RicoS321

He's 31 thanks, and still will be at the start of the Scottish football season! Your ageist attitude is exactly why supreme athletes such as myself have all but given up playing for the Dons. I suspect that if you looked at the stats from last season, you'd see that Hayes covered as much ground as anyone else in the Dons team, and the way that Shinnie plays would suggest he could easily do similar. In reality though, if we get two good seasons out of him for the price of three, that'd be better than most of our signings this century. If it gives his family security and makes him happy to be here, then all the better. He'll know when it's time to quit when it comes round I expect.

Yasssssss

Christ, I hadn't realised that. It just automatically comes off for me. I get my folks one too, so that's getting canned, they can use mine!

I like Burrows, seems to get it right with the fans more often than not. He'll say something not quite right, that doesn't please everyone, I'm sure, but his engagement is refreshing (similar to Cormack when he was here first time round in many ways). I'm assuming it's new kit day today? Modelled by Shinnie I hope (because he's tidy).

Shame, lovely gentleman. I liked the way he continued on at the club after leaving, given he had no long-term affiliation. His commentary was always interesting and thoughtful when on Red TV too. A great ambassador, basically.

Seems like former board member Hugh Little has a had a stroke. Met him many times, a nice guy. On the plus side, though, the cryptic suggestion here is that Shinnie is in progress.

So we're going to have to pay to get him?

Aye, with McInnes also signing a player who would be fantastic if he wasn't permanently injured in Kyle Magennis. Classic Derek.

Yes, obviously the team don't have to talk about it yet, but we should! If we lose to Spain, then we need to keep it to a one goal deficit, as head to head is counted first. People talk about having "seen it all before" with Scotland, but we haven't. This is the first time this century that we can genuinely say that we've got a team that is capable of winning and qualifying. The times that we gloriously failed were down to the fact that we didn't have a good enough squad. We didn't beat teams like Georgia away because we had no right to (or no right to expect to). We were always destined to lose or draw a winnable game in a whole campaign. It's different with this team, they're a very good team. We should be expecting to win all three of our non-Spain games, and we'll be favourites to do so. We've got a good depth of squad, with decent cover in every position (Adams and to a lesser extent McKenna and Paterson, and of course Gordon will put pressure on Gunn next season too). I think Clarke will expect to get 9/9 from the easier fixtures, which piles the pressure on Spain to do something. A win in Cyprus would relieve a huge amount of pressure too, which would make a massive difference away to Georgia. The 21st protocol for those types of fixtures (difficult pot 3-4 teams I mean) is that they're always preceded by the manager saying "well, even if we don't win, it's still mathematically possible to qualify" - they're basically gift wrapping potential failure. Things are so different this time round, it's intriguing.

I feel like we should be talking about winning the group now to be honest. If Georgia can get a draw against Spain next round and we beat Cyprus, then we just need a point in Spain and a win against Norway to top the group. Sorted.

Forgot to mention, does anyone in the world think that the game is improved by giving penalties like the one last night? This is the shitey stat that they base VAR being a success because of. They changed the rules to make accidental brushes against the ball a penalty and then claim success because a camera can spot them on the 18th time of asking (I actually saw it in real time and wondered why the commentary team didn't mention it). It's ridiculously unsporting. Anyway, it could all be decided by the next round of fixtures. If Spain go to Georgia and win (likely) and we beat Cyprus (likely), the second game involves Norway and Georgia. If that is a draw like the first fixture (likely-ish) then we've qualified.

More of the new strip sold than the combined home and away from last season. Crazy. I got one. Not for me. I'm holding out for the home one.

It's fine, we won.

Good half from Scotland, all over these dicks.

Should move it to pittodrie. Dons season ticket holders only.

Well this is interesting...

I meant McGregor...

Yep, Georgia are a decent side. It'd be like us playing Motherwell at Pittodrie, expected to win but not a given. I'd like to see us switch to a back three and add Gilmour into midfield playing the Clarkson role behind Armstrong and McTominay. Robertson and Hickey wide with McGinn right up alongside Dykes. Thought Tierney looked off it before he got injured so I'd start Cooper. I also thought Porteous was poor, making a lot of poor decisions, but give him another go alongside Henry.

It'd look great on me, but professional fitba teams shouldn't be wearing stuff like this. Next they'll be wearing boots that aren't black.

It's fine, he's pish.

He was pish. Didn't even manage a total of 90 minutes for us. Was on the bench for 4 games and didn't get on, before being dropped completely for the remaining games, with no suggestion of any injury. Shite signing, but that's to be expected with a high turnover. Expect a few more Roberts's this summer.

That was some result today. Honking performance for most of the match, albeit against a half decent side on their own turf. Can't believe how long it took to make the changes, but they certainly had an impact. I'd expect to see Gilmour (poor man's Clarkson) back in against Georgia, we need a player moving the ball at pace. Loved the second goal, was really well worked. It'd have been so easy for mctominay to take an extra few touches but he just launched it straight in, and a lovely layoff from Dykes (who had a terrible 80 minutes) and a great finish from McLean who always turns up and gives his best for Scotland even when he's not getting regular minutes. Robertson probably the outstanding performer tonight, with few other notable performances for the first 80. Dykes must love coming to internationals. Two more wins is pretty much all we need. Hugely impressive.

Small change for us. We just signed an English international from Liverpool.

Get them all signed before someone sees this.

I think the biggest issue here Seabass is that you aren't willing to tell us who you should get priority over. So perhaps we try and narrow it down. Going by the figures from jute, the average season ticket holder is going to 75% of home games, which is 14 games per season at least (at home, doesn't exclude away attendance). Do you think you should be prioritised over someone attending 14 games at Pittodrie?