Diamonds are Forever

I don't think anyone is saying we are, but we aren't world beaters either. We pulled a late win out the hat against Norway but were a few minutes away from losing the game, and beat a terrible Spain side. Other than that we've been fine. It therefore wouldn't take a massive turn of events for us to not beat Georgia and lose to Spain, which then means it's up to Norway whether they can get a result off Spain and take us to the last game. Given where we are now, Norway having a chance in the last game would be a huge psychological advantage to them and I really wouldn't fancy us. Norway are a pretty poor team overall but a side with Haaland and Odegaard could pull a result from somewhere. I think we'll be fine just because there are a few chances both involving us and other team's results that it seems we must surely qualify, but I'm not as confident as most seem to be.

In fairness we had David Hutton in nets that day and he was shambolic. I think his only start last season and the game which meant for the rest of the season McCabe played half the available goalies in Scotland rather than start him. Wasn't much between the teams otherwise, as you suggested. Really interested to see how we cope, would anticipate a close game.

Exactly this. We've played it a handful of times under McCabe and we always look stodgy, slow and is if we are going nowhere. I've said before I hate it, for me it's a system you play against superior opposition when you'll have little of the ball, which is the opposite of what we generally need. I'm hoping today it was used to rest the back 4 and not have to shoehorn guys into full-back positions. A win today and guys getting a run-out so no harm done, but I really hope it's not McCabe trying stuff out for later in the season.

I don't see what you are disagreeing with here. Murray did a really good job, and fully merited his move, I never suggested otherwise. That's irrelevant though, I said McCabe achieved more than Murray - unless you'd prefer to lose 2 play-off finals than win 1 then I don't see how that's disputable. The aim was to get promoted and McCabe achieved that, with near enough the same team that Murray had (after losing our best player). As for your second point, I agree, again I never said otherwise. The discussion was based around 'if' we continue to do quite well this season, a big 'if', that the promotion and consolidation would undoubtedly attract attention. I also didn't say from 'big clubs', almost the opposite, I said clubs 'not much higher up than us', for example a top half Championship club who lose their manager would obviously be interested. Whether they could afford him or he'd go is a different story. As someone else said, McCabe is no Pep Guardiola just because of one promotion, however there is a complete lack of suitable managers in Scotland just now which is why so many clubs are going for untried and untested new managers like Bartley, Bullen, Doolan, Imrie, Rankin and many more across the leagues. That means any young manager with any successes on his CV like a promotion (and no real failures yet) is going to be considered.

2013 is the one people talk about, but I think that's overplayed. They still had a team full of established winners like Ferdinand, Evra, Rooney, Giggs, Fletcher, Vidic Carrick, Hernandez, plus had just bought the best player in the league in van Persie. They were also a last minute goal away from winning the league the previous season which shows even without van Persie (who is always credited with winning them the title) that they were a very good team. What is definitely true is that team were right at the end of their winning cycle, all the guys mentioned were at, or slightly past, their best. And the youngsters Ferguson had brought in to be the next generation were largely useless. But that fact has kind of morphed into this idea that Ferguson worked miracles to win the league 2013, which isn't true.

Same, it's actually come at a good time as it gives us 2 weeks to get McCabe, McMaster and Telfer back. Also a chance for McGill to get more minutes as he looks short of sharpness just now. And for McStravick to get more familiar with how we play. Todorov could also do with a game too. I think McCabe will use it as a game to get as many guys back and up to speed as possible, if we win then fine but I doubt he'll be fussed, I'm certainly not.

Great example of how impossible it is for referees. He basically said the law says the referee got it right, but I don't like the law so the referee got it wrong. Absurd.

This is the irony of us being short of midfielders at the moment, it's by far and away our strongest area of the pitch in terms of squad depth, we have 3 genuinely good back-up players in there, yet that's the area we're struggling for players. If we'd had 4 players unavailable in the defence rather than midfield then a couple of us would probably have had to dust our boots off yesterday.. It's a testament to the quality of the squad in that position that we were still very competitive yesterday. It doesn't sound like any of the injuries will be long term, so I'm actually really excited about the options we have in there once everyone is available.

McCabe's had 55 games in charge and none of them have been 0-0 draws, we are the least 0-0 draw type team I've ever watched. Some of our scorelines from last season were bonkers. I definitely agree that it will be harder this season as more competent defences will be able to limit our chances, but equally if we score first teams will have to come out and press more and we are well suited to keeping possession to kill a game. I don't think we'll be challenging for the play-offs, but the style of play will allow us to be competitive with basically the same team that finished 3rd in League 1.

No, but Ian Murray got a move for achieving less. It's certainly not beyond the realms of possibility that a club not much higher up than ourselves looks to take him and asks him the question.

Any move basically means retiring from playing, not only for him but also Fordyce assuming he went with him. That's a massive call to make aged 31/32 when you're still able to hold your own in the Championship, particularly Fordyce if you're retiring to become an assistant manager. It's a hard balance between learning your trade for a few years but also realising that management is a very fickle business and you often need to strike while your reputation is high because one poor run of form or relegation and the moment could pass. I don't think that will happen with him but you'd have to factor it in.

4 players in the same position unavailable once McMaster goes off, how many midfielders do you expect us to sign? Including the 3 on the park that's 7 central midfielders, you don't think having 4 extra players in one position is enough? And if we applied that to every position we'd have a squad of 50 players. There isn't a team in the country (except maybe the Old Firm) who could lose their 4 best central midfielders and not have to play some kind of inexperienced youngster in there.

So would I, but I genuinely can't see it happening. People have been saying it will for years and it hasn't shown any signs of happening. It survived the Global crash in 2008/2009 completely unscathed and then Covid, I can't see what would cause a sudden burst and the whole thing to collapse if those barely made a dent. A huge chunk of the 2 billion transfer fees is just money getting 'recycled' from one Premier League club to another like the Rice deal or Caicedo, so if you look at the Premier League as an entity that money isn't being 'spent' in the sense that it's not leaving the league, it's just getting moved around like Monopoly money. The overall transfer figure is irrelevant for that reason, a better figure is how much is being spent on players from outwith the league to give an idea of how much is being lost, and that would need set against what is now coming into the league, which with the Saudi money is more significant than it ever has been. The Saudi money will also provide a safety net for clubs, if they need a bit of extra cash they can flog a Jordan Henderson type for a ridiculous fee and cover losses, that option has never existed before. If it wasn't for FFP then some of these clubs wouldn't care about losing money anyway. Man City and Newcastle's owners couldn't care less so any financial hit from the outside will have limited impact. The impact of the Saudi league will be really interesting to see, I think they'll keep chucking money at it (most of which will go to English clubs to get their best players) but I'm not convinced at all that longer term it's going to be any kind of threat to the Premier League in terms of viewers or taking revenue away.

I wasn't criticising people making wrong predictions, I'm not going to pretend I thought we'd start this well! It was more a comment on what seemed like needless negativity from a few fans when results on the pitch hadn't given any reason to be.

That too, but there definitely were people saying how we were in danger of getting off to a slow start if we didn't sign players early enough. There were some comparisons to last season and people saying we couldn't afford another slow start (even though we started very well last year). I remember replying them.

It's such basic stuff. The first goal Shinnie lets their best player stroll forward totally unchallenged and get a shot off. The 2nd goal Devlin charges out his position and leaves said best player to easily score. The 3rd goal the defender makes a ridiculous challenge in the box. On a basic level it's individual incompetence but having watched the game those mistakes were partly due to the structure of Aberdeen allowing far too much space, particularly to Sadiq, meaning players were isolated. Aberdeen should have been able to beat Hacken over 2 legs and won't get a better chance to reach Europa League group stages. They were let down by poor organisation and stupid mistakes.

First time I've seen him for years and genuinely can't believe how slow and heavy legged he looks. Mind you it's not helped when there are such massive gaps in the midfield to expose him.

Aberdeen are so easy to play through. They look quite threatening when going forward but Haecken are passing straight through a non-existent midfield and getting in on goal whenever they go forward. They are also doing a totally half-hearted press which is leaving massive gaps. Just look very poorly organised all round.

Pathetic attempt to stop that shot by Shinnie. Looks like he has lead in his boots.

No, the thread has been virtually everyone in agreement that we could do with more players. I've not seen a single post from any fan claiming the squad is perfect as it is. All fans have been pointing out is that we don't have unlimited money and that signing good players isn't very easy. We've played 8 games so far, won 6, drawn one in normal time to a Premier League side and then narrowly lost one where we could easily have got something, this is all despite fans like yourself (apologies if it wasn't specifically you, but there were quite a few) telling us how our lack of signings was going to lead to a slow start. I think most people, like Ammo's post above says, are now just at the point of trusting that the manager and the club know far better what they are doing than any of us, so to just leave them to it and enjoy the season. If we get relegated due to having to play youngsters every week then I'll criticise McCabe and the club accordingly, but getting worked up over something that hasn't happened (and so far looks unlikely to) is pointless.

Assuming Telfer isn't fit I think we'll play O'Connor in that position. Against Bonnyrigg when we played 3-5-2 he was playing more centrally and dropping deep at times into that position. I don't think it suits his game but there's not many alternatives. He'll not provide the creativity that Frizzell would but will provide the same energy and could be a threat getting up to support Gal. I wouldn't be messing around with different formations, partly because I generally hate 3 at the back, but mainly because we have a settled defence and going away to the league favourites isn't when I'd be trialing stuff in that area.

I agree that tickets should be increasing slightly as the cost of running a club is increasing, but I think fans annoyance is more that Utd's pricing is much higher (relatively speaking) than others. It is 25% more expensive for me to watch Dundee Utd v Airdrie than it is for me to watch Airdrie v Dundee Utd. Dundee Utd already blow us out the water in terms of support which gives a huge financial advantage, so the extra cost just seems excessive. The supply and demand argument can't be used either given there will be thousands of empty seats. Like I said above, if Dundee Utd can still get the same crowds charging this then good luck to them, they are doing what's best for them. But I get why fans aren't happy paying it.

Of course, and it's up to individuals what they are happy to pay, like everything else the market will decide what is an acceptable price for clubs to charge. In isolation it's only 3 of 4 quid over what I'd pay elsewhere so it's not really a case of being able to afford it. My concern is just that if these prices become normalised at this level by Dundee Utd still getting the same home and away supports that they'd normally recieve then the prices will spread across to all the other clubs at this level in the next couple of seasons. And if clubs don't put the prices up they'll fall behind those that do. I certainly don't feel like I'm making any grand gesture or protest by not going, and I understand others will have different limits on what they think is too much. I can't make every away game anyway so it was an easy one to miss when deciding what ones to pick and choose.

It's not the fans' fault, but we do have a role to play in the pricing by deciding whether we will accept it or not. If away supports at Tannadice this season continue to be healthy then prices will remain the same, and rise again in a year or two. It will also soon drive up prices for the rest of the league as other clubs realise they can get away with the same, and that cycle will repeat indefinitely until clubs see attendances drop. You are right that in the short term clubs will have a 'pay it or don't attitude', but that can only be sustained so long if attendances take a hit and they are losing money. It's up to people to decide what they are willing to pay and it's entirely up to them, I wouldn't judge them either way. For me I refuse to pay that much so won't go. Although my resolve may be tested come the title decider in late February...

Hartley saw something in a few players which resulted in Hartlepool's relegation to the National League last season. His abysmal recruitment at Falkirk is legendary, and his signings for Cove last season and so far this season look dreadful too. I think at this stage the last thing a player would want is an endorsement from Hartley. Was never really sure about Paterson, he was full of energy and commitment which does fit the profile of what we'd be looking for, but was never sure of his actual ability. Context is important that season because we had Quitongo start the season at left back who was dreadful, and we then had people filling in at left back until Paterson arrived. Any reasonably competent left back was going to look decent given what went before. In a higher league I'd have a few doubts. However he is young and I liked his attitude so he is the type of signing I'd be happy with (not that I think it's realistic).