today's P&J
(Stolen fae K9 on the hat)
"Now Jimmy, did you see what happened there? Your team lost, and yet was still
clapped off the field. Strange, wouldn't you think, for a bunch of fans who set
standards as high as those of which they are accused? Here's the difference. You
played 4-4-2, with aggressive intent, and Scott Severin in midfield (where, for
an hour, he was awesome).
It is increasingly clear that branding the Aberdeen fans as greedy delusionists
is a tool to write off valid concerns about decisions for which Jimmy would
otherwise be held to account. To hear such lazy, stereotype-based, cliché-packed
dross coming from outsiders who have no interest in, and nothing to gain from,
the club's success is so old that it stopped causing offence years ago, but
spoken by the man who is in charge of our team it can be extremely irritating.
Let me spell this out once and for all, Jimmy. There is not a single Aberdeen
supporter who expects you to deliver the SPL trophy. Memories of the days when
the First Division title seemed a more immediate prospect are still way too
fresh for any such fantasy to be entertained, and as such we have rather enjoyed
the last three seasons, which cannot, in league terms at least, be categorised
as anything other than success. Don't you remember the travelling Dandies
pouring onto the pitch in Inverness to celebrate mere accession to the top six?
Or the carnival atmosphere at Pittodrie in May when third spot was clinched?
Neither is the hallmark of a support which demands nothing less than some
unattainable level of perfection.
What Aberdeen supporters do expect is that you produce the best that can be
extracted from this current squad. To run scared of a side who, within a week,
became the first to not only drop SPL points to Gretna but to fail to put four
past them was to fall well short of that mark, hence the reaction it received.
This, though in vain, was much more like it, other than the glaringly obvious
lack of fitness which saw the entire team hit the wall simultaneously, at around
the point in proceedings where it is normally only Craig Brewster who needs to
be removed before he expires.
Finally, after two false starts, you might have something. Give it a chance,
please."
spot on loon