McRories elbows were up to balance himself in expectation of a physical challenge. I honestly thought VAR would sort these corrupt fkn refs out, but they've actually made them even worse 

It’s the same refs who were making mistakes before that are doing VAR. No idea why folk thought it would change the decisions. 
 

As for McCrorie I will go against the grain here and say I thought it was a red at the time so not surprised the appeal failed. 

 

The angles really shit, i think if you see that from behind dunne it would probably be given as a foul on Mcrorie.   If you watch it back Mcrorie's arm is just reaching it's fullest upward running movement as dunne moves his arms out toward him. Mcrorie moves his elbow up to try and get it over dunnes arm and shoulder, cos he's trying to get past him to continue his run, and dunnes momentum takes his head into it.  It's completely instinctive from Mcrorie and never a foul to my eye. I will concede I had to watch it multiple times and do a phoenix from the flames like recreation with my jambo neighbour to come to this conclusion though. 

55 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

The angles really shit, i think if you see that from behind dunne it would probably be given as a foul on Mcrorie.   If you watch it back Mcrorie's arm is just reaching it's fullest upward running movement as dunne moves his arms out toward him. Mcrorie moves his elbow up to try and get it over dunnes arm and shoulder, cos he's trying to get past him to continue his run, and dunnes momentum takes his head into it.  It's completely instinctive from Mcrorie and never a foul to my eye. I will concede I had to watch it multiple times and do a phoenix from the flames like recreation with my jambo neighbour to come to this conclusion though. 

I hope this was recorded 😂