RicoS321

Expecting big things today. The new manager, em, Peter.... Levein? Leaven? Leaving? is bound to have the lads riled up for this one.

There's a strong chance that they will be shite. We've got a poor squad and we're a window behind. Warnock strikes me as the type of signing Cormack would make because he thinks Dons fans would love a "big name" EPL manager. He's probably in the same bracket as those weirdos outside pittodrie giving it the Lennon chat. It wouldn't surprise me if the Warnock story was fed to the P&J by Cormack to sound out opinion.

He was saved by scheduling and bad weather. Had we got a result against hearts (which our first half performance deserved), then he'd have been safe for another few weeks. I'm of the opinion that a manager should be given every opportunity to fail, because in the long run an extra few games shouldn't matter. I think the fact that the players hadn't downed tools (like they did for Goodwin) probably helped too. Had we fired Robson after St Mirren, we probably wouldn't have replaced him by now anyway, given last season's process. Either way, we have a model in place that managers and windows shouldn't matter. We should have targets identified and ready to be pursued. Robson wouldn't have had significant input into guys like Rubezic and Gueye etc, nor do we need him to have anything more than sign off on anyone in January. He didn't have any input in selling Ramadani clearly either, so there's plenty we currently - correctly - take out of the manager's hands. We were told the outgoing recruitment head had done his research and this window wouldn't be affected. Unless we're changing our model back to the McInnes one, then we shouldn't be considering what a new manager may or may not want, we should have the confidence in our recruitment to keep things moving.

Round up from the previous window, ignoring loanees made permanent: Doohan - pass Rubezic - success Gartenmann - success Jensen - success Williams - fail Dadia - fail Gueye - fail McGarry - fail Sokler - success Devlin - success McGrath - success I'm counting anyone who's managed to hold down first team minutes or provide something worthwhile from the bench (Sokler) as a success, which is generous, I know. Don't think I've missed anyone. A 60% return is quite a successful window all things considered. Obviously, guys like McGrath and Devlin were known quantities, possibly not subjected to the rigours of our recruitment process, and bolster the numbers a little, but they all count. We failed to pick up any real standouts that will be sellable assets for the future (maybe Rubezic, if he can settle down a little, he certainly has the attributes). A massive turnover in the summer again I expect, so hopefully the new recruitment team will be settled, and have had time to work with a new manager. I expect what will actually happen is that we get some grifter in until summer, then dick about for eight weeks before signing a new manager the day before the window closes, with our recruitment head having just left the previous week.

It's great that we've moved on from "player X returning from injury, is like a new signing" to "player X not leaving is like a new signing". There can't be much of a barrel left to scrape. A fucking disastrous window, and even the BBC are taking the pish by having Robson in our ins and outs list. We were told that it didn't matter that out recruitment guy was leaving at the end of January because all the work was already done, with targets in place. Fuck knows where they got the plural from in targets. We got the guy who we'd already tried to get in the summer. The cluelessness is stretching so fucking deep that we're considering Neil fucking Warnock until summer. The English John Hughes, a joke figure who's been to Scotland before and really likes it up there.

Ach, it's just the Aberdeen press trying to unsettle their most talented asset ahead of Saturday's fixture.

A shite Mikey Johnston? Sounds terrible.

Aye, it appears I misread the BBC article yesterday! I did wonder why we were still being linked with Kerr. Personally, I think a January window should remain in January.

A disgraceful window like, and shows that nobody at the club has learned anything. The whole point in our supposed recruitment setup is that much/most of the responsibility is taken away from the manager. The idea being that we have a large degree (as much as you can have in the transfer market) of certainty over signings, regardless of who the manager is. The window is about keeping things ticking over, getting rid of a few players and experimenting with new ones. January doesn't have to be a big one, but two players in would have been the minimum I'd have expected regardless of the manager. By not getting a winger, we've completely limited the options of the new manager, and by not keeping things ticking over, it's basically like being one or two short already in the summer. As we've seen since McInnes left, that makes the new manager a window behind at the outset, but we won't give him a window leeway to get it right (I'm not necessarily saying that the others should have got another window, just that they were very hard done by). The last three summers have seen a 10+ turnover over players because of this. We have a slightly more settled team this season, but we're probably still going to be looking at 8+ signings, which means at least 12 in to get 8 worthwhile players. That includes the likely loss of Miovski and Duk (or Duk just continuing to be like having a player missing). Players who won't, or shouldn't, be here next season: Roos Gartenmann (he might sign) MacDonald McGarry Morris Barron Besuijen Richardson Gueye Miovski Duk Phillips That's anything from 8-12 above that will be leaving. Anything between 3-5 of those who'd start. That's a massive turnover, and if you're looking at that as a person coming in, you'd probably pass. Of course, the board will tell us that they'll back the manager, but that's utterly meaningless unless it occurs over at least two windows, as the margin for error in the transfer window is huge and largely has nothing to do with the manager. Unless that manager has strong experience of Scottish football, and bringing players into our game, it's unlikely that they'll get higher than 50% success rate. That's why I thought we had the model that transcended the manager and our recruitment team could ably tide things over where the manager was on a shoogly peg. Just one first team recruit (a fucking winger for fuck sake!) could have saved the manager a world of hassle in the summer.

Aye, I know what you mean. His form didn't really leave them with much choice. You don't need to take tactics away from the manager, you just need to play devil's advocate and challenge those tactics and get him to explain himself. The idea being that he questions himself and what he's doing, which is vital for a young manager, to avoid the sort of cognitive dissonance that effected Glass, Goodwin and Robson. All three went through long periods of making the same mistake over and over, with apparently nobody to hold them to account or make them questions themselves. It was like they were paralysed, and just couldn't see that what they were doing was wrong. It just needs consistent messaging and questioning: "Barry, your setting us up to play with Ramadani despite the fact Ylber left in the summer, and none of the replacements are in any way similar to him. Explain that to me as a layman". It's not about taking responsibility from him, rather about shaking him out of a rut when there's a prolonged period of poor results from making the same mistakes. He'd still get to set up as he saw fit, nobody could tell him that three at the back wasn't allowed or anything like that. Robson himself said that he needed someone at the club who would challenge him, and I don't think that ever happened (or if it did, they weren't actually challenging him).

The board got in an inexperienced manager for our heaviest scheduled season this century and didn't get anyone with experience above him, all after the two previous inexperienced guys failed in similar circumstances. It's entirely their fault. If Robson had succeeded, it would have been pure luck. Obviously, you can always pick up a bad manager, or one who just doesn't fit for whatever reason, but you have to mitigate that in any way possible. Suffice to say, it's clear that there's nobody at the club capable of holding a manager to account and so any good appointment we might make will be down to luck.

I saw thon first lad at the fitba last night. Actually held the door open for him as I was leaving the chunty and he was going in. Would have belted it off his coupon if he'd suggested Lennon to me. I'd rather have yogi. At least it'd be funny.

This sounds like a story released to the P&J by a Mr Warnock, from England. It fucking better be.

Would I get to keep my seat in the RDL for when it goes tits up? If so, I'm in. In all seriousness, you could imagine Cormack giving a fan the job after an altercation on Twitter, where he challenges some minker to see if they could do a better job.

I think they'd make a great team. When can we get them in?

McKenna to Copenhagen

With Robson going, it might be worth holding onto him. It's a big might, he's been poor for longer than he's been good and I'm not sure he's a luxury we can afford, and not sure he's the type of guy we need in the battle we face until the end of the season. Anyway, the timing is an absolute disaster for sacking the manager. Last day of the fucking window when we desperately need at least one player and when at least one might be leaving. Either keep him another day and pretend he's got the job until summer and sign a player (the recruitment team do the majority of the work there anyway, and any new manager will need players), or ditch him before the window opens. This is another window where we've allowed ourselves to get behind again. You can't afford to miss any. The new manager is now already on a handicap. It's fucking disastrous. How the fuck Cormack can't learn these basic things after so many attempts is unbelievable.

Shame, but the right call. Christ knows what we do next.

Also, if Barron is still here tomorrow then Phillips has to go down as the most inappropriate signing I've ever seen. I just assumed that he was a midfielder that could maybe play wide with a bit of minor coaching. No, he's a central midfielder who won't be good enough to do what Ramadani did, but Robson will force him to anyway, just like every midfielder so far this season (all the while burning out Clarkson and Shinnie). Might have just been because it was his debut and he didn't know the players around him, but he appeared very raw, and the type of player that we'd have to spend a lot of time on to get playing to a decent standard. Very much like a lot of our loanees from EPL teams really, with Clarkson and Maddison the exceptions rather than the rule. I think the admin team will be preparing a space in the cabinet between Jenks and Walker (Josh), maybe just after Marshall (Paul) to drop this lad's file into.

That was so bad I couldn't even be arsed commenting when I got in. Terrible stuff. Despite our poor result at Tynecastle, we had a great first half, with the makings of a team and setup that could play in this type of fixture. It was something we could have built on. He decides that he can't trust MacDonald in a back four (maybe with reason, but you have to risk it in my opinion), so moves to a back three, with the centre half at right wing back and the right wing back at centre half. The formation (3-4-1-2) last night worked really well against the Huns here when they cheated to get a draw, but he genuinely doesn't see the differences between the fixtures and the teams we're playing against. His changes come late, and then he crams them into the space of twenty minutes, as always, so that all the subs get is five minutes to settle before changing shape and having to settle again. They never get the chance to show what they can do. McInnes would do the same too, it was frustrating, but the game was usually won by the time he did it. Clarkson had just started to play again with the move further forward, some of his link up play against hearts was excellent, so he gets shunted back and Barron gets dropped. He was clearly knackered when he came off, and Shinnie again had to cover 8 marathons in a single game. I can only assume Barron won't be here tomorrow, it's inexplicable otherwise. Injuries were an issue at the back in fairness. Jensen and MacDonald are a terrible pairing as they're both ponderous and miss the opportunity for the quick pass. Roos was really, really bad - the worst I've seen him - he just looked off the whole night, really panicked and drained of any remaining confidence. Looked to me like he was at fault for the goal, but difficult to tell from the RDL. Otherwise, nobody played exceptionally bad, we were just terrible as a team. It's a terrible place to be trying to bring through young guys like Duncan and Milne, it does them no favours. It's horrible to watch Robson go through such a slow and painful managerial death, being allowed to drown with seemingly no assistance from anyone at the club. If the strategy is to develop young managers, then 0/3 is a fucking awful statistic. It's brutal for Robson, as it was Glass and a lesser extent Goodwin. There is only one way this is going, and everyone can see it.

I'm assuming Robson is reverting to a three and Clarkson sitting once again. Christ. I should maybe turn round and go home.

Jesus. Tombola rolled.

It's just with the injuries to Gartenmann and Rubi. Personally I'd be comfortable with MacDonald and Milne as cover. However, someone like Kerr would make sense on loan until the summer to give us time to weigh up our options. He's a known quantity.

Very few people know that Colin Montgomery was an above average golfer before joining Hibs as manager.

Don't stick up for those life-endangering maniacs that could have killed millions with their soft, fluffy, white weapons.