RicoS321

Are you seriously advocating paying the scum money?

Shame for Cove, but they didn't really look good enough for the division. Fantastic night of fitba though.

BBC couldn't be airsed with a graphic with the as it stands positions. Could you imagine them covering some eighth tier English pish with such lack of effort. Get in

More than a touch, they can go and fuck themselves. Cameron looks decent for Dundee. Seven goals with VAR would have been box of paracetamol and whisky levels of tedium. But then the momentum losing, life sucking, vacuous pish would likely have resulted in a 1-1 draw.

Absolutely tremendous half of fitba. I really like the championship Friday nights, it's great viewing, but this one has just been insane. Ochilview a cracking venue for this one too. Interesting to see if Cove can hold out too.

Me too. I'm not really a power tools type of guy, so it's often a sharp chisel or carving knife and occasionally an axe. I'm old school sinister.

Just turned it on yesterday on your recommendation, fairly decent so far. I'm not a monster also good. Have to admit, I don't get beyond the BBC when it comes to podcasts, as I've never quite worked out the best app to listen to them. I don't listen to enough either to warrant searching around, nor would I listen to enough to justify another subscription service.

Worth a look?

There are fans from a non scum team? How on earth do you expect the SFA to accommodate people from outwith Glasgow?

Duncan was very good in the second half of the Huns game. The only question mark from that game would be Duk, who massively underperformed - Duncan and Miovski did all the work in the forward areas to make up for it. Obviously he's got plenty of goodwill in the bank. I think that there's more to the Barron situation than just injury, it's almost like he's being phased out for not signing a new contract. Either way, he doesn't fit into a midfield with Clarkson as number six, and I don't see Robson shifting Clarkson further forward to accommodate Barron as number six, or in a two with Ramadani (the latter, in my opinion, is the only option if Barron is playing). If he signs a new deal on Friday, he'll be straight in! Otherwise it'll be the same team.

There are many reasons why interim managers are a necessity. Not least, there was clearly a huge desire to keep Goodwin for as long as possible and give him every chance of succeeding. You can see from Hearts and St Johnstone's lack of appointments that there isn't a whole host of decent managers out there waiting for their chance to get sacked for not finishing third in the SPFL. It's really not that attractive a position, and the strategy also limits the number of managers that we can even look at (beyond whether they actually want the job). I suspect that due to health issues and previous failed appointments, Cormack was also very keen to wait until Burrows was in the door too, and if Goodwin could have staved off being horrendously shite for another month we might have seen a more considered appointment. As it turns out, I think Robson is a really good fit for us and where we are as a club. We're in the process of implementing the recruitment strategy, which is designed to remove significant responsibility from the manager, and we also want clear pathways from youth to senior football. Robson has a lot of experience with our youth team and isn't well placed to interfere with recruitment, to the extent that Mowbray is more experienced and will have more authority than Robson in that regard. It's exactly the setup that we should have had in place for when Glass arrived (as I argued at the time, Robson should have been part of his management team ahead of Brown), but didn't. If the recruitment team can succeed in the coming windows then we have a structure there that transcends Robson and is something we can sell to future managers as a working system. Had we got an external manager, we'd likely have seceded control significantly in those areas and been in the same place again in 18 months time. In the end, it's not just experience that matters with managers, it's ability and a good dose of luck. There are plenty of experienced managers who fail due to lack of luck or because they're not actually very good.

It's not the fans that are asking for this in fairness (at present I mean, it was clearly something expected of McInnes), it's part of the club's strategy and it's very clear that there was pressure at interview stage (at least) on both Glass and Goodwin, and that there was an expectation on them to play exciting football at the Dons. I think most fans will be very happy with the level of performance and entertainment served up by Robson so far. It remains to be seen whether it's possible to be consistent and entertaining in the SPFL on a budget (I don't believe so).

We've got a massive rebuild in the summer and that needs to begin now. If we can turn two of the successful January loans into signings (MacDonald and Shinnie, one down, one to go), that'll alleviate a few problems caused by inaction in that window, but we're still way behind where we need to be. That requires a management decision now, and there's equally as great a chance of Robson getting five pastings as any other manager (unlikely, you'd have to suggest). Pragmatism has to be the key next season. It's ludicrous to expect a manager to be able to get ten new players to gel into some beautiful footballing side and the board need to learn their lesson from trying to force Goodwin to do so. Entertainment will come in the form of results only, unless we get lucky, and it'll be inconsistent too. Exciting teams need to be built over time, and they can't be maintained for long on our budget. Our best side under McInnes took about three years to build, and probably 18 months to unbuild again.

Yes, I was more thinking ahead to next season. If Robson doesn't get 3rd this season he should be sacked.

Should have waited until after third was guaranteed. We've jinxed it now. It's the right thing. Hopefully we're relaxing the strategy too, and allowing him a window or two to build his own team. The whole "third place gets millions" thing is really toxic in my view, and has a hugely negative impact on a manager trying to build a team. Robson will likely get zero patience from fans and board in that regard, but he'll know that and be up for the challenge. That'll mean we can't afford to be precious about style of play and entertainment too.

Aye, it's one hell of a final day in that league. A bit weird that it's on a Friday night, but good for neutrals. Accies and Cove battling for relegation, with Arbroath trying to avoid the playoff, five teams going for three playoff spots up the way and a league decider between Dundee and Queens Park. Not one of the ten teams really has the budget to maintain large squads, so injuries playing a crucial part in every team's season hence why nobody has been able to pull or drop away at respective ends. It's like the SPFL without the scum. Tremendous league.

Devlin is available on a free, he's experienced, positionally aware, gets assists and regularly makes it to the back post to get on the end of things. I don't think he's as good as McRorie, but he's not far off it. The point being is that if you had slotted Devlin into the side a few weeks ago, we'd likely be in the same position as now, and that's just a guy I'm picking because I've seen him plenty of times, the scouts will have better shouts. McRorie has some really big flaws to his game, hence why Ralston is in Scotland squads and McRorie never likely to be in contention, they're not comparable. McRorie wasn't good enough for the Huns, he was getting pushed further and further out (that's not a criticism) as they spent more and more. Dean Campbell would be an equivalent for us. We replaced Ferguson with worse players but have adapted and made do and are still in third. I doubt we'll get anyone as good as Clarkson for next season either. Duk, Miovski, Ramadani, Shinnie (I'd argue MacDonald and Roos too) are also players as good or better than McRorie in their respective positions and the incremental improvement McRorie adds will be taken up by signings in other areas, even if we don't improve on McRorie. The turnover is our biggest issue, but I suspect that's why shitey Bristol are having to pay so much.

Exactly, that's pretty much my point. I'd say that £2M is that for a guy like McRorie, and it'd be very unfair to not give him the opportunity to look at it and see if it's for him. It's a really high offer and very difficult for the club to turn down. I think it's exceptionally unfair to suggest we should be holding out for more, especially if you're saying that he shouldn't be sold at all (I'd be happy with that). By saying "every player has their price", you're essentially saying that he's replaceable, as regardless of the amount received we'll get the same amount to replace him (<£500K).

I'd rather we kept him too, to save us having to sign another player, but that's not a basis for his valuation. I don't understand how you arrive at >£2M at all if I'm honest, it doesn't really make sense. He's either not for sale at any price, or at a value that clubs are willing to pay. Given that we only ever spend a maximum of £500K on players (Hernandez is a massive, erroneous, outlier that looked like a money laundering exercise rather than a serious signing), I don't see any difference between us getting £2M or £3M (or whatever). Yet you seem to be saying that a higher offer would be acceptable? I don't think that there's a single player worth more to Aberdeen than £2M as it's not the market we operate in for signings. Clarkson is probably the closest to that, but it's arguable that Barron could cover that role and still get the team to third. McRorie isn't the difference in a league position, unless we replace him with a corpse. He could have been missing from any of our recent games and we'd have had the same outcome with Kennedy. He's just not a player that takes us to another level, or offers goals, assists or last ditch challenges.

It's entirely a question of whether he's a £2M player. Quite simply, nobody would pay more and the deal would be off. He's not worth £2M in my opinion, it's a very generous offer, boosted by the reasons you give. He's had zero assists (barely had any completed crosses) and two goals all season and his spells in centre half and midfield have been fairly poor, so his utility isn't really worthwhile either (so we're really just looking at a wing back to replace him rather than a utility). We won't spend the £2M, obviously, but we could likely pay a fee for a couple of players with any money that is made available. He's only worth more than £2M to us if we replace him with another Richardson. Your ignoring the marginal gain you get from having any other player in there. Even Kennedy managed 80% of the McRorie role, whilst being better at crossing. If you got a proper wing back in you'll lose very little. As I mentioned previously, Devlin at Livi would go a long way to plugging the gap, and I'm sure the recruitment team could come up with better. This isn't the 16 goals from Lewis Ferguson we're missing, nor the vision and passing of Clarkson or the goals of Duk or Miovski. McRorie doesn't win us games. He's a strong, hard working professional that won't be easily replaced, but there are a lot of players out there that can give you something close and probably better in other areas of their game to make up for it. McRorie himself leaving wouldn't be the problem, rather the total turnover of staff, which his departure compounds. I'd be very happy for him to stay on those grounds. If the Dons feel that there are too many leaving, then it's not a case of asking for more money, it's saying that he isn't for sale at any price.

Fantastic signing. Great stuff. Well deserved.

Cove hold Dundee to take the championship to the final game and take themselves off the bottom. Truly magnificent shitfest, with Reynolds and Logan (at left back) taking game management to extremes not seen even in the McInnes days.

I'm just glad you got it. I should have put major in bold.

Didn't realise he was a military man.

Looks like the Dons are set to join in the ruination of Scottish football, this time the Highland league. Making a complete cunt of the pyramid so that our young players can all play together every week. Once again we jump into bed with the scum.