Ajja

2-0. Chances on goal 10-0 Possession - 74%-26% Raped.

Didn't think it was possible to watch a Scottish team get raped harder and quicker than we were but looks like it might be on the cards.

Seems to me there is little point in drawing these comparisons. While they are correct and highlight the problem we now face there is little sense in hanging on to a situation that is now past. As has been pointed out over and over again by the club, the new manager and many posters on here, we are shopping in a different market now. Our ability to secure and retain personal of that level has diminished to the point where the standard is going to be very very difficult to maintain. Our previous manager was undoubtedly accomplished at talking established players into playing at Pittodrie and I suspect was given a wages budget to match his mouth to an extent. We no longer have the money to do so and so the new manager is going to have to look for a different solution. That is likely to be a combination of fringe players, unknown foreigners and youth. Its going to be difficult but you are comparing apples with bananas in terms of his resources if you believe that our squad of 2007 can be compared to what we should now have.

100% and they need to shape up or ship out. There are kids who will play with more and I would have them in the team without doubt. Time for someone else to get a shot at it.

I'd sideline Miller and get a fast, active front line of Maguire and Paton and Aluko and Pawlett supporting in the wider areas. Hamilton were rank last week and looked open to some direct football on the deck.

Always a possibility but after watching Sportscene on Monday I thought Hamilton and Falkirk looked very very poor and while the Motherwell v St J was an interestingly open game there was no football being played. I predict a dire season of football

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/8210162.stm Both captain and vice-captain are suspended for the Rangers game and they are only 1 game in.

Thats not going to happen as there are too many poorer sides in the league than us. I'm still sure we will be looking back at the last month and laughing by Christmas. It is just going to take some time to get this squad to play the way he wants them to and that will involve weeding out some real slackers who were just as guilty under JC as they are now. I really hope that he is going to give Paton and Pawlett a run because some of the current 1st team are so sure they just have to turn up to be picked.

England and Dundee apparently.

Can we not at least be honest about why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan in this discussion ?. These nations pose no direct threat to life in the UK or the US or the Western world for that matter. What they do is pose a threat to our ability to profit from areas of the world that might not be in our control if the regimes in these countries strengthen. There is no doubt that innocent civilians are leading difficult and, in many cases, very pianful lives. This is the case in many areas of the planet and I am all for doing something about it. The selection process for occupation is all about what benefit the West can get from creating the insurrection in the first place, not what protection it can provide to the civillians. The result for these people in either circumstance is pretty poor. This is a critical distinction that many British people fail to understand. Its hard to blame them, its the line fed in by the government and most mainstream media. Its then chewed up into utter pulp and passed mouth to mouth across huge sections of the population. You can bet that the armed forces will be at the top of the food chain for that particular meal given that they are the ones being placed up front. I have no wish to attack an individual for the difficult job they do, likewise I have no desire to celebrate with them either. We all have to face difficulty in our lives and beleive it or not other people outside of the armed forces risk their lives and suffer in their struggles. People aren't going to genuflect at your feet for the role you play in securing the future profit and dominance of our country in the world and hiding behind some misguided bullshit you have been fed about 'protect and serve'. Its simply isn't the case and the quicker you wake up and smell the shit they are shovelling at you the happier you will be. We all still love you though and if you need a hug and aflower in your hair then let us know

Although the revelation that we need FB cover ONLY after the Celtic display seems new ??? ??? Thank fuck for that particular bolt of lightening

Spot on. If we are in the market for correcting oppressive regimes lets have a look at Saudi Arabia, its one of the most brutal in the middle east but because they are a trading partner for the west and a regime who happen to be in our team we turn a blind eye. Iraq regime change had nothing to do with ending a brutal regime, it had everything to do with getting a friend into control. Afghanistan is effectively trying to do the same thing. We aren't trying to protect their population, we just securing our own.

Speaking to a Motherwell season ticket holder the other night, he reckoned it took McGhee a good few games to get his shit in order at Fir Park. Where are those straws when you are lookin' for a clutch ?

Don't think Miller will be part of the long term plan at Pittodrie under McGhee. We have to give Paton a run up front, his effort and composure puts Miller, Mackie and Maguire to shame.

If we can start shipping first team players out of the picture who can't be arsed and go with Paton, Pawlett, Crawford etc then I think we will at least see a team that gives a shit.

Jerel starts. Brown on the bench for them. According to RG on BBC

Are the club in control of this though ? I thought we were competing well with Hearts and UTD (when did they last finish above us?) or have we given up on this season before a ball is kicked in the SPL ?

I agree its a lovely idea but we simply aren't in a position to make it work at present. The burden of our debt and the operating costs of the club are such that we cannot afford to increase our wages bill to accommodate such players and we are not able to commit long term to contracts for fear of a drop in revenue if there is no success on the park. Its bit of a downward spiral at present. The idea of speculate to accumulate or invest to get a return are all well and good but when you are a business operating at break-even point and carrying the debt we are you just can't take those risks. Add to that we are operating in a market place where our competitors have more money to spend and you have players and agents dictating the length of contracts with the constant hope they can secure a move to where the streets are paved with gold. Now, we also have to compete with huge swathes being taken out of our revenue from a reduction in TV money and the risk of lower ST sales and gate receipts due to the recession. Aberdeen FC are in the business of working with the best we have and when any players or managers show any sign of promise we will not hold onto them, its that simple. To believe anything else is just romantic pipe dreams.

Don't take it personally, I only hit the quote button as you were last to post. I did paraphrase the word 'dancing' as it seemed to allude to the subject I was exploring in my comments. That doesn't necessarily mean you need conclude that you are individually guilty of everything I then say subsequently. However, if it makes you feel better then I can see no evidence of you "persisting to claim to know how it should be done"? My point is a general one and there are endless posts dedicated to criticising the club and its management for the way it negotiates transfers and contracts. In my opinion, we should be more objective in our judgements as we don't know what is going on behind the scenes (well except Jager of course). I take your point that speculation that maybe McGhee is doing the right thing by holding off and not jumping in without thinking could be just as "pish" as the speculation that he is wasting time and opening himself up to being mugged again. I would say however, that by using the term 'we' in my criticism I was kind of in agreement with your point already as that tends to suggest I included myself in the accused population. It is, as you say all speculation. The key difference probably being that I'm right.

We don't have any idea what stage discussions are at though. We don't know if wages have been discussed and their demands exceeded our budget and there are ongoing negotiations to get them down. We don't know if the any of these guys have been offered deals and are going off to think them through. We don't know if they spent 4 days at Pittodrie and thought better of it. We don't know what has been said or what offers have or have not been made. A deal might be 24 hours away, it might be 10 days away, it might not exist. What we do know is that we know fuck all. We sit in our houses or at our work places and make assumptions driven by our feelings of frustration and in some cases desperation.You can speculate about how incompetent Miller is in doing a quick deal, or how much 'dancing' McGhee is doing but at the end of the day we still know shit. Yet persist in claiming to know how it should be done.

If you are drawing parallels with the business world then you also need to understand the way that employers will view demands for pay increases on the basis of equity with other employers. If you have 2 or 3 staff who are being paid top dollar (relatively) because you were forced to pay that to attract them then you can be damn sure that every other employee who has any sense that they are worth just as much will be looking for parity. Then when you have brought them into line the top guys then think they should be getting more because the staff below them are now in lne with them. As a manager you have to keep a motivated and engaged staff without blowing your staff budgets. Sometimes that means saying no to the escalation of salaries that can come from these situations. Unfortunately for Hart, he was the one who was told no. Whether he was as good as Miller et al or not is not as important as the fact that he was not being attracted to the club and was already accepting a reduced wage. Its always harder to climb the salary ladder than it is to enter it at a higher point.

Could be that McGhee is waiting until closer to the end of the transfer window. The wage costs on these guys will likely reduce as the door slams shut and they are potentially without significant employment. Although we are feeling the panic of a thin squad I still think that dropping your drawers to any potential recruits is never a commercially shrewd move.

Them leaving will have no bearing on deals. They will have agreed a fixed period for trials, we can't keep them at Pittodrie forever.

France scraped a win in the Faroes again. Croatia beat Belarus 3-1 away so that puts them ahead of us in the 2nd place ranking. England pulled back to 2-2.

A jolly good fisting doesn't count as armed forces. Especially when there is no forcing involved