rocket_scientist

As one of the losers who couldn't give a fuck today, delighted to hear the yoof done good. It is further proof that the arsehole who said they're not good enough is an ignorant nothing. They must be averaging one start in more than a year between them, for every year they've been at AFC. And yet he knows best, fuelled by a little authority, making the angels weep.

I smoked for a third of a century. Haven't had a cigarette since March 2013 and don't miss it at all. I'll never have one ever again. The big difference this time - tried to give up loads of times before including once for six months - is that I'm a non-smoker... in my head. Just a pointless, destructive habit. Still addicted to nicotine unfortunately. Been using the spray every day for 5.43 years.

New Indian tonight. Carron to Mumbai, I think it's called. Friends of ours went last Saturday and raved about it. It's the Art Deco place in Stoney. They've done a fantastic job with the building interior. But we should judge on product and service as well as environment. The starters were awesome. The menu is unique. The wife thought her monkfish was the best curry she's ever had. My lamb was ok. Will give it another go, no doubt after the wife's been there half a dozen times before. If you don't mind trying something different, I recommend. Haven't dined out for Indian more than once this year until twice in the last week. Need Light of Bengal next time to get some sense and sensibility injected within.

Listen up. Listen carefully. If we have a disagreement, can we at least crystallise it? What's your problem? What's my problem? What are we arguing over? And stop ignoring key crucial questions. You've still never bothered to say what Anderson lacks that May & Cosgrove have got. And I have no idea what we are meant to be discussing on this stadium thread?

Well said Rico. Cunts that can't read or think properly are a drag.

Any link? He was a wankstain at Liverpool. He became a bigger wankstain when he ran off with a young lassie. He became the ultimate wankstain when he went to that new club with the same history of disgusting bigotry of the club that used to play there. His failing is in all our interests, not just for AFC but for more humanitarian wankstain-prevention reasons. So we need material. I've seen his comments after Pittodrie but nothing since so any link would be appreciated. Despite his thickness and his patent attempts to ingratiate himself to the great unwashed, I still think his desire to win and his passion will have a positive impact on the new club, particularly if they're throwing money at it (from whence it comes, I do not know) although it's arguable that they could not have been any worse, much like AFC for a period of almost 20 years until McInnes at least stemmed the bleeding.

I wouldn't take Christie. He was shite for his last six months here. Gutless. If they're nowhere near good enough for the team we're trying to overtake, a team we are already ahead of this season, they should not be good enough for us. Call me old-fashioned but how about trying to raise the standards of the footballers we recruit and also get better performances from the ones we have?

Totally agree. We're looking at it with too much nostalgia. He WAS inconsistent, as was Strachan but unlike Strachan, he's not an excellent footballer. After his injury, he's not near good enough for our opposition so he's not good enough for us, particularly given his age. Fuck Hayes. But he's better than GMS.

I never got into them masel but did see them live 20 years ago cos the loon was into them. Good body of work and the imagery in the first video was superbly Scottish. Sad to hear of them "retiring" though. Why do that? If you love what you do, why give up on it? Maybe don't love what they do anymore but why not play a gig 2 or 3 times a year when there's quite obviously a demand - globally - for shit like this? No need to announce a big retirement I would have thought but there may well be personal considerations I'm not aware of.

I also found it alarming that McInnes was on telly talking about Shinnie. Did he think it would pressurise him to accepting a deal? What was he playing at? If Shinnie doesn't sign, he will make a hell of a lot more as a free agent. He will know what McLean is getting from Norwich and he will (corrrectly) think he's worth at least that much.

Absolutely.

I'm trying to think of new stadia that work, as there are so many that clearly don't, soullessness being a common reason for their failure. Not having any expertise in architecture let alone how to build a stadium, these are merely opinions and observations (before the pedantic posters with Tamson surnames wade in). The Allianz is class but is that just an impression because the club that plays within it (and the region, city and country) is class? I don't think so. It's an innovation of architecture, something that looks and feels good, possibly due to the fact they spent big bucks picking the right architect. On concerts rather than fitba, The Hydro reminds me of the Allianz, probably because of its curvature and exterior lighting but it also looks and feels good, both inside and out and is the best venue I've ever been to for a concert, the O2 Arena in London being shit. What possessed Falkirk and Hamilton to build such ugly shit? And why is the AECC going to be such an underwhelming anti-climax when it opens? It's a tough gig, designing big buildings. Even when they get it right (architecturally, like the Emirates), it doesn't guarantee that it will work. There's more to it than bricks and mortar. Can't think of any great new stadia other than Bayern Munich. Even Stade de France when it was new and I was there for the 1998 first game of the WC had a feeling that it wouldn't last, despite being a great amphitheatre.

On the subject of the new Roma stadium, the pathos and irony couldn't be more pronounced. Rome is one of my favourite cities in Europe, an architectural masterpiece. The original "stadium for the people" was such a monumental design that it still makes shedloads of cash, many centuries after it was last used. I'm pretty sure that the new one won't outlive one century, concrete, steel and glass not having the properties to endure millennia. Sharing the Olympic Stadium with Lazio was always a temporary accommodation. There is always going to be a need for new stadia as old ones outlive their usefulness and economic, cultural and city-planning requirements change. But isn't it sad that they're only planning for 52,500 seats? And the shopping district attached? This agenda of exclusivity - they're even planning a fanzone outside for the plebs who can't afford it (a demand that won't happen) - and of retail is what developers do, seeking to maximise and squeeze every dollar. But it misses the point and the history of football which was always about the people and the community. Arsenal is a great precedent. The "working man" can't afford the season tickets. In the Platinum Club where we were, it was £6,500 per seat, complete with bevvy at HT (all you could drink, I managed 3 pints) and shit food. The demographic changed overnight with the move to the Emirates. We were surrounded by City types wearing suits and ties (many with pink hues in their shirts and/or ties) that knew fuck all about fitba. These cunts enjoyed their only outlets in their lives to shout and scream but it was embarrassing what came out of their ignorant mouths. They aren't the lifeblood of football. They are unsustainable. They'll get bored of not being the best. They'll not stick with their team through thick and thin. AS Roma are similarly going for the rich buck. They might fill 52,500 for the first 10-15 years but where will they be in 20-25 years time when the steel isn't shiny and their "mall" looks tired? Football has been lost to the moneymen. They never understood the people, the game nor the soul. Stewrat Milne however, he's our saviour.

My opinion on the difference between Highbury and the Emirates derives from exactly the same place as the author of the article you posted - "Grounds grow to match the identity of their team. Character is more important than capacity or a technologically advanced concourse. It can be an ineffable element, but you know it when you see it (or feel it): this sense of where you are, tied not only to geography but to a history". What specifically did I "mid-read"?

In your opinion, my use of the word "soulless" is invalid. I agree that Arsenal fans in the new stadium are "shite". You're obviously trying to agree that there is an atmosphere problem. So how would you try to articulate it? Don't you agree that they were NOT "shite" at Highbury? Wasn't it a brilliant atmosphere there, not just on the North bank but the whole stadium?

Aretha was a rare and supreme talent. A genius. Respect. RIP.

I also said it was a very good stadium. "Spectacular amphitheatre" were my words. For what it's worth? You mean, like people have opinions, and some of them are different from other opinions? Yes I knew that. The article knew that too, which is why it acknowledged that the architect's blowing of his own trumpet was countered by others who do NOT like it. Even if a majority think it's brilliant, that doesn't mean that we can't discuss the exact theme that the article was talking about. What did I misread? That you, the architect and a bunch of people like the stadium? I like it too but IN MY OPINION it is 1. soulless (but efficient) and 2. not nearly as good as Highbury was.

If he has been offered it, or is going to be offered it, it must surely be because he's considered box office enough to be a huge success. The colour of his skin wouldn't have been a consideration, assuming that the potential argument based on the traditional perception of the role itself (as I articulated above) doesn't matter. The only people who get upset by stuff like this are closet racists on one hand (like Hopkins, who even though being far from in the closet and is out there, she's too confused to know her own mind, blinded by her own delusions of superiority) and the out-there anti-racists on the other. As Rico said above, the whack jobs who push for "equality" and go too far are actually as bad and objectionable to any sane person as the bigots.

I could ask you why you thought I'd misread the article but that would be cruel, as you would just dig yourself deeper. The architect who built the Emirates waxed lyrical about his own work but the article itself noted that it has its detractors, putting forward a pathetic argument that the football itself was a reason for dissatisfaction. Have you been to the Emirates? I have and it's soulless. A spectacular amphitheatre for sure and convenient for accessing with its total concourse but it's impossible to generate any decent atmosphere within it. Had you been to Highbury? I did, twice and it was superb. I can't remember the reasons they felt they had to move - probably financial - and I'm not therefore in a position to comment on how necessary or otherwise the relocation was. All I do know is that their new home has lost something compared to the old one so I'm not inclined to agree with the architect and his self-aggrandisement. It's best to experience something for yourself rather than taking the word of a vested interest and failing to note the acknowledgment that there were counterviews. When you're on solid ground like that, only then can you imply that a fellow Dons fan is a fucking retard who can't read nor think properly.

Firstly I wouldn't listen to Katie Hopkins. She's a shockjock who gets herself confused. Secondly, not having seen a Bond film for over 40 years and not been to the cinema to see a Bond film since Connery (don't we grow out of this shit by the age of 13/14?), I really couldn't give a fuck who they appoint. But the debate is interesting; It may be the forces of political correctness suggesting a black actor. Distinguishing on ethnic grounds is normally evil but the only articulate argument I can think of for not having a black actor is the role itself. If Bond is supposed to be a traditional quintessentially British spy/action man/gentleman etc. then he's going to be white. Black men haven't been in Britain long enough to fit that mould and I'm pretty certain Ian Fleming wouldn't be casting anything other than what he wrote about, back in the day when there were considerably fewer ethic gentlemen in Britain. But since I've not read any of his Bond shit and I don't give a fuck, as you were...

It doesn't take two dozen games to see that a footballer is pish. Half a season is nonsense. For the record, my jury is out on Gleeson by virtue that he hasn't showed enough either way. But I do love the fact that Rico and TC have jumped in early with their initial impressions. I also think that they're going to be proved right, or at least as a betting man and if forced to stake I would be in the nay camp. He's just not dynamic. He looks pedestrian. Wouldn't be surprised if he's yet another loser journeyman that McInnes has recruited, like so many he's introduced to AFC.

Excellent article. Pity the content of it is beyond the intellect of our chairman and it's theme a potential hazard to his agenda. The example of Arsenal is a sad one. It's not just what's happened on the pitch. It's a sterile stadium that has ripped the heart from a once-great club. West Ham have sold their soul. Those creeps in charge will predecease the club but the club may not survive too long after them.

We are visiting our favourite restaurant on the planet early September, in Lausanne. In Geneva and surrounds, like most places (Aberdeen excluded) you have to be good to survive let alone thrive. It's already going to be the highlight of the week despite going to Crans Montana for the first time. There is great joy in great food in great ambience being delivered with great service. My parents' generation never got that. Good job the old fuckers are dying out.

Echt WILL be good. They do it different. Many dishes on the menu are ones we've not heard of before. Their reputation preceded them and it was thoroughly deserved. Will definitely be back and next time, we will choose to go there rather than just passing. The Jewel has consistently had a great reputation for decades. Having heard from someone a couple of weeks ago that they had a great meal there, we realised we hadn't been for years. Unfortunately all four of us didn't think the main courses were any good but their naans were the best.

A couple of Indian experiences recently. The place in Echt is outstanding. We popped in on the way back from Aviemore and it's superb. Jewel in the Crown on Saturday was very poor. First time been there for years. Service excellent. Food bland.