tarapoa

Part of Scottish fitba folklore now - we’ll miss it when it’s gone. I actually hate when either Stuart or Tam are away as they wheel out the likes of Chick Young or that Celtic supporting lassie and it all gets a bit old firmy as well as losing the yin and the yang of Cosgrove and Cowan.

I don't know to be honest. Possibly due it being a phrase commonly associated with our heyday, whereas few people really knew what BTM meant.......

Strangely enough of the nine tournaments to date since the Europa League was formed in 2009, eight of them have been won by Spanish or English clubs. However, I actually think if this third tournament has more teams that welcome being involved (e.g. Scots clubs), then I'd be quite happy seeing AFC taking on the better sides from the likes of Denmark, Romania and Switzerland over a few midweeks. It's come to the point where I couldn't care less about the bigger leagues and would happily let them get on with pleasing their Asian and American viewing markets etc.....

My take on this..... The best is 'By The Minute', now rebranded 'Here We Go', but that is AFC bias. I am very glad we have this option for AFC though, and their pundits and guests tend to be of a good calibre. For Scottish Football - Sportsound is dependent on which guests are on, if it's Michael Stewart I am more inclined to listen all the way through. If it's Yogi, Alex Rae, McCulloch etc - perhaps less so. The Terrace is generally first class - they all tend to know their stuff and be much more attuned with what most non-weegie fans think about our game..............sometimes for an old curmudgeon like me it can develop too much into giggling fits, but they all seem likeable. I have tried the new 'Totally Scottish Football' thing and will continue to give it a go - but definite teething problems including cliches and lack of chemistry at this early stage. They have maybe moved away from it being too weegie-centric after their first couple. Superscoreboard is something to listen to as a social experiment only. Others - whatever James Richardson does basically - he is the doyen of podcasts and both intelligent and ultra sharp-witted. The Guardian still remains worth a listen - the guy who replaced Richardson is still very good despite being placed into a Porterfield/Moyes scenario of taking over from the best. Can see why Glendinning would divide opinions, but he is good for that. Not The Top Twenty very good for gaining some kind of interest in English lower league - especially as so many Scots players go there or players that AFC have been 'linked' with are mentioned - haven't forgiven their betting show for saying Oxford were a steal to beat Coventry at the weekend.

If only. Maybe the teams that drop off out the Europa League qualifiers and come 3rd in the groups, will drop into this. An extra safety net if teams do as AFC tend to do in the qualifiers, and give things a decent go, but end up losing out.

Get Chidi Nwakali back whilst we can - cult hero

According to Charlie Adam it was "pre-season" for Burnley, so as to diminish any kind of credibility that AFC could possibly give an EPL club a run for their money. This is despite (as Michael Stewart pointed out) both Burnley and Aberdeen knowing back at the end of May that their first competitive match would occur on July 26th, with their respective league seasons starting just the one week apart. There's enough people lining up to sneer at Scottish football, without the Scots playing down there joining in. Still, he's not the first - surely it's about time Sportsound wheeled out another Graeme Souness interview, so he can give us his in-depth knowledge of the game north of the border.

Was Charlie Adam dialed in just to make McCulloch sound intelligent?

Not this one again. Aberdeen FC have never finished in an automatic relegation position. Falkirk's ground being deemed unfit for the top flight had no bearing on that - the league was already being expanded from 10 to 12, and all that happened is that Aberdeen and Dunfermline avoided a three-way play-off against the Bairns (with two of the three going into the top flight).

Country Minimum Ranking.................why is this applied? What possible sporting logic is there in a bunch of European novices called Mariupol getting a shoey-in ahead of clubs with European pedigree just because they happen to come from the same country as Dinamo Kiev and Shakhtar. Same with Burnley, not been in Europe since the 1960s. Yes, they come from a stronger league, but that means they should have the resources to earn themselves a ranking of their own. All this country minimum has served to do from a Scots perspective is rank Sevco and Hibs close to Aberdeen - when AFC have played 22 matches in the past four seasons and built up a bit of credit in the bank e.g. four victories in QR2 (three of them when unseeded).

The tactics and players didn't help, but match fitness was still the overall factor for the late collapse. Sigma had played a round before that against Icelandic opponents (which Dingus/Leitch hadn't bothered going to watch), and in the last half hour our players were breathing out of their erse - probably exacerbated by having no clue what they were doing. McGhee's pre-season training had involved footage of Derek Young dancing around in an Austrian stream singing edelweiss - reinforcements were needed and we got Jerel Ifil.....

The recent change, whatever the logic, has served to completely shaft AFC. Last season we were half way up the list of seeded clubs in QR2 - having previously been unseeded at that stage, but building up some 'credit in the bank' due to successive seasons reaching QR3. Now, despite another season reaching QR3, we find ourselves unseeded in QR2, and way down the list with little prospect of that changing. What is more galling is that Sevco (who's whole European history is their tie with Progres Niedercorn) and Hibernian (with two defeats against Malmo and Brondby as their only recent history) are effectively ranked almost the same as us now. Last season we were almost double Sevco's ranking. AFC's players may enjoy their extended break - but I still think coming through 180mins in QR1 (rather than friendlies against Inverurie and St Johnstone) is the ideal preparation for QR2 and a big part of the reason we beat Groningen and Rijeka - so therefore don't have a particular good feeling about our prospects right now, especially given it'll likely be a 50% brand new team that we field. Remember Sigma Olomouc?

Tonight was that kind of gap day after all the league final weekend chat has been closed off, but too early for cup final previews to begin. So what do we get........some monumentally dull chat about youth development, including why ‘futsal’ (whatever that is) is a good idea. All well meaning, but an hour of utter tedium, truth be told.

I'd completely forgotten about Tansey. The best thing he ever did for AFC was fail to score his penalty in the 2014 LC final. McInnes said at the B&G night he was off to his "comfort zone" in the highlands, which didn't sound like he felt he had any future at AFC.

McInnes could do with giving this lad a call, and maybe getting a taxi for Russ Richardson. Last summer's signing policy seemed to be a Who's Who of an SPL highlights video of the 2013/14 season - with May, Tansey, GMS and Stewart all prominent. I'm not sure how much thought went into how these players would be used and fit into the playing system. Maybe that was a consequence of the manager thinking he was possibly going to be working elsewhere this season.

So presumably we need to move Shinnie on, as he's been targeted by refs? Maybe time our manager grows a set, and publicly lambasts these referees - with a comparison video of what Shinnie does to get booked vs Scott Brown. The notion that League 2 in England is "miles behind our level" is interesting - I certainly think it's on a par with the bottom half SPL - which is 18 fixtures right away, and the odd cup game - where opponents have strikers from League 2/Conference who put us to the sword. As a Plan B striker, Stockley was absolutely fine. Generally got his head on the ball if the service was right, and despite the poor misses in big games last season, he scored some vital game-changing goals e.g. Ventspils, Dundee, Partick, Kilmarnock.........so made a hell of a lot more of a positive impact than Maynard. Is Cosgrove someone that can be that option next season? He seems to have been written off already on the strength of 2 minutes against Celtic. Our fans seem to have these things about big target man types, and utterly panning them - think it was Strachan who said Scottish fans prefer wee guys who run around a lot.

I agree with this - reading and hearing about how wonderful Motherwell are - but essentially two free goals. We get a couple of early presents and a 2-0 lead in a semi and I’d be confident of us seeing it out, just like last seas.....oh wait.

They announced last night's show by stating they would start by discussing the post-split fixtures. What transpired was a discussion about ONE FIXTURE. The final village idiot contest of the season. The pundits, on the back of Rodgers' comments, stated that this wonderful world-renowned showpiece match should have something riding on it, so it could be sold to the world. Some drunk ex-cop, Gray, stated that it was inconceivable this could be such a meaningful match as people in west-central Scotland will go around stabbing each other and beating up their wives etc etc Meanwhile, these two sides play on Sunday at a neutral venue in a much more meaningful match for both clubs - and all the other clubs still don't know who they'll be playing a week on Saturday a whole week after the top six was confirmed.

Someone that pulls out in front of you as if they’re some kind of wide boy, then does a strict 30mph on a mile of open empty road leading out of town at 6.30 in the morning.

Aye - everyone else was doing it, so we decided to get in on the act and count non-attending ST holders - for which, judging by Saturday there are a lot of, as that felt like an 11K max in old money.

So all the smaller nations just accepted this? Hard enough to get into the ELGS these days anyway, without making it another 40% less likely.

Another under-rated Dons result was our utter pumping of the Swiss cup holders FC Sion, the season we won the ECWC. Their subsequent results, including beating Atletico home and away and then Bouderbala tearing us apart a few years later, suggests they were no diddy outfit.

I like this sort of thread - but what an utter horlicks. First of all, why pick an individual match result when the two-legged tie was lost? These are 180 minute games, so if you win a half, big deal. As for AFC.....Barry Town was brutal - Aitken era - won 3-1 at home, went 1-0 down early in S.Wales and faced the serious prospect of being knocked out by a Welsh club until we recovered. IMO our best ten results as follows... 1. Bayern (1983) 2. Real Madrid 3. Hamburg (Super Cup) 4. Ipswich 5. Waterschei (now Racing Genk) 6. FC Copenhagen 7. Dnipro 8. Ujpesti Dosza 9. Rijeka 10. Groningen

People who make decisions on the roads network in the Aberdeen area. Last summer a new roundabout was installed that gave me a smooth route into work - opening up what used to be a nasty right turn on to a busy A road. They’ve now sacked this roundabout and replaced it with traffic lights - meaning the previously free-flowing traffic is now irritating queues in every direction Why oh why?

I have now decided British hairdressers/barbers annoy me. Since I started using the Turkish dudes (who can often be Iraqi Kurds, thus annoying the proper Turks), it has become evident that blokes over 40 should get their ear hair, nose hair and eyebrows trimmed without even having to ask. This is accomplished using various techniques involving brown waxy stuff and flames. ......and you get a nice wee cup of Turkish tea and a conversation on how Besiktas are getting on - all for little more than a tenner. Our own nationals are blown away by this service..................despite Toni & Guy getting an attractive young lass to massage my hair slowly using mint conditioner as part of their 45 quid offering. Never again.