Panda

The capacity of the Merkland is apparently only 2200 or so for this one. Something to do with one of the sections being closed (MK1?), and capacity being restricted due to safety regulations when having unallocated seating. Think that's what the limited tickets is about. RDU is shut though. 11,000 expected according to Cormack on Twitter.

Yeh someone was posting his stats on twitter from wyscout. He's been playing predominantly right-back, and is number one in the Championship for tackling and interceptions. Has also won 62.5% of defensive duels. With Logan out of contract in summer, good to know we may have a decent right-back option for next season.

The problem Hearts have is they need players now to stave off relegation, while St Johnstone need to keep players to stave off relegation. Not sure Hearts will want him on a pre-contract because what if they offer big money, get relegated, and are left with a player on a hefty wage in the Championship? Preferably we'd get him now too but think we'll settle for a pre-contract.

Based on who I grew up on - Jess, Joe Miller, and Hans. Honourable mentions for Rico and Shinnie.

No Alex McLeish, yet Gary Smith gets in? No Hans Gillhaus? Scott Booth? Joe Miller (loved wee Joe as a kid). Stephen Glass?

Would like to see us set-up similar to Hibs when he was there - the midfield three of McGeouch, McGinn and Allan on their day was fantastic. Can we replicate that with McGeouch, Ferguson and Ojo/Bryson? Probably not, but be interesting to see who plays when all four are fit (plus Campbell too). It's nice to have some midfield options. Hopefully some defenders in the door next.

If the Merkland thing works out, then what? They had a singing section thing in the European games in the normal away end. Doesn't matter how big a success it would be as in league games that section isn't available, same with the Merkland, and Cormack appears to have already come out and pledged the south stand will be a standing/singing area next season. I applaud Cormack for having ideas and not being afraid to try things, but it's a bit of a scatter gun approach - not much thought going into it. A bit like his hastily deleted tweet that got him a written warning off the SFA.

Aye right enough, Ferguson has only worked out because he's a Rangers man. ? So was Daniel Harvie. What's he done since leaving? Currently smashing it at *checks notes* Ayr United.

Dean Campbell has made 19 appearance this season. Connor McLennan 16 Bruce Anderson 8 Scott McKenna became a regular at the age of 20. Sam Cosgrove's debut was at 21 It's a bit of a myth that he doesn't play young players. The only one I think could have featured more is Anderson. I wouldn't say there's any others in the youths who should be playing - unless there's a cracking right back that we're ignoring, is anyone an upgrade on what's ahead of them?

I voted for the 2-1 win at Celtic Park in the Scottish Cup. We'd just won the semi with St Johnstone, were on a high as cup final fever started to break, brought a big away support down the road (the whole corner was full - somewhere between 2500-3000), then fell behind to an early goal and it seemed a typical Aberdeen thing that our bubble was away to burst. Instead it's probably the only time I've witnessed us dominate a game at Parkhead (even more so than the cup final weeks later). The bounce at Pawlett's goal was great, could have been 3-1 within a minute when we hit the post. Missed another huge sitter towards the end. Really could have done a number on them that day. It felt like we were finally back. Winning semis, going to Glasgow and actually attacking and beating the Old Firm, and it was fun going to games - you felt on our day we could turn anyone over. Miss those days.

If Hearts win, that means three of their last five home wins will have been against Aberdeen (the others being St Mirren & Stenhousemuir). An odd stat to have. Agree Anderson should start.

Dave Cormack in the front page of tonight's evening express saying standing zones and cheaper tickets coming to Pittodrie. Cornack went undercover to observe stewards at the Kilmarnock game last month then spoke to their supervisers. "I said 'Listen guys, I'm just being constructive here, but it's unacceptable what I saw.'" Sounds good. Obviously this is the beginning of them gauging interest to see how many to build at Kingsford.

Don't agree at all there is no pressure. The team and manager got slated after the hammering at Ibrox and the defeat to Celtic at Pittodrie. Similar and it'll all be on top of them again. The Hibs game had fans (a small minority granted) shouting for McInnes to go. Maybe no pressure in the sense no-one is expecting a result, but by fuck do we expect a performance.

Today was the day that Cormack brought all his mates from Atlanta over to watch. Hopefully they aren't the type to hold back and are willing to say how unimpressed they were at the atmosphere and the performance (I didn't see the game as was enthralled by Ross County v Kilmarnock instead) and offer up some solutions.

I think McInnes will leave at the end of the season. That's just a guess - but I sense he's getting a little jaded now. His pop at his critics in midweek can be taken two ways. Either it's fuelled him with the desire to prove everyone wrong and stick it out, or he'll 'prove us wrong' at another club. This season third is the best we can get and looking ahead it's hard to see the gap closing. In the last few seasons we've been regular finalists and Celtic's closest challenges - take both away and the job isn't as appealing anymore. Unless McInnes believes he can win more silverware or give the Old Firm a run for their money, what is keeping him here? Twice now I've heard Stephen Glass be mentioned as a replacement. It's likely a rumour based on someone putting the Atlanta-Cormack-Aberdeen jigsaw together rather than anything actually being in it. No idea what I'd think of that. Hate to say it, but a stellar name like Steven Gerrard had Rangers fans buzzing. They nearly appointed McInnes and who knows what he would have done there, but one thing's for sure - 5,000 fans wouldn't have turned up at Ibrox to welcome McInnes to Rangers like they did Gerrard. Where we are at the moment we need a name that has that same sort of reaction, whether that guy has a track record in management or not, because fans are bored at the moment - of the football, of the atmosphere, of the return of the status quo. No idea realistically who that name would be, but it's not Stephen Robinson, Derek Adams or Paul Hartley anyway. But, that's for another day. For now - we need Ojo and Bryson fit to give us something that resembles a midfield. The January transfer window has to go well - a right-back, a centre-back to replace McKenna if he leaves and another midfielder are priorities. Not sure I can see us signing as many as three players though.

He was absolutely shocking in the first though. Logan, Gallagher, even Wilson, you half expect them to be poor. McKenna is a who you hope to rely on and yet he chucks it all too easily. He's also a guy who - lets be honest here - we're relying on to net us a big transfer fee either in January or summer.

Had a bet on it but shat it and cashed out with 20 to go as couldn't see us holding on. Draw a decent point all things considered, but a few alarming performances tonight - McKenna in particular.

His comments weren't great, but for all his supposed defeatist attitude he managed three victories over them last season. One might be a fluke, two possibly a bit lucky, but not three. He must have had them believing in the dressing room before those games. Reading between the lines, I think what his message actually was is that his players looked at the old firm before a ball was kicked this season and were beaten before kick-off because they didn't believe they could match them. He's basically saying "aye, on paper they might be better, but get wired in and you might be able to pull off a result like last season." That's my take anyway. I'm making the trip up for it - can see it being 2-2.

If Cormack is considering redeveloping Pittodrie, and it's a big if as I'm pretty sure he's pro-Kingsford, then think back to his recent fan meetings where he was asking whether people would want a 20,000 stadium all-seated, or 17,000/18,000 with standing. Maybe he was testing the waters for a smaller Pittodrie, which if we are staying looks the most likely outcome as I can't see how they keep it at 20,000 without increasing the footprint. But Kingsford suits their plans for more corporate, a big long bar ala Spurs which they're keen on, museum, cafe. They want to make as much money out of the stadium as possible. Will be a struggle to fit all that in at Pittodrie. I'll wait and see what happens but my gut feeling is Kingsford is still plan A.

Under contract until 2024. I've no doubt Rangers are interested but they're not going to be sending £2-3m plus sell-on clauses our way. They'll offer £500k and one of their players currently not playing - Greg Docherty probably. We'll reject it. They'll hope Ferguson is unsettled and tries to force a move. He won't.

Four wins out of five now. Have scored three goals against Motherwell, Kilmarnock and Ross County who are all fellow top six sides. Just a shame we let ourselves down so badly against the Old Firm. Hopefully McInnes gets a bit of slack after this. I'm not a fan of the "where are the McInnes haters/backers now then?" after every game, but some of the nonsense spouted recently, especially by social media warriors, has been embarrassing. Been quite vitriolic towards him just because he's had some disappointing performances.

Don't think Bryson was injured though (could be wrong mind you). Seemed a tactical move and McInnes said afterwards Main coming on made a difference. Ross County were playing four in midfield and we had five, so we could afford to take off a midfielder and put someone else up front.

The suggestion of a height restriction came from those at the meeting last week with Cormack and Wicks. They said they were hearing lots of fans say they want the stands to be steeper, but due to height restrictions they would try their best but could only do so much. These height restrictions they say came from the "local authorities". Unrelated: They also said safe standing costs three times as much as normal seating, and so those present were asked if they would prefer a 17,000 stadium with standing, or a 20,000 one without - to which apparently everyone picked the former. But back to the height... The planning documents are on this site:- https://www.kingsfordstadium.co.uk/ I'm no Mike Ross (suits reference), but from reading it I don't ever recall seeing a height restriction officially in any of the submissions. However, in the design and access statement from January 2017, where the architects explain all the different changes they made (stadium originally was at a 90 degree angle to the one in the plans) there are two bits that say:- Following the feedback received during the pre-application Public Consultation, the heights of the stands were reduced with the internal seating layout refined to provide the same seating numbers And The roof of the Stadium has been raised from 6 degrees to 11 degrees to a height of 21 metres from the pitch to the underside of the roof cladding. The roof of the original scheme was approximately 24 metres from the pitch, however, due to the reduction in the steel frame of the stands, the revised roof edge height of 18.5 metres was too low for the proposed stadium lighting to work, creating an unacceptable glare for the supporters and players.

I don't know how these things are measured - another one for Tom to answer perhaps. But on the planning application for Hearts new main stand, it said the roof would be 21.4 metres from ground level. But it also says the truss is 27.6m high, so maybe what they mean re-Kingsford is 21m is the highest point of the roof? Loirston I think was to be 24 metres high. As for steepness, again I'm no expert on these things, but I was at the Groupama Arena in Budapest for the Scotland game a few years ago and it's really steep (did the stadium tour the next day, impressive place) yet the height of the stadium appears to be 22 metres according to a quick google search. The pitch is below ground level though, but on the other hand much of the stadium's height is from a huge roof. My concern with the stadium height is more that George Yule told me a few years ago that the plan was 20,000 now, then to expand in future if demand dictated it. A height restriction would make that difficult, and the talk last week from Cormack is that the club are actually considering 17,000-18,000 capacity. [/img]

Would guess the majority of the support still back him. Those that want him out are just far more vocal about it.