rocket_scientist

And it was NOT a 3-4-3. This is football punditry gone mad. Who were our 3 up front? Cosgrove and Wilson for sure but GMS? I don't think so. And if Considine wasn't a full back, are we saying Logan, McKenna and Devlin were our back 3? What, Considine AND Lowe meant to be in the middle (with Ball and Shinnie)? No chance. That was an attempted 4-4-2 but whatever the fuck is was supposed to be, it didn't work.

Exciting? It was fucking shite. But thanks to some great penalties and a lot of luck, job done. Shinnie isn't anywhere near international class (as a midfielder) and GMS was equally bad tonight. Agree Wilson has something about him. Considine had a mare. McKenna made his usual couple of schoolboy errors. Devlin is a good footballer but got teen a couple of times. Lowe has good potential but made some bad mistakes. Ball was absent the whole second half but by fuck that was a great effort the free kick in the first half. May and McGinn were hopeless when they came on. I'm struggling to laud any good performances for AFC tonight, apart from Lewis. Logan worked hard and is an asset so he was probably my AFC MOTM but lucky lucky lucky to get through that.

Coming to Glasgow in November. I'll be going if daughter 2 (who lives there) fancies it.

To be fair to the lassie, I love this song. Radio 6 just played it just now and have been playing it for a while. https://youtu.be/dzk97VIH6ss

You urged. She dirged. Fuck me that was dire.

Whatever the merits of this youngster or that one, I think we mostly all agree that one of his faults is being overly loyal to underperforming players at the expense of developing youth. Every human has strengths and weaknesses. That's just one aspect of his management that's been very poor. This is a symptom of his personality of course and probably of his history too. In my opinion he was forced to bench May by public opinion. The fans had never booed him before and when he got subbed off at McDiarmid, this would've got McInnes to reflect and re-assess. Going into Saturday's match, there was only one team in the SPFL with less wins that our solitary one in five. It had been a terrible points haul and with Hibs and Celtic coming up, games that could go a long way to defining the season, the opportunity v. Motherwell was now or never to do the right thing, to drop the donkeys and blood more youth and hunger. Unfortunately I think you're right and that he will revert to type tomorrow and if May does have a rare good game, he'll think that dropping him for one match was a managerial masterstroke, thereby allowing him to deny the reality that he either recruited a dud or is failing to get the best out of him. Same for Gleeson and Forrester. The personality trait behind all this is obstinance. Just like he refuses to play Shinnie at LB, McInnes will continue to flog dead horses in the hope that he will be proved right in the longer term. He will not face up to the fact that it's been his shite recruitment in midfield that has led to Shinnie trying to paper over his cracks. I hope his "making statements" has the desired effect but I suspect the experienced footballers he's recruited are not good enough on one hand or he's not a good enough manager to work their bollocks off on the other, in order to get winning performances out of them.

What surprises me is how sharp Greg Stewart looks this season, including this game v. Celtic. What is Steve Clarke getting out of him that McInnes couldn't? My guess is basic S & C and fitness levels are where the answers lie.

If McInnes is getting lauded for playing youth and for "making a statement" to the experienced campaigners yesterday, aren't we going to scratch our heads and wonder why it's taken FIVE FUCKING YEARS for him to finally do one aspect of his job properly? He's been way too loyal to underperforming journeymen that he recruited. Has he changed? Has he finally woken up? Does he now know that it's not been working? Has he suddenly developed a will to win at all costs and become a risk-taker overnight? These are not criticisms of the manager nor is this post worthy of the unjustified criticism (that some like to repeat) that all Aberdonians are negative moaning cunts. I'm simply asking one very simple question. Why now? The timing is very interesting.

Much as McGhee was a disaster as AFC manager, for all his many personality flaws there were three things he said that should be of major concern; Firstly the role of our chairman. Secondly the acknowledgement of "wee cliques". Thirdly, this quote: - “You get people who enthuse a room. You know them and catch their enthusiasm. Coisty [Ally McCoist] is one. Then you get other people who suck the life out of a room. Aberdeen is full of people who are drainers. Until it’s cleared out and there’s a freshness about it, it’s not going to get any better. And no-one, not even Craig Brown, who's a good manager can do anything until they change that". McGhee was right about this. All these aspects are interdependent and they talk of the pre-existing culture within the club. As the principal is still there, albeit with a change of manager since, there is no doubt that the major obstacle to progress remains. Even a shite can be a fertiliser.

I couldn't agree more. Every football match is a 3 horse race. The home, draw or away are the only 3 possibilities and therefore 2/1 per outcome are the mathematical possibilities before probabilities get factored in by the bookies. A home win price at less than half the possible outcomes isn't good value for Pittodrie today in my book unlike the likes of Peterhead, Portsmouth, Leeds and Cowdenbeath who are all less than evens for the home win. Even Arbroath and Bayern away at less odds than AFC today represent greater value for me but if it was all totally predictable, we would all skin the bookies every week and the only certainty every month and every season is that the bookies make major profits.

Scottish History - at least in our day - wasn't taught because the school syllabus was controlled by the Westminster government and they had a vested interest in lying to Scottish people and also in telling us not to use our own words and vernacular as they insisted on the "queen's english". America, like Australia, were land grabs involving genocide. Like the "british empire", we were not told the truth.

The intelligent football strategist strives for two Jamaicans on the wings and for two Nordic full backs. He doesn't employ Chinese or Japanese in goal and never an Indian or Pakistani anywhere on the pitch. They're the football equivalent of black Africans in the swimming pool. The Inuits are also considered inadequate for AFC.

It is indeed an unusually big price for any team in the EPL and as long odds as I can remember for a home win. But the chances of it happening are considerably more than 25/1 in the minds in the bookies and they don't get it wrong too often. It's the fools backing Citeh at 1/6 in their multi accas who feed them. Whilst it represents a fair price, there's tiny value in backing aways at such short odds because they don't always come in.

You've obviously been lucky enough never to have suffered ligament damage. I've been lucky enough never to have broken a bone but where a broken leg can come back from e.g. Henrik Larsson, most footballers are never the same after their knee ligaments get fucked the first time.

I'd never heard of Jenever until last week. Was in Schipol yesterday p.m. and had time to visit but wouldn't have been drinking. After the amount I've had these last couple of weeks and inspired by the Adrian Chiles documentary, I'm using a drink tracker App. Thoroughly recommend.

Are you being obstinate, impressionable or unintelligent? Or maybe what you've been told can be substantiated by data? I don't know, I don't work in the industry. At least try to explain how the cash out option works in the bookies favour and how a late Andorra equaliser would not have sunk my in-play doubles?

This is all a bit predictable and sad. Didn't see the game but listening to your accounts re Stevie May and lack of attacking threats etc. it really shouldn't be a surprise. Fans turning against McInnes however is a surprise. He's undoubtedly the best AFC manager this century, probably for over a quarter of a century actually. Just because I can't stand him and have never liked him (and I despise people like him) this doesn't negate the fact that he's got more basic skills for the job than any who preceded him in the years since he was a schoolboy. If some are turning against him now, what changed? McInnes hasn't changed. He's always done the same things. What is going through the heads of the AFC fans that have now turned against him? I am reminded of Limmy's "she's turned the weans against us". It's madness at play here. Who's available that's better? Milne ain't budging. They're not thinking straight. It's all prescribed. By history actually. The history of AFC and how a club with soul once upon a time got bought and sold.

Here's a historical quirk. I was introduced to Jenever in Rotterdam this week. It's a type of gin, drunk straight at room temp. Quite nice actually. If you know your history, about William of Orange and gin and how it took over London etc., you'll know where the phrase "Dutch courage" comes from.

At school, I hated history. I thought it a dead subject and always gravitated towards geography. But I was young and stupid then whereas I'm old and stupid now. But less stupid overall I hope. Most schoolteachers are uninspiring human beings. Every history teacher I ever had was a fud. But I have come to learn that history is extremely valuable. It repeats. It creates patterns. It paints pictures and it sources karma and morphic resonances. So yeah, let's have a history thread. I dig this. The cunt on my telly just now has a pink shirt. He's a cricket county chief executive apparently. I wouldn't mind if him and his ilk became history tomorrow but this wearing of pink shirts by "men" shouldn't be permitted.

I put on 4 x Scotland Kazakhstan doubles in-play before Scotland scored the first. Got 8-11 and 13/10 on the 4th bet. Cashed them all out as soon as K scored to make 2.9/3. Who said cashing out was a mugs game?

Great punting Seabass. Dan 3rd. Think Ryan will beat Kirstie though.

That was a good expose on Coca Cola. On a current topic, does anyone believe the government over this Salisbury stuff? We know they think we're thick but it's unbelievable how thick they think we are. I remember some prick on here having a cow and telling me to go back to/ go live in Russia after I questioned something previously. The many contradictions alone in the Westminster propaganda make it incredible. Only an imbecile can believe this shit might have an ounce of credibility.

Hilariously inept refereeing after hideously inept goalkeeping from De Gea in the 96th minute keeps it at 1-2.

The timing of getting back to my Geneva hotel could not have been better. They're showing Engerlund Espana and in the time it took to get here - we saw kick off in a bar - there's been three goals

It's ok to disagree. Time will tell. My position is that McInnes is finished. His best is behind him and his best was never good enough for AFC, although I accept that he has at least embraced sports science and made the club "more professional" in its processes, not that we shouldn't ignore that only a fucking imbecile would not when the technology, resources and methodology is already readily available.