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So yet again in his interview Robinson bemoans the fact the players aren’t showing what they show in training or doing what they do in training in actual games. Er, 2 things Stephen: Maybe they look better in training because they are playing against the rest of the dross in our squad instead of actual footballers If they’re not doing what you coach them to do, that’s 100% on you. This isn’t going to end well - yet again - is it…

Ironically, watching Milne defend usually does it for me.

This annoys me more than it should. You're not at St Mirren, we're not plucky underdogs having a big day out at Hampden. We've won this competition six times and beat Rangers many times at Hampden. And the pressure isn't all on Rangers. Robinson could be out of a job on Sunday if we get a doing.

Neil Lennon would be a terrible, lazy appointment. Won things at Celtic when given huge resources (but also struggled badly when given a challenge by Gerrard). Has done little to nothing elsewhere. Had a good cup run last season, but Dunfermline sitting mid-table doesn't smack of a guy performing any sort of revolution at East End Park.

Better than expected for sure. Huns are very flat. Lacking intensity. A shite bag McInnes showing so far. Our lot just lack belief (Obi 2 notable exception - he’s well up for it). More belief and composure & there’s a chance here. We need much more from the front 2 though. The level of physicality from Nisbet has been pathetic and Moloua needs to stay on his fuckin feet. Hold the ball up and bring others into play lads - that’s yer job, start doing it. Oh & Devlin is so much better than Cadden its unreal. Not even close…

Is that one of his later ones?

I’m not defending him, but that’s just not apples for apples as a comparison. In the 7 years prior to Cormack. The hun died Hearts, Hibs & Utd were all relegated and out the league for periods of at least a season if not longer - some at the same time. The fact we only won one trophy in that time was also a massive failure. Cormack’s management of the football side has been a massive failure and the stats are damning just looking at his 7 years in charge - we don’t need to reference the previous 7 years to know that…

Considine was weak as pish for his first couple of seasons, at least. He was still being called weak about six years into his Dons career despite having developed massively after the first couple. He was regularly knocked off the ball by smaller opponents and giving away stupid penalties because he wasn't aggressive enough in the initial challenge and was just generally non committal. Anderson was weak at right back, but that experience set him up really nicely for full time adult fitba. Guys like McKenna and Graham for the scum of the dee are in the minority, players that come in with an aggression of a manny. I'd argue that Knoester appears to be a lot more aggressive this season than previously. I think a lot of it comes with just playing regularly against the same type of players and knowing that you have the strength to go and attack the ball. Milne still looks a little on the skinny side, with weak legs, a bit like Diamond did. A bit of work down the gym and he might begin to believe in his own strength. He should be spending three hours a day trying to win headers against Olusanya, that'd sort him out. I'm saying aggression here, but really I'm talking about confidence. Confidence that you can go and attack the ball and win it. The best part about Considine's development, was that when he gained the confidence in the challenge, it also massively improved his concentration. He lost those jitters that Milne still has. That didn't make Considine a world beater, just the best he could be - he reached his ceiling with us. In my opinion, we're not seeing anywhere close to the best Milne can be. Considine and Anderson both had that learning at fullback, and that's perhaps something Milne could get. He'd get huge confidence from winning headers in the air against the smaller winger, but still at mannies level fitba. I don't know if that's an option available unfortunately.

Russell Anderson and Andy Considine fit the bill I’d say.

I've buried the trauma of Mcghee so deep that any attempt at recollection just draws a merciful blank. I'll need to look him up on Wikipedia.

Thought we relied too much on the ineffective cross ball today. Utd defenders had significant height advantage and we were never going to impact game that way. Aremu going off at HT was really stupid. He was providing all the protection in midfield and we surrendered 15-20 yards as a result. Thought GW had one of his better games but was getting caught later on when he tired. I love watching Mouloua, some of his movement and little rapid touches were brilliant in the first half. Felt like Nisbet struggled to keep tabs on what he was doing. He works really hard on and off the ball and is determined to win the ball, uses his physicality really well. It was never a game for Olusanya when Utd were sitting deep and protecting a lead. He did nothing. Milne in a 4 is far too soft, especially if the FBs are still going to play high. Way too exposed. Utd have been playing that quick turn in transition and when they went after us at 2-2 we got a bit overwhelmed. Best I’ve seen us play in a while but just too open at 2-2 with that backline, should have been a bit more canny. I really hope we stick with Mouloua and Nisbet up top. If it clicks it could be brilliant.

Can we not just enjoy the win? St mirren had a 25 minute purple patch and deserved to be level at least at half time. The second half was one way traffic though with good subs being made too. Whether it's papering over cracks or not remains to be seen but it was a much needed result.

Robinson spent pre-season telling everyone the team was going to be playing four at the back and it would be a case of getting forward quickly, high pressing, lots on intensity. We didn't sign the players to play it. So, now we're back to a 3/5 man defence. We can't really play 3-4-3 because we haven't signed good enough wingers. So we're playing 3-5-2. But, Cadden and Guinness-Walker don't provide enough from the wings, and unless you play Olysanya then playing a front two appears to actually nullify our best finisher, Nisbet. But, playing Olusanya means no room for Mouloua in this system. It feels like we have a new midfield every week. We needed to sign new centre halves, but today started with three from last season because the ones we've signed aren't good enough. They weren't the main culprits today of course (handball v Milne apart) but he clearly doesn't trust them enough to play a back four. The worry is - this is very similar to Robinson's campaign at St Mirren last season. We have the same number of league victories at this stage (two) as they did, and also have a League Cup semi to paper over the cracks. We've built a counter attacking team, which is why Motherwell away was such a success. But in the league we have failed to even score at home to Kilmarnock and St Johnstone, and I don't expect a huge amount in the next two v St Mirren and Falkirk.

Porto were worse, they cheated us out of retaining the ECWC. I was on holiday in Porto a few years ago and my wife and daughters asked me if I wanted to visit their stadium. They couldn’t understand why I was so vociferous in my refusal.

His birthday is the day of the League Cup final and god dammit that boy will be fit to win yet another trophy. Tobers ⭐ ⭐

I wonder what they have planned for the 40th anniversary of them not winning a cup? A dinner with all the surviving players? A special commemorative retro kit for the 2027-28 season? An open-topped bus display through Dundee where the players show off their runners-up medals? I can't wait.

Guests arriving at the hall of fame dinner on Thursday.

I'm quite upbeat about this one - beat Sevco and we are in the final, lose and Robinson is toast. Win-win.

If it goes badly, the unemployed list

It's a mixed bag for me. Clearly the transition from McInnes to Glass was horribly managed. Goodwin was always going to be a shit hire with limited upside but can understand the thinking of him being a low-risk, experienced option after Glass and I'll forgive him for how Robson turned out - he absolutely earned the right to get the full-time job even if hindsight tells us differently. Warnock was an absolute shambles of a decision. But then he arguably did the right thing in recognising that he has not been getting it right and brought in external consultants to review everything and give us a plan to work with. Whether they were charlatans or not is a different story. So with a bit of self-reflection and an unfathomable amount of cash, we have a strategy. So overall we should now be in a good place to move forward. Thelin, decent hire at the time based on track record, fits with the strategy. However, despite the cup win, we were never really on the 3-year plan trajectory that we had been promised and that came to an inevitable conclusion after 18 months. This is now where he has failed as a leader and I've seen this a few times in non-football business where the strategy implementation does not go to plan, people panic and chuck the strategy in the bin. Strategy implementation can go wrong for a variety of reasons that don't necessarily mean the strategy was wrong. My feeling is that we had the right strategy, we were not successful in the implementation. So now we're in a position where we have a Director of Football hired from the strategy consultants who has hired a manager who does not fit with the strategy and has just presided over a high-turnover transfer window that also clearly does not fit with the strategy. We seem to be completely lacking in direction, there's no evidence of any kind of culture or identity on the pitch or off it. We've traded an expensive "top 100 clubs in Europe" strategy to basically become St Mirren North FC, and fixing that mess will be another expense we likely cannot afford. So for me, Cormack mostly gets a pass (except the Warnock era) for everything up to Thelin's departure, everything since then has been a failure.

Why, were you working? 😄

I asked AI what the protocol is regarding starting a new thread, and it said that if there is already a thread titled Dave Cormack just a page away, then it's probably best not to start another one. Personally, I found that a rather tetchy and rude response. Interesting stats though, although I think @The.Moog covers it. The most interesting are the amounts spent. I suspect that Robinson's side are on the end of significant budget cuts. Not the type of manager you really want in that scenario. Of course, Cormack only produces strategy documents rather than actual strategy, so it is unsurprising.

Incidentally. Paul Mason > Paul Merson.

I’m 100% behind cormack. It’s the yank in me. He’s willing to spend money and take risks. He wants to be successful and will gamble, he’ll listen to feedback and try to hire those who can do their job. Why aren’t man utd successful? Chelsea? Spurs? Newcastle? Why didn’t Liverpool win after klopp, they had it all. Why don’t they all win every year? Why can’t they all keep managers? All have a ton of money. It’s not easy. If forming a football club structure was simple we’d have mastered it, as would many a club. So many clubs do things differently. How many teams win season after season, how many clubs sack managers. How many consistently successful managers are there? Not many. Take Celtic, the money they have received in recent years, they should win the league by 20 or more every year. They shouldn’t really drop any points domestically. Even they have their struggles, their set up, their manager. They struggle, going backwards in europe it seems, it’s just a different struggle to us, but their fans aren’t happy either. Across the way at Mordor, go on a bad run and Mcinnes wouldn’t see the season out. It’s possible. We’re failing right now but I credit cormack for not sticking with Mcinnes. He wanted more. Mcinnes staying and funding him would have been safe. But he wanted more, he saw that Mcinnes was limited. But more isn’t easy. It’s painful going through this but moving away from cormack, like moving away from Mcinnes, guarantees nothing. Curious to start reading the new manager thread again. Prob should be warming that up.

Some hopeful election results in Serbia & Brazil Maybe the time of the fash oligarchy convincing tiny balled bell ends that racism and bigotry is the answer, could be at an end I think the world needs a break from hearing from these clowns

The Dons squad was riven by flu The players they all felt like poo Try as they might The outcome was shite We lost to the pikeys 3-2

Sore one to lose that. There was plenty to like about the performance basically up until we equalised, after that we just seemed to stop doing everything we had been good at doing and handed utd the points. Had the fear the moment I saw Knoester was out and whilst his replacement did ok I don't think we lose that if he played. 1st goal is a 2 deflection freak that is just bad luck, these things happen and I thought we responded really well to that 2bf, but goals two and 3 are very avoidable. Caddens focus is too much on being physical and not enough on the actual flight of the ball and the third we are just wide open. There were some positives. Ronan actually imposed himself on the game at times, Nisbet and Mouloua showed a few wee signs of developing a partnership and overall the times we took the game to Utd we were causing them problems. I'm more frustrated than deflated at this moment in time 2bh

Better team for long stretches but being wasteful at one end and shit at the other generally only results in one outcome.

Back around 1984, we were pinting ourselves up in the Snug before heading up to that midden. As we were about to leave the boozer around 2.30, we were told that the match was off due to waterlogging. It had been raining hale watter since early morning, but any thought of warning travelling fans of the risk of pistponement never entered their deformed deluded loser heids. On the way back to the car, *Richard Gough, was walking towards us and told us, “The match is off, lads”. Fucking amateurs. *potentially-libellous suffix missing

2-0 ahead from the first leg in Spain, we struggled to get through them at Pittodrie, until Joe Harper howitzrered one in from 25 yards in the final minute. The white mark from top to bottom on the Iberian ‘keeper’s shirt from his collision with the goal post was literally a mark of how accurate Joe was when he saw an opportunity. I am very old. 😕

A page and a half in today’s Herald Sport about the canine-copulating treacherous little fucker getting zero game time in Smoggieland. Karma’s a cunt, eh? And so is he.

4-1 now. Imagine having decades of being shite after Fergie leaves the club.

The day after their humiliation upon the return to the Tattiedome seems like as good a time as ever to share this. This video documents the last two games of the season and the pain they suffered as told by the fans themselves Fill your boots with maroon tears.

Fuck it. I'm going to keep my head in the clouds and go for 1-2 (take a very early lead, play like shit, then snatch a very late winner) And I am predicting all other results go our way and we finish the weekend in 4th - 2 points of 3rd. There's some Monday morning positivity to get us all through the week.

Just playing at it to tick a box to say they have a woman’s team.

One thing I will say is this time last season we likely would have lost that game by a couple. Seen a few people mention papering over the cracks and my take on that is it's probably too early with this 15 new players squad in it to even know if there are any cracks. I would suggest the building is still settling and cracks haven't had a chance to appear yet though the building has clearly had a few wobbles since construction that could lead to some sizeable cracks to continue the analogy. The incontrovertible truth is that it takes time for a new squad to gel and we won't really start getting a proper feel for what Robinson ball looks like with this squad until the end of December/start of January. Whether Robinson gets that long still remains the more significant question than what we look like if he does right now though and the only thing that will buy him that time is results. I personally think it's very harsh (other opinions are available incidentally) that so many of the support have decided they want him gone already given the mess he inherited and the sizeable turnover in squad which was totally unavoidable. The delay in appointing him really didn't help matters especially when there had been plenty of more exotic names linked prior and a mixed bag start to the season has done nothing to appease. Looking around social media you see plenty of fans who give a vibe of being happy when we don't do well just so they can say they were right about Robinson all along and people like that just don't help at all. Things I am not saying here before someone goes off on one. 1. I wanted Robinson as manager. I didn't and was pretty deflated when it happened. The die is cast though and he will have my support until I'm sure getting rid of him is the right move. Far from convinced of that yet. 2. I think Robinson is doing a good job. I don't know if he is yet, on this point time will tell which is kinda my point overall. He could be doing a very good job behind the scenes for all we know and good times are not far away. Equally he could be doing awful and we will fall apart before xmas and he will be fired. That the players seem to increasingly like him is a good sign though so I suspect at least he's not doing awful and having the players onside when you are under pressure is half the battle. 3. I agree with everything he's done so far. E.g the treatment of Frame and Devlin is equal parts baffling and infuriating quite frankly and I've yet to see Cadden or OBI2 put in a performance that made me grateful they are in ahead of them. If they want gone as the rumour was about Frame then why is he still here? It would have not been difficult to find a club to take him, even if just on loan until January. Also, there does also seem to be a 'just find something that works' approach about his team and tactical selections both last and this season but he wouldn't be the first nor the last manager to do that, and sometimes it works too. Certainly seemed to for Mcinnes at der hun.

This might be an unpopular opinion but fuck it here goes I think some of this criticism from our support directed towards Yogane is completely OTT. To me, he came on for the second half today and did all the right things, happy to take his man on, got himself into the right positions. If that's the positives, the downside is his lack of composure and over hitting the final ball. To me there are similarities between him and the early days of Shady Mo. If it ends up with the same outcome of POTY award and a Scottish Cup winners medal, that'll do for me

Written in blood.

I want a written agreement signed by me, you and Dave Cormack that Neil Lennon will never be Aberdeen manager. Can't be too careful.

Probably to nobody’s surprise ITV under reporters have exposed a number of Reform Councillors as racist cunts. Channel 4 NewsDeeply racist views discussed by Reform UK councillors in...

Doesn't have a recent record of taking a team to the lofty position of fourth in the Scottish Premiership, so it's a big no from me. P.S. He is also a 24 carot cunt

I think I preferred when we had our team of project underachievers under Thelin - we still didn't win anything, but there was always the potential someone would suddenly start playing football however briefly. For a worryingly high percentage of our current players, this is their ceiling right here. They will not get better.

I would say Mouloua has the potential to be better than Nisbet but right now it's just potential for me. The thing is this 3 week international has basically been a mini pre-season for us and given all our arrivals and the fact pre-season was very short because of the league cup you could argue this has come at a brilliant time for squad. It's going to be interesting to see the effects but I think we will defo be seeing a lot more of Mouloua going forward, he's defo up to match speed now and as I said before I think he's got cult hero written all over him 🫰.

His petulance is one reason I wouldn't bracket him with the all time greats like Pele, Maradona, Messi, Cruyff, Best and Miller (Willie, not Bertie).

Armstrong and Mouloua made a difference Yogane? Not so much - so slow in everything that he does Good to see Gyamfi make a comeback but whatever has went on with Frame the club need to sort out as he can get past a full back and deliver a ball to Nisbet Knoester solid but rest of defence poor

I'd probably still take him.

You could feel it in the crowd when he came on at ER. There was a buzz. He did fuck all like but we’ll keep that on the back burner 🤣

Hilarious is right!!! For the first time in a long time I actually have an interest in the race for the PL and genuinely can't wait for the Liverpool v City game next week. Liverpool fans are going to have a field day and I can't wait to see what they come up with banner and song wise, they have plenty prep time too. It's not going to get sorted anytime soon now that City have appealed it though. The only chance would be for the Premier league to come up with a settlement for them that was binding enough to not allow anyone to take any further legal action against them and that would require Abu Dhabi admitting they are cheating cunts. Not happening. This will run for years but it will probably remain quite amusing for the duration.