RicoS321

That just means we're due one. I still find it staggering that we're persisting with Bates on his wrong foot in defence, it's criminal. The fact that him and Gallagher are going to be here next season (and we're getting rid of a better centre half than both of them) is fucking absurd. Surely Goodwin must have come to the conclusion that they're not good enough as a pairing so one of them will have to be on the bench next season and that results in a very expensive bench warmer.

Yep, that's just it, why create the atmosphere in the first place? That's McGhee-esque. That was a very unhappy team out there today. I mean, there's not really such a thing as a reset button is there? You've got guys who won't be there and guys that will. Why create the type of workplace where 50% don't want to be there? How long will it take the rest to recover/reset once the clear out has occurred? What does that bitterness do to the young guys like Barron and Ramsay? We're going to be relying on many of these guys next season whether Goodwin would like it or not. Gallagher and Bates go through the motions every single week. There is zero drive or passion from either of them. But they both will be here and likely playing every week. Ferguson can't be here for another year, it'll ruin him and he'll be a complete drain on the rest of the side (that's not a criticism, he deserves his chance elsewhere). Our team has very few signs of hope, and adding a layer of resentment does nobody any good.

Well done to the cove huns today in winning the league. An impressive feat indeed. Hopefully we'll avoid playing then next year outwith the cups.

Another poor performance in midfield today. He's a very strange one. He is a strong, athletic runner with a great work rate, but is he actually any good? I'm not convinced he's good enough at actual fitba to be playing centre midfield. He's not positionally good enough, or strong enough (especially in the air), to play centre half. I think we should deploy him at right back next season. Unless we're playing a back three. He'd be a fantastic holding midfielder against teams that are stronger than us, but we rarely need that. I don't mean this in a critical sense, but he reminds me of Ricky Foster when he was at his best for us. He'd mark Barry Ferguson completely out of a game then fail to complete a five yard pass. Just better at stopping others playing fitba than actually playing himself. I like McRorie, and most especially his attitude and work rate, but he's an absolute conundrum in terms of how to utilise.

Not really a scandal. I think most would agree that £5K per year for Ojo is very generous.

That was really, really bad. I didn't think we could get worse than the county game, but we've managed it. I haven't seen a performance that insipid since Paterson was here. An absolutely shocking performance by players and manager. The ref was obviously terrible too, but that can't be used as an excuse. Goodwin has taken a honking Glass side and ripped any remaining confidence from it in a ridiculously high risk strategy that relies on everyone else losing points. The players have left the building. How on earth you can watch that shite for over 70 minutes without a substitute is beyond imagination. Not only does it excuse the on field performance, but it tells the players on the bench that they're not good enough to take over from the 80% half arsed shite on the pitch. The fact that you've already told several of those subs that they're not good enough, in a tactical masterstroke, obviously doesn't help. To bring on Ramsay for five minutes is criminal. If he wasn't fit enough to risk for 45 minutes, then don't risk taking him on at all. If he was fit enough for anything more than a leg-stretch, then it's pure managerial incompetence not to have him on. I understand the need to give the manager a chance, and I absolutely will (I was, and am, a Goodwin fan). However, this current situation is entirely of his own making, and not the atmosphere an experienced manager should be creating - even temporarily - at a club. He's handled things terribly, and the players are downing tools as a result. He has to accept the criticism where it's due. He'll be bloody lucky if he can turn it around in time for the start of next season. Edit: I'd exclude Hayes from the effort criticism, he worked hard. Possibly Barron and McKenzie too, although both probably played within themselves.

Ref has been fucking honking, but another poor half again. If Ramsay at all fit, we need to get Ojo off now. McRorie and Ferguson been pish in midfield, we've had lots of crosses and those two need to be getting in the box to support Watkins. Watkins been okay, but very similar to when he played there for us previously - he's just not a goal threat on his own. Bates and Gallagher vastly inferior to Killie's defence of Taylor and Considine next season - just pish.

Guessing Ramsay isn't quite fit yet. Don't want to risk our most valuable asset etc.

I have a feeling that was pre Milne. I think there might have been some council shenanigans over the sale of that land too, but can't remember. That said, Milne was discussing bellfield way before anything was built around much of pittodrie, so if we'd acted on pittodrie at that point, we could have gained planning permission prior to any housing development. The housing plans would then have had to be adjusted in consideration of that. That said, the nail was firmly in the pittodrie coffin the minute the RDS was built without thought to the rest of the ground.

That's not correct. The option to not move and wait for something better was (and still is if required) always on the table. If the beach hadn't raised its head, I'm fairly certain Cormack wouldn't be moving us to Westhill, he'd have cancelled the project (probably citing cashflow or whatever easy excuse). Milne was so heavily invested in moving (quite literally, given his preference shares) that he couldn't be objective on Kingsford. He'd literally have moved us anywhere. Milne wasn't working with the options available at all, just one of them.

Some game. Real shame Arbroath couldn't hold on. Even the draw would have given then another glimmer. Anyway, McInnes done a good job there. Not sure Arbroath will do it in the playoffs.

Kingsford was and is wrong in its entirety. It's illiterate. It would have ruined the club. I believe it was a case of anywhere we can for Milne, so focused he was on the move at all costs. The best option was simply to wait. I don't think that Cormack would have been that desperate to move to put forward such a reckless suggestion as Kingsford. Milne's an identikit housing estate builder. Buildings in the middle of nowhere, unintegrated and without thought to their function or surroundings. Cormack very much hinted at Kingsford not going ahead not long after he became chairman (before the beach suggestion), I don't believe he was ever fully behind it. The plan B would have been to stay at pittodrie until other options presented themselves. A far, far better option than moving out of Aberdeen because you've convinced yourself that there's some sort of ticking stadium time bomb. Yep, that was fucking atrocious. However, it did directly benefit the club. I doubt he's taking a share of profit on that move. The capacity conundrum is a really difficult one. I don't see us ever getting a 20K stadium filled regularly, and I completely see the logic in reducing capacity to create scarcity. 18k would sit nicely with me, but I have absolutely no justification for that figure other than it sounds about right. I never miss a big game at pittodrie anyway because I'm basically the best fan ever.

I didn't get the hatred for Milne either, however Kingsford stadium was the most I'll considered nonsense ever suggested, which would likely have seen the end of the club in my opinion. It was the mark of a guy who had probably had enough and just wanted to put something on the table that had a possibility of being built. The fact that so many were in support was staggering. Cormack has immediately canned that idea, which he obviously felt he had to go along with when just an ordinary board member for some weird reason. What is more apparent from Milne's time in charge is that it really isn't an easy job and you're going to make lots of mistakes on the way. Cormack will be no different and I think we'll have to wait a good 5-10 years in order to form a worthwhile opinion. I think we should still criticise where it's due but he does appear to be trying stuff and his intentions seem good (just as they were in Milne's case I believe).

No. It's very possible that the preferred candidates didn't want to come to the Dons (he did say that Glass was one of the ones happy with the change in recruitment strategy).

I haven't listened yet but I don't remember him saying that Glass was first choice, just that he was the best candidate interviewed. I could be wrong.

Another nail in the coffin of the spectator sport.

I'm quite glad that the notion that the good coach under a good manager makes a good manager theory has been disproven.

Yes

Would have thought that the zero experience managers would be such a failure?

Just to clarify, again, I wasn't suggesting Goodwin should have a new manager bounce, just that it is a recorded thing that happens (for obvious reasons). It has little bearing on the long term performance of the team. English pish league - new manager bounce Blog from some weirdo, also English

If we're spending another season with Bates playing on his wrong foot (especially as Dunne is left footed I think), then I'm throwing my season ticket in the sea. Edit: which is frustrating, as it's on my phone.

I was hoping he'd maybe go abroad and see how he gets on. Maybe Barcelona... Wouldn't surprise me if Liverpool went for him though, it's definitely the level he should be attempting to get to in his career. In my opinion he's not going to develop here unfortunately, he's probably too good for a season in the SPFL. To get the best out of his career, he probably needs an interim move abroad somewhere or lower EPL or a Norwich type going for promotion. Obviously a lot could go wrong either way, but I think he's going very far in the game. Hopefully he'll get the right move to make it happen (with a massive sell on).

I didn't suggest it was applicable to us, just that it's a fairly well known phenomenon. It also only "works" if you sack a manager during a season. That only started happening in the nineties with Aitken taking over from Miller. Hegarty gave us a level of improvement after Satan too. Paterson, Brown, McInnes and Glass with no bounce.

I agree, I was just pointing out that it's very common for a new manager to put a run of results together when they first join. For what it's worth, I don't think it really applies to a team that has a high turnover of managers. We might have expected a new manager bounce with Glass (we didn't), but the players that have been there since McInnes must feel a little disillusioned by this point. Similar to when we moved from calderwood through to Brown I expect.

There are many, many examples of that. It even has a name: the new manager bounce. There's studies on it and everything. It apparently has a 15 game average effect. It doesn't always occur. It generally has no bearing on the long term performance of the manager.