Superstar Tradesman

Here's an idea: Knock down the failing stand and build a new one, saving yourself £15,400,000 (that you don't have) in the process. Bonkers, I know.

Although he didn't go about it too well, he did at least say what we've all been thinking for the best part of a season. Hopefully this is the rocket that Sone clearly needs up his arse.

I could see Jager breaking his other leg trying to run in those.

Although I'm glad to get shot of the man, I think it says a lot more about our club than it does about him. Personally I don't see much to laugh about that our club captain would prefer to play in a relegation battle in a lower division, in a country that's financially up Shit Creek than wear the armband at Pittodrie.

Yes and no. McGhee is merely the latest person to blame for not being able to get exciting new signings to march through the doors at Pittodrie. For years, we've been outbid by: The Old Firm - fair enough, they have a bigger fan base and lion's share of the money from the SPL (although I'm still to work out why they should get more money from the SPL given there's 12 teams in there?) Teams south of the border - ok, they pay more and us fans can't understand why players would go down there to play for teams like Preston or Blackpool when you could play for the 'Mighty Aberdeen Football Club'. But let's face it, they'll get more money down south and win the same amount of tropheys there............. ie, fuck all. I'd do the same. Things have changed though, we've been losing players to Hibs, Hearts and United. In fact I think we've bought more players or taken more free transfers from United alone that it fucking scares me. Hearts have constantly signed our targets, granted in retrospect we were glad when the great white hope Wyness ended up at Hearts but it took us through Hearts, to United to eventually land us Lee Miller who was fucking shite as far as I am concerned. In fact I've just been sick in my own underpants typing this on my laptop whilst sitting on my lavvy. Now it's we're getting into fucking LSD induced, Fear and Loathing in Aberdeen weirdness. Dundee. Yes, Dundee. A club from a lower division, are stumping up HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS more for players than us. 'Us' being a club that's paid the square root of fuck all for signings for the best part of a decade because we're cost cutting. Apparently we were the first club to start cutting the cost, penny pinching, capping wages, getting a pay structure in place. Apparently we did this to ensure the club would be here for years to come. Well guess what? All those other clubs that did none of those things have won silverware, nicked our players, beat us regularly and although they haven't been all success stories, I don't feel we can sit back and gloat. There's certainly no "I told you so" *smug smilie* What was the point in all of the cost cutting? Aberdeen Football Club can't afford to buy a toaster, replace a roof on it's main stand and we're led to believe the local council, who can't afford to grit the roads in winter or surface them in summer, can apparently, between the two of them, they plan building a new stadium at the edge of town. Guffaw. The worst bit of it is, it wouldn't take fuck all to become a force again in the SPL. All you have to do is constantly beat the rest of the teams then take it from there. You qualify for the 3rd spot each season and you automatically become 'a force' because you're getting at least one trip abroad each season and getting the extra cash from it. How many more Dandies turned up, bought shirts and travelled when that happened? Didn't the Hertha and Bayern games not generate millions in revenue for a couple one off games? How many more people with offshore funds turned up to pack the rafters, toot horns, buy strips and corporate tickets because of games Copenhagen? We've scrimped, we've saved, we've flogged players, we've slashed costs and we've got rid of the high earners for over a decade. When we actually going to see any fucking results from this? McGhee hasn't signed anyone? Are you really surprised?

Mark McGhee commented today that he is octomistic he will have secured eight new signings before the season starts. "Willie and I have been manning the phones, constantly taking calls from agents but we only have one set of arms each. You'd have to be a spider to keep up!" The manager also trampled rumours that Leitch was on his way out of the club with Paul Incey-wincey as his replacement. "I don't know where those rumours have came from but someone's spun a web of deceit and I want to squash this story before it grows any more arms or legs".

Didnt realise there was only one CL slot for us this season. That'll help one half of the Ugly Sisters fall closer to the rest of us dross.

The only way people will cough up for season tickets is if they see a buzz at the club because a bunch of new faces are appearing in the broom cupboard every few days. Otherwise it'll just remind them of every other shite season before a ball is even kicked.

That's all fair and well but we need 8 more of those signings and that I'm not so optimistic about.

Superb gig, played for over 2 hours. Bumped into Hayes after the gig in a pub just down the road a bit, turns out their tour manager is Scottish. Didn't realise that they had the chick from The Ravonettes drumming for them now.

I wonder how that list of 100 is looking these days?

Yeah, I hate when I mix up the groupie roofied drink.

BRMC in T minus 2 sleeps!

Exactly. Plus he's the head of both SMG and AFC and it's SMG who are offering the Peacock handout and holding the AFC shares so I don't see the difference.

Can't find the link for the news story where he offered to build the Peacock Arts Centre and I've got to say I'm really surprised that a thread hasn't been started already regarding this, perhaps down to our sheer apathy towards goings on at our club? So here it is..... "Stewart Milne Group has repeated an offer to re-house the firm within its multi-million redevelopment of the historic Triple Kirks building which overlooks Union Terrace Gardens". Now I'm not sure if that means 'giving' them a building? If it means they're getting free rent at the Triple Kirks building for as long as they want? If it means that they're getting floor space in a bigger project that SMG are proposing? Now given you're talking a couple hundred thousand pounds for a city centre flat these days and bearing in mind the Peacock Visual Arts were looking to raise £13.5 million there's quite a scope for speculation as to how much SMG were giving away. So what we talking here? The wages of a decent striker? A transfer fee to rival a lower division club like Dundee? Bearing in mind that this was an 11th hour bid by Stuart Milne, something that hasn't been in the pipeline long, something that hasn't been looming over his head, something that's not pertinent to his day to day running of his business. Not something like a new roof for the Main Stand which has been crumbling and barely passing safety inspections year on year for about the last 10 years. This new Peacock building that he's just giving away. For free. "There you go". What could you buy instead? A purpose built training ground? A fancy house to entice a flair player up North? Land for a new staduim? The repayments on a crippling loan for a season? Two seasons? A decent wedge of cash for a new stadium? AFC have all these money issues and the man in charge is offering financial and building support to some Arts Centre whilst his football club is in dire need of both. He's openly stated he's an Aberdeen fan, is he that much a fan of the arts that he'll just step forward to bail them out of trouble when his own sinking ship needs a gesture like this? It's fucking criminal and I for one cannot get my head around why we aren't going fucking loopy over this!

A lot of folk listing why they started supporting the Dons but we've done that before in other threads. I'm wondering why you continue to love the Dons? If a woman treated you like this you'd ditch her. If your auld man was this much trouble you'd probably stick him in a home and let some other poor sods look after him whilst you checked in from time to time. If any other aspect of your life mugged you off this much you'd distance yourself from it. So why do we tune in each week, skip straight to the back pages hoping for news, log into chat sites, spend so much time and money and continue to be glamoured by AFC?

Well? Pick as many options as you think are relevant to you. We're moaned about just about everything to do with AFC and called it a lot worse than any away fan so what is it that we love about AFC? I'm fucked if I know.....

Dream on. I doubt they'll acknowledge someone has asked questions of them and conveniently not both to answer any questions raised. Same as they've been doing to the fans for years. ........goes to start new thread........

Blue touchpaper lit......

What we talking there? 12, 14 degrees?

Saw you there or at least I think I did. Can't be too many folk with 'PADRE' written on the back of their tops.

That said I wasn't in the mood to gloat as I'd been to Olomouic a few weeks previously where we'd had our arses skelpt. Still, I did sit supping beer upon beer with a smug grin on my coupon watching gutted looking jam tarts lament into their plastic cups of meth. Zagreb was quite good come to thing about it.

Must have missed you by a couple weeks then BB. I rolled into Zagreb the day Hearts played there. At that point I had no track of time or date and I wasn't even aware they were due to play there so I was fairly surprised to see folk en masse walking around with maroon tops on. Shite support it has to be said. By fuck did I enjoy going out for a beer after the game!

I packed my job in last year, took 6 months off and went travelling. Tallin and Croatia were definitely in the top 5 or 10 of the places I visited. Tallin would be a great place to take a lass for a romantic/dirty weekend. The city centre is this cool medieval town with great architecture which they really play on but not in a cheesy way. I ate bear (which tasted superb) in a great restaurant where the waitresses were all dressed like wenches with those ice-cream cones sticking out the sides of their heads. Still there's plenty decent nightlife so it would be equally as good for a lads weekend but I think you'd score some decent Brownie points taking your squeeze. Croatia was a real hidden gem. I've a Croatian mate who kept on at me to go home with him sometime but dates never seemed to suit. Wish I had now! That said he told me the hotspots so I had a fair idea what to expect. That didn't stop me from being blown away! I always had this preconception that the Serb/Croat war would have meant that there would be bullet holes in all the buildings and large buildings with one side missing. Couldn't have been further from the truth. I guess that's what travelling to these places and seeing it fof yourself is all about. What I didnt realise is that the Romans used Croatia as their holiday retreat. But being Romans they werent happy with a wee place by the sea, they built entire towns and streets out of white marble whilst protecting themselves behind awesome fortifications! Zagreb I wasnt that impressed with. Nothing wrong with it, if you're down that way the go check it out but there's nothing there out of the ordinary. Sort of like Vienna. Get yourself down the coast, that's where Croatia really comes into it's own. The Adriatic is probably the clearest water I've ever seen! I bussed it all the way down to Dubrovnik before taking a ferry to Italy. I dunno if it's the same with train stations, BB might be able to confirm but at every bus stop there are pensioners sitting there with rooms to rent, so no need to prebook hotels or hostels. They greet you off the bus, show you a map or photo of where they live then whisk you off back to theirs, sling you a set of keys, hand over your cash then you don't see them again til you leave. My mate told me to avoid Dubrovnik as it's "full of old people" but I really enjoyed it. Just have a look at some pics on Google. Stunning place. I think he wanted me hitting all the beach parties and livelier places to impress me. So I did. And I was. Pag would be your first port of call coming down the coast. There's a beach there that is lined with bars pumping out house day and night with some big name djs playing. Zadar down the coast an hour or two is also magic. You could go there to chill out, party or both. That's one of the white marble towns. There's a cool ocean driven organ there and it's where the famous photo of Hitchcock in the sunset was taken. Split's along the same lines as Zadar but the old town was a lot smaller. At the heated request of my mate I caught a 2 hour ferry ride to Hvar and I'm glad that I did! I'm not keen on going back to places I've already been, there's just too many places I want to go and explore but I'll be back in Hvar sometime soon. I only went for a couple nights but had to drag myself away after a week! Lots of travellers there, lots of bars, hotels, restaurants, hostels, beaches. I crashed at a hotel for a couple nights before I met this old dude who spent his days spear fishing. Ended up renting his apartment off of him for peanuts. Great balcony as well looking right out over the bay. Should be able to find his contact details if you're interested? Spent most of my time on an island just off of Hvar called Stipanska. In fact I spent most of my time here - www.hvar.com - There's small taxi boats that take you back and forth but be careful, I was so busy yappin to a French dude that I stepped off at the wrong island and spent an hour waiting for the next boat surrounded by nudists! I also fucked up one night thinking the parties kicked off every night and missed the last boat back. I had to wait a couple hours whilst the catering staff cleaned up then bummed a lift back in amongst them and the black bags filled with the days rubbish. The only downside, and I'm really being fussy here, is that the beaches are all shingle. Other than that I thought Croatia was excellent.

Where's all the cash coming from in these other 'diddy' countries? I doubt Cypriot football fans are paying £20+ for match tickets or their club attracting huge sponsorship deals. Surely they're not all being bankrolled by local Morning Noon & Night moguls?