RicoS321

He'll undoubtedly take the Alex Smith approach and be ultra cautious. Although strictly speaking a draw is not enough. They'd still have to beat Raith.

Decent game at Hampden, with hearts winning. Some tasty tackles and Gordon pulling off another top class save.

ICT beat Killie tonight. If Arbroath win tomorrow then next Friday will be immense.

Not as bad as the new away goals don't count rule.

To be fair, it sounded like that's what you were saying with your "writing him off already" comment, it was a little hyperbolic. I agree. It's very common in fitba fans, and people in general (not Orlando Don generally I don't think). People quick to point out a very obvious problem, but then unwilling to articulate and discuss the workings. It's why we still have Westminster and a two party system where people can other the other side without the need to think. And question time. I don't listen to any fitba phone ins, but they were riddled with messes making statements instead of asking questions: Presenter: so caller, you're through, what's your question? Mess: aye, Aberdeen are a disgrace, I've never seen us this bad and I've been gan for 57 year Presenter: so what do you think the problem is? Mess: well, it's just nae acceptable, is it? Presenter: okay, so what do you think the problem is? Mess: well, well, we just shouldnae be losing to Ross County. Presenter: great, thanks for your call. That was a seething mess from Aberdeen with an on-air seethe. Then you get moron pundits unable to articulate and discuss basic points about fitba. When they're proven wrong, they revert to the "well, it wasn't like that in my day, I can assure you". Anyway, Goodwin's handling of the Considine situation was completely unprofessional and a huge stain on his judgement and the club's ability to handle themselves without recourse to statements. I expect better. If Goodwin is given autonomy over signings then the change from Glass to Goodwin is already worse for the club in the long term. Telling players they can leave in the summer before the county game lacked basic intelligence. Otherwise, I think he'll turn it around in a couple of seasons if the seething messes are willing to allow it. I don't think Glass was ever that good a manager, so I'm fine with him not getting longer to prove otherwise.

If the intent to replace the goalie is being instigated by Lewis then I think it's fair enough to replace him. If we're replacing him because we don't think he's good enough then I'd be questioning Goodwin. Peak Joe Lewis was the best goalie in the league, peak Hladky was earning a place on the Salford bench. The two are incomparable, not even close. One of the avenues that we're forced to go down at AFC is taking players in that have are perhaps going through a stale part of their career and rekindling any potential they might have had. I see zero reason why that shouldn't apply to players already at the club, and especially under a new manager. I mean, we've heard Goodwin on numerous occasions talking up Matty Kennedy in that regard, who hasn't had a tenth of the career of Lewis. It's clearly confirmation bias because he's tried to sign him in the past, and it's where we need experienced people in the club raising questions to that effect. Why is Kennedy deemed salvageable whilst Lewis is too much work? Both should easily have another 3-4 good years in them before getting to the tough calls you might make with Considine or Brown. Lewis is a good goalie that needs good management and a good defence in front of him.

I'm firmly of the belief that you should never get a goalkeeper that's smaller than your previous one. You should look to get one that's incrementally larger until such time that the goals are completely filled.

I think it'd be useful to have some clarity from the club over what this means. He certainly should have autonomy over which players to ditch, but I really hope we're not giving complete transfer autonomy to the man who signed Curtis Main.

I could imagine St Johnstone beating Dundee and us. We're very lucky that the St Johnstone game wasn't first or second fixture. If it came down to a final couple of fixtures with at Johnstone needing a win and a draw and us just needing a win, I know which team I'd put my money on bottling it.

Yes, we should expect better, just not immediately. Just as we wouldn't have expected better from Glass when he took over. There were several ominous signs with Glass when he first started, but it would have been ridiculous to expect anything from him before the summer, and Goodwin is the same (including the ominous signs). At the very least we shouldn't expect consistency, which we haven't got.

I don't think it really matters who's first. I didn't hear him say it either, but someone said that Goodwin had stated that we were going to sign some very good players in the summer. This seems a little naive unless we've got watertight guarantees that players are coming. The players have all got the upper hand (if they're any good), and they'll take as long as they need to weigh up potential offers from other clubs, resulting in several of our good signings actually going elsewhere. It's very unlikely that we won't be scrambling around at the end of August like always as that's the way the window is designed.

Shocking decision. He guaranteed us 20 goals this season, so we should be playing him in every game left. That's nineteen goals between now and the end of the season, seems silly to throw that away.

I don't think you have every right to expect better performances at this stage. Whilst you often get a new manager bounce, it isn't always the case and usually it has no bearing on managerial ability (if anything, it can hide the reality of a poor manager). That we didn't get a new manager bounce isn't really indicative of anything other than a poor quality squad that lacks balance. When you saw the catastrophe on the bench at the weekend, it illustrates the dilemma for Goodwin. I agree entirely with the rest though, the club is a shambles right now and it's not going to be a quick fix. We're going to have to be extremely patient next season. We might manage to put a good run of games together, but we're never going to have the quality of squad to get to third unless we get very lucky with injuries, or get 6-7 successful signings.

The stats are interesting. I'm not sure what they actually show though in terms of being a good goalkeeper. I genuinely believe that we've had the worst centre back pairings in the league all season, along with a kamakazi set of tactics for the majority. There's definitely been a decrease in game changing saves from Joe over the past year though, that's for certain. For years, he was the best at one on ones in the league.

He wasn't chucking them in. He made a few blunders as is the norm for pretty much every goalie. Otherwise, we were still getting plenty of clean sheets. His age is definitely not an issue as McGregor and Gordon and many others show, so we can remove that from the equation. The difference for me is that Lewis has been a keeper at a very high level for us who is going through a loss of form (as happened to Craig Gordon). Keepers like alnwick, Clarke etc are Langfield level goalkeepers undergoing their season or two of peak form before reverting to the mean. Lewis still has all the attributes to be a great goalkeeper, he just needs to find them again. The others that we're being linked with looked to me to be in the category of limited goalies who are on form. Given the massive turnover of players this summer, I'd be looking to keep Lewis and concentrate on the rest of the squad. However, I'd also have done the same with Considine! I think we'll likely make quite a few errors in the goalie recruitment process before getting a replacement as good as Lewis and I'm not sure next season is the time to do it.

Lewis has had a poor season, but that doesn't mean he's not a good keeper. He's just experiencing a drop in form, there is no reason to suggest he won't overcome that. His poor form stems entirely from bad defending though, which was instigated under Glass and I'd imagine would level out under Goodwin. Our defence has been all over the shop for the best part of a season. It has really affected Lewis' decision making. Many of the goals that folk are blaming Lewis for are usually along the lines of: "well the defender has made a complete cunt of it, but Joe should be doing better". He's being made to look bad by substandard defending, which is catching him out of position. The second goal against Dundee a prime example. All the defence have to do is remain on the 18 yard line, but Ramirez inexplicably plays everyone on and the ball is then in no man's land. It's a really simple defensive error leading to a keeper looking shite. That's happened a lot, especially as Glass insisted on defenders walking out with the ball directly into trouble. Bates especially, on his wrong foot (McRorie even worse when he played left centre back). Anyway, I hope Lewis leaves. Can't be arsed with another decent servant being held up as scapegoat for another year, it'll be easier for him to move on. The next Langfield awaits.

Sky showing only the scum games for the remainder of the season. What's the fucking point in selling out to those cunts. I'd rather have a tenth of the budget. Could you imagine them just completely ignoring relegation in their coverage of the EPL?

Pretty favourable draw of fixtures that. Two home games first that would be enough to avoid relegation if we win them. Imagine that St Johnstone away game was first up? We'd be shitting it if we lost.

You do realise it wasn't actually shut down because of the defeat?

I don't think he's crap, but I don't think he's good enough either, and nor do I think there's much room for improvement in his game at his age. McKenzie got a lot of undue credit after McInnes left because Glass was blooding young players that would never have got a game previously. In reality, we had a fantastic young player in Ramsay who wasn't (and perhaps isn't) ready for 90 minutes who would no way have been overlooked by McInnes and McKenzie who just wasn't good enough (and would likely have been let go). We formed this imaginary scenario where we were playing entertaining fitba and throwing in youngsters too - it just wasn't true. It led to McKenzie getting a contract with the jury firmly still out. If RST's suggested departures are accurate though, it leaves us thin on the ground. It's bizarre that with all those leaving Considine wasn't kept. I'm guessing we add Duncan to that as I assume he'll be looking for minutes, and maybe Ngwenya too (although I'm not sure if he'll be good enough either). I have a feeling that Polvara isn't of the required standard either, so he'll likely only be a squad player too. We'll be very lucky to keep Ramsay. It's an insane level of recruitment required, very difficult to understate just how hard this will be to get even close to right. I'd count 7 new first team players required (assuming Ramsay leaves): goalie, right back, left centre back, left back, left winger, centre midfielder, striker. There is no way on earth that we're getting 7 succesful signings in one window, so that means that likes of Hayes, Bates and McKenzie (I'd probably include Watkins and McRorie too) are going to continue to be our best options in their respective positions with zero options from the bench when needed. Cormack has massive questions to answer in regard to the last three windows and how it has managed to get to this stage. It'd take an absolute miracle to sort this to any degree next season. I'd say you're at best looking at another 3 windows to get close, but more likely this is going to take us 2 seasons to fix. What a disaster.

Shutting down the site was definitely the best reaction to Saturday. Absolutely terrible performance. Relegation material. Impossible to pick the worst performer there, with Barron and maybe Gallagher and Besuijen getting pass marks. Bates nonchalantly strolling forward before losing it, Ramirez finding whatever he could on the pitch to hide behind and Ferguson being the anti-captain screaming at everyone else while being fucking awful himself. When that spine is surrounded with players like Ojo, McLennan, McKenzie and honking performances by McRorie, Watkins and Hayes you've got no hope. I think I'd pick Ramirez for the charlatan award and it's ridiculous that it's impossible to sub him, he was a disgrace. Ferguson a close second, because he's a nippy cunt (like Jack was in that regard) who's screaming at players does the opposite of motivate them. How the fuck guys with that attitude don't have it drummed out of them every single day at training I don't know. McLennan came off the bench and immediately Ferguson telegraphed a pass to him which the defender intercepted easily and Ferguson started shouting at McLennan who was then jittery for the rest of the game. A player low in confidence in a team low in confidence, it's a fairly obvious response. Special mention to McRorie too, who has played out my worst fears about him since his new contract. He's a more athletic version of Willow Flood. Chasing stuff down and can only kick it the way he's facing. I'd have hooked Ojo and put him into right back. Anyway, it was a reasonably predictable day after a week of statements and firing players. An absolute shambles at the club. That unprofessionalism comes from the top and Cormack needs to get a hold of it/himself quickly. Nobody could convince me that Considine isn't head and shoulders above Bates at left centre half. We're definitely getting rid of the wrong guy. Goodwin needs a fast turnaround to avoid relegation. Having told half the squad that they're shite, he's going to struggle.

Good decision. In fairness, I don't think we'd have actually got money for Anderson given the trajectory he was on, and he wasn't likely to get many minutes for us, so I think he'd have been free to look for another club this season anyway. Jet signing for us is no worse than St Mirren signing Main. It's the type of signing that you'd like to think a head of recruitment could have a power of veto over because of actual stats and shit. Jet is a signing McInnes would have made too, and from everything we've seen so far of Goodwin, I think he would too. He's already stated several times that he likes Matty Kennedy as a player and is someone he wanted to sign previously. There's obviously an element of him trying to build confidence in the player, but there also seems to be an element of tunnel vision too, as the stats will likely show that Kennedy has been pap since joining the Dons (bar maybe a run of 3-4 games at wing back once). I'm really hoping that the club are identifying the targets and the recruitment team have the authority to challenge the manager on his suggested players. We can't have pish like Jet, Main and Kennedy being signed on the basis of a couple of good games the manager has happened to see.

Well this comment has dated.

I'd be staggered if Ferguson isn't away in the summer. He's had a good season and started for Scotland. The only thing I'm not sure about is his valuation. He is a really good SPFL player with some great attributes, but he is also missing some of the fundamentals to his game. For instance, I think he's only had one assist this season and whilst he seems to be spotting more runs these days his execution of the final pass is lacking, and he almost never releases the pass quick enough either. Those same things could be levelled at Ryan Jack too I suppose, it's just that Jack was never expected to do those things for Aberdeen. I think Ferguson is probably only beginning to realise his potential though and I expect him to raise himself to the challenges that will face him at a bigger team if he takes the risk of moving (the alternative being the easy signing for the Huns). I just don't know if enough teams will register an interest to raise his value. If we were offered £3M, I'd take it. Not sure we will be though.

Fucking ridiculous. Another club legend ruthlessly thrown onto the scrapheap.