Azteca1903

Jusr back from that, with the recurring feeling of despondency without surprise. That for me is as insipid as I've seen us all season and it could well be my last viewing of the fucking circus this season. The players' lack of fight/drive/enthusiasim/decency has been clear for some time now, but coupled with the lack of imagination going forward and organisation in defence is soul-destroying. We've all seen plenty shite over the last 15 years or so but most of those teams had at least one redeeming feature. I'm struggling to think of any such quality in this shower. Whether the board back McGhee or the playing squad during the summer remains to be seen, but I doubt we'll see any improvement. If lack of funds means that players of Ifil or Grassi's standard are the best we can afford then prepare for 5,000 crowds next season, and for the foreseeable future. The fact is not one of the players we have sold in the last few years has been adequately replaced, leaving us with a squad full of journeymen and kids and a manager who can't get them to defend a corner, string a couple of passes together or beat average SPL dross. Hopefully this run of form is a mere blip in what will be a successful transition and full recovery to the upper reaches of the table, however its looking more and more likely that the previous five years of consistently high finishes will be viewed as the anomoly in years to come.

To be fair I think he suggested all the forwards were 'rubbish', not just MacLean. Nonetheless the fairly regular criticism of the squad recently suggests he's writing off this season and staking everything on a summer overhaul - a risky tactic, especially if no significant improvement follows. The players have certainly looked poor recently and, as suggested above, that includes McGhee's buys. He knows himself he'll be in for more stick from the fans if we continue this poor run of form until May, so such overt criticism of the players, although perhaps not his preferred method of man management, may buy him some time.

Yeah I'd agree with that, but I get the feeling McGhee is criticising the players he inherited so frequently purely as an excuse for this season, rightly or wrongly shifting the blame from himself.

I doubt McGhee would normally do that, but it seems just now that slating the players keeps his image relatively clean. For the past month he's essentially been shouting from the rooftops that he dislikes a fair number of the players and, as a result, is desperate to be judged on who he brings in during the summer rather than where we finish this season.

Unfortunately, this seems spot on. With a £10m debt and a potentially disasterous stadium change factored into the equation, no-one in their right mind would invest in AFC. I can't see anything other than a barren 5-10 years of 'just keeping afloat' until both issues are fully addressed by Milne et al. Ashley at Newcastle serves as a bleak lesson to all that any change seen as removing a seemingly incompetent local owner is not necessarily going to be a good one long term.

Without wishing to go over old ground, it smacks a wee bit of Newcastle circa 2005...sacked Bobby Robson because 5th wasn't good enough for the fans and, well, look at them now

I don't think it's quite as clear cut as the players wanting him sacked, although they may have preferred Calderwood's managerial style to McGhee's. I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them felt alienated after Mark's comments during the week, no matter how accurate they were. The defeats to teams which clearly have weaker squads than our own is worrying, and seems to be down to a few factors. The fact that our style of play means we struggle to break down teams that sit back has been evident for some time, but simultaneously there is also a clear diffrence in attitude between the games against 'bigger' and 'smaller' teams. Whether it is the current squad, or the mentality within the club that is responsible for this is debatable. I don't especially blame McGhee for this, as such defeats were not exactly irregular before his arrival. He has the unfortunate task of trying to root out the problem, and we can only hope that a clear-out of players in th summer will solve it. In the mean time though, his stance on the current squad is clear and I imagine as a result there will be numerous abject performances between now and May.

I think the implication is that as Scotland's largest one-club-town the place should be totally enamoured with AFC. At the moment its easy to see why that isn't the case just now. Personally I'm proud to have a large central belt following - it makes for a good away support when there are games in the region and serves as a fly in the Old Firm dominated ointment.

Spot on really, which is why the cups have been so important to us in recent years. We need something big to reclaim the many thousands of disenchanted supporters, and a trophy is one of the few possibilities. It would take something like this, a marquee signing or a change of ownership to get some much needed fervour amongst the support once again. At present though, anything of this ilk seems incredibly remote.

Interesting line for me, the supporters have certainly been let down too often over the last few seasons. McGhee has obviously made up his mind and I guess by dissassociating himself from the players he's staking everything on a summer re-shuffle. I suspect that he never had the dressing room in the sense that some players didn't take to him and his methods. I don't necessarily blame him for that though, partly because there seems to be an inherent attitude problem amongst the squad (perhaps the entire club) when it comes to playing teams inferior to our own.

IN/OUT: oot Pre-match: Home Match: Playing 5s Post-match: Dying of exhaustion Prediction: Scrappy 1-0 win

What a compliment from hun towers - they rate us so highly that they feel their title rests upon us taking points off Celtic at a place where they havn't won for years. Cheers lads. From a purely pragmatic point of view McGhee has every right to field a weakened team, the game against Raith is of far greater importance to us than another pumping at the hands of the green half of evil. We can finish higher up the league without beating Celtic, but we can't win the cup without beating Raith Rovers. If the SPL wish to open an enormous can of worms by punishing us for this then fine, as long as they are watching like hawks the minute the Old Firm step out of line in a similar fashion. The likelyhood of such a scenario is of course as high as a Rangers victory at Pittodrie. And before they mention it: of course we wouldn't do this against Rangers. Our level of hatred for them is crearly so great that no Dons manager of sound mind or body would forgo nother oppurtunity to humiliate them once again. To suggest this is McGhee pandering to Celtic is nonsensical. Now watch us get hammered in the next two games

After last night MacLean and Paton should continue. Seems a wee bit harsh on Mackie though after his sudden and mesmerising run of form.

I blame the fans booing.

Says something about our season when being two games against lower league opposition from Hampden is a grave concern.

Interesting words from him today: Still a fair amount of displeasure over the fans' reaction to the Raith game, and even a cheeky dig at our expectations Of course the simple answer there is that we expect to beat First Division teams, period. Nonetheless, he is certainly entitled to criticism whether he's a Dons legend or not, really. EDIT: Incredulity in full here http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aberdeen/8506969.stm

True. Though if he is ineligible we could always give him a run out regardless and have another wee trip to Kirkcaldy two weeks later.

Perhaps he's had some assurances though. It was a fairly sudden u-turn from, 'I only want a permanent deal' to eventually signing on loan. There is, maybe, an outside chance that the club have arranged a deal to be taken up in the summer with the current loan just being used to avoid paying a fee in the mean time. Having actually typed that it seems far too idealistic to assume any facet of our transfer arrangements could be so simple and logical, however. We can but hope, I suppose.

RedWeb now saying that he's gone.

His wikipedia page has revealed much I didn't already know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_MacLean_%28footballer%29

MacLean in on loan.

Not sure about that, who's gonna fall over in the box and win them?

I'd prefer to keep him, but I can't see it. He knows he could get a superior wage elsewhere and will no doubt seek it.

Highlights finally up.

Best Dons game I've been to in a long time, totally bossed the midfield. Hopefully this will set the tone for the rest of the season.