RicoS321

An Aberdeen fan marrying a hearts fan? Bit sick. Should the BBC really be showing that sort of thing?

Do fans of football teams speak about their own fixtures in terms of money? That's a bit fucked up. I'd say that losing that goal to the Hun, followed by a loss in the cup would see us struggle to sell it. Hopefully we don't find out.

Lose at the weekend and we're not going to be close to selling out, so we'll effectively be losing out too.

I thought they'd removed the fence? Hilarious jokes aside, I am not on the fence, I don't think it's a good call. They should get the same as the Tims*. We know they'll sell their allocation, and we shouldn't use their last crowd as a barometer, just as we shouldn't use our semi crowds for final tickets ever. It's completely normal for different fixtures against the same team to have a bigger draw, depending on what is riding on it, or form of one team. I don't know how you get to a satisfactory position on this though. For Pittodrie, it should be straight forward enough to give the away fans reduced allocation, but if they sell that allocation in the first few days, then that seat gets shifted over (rightward if you're facing the South), opening up another section for away fans. The seats/tickets are then issued at that point, which means that those buying first get the better seats (in theory). If the allocation is not used within three days then the allocation goes to Dons fans, with the option to swap seats to be closer to the away section for those with limited sense of smell. *Or whatever their normal allocation is

Locos maybe? Population slightly bigger than the Broch, but probably never had the support. Brora is tiny. They'd be a great addition to the leagues though, just for the seethe of weegies having to travel fucking miles to play them.

Would have preferred the Hibs and Tims games switched. If we do get to the final (I have my doubts), then it'd be shite to play them twice in quick succession. Hibs final day would have been great too. Edit: they should also refrain from giving the teams with only two home games a midweek home fixture.

With Polvara not getting any game time, do we reckon he'll be on his way in the summer? Still got a year left I think, but can't imagine he's going to be sitting on our bench until then. I think he probably suffers from the same issues as he did before he went on loan to the states a while back. Not aggressive enough and doesn't do the mileage required. I can't help but think that with a good degree of training he could be a really useful player. Training of the physical sort too, as he's technically good. Get him out jogging on the beach. Half marathons at a time. He's a better footballer than Ramadani, for example, but just covers half the ground.

Aye, it was clear what he was doing, but it was still the wrong call. Shinnie did get stuck in when moved to midfield, but I'm not convinced it was the real problem. Palaversa just stopped retaining possession and looked confused at being on a football pitch. Polvara is capable enough to put his foot on the ball and try to play the game. I'd say he's quite similar to Palaversa. The biggest problem about the change was the change to the winning formula on left and right though. Jensen isn't a left back (I'd rather see Devlin there, at least he'd keep things simple and be aggressive) at all, and we just had a gaping hole where Shinnie had been, as well as disrupting our back four. A positive improvement in midfield, outweighed by a negative at fullbacks. When you're 2-1 up, you probably shouldn't be fucking about too much with the back line. It's a big problem in the coming fixtures though. Clarkson seems to have found his feet, and is now able to play ninety minutes at the tempo Thelin wants, but Palaversa is still a good bit short. With Nilsen out, we're going to need someone capable of playing that last thirty minutes, as it's a hell of a lot to ask of Shinnie after running up and down the line for an hour. I can only assume that he thinks Polvara doesn't have the work rate required to play there.

Aye, today probably lost it for us. We could have beaten them at Pittodrie and been a point ahead. It'll be interesting to see the post split fixtures. No doubt we'll play the Tims here on the final day of the season, so that if we do get to the final then we have to play them twice in a week.

Also, it's a fucking terrible way to be going into a semi final. Go ahead in that game, and we'll basically be shitting it that we might lose a goal. It basically feels like a loss today, and might as well have been.

Aye, what everyone else said. Dorrington a young lad, decent enough with the ball at his feet, but was bossed too easily by their striker. The subs, though, were a joke. What was Thelin thinking? Palaversa once again starts a second half like he's never played football before, but take on Polvara and leave it at that. Sokler for Gueye and leave him up front alongside Nisbet as a straight replacement. Jensen to left back? Fucking hell, no need. He was fine at right back and Shinnie excellent on the left. Just fucking about with it for the sake of fucking about with it. Our squad is not good enough to make four changes and see out a game against a team making strengthening changes. Dabbagh is pish and doesn't need to be tried out in a game so important. We certainly don't need to be changing both fullbacks when we're so dominant, and we definitely didn't need to narrow the game down with the wingers when they had ten men. I fucking hate five subs, I have to say, it should have been ditched after COVID. It's almost like managers feel like they have to make changes for the sake of it. Anyway, we completely destroyed them in the first half for the second time this season. Some brilliant football, with Keskinen and Morris absolutely battering them. Keskinen's best game for us I'd say, and unlucky not to score one of the opportunities he created. Nisbet was linking things nicely and Gueye was working hard with one in four of his touches working. Shinnie and Jensen working their arses off to allow the wingers to play and Clarkson picking all the right passes and defending well too. The manager fucked it, basically.

Aye, he has. Hopefully Gueye is further forward with Nisbet in behind, as that is far more effective and better in defence. Edit to add: Sunday public transport and early kick offs are fucking shite. A bad time to have a broken car and bike.

Aye, although that has to be weighed against having another team with a Hun name.

They were never going to catch them anyway (think they're eleven ahead now), so probably good for Cove that Stenny drop points, as they're in pole position for second spot, which will help in the playoffs. Stenny look absolutely shattered, I reckon they'll struggle to do anything in the playoffs.

Yasss. In your face, Jambo cunts. St Mirren in the top six again.

Tightly poised at halftime across the country. Hopefully one of Motherwell or St Mirren does the business. Hopefully, too, Saints get at least one against utd just to keep them at bay (as well as tightening the race at the bottom for entertainment purposes too).

Confirmed, then, that we just need to beat the Huns for them to officially lose the league tomorrow. That'd be nice. Obviously it would be hilarious if we also injured Barron. Forever.

Finally earned his own thread by signing on until 2029. I think there's a player there, but he was unlucky with the timing of his injury. Would expect him to be challenging Tobers for a place next season. Good on the ball, a bit naive in the tackling etc.

He's pish anyway.

They were bottom anyway. He's changed the way they play, which, unfortunately for them, doesn't particularly work with the players they have.

That up and coming young manager at utd been a real asset too.

Aye, a decent away performance. We were the only team trying to win it, and we did. Brilliant goal by Morris, and a few good chances to get another. Difficult to tell on the telly, but thought most were decent today, nobody spectacular. Gueye didn't really seem to perform, with the occasional glimpse of something when he was driving with the ball. His link up play needs to improve, although his flick ons with the head are decent. Good win to keep the pressure on Hibs. Special mention to the fat lad steward trying to prevent Morris from getting a selfie in front of the Dons support. Well done Devlin for dealing with it by getting the rest of the team to all go for one. Fucking jobsworth. Dingwall Hun I expect.

I mean, that had something to do with it, but the £20+ million windfall for entry into Europe was certainly more significant. The wage bill went from being twice as big, to between 6 and 8 times as big. Although I liked the three foreigner rule, and would be happy for it to return.

It wasn't necessarily a criticism of English and Stewart or whoever, or their approach to someone like Doncaster, nor even Doncaster himself. It's systemic. Doncaster will be invited on to speak about topic X, say VAR, and will be questioned about that topic, and he'll answer in political fashion as always. There was/is no real avenue for them to pursue a wider conversation, and it really wouldn't work in the context of a single conversation with the head of fitba, who would simply bat away questions with "well we'd all love....", "we have to be realistic....." throw aways. What I'm talking about here is a complete value change to one that values fairness and plots its course towards that goal - across the board, and in a non-partisan manner. Look at the avenues that you present here (and even those open to you as someone who might be fighting from the inside as it were). What I'm suggesting can't be condensed into 400 words, or a three minute phone in with McIntyre, yet those are the tools of conveyance open to us. No long form discussion or philosophical conversation about what sport is supposed to be and what the values of our game should be. Of course, that's the same with our political and civilisational discourse more broadly. Systemic changes are split into bite size chunks as if they are individual problems and then morons invited to shout about them for ten minutes on question time or wherever, conveniently never addressing the thing as a whole. Football is just the system in microcosm. The Tims the rent-seeker, accumulating capital off the backs of the rest of us (what @wee toon red doesn't mention about the Tims' bank balance is that that £80M is taken entirely from the rest of Scottish fitba - a rent system where capital begets capital). It needs change from the top, of the BBC in this example, that directs the new values through the entire coverage. That would, I'm certain, take the fans with it, and perhaps the opportunity for real change.

Ha ha, not on this occasion! It was aimed at the article writers, who are essentially putting out unquestioned PR, I suspect leaked from one of the two cheeks. However, I would absolutely include the number one broadcaster in my criticism. Doncaster has appeared on radio Scotland numerous occasions and never been adequately questioned. It almost always concentrates on a single small issue rather than the bigger picture of Scottish football. To the extent that things like league construction become an abstract concept that focuses on a number. You might as well ask a group of fifty kids what their favourite number is out of 10, 12, 14 or 16 and just go with the most popular. The format of the league in and of itself is largely irrelevant. Given that this is the fortieth anniversary of two teams solely winning our league - the worst period in Scottish football, if measured by sport - maybe you could write an article discussing the problem? If you were critical enough, and direct enough, then it might start some discussion. Do you think it would, hypothetically? Or do you think it would simply be brushed off (it's just the way it is, look at countries X, Y and Z) for tedious discussion about VAR or the Huns new manager? I think the latter. The point I was originally making is that fairness doesn't even seem to be a consideration by those that are paid to regularly discuss our game on the BBC (radio. Other broadcasters are exempt from criticism as they actively pursue the inequality as their business model). They don't see it as integral, when it should be the number one consideration. They should be discussing it every single week, and planning how to reduce the staggering inequality. Yet, it isn't even acknowledged as a problem. It's like some natural phenomenon that just happens, controlled by the gods. We can't even name the problem. Numerous discussions go by about the state of the game, or the state of the national side, but inequality has not once been pinpointed as the single greatest problem that underpins the rest. Which it undeniably is. Does it not seem ridiculous to you as someone who writes about the game that league reconstruction is being mooted without recourse to fairness? I think the answer is that it doesn't seem ridiculous, because fairness is so far removed from discourse that it would actually seem weird to hear it being discussed. My preference would be a 16 team league, so that we reduce the number of scum games per season and so that can never again be used as to strong arm clubs that apparently require the blue/green pound. It would also prevent TV companies from holding us to ransom in a similar vein. Thus, it would be targeting fairness first. I think 30 games is perfect, we could ditch three shitey midweek fixtures. However, if clubs require it, then create playoffs for European and relegation places. Second to fifth play off for European spots, and eleventh to fourteenth for third relegation. Teams in sixth to tenth have a set of playoffs designed to give young players a chance, with four youth players required in each starting eleven and two on the bench. Give it a promotional name like the youth presentation cup and get a sponsor. Fairness would come from the European spots being shared, with several teams given the opportunity to play champions league qualifying if Scotland has that route, and others given the opportunity to play Europa or conference. League winners could be given the opportunity for a lucrative fixture elsewhere, or bask in their glory for a few weeks. There should be no monetary prizes for league placing, as these exacerbate inequality (and no player is playing, or trying harder, so that their club can win X amount more money). European prize money should be declared a product of the league itself - because it is - and captured by the SPFL and apportioned equally. Again, this would negate the unearned compounding effect of European qualification that ruins every league in Europe (bar the English, who have discovered that the difference between having £200M and £100M in spending has a lessening effect). The steps towards something like the above begin with those paid to represent our game actually discussing fairness. Every time Brendan Rogers is interviewed, don't say "Brendan, how was that for you today?", say "Brendan, you have eight fold the budget of your opponent today, do you think a three goal margin is enough at home?". Celtic are one goal off of a three goals per game average over an entire season. That is horrific and something to be ashamed of. It's not sport. That should be the default position of anyone paid to discuss the game in our country. If they're not interested in sport, not interested in fairness, then they shouldn't be on our national broadcaster. That shouldn't even be remotely controversial.