BobbyBiscuit

Hart at right back, McNaughton at left back. Kjaer in goals as has been said. In fact... Kjaer Hart Anderson Deloumeaux McNaughton Severin Heikennen Bisconti Nicholson Jess Lovell

So one independent merchandise seller gets them made up - clearly a PR stunt - and it represents the whole club? Don't be silly. Thought it was a pretty good game played at a decent pace but clearly two teams who have confidence issues. Not a brilliant game but certainly not poor. United are miles better without Fellaini on the pitch (who knew?) and with Darmian and Herrera on it. Darmian's overlapping and Herrera's movement are so positive and completely change the tempo of their play. Would be nice if Schweinsteiger could, at some point, pass the ball forward to a team mate. Found it strange that the London Huns started with Pedro wide rather than through the middle. Let United off the hook there i think.

3-0 to a team out of form. That's a bit of a doing. Arsenal have Arsenal-ed it.

So would McClair, Robertson, Aitken, Duffy and Dodds not be in it then given their history? Although for my money Dodds wouldn't be a consideration at all. It's a piss poor list. Obviously most of the entrants are going to be connected to the OF as apart from 4 seasons one of the OF has won the title. I would say that it's just been poorly thought out rather than anything else. For example, one of the Aberdeen players - Stark - should be nowhere near the list in my opinion. A fine enough player but considering who was left out he just shouldn't be there. Leighton, McKimmie and Malpas not being in it is really the biggest oversight, but Klos and Aitken should both be in it as well.

Oh dear...

Wenger has had a blind spot on the defensive side of the game for a good few years now. His centre backs have been generally poor for years - Mertesacker is at best a liability. Koscielny is a decent player but needs a steady influence next to him. His full backs have generally been weak for years too as well as his keepers - Cech being the obvious exception over the last 10 years or so. The defensive midfield role has been a nightmare for him - Vieira left and Gilberto Silva came in and was a good player but he didn't get enough time out of him before he was using Flamini but let him go too readily and now has him back. In between times it's been a disaster for him. Up front... Giroud is a flat track bully and none of the other big sides in Europe would have gone anywhere near him - or if they had, they would have got rid a long time ago. Wenger walked in at Arsenal to a team which had the famous back line, Wright, Bergkamp and had already signed Vieira and/or Petit (can't quite remember the sequence of those events). He then supplemented the team with Sol Campbell a few years later - a very good move. But the side he came into was one that was already rich with talent - it could be argued it never got that much better in terms of personnel.

Top ten revealed tomorrow, but so far we have: Would expect to see Miller, Strachan and Leighton in the top ten. The one glaring omission for me though is Stewart McKimmie. Surprised McLeish is as low as 17 however.

As one journalist (Marcotti, I think) said some time ago of Mourinho, he only lasts around 3 years at clubs because eventually his players begin to resent him due to his lack of empathy with them, having never played the game to a level close to them. I see the BEEB are linking Brendan Rogers to the job. I would love it if that happened. Love it even more if he bought Joe Allen in the January window...

Milne is panicking about corporate hospitality revenue being down next year and this will balance the books. Another situation however where it just doesn't need saying though. Shows a huge misunderstanding of how the fans feel. Not a great PR move.

Actually think ireland have a good chance of progressing as those teams will take points off each other. That is the closest to a group of death in this tournament.

Aye, could have sworn Neale Berry and Kenny Black were in midfield for them today... hammer throwers.

Not a celebrity as such, but Ian Bell, columnist for the Sunday Herald and former editor of the Observer has died. He was a fantastic writer who always seemed to champion the right things. Something a huge amount of his peers can not boast, on both counts.

I pretty much agree with the rest of your post but I think the bit above is maybe a bit pie in the sky thinking. There would be a lot of dead rubbers from an early part in the season, so will fans go and watch all of their team's meaningless matches? Very doubtful. Clubs are as likely to rest on their laurels than they are to take the initiative - the cheaper option will be the favoured option, particularly if crowds are down. We could end up with a lot of clubs floating in no man's land for seasons on end. And the national team? It's a fair assumption that Strachan (or his replacement) would all of a sudden take an interest in the domestic league. I would also say it is not Aberdeen FC's responsibility to produce players for Scotland, which is why we have a few non Scots in the u20s.

Hmm..not sure about that tlg. Stavrum wasn't with us the season we finished 3rd/4th with the good run of wins at home, D'Jaffo signed for the season after that did he not?

Must be my mind playing tricks on me then. And the other season's he was with us? Saying you're going to your gran's funeral and actually pissing off to sign for another team is pretty poor form, release clause or not.

Need to get themselves out of that pronto. EPL is so terrible that they may have a wee chance of winning it. Does anyone remember in Fergie's last season (and a few before that too) how people were saying he had such an awful team but he'd invariably win the league or finish second? Well aye his team wasn't fantastic, but they were miles better than Moyes's shite and LVG's and he spent a fraction of what LVG has done. If Ferguson had this opposition in the EPL he'd have it wrapped up in the next three weeks with a team that was basically De Gea, Vidic, Carrick and Hernandez and 7 lucky children from the poorer areas of Manchester.

Willie Miller on Arild Stavrum: As with Billy Dodds, scored a fair few penalties which skew his figures and as much as penos count etc, I don't think they should when talking about goalscorers. Take pens out of Dodds figures and Stavrum's and they're looking very weak indeed. Or to put it another way, I just don't like floppy haired, slow, diminutive front men who struggle to strike a ball the way a professional footballer should.

So, we're making the smaller clubs play more matches - some may be out of pocket as their players may be on appearance money rather than a weekly/monthly wage but we're also taking away the prospect of a big cup tie for a lot of teams surely? Winter break in Scotland is a farce as no cunt has any idea when the fucker actually is.

Can not repeat enough how much I have no respect for that man. A striker who struggled to play the offside trap in any sort of a competent way and then shites on us from a massive height. Absolute arsehole of a man.

I certainly hear it at the 'busier' away matches, it is not an uncommon chant unfortunately

Rumours doing the rounds that Dick Foster will be back at Pittodrie in January. They are only rumours but it's coming from a few different directions. Fingers crossed it's pish. Seems that Logan will be away to a Championship team in Jan and his arch-nemesis will also be heading to the Championship... Ryan Jack is wanted by the huns and we're expecting a bid in Jan. The above is probably pish but these are the rumours doing the rounds at the moment. I never thought I'd say this but I think we should take Jackson Irvine from Ross Co. Good physical presence and the guy can actually play a bit too. Exactly what we need in the middle of the park, still think we're too lightweight in there.

Rooney played the offside line absolutely perfectly there. Brilliant. Didn't realise at the game that Taylor had heeled the ball to McGinn for the first. Even a blind squirrel can find a nut, eh?

Without wanting to sound like the old bastard moaning about the kids making too much noise... I really, really can't stick some of the songs/chants etc going on these days in the Dons support. Adam Rooney is undoubtedly the best striker we've had since Duncan Shearer. The guy scores so many goals for us but our fans can only sing '...having a party, bring your vodka and your charlie'. What? The song we had for Shearer was perfect and it would fit Rooney just as well. The guy wins us points more than any other player, what about showing him a bit of respect in return? The Goodwillie stuff is just awful. I cringe every time some clown starts it. Same with child abuse chants against Ronny Deila (wtf?)/Celtic in general. It's not the place for it, child abuse and rape are subjects so serious they should never, ever come into 'football banter'. Can we not get back to singing songs about how good Aberdeen FC are? I'd find that so much more enjoyable.

Mark Hughes is a very under rated manager. Absolutely brilliant player, one of my favourites of all time, think he deserves more credit than he gets.

Agree, typical DM performance, win it in the first half and just manage the game out - good professionalism but it would be nice to see us really cuff some mob. Hearts next week would be a nice one. Thought those two you mention were superb and Rooney's movement and awareness was top class in the first half. Good to see McLean playing in his best position and the team being rewarded as a result. Also good to see strong management from DM in not just chucking Jack back in - gives the lads in the first XI belief that they are the right ones to do the job and they certainly did that. A really enjoyable performance in the first half, i don't think any of us would have any complaints if we flew out the traps like that every week.