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Back when Fergie was manager, if a player asked for a day off he'd chain them to the side of the pier. After high tide, he'd untie them, and if they weren't dead he'd fine them a week's wages.

Aye, it's frustrating. Thankfully we've got next week off, and we can relax watching Steve Clarke manage Scotland.

Erzma. Fraternal greetings. Fk the huns, tims, jutes etc etc and COYR.

Hopefully Shankland goes on a three day bender.

I hate Brewdog almost as much as I hate the Huns. Hate the prick in charge, hate the slops they’re selling & hate the pubs that have had all the joy sucked out them

️ Warning: Really boring answer coming up. ️ There's been a few articles on this. Typically, a player is entitled to five weeks paid holiday a year. They can't always get those five weeks in pre-season. And I think they get public holidays added to that too as they work Christmas etc. If Aberdeen had lost the cup final, the early European fixtures would have meant we'd probably have started back 19 June like most clubs did. Can't be arsed working out how many paid holidays days that is, but it would fall well short of their entitlement. And then you had Keskinen playing at the U21 Euros and, I can't remember, but Mitov probably playing for Bulgaria etc. The holiday allowance actually starts 1 July, so the longer summer break we had this season doesn't actually count towards this season. So basically, in short, without a winter break, we need to use the international breaks to give them their days off. Woke nonsense etc.

Just when you think you can’t hate Darvel any more, they appoint Nacho Novo as manager

If that goal sends us to the World Cup, that will go down as the greatest Scotland goal ever

The sad thing is Clarkson would excel in another team's midfield. Hibs play a three-man midfield; usually Barlaser who sits between Grant Hanley and the other two midfielders, McGrath and Mulligan. I don't think any of those players are particularly more talented than Clarkson. Barlaser does the simple things. Collects the ball from defence and passes forward. McGrath and Mulligan collect and have three to four passing options -their front two and the two wing backs who get forward at pace. They repeatedly cut us open with just two-three passes a few weeks ago, not helped by our front three doing little pressing on Barlaser, and Palaversa having a nightmare, but that's another debate. For us, when Clarkson plays, often he turns and his options are a long ball forward (not necessarily a bad thing because he can pick players out from distance, one of his strengths) or a side ways pass to the wing back. He could be used so much more effectively in a three-man midfield. Technically, he's a better player than Hearts' Cammy Devlin, but even though they also play two midfielders, Devlin has two wingers and two strikers to aim passes at. Wait for him to sign for Hibs in January and start opening up chances for Boyle, Bowie and the two Caddens, while we're still scratching our heads.

I disagree. It's the equivalent of saying Billy Gilmour isn't good enough. You adjust the team to get the best out of players like Clarkson, because if you do then they'll create numerous chances. They're the difference between being a sideways, laboured, slow build up team, that hopes for a mistake from the opposition, and a team that makes the incisive pass and brings the attacking players into play when they have their best chance of scoring before the opponent gets back. The fact that we didn't sign anyone to compliment Clarkson, even as an option during games, is criminal. Even Robson knew how to get the best out of him. Clarkson taking the ball from defence and immediately getting the strikers involved, with Ramadani and Shinnie pressing high was a great setup. That, with the option switch and play two defensive midfielders and a number 10 like Armstrong would be a great way to build a squad (midfield). We really only needed one additional signing to do that. There isn't a chance on earth that Marshall is close to the level of Clarkson (that's not a criticism), and the Icelandic laddy looks to me to be a replacement for Nilsen in the squad, but I doubt he'll be getting much time this season. If Polvara is open to being a utility player, then he's worth his weight in gold. Palaversa can leave with many thanks for his only good game.

Presumably if this thread is focussed on AFC-related non-footballing matters we can just merge the Peter Ambrose thread into it?

Cardiff will host the opening game, and both semis and the final will be held at Firhill. I'm joking, they will be at Wembley. Hampden will host games in the group stages, last-16 and a quarter final. See, I looked for an auld thread on this topic before starting a new one. I'm settling in well here.

No, because the posts relating to the Brewdog link up were moved from the original 'club stuff' thread to a specific Brewdog thread. Felt his position had become untenable.

I'm sensing a deepening split in the moderator camp. Exactly the sort of thing that happens when dangerously miscellaneous threads are introduced to a forum. 263 people were killed in 2022 due to forum related violence, of which almost all were down to the lazy categorisation of topics. Forum moderator was the third most dangerous job in the UK that year.

Got some talent, but wholly unsuited to Scottish football as he lacks physicality & needs time & space on the ball you don’t get here in order to be effective. If he leaves (& personally I wouldn’t offer him a new deal for the reasons stated above) he’d be absolutely mental to stay in Scotland (again for the reasons stated above). He would go with my best wishes though, primarily for that utterly class cup final penalty (fair play, showed a level of bottle I didn’t think he had) and also for his brilliant reaction when the winning penalty went in…

He’s actually worse - the John Brown, Ian Ferguson, Durrant types are born & (in)bred into it - they can’t help themselves. Novo is a Spanish Catholic ffs. Someone who, just like the likes of Goram, has absolutely no family or cultural links to that disgusting embarrassment of an organisation but sold their souls and bought into the whole bigotry schtick just to make some coin. Utterly repulsive vermin, the lot of them…

Aye, I agree. I actually found it more frustrating that we played two up front and yet we never give Nisbet the opportunity of playing with a partner. Not sure what player Thelin was watching last season, but he was almost always better with Gueye alongside him. I said before we resigned him that unless we were playing a two then we might as well not bother with the transfer. It's frustrating that we can apply the available evidence, but a manager can't. I remember watching Bruce Anderson break through for us, and McInnes would almost always take the striker off for him, leaving him as a lone striker which he inevitably couldn't do. It'd be like a form of torture, which it's like watching Nisbet lead the line. It leads directly to comments about him being lazy, or shite, when neither are particularly true.

First post on here - one of the AbMad infiltrators, of a generally happy clapper rather than pant pishing persuasion. Oddly positive about this - as others have said, Well will be very open in their play and if we stick with the 3/5 at the back and the defensive solidity, plus pushing Armstrong into the 10, then I hope we can get a goal or two and keep another clean sheet. Will be interesting to see the line up in the next half hour or so. In/Oot - RedTV as always Pre - Sunday lunch Post - dunno, some more DIY or maybe an episode of Yellowstone. Prediction - 2-0 The Dons (Armstrong, Milne) COYR

Forty nine years ago I saw my first League Cup final win with a 2-1 (AET) victory over The Victims with goals from Drew Jarvie and The Brush (RIP). Ally McLeod's (also RIP) finest hour as Aberdeen manager. I remember being absolutely euphoric, little did I know what the next ten years or so would bring us Halcyon Days indeed

The new sporting director is keen to work with Thelin. All previous predictions that an abject defeat tonight might lead to a dismissal are now null and void. Thelin will be here until *at least* December, so we may as well back the man. Personally, I'm interested to see how the partnership gets on.

Why ruin a really well written, balanced post, with this frightener? I dunno if it's different in Orlando, but Halloween isn't for another four days here. Stephen Robinson would be an awful choice. It would be us getting spooked, abandoning everything the club apparently identified in this review they did two years ago, and just hoping Robinson can have the same impact McInnes as had at Hearts without any forward thinking. Like I said in the Hibs match thread - if Thelin is deemed not to be the man to continue it, then you search for someone who can. Stephen Robinson is Jim Goodwin all over again. He does not fit the model. The players we have don't fit his style of football. I'm also not sure what is appealing about him at the moment anyway. St Mirren have won just two of nine league games this season. Getting to the cup semi has masked a poor season (not unheard of).

Aberdeen winning the Scottish Cup and Scotland qualifying for the World Cup within six months of each other, that's the dream. And yet, within those six months, both Jimmy Thelin and Steve Clarke have had more criticism than praise, and not unfairly so considering there's been more poor performances than good ones from both teams. Despite that, they've still both delivered the ultimate high. Kasper Schmeichel also deserves a lot of credit for being part of both days.

No, we will be drawn with Argentina, Morocco and Italy (if they get through). England will play Jossy's Giants, The Hurricanes and Melchester Rovers.

Just think, we're only a few injuries from seeing Nicky Devlin on the big stage

Fuck that, make the Hun stay. Some players played their best ever games for Scotland tonight. Ferguson, McGinn, McKenna, McTominay just brilliant, and Gordon was fantastic too, I really hope he's guaranteed a squad place.

I see Bohun Hunhunski's team got scudded 7-1 by Wales.

8 hours to get a VAR decision, sounds about right

Spot on. When my tree goes up this week, I'll be thinking back to Hearts victory against the Central Powers in WWI. If it wasn't for the Jam boys getting a rare European away win, we'd all be speaking German.

So, back to the Brewdog link up with AFC...

Have you seen the Panorama “edit”? Very little to it and it doesn’t change the narrative from what Trump was saying. Nobody appeared to care at the time of the broadcast until the Torygraph brought it up a couple of weeks ago. Suspect the Panorama thing is just a smokescreen for the resignations and there’s a political tug of war going on behind the scenes. Robbie Gibb seems to mentioned quite a lot!

Said it for years - the team should be built around Clarkson. Most talented player we have. He’s a football player. Not an athlete or a unit or a speedster impersonating one. I just enjoy watching him and there’s increasingly few players you can say that about these days. Criminal we can’t find a way to utilise his talent.

Agree 100% with this. Our squad is just not very good. We were absolutely played off the park by Motherwell - again. There are fundamental basic issues. Too many players not suited to the rigours of Scottish football Too many players not suited to the style the manager wants to play Too many players who lack basic tactical nouse and technical ability. Too many “project players” and reclaim projects - guys who only see us as a stepping stone to bigger things. Of course they miss the point that “bigger things” only come if they deliver here, but fundamentally most don’t really give a fuck. A manager struggling to implement any sort of style of play & who doesn’t react well to in game issues. We sit too deep, don’t press high or aggressive enough & as such our forwards are totally isolated and out numbered. Key squad issues for me: We are too small and lack physicality at the back. See ridiculous amount of goals we lose from set plays and balls into the box for evidence. We are too old and/or too weak physically in midfield for Scottish football. Means we don’t get forward quickly or often enough (hence lack of goals) & lose out on far too many second balls (overrun in the middle) We sold our only genuine physical presence (Gueye - not replaced), & our only genuine pacey wing threat (Morris - not replaced) though Karlsson is a real talent, but not the same type of player. The wingers in general just don’t create enough - its all Karlsson who mostly has to create for himself. Our forwards either aren’t suited to one up front (Nisbet) or aren’t getting supported well enough (Lazetic) all for reasons mentioned above. Frankly, its all a bit of a mess so hopefully Lutz will be the spark and missing piece to start sorting it out because frankly, the current incumbents have proven incapable of doing so…

Just defected from Abmad too - testing, testing 123!

But, have you seen our squad? I don't think it's very good. We've maybe had one good signing in the summer, in Lazetic. Armstrong probably a downgrade on the younger and fitter McGrath. Karlsson not being nearly as effective as Morris. The rest being completely replaceable by a number of serviceable SPFL players. Players like Palaversa, Polvara and Keskinen simply haven't kicked on from not being good enough in the first place, with Shinnie and Nilsen being a year older, and it showing. There's just not a lot to work with, and other than the new manager bounce, I don't see us being in a better place. We could probably, maybe, improve the performances of Nisbet by playing him correctly in a two, playing Clarkson, keeping Armstrong further forward etc, but I think the issues are largely personnel based rather than tactics. For me, getting rid of Thelin is basically blaming him for the poor squad building. The entire point in getting rid of McInnes, and employing the following four (and a half) managers, was that we were no longer letting the manager do the squad building (at least not unchallenged). We've done exactly that, whilst having a stupid "strategy" of signing project players that seems to force the manager to build unbalanced squads. I don't think we'll ever get the opportunity to see if Thelin can do it for us as a manager, because the new sporting director will likely need more than two windows to sort the mess that he's walked into.

One positive from today, is that it is far easier to post my match thoughts in here than on Abmad. Just a pity the players couldn't provide a new forum bounce.

I thought this was a reference to Darren and Derek

Really? We are pish. 3 subs in the 90th minute? Jesus wept Jimmy. I would really like to know why Clarkson is barely getting a look in.

Just joined the flock- previously known as Kincorth Don on AbMad- infrequently post but happy to get involved from time to time- cheers for the welcome

Damn right. Without rules, there's chaos, and nobody likes chaos.

Hiya folks .... I signed up here a long time ago but never posted. Known as NaeMairNeeps on AbMad, looking to shift my attention from AbMad to Donstalk. Look forward to chatting with you all, and hopefully contribute something of value ... as well as the usual silly crap

Another defector from AbMad. I won't offer much by way of in-depth expert analysis, and hopefully you don't feel we are all interloping chancers looking to take over. We come in peace.......and a better experience.

Welcome on board As administrators of this site, we won't claim to be the busiest site in terms of posting BUT we are certainly a far more sensible bunch on here than a certain other site I could think of. Hope you guys and any others you bring over with you understand that, stick around and I am sure you will bring something positive to the site. To ALL AbMad members finding their way here, welcome and please stick around, we are a friendly bunch

Nah we played a lot of good football, but a lot of poor decision making at the crucial moments is why there are a lack of stand out chances. Notable examples: Someone passing to Milne in the box when they should have taken the shot on themselves, Keskinen passing to Milanovic just outside the box when he should have kept on dribbling, Karlsson inexplicably flicking the ball rather than just making a normal pass that would have got us in behind quicker.

Another Ab Madder here. The poster formally known as TheDeeDon, but as you can see, I can still come up with shyte user names. Posted on here before, but I stopped being able to get logged in a few years ago now.

Credit to them for that. That's a team that has beat Crystal Palace, and hammered AZ Alkmaar and Brann. And yet, away from home, I thought we were better team. You can see how distraught Milanovic is at the end for missing that chance, but it's actually a tougher chance than it looks. Difficult to shape your body to direct it in. Jack Milne excellent. Not just for the headers he won, but also the way he steps into the middle of the park and links the play. Still need two wins at least to qualify, potentially two wins and a draw, but I think at the moment it's more about taking confidence from these games after the poor start rather than stressing about getting through. Unbeaten in four out of six, clean sheets in four from six, unbeaten in three away games in a row (all with cleans sheets).

I've heard a rumour, and it might not be true, that Frame is being groomed to be next manager.

I keep thinking back to the fact that our season fell on its arse last year around the same time that our attacking coach left to go back to Sweden (Bajrami). Before you all scream "hemmin, correlation disnae imply causation!" at me, if we are loathe to bin Thelin (and I understand why), should we be looking at changing up (or adding to) his support and counsel instead?

Aye, that was gash again. I suspect that the last two minutes has saved JT's job. Had we lost 3-0 then he'd have been done. The European pish is an absolute disaster for us. We're nowhere near being ready for the extra games and today showed it. Several players looked knackered today, and we don't even have a settled first eleven, never mind a rotatable squad. We don't seem to be able to attack without leaving gaping holes in defence. The second half especially, when Devlin (probably the only one with pass marks, Lazetic aside) spent the entire time upfield. Dorrington and Milne were poor, with Knoester only marginally better. Karlsson very quick to berate Keskinen (which helped nobody), but didn't do a whole lot himself and gave the ball away too often. Armstrong was okay, but takes too long to shoot, and gives the ball away far too often. For all the shite Shinnie gets with the "legs have gone" pish, he covers 80 times more ground than Palaversa, who was absolutely dogshite. Clarkson was good when he came on and should be starting. Jensen pish and once again Nisbet is a waste of a shirt without a partner (which should have been obvious before signing). Milanovic probably had his best game today, positionally he was really good, working well with Devlin. Unfortunately he was terrible anytime he actually got the ball. I'm assuming Bilalovic is dead or something? Anyway, it's the shite squad building in the summer that has fucked us. Get the DOF in and put a proper plan in place and force JT to stay and get it done. Need to take a hard call on guys like Palaversa, Polvara etc and get them shifted.