Reekie_Red

You sure Kiriakov was a fullback, min? I'm sure he was signed as and played as a left-midfielder! He was often referred to in the press as the "tigerish Bulgarian midfield"

Last time I checked, Aberdeen FC were in the SPL ... not just Aberdeen's best starting eleven. If McGhee opts to rotate the players that are registered on his squad, then sobeit! IIRC our squad was drastically weakened last time we faced Rangers at Pittodrie - and we won that game! And if the huns want to have a go at us for fielding a weakened team, then surely they should be having a go at Dunfermline and Kilmarnock for blatently lying down to Celtic and Rangers respectively at the climax of the 2002/03 season where whichever one of the Old Firm had the highest Goal Difference would win the league. Old Firm sympathisers have been doing Rangers and Celtic favours for decades. Us, on the other hand, are never gonna win the league ... but we're still in with a shout for the country's major cup competition. To me, the cup takes priority over a standard league game with the Tims.

Maguire's okay upfront. He just isn't utilised upfront for the Dons enough. And when he is, he's chucked up there with ten minutes to go against shit teams like St Mirren and Hamilton who pack their defences and shove all eleven men behind the ball.

Not really sure what position was his natural position (as far away from the pitch as possible was where I liked to see him). But I remember seeing him play right across the back line under Aitken's reign ... cannae remember if he was still here under Alex Miller, I don't really remember Miller using him so he might've left before that horrible period in AFC's history. I do remember watching "Masters Football" on the tele years ago, and Tzvetanov was representing Aberdeen and he played in a left-defensive role in that game, so you might be right in saying he was naturally a left-back.

We always have a chance against Celtic ... until the first Aberdeen fan who says "I think we might win this one". That instantly means 5-0 with a hattrick for that fucktard McGeady

Considering the construction industry has been hit the hardest out of all industries in the global recession, a loss of £27m is a decent result for SMG. They'll come roaring back in the next three years, and the fact that SMG has survived the recession whilst a lot of other construction firms have folded means things will only get better for SMG.

If Maguire & Paton was an option, I'd vote for that one ... provided they were both playing as a central strike partnership and not on the wings. However, they invariably get chucked out on the wings and are shite out there.

Kiriakov wasn't a wingback. Was a waste-of-space like most of our midfielders around that time. But wasn't a wingback. Tzvetanov played right-back a few times, but like I said at the beginning of this poll I'm not going to mention ALL players from the past two decades ... just the ones worth mentioning. I'm trying my best to forget about those Vulgar Bulgars.

If I weren't in NZ, I'd love to be involved in this kinda thing. McCormick is a decent guy, and I hope his idea bears fruit. Despite the grumbles from some sections, and the fact that this sorta stuff is not every dandy's cup of tea, AFC needs a supporters club like the Red Ultras.

On the beeb, it says McGhee is on a one-year rolling contract: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/aberdeen/8087934.stm

When Hibs got relegated, they became crippled with debt. Even once they got promoted, it took a good six years to recover. It wasn't the relegation that sorted them out. It was the acute business mentality in the transfer market that got them out of debt, ie "he's valued at 400k, let's tout him for 1.5million". Two weeks later ... "oh look, we didn't sell him for 1.5million, but we did sell him for 1million ... which is still double his valuation" Whereas at Aberdeen, it goes something like this: "he's quite handy. I reckon he'd be valued around 400k if we sold him now. Let's put a 'he is not for sale' tag on him and tell him he'll get better chances of 1st team footy at Pittodrie" Ten years later ... "Is he still on our books? He never did fulfill his potential did he?! What's his valuation now? 4 grand??!!! Ah shite, lets release him for now to Peterhead".

Six quid?! Why the fuck can't the SPL teams have these prices now and then, instead of eightysix quid for a child for a match against St Moron

Here's a radical idea, Foster. Why not tell the media "yeah, we're shit-scared of the Hibs strikers. Who wouldn't be? Even their substitute strikers are scoring for fun at the moment!" Say this to the press. That way, the Hibs strikers don't have extra motivational material to pin up on the dressing-room wall before the Aberdeen match. If secretly, you and your co-defenders are confident of upsetting Hibs, then go about this quietly. I'm sick to death of reading wind-up shit in the press that simply serves to motivate the opposition more than it does our own players.

Scored a last-minute goal against YET ANOTHER lower-league team?! Whilst we're not daft enough to expect the win, we're all wise enough to realise that Raith should not have been a goal up for 59 minutes of this game! One of the primary reasons McGhee's predecessor got the boot was because of our cup performances. I wouldn't mind so much if we lost to another SPL team ... or even a team like Dundee who are clear promotion favourites. But Raith? In the grand scheme of Scottish football, they are twelve places below us in the leagues! We SHOULD NOT be losing or scraping draws against teams like this.

Fair enough. But in the same light, would you shun Alex Di Rocco based on the fact that he only played seven games for us?

Ah right loon. I've still got that copy of Restless Natives ready to send to ye. Just cannae mind where I put it. Anyway, I was a very fresh Aberdeen fan when Jazzer Bett was running the show for us. My knowledge of the Dons was pretty limited. As such, I didnae really have many memories of Bett (unfortunately). Although he only performed to his capabilities twice for the Dons, Hignett had such a devastating effect. Powerful, skillful, intelligent ... and scored from an absolutely unbelievable angle versus Ra Shellick. I've absolutely no doubt that he would've gone on to become a truly legendary player for the Dons if it hadn't been for the fallout between him and Alex Miller. As for Bisconti, I've not seen an Aberdeen player in the past two decades who had ball-retention and possession-retrieval rate like Biscontis. My only grumble about Bisco was that he never seemed to want to play against the Old Firm. Oh yeah, and the fact that he sighted his kids' inability to settle in a non-French-speaking Aberdeen. There's a dedicated international school out at Bieldside, ffs. But I lost count of the amount of times I turned to my pals in the stands and said "what a machine!", as Bisconti loses the ball, tracks back, smashes the opposition player with a crunching tackle, and strolls out the other side with the ball at his feet ... only for him to pass to a mesmerised Darren Young who is so amazed at what he's watching, he forgets he's in the field of play.

Bisconti, Hignett, Jess and Richardson for me. I've never seen any Aberdeen player control the ball in the way Hignett did against Dundee and Celtic. I've absolutely no doubt that he would've been a truly amazing player for us if he hadn't fallen out with the management, team, club and whole city

End of round three, and another superb debate on our best players. Nice to see that we've finally grabbed someone from our recent teams to accompany what was fast becoming a remake of the 1990 Scottish Cup team. Russell Anderson will pair Alex McLeish in our Team of Two Decades. Next up is the midfield. Over the past two decades, Aberdeen managers have tended to play the midfield players all over the park and generally out of position. So deciding on one player's natural position has been a task and a half. So we're going for broke and allowing you to choose your four best midfielders from across the two decades. You will be allowed to select FOUR players. Although you can select ANY four, try to find a top four across different positions, ie central midfielders and wingers. This poll will run until next Saturday. Remember, these are ONLY players who've played for Aberdeen between 1990 and 2010. As before, I'm not going to mention ALL players from the past two decades ... just the ones worth mentioning.

Err, I didn't say anything certain about MM's ability. Read again, and you'll see I said time will tell if McGhee is the right man or not. I did say there were little glimmers of hope that he could be the right man (see vs Rangers @ Pittodrie, vs Hearts @ Tynecastle). But I am certainly not heralding him as the new messiah yet. But I'm not gonna have him fired just six months into one of the toughest jobs in Scottish Football.

Okay. In my honest view, Jimmy had to go as I firmly believe that the best he could get out of us was 3rd place and a cup semi-final. He was a good manager and managed to stabilise Aberdeen very much after ten years of us being in the wilderness. But if we were to go one better than 3rd place and a cup semi-final, Jimmy was not the man to do this with us. Time (maybe another 2 years) will tell if McGhee is indeed the man to do this. There are little signs now and then that he IS the man to bring us to the next level. But I'll hold full judgment on him for another year. Okay ... who's next?

Agree. He call haul off the wasters whenever he feels like it. Although there are only three substitutes he can make throughout the game, so obviously he can't haul off ALL the wasters.

To be fair, Maguire hasn't scored for us since August, and Paton's not added to his goal tally since September. Whilst I'm all for us pushing the youngsters into the first team and seeing how they do, these two simply have not produced the goods for almost half a year. I'm sure they will eventually start producing the goods when they've matured a bit. But with our worrying league position at the moment, McGhee needs someone upfront who will score NOW, not once they've matured a bit more!

I'm sure they'd much prefer to be heralded as "The Team Who Lifted The Cup" rather than "The Team Who Finished In 2nd Place In The Race For Best Of The Rest"

Can't see why we should give up on Top 4 at this stage. Last season, we crept into the top six on the final day before the split. And we still made the top four! But, top four is a fuckin pathetic aim. Seriously, who's gonna remember in ten years time which season we finished 3rd or 4th? We should be aiming to add to our Trophy Cabinet, which sadly the only person to open this since 1995 has been the cleaner. Football is about winning. If you win the cup, you've won ALL your games in that season. If you come 4th, that means you admit to losing roughly a third of all your games. That ain't an accolade!!