RicoS321

Does anyone have a good recipe? I'd like to make a massive one.

Aye, really bigging up McKenna on the BBC, got to be worth £20M now. We could rebuild the mainer with that sort of dough. Decent all round performance, Hendry and McKenna would make an excellent pairing. I understand the idea behind Mulgrew, but he fucks up at least once a game when he switches off. Good save fae the keeper. Stewart saying it's uncharacteristic from Mulgrew, but it absolutely isn't, he very regularly loses possession in dangerous areas. Anyway, some good stuff in areas, but we're lacking up front and we need to ditch Forrest, he offers nothing for Scotland (other than a couple of decent performances in the last campaign). We need something different in that area. That extra bit of time he gets for the tims just doesn't happen for Scotland. If Snodgrass comes good again, then that'd be ideal.

Michael Stewart made a decent point though, it wasn't blooding the players that was the issue, it was blooding the wrong players. The midfield was made very week in order to try out guys that shouldn't be anywhere near a Scotland team in an area of the pitch that we are relatively strong. McDonald isn't as good as Fletcher, McArthur, McGinn, Adam, McGregor for example. Neither Cairney. It was a weird one and we were very imbalanced as a team as a result. However, it was just a friendly, and the right time to give it a shot.

I agree that he's been largely pish (had a good game against Partick this season too). However, often the choice isn't between him and McGinn. It's between him and a McGinn* (Christie, GMS etc) who's had 60 minutes of doing nothing and isn't likely to do anything for the next 20 minutes before the meaningless sub eventually takes place. The argument isn't McGinn v Wright, which holds an obvious answer, it's McGinn playing at 70% versus Wright, and then things are evened up significantly. It's about why McInnes thinks that bringing on Wright (or Stewart or whoever) is okay to do with 8 minutes to go, but not with 30 minutes. McGinn trumps Wright on any given day, but he's also left on the pitch a huge number of times when he has been largely ineffectual. McInnes will say "well, Niall can change things in an instant", however on the overwhelming majority of occasions he doesn't. Is it worth keeping Wright on the bench 10 times, because McGinn might do something out of nothing on one of those? *I'm singling out McGinn, but it good be any of our front four this season.

I'd be happy to say that McCrorie looks a decent prospect though, so actually wouldn't complain if he was included. Cummings was an inconsistent Hibs player who got a decent move off the back of a couple of performances. He's Chris Maguire

Except that there are hunners and hunners of managers who are equally as pish as those three! I don't think that it's fair to say McKenna was a happy accident. I don't think McKenna would agree with that, I think he'd be very complimentary of McInnes. I don't think we can accuse McInnes of being crap at youth development and then ignore a huge success because it doesn't suit our (and I agree with you that he hasn't given youth a fair run) agenda.

Think the cold weather will hit just nicely to make this another turgid 90 minutes of hoof ball.

I don't buy that (the ego thing). His approach to McKenna has been fantastic, and I strongly believe that he'd have kept Fraser here too (rather than get him polishing shoes). The fact that Wright signed the extension suggests he had faith in McInnes. His form has been poor, that's why I'm questioning why he wasn't sent on loan. There are a couple of problems for me. The first is one I've argued for a long time, and it's the size of the league. It's easy to criticise McInnes for not playing youth, but look at the near melt-down each time we drop points in a tight league with no "meaningless" games. The fact that we're challenging high up the league with no breathing space is an issue. However, that has to be tempered with the fact that McInnes does not accept mistakes by Wright that he does in his more senior pros. GMS, McGinn, Christie and Stewart are all afforded the time and space to make mistakes that Wright isn't. Even Maynard is only one game short of Wright's total minutes this season. I think that once a players is signed on a first team contract, then he has to be given even treatment, and I think that Wright's mistakes are more costly to him than more senior players are to them. Or send him out on loan if he really isn't at the standard.

26 minutes since the window and the arrival of McGinn. He should have been out on loan like Frank Ross. Less than 3 games in total since signing his new contract. McInnes should have made the call in January to send him out, this can't be doing him any good. Unless he's injured of course? I don't believe so, given he was on the bench for the Partick game. The signs aren't good for the loon. He could have been at Partick or Saints or someone, getting a good run in the side in our own league.

Surely to fuck Cummings won't get near it? He's fucking pap.

You're right, but both clubs and players treat them as friendlies without any added weight. Still a large number of call-offs.

The difficulty is friendlies though. You can't get the best players to play in them. I suspect he'll have plenty of managers on the phone telling him to be careful with their players too. Yer championship and SPFL < tims teams greatly appreciate their players being involved because of the additional exposure, but above that the International game is seen as a hindrance and feel that their players shouldn't be involved because: "we pay their wages", "too many games" etc. If McLeish can effectively split the team over two games in these instances then he probably will. We'll see something completely different when the qualifying starts. International friendlies are just a waste of time.

Yep, he was mentioned again on the radio this morning as the highlight of the game. I actually thought he was a little tentative at times, but did look like he'd been playing there for years. His value must be up at £3M now. Soon he'll be the funding for the new stadium.

Watched about 30 minutes. Reminded me of why I don't watch friendlies. McKenna did alright.

I'm pretty certain he didn't say that until January. In the summer, he was keen on the move. It was pretty implicit in his interviews following the dons' offer. "I'm a Motherwell player at the moment" type thing.

Aye, that's about the gist of it. I'm looking forward to it, I liked the way we played under McLeish previously, and I like the look of the squad. Also, I was nearly greeting as a youngster when those Costa Rican fucks beat us in the 90 world cup, so I hope McLeish fucking destroys them as revenge. From memory, if they'd brought Eoin Jess to that world cup we'd have tanked the West Germans in the final.

Jesus, that's a bit ridiculous. Christie has been here longer than Maynard, May, Arnason, Cosgrove, GMS etc. as well as definitely being here from the remainder of an important season. McLean also. If they can't be called "his", I'm not sure who could. Christie's form has dipped since McGinn came back. Last season, he was fairly average up until the last handful of games. He's a young lad, and he plays with high intensity and relies a lot on his own skill and ingenuity, he'll experience a lot of dips in form over his career. It'll be nothing to do with his contract and everything to do with shite pitches and not being able to maintain top performance all season (few players do). Do you genuinely think players go on to the fitba pitch concerned about their current contract situation? That's just weird. Maynard might, like, because he's absolute pap. Christie will have any number of offers that will make him a decently wealthy young loon.

Semi tickets bought. The decent seats all going quickly. Ridiculous state of affairs though, they should be giving us a North/South side each and fuck the sides with their horrendous views. Shitehole.

Luxembourg would have taken them

"Summer" is quite a broad timeline, which suggests that they've nae real idea. When it first started they said June this year, but then - as if to capitalise on some political bonus - they brought it forward and then slightly back again. Not sure why they needed to bring dates forward at all, as it would have looked a lot better had they stuck with the original June date. It's a bit like saying your going to win the league when you're three points ahead in October. Idiots. Anyway, it looks fairly well on like. They seem to be at the tarmac-ing stage on the vast majority of the road, which should mean an X days at X miles per day type scenario from here on in, but I suspect that there are other road-based paraphernalia to be added that'll fuck things up.

Progres were Luxembourgian I think...

They all moved to Westhill

Lennon has some fairly pap results against diddy teams as well as not being able to handle himself in public. His recent outburst after already serving a touchline ban highlighted that. I think he's a good manager, no better than McInnes. That's an internet rumour. I see where you're coming from, but if he wins us the cup this season (and I don't think he will) then he's proved everyone wrong. It would be some achievement, especially when you look at our starting 11 that will be going into the semi. There will be virtually nothing left in the criticism box for us to pick up on. It would suggest that, despite having a poorer squad this season than last, he'd managed to take us forward and would certainly suggest he's the best person for the job. Big "ifs" like. However, even finishing second again would be an achievement with the squad changes this season. I think that will rely on some serious hun fuck-ups.

Keyboard cat, dies aged 8. Tragedy.

You might be right about his self-delusion, but that aside, we've had a manager at our club for the first time since Wiggy that is actually soliciting offers from other clubs (not made up shite like Calderwood's contract negotiations). With the nature of the league and market we are in, we need our manager to be ambitious enough to move on to somewhere better. Not only is it good for him, but it's good for our players too. That is clear from our ability - since McInnes has been here - to sign players on longer contracts that we wouldn't have been able to do previously. He's convincing guys to take a leaf out of his own book and they believe in that and sign. Brown wouldn't have held onto McKenna, and neither would any manager since God. Whether you believe in him or not, the players certainly do. That victory against Killie, after losing a goal in extra time, wouldn't have happened at any point in the last 20 years. Is McInnes tactically poor at times? Aye, I'd say so. But he's twice the manager that a lot of the shite that swirls around the English (and Scottish of course) leagues, and he's completely correct to see that in himself. You have to look at it relatively, and he's a decent manager by any standard. He's organised our entire club since arriving, and we're ten times more professional than we've ever been - and that's despite having the hooses manny in the boardroom. There are tonnes of managers who can't get the basics right at a football club who have been, and are, in significantly bigger and better jobs than McInnes finds himself in - he's above average. I still think we can improve, but the overwhelming majority of managers on the go these days are not better than him. I'd say Clarke and Rodgers are in the SPFL, but I'm not convinced by the rest. There is a huge number of shite managers out there, and I think McInnes is right to see himself as better than the majority of them (i.e. he's in the top half of managers). I don't see that as a compliment either.