Our Club, and the spirit of '95.

[CtS]

Still smarting a bit from today's events?  Me too, the alcohol which I couldn't face earlier is now flowing but not yet easing the pain.

 

Through mismanagement and poor decision making from the top down we find our club in disarray, our on the field frailties brutally exposed by an expensively assembled Celtic team.  Of course the problems go far deeper than that, Scottish football itself took a fair beating today as one of it's proudest and biggest clubs suffered an humiliating defeat that will shock the football world at home and abroad. And it will.

 

So what about us?  The ones who really care.  Where do we go from here?

 

Some of us will be hoping to take some comfort from an almost inevitable managerial change as a Dons legend, a broken man tonight, clings on to his dream job by his finger nails.  Some will find growing levels of apathy drowning out their ability to care any more.  Some might even turn their backs on the club for good.

 

Me?  I'll see you at Pittodrie on Tuesday.  Kids are coming too - on a school night.  The club we all love needs us, our spl future means we need the points, the players pulling on those red shirts need our support. 

 

We've been here before and the Red Army rose to the occasion. I hope we can again.  I'm reading this back through sad eyes tonight, and having a wee toast to the future.  Stand free.

 

 

[Madbadteacher]

I'm going to drive 150 miles EACH WAY just to be there.

 

Because we are better than this

[BobbyBiscuit]

Still smarting a bit from today's events?  Me too, the alcohol which I couldn't face earlier is now flowing but not yet easing the pain.

 

Through mismanagement and poor decision making from the top down we find our club in disarray, our on the field frailties brutally exposed by an expensively assembled Celtic team.  Of course the problems go far deeper than that, Scottish football itself took a fair beating today as one of it's proudest and biggest clubs suffered an humiliating defeat that will shock the football world at home and abroad. And it will.

 

So what about us?  The ones who really care.  Where do we go from here?

 

Some of us will be hoping to take some comfort from an almost inevitable managerial change as a Dons legend, a broken man tonight, clings on to his dream job by his finger nails.  Some will find growing levels of apathy drowning out their ability to care any more.  Some might even turn their backs on the club for good.

 

Me?  I'll see you at Pittodrie on Tuesday.  Kids are coming too - on a school night.  The club we all love needs us, our spl future means we need the points, the players pulling on those red shirts need our support. 

 

We've been here before and the Red Army rose to the occasion. I hope we can again.  I'm reading this back through sad eyes tonight, and having a wee toast to the future.  Stand free.

 

The big difference being that 95 with that team and - at that point unaffected - support, we were never going down. It's easy to say now, but it's true. That squad finally woke up - nothing to do with managers, nothing to do with the fans really - the players just started playing to the level they should have.

 

The situation now is that the fans are deeply affected, and the squad is quite possibly playing to it's level.

 

I absolutely admire your steadfastness, but this is going to be nothin like 95 unfortunately... we've trundled on far too long for it to be so and we've lost too many passengers on the way.

[Graeme_S]

One slight correction to the original post above. Dons legend's dream job? Afraid that's not quite true. MM's dream job was in the other dugout today.

[OrlandoDon]

Don't know what to tell you but I'm the most optimistic person in the world and I don't share your mentality. Today was one of the worst days in our history. We have an incredibly imbalanced shite squad compared to that of 95, the fans have been through so much shit since 95 that crowds are worse than they've been in years. So many fans simply don't care anymore. Far too often I have said thank fuck I live 6000 miles away and can ignore what is happening. We are 2 points off bottom having been gubbed by the top of the league team today and beaten by the bottom of the league last week. Don't share too much semi final optimism given what we saw today.

 

MM talked about getting beaten yesterday and sounded all too much like Ebbe. The club is rotten to the core, until we replace SM and clean house completely we'll just ramble on with limited success. What is success to us exactly anyway???

 

It was JCs time to go as he'd stabilized the club as a top 6 team and we did need new leadership to take us to the next level. As much as it pains me to say it, it's time to go MM, he failed and I have no clue what he is doing. He fucked up big time in the transfer windows and I really don't know how to defend the guy and what he's trying to achieve. How can he carry on? He should do the decent thing and leave. Walk away with some dignity, how can anyone justify him staying? He has taken us back to where we were before JC in just over 1 season!!

 

The only bright side this season is Hartley, give him the interm position if he's interested and bring in an experienced assistant. Would love wee Gordon as boss but he'll never take the job so why not give it to someone who has shown some much needed leadership this season.

[BobbyBiscuit]

Strachan's one of the last guy's I'd want taking it.

[Ptayles]

Will still go back but it just feels like Tuesday night will be a chore. And we probably said it before but we have a half decent squad. If we had a keeper and a full back, I dont think we would be in this mess. Got a great midfield and (when played together) a great frontline

[El Padre™]

Fair play to you CtS but personally I won't be back as long as McGhee is in that dugout. He's done nothing but embarrass the club, himself and the fans since he arrived. Not a single bit of progress has been made since those disastrous games in Europe. Not one single bit.

 

I've never been shy in telling people that I didn't want McGhee as JC's successor but I still tried my best to back him. I'm not doing it anymore. The club have my money for the season through my season ticket and that's all they'll get until that buffoon is gone.

[glasgow sheep]

I was there, like most of us were, in '95.  "Never again" we said.  Every intervening year has seen that defiance, that passion, that commitment wane in our support.  In '95 we came together, as one, to fight for the heart and soul of our club.  It was more than football, it meant everything to the North East and beyond.

 

Since then we have endured humiliations and the odd "success" but that defiance, that passion and that commitment has seeped away from our club.  "Never again" we said, yet have again and again faced even worse than what was served up in 95 with barely a murmur.  The day we started accepting 6 and 7-0 under Ebbe was the day that the club truly died. It was then that the mentality of the club changed to accepting second best as a success.  If we were to fight for the club these days how many would show up?  Who really cares any more? How many would stand, sarcastically, on the sidelines and belittle the passion and desire we used to have for the club. 

 

You can, and I do, blame the state that Scottish Football is in.  The passion and atmosphere has been sucked out of the game for years now to the extent that 100 tims singing together today impressed me like no support has in years.  The quality is at an all time low on and off the park; players, management and officials.  And the moving of the deck chairs that the SPL can't even agree on will make the square root of fuck all difference.

 

Every time I speak to my Dad, a man who used to head down Merkland Road week in,week out, first team, second team, he laughs at the commitment I show to afc.  He questions why I would bother watching this shower of charlatans.  That I should grow up and find something better to do with my time.  What has happened to the club that this is the prevailing mood among many in the North East?  Many who used to support the team through thick and invariably thin.

 

I admit I wanted rid of Calderwood. I admit I was wrong.  But I would argue to the death that the sentiment, that the desire, the belief I had to make afc better than what we were was the right thing.  I don't believe our playing staff are as bad a 9-0 would suggest.  I do believe the club, the rotten soul of the club is as bad as that. 

 

Where, amongst this drunken ramble, do we go from here?

McGhee will go.  We will improve a little.  We will celebrate a cup semi final and the occasional 4th place finish like they actually mean something.  And at the same time a little bit of our hearts that is afc will die.

The alternative?

Sadly it would be that we stagger on toward relegation.  With an passionless acceptance that the crowd of '95 would find staggering.

 

We are repeatedly told that we live in the past.  That our "expectations" are unrealistic.  Well those days are well and truly gone.  We are just another club. Just another Motherwell or Kilmarnock.  I hate to admit it because, honestly, I felt that the day we succumb to that was the day I should jack it in and forget about afc.  I don't watch Aberdeen to be another middle of the road SPL club.  I watch Aberdeen because we are, should be and can be, better than the rest of the flotsam and jetsam of Scottish Football.  Because second best isn't an option. Because, I believe, we should be battling out for honours, trophies, not the sanctimonious platitudes that we get for coming 3rd or 4th in a stale, worthless league.

 

What should we do?

In the 90s there would be 100s protesting on Pittodrie Street. Now there would be 100s standing taking the piss out of those that would dare have that passion.  I wish I had the answer.  We should be ripping up Pittodrie Street right now and demanding better. Instead we will settle with moaning and bitching on internet forums like this.

This may all be melodramatic.

This IS the lowest of the low for Aberdeen Football Club.

 

Stand Free?

Fuck Off.

 

[Madbadteacher]

gs I applaud every word you wrote and I just wish I could have been so eloquent.

 

There is something rotten in the Merkland Road and it is killing OUR club. Or are we dead already and just still moving about like a zombie? I don't want to buy a paper today, but I will and no doubt read lots of pundits laughing behind their hands whilst condeming "us" for living in the past........9-0 is NOWHERE in our past!

WE may not be getting a -25 points like Dundee, but we might as well have that as we're fiscally, emotionally, spiritualy and embarassingly broke in everything.

 

 

[manc_don]

I can't disagree with anything that has been posted, apart from the sad fact I wasn't there in '95. It's hard to see where the club goes from here. I don't even know what else to write.

[scotfree]

All i have to say is that the Club HAVE been in worse situation's than this in the past and we WILL get over this. And thats a promise.

[maverick sheep]

If the club don't slash ticket prices for the rest of the season then they'll be lucky to get 5,000 a week.

 

Passion or no, while so many jobs are under threat and almost everyone is broke, the idea of a significant number spunking cash into pittodrie would be delusional even if the team seemed to have the slightest bit of pride. Let alone the slightest bit of desire to play for the shirt/fans.

 

The past 15, 20 years has made Aberdeen less attractive to new fans than any other time in its history.

[Madbadteacher]

76 wasn't as bad as this!

[Mentorred]

76 wasn't as bad as this!

 

1876?

[Goldie03]

I can't disagree with anything that has been posted, apart from the sad fact I wasn't there in '95. It's hard to see where the club goes from here. I don't even know what else to write.

 

I feel exactly the same - here we go again springs to mind

 

I was never a fan of McGhee - right from the very first press conference when he was introduced to us all and the newsreader stated he was only there cause he hadn't been offered the Celtic job - to the first atrocious result in europe and the mind numbingly boring football on show - to finding out the full time result yesterday and being appalled but not surprised

 

I feel for the fans who were at Parkhead - it must have been sickening to watch