RicoS321

He's an athlete. Covered a lot of ground, and a very sensible decision to play him further forward in the 4-2-3-1. Very raw young player, who couldn't be relied on further back (in the Ramadani role), and didn't look particularly good at football. Would definitely play him tomorrow though for his coverage and work rate. Can't imagine starting him against most other sides.

I think a lot of what you say is reasonable. I just don't see him as a safe manager because he's experienced. If we signed John Hughes or Mark McGhee, none of us would be describing it as safe. That's what Warnock is - the English version. However, he doesn't have the experience of football in this country, which immediately works against him as an interim manager, because of the time constraints. He's less safe than John Hughes. Robson was a tactical fud, but he generally had players playing for him and there seemed to be a togetherness and no lack of effort. We could see on Saturday that the players were working hard and were playing for each other. I think there's a large risk that an arsehole could undermine that. Maybe Warnock has aged well and is no longer a screaming bellend, I don't know. We have guys like Miovski who are in form and need continuity, which I'm sure Leven could have provided for a bit, while we did a proper search. Warnock could really upset a fine balance, with a swearing bull in a China shop approach where it's not needed or wanted. The players could down tools (like butcher at Hibs). For me, I don't see the safety that you point to.

Cormack, you mean? He's John Hughes with less experience of the game in this country. Something which you'd absolutely want in an interim manager. The problems we have at the moment are mainly tactical. Warnock is a giant leap backwards in that regard. As you say, he's also an old firm arse licking wanker. As tlg said, this is the worst appointment since Alex Miller. Reeks.

It's because Cormack genuinely appears to think like (or take advice from) the thick cunt down the pub. The ex-fitba pundit who says absolutely nothing worth hearing. Of course the media will fawn over big name celebrity from England, in the pathetic, obsequious fashion they do. We're the ones that are stuck with England's Mark McGhee though.

Warnock to get sent off for flashing his cock at the fourth official.

It's the complete subservience to the English game that we have up here that puts Warnock anywhere near the frame. He's managed in England! Big clubs! Big name! As if management is in any way similar to playing. It is entirely possible that that a joke manager is a joke manager wherever he goes. Fulfilling this wanker's faux dream to work in Scotland (as if Scotland is one homogeneous place), because he sometimes has his holidays on the West coast. It's fucking embarrassing. I'd far, far rather have John Hughes. At least he's a joker who knows Scottish football. I'd far, far rather we kept Leven in place than any no-mark interim tosser. As for the consultants that will come in and cream us, who are they reporting to? Are they going to be telling Gunn*, for example, that he's actually the problem? Or: Cormack, you're interference in club matters creates an issue? They'll basically come in and ask the staff already there what they think would improve the club, re-word it, sanitise where necessary (in order not to criticise the people that need criticised, who also ensure ongoing consultants fees) and pass it back to Cormack. It's all a touch shambolic. *I keep picking out Gunn, when I don't really know much about the guy. I believe that something better should be coming from his role, but it could be that his role isn't really what we think it should be, so not a slight on the guy himself.

As a consultant myself, I can confirm that all consultants are charlatans looking to charge a fortune for stating the fucking obvious. The fucking obvious, to everyone apart from the guy in charge who doesn't trust his employees. It helps the consultant immensely when those employees are yes-men, too frightened to question the boss.

That was an enjoyable game today. We were very nervy in the first half, Roos especially. We were excellent in the second. It was a little kamikaze, but not too kamikaze, and we had plenty of opportunity to win it. Unsurprisingly, Shinnie and Barron as a pairing works really well, with both playing very well. I really felt for Shinnie being the one who it fell to on his wrong foot, he was really good otherwise. Overall, the setup was good and the subs very sensible. Miovski is just phenomenal, best striker at pittodrie this century, a joy to watch. Whatever was said at halftime worked, we pressed higher and they couldn't cope.

Peter Leven. Sorted.

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