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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.

Maybe if you would write bigger, then Thelin might hear you.

Walking home down King St. and on the opposite side of the road there was a wee girl with her parents singing "Hearts, Hearts are falling apart again" over and over - somebody has been brought up proper!

Hun. My kids don't even make the top ten.

Six months since that wonderful day

Full time. That was stressful, but worth it. Also, played one, won one when I've started the match thread on here.

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

HI everyone At Donstalk, I found out I was a member here too, who knew, not me!?

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.

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

I felt a great disturbance in the North, as if millions of fivers cried out at once and were suddenly silenced.

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).

I wouldn't have thought so if he's died...

U18s beat Montrose 4-0 today to progress to 5th round of Youth cup.

Sounds like a serious case of cuntism.

I'm so chuffed we ended their unbeaten run and more importantly got 3 points Cannot wait to go into the office on Tuesday now haha

The highlights up on the big screen today, before kick off, was the Aberdeen 6 Hearts 2 game from 1992. It was a truly wonderful match and just how good was Duncan Shearer.

So we qualify for the world cup and he suddenly wants to play for us. He can piss off.

Nae really 1 - it’s a catch all for ALL cricket, not just test. I reserve the right to rail against the ruddy 100 in it 2 - this is DonsTalk not a Mad tribute takeover. Fresh start. 3 - and finally and foremost it was started by a wifie

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.

Well done Swaddon. If it disappears later, check the Brewdog thread.

Clarke will still be picking those three long after they have retired.

8 hours to get a VAR decision, sounds about right

Clarkson is arguably our most talented plaar; that JT hisna got a tune oot o him is a pretty major failure on his part. That lame performance against Motherwell is the same issue extrapolated: our midfield set-up is a disaster. Naebody up the pitch. Surely the idea of having 3 centre-backs is to give your midfield better chances to get up the pitch?

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

An open goal that even Andy Harrow might fail to miss… Fidgimean “stuff”?

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.

Players in the auld days used to do a 16 hour shift down the pit every day and still turn out for their team on a Saturday afternoon. Modern footballers don't know they're born.

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.

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.

Do we know who we want? (Please don't say Robinson) Also, pretty sure Everton and Spurs have got a bit more financial clout to make light of pesky logistical inconveniences such as notice periods, compensation, and sufficiently tempting remuneration.