rocket_scientist

At the time of the Barnard signing, we were hugely cash rich following the original shares issue. It was the market price at the time and that signing does not mitigate the truth. The absurd spending on non-productive staff (numbering 124 once upon a time), on excessive maintenance costs at Pittodrie, on feasibility studies and consultancy fees and on ridiculous management extensions and contracts (a failing continuing to this day including McInnes) took us from cash rich to deep debt. That was an agenda. £1m on Barnard was irrelevant to our Balance Sheet at the time so there's no tbf about it. John Stephen, the now defunct AFCST and us shareholders all voted against Milne in the infamous AGM in the late 90's. He used his corporate mates on the board to survive as he's never owned more than 29% of our shares on his own. But that grim face he had on that night gave him grim determination to beat us and taught him to slow down and be patient. Time will prove if he's been good or bad for AFC. I already know where it's going.

And who's fucking fault is that? It's OUR fault, that's who. We denied / refused to believe / couldn't see the Stewrat Milne agenda despite the fact it has been staring us in the face for a period of over 20 years now.

I found Luther preposterous. Overwhelming feeling of a total waste of time. It had enough to hook you in but the last, possibly final episode was fucking shite. Will appeal to morons.

The Waco Storyville was excellently put together, including actual audio and video footage released for the first time. It's a tragic situation which unsurprisingly shows how incredibly stupid people are, on both sides. Some deep meanings get realised so well worth a watch.

Simples. 1. Spending money is an anathema for Milne and 2. Winning and the success of the "football side of the business" was never his agenda.

Different strokes, different folks. What I enjoyed about it most of all was the level of technical skill on show. The passing was crisp, fast, slick and accurate. Close control was superb, Barcelona-esque in their heyday and most of all, so few mistakes like we are burdened with in the SPFL. Obviously given the wages they are on and the level they play at, it's unfair to compare the two best teams in that league with the journeymen we watch at Pittodrie but the game is still the same and it's nice to see it being played properly for a change. Some of the moves and passing was out of this world and the last two goals were tremendously well constructed, the first being a sheer bit of Aguero magic, as he always finds against Liverpool at home. I don't really care who wins the EPL but if forced to make a pick, I would definitely go Citeh. I think they're the better all-round team and much as Klopp has an excellent record v. Pep in individual matches, there has to be a question mark about Klopp's ability to deliver the big ones, having lost 6 or 7 major finals including Champions League. That was as good as a final last night in that if Liverpool had been good enough to win, they would have been heavily odds-on with a 10 point margin but they never deserved to win with their front 3 being unable to work enough decent chances. I also expect that with De Bruyne returning to fitness, City will become even stronger. The biggest shock to me was how they lost consecutively to Leicester and Palace. Didn't see either game but they'll not do that again this season. They are a great football team with superb balance in the squad. Citeh will have it tied up with at least one game to spare would be my guess.

Defoe on over £4m p.a. makes no sense to me. He's never been that good to be worth that. And at his age, on our pitches, I don't see him as a big threat. I mean, Shinnie would eat him up at Left Back. Oh wait, Midget McInnes would prefer to put Considine up against him.

Couldn't agree more Jute. Phenomenal standard of footballers on show, including young Scotsman Robertson who is a wonderful footballer. That Liverpool move in the first half which ended up with a 1.1 cm margin was brilliant but the best team won and that's good for the rest of their season.

North Tonight said AFC would net a tidy £150k so obviously a 20% sell on clause.

The kick out at Brown was exactly the same as the assault on McKenna in the first game of the season. Morelos got sent off that game after 11 or 12 minutes (whatever it was) because the linesman put up his flag and brought the ref's attention to what happened, thereby giving the ref no option but to enforce the rules of the game. What I don't get here is that the rules haven't changed so either the ref saw it and is applying different rules or he didn't see it and the authorities are applying different rules. I don't recall seeing anything in the rules about offences occurring in the first 2/3 minutes or offences in games where certain teams are participating being exempt. McKenna was at least provoking the horrible ugly hun tink cunt. Brown was cowardly assaulted from behind with no warning. And fuck off spellchecker. Tink is a word. Think is another word.

Good luck to you and Mrs LA. Great expectations. Hope you have a magical time. Don't give it a shit name. Check back with us and we'll give appropriate approval. Or otherwise.

You make some excellent points about Rodgers. He isn't infallible and I don't think he would be any good as a manager if he was properly tested. You're right that he struggles to adapt to game situations and their back 5 are indeed shite under serious pressure, as we've seen many times since the summer. Celtic were very slow to start this season but got on a good run which came to a crashing halt at Ibrox. The January window has now become his most important one, probably of his whole career. We will see how good or otherwise a manager he really is in the next five months although I hope he's lucky enough to prevent the SPFL going to Stevie Cunt. I've already written off Aberdeen's chances of winning the league under McInnes.

I agree that Sinclair, the young lad and Brown were shite. Gerrard talked about every player having to win their one to ones and what Rangers didn't do was show them too much respect. They wanted it more was what one of the commentators said and it was how hungry the home team were that harried the away team into a poor performance. I remember that Hearts last season were the team who ended their long unbeaten run. What was noticeable in that game was that they never gave Celtic time on the ball, something Hibs had done to both Rangers and Celtic in the games before. The problem with AFC v. Celtic is that we never tried to win the game. We weren't hungry. We didn't want it enough and by showing them too much respect, deploying a defensive mindset, allowing them to build from the back and walking into our half at will, it is always going to be a matter of time before they score. Ferguson and Ball were effectively part of a back six on Boxing Day (back 7 inc. Joe Lewis). Whatever the tactics were, they failed miserably and until McInnes tries to match up to them, to prevent them waltzing into our half at will, to try and win greater possession and prevent them having the ball as often as they're allowed to have it, there can't possibly be any other outcome. Given our appalling record against Celtic for five years now, it's pretty amazing that McInnes hasn't tried a different approach. My guess is that he can't try to beat them because he doesn't know how, being possessed with a loser core mentality and keeping his fingers crossed that we can win by hitting them on a counter attack, something that hasn't happened for too long now. His stubbornness also prevents him admitting that he's been getting it very wrong in the games that really matter, thus the barrenness of achievements in terms of trophies.

Well well, his last game for a month and he was up for it? Cunt. Doesn't matter what McInnes did with Consi for one day. He's been abused his whole career. Fine loon Andrew. Heart of a lion. Pity EVERY SINGLE MANAGER he's played under has been a total cunt.

Totally on the money. There is a player in there. He wouldn't have got a five year deal @ 30k a week = 7.5/8m if he was a total nugget. But give an 18 year old that sort of money and the danger is that he loses hunger. Only once did he surprise me with great quality, the goal v. Hamilton. He's been generally toilet otherwise. A lazy cunt with zero future.

Considine at LB again. Stubborn and stupid.

A deserved lead too, despite the fortunate deflection off Scott Brown. Rangers were superb. That's the first time I've EVER said that and hopefully the last. They didn't allow Celtic to walk into their half. They pressed them at their back and Celtic needed to work hard and slick and fast just to keep possession in their own half. I caught Andy Walker on talksport this morning and he said that all the teams in Europe pressed Celtic high up the pitch and unlike in Scotland, do not pay them too much respect and being fearful of losing the first goal. I hope you fucking watched that first half McInnes you ball-less midget cunt.

I hope you're right that we horse them today but I don't understand what you mean by saying that on the whole it has been a good month. This is exactly why I asked the question about what we want and expect as a club because I couldn't possibly describe December as good, by any stretch of my limitless imagination. The month started with a cup final that was pathetic, our closest chance and our only shot anywhere near the target being an OG attempt. I don't know what you were feeling but we were gutted and pretty silent over dinner and the drive home. Performance rating: 1/10. Beating Rangers at Ibrox was a brilliant result, and possibly a fluke given how infrequently it happens and the fact that our opponents are a class above, apparently, as spake by a scouse tink cunt fuck. 10/10. (I know the performance was nowhere near perfect but who cares, it's those fuckers we beat). Then v. St Johnstone we endured one of the worst performances I have ever seen at Pittodrie, over a period spanning six decades. 0/10. You would agree, I presume, that a 92nd minute winner at home to the famous Livingstone wasn't great but it was a game we probably deserved to win. 6/10. Scraping past St Mirren who hadn't accumulated even a double figure number of points wasn't the performance of a good team so happy to take the result. 5/10 Horsing Dundee was much more like it. That's what we should be doing to shite. 8/10. Hearts are supposedly our competition so we have to be beating cunts like that, particularly at home and unusually, we benefitted from some poor refereeing. 7/10. Never really in it v. Celtic. Terrible tactics, Considine exposed, just another horrible game to have suffered. Two well taken pens though. 2/10. 39 out of a possible 70, three defeats including throwing away a final and an embarrassment at home against the mighty St Johnstone, three wins we should be getting anyway (if we had any aspirations to compete in this league) and only one bonus win isn't a tally that I would ever describe as "good", although FIVE wins in the league in one month (15 points) is more than good, and hopefully, and should be, 18 points in December after today. So yeah, I've kinda argued against myself and supported your point. But for one critical difference. In a month where we suffered some shocking performances, including at home, we should never describe it as "good" because a great team never has this many shockers in half a season, let alone one month and a good team doesn't turn up and play shite 3 times in a month neither.

I woke up this morning and there was a very strong, almost overwhelming smell of soup. It wasn't an offensive odour, it was quite fine actually but given that there is a fair distance between the kitchen and our bedroom and no cooking facilities (that I'm aware of) either in or adjacent to where we sleep, I couldn't understand where it might be coming from. I checked with a touch test and the wife was sleeping so it must've been a daughter up unfeasibly early and unlikelyly cooking. The smell of the soup was changing, sometimes stronger, sometimes with strong spices, sometimes more traditional broth, sometimes classic lentil and ham and I had to double check that I was actually awake and not dreaming this weirdness. After 118.6 units of alcohol (my drink tracker App informs me) in 7 days before my first alcohol-free day yesterday since the 21st, I now conclude that the side effect of this sudden abstinence is that my nostrils decided to trip out. They've settled now and the smell of soup has gone but what a bizarre and interesting start to the day. Think I'll get blootered in the pub this afternoon to get things back to normal.

Nobody is saying "attack, attack, attack", something that couldn't have possibly been done anyway with only 35% possession. In fact, we did have an attacking personnel and line up with two strikers and McGinn and MacLennan on either wing. The problem was nothing connecting with our front four, as Ferguson and Ball were sitting way deep with presumably defensive duties drilled into them. Within the first five minutes, it was obvious that Scott Brown was spare. He and their back four were spreading it across between them but because we had May and Cosgrove chasing between THREE men, Boyata, Benkovic and Brown, it only took a few seconds for them to make the extra man count and Brown was able to walk into our half totally unchallenged. The problem was that we didn't see the obvious unfolding and the antidote was to get Ball or Ferguson pressing higher up and countering the spare man. This isn't "attack, attack, attack". This is schoolboy stuff and simple mathematics. The reason we didn't adapt for the WHOLE game is something we could speculate on but whatever the game plan was, it not only didn't work, it was pitiful. Gordon never had a save to make, we couldn't get close to scoring from open play until it was too late and we conceded FOUR at home, all of which were easily preventable but luck and the way the game goes meant they were due at least one of them. It was an infuriating performance and for me, totally sickening that we made schoolboy errors both in tactics and the personnel deployed in the back line. Captain Marvel Shinnie offered nothing in midfield once again and shouldn't have even been there. The only reason he's being played there is that at least he has some bite and none of McInnes's recruits are near good enough in the middle of the park. It was an embarrassing capitulation and as Brenda correctly said, the scoreline flattered us. Even the two pundits on Sportscene were saying how Celtic always had an extra gear they could call upon, an extra bit of quality which separated us and given the patent gulf in class, we simply can't afford to make stupid, preventable errors if we want to compete, which I'm not even sure that we want to, as per the aspirations thread.

I've just seen the goals and where Forrest skinned Considine for pace for their second, Logan was weak in not getting into the right position. For their third, Considine was so scared of getting ripped for pace again, he hung so deep allowing acres of space for Forrest to not only receive the pass but bags of time to make the telling pass into the box. At the time I remember thinking a man against boys for their fourth as Logan and Ball combined to do fuck all.

My post mortem feeling is one of sickness. We could have got something out of that but were deservedly beaten. The ref contributed to the feeling of nausea, Collum being a perennial cunt. Football is a simple game and the more you have the ball, the more opportunities you can create. We conceded two thirds of the possession for the whole period. Scott Brown had the majority of their possession in the first half and he was able to walk into our half. He couldn't run into our half because there were no options ahead of him, unsurprisingly with six AFC marking five of them. Our problem was one of not matching up, our rigid zonal defence doing a great job in the first half in limiting them to barely nothing but conceding vast amounts of the ball. I felt sorry for May and Cosgrove, running about like headless chickens trying to share the responsibility of shadowing Brown but it should never have been their jobs. McGinn and MacLennan were obviously under instructions to stick to their wings to negate any prospect of their full backs attacking the flanks but with their back four spreading it about and Brown in front of the back line, there was their extra man right there, McGinn + MacLennan + May + Cosgrove being only four in number. So we as good as invited them to come at us and allowed Brown to walk into our half, where he did pretty much fuck all with it. But all the time he and they have the ball, we don't. McInnes was so scared of them and so lacking in courage to have a go, he didn't direct either Ball or Ferguson to press high up the pitch and prevent Brown waltzing unchallenged into our half. This is simple mathematics and being aware that man marking cancels waltzing. It also would have conserved energy, our front two getting worn out by shadow chasing. The biggest crime was Considine being switched to LB. If McGinn was injured, it should've been a straight swap but absolutely no need for a wholesale formational change. Taking Ball back into the centre of defence wasn't going to make much difference as he was sitting so deep anyway but sticking Considine into a position where he's already said he's not comfortable was madness. And for what end? To release Shinnie into the middle where we could watch him chase shadows the whole second half, yet again? It didn't work. They had even more possession and had multiple players walking into our half, not just Brown. It only takes one moment of switching off or one mistake to turn a game. It was a good ball that caught us napping down our right which led to their first but that was the only mistake in the first half, buried by some good pinball fortune for Sinclair. But in the second half, twice Forrest ripped Considine and both times it led to goals. These weren't mistakes. These were predictable outcomes caused by an insane formational change, so predictable in fact that I predicted it on this thread. Cowardice and stupidity were the failings that cost us three points. Once again McInnes didn't have the balls to press them high and this is a continuous losing tactic which also implies to his men that he doesn't consider them good enough. It was stupidity in the extreme to put Considine out at LB where Shinnie had been looking so comfortable in the first half. These are the main reasons we lost.

I was at a different game today. What I saw was Shinnie at LB for the first half and them creating zero, particularly down their right wing. Then I saw Consi at LB and twice Forrest got the better of him and this led to two goals. Connor Mac was poor. He never got into it and was lazy as fuck. Shinnie in midfield is fucking useless. That was embarrassing today. But when a shitehoose like Collum is in charge, it all goes oot the windie.

I was more Shinnie rather than Considine at LB if Lowe doesn't make it. Considine's interview, shown on North Tonight kind of nailed that he can't be played at LB again. He doesn't want to play there and he's quite clearly not quick enough. Forrest would kill him.

I've always hated Hearts and I e never liked Levein. They're well suited. Cunts.