Ross McCrorie

[Ten Caat]

Agree about McGeouch. Now at best 3rd choice, maybe even 4th behind Campbell for a starting spot in defensive midfield. I couldn't see why we signed him in January...yes Ojo had been out injured for 2 or 3 months but there was absolutely no indication that it was going to be an ongoing problem. The spoonburners over at Hibs.net are convinced he will now be made available. If we can get them (no laughing at the back), or anyone else, to offer £500k I think it would be a good bit of business. Would then pay for the McCrorie deal and allow us to bring in a (genuine) left back with the spare change. 

As for Campbell....I'd really like to see us loan him out for the season (with a recall option in January in case of dire emergency). His development would be far better served getting 90 minutes week in, week out at somewhere like St Mirren or even the DABS than getting 15 minutes here and there as a sub with us.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Ten Caat

[BigAl]

14 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

Agree about McGeouch. Now at best 3rd choice, maybe even 4th behind Campbell for a starting spot in defensive midfield. I couldn't see why we signed him in January...yes Ojo had been out injured for 2 or 3 months but there was absolutely no indication that it was going to be an ongoing problem. The spoonburners over at Hibs.net are convinced he will now be made available. If we can get them (no laughing at the back), or anyone else, to offer £500k I think it would be a good bit of business. Would then pay for the McCrorie deal and allow us to bring in a (genuine) left back with the spare change. 

As for Campbell....I'd really like to see us loan him out for the season (with a recall option in January in case of dire emergency). His development would be far better served getting 90 minutes week in, week out at somewhere like St Mirren or even the DABS than getting 15 minutes here and there as a sub with us.

Think you're being a tad optimistic with that £500k figure there T.C.

More likely that we'd agree to terminate his contract and let him leave for nowt or with three months wages in his hipper 

Most times I've seen Campbell I've liked the look of him and think he shows a fair degree of maturity for his age. He certainly isn't one to hide on the pitch unlike others I can think of 

[wee toon red]

I think McRorie as a deep midfielder offers more than anyone else we've got in there (except maybe Campbell). He's got a bit of dig about him but is also pretty decent on the ball, a combination I haven't seen from Ojo or McGeouch. I think he'll pair well with Ferguson and will be useful in all games rather than just the ones we're not favourites in. He'll hopefully provide the dig that's been missing since Shinnie left.

Agree with the suggestion that Campbell should go on loan, unless we really are offloading Bryson, McGeough and Ojo. I'd be delighted to see a midfield three of Ferguson, McRorie and Campbell this season.

Edited August 18, 2020 by wee toon red

[royal deeside cowie]

My sources tell me McCrorie goes straight into the team for the visit to Perth

[BigAl]

1 minute ago, royal deeside cowie said:

My sources tell me McCrorie goes straight into the team for the visit to Perth

Forget to strain the tea leaves this morning ?

[Panda]

People are asking why we signed another midfielder when we have so many already, then in the same post lamenting how poor the likes of Ojo, McGeouch and Bryson have been. There's your answer - they haven't been good enough. Plus, none of the above are going to make Aberdeen any money in the transfer market while McCrorie has the potential to (would imagine Rangers will have a hefty sell-on clause in there though).

[rocket_scientist]

21 minutes ago, Panda said:

People are asking why we signed another midfielder when we have so many already, then in the same post lamenting how poor the likes of Ojo, McGeouch and Bryson have been. There's your answer - they haven't been good enough. Plus, none of the above are going to make Aberdeen any money in the transfer market while McCrorie has the potential to (would imagine Rangers will have a hefty sell-on clause in there though).

And who's fault is this?

[rocket_scientist]

In my opinion, having a go at fans for lamenting how poor the squad is whilst at the same time admitting that they aren't good enough and yet not taking the opportunity to comment on "what's really going on" (Fontaines DC, lyric from Chequeless Reckless, Dogrel, 2019, 6 Music's album of the year) is tantamount to treason. For "disloyalty or treachery to one's country or its government", substitute AFC. I swear that some posters are at worst "plants" or at the mildest end of the spectrum, "apologists" who do not want to see the evidence for personally-held reasons.

Edited August 18, 2020 by rocket_scientist

[tup1]

First transfer ever from the new huns to Aberdeen.

2020 gets weirder by the second.

 

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

People are asking why we signed another midfielder when we have so many already, then in the same post lamenting how poor the likes of Ojo, McGeouch and Bryson have been. There's your answer - they haven't been good enough. Plus, none of the above are going to make Aberdeen any money in the transfer market while McCrorie has the potential to (would imagine Rangers will have a hefty sell-on clause in there though).

I'd say that it's fairly obvious. Reason is that I'd like us to offload before we take in players - but I accept that is difficult and McRorie was available right now. The reason I'd prefer it this way round is that I think that having too many players competing for so few positions will have a negative impact. I see guys like McGeouch, Bryson, Gleeson previously, as detrimental even being there. Any minutes they get in an attempt to make them feel happy are wasted minutes, that should have been given to a young player. If guys like Campbell and Virtanen can't see a clear path to a regular first team spot (I think Campbell probably can now) then it is unnecessarily de-motivating. McInnes is quite good at getting rid of players he's signed, but if often takes him a long time (Gleeson, Main, May), because nae cunt wants them. We need to limit squad size and have a better/enforced balance of youth. Happy with the signing if it's swiftly followed by exits.

I'd agree about McRorie being an investment, but then so was Ojo. Ojo didn't look match-sharp against the Hun, but there were some good performances last season.

Edited August 18, 2020 by RicoS321

[rocket_scientist]

8 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

I see guys like McGeouch... as detrimental even being there.

I consider half a dozen  games as not enough to write him off yet. He was playing for a shit manager in a shit team, which never helps.

Given his performances at Hibs, I saw a footballer there and whilst I don't know how he performed at Sunderland, he did get 30 games so they wouldn't all have been shite. No idea about his injuries history, if any.

[RicoS321]

39 minutes ago, rocket_scientist said:

I consider half a dozen  games as not enough to write him off yet. He was playing for a shit manager in a shit team, which never helps.

Given his performances at Hibs, I saw a footballer there and whilst I don't know how he performed at Sunderland, he did get 30 games so they wouldn't all have been shite. No idea about his injuries history, if any.

Yep, he had a great final appearance last season, I was basing it on the fact that he didn't feature in the Huns game and Campbell came on, but I'm guessing that was because of injury. I didn't think he was as good an all round player as Shinnie. Better on the ball, maybe, but not as involved. Jack Ross couldn't get the best out of him at Sunderland, and I'd say that his purple patch at Hibs has been the anomaly in his career to date. Again, hope he proves me wrong etc etc. You should also be aware that I didn't want him here in the first place (too many midfielders) and so am probably a little blinded by that.

[rocket_scientist]

You are probably right and it's odds-on that you are. It's not like his current manager has any form of identifying quality and getting the most out of them. I just think it may be a little too early to judge him...

which is contradictory because I turned to my mate after three minutes of the opening game v. Kilmarnock and said "this cunt can't play football" on Calvin Zola's debut.

Like you, I hope he turns good but given the culture, I'm not expecting him to. I just remember some excellent performances he produced v. the Old Firm but that was 2.5 years ago right enough.

[tup1]

John McGinn made McGeouch look good at Hibs. Like Russell Anderson used to with Zander Diamond.

When McGinn was not beside him he was pretty crap. He's done nothing with his career since McGinn left Hibs. I'm not certain why McInnes was so keen on him in the first place.

[rocket_scientist]

3 minutes ago, tup1 said:

John McGinn made McGeouch look good at Hibs. Like Russell Anderson used to with Zander Diamond.

When McGinn was not beside him he was pretty crap. He's done nothing with his career since McGinn left Hibs. I'm not certain why McInnes was so keen on him in the first place.

This is undoubtedly true but it is good to examine what the reason for that might be? If he was "pretty crap" without an excellent midfielder beside him, did his performance levels actually drop or was it all perception (that he did play really well once upon a time)?

I don't know the answers to these questions but like everything, we can only find answers when the questions have first been properly articulated. The one thing I know that makes a difference to performance levels of individuals in team environments is the culture, a management responsibility and this leads into aspects of the mind, hunger and desire in particular. The confidence levels of playing next to someone you trust would also influence performance but as all these concepts are "ethereal" and not "tangible", or at least not as tangibly measurable as other indicators, the fisher/farmer folk and other assorted tcheuchters that are native to our North East would fail to even acknowledge them let alone grasp them.

[tup1]

27 minutes ago, rocket_scientist said:

This is undoubtedly true but it is good to examine what the reason for that might be? If he was "pretty crap" without an excellent midfielder beside him, did his performance levels actually drop or was it all perception (that he did play really well once upon a time)?

I don't know the answers to these questions but like everything, we can only find answers when the questions have first been properly articulated. The one thing I know that makes a difference to performance levels of individuals in team environments is the culture, a management responsibility and this leads into aspects of the mind, hunger and desire in particular. The confidence levels of playing next to someone you trust would also influence performance but as all these concepts are "ethereal" and not "tangible", or at least not as tangibly measurable as other indicators, the fisher/farmer folk and other assorted tcheuchters that are native to our North East would fail to even acknowledge them let alone grasp them.

Interesting spelling of teuchter.

I think he got more credit than he deserved in that Hibs team. McGinn has gone to better things, he has certainly not.

[rocket_scientist]

3 minutes ago, tup1 said:

1. Interesting spelling of teuchter.

2. I think he got more credit than he deserved in that Hibs team.

3. McGinn has gone to better things, he has certainly not.

1. Yeah I fucked that up. Yours is the correct spelling.

2. Probably truth.

3. Definitely truth.

[Ten Caat]

5 hours ago, royal deeside cowie said:

My sources tell me McCrorie goes straight into the team for the visit to Perth

He will have had 2 days of training with us by that point. More than enough time for our coaches to have ensured he's out for 3-6 months with a knee/ankle/back injury (delete as necessary)

[Ten Caat]

McGeouch also had Scott Allan (on loan from Celtic at that point) as well as McGinn alongside him in that Hibs midfield. I think even at my age I could look half decent with those 2 either side of me. 

As for my earlier £500k valuation.....yeah it probably is wildly over-estimating his worth. But I have a vague memory of him being valued at £750k at Sunderland when we first tried to get him in 2 summers back. I saw someone else elsewhere state that McInnes has said that a partial reason for bringing in McCrorie was that Ojo was out of contract next summer (wrong...its summer 2022) and unlikely to sign an extension (probably true, he'll be 30 by then and likely looking for one last big pay-day).  So if we were going to release somebody if another club were willing to take over their contract, I suspect it would be Ojo, not McGeouch we'd do that for. I think there's no doubt Hibs would be interested if McGeouch were available and on no account should we be letting him go for free....again he has 2 years left on his contract but there's no doubt we could get a fee for him. Probably £150-200k would be reasonable.

[Panda]

4 hours ago, rocket_scientist said:

And who's fault is this?

The players maybe? Do they take no responsibility for their performances?

Poor signings maybe, but McGeouch has done it in the SPFL before (and I still hold out hope for him). Ojo was well thought of at his old club. I didn't hear too many dissenting voices when Bryson signed.

An excellent thread here on why Ojo's decision making is gash.

 

[RicoS321]

But that wasn't the Ojo we saw from January to March though. He was the worst player on the park against the hun, and I thought the same in the European games last season, but he had a good run of 8-9 games where he was showing for the ball and getting stuck in post January. I'm not sure twitter is the best medium for analysis, but a fair effort.

[Panda]

27 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

But that wasn't the Ojo we saw from January to March though. He was the worst player on the park against the hun, and I thought the same in the European games last season, but he had a good run of 8-9 games where he was showing for the ball and getting stuck in post January. I'm not sure twitter is the best medium for analysis, but a fair effort.

You likely saw more of Ojo than I did last season so I'm not entirely disagreeing with you - I can only base on what I saw. But I remember the 0-0 draw at Ibrox, supposedly one of his better games. As soon as Rangers exerted any pressure whatever he folded, was like a little boy lost. Constantly out of position, didn't want the ball, distribution was poor, tackling poor, think he lost every 50-50 header he went for. Was a big reason why Aberdeen went from initially being the better team to allowing Rangers to dominate possession.

My opinion of him has maybe been clouded from that day but I've seen little since to convince me he's going to be a success here.

Edited August 18, 2020 by Panda

[rocket_scientist]

Ojo is a very poor footballer. From the little I've seen. 

[TheDeeDon]

I don't think Ojo is that bad a player when fit, he is the type of player you have sitting in front of defence winning balls from the opposition, and he does that well, but to allow that to work you need someone in the middle next to him who can do something with the ball in an attacking sense and that is where we have problems, as too often we win the ball and lose it just as quick, putting pressure on our midfield and defence. Someone who can consistently make good use of the ball in the middle of the park is really what we needin that team.maybe Ferguson as I see him more of an attacking threat than defensive, but I know many don't.

 

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

You likely saw more of Ojo than I did last season so I'm not entirely disagreeing with you - I can only base on what I saw. But I remember the 0-0 draw at Ibrox, supposedly one of his better games. As soon as Rangers exerted any pressure whatever he folded, was like a little boy lost. Constantly out of position, didn't want the ball, distribution was poor, tackling poor, think he lost every 50-50 header he went for. Was a big reason why Aberdeen went from initially being the better team to allowing Rangers to dominate possession.

My opinion of him has maybe been clouded from that day but I've seen little since to convince me he's going to be a success here.

Yep, he was rank in that game. Before January I was certain we should be shipping him ASAP, it was like he was disinterested, and made lots of errors. A few games at pittodrie where he really did assert himself and take a hold of the game and I thought he'd maybe turned it round. Then the game against the huns this season where he's back to square one. He's capable, I think, but I'm not sure we'll see it again. Expensive mistake if so.