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Gustaf Lagerbielke due to arrive in Glasgow today to sign for Celtic. He's a left sided central defender. I would imagine once he's signed up then Liam Scales will become available.

Because last season he played 12/21 games at LCB. In 2020-21, Stewart played 15/33 games at LCB.

No, people are being positive because they can see it was a good performance, and there's a confidence there that we may be in for a decent season. We don't have to be negative and miserable because we lost one game.

But like I've just said in my original reply, we probably aren't targeting another LCB. We have Mackenzie and Williams to play there. Stewart too if you like. If we sign Scales it'll be us making room for him in the squad because Robson likes him. So there's no need for us to hand out deadlines - there's one coming up on 31 August anyway.

But why 24 hours? Carter-Vickers has just done his hamstring, can't see Celtic being in a rush to let a central defender go. We don't need Scales per say, but if he's available we should sign him. We're probably not going to sign another LCB as we have Mackenzie and Williams capable of playing there, so we'll sign Scales on the basis that we'll either get him permanent now or potentially in the future. If we hand out a deadline, it passes, then he becomes available, do we just let Hibs or someone sign him instead?

Are we doing a separate match thread for Stirling or just extending this one? It's a good fixture to have because we'll likely have McGarry making his debut and McDonald, and possibly Williams, getting minutes after injury. So good to have them doing it here rather than away to (likely) Hacken. That said, be harsh to drop Duncan after a promising showing v Celtic. But I guess with two games a week coming up there'll be plenty of game time for everyone. Would like McGarry and McDonald to get 45 minutes at least in what is essentially a second pre-season for them.

Not sure he knows the meaning of the word "humble" if that's how he reacts to a 20-minute cameo.

A settled defence and better end product from Duncan and Morris* then we potentially win that. Shame, but we've transfers still to come in and 36 games to go. Our attitude was good and we rattled Celtic a lot. *I get the "he wasn't shite" comments, and fair play he got stuck in. But struggling to think of one good ball into the box. There was one point he beat two Celtic players - proving he can actually take players on and beat them - but he doesn't do it enough, let's defenders stand him up too much. I'd say he's probably earned an extended stay and a season working under Robson and we may well get a player out of him yet. But I still think we're crying out for a better player there.

Nah I disagree, you don't take off someone playing well just to freshen it up. We were creating chances and getting at Celtic, no need to disrupt it. The only sub I disagreed with was I'd have taken off Miovski ahead of Duk.

Encouraging 45 mins. Duncan needs to sort out his first touch, other than that he's been okay. Odd to see Rubezic overlapping and getting to the edge of the box but I like it, it appears Robson wants him to target Nawrocki. Shinnie - needless foul for first goal apart - been excellent, as has Duk. Just really frustrating as we should be at least level.

Hayes should only be out for a week according to Robson. McGarry arrives in Aberdeen tonight (time keeping not great clearly). We appear to have two goalkeepers on the bench in Ritchie and Doohan which is an odd move. We're surely not that stretched as a squad. Looks like Duncan at LWB. Get him at Ralston and see what he can do.

Yep, genuinely astonishing the number of people who think buying players is like going shopping in Tesco.

After St Mirren's win today, and potentially a Hearts win tomorrow, our season is practically over if we don't win tomorrow. Even a draw I fear would leave us with too much to do. Thankfully, we're gonna hammer them imorn. McGarry I'm guessing won't play - not sure if he's even in the country yet. McDonald and Williams both still out (according to Robson). I'd be inclined to start Dadia at RWB and Devlin at RCB, with Polvara in midfield sitting a bit deep and allowing Clarkson to go forward. It's a bit defensive but Morris is going to offer nothing in this game, let's be honest about that. We could really use a performance from Hayes in this one. Prediction: 1-0 to the good guys.

I am off until Tuesday. This is what happens when I leave them alone for a few days..

Just send it to me pal and I promise I'll pass it on.

Listened to 10 minutes of Dave Cormack's interview with Graham Spiers. I'll listen to the rest tomorrow. He said they're still very much interested in Liam Scales but are waiting to see if Celtic want to sell, loan or keep him. He also suggested the only reason they lost out on Teklic was because of wages - the Turkish club offered him a huge salary Aberdeen couldn't get near. Other than that, in terms of transfer fee and the player's desire to come here, the Dons thought they had him.

It's been changed and the person responsible has lost their visiting privileges for a month. New graphic below. Apologies to anyone who was affected by this.

I'll go shout at someone.

Hearts won two Scottish Cups while spending Romanov's money. So I would say it does. Well obviously if you avoid the best team your chance increases. We could win the Europa League if we manage to avoid anyone good. There's a reason Celtic and Rangers are better than us though

It might be a new thing for Aberdeen fans, but it's not a new thing. As far back as 1986 Rangers fans were getting excited about spending money to be successful. Celtic fans got excited when Fergus McCann promised to compete with Rangers and rebuild the stadium. Hearts fans did the same when Romanov arrived. Man City and Chelsea too when the big money arrived for them. It's a new thing for Aberdeen because in recent years it's the first time we've consistently received big transfer fees and big European money, which has led to us spending more money in the transfer market. Usually it's all free signings and the odd 50k on Tommy Wright, now we are offering close to a million to try and get Tonio Teklic. Aye, money probably has ruined football, but I for one welcome the European riches if it's going to help us be more successful. Fans should be allowed to celebrate good things happening to their club without being mocked for it. Especially when you surely don't need it explained to you that making a few million every season greatly increases the chances of those open top bus rides. Every club bar the Old Firn would love to be in our position right now.

We should be targeting Ralston at RB for them. He's their weakest link. I think we'll definitely score, which is more than we did last season in four games against them. However, keeping them out at the other end is the second biggest challenge in Scottish football at the moment behind not conceding a penalty to Rangers.

Finished 3-1 Hacken. I watched the last five minutes and that was enough to learn they are both hopeless and we'll run rings around the winner, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Not that it matters, because unless we win the Scottish Cup with a team of working class men who were all born within the perimeter of Pittodrie then it means nothing, but Vilnius v Hacken is currently being streamed by skybet (and likely other betting websites).

I'll take a guess it became a thing when fans realised their club need to make money to be able to compete for trophies. What's difficult to understand here? Do people think we're hoping the club make a lot of money so they can decorate the changing rooms and lay new carpets? It's so we can buy better players, develop our own, and be successful. The "I don't care how much money we make I want us to be successful" comment doesn't really work, unless you can point out a team that has been successful recently without spending anything. With respect, what a ridiculous comment. You're basically ridiculing people for wanting their team to earn money so they can be successful. Again, another ridiculous comment. You do realise it's possible to do both? Exactly this, especially that last sentence. We've managed to turn Aberdeen potentially earning €5-8m into a negative.

I remember when plastic pitches were first brought in, every away team in that first season was offered the chance to go train on the pitch the day before. I think that rule should still be in place. Aberdeen should have been allowed down there on the Friday to give the new signings a run out on it. Now maybe Livi - like Rico says - add more pellets that evening after we're finished, but would imagine an hour on the pitch is still beneficial and removes some of the advantages of having a plastic pitch.