Shocking journalism by The Scotsman

[Reekie_Red]

Couldnae believe this shite being written by Ewing Grahame of The Scotsman. What an absolute joke! He's talking about all the doom and gloom surrounding the Dons at the moment. What doom and gloom? The only doom and gloom surrounding the Dons at the moment is his imagination. Has this joke of a journalist ever been to Pittodrie? Does he even know how to get to anything that's north of Inverkiething?

 

http://sport.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1181082007

 

Dons heading into the red?

EWING GRAHAME

 

THERE is no way around it: this will be a testing campaign for Aberdeen and their supporters. Last season they deservedly edged Hearts out of third place in the SPL and earned the chance to compete in the UEFA Cup for the first time in five years. In the light of that achievement, confidence should be high at Pittodrie, but it would be stretching credulity to claim that optimism is widespread among the fans.

 

The Dons have had a summer of discontent to match David Cameron's and have emerged from it not stronger but weaker. Euphoria greeted the final-day victory over Rangers which guaranteed a return to continental action but that has long since dissipated.

 

Since then inspirational captain Russell Anderson has departed for Sunderland, with none of the £1m fee going to manager Jimmy Calderwood. Lee Mair, released by Dundee United, is the most likely replacement but he should not feel insulted by the assessment that he is not remotely in the same class as Anderson. Then there is Jonathan "Red" Kurrant, an 18-year-old defender who elected for the Granite City ahead of Coventry City after leaving Charlton Athletic.

 

At the other end of the experience scale, Jackie McNamara's welcome arrival from Wolves should help bring composure to defence or midfield but, approaching 34, his best years are surely behind him and doubts remain about whether his knee can cope with the rigours of a Scottish season. Calderwood used his network of scouts in Holland to capture winger Jeffrey de Vischer from Dutch Second Division outfit De Graafschap but the kindest thing that could be said about him is that he will not have to cope with the burden of expectation placed on him by an expectant fan base. Indeed, he will do well to match the contribution of Gary Dempsey, who turned his back on UEFA Cup football in order to sample League Two football with Yeovil Town.

 

Goalkeeper Jamie Langfield, no stranger to the self-destruct button, contributed to the sense of impending doom by verbally abusing Calderwood while drunk during an end-of-season break in Magaluf which incorporated the 27-year-old's stag night. As a result, he has been told he will no longer be first choice at the club, leaving him to fester on the bench watching the largely untried Derek Soutar take his place.

 

By their signings shall ye know them. Remember Robert Fik? An amateur striker Calderwood compared to Steve Bull, the part-time metal salesman impressed on trial only to reject the offer of a one-year contract in order to return to the unpaid ranks in the Netherlands. It may be that you can't miss what you've never had. Even so, Dons fans didn't feel compensated for Fik's loss when Derek Young returned last week. Even the 27-year-old, who had made sporadic appearances in Division One with St Johnstone and Partick Thistle last season, believed that Calderwood was offering to find him another club when he called to ascertain his contractual status. The striker left Pittodrie along with brother Darren to sign for Calderwood's Dunfermline in 2003. His departure was not without acrimony and his disparaging comments about the club have clearly not been forgotten or forgiven by the club's support.

 

Yet Young's arrival underlines exactly where Aberdeen are in 2007. Even more than Dundee United, they are hampered by memories of a glorious past, specifically the glorious decade they enjoyed between 1980-1990 when four league championships, five Scottish Cups, the European Cup-Winners' Cup and the Super Cup were amassed. That unprecedented success now seems as distant as silent movies and about as likely to be repeated as Culture Club, another Eighties phenomenon, having more hits. Alex Ferguson and Alex Smith, the architects of those achievements, did not have fortunes to spend while at Aberdeen but then the Old Firm weren't pushing the boat out back then either.

 

Indeed, nothing became Fergie quite so much as the timing of his departure for Old Trafford in October, 1986, just as the first financial effects of Graeme Souness's Ibrox revolution were starting to be felt. Now, though, Calderwood is the man with the poisoned chalice. Aberdeen have won just one trophy in the last 17 seasons, beating Dundee 2-0 to lift the League Cup in 1995/96, and that wasn't enough to prevent the winning manager, Roy Aitken, from being sacked two years later.

 

Calderwood's drive, ambition and tactical nous were the main reasons for the Dons re-establishing themselves as a force last term. Yet he knows he can only take them so far on their current budget and there have been no signs that he will be given more clout in the transfer market. As a manager he is under-rated by those who judge him only on his bluff exterior and penchant for mangling his mother tongue. However, Calderwood is a shrewd operator and, at 52, he realises that time is running out for him to really make his mark as a manager. He is about to enter the final year of his contract a Pittodrie and director of football Willie Miller has made all the right noises about attempting to negotiate an extension.

 

Miller, club captain during the club's most glorious era, knows how difficult it is to manage the Dons, having failed himself to bring back the glory days during two years in charge. He, more than anyone, will recognise the contribution that Calderwood has made and will continue to make but even the best improvisers would struggle to make a silk purse from this particular sow's ear. This month's catastrophic visit to Egypt almost resulted in Chris Clark and Barry Nicholson being suspended from Saturday's opening fixture against Dundee United at Tannadice at a time when an impressive start has never been more important.

 

Right now there are, as Johnny Nash would have it, more questions than answers. Will Soutar cut it? Can the defence function without Anderson? And can Craig Brewster, at 40, make a contribution? Or will it all end in tears?

 

Personally, I would recommend stocking up on Kleenex...

[Guest kilahun]

Anyone hav a pic of this guy? lol

[Leerichardson40yrds]

Most of this story is pish, but it is Pish that I can deal with to some extent. Asking questions of Mair, Souter and Derek Young is probably well justified (even if it is very one sided). While criticism of McNamara and DeVischer seems to be 'what if they are not up to it' as opposed to 'what if they live up to their potential'.

 

What really pisses me off is this constantly recycled notion that we are pining for the days of Fergie. I don't know one Dons fan who realistically thinks we will repeat that anytime soon. We have changed our expectations accordingly.

 

It isn't hard to guess who the man supports.

 

 

[Reekie_Red]

Exactly, LR. We don't expect to win the UEFA Cup. It'd be nice to, to say the least! But I don't know a single Dons fan who expects us to get past the group stages. If we can get into the group stages and give a half-decent account of ourselves, then I think most of us will be happy.

 

What we would like, however, is a trip to Hampden or two. And to give as good an account of ourselves in the league this term as we did last. If we finish third, we'll be happy! If we finish anything above third, we will be on cloud-nine!

 

But we gave up the idea of being European Big Guns two decades ago. The only people who seem to think we think this is the central belt media ... as this Ewing Grahame reitterates.

 

 

 

 

(BTW what sort of a name is Ewing Grahame? It's like he has a first name for a last name, and a last name for a first! He's just been bitter and twisted from birth because his stoned parents wrote the names in the wrong box at the birth registrar. And now that Livingston FC are shite again, he's got to take his frustrations out on someone else. Easiest target in Scottish football? Aberdeen FC!)

[Leerichardson40yrds]

It is one in a long line of Edinburgh names. People called Alisdair McCameron (pronounced in an anglicised version of Scottish).

 

If there are a set of fans in Scotland who have delusions of grandeur then they are considerably further south than Aberdeen. Maybe he should look a little closer to home. Champions League- 8 years and counting...

[rednek]

I've just registered on donstalk and this my first post so go easy on me lads. That article is your usual bollocks that gets churned out this time of year. Doubt he'll make it north of stirling this season.

[Reekie_Red]

Doubt if he knows if there is ANYTHING north of Stirling!!!

[Aberdeen_Ladette]

"The Dons have had a summer of discontent to match David Cameron's and have emerged from it not stronger but weaker. Euphoria greeted the final-day victory over Rangers which guaranteed a return to continental action but that has long since dissipated."

 

Scottish journalism, don't you love it?! 

 

My euphoria has definitely not dissipated at all, and I'm looking forward to several more euphoric moments this season 

 

[Millers Tache]

"The Dons have had a summer of discontent to match David Cameron's and have emerged from it not stronger but weaker. Euphoria greeted the final-day victory over Rangers which guaranteed a return to continental action but that has long since dissipated."

 

Scottish journalism, don't you love it?! 

 

My euphoria has definitely not dissipated at all, and I'm looking forward to several more euphoric moments this season 

 

 

My euphoria dissapeared sometime in June. But that was more down to the fact i was bored waiting for the football to start again. I'm bouncing again now! It's so close, i can almost smell Dundee over the horizon. Or is there a northerly wind...? 

[Reekie_Red]

Dundee always smells like that, mate! Doesnae matter if there's a game on or not, Dundee polutes the whole country with its smell