RicoS321

Playing some nice football, similar to earlier in the season with Hedges and Kennedy central. St Johnstone sitting deep making it very crowded in the last twenty. Think it would help to either switch Hayes and Kennedy back to their proper wings or take McLennan on for Hayes, as we need that width, rather than the cut inside. We're completely dominant and we're trying to play nice fitba, so keep it up.

Think the deal is that we pay his wages, travel expenses, a £3K per week embarrassment fee and they'll take him, on the condition it's not mentioned outside Scotland.

Judas bastard should be never wear a dons' shirt again.

If he plays well in the next six months, he'll go to the Euros. He seems like a fairly intelligent lad, he's perhaps just very focused on his career and sees it as best path to something better and isn't overly fussed by the Hun element. He doesn't come across as the Hun type in the way that Jack does, he's maybe more like Ryan Fraser in that regard and is just a guy out for himself in a difficult and short career. Unless he performs exceptionally and Gerrard takes him with him post Hun, I'm not sure he won't just hit a glass ceiling at the Hun. I actually think he's better than hagi, and he'd likely link up very well with Kent, but it's very rare that a Scottish player goes to one of the scum and then progresses from there. It's a strange path and if I were his agent I'd have advised him to wait until summer when his stock could be even higher (and not to be a rabid hun fuck).

We're not selling them Wright, it's a pre-season contract. I'd be completely fine with it if we were selling him.

Except we don't. We have some good quality football players like Hedges, Ferguson, Hayes, McGinn as well as guys that are comfortable on the ball whilst putting in a shift like Kennedy (maybe), Considine, Hoban, McLennan, McGeouch, Campbell and some guys who are average players who put in a shift like Taylor, Main etc. It's not just McInnes though, it's the club. There's no strategy there. McInnes has done exceptionally well at winning for us (despite his apparent loser mindset), with no recent manager coming close to the number of wins. However, he often does that by being safe on the pitch (game management) and safe in squad number. We've got guys like Ojo playing where Campbell and Virtanen should be. Guys like Main playing, where a disabled lamppost could be. Guys like McGinn and Logan possibly lasting a bit longer than they should (those can probably be forgiven for past service). We're basically at least two players heavy every season, because it is safer for McInnes to put a tried and tested average SPFL player like Main in than a youngster like Anderson (I don't rate, but that's not the point), or Ojo over Campbell. But that is a completely understandable approach for McInnes to take because, as we can see, as soon as we lose points the fans are hounding him - and his points returns as manager have been excellent. It needs the strategy from above that forces McInnes to act against his own best interests, to align with those at the club. It doesn't need major surgery either, just a slightly smaller pool of senior players. That would have meant not signing McGeouch and accepting that we'd signed a dud in Ojo for example. It would have meant not signing Main and Wilson or Main and Edmondson. Just the board putting the brakes on signings and forcing him to use youth.

Fuck sake. With fans not in the ground, I'd prefer it if we kept him but it's pretty fucking rank. Maybe he'll pick up an injury in his final game. It's a fucking sorry state of affairs like, this should not have happened. Why are we looking at the potential of guys like Ferguson and Gallagher (Mark) but not our own players? Players like Wright are very, very uncommon (if he fulfills his potential). If the huns can recognise it, why couldn't we? I recognised it, so what the fuck were our staff doing? There are certain types of player that you just take risks on. The risk associated with giving Wright an additional year in the summer was minute. It's not acceptable to wait until he performs or not. This is the Ryan Fraser situation once more. It fucking reeked of piss, and so does this. If we are unwilling to take a punt on our own players, why should they take a punt on us? To be honest, from the minute Wright scored his hattrick one week and was given a paltry 30 seconds in the cup final the following week, his career has been mishandled. Injuries aside, he's been dicked about, been the perennial championship manager sub (the guy who before a ball is kicked, it's been decided that he'll be the first sub) and his potential not been advanced. None of the above excuses the fact that he's a hun cunt of course, but all of the above is applicable if he'd chosen to join any other team. It's not good enough, and it's the club at fault, not the player.

Livi doing it properly these days, nae like the overspending cheats fae the early century. Very impressive. Hopefully Martindale fails the test in Tuesday and we tank them.

This. His movement was excellent, going beyond the ball and falling in deep, and he also looks solid enough. I hope we give him much more game time between now and the end of the season.

I think it's irrelevant. We can only set our own points target. If we're hitting 70+ points in any season, that's an excellent return. I think there's only been us and hearts have done that before. I'd like to see us stretching towards 80 on the odd occasion. We're not spending enough money to have a second string team that can win every single game, so we'd need a relatively injury free season. We'd need two good strikers and three or four players of the quality of Hedges and Wright. Beyond that, you're relying on a poor season for the scum too. I'm wondering why you think we can have any bearing on their points total (other than games against us)? The hun haven't lost a game to any team in the league this season. Why do you presume that it's Aberdeen's concern? It's not that I don't only think that you're not being fair, it's that you've made up an entirely random metric and tried to apply it retrospectively to suit your pre-defined conclusion. Third is a good return this season if we can hold onto that. High sixties in points good too. Holding on to Wright is fairly crucial to that in my opinion, and if we can play entertaining fitba like we did today then that's more than satisfactory. If you want much more, then your ire should be with the chairman and not the manager. Budget is the quantifiable, demonstrable difference in points between us and the scum.

Fantastic. Jack Ross not looking quite so infallible now. We're all doing it wrong, you can only win cups fae the championship.

Makes Murdo MacLeod seem like a bit of a fanny.

We didn't play that many high balls, there was a minor period in the first half when that was the case, but most of the time we played it on the ground. We played a lot of long balls when Watkins was here too, the notion that we played free flowing fitba throughout every game just isn't true. Watkins regularly received punts to his coupon that he struggled with. Cosgrove took the ball wide plenty of times today, and I think it's when he's at his best (taking it, laying it off, getting in the centre), but I think McInnes has also told him to remain central, hence he gets a few more punts to him. But it was far from the tactic today, it was simply an out ball when nothing else was on, which is the nature of the game in this country. I wouldn't have categorised our play as long ball today. The majority of play went through Hegdes and Wright.

Also, what the fuck are we going to do when Wright goes? McLennan not even close to as good and when you take Wright out, Hedges is going to have nobody to pass to.

Motherwell defended really deep, and they're a solid unit at the back. There were very few opporunities to pick a good pass from the edge, they played like an away team. That's one of the other reasons for cutting Cosgrove some slack, there was very little room in behind or in front of them today. Agree about Kennedy, he looked okay. I'd still say that he's wasted there and I'd rather see Hedges far up the park, really close to the front two and put Kennedy or McLennan wide right.

Good reult, good performance. Fuck knows what the red was for, will be interesting to hear what their manager has to say about it. Some great individual performances with Hedges, Ferguson, Wright, Hoban, Hayes and Taylor all doing well. Kennedy much better when they had ten. Ojo was poor, just doesn't seem to have it in him and with Campbell and now Virtanen there, we have to be using them. Cosgrove frustrating, clearly lacking in confidence. In my mind, we keep playing him in that setup and wait until he comes good. I have every confidence he will and with the other option being Main I just don't see the point. He's been dicked about since returning from injury, the least we can do is give him some good minutes on the pitch and if he continues to fail then move on. This is by far our best setup, just hold with it for a few games and see how it goes. We won't get anywhere switching him in and out.

Just ditch the QS and save even more costs. Just take the steens, windaes, seats etc fae pittodrie and use them until we run oot. We'll be in lockdown until 2028 anyway, so nae cunt will be needing pittodrie or the climby place.

Why would they need to shift transition? Thon cunt hiked up the wa's of the dick Donald no bother. Surely we can incorporate a bit of pished climbing into one of the stands? Could even do a joint climbing/fitba day out, sitting on top of the new Willie arena, looking down (attached by rope of course, health and safety ken?).

Cheers. That'd be fucking magic. Although, tabloid story about politician's big idea, so obviously a giant pinch of salt required. I'd happily carry some bricks over the hill fae the merkland stand.

Not making the biggest mistake in the history of the club "because it's cheap". Building a location that doesn't involve a transport plan designed for the 20th century. There are lots of things in it for Aberdeen, and its support.

Yep, I should have put emphasis on the "for a couple of months" part. This thread alone had a four month sabbatical from August until January, although it was really only a couple of months that things were settled as we were playing some good stuff is until the u21 trip. I agree with your point about the Scottish cup, even though it would largely prove every one of his ardent detractors wrong, the good time to leave thing seems fairly accurate. For what it's worth, I think a good time to have left would have been at the time the Huns came calling. Beyond that point, things became poorer on the playing front (despite finishing above the Hun), but more importantly that was the point where a number of fans stopped judging him by objective measures culminating in where we are now. I hope he wins the cup and moves on to better things. It would be great if we could finally have another manager that steps up after his time here.

I agree. He has some excellent attributes that someone could get a lot from. A move would probably allow him a run of games in a settled position. With the constant dicking about with things here, he's unlikely to get that. McInnes feels he has nothing to offer in a front three alongside Hedges and Wright, which I think is completely ridiculous, so we're not likely to play him back into form here.

Good work, we'll keep it going until he leaves! I disagree about the best squad. We have Leigh as cover for defence and zero serviceable strikers with Cosgrove off form. We're well covered in midfield in the month or two where McGeouch is fit and well covered in the wide areas. It's a decent squad, but without good first choice striking options, that makes it a lot less potent than a few years back when our backups were Ball, O'Connor and the like who were pish but behind a good starting eleven.

I agree. I was replying to you saying he was allowed to "spend big in January". I'm not sure what point of mine you're disagreeing with. In fairness to McInnes, I have no idea if your list above results in a more costly team than we had a few years back. Players out would be useful, given likes of Main was brought in as a low budget replacement for May. I don't remember the club saying this was the strongest since he took charge (I heard fans and the BBC say it), and I actually don't think it's the poorest team in his time here. Like most seasons, we've got a good first 14, but as soon as we get a few injuries the cracks show massively. What was apparent in our cup loss to Motherwell a few seasons back was apparent in our loss to St Mirren in the cup. McInnes has always struggled to accommodate fringe players and cope when players are missing. When we have our best 11 consistently playing we go on a run. Every single year we have a situation where McInnes can't work out his best 11 and he takes weeks to get there. When fringe players come in and play well enough to not be dropped, he shoehorns them in to the side at the expense of the whole system (Main and Cosgrove, McGeouch earlier in the season and we'll see similar with Logan and Campbell). It's fucking scandalous that we had a fantastic, working system in 3-4-3 with Hedges and Wright pushed on which hasn't been used since Cosgrove returned for example, to the significant detriment of both team and player. I have little doubt that we'll go on another run of wins, because we're better than the rest by in large. If we get a win against the Tims or something then this thread will disappear for another couple of months.

I believe he's actually contracted to Celtic Adults Club who are their own organisation and in no way affiliated with Celtic, so I'm not sure what you expect them to do?