BobbyBiscuit

Supposedly we won't be taking Dobie in as neither Lovell nor Miller are likely to leave in the Jan window. (this was from JC)

They may well be, but I saw Clyde play Thistle earlier this season (big Glasgow Derby), and Clyde were possibly the worst senior team I've ever seen. Although, United are probably about the second worst...

I wish Aberdeen wouldn't be linked with a player like Scott Dobie! Is that not part of Lee Miller's job?

Don't worry, Richie Byrne has been offered a new deal....

have the same view, I think Hart would give it his all but there must be a niggling doubt at the back of any players mind in a similar situation when a 50-50 is there to be won. Unfortunately, I think it's probably best we agree compensation with PNE and part company with him. He's been a good player for us and i'm very sad to see him go to be honest, but it's really time for everyone to move on from it. Also, you know there will be a few bellends who'll give him abuse if he continues to play for us. That doesn't achieve anything for us and we can do without it.

It at least sounds as though they are willing to negotiate on a fee though.

Was hearing that last night. Safe to say that I'd p1ss myself laughing if that were to happen.

from the Guardian: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/01/11/the_joy_of_six_great_british_g.html 1) The City Ground, 1935 - present Why on earth Nottingham Forest's board want to move away from the City Ground is be££££££££££££££££££££££yond m£££££££££y k£££££££££££££££££££££en, sorry, a key on my computer got stuck for a moment there. There's more than enough space for paying customers as it is, and in any case, the place is a magnificent reminder of the glory days. Forest might be a third-tier club now, but the shining modernity of the Trent End Stand, overhanging the river, is positively top-class and qualifies the ground as the most idyllic of any in the country. Meanwhile take a walk round the other side of the ground past the souvenir hut - club shop it ain't - to the cramped car park, and the place positively reeks of the 1970s; you can almost see the ghosts of Brian and Peter unloading crates of ale to feed the squad before a big match. And across the river ... Meadow Lane. To move from here would be sheer lunacy, and madness to boot. 2) Pittodrie Stadium 1899-present Regular patrons of Oldham Athletic and Inverness Caledonian Thistle may have something to say about the matter, what with Boundary Park teetering on the side of the Pennines and the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium practically bobbing up the Moray Firth, but Aberdeen's Pittodrie Stadium must surely be the coldest ground in Britain. Only ICT and Ross County are further north, and neither Inverness nor Dingwall gets battered relentlessly by winds coming in from the North Sea a mere 300 yards away. No matter: there's an easy remedy to this problem, and it's 43.7%ABV. In any case, the towering Richard Donald Stand does its best to buffer most of the breeze, and the hot atmosphere inside the 22,000-capacity stadium usually compensates (take the recent 4-0 Uefa Cup romp over Copenhagen, for example, or whenever Rangers come to town). And you can always warm yourself up with a walk around the ground before or after the match, to take in - anoraks on! - the granite gates of the Merkland Road Stand, surely the most beautiful entrance to any ground in the country (if you ignore the rest of the typically grey Aberdonian street). 3) The Dell 1898-2001 Southampton's old ground was small, rickety, an odd shape crammed in between houses, a church hall and a pub, held few supporters, possessed some of the strangest stands ever seen, and was barely fit for the purpose of top-flight football. What's not to love? From the days of the Chocolate Boxes (concrete boxes on stilts above an end terrace) to the Milton Road Stand (shaped like a wedge of brie, at one end the seats were a mere five rows deep), the Dell always created a thunderous atmosphere (much like the one currently generated at the equally ramshackle Fratton Park, home of arch rivals Portsmouth, but that's another story). Was it coincidence that during the 1980s and 90s, your Liverpools, Manchester Uniteds and Arsenals would suffer terrible humiliations on the Dell's small pitch, stands hugging the touchline? Nope. And was it coincidence that after 27 years in the top flight, Saints finally dropped out of the division a mere four years after moving to St Mary's, a perfectly serviceable new stadium but with the best will in the world simply yet another identikit hanger? Well, yes, probably. But then again ... 4) Arsenal Stadium 1913-2006 OK, so the old Highbury Library never had that much of an atmosphere, but then that's not really the point: Arsenal have, historically, never been about entertainment (readers under the age of 20 will just have to go with that). While on its day Highbury could crackle with the best of them - the opening day of the 1987-88 season as George Graham's new-look side went head to head with Kenny Dalglish's new-look Liverpool, the incendiary FA Cup tie with Manchester United the same season, any game against you-know-who - the place was really always about the architecture. Not a single ground in England has ever been so grand: the art-deco West Stand, the marble halls (incorporating Chapman's bust and a postbox), the Clock End, the AFC logos peppered about. True, in its later days, the place lost some of its lustre - those executive boxes which scarred the Clock End wouldn't have looked out of place in Basingstoke town centre - but by then time was running out. Of course, the all-new Emirates is grand in its own modern way - but just like at Southampton, there's the nagging feeling that something integral to the club has been forever lost. 5) Craven Cottage 1896-present The likes of the Dell and Highbury may now be lost to developers and bijou flats, but at least one famous ground escaped the bulldozers. During the 1980s, it looked like the gig was up for Craven Cottage, as an attempt was made to railroad Fulham into a merger with Queens Park Rangers, then a groundshare with Chelsea. Luckily, after years of boardroom machinations, that threat was averted, and what remains is one of the most welcoming grounds in the country: stands which hug the pitch, views (albeit not brilliant) of the river, a section for neutrals - and a cottage, for goodness sake. Although technically it's a pavilion, and not the original cottage either, but let's not split hairs here. 6) Ibrox Stadium 1899-present The only site in the country to have had two great stadia built on it (and anyone who ever went to the old Wembley will know why that statement stands up). Ibrox's first was a sweeping Hampdenesque bowl, its centrepiece the South Stand, a huge red-brick affair nixing even Highbury in terms of pomp and grandeur. At one point it fitted in 118,567 spectators (in 1939 for a match against ... now then ... who could it be?) but the ground was doomed by an appalling safety record: 26 fans were killed in 1902, two more in 1961, and most infamously 66 people were crushed to death after the Old Firm game at the beginning of 1971. Bravely - albeit not before time - Rangers decided to completely rebuild the stadium: while the listed South Stand remained, the rest of the ground was replaced by modern all-seater stands, turning a once-oval ground rectangular. Much of the fabled old atmosphere seems to have remained - well, on particular match days, at least - but there's still work to do: nowadays the ground, which still holds the British domestic attendance record for that 1939 fixture, is only the third-largest in Glasgow, behind Celtic Park and Hampden. Which may explain why Rangers have just announced plans to bump attendance up to 70,000. What Celtic plan with Parkhead could be interesting; this constant oneupmanship isn't going to stop there, either, is it?

So having seen the guy for ourselves counts for nothing?

Calderwood is like a dog with a fucking bone when it comes to transfers. The guy is sitting on the bench for the jutes, what the fuck does that say about him? EFF EFF ESS.

That's hardly the point though. Neither have deserved a call up while they've been with us (perhaps Smith was on the brink in his first few months).

Either way, hardly international regulars and neither Smith nor Miller have won caps whilst playing for us.

Have you been dumped recently, Pitt Bull?

You sure about that?

he was brilliant when he first arrived, particularly beside Rocastle (Craig, not David). remember the game at easter road when preece was sent off. Brilliant midfield battle with those two and Severin and Heikkinen... surely just coincidence that Beuzelin and Seve's performances have dipped as the other two have left...?

Ewe dancer!!

Just read the whole post, Simmy. You're pissing against the wind with that lot. K-9: I'm not entirely sure what sense has prevailed, certainly isn't the popular meaning of common sense.

Brilliant news indeed. He was the main one we had to get signed up. Zander might be daft, but he's not stupid.

Yeah, cos a scout is going to base his opinions of a player on how a few pissed up arseholes react to the player.

Pretty much, considering how long we went without actually getting a fee for anyone. I've got a feeling though that the offer for Miller may be slightly better than we think simply because we're on the verge of losing Hart and Nicholson and possibly Zander.

So perferomances for THE DONS count for nothing then? Jamie Smith and Lee Miller... how many caps do they have between them? Hart's performances for the dons merit him getting more money, and Smith being perenially injured, Severin being perenially shite and Miller being perenially lazy doesn't justify them getting the wages they do. If you think it does then there's something wrong.

Apparently plenty of tickets left for this. Do you think we'll sell this out? or with all the other, added expense there's been recently attached to following the Dons, will TinkCastle be embarrasingly empty?

Did you not know that it's only "Real Fans" who moan about the club because they're the only ones with expectations/standards/remember the good old days of Fergie and then Steve Paterson?

With Hart's quotes about wanting to be on what others are receiving, I'd be surprised if this wasn't already the case.

Diamond and Hart I went for. They're the solid base which we have had to build on since Anderson's departure. Nicholson will be a loss if he goes too, but he doesn't hold us together as much as those two.