rocket_scientist

I think you're underestimating Gerrard although I desperately hope you're right and I'm wrong. The man has passion, he has balls and he's got a winning mentality. These are three qualities sadly lacking in every single AFC manager this century.

This (further) atrocity in Afghanistan is sick. The same sickness as pollutes Glasgow, Belfast and Baghdad. Sunnis and shias, proddies and kafflicks. Can't these people see that they've been divided for a reason, by an agenda that seeks to exploit them? "War is stupid, people are stupid" was a line from a great gay man. There is nothing more stupid than a person who believes in anything the Christian and Islamic "faiths" peddle.

McKenna isn't a brain surgeon. He's a young impressionable loon with a LOT to learn. His signing a new deal with AFC is no barrier to anyone wanting to come in for him. The wages we pay are peanuts compared to the levels some reckon he's capable of. Has he benefitted from McInnes's coaching? Do you know this? We see the same failing in McKenna almost every week and he's not doing anything to improve it. I said at the time that Sone Aluko would never be good enough to play in the EPL and I got that wrong because he did (for Hull if I recall right) but my point was he would never be good enough to be a consistent performer in the EPL. For all the plaudits that we all give to McKenna - undoubtedly our most "valuable" footballer - let me be the first to say that he will never be a consistent starter in the EPL because unlike the other young Scots Robertson and Fraser - he's not good enough. I personally think that McKenna's fatal flaw is something that may not be possible to coach out of him. It would help if our manager can even see it though, and of that I'd be surprised if he can.

Couldn't agree more. This much was obvious to anyone... APART from to McInnes. Within 5 minutes of Zola's debut I turned to my mate and said that this cunt can't play fitba. This is another George Weah's cousin. Did you read about that cunt from South America somewhere who got paid for THIRTEEN YEARS in the professional ranks despite never being able to play (because he fixed everyone up with girls so he was "good to have around the place"). If he was a dick in training, who could blame him? Wouldn't you get pissed off starting only FOUR games in his first FOUR years under McInnes. How could he be properly motivated, being treated so appallingly that donkey journeymen keep on getting starts ahead of him? He was an exciting prospect once upon a time. The killer for me was Rangers at home, the second of the double-header when Kris Commons was already pronouncing that McInnes was destined for Ibrox. He started Wright for the first time in ages and Scott had a shocker, as did every single one of them, the worst two consecutive matches I have ever seen in over 50 years watching. He's never started him again. Whatever promise he once had may well have been extinguished and if that is the case, it's 100% down to mismanagement. If he can't inspire and develop youth, he's not fit for the job. I don't agree with strategies and targets when it comes to player selections. This is football, not a committee in the civil service. A manager should be judged by results but his losing mentality - like Calderwood not believing that he should have been sacked - reckons that coming second is proof of him doing a good job. It's like he doesn't have to change his mediocrity to keep his job. And whilst I agree with you that his failure to give youth a chance is a major failing, I reckon this season is where it will all cave in. We are the weakest we have ever been under McInnes and getting second spot is NOT going to happen, not by a significant margin. We have been up against even worse teams, very poorly managed in previous years. That's not the case for 2018/19. McInnes MUST change - by recruiting properly, getting more out of his journeymen and giving youth a reasonable crack - and as he is incapable of change (due to his major defects in personality), it WILL go tits up this season.

I just saw a film last night. It contained truths about achievement, truths that are invisible to most because most - even within professional sport - are losers, not winners. The parallels between the ruthless methods of coaching adopted by SAF and this musical teacher (albeit extremely illustrated for fictional purposes) were very relevant to the point I was making.

Many of us can see that McInnes has an appalling record of playing youth which is why it is madness to think that our young players aren't good enough and simply just take his word for it and have faith in his judgements. They've not had enough game time to know either way and his judgements haven't been great over the years, his excuse being budget but the reality being his inability to get footballers performing anywhere near their best. Another one I had completely forgotten about, again by reason of so few minutes game time.

You know how it works. People with the balls to express an opinion, who have the courage of their convictions, who stick their head above the parapet are resented by the silent majority, the bairns of Jock Tamson and their sad little lives.

Our youth players are not good enough? McKenna proved otherwise. We would never have known until Motherwell thrashed us 3-0 and his hand was forced to make changes. And he was hardly a kid when he made his debut less than a year ago. He was already a man. How can you say that Wright isn't good enough? He's been totally mismanaged. Same with Frank Ross. Anderson has only had 2 x subs appearances and you don't think he's good enough either? That's insane. You are happy to trust McInnes and anyone who dares to criticise him "has an agenda"? That's nuts too. I watched Whiplash last night with my youngest, a film that had been recommended to her. It was excellent and there were two major themes that are transferable to football. The extreme methods of the "coach" were brilliantly articulated in a speech at the end, the EXACT philosophy that SAF always employed in his managerial career. The other truth highlighted in the film was the value of practise and work ethic. To become the best, you have to want it and work at it. Most lose, a few win. In the SPL, one team will win and 11 lose. In golf each week, 1 will win and 155 will lose. It's a tough business, winning and I've always said that it's DESIRE that separates the best from the rest, the desire to work harder, the desire to work smarter. McInnes is not a winner and neither are his footballers. But you can't include teenagers who never got managed properly, who never got a reasonable chance. They are the only hope AFC had.

Ryan Jack was superb at Right Back for Scotland at Pittodrie under Malky Mackay. A player who can read a game and who rarely loses possession, he is perfect for that position.

You introduced a new angle, one that has got me thinking. I'm still working out what I agree with and what we will disagree on. I'll work through it now to get to the truth (only as I see it of course). McInnes does inspire loyalty, it's true. The players like him. But the exact words you used was "good at getting his players to work for him". You are also hoping that "DM can get him motivated". In my opinion, DM is particularly weak at getting footballers to perform at anywhere near their best. I think there is a massive difference between being popular and being effective. From experience, I also know that most people will never go an extra mile if they don't have to. The only sportsmen who do are self-motivated, they will BLEED for the cause and will stop at nothing to get to where they need to go. We also know that winner mentalities won't accept working with loser mentalities or with charlatans who fake having a winner mentality. The whole culture under McInnes is fake. He doesn't want superstar performances. Ask Maddison. In Northern Europe, we have a culture of the tall poppy syndrome enshrined into our societies. Norway are having the debate about Janteloven - the law of Jante - and we in Scotland similarly adopt the philosophy that "we are a Jock Tamson' s bairn's". Expect the boy to be a dud for AFC. His history is rotten. His new employer isn't a winner.

I wouldn't have been able to tell you until a couple of days ago. Daughter 2 was up from Glasgow with her boyfriend for the weekend. Like her, he's doing a Ph.D. but he's doing it through his employer and one of his bosses (possibly one of the owners) is MK, in some finance thing I don't understand. I forgot he existed until the boyfriend asked me if I remembered him, knowing I was AFC (he's a Parkhead ST).

He said all the right things in his telly interview. But he said them in the wrong tone. Like smoking a cigarette and knowing it was part of a dud conspiracy, as J.B. Priestley said (wrote). Like he didn't really believe it. Time will tell.

You quoted me but you got it wrong. You got confused. You thought I was talking about Wright. I wasn't. So you're not very bright. Or you made a mistake. As we all do. But not a fatal one. But maybe you're such an arse you can't admit it when you err? There's a LOT of people who consider admitting making mistakes as a sign of weakness. Ergo they're not too bright AND they are a total arse.

Not only did you seek to muddy the debate by throwing in Scott Wright (and missing the various points completely), you obviously have faith in our football manager despite many years of nothing to justify your supreme faith in him. You were also cowardly in not tackling the poster head on that you had an issue with and addressing him directly, rather using my words presumably in an attempt to irk or ire. This (plus the consistency of your shite) makes me conclude that you, like Hansen, like McInness, are a knob. Have a good day. Have a good life. Knob. Before you ban me again. As you undoubtedly will, in your cowardly female way.

You confused the debate. Like you always do. You jumped in to a conversation I was having with another about Bruce Anderson. You then went on about Wright's hat trick. That was not the hat trick I was speaking to him about. And as always, you can't read or think properly, you fail to back up your "arguments" and resort to insulting rhetoric. I don't speak to cunts who say "tickles me" or "it tickled me". That's gay-speak, not worthy of a man and not worthy of the North East. So take your confusion somewhere else. And "boner"? You're confusing sex and football now. You're the marketing men's dream. They use sex to sell cars and they know that the average joe is a thick piece of shit who doesn't have any critical thinking capacity whatsoever.

I think the 30k a week for a teenager (when he started getting it) may be the reason his career is going nowhere. This may have killed his appetite to work hard and he may well be another with promise destined for the scrapheap.

The worst thing was having to select a featured group. I had Tiger on the phone and Brooks on the iPad. It was only when the last group got to the 16th that it resembled normal coverage as we were able to pick the 16th, 17th and 18th featured holes option. The amount of adverts and the repeating of the same (Bethpage) advert every time you dared to use the phone for something else before getting back on the App was dreadful. Like the R & A selling the Open to Sky, the agenda of maximising immediate profits is diminishing the audience and killing the grass roots in the longer term. And to the other, yes I do have an HDMI cable but I don't download Apps to my MacBook and as I'm not on Facebook and detest the organisation, I chose not to stream it through my digital telly.

You also missed the whole point about game time. Once a year for four seasons is telling a 20 year old something. A good manager inspires them and fills their head with belief following an excellent performance. Frank Ross scored a cracker when he came on as a sub, played him the next game then hooked him at HT. Never started again. How's that for management? Same old same old.

You're confused. FYI Anderson scored a hat trick in the semi final.

Who's "pinning hopes on him"? All I said is that he's more of a natural striker than Cosgrove and May. You disagree. Again, I ask, what's he lacking and what have these two useless cunts got that he hasn't?

Promise in youth often turns to shit. Sometimes it's women and drink. Sometimes it's money. Other times it's billy big baws, thinking they've made it already. In these scenarios, they don't put in the workrate that highlighted their promise at an early age in the first place. Add in an ACL injury and there's no fucking chance.

The bigger issue is McInnes mismanaging youth, another symptom of his mismanagement in general. Letting McLean cheat the fans (until he got a move in January) is the same mismanagement as letting McGinn continue to regress. He's a shadow of his potential, as is Stevie May. Logan and Reynolds were outstanding in their first seasons and both went backwards from the high standards they set themselves. Not only has McInnes recruited total shite, Zola being the worst signing ever, he mismanages what he has. Shinnie in midfield is an experiment that has hurt AFC. The club is not progressing. This may be as weak a Celtic as when Deila was in charge - thanks to the Rogers Lawwell split - and yet we are the least equipped to challenge for the title than we've ever been under McInnes. As for Scott Wright, he scores a hat trick and gets dropped. He then gets his next start the following season, months later at Hamilton and single handedly delivers us 3 points. And gets dropped again. For another long period. When he turned 20 years of age, he had played once a season for his first 4 years at AFC. If that isn't total mismanagement I don't know what is. Any "fan" who excuses the manager for this doesn't understand the devastating and demotivating effect on confidence and the power of the mind in high performance sport, and also can't see that McInnes has a mental block on promoting youth. Hansen said you don't win anything with kids. SAF proved him wrong. Like Hansen, McInnes is a knob, one who's afraid to take risks, a knob who is only interested in getting a wage, a charlatan who doesn't even try to win because he knows he can't, a scaredy cat who's record against the two biggest teams in the country shows him up for what he really is. You crack on with him as manager. I always had more ambition than he never had. Loser. He's fucking incapable and incompetent as a winner.

When he scored a hat trick months ago, you didn't think he was "ready for the first team". What aspects of his game weren't up to scratch? And if he's still not ready, what have Cosgrove and May offered AFC this season that is superior? Only an idiot fails to recognise that a quality footballer can have a bad game. Strachan had many of them.

Bruce Anderson is the only natural striker in the squad. Ony cunt who kens onythin aboot fitba can see this from 2 x subs appearances only. So what the fuck is that beardie cunt looking at week in week out that he doesn't start him? Fucking wank.

90 89 88 87 86 85 84 83 82 81 80 * dreamer city here and above 79 - EdmontonDandy 78 77 - OxfordDon 76 - Elgindon 75 - Lencarl 74 - Rico 73 - wee toon red 72 - Tom_W 71 - Ten Caat 70 - Manc 69 - BigAl 68 - MBT 67 66 65 64 * negative cunts below this 63 62 61 - rocket 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30