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But he's trying to keep it in the city, and seems a lot more keen on it staying there than the council are. If, ultimately, he can't get the council to agree to help, then he has to look elsewhere. Pittodrie is not going to stand forever, and any upgrades are going to reduce the capacity. If Aberdeenshire council approached him and offered him the same deal he's trying to get the city council to take, then would we turn that down? Many Aberdeenshire sites are practically the city anyway. Like I posted on the previous page of this thread, back in 2012 the club were offered a range of Aberdeenshire sites in Portlethen, Balmedie, Blackdog, Blackburn and Westhill. Blackdog especially, you may as well just call it Bridge of Don.

This should say "We didn't bring the guy in just to be a stop gap for a year." Apologies to anyone affected. I am again asking for this forum to employ a proofreader.

Dave Cormack and Alan Burrows to meet the council on Friday. Comments from Cormack here (courtesy of EE/P&J):- I was approached when I took over from Stewart as chairman six years ago by the council to say they would really like for the club to consider staying in the city centre, and the city can’t afford to lose the club and what it brings to the city centre. That journey started, and obviously there’s been a change in the administration as well, which can happen, and we continue to have a number of discussions. We jointly did an economic report with the city council through the chamber of commerce. It was a well-known economist close to the government that did the work. After that was done, the council kind of pushed back on the validity – or bias, if you like – of the report. So far forward two years to where we are maybe now, and we had bigger economists who are actually used by the SNP government, Westminster, some top companies around the UK as well, independently to do a report. They basically said the economic upside of Aberdeen staying in the city centre in the next 50 years is £1.6 billion. If we move to a new community stadium as an anchor tenant, therefore attracting other sports/businesses to the city centre, that would double to £3.2 billion. That report and update was presented by Alan and myself to the four leaders of all the major parties about two months ago. We agreed we’d try to put heads of terms together. I asked everybody: ‘Let’s put our swords down. let’s think about Aberdeen’, because boy, with the challenges we’ve got in a high taxation for oil companies, importing £50 billion of oil, including from the North Sea, from Norway. You know, I worry about my family that’s in Aberdeen and my nieces, nephews and their kids. And I’m sure you worry about your families – where the jobs are going to go. I think it was a free vote in a council of 45 seats, it would get passed tomorrow. So what we’ve got to continue to do, and they’ve asked us to meet on Friday again, is to see whether we can get them on board to really evaluating this. There’s no point in us pushing a heavy trolley up a steep hill for another three or four more years. But make no mistake that if the city lost the club in the city centre, it would be pretty catastrophic. On the infrastructure investment, there are councils all over Britain getting this money – going and borrowing this money at low interest for capital investments. This isn’t about building a primary school. This isn’t about putting the trash out or the rubbish out. This is about a significant project that will attract and retain jobs in Aberdeen. Because these renewable energy jobs… If we are going to attract them to Aberdeen, these companies are saying, what is it for them to do in Aberdeen? If you go down to the council, the chief executive there will tell you that if you want to go to a decent leisure centre, you have to drive to Dundee now, because of the demolition of one that’s there (at Aberdeen beach). That’s pretty kind of tough to attract companies here when there’s nothing for them to do. And we’ve got a beautiful asset at the beachfront to build all sorts of sport, integrated sports, leisure, coffee shops. Instead of closing down when the Inversnecky Cafe closes at five or six at night, it could be living, breathing til midnight – coffee shops etc. in a village environment. Things like a Top Golf would come to Aberdeen. There are people, operators, that want to come to Aberdeen and get involved in this project. But they won’t talk to anyone because they don’t believe anyone’s got the vision to do it. It’s not up to the club, right? It has to be the council and the vision and leadership of the council that says: ‘we want to do this or evaluate this fully and go to the Scottish government in Holyrood and go to Westminster to raise or get funds made available.’ What really probably got us, that it came out in the local paper, was that all we were prepared to do was give them a land of Pittodrie. That’s never been the case. That’s not been the case for the six years of discussions we’ve had where they asked us to be a tenant in a multi-purpose facility. “What we would be doing over the term of the least 50, 100 years is paying 10s of millions of pounds in rent and rates, providing income. I don’t know what anybody thinks of that play park that’s out there for £55 million. But I know it will bring zero income in, and it will be a maintenance cost each year to run it, which is fine. Our project will generate £3.2billion over the next 50 years and employ another 600 or 700 people in this area. So what we need to do, to answer the question properly, is continue to try to meet and get an honesty from them. Do you really want to do this? If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine. Of course, there’s elections coming up. In Scotland, the local elections. These elections that come up could determine some changes as well. And I’m really trying to be absolutely non-political with this – this is about Aberdeen. This is about the future generation way beyond us of Aberdeen and having a city to be proud of. I never would have thought I would have sat here in Aberdeen and said Dundee’s got way more attractions than Aberdeen City in spite of 60 years of oil coming in here. And that’s pretty depressing. So, at the end of the day, people vote. And maybe instead of 22% of people turning up to vote in the local elections, there might be 80%. But that’s down to the populace – we’ll continue. I believe, we believe in this project of a community stadium – 6,000 square feet of community social access. There’s tonnes that we can do. But anyway, I’m a cup half-full kind of guy, and I’m going to continue to stay positive. We probably need to give that about another 18 months to two years to see it through. If that’s not going to happen, we need to look at an alternative.

Covered training pitch timeline looks like it'll be next winter. Also looking to extend the changing rooms at Cormack Park.

Jimmy Thelin on the transfer window:- “We have a clear idea of what we want to do – as little as possible, but strengthen the squad.” It will be “super-good impact” they target in January. He adds: “We have a good squad, but we need to adjust some parts.”

We didn't bring the guy on just to he a stop gap for a year. We're either expecting more from him (and I do think the jury is still out on him), or we think he fits into the team well, and the amount of games he is playing suggests we do.

I dunno, if (IF) he can continue his current form long term, then £1.5m for a 24 year old (he's 23, but will be 24 next season) is not bad value. Two good seasons at us and there's every chance you recoup that outlay. Sunderland saw enough to offer him a five-year deal two years ago.

This is a game I would have suggested resting Aouchiche, but then he's French so probably wants to play against his fellow countrymen, and after two goals on Saturday he'll be high in confidence. So really he has to stay. Lazetic looked like he was hobbling off on Saturday, and with Nisbet scoring I think he might be the only change from Saturday.

Was at the game, some atmosphere in our end. Fair play to all the young lads that have got the ultras going - great variety of chants now. Even Jesper Karlsson has now taken the Peter Pawlett one. I don't think - from his time in opposition and playing for Scotland - I really appreciated just how good a player Stuart Armstrong was. Not always flashy, but when you're under the cosh give it to him and he'll go on a run with it and holds onto it so well. So unlucky not to score from that free-kick too.

Touch and go for a supporters club ticket - I'm on 13 points. I usually go to at least one away game per campaign which helps, but I've not been to one for 18 months - so my points have dropped.

Yeah I'm gonna go to one game (that's all I'll get off, because rather rudely I'm expected to work during the World Cup). Accommodation is booked with free cancellation in both Boston and Miami - actually some decent deals. Flights are a bit pricey but haven't pressed the trigger on any yet. Still deciding which game to go to.

As for the best looking team in the league... Everyone fit except Tobers and Molloy, says Thelin. Suggested Milanovic in contention, Shinnie probably comes back in too. Fun fact: Kevin Nisbet has played three times at Dens Park in his career (twice for Aberdeen, once for Dunfermline) and scored on every visit.

Interesting debate, is Simon Murray a handsome laddie? Well, you can't say the Ab-Mad refugees haven't put their stamp on the forum.

To be fair @OneBrianIrvine., we shouldn't throw stones with this one...

I'm delighted with the draw. Actually cheered when we got Brazil. We can play Brazil at every World Cup for all I care, there's something special about playing them at a World Cup. If anything, it feels more like 1974 (not that I was around back then). Took it easy on Zaire which ultimately cost us on goal difference, got a draw against a good Yugoslavia side, and drew with Brazil. Would take five points again this time mind you. My one and only World Cup game I've been to was Morroco at France 98. Kinda like that we've got them again. I'm hoping to go over for one game. Was looking at hotels for Miami and Atlanta for the Brazil - definitely prefer the latter. I'm no expert on Miami, but it looks to have shite public transport options - was looking at over two hours to get to the stadium from any hotel under £1,000.

The best thing that happened to us tonight was St Mirren going 1-0 up. We made subs, got Lazetic, Nisbet and Karlsson all on the pitch together, and on another day we win 3-1. The penalty isn't a penalty (and the referee didn't appear to have been shown any video footage going by the VAR that showed on TV. It looks like he simply looks at two paused images. The video would show Knoester can't do much about his arm placement and does his best to move it backwards.) Second goal is individual errors. Third goal we're down to 10 men, although we should kill the game more than we did. It's the second game where Thelin has made changes and improved things, but it's also the second game I think he waited too long to make those changes. For a lot of the game we had five players in our own half passing in a semi-circle while St Mirren sat deep and watched us. Keskinen tonight I thought was very good again. I did say in summer I thought he'd be out POTY this season. It's taken him a long time to get going, but I think we're beginning to see a very good player emerging.

Tickets in the main stand now on sale.

Also going to be a superbowl style half-time show at the World Cup final. Coldplay were helping to pick the acts and have come up with J Balvin, Doja Cat and Tems (no, me neither).

From a FOI request a few years ago. Here was Aberdeenshire Council's proposed sites for the new stadium. Interestingly, there was one next to Kingsford, which made their opposition to Kingsford all the more puzzling.

I've never been comfortable with Aberdeen going into any sort of partnership with the council, and I say that no matter what party is in power. Aberdeen doesn't have a grown up council, either in power or in opposition. It has a collection of idiots who are doing more harm than good to the city. Dave Cormack is gaining nothing from engaging with them. He's being sold an unrealistic dream by the opposition and hitting a brick wall with those in power. It's a shite state of affairs, but honestly, I'd go talk to Aberdeenshire council (who I also don't trust truth be told, but they have in the past suggested various sites for the stadium). Go build it at Portlethen within walking distance of the train station. Next time we win the cup, hold the fucking parade in Inverurie.

From the outside, it looks to me Labour are using Cormack to paint the SNP/Lib Dems in a bad light to win them votes in the next council election. Labour have previously done little to move on Aberdeen's stadium plans and I doubt we'll see any progress once they're back in power.

At the risk of getting carried away... Rangers have two fairly tough away games up next. We could be above them by Saturday night.