Superstar Tradesman

What you've said CtS is very similar to what I posted last night: I really hope it's not true but I can't see past it at the moment.

Am my eyes deceiving me or have you changed your tune recently? Do we have a scouting network left or do JC and JN not take care of that along with Jimmy's son in Holland? If so, we're pretty fucked for replacing the rebels if he's offski!

They like to drive their wives X5's?

I've not booked fuck all yet but I plan to do so, as I'm going to watch Aberdeen Football Club play Bayern Munich at the Allienz Arena in front of 66,000 fanatical, screaming football fans. I'm sure as fuck not going there to watch Micheal Hart or Chris Clark kick a ball about.

Good post. Only thing I'd like to challenge (for want of a better word as I'm not actually disagreeing in any way or trying to pick a fight) is that up until a week or so ago, we all thought they'd be happy to sign up with the prospect of European football, year-on-year improvements at the club and decent cup runs. If you work for a company doing contract work, the company is doing well and the market is busy, then the last thing in your mind is to move elsewhere. Of course if you've been offered more money then you'll have to weigh up your options but if you enjoy the working environment it could be enough to keep you. The only other reason you'd want to leave is if you're unhappy there and other than Langfield who has came good, there's only Lovell I see falling into that bracket. Having been in the position of my contract running it's course a good few times, I can't think of one time that I asked about a renewal until a month before it was due to run. I was quite happy for them to come talk to me about it. However, if the market was in shit-state then I'd be noising them up to see where I stand and to see if I should be looking for other companies to work for. I'm sad to say it, but I think JC is offski.

It would. But then to a lesser degree, he left Dunfermline when he could have taken them into Europe and to a Cup Final at Hampden.

We just don't have the cash to sign players on for 5 year deals and no amount of moaning will change that. Had we signed someone for that long and JC decides to leave then the next manager is stuck with a bunch of players that might not want to be at the club any more and who he doesn't want to play.

I'll quite happily re-arrange the rebels faces if that's what you mean.

Exactly what I would do. Bin the other 3 and bump Zander's deal as in the future he's either going to be our team captain or make us a bit of cash.

I read the Margrave of the Marshes (John Peel's autobiography) and thought it was superb! Then again I'm a big music/Peel fan so found it a good read on both fronts. I've found that the longer it takes to read a book, the less interesting it is and the harder it was to get into. I've been reading 'Catch-22' for about 3 months now and only when I found myself with some time to spare sitting in airports this weekend, did I really get into it. Anyway, during the festive period I bought Willie Miller's book which I'll read after 'Catch-22' and Paul Carter's follow up to 'Don't Tell Mum I Work On The Rigs' which is called 'This Is Not A Drill'. Found it funnier than the first one and it had a nice twist into the bargin when he takes a trip into Bin Laden's backyard to show the nasty side of the oil industry.

If we keep these players until the end of the summer and we secure 3rd via our league position or cup run then at least we might be a quite attractive club to play for, if we need to replace the manager/players.

1. Mizer 2. Glasgow Sheep (at last) 3. Chimp 4. Kowalski 5-7. Jimmy Jimmy +2 8-10. Edinburghdon + 2 11. Tenement Funster - now subject to miraculous recovery 12. Sheep #1 13. Disco 14. Stoner 15. Linds 16. Ecosse1 17. Stewart 18. Penfold 19. Padre 20-25. Nig + 5 26-28. Dave min + 2 29-29. Wazzamatazz + 1 AFC2 31. The Doricle Permission received to leave the missus and bairn again (unbelievably!) 32-33. topcorner + 1 34-35. stonefish100 +1 36. Slim 37-38. Aberdeen_Ladette + 1 39-40. GlezgaRed + 1 41-46. BigAl, SM'sW + 4 others 47-59. Superstar Tradesman + a dozen others

The thing that gets me is that Aberdeen seem to be a club going places in the SPL. This would mean that the players fancy a pop at big bucks down south OR the manager is offski and they plan to follow him there. As far as I'm concerned there's just no sense in them going to another SPL club outwith the O.F. and above all, Chris Clark just doesn't appear to be someone with the bottle to turn down a contract at Aberdeen unless he had something set in stone elsewhere. Guess we find out tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure Hart has been stuttering over his new contract since the summer and if not before. Zander and Clark were happy to sign any offer that AFC put in front of them and Nicolson has followed JC from Dunfermline to AFC. If I was to take a complete and unsubstantuated stab at what's happening; I'd say JC has been made an offer elsewhere, told those 4 (who are first names on his team sheet each week) to hang tight until summer and he'll take them to wherever he's going. If, and that's a big if, that's the case then it's purely down to a financial choice for all concerned. The squad and backroom staff have a great chance of some silverware this season and although our Euro dreams are realistically only going to last 2 more games, who in their right mind wouldn't want to be a part of that?

Who gives a fuck about what the rest of the league are doing? We were cutting wages when Dundee were overspending... where are they now? We were buying players and shoring the debt up when Hearts were doing the opposite... where are they now? I only concentrate on the teams above us on the table when Saturday comes around. We've got a great balance of money coming in and going out at the moment and a few more years of that could see us in a fantasitic situation. Breaking the bank to sign players would put us back to square one but showing a little ambition to the man who has got us in this situation in the first place, can only be a smart thing no?

Do Hearts buy Scottish players? In fact, do Hearts buy players?

Back to the money JC has available to him: £1.4m sounds a lot but he's only getting that spread over 3 years (under half a mill/year) and that could quite easily be mopped up by players wanting more money when their contracts are up. Hardly what I'd call 'being ambitious'.

Plymouth Argyle - BWAAAAHAHAHAHA!!! SIX FIGURE SUM? SNAP THEIR FUCKING HANDS OFF!!!

I've seen nothing since the Copenhagen game that warrants any contracts being upped. Zander and Nicolson have 'it' but seem to go through spells of showing it, the other two could be replaced easily enough. I see Miller is also beginning to noise up an improved deal. Well fuck him too, as he seems to have reverted to wearing his slippers and falling over anytime someone is near him. As the management team said a few years ago, we only want players who want to play for the club. There's plenty of players out there who'd love to be swapping shirts at full time with Frank Ribery, Oliver Kahn, Luis Garcia, Jose Antonio Reyes and Jesper Grønkjær.

Agreed.

Of course he'll have known the financial position of the club when he first signed to us but since then we've been coining it in with the European games and have actually sold one of our players. To then be told "you're not getting any money" must be pretty fucking demoralising.

Lets not forget when we were handing out 5 year deals and having to pay off under-performing players with 2 years of their deals still to go. Kiriakov (sp?) spent a good 3 years of his contract playing pool at Reilly's whilst picking up his pay cheque.

Everyone seems to have missed the most worrying thing about this story as far as I'm concerned: The last person I remember coming out and saying this publicly was Jess. He was seen as the bad guy for turning his back on the club yet we found ourselves saying the exact same thing on the terraces for years to come. Managers and players will come and go but they're going to be shackled by the board everytime. How are we ever going to attract anyone to the club if the people prepared or good enough to make that difference are leaving because of this?

Ahh, the romance of the UEFA Cup!

Thought his punching clearances were superb! Was wondering where he pulled them from as he doesn't do those in the league normally. Every ball that came in the box was HIS!