lubo_blaha

I would agree that Scotland could use a 30k venue for semi finals but there's not that many fixtures that would be better being held up here. It would only really be if one of the Dundee clubs played Hibs or Hearts, or even if there was a Dundee derby. Hibs or Hearts vs Ross County or Inverness could be an option but the Edinburgh clubs probably wouldn't bring a big enough support to Aberdeen to justify the larger capacity. Us against any of the Dundee or Edinburgh clubs would command more than 20k and even though certain clubs have been allowed to play semi finals at home, I don't think it's realistic for us.

If his previous record is anything to go by he would boycott it for several months, only to return when they get their first victory against Aberdeen.

10 minutes walk from the nearest put in Westhill to the first entrance to the stadium according to google maps, about the same time it says the journey from Pittodrie bar to the current stadium takes. Still scope for a supporters bar at the ground as well hopefully.

They'd probably be better putting on a couple of shuttle buses to Stonehaven station instead of Aberdeen for away support (or Dyce for ICT or Ross County) for anyone getting the train out of the city post match. Would take a lot less time than fighting the city centre traffic with the AWPR coming in.

This is approximately the new location, a good six mile hike from the train station and just outside where the bypass in set to be. First impression is that it's far too far from the city centre. Makes it easier for fans out of town and away fans but its outwith walking distance of virtually the whole city (which wasn't the case with Loirston) so the club are potentially going have to lay on 100+ buses for most matchdays. Serious lack of pubs etc. in the area as well although I would imagine the club would incorporate a 1000+ capacity bar as they were going to do at Loirston. Will be interesting to see what the club says tomorrow anyway.

Agreed 100%. I would go as far as saying we haven't lost any player that we really would have wanted to keep in the 6 transfer windows he's had. This is not only down to McInnes' personality, it's also down to the type of players we sign. Celtic and Hearts (and a number of other clubs) are selling clubs. They sell their clubs to players by saying "if you do well here you can get a move to England". We have players who want to be at Aberdeen long-term and we're reaping the benefits of that.

Celtic have dropped 19 points against the other 10 clubs this season, last season they dropped 22. This season we have dropped 31 points against the other 10 clubs, last season we dropped 27. Up to the split we had dropped 28 points compared to just 19 points last season. If we had the same record against the other 10 as last season, alongside our record against Celtic this season, we would be in the driving seat for the league. We have nobody to blame but ourselves.

This season was significantly worse than last IMO, especially our form against teams other than Celtic. Last season we went on a run losing just one out of 28 games against the other 10 teams from our 3rd game of the season to when Celtic won the league. Since our good run at the start of the season we've won 13 of our 26 games. We've managed to beat a poorer Celtic team twice which is an improvement on last term but our results against the rest have been very poor. Chopping and changing our team hasn't helped. Last season we had a largely settled back 4 from game to game and had extended runs of clean sheets. We then signed the best left back in the league and it resulted in constant alterations to the side as he moved between defence and midfield and I believe this has affected the performances of Considine, Reynolds and Taylor. People have mentioned Jack should doing more to lead the team but I don't particularly blame him (unless he only stayed because he was given the armband). He should never have been made captain as he had previously displayed little to suggest that he had the ability to do so. He's still a good player but giving him the captaincy has ramped up the expectations surrounding him and his personality, and even playing style, don't match this. People picture a good captain as being hard as nails, flying into challenges, shouting at teammates etc. and Jack has never been that type of player. He does his job quietly in midfield and previously did it well. I wouldn't remove it before the end of the season but it is clear that Shinnie is a much better candidate. At least McInnes has identified what we need in the summer window. We need a b*****d in the middle of the park who had win the ball and physically assert himself on the opposition. Someone who the opposition's fans hate. Goalkeeper is another key area; signing a keeper who had spent 10 years in league 2 was never going to work and we need to look outwith our usual scouting area to find what we need as I don't think there's a suitable keeper in the SPFL. Another centre back would also be welcome to play alongside Taylor and another option up front would be welcome, although Shankland has done well recently for St Mirren. Definite areas for improvement next season. We have been unlucky in losing Ward and Rooney at important times and I dare say if Celtic had lost Gordon and Griffiths at similar times they would have suffered. We can't let ourselves fall behind Celtic, Hearts and the Rangers next season so some changes are needed.

People may disagree but I think putting Shinnie in midfield could be a solution to our problems at the moment. He's obviously naturally a left back but he excelled in a midfield role in 3 of our biggest wins this season: Rijeka away and the first games against Celtic at home and Hearts away. He's great at winning the ball in the middle of the park and likes to carry it forward into attack as well. He doesn't get bullied in the middle as well and takes some of the load off of Jack as well. Having those two at the base of the midfield gives McLean more opportunities to attack in front of them. It could make a difference to our defence as well. I think a big reason for our defensive frailties is the fact that we're constantly chopping and changing the back 4. Our defence thrived last season with pretty much the same settled back four every week and Considine was one of our better performers at LB. Shinnie is good enough to play pretty much anywhere on the pitch and he is able to influence games more in the middle of the park.

Not spent a lot of time on this but just got an email saying I will no longer qualify for bonuses with BetVictor. Does this affect open bonus bets? I used my £25 welcome bonus and they gave me the same offer again, maybe should have been more careful but can't complain too much after getting £50 worth of free bets. Also will this affect my McBookie account? I believe they are linked in some way and I've been getting £5 free bets pretty much every weekend from them.

Likewise, if the bar is crowded then it's not practical for bar staff to leave all those thirsty customers to collect the glasses from your table.

Strange that their top division is significantly better than ours yet their second tier is very like the Scottish Championship. Also, using the fact that a website now lists him as two-footed as being a sign of his progress It's obvious that he needs to be playing for Sporting's first team as soon as possible in order to aid his development and I think most people would have expected him to feature more by now. If he wanted to play in a league similar to the Scottish Championship he would have been better off staying at Dundee United.

Adam Rooney's having a party Bring your fruit shoot and your Smarties

Scottish football needs an NFL-style commissioner to control it. Any decisions made by the SPFL are going to be influenced by self interest by clubs. Decisions should be made independent from this bias and should be made for the good of the league overall.

I seriously doubt Shetland will ever play in a mainland league. Travel is obviously the main issue with the need to sail to either Aberdeen or Thurso via Orkney and even then, these routes are notorious for disruptions, particularly in winter. For Orkney, one away game takes up a day, for Shetland it would be a weekend. Cost is not so much of an issue as I believe the Shetland rugby team get reduced rates of around £20 return for the ferries to away games. The big difference is that the rugby team have often travelled down with around 10 players, having to rely on mainland-based islanders, favours from other clubs or just playing with less than 15 players. There would be a much bigger playing pool for football but there aren't the same leniencies in terms of registrations that exist in rugby and form would really suffer if the team was changing every week. Another key problem would be that a Shetland side would essentially be a league select team. I'm not sure how you would work around this if a big squad was needed but players also weren't allowed to play in the island league. Standard is definitely not an issue with Shetland recently holding their own against Highland League sides and performing well in the Island Games. They also won the Jock Mackay cup last season, only to pull out this season due to numerous call-offs which resulted in turning up at Thurso with no game to play. It's mainly time that is the issue and without a hell of a lot of leeway from the league/SFA (or significant private funding to enable the team to fly to games) it won't happen unfortunately.

If this is the case, why was Logan booed by the Celtic support in the first game between the sides following the incident? There had been no interaction or incidents between himself and the Celtic support up to this point apart from him outing racist posts made to him by Celtic fans via social media, so what reason was there for booing him, other than speaking out against racial abuse? I agree that his conduct towards Celtic fans since then has been a bit unprofessional, (although it has generally been funny as f*ck) but this has purely been in response to them and their club vilifying him for speaking out against racial abuse directed towards him. Celtic fans can claim Logan is a c*nt all they like, but the only initial grievance that they had with him was that he had the cheek to speak out against racist behaviour from one of their players. That is an unavoidable fact.

Knew this would happen ever since he blew kisses to their away support back in September.

Anyone know when Rooney is meant to be back from injury?

Pretty sure that was the game that the players had to pay for the team bus to travel up. You could do an interesting "where are they now" with that Gretna team.

Also noticed our game vs Hamilton is now £15 for adults and £5 for under 18's. Hamilton fans also being moved to Section A of the Main Stand which I haven't seen for a league game before.

I don't completely blame the season ticket holders in the RDL. It's a much better stand than the Merkland in terms of facilities and view and a lot of people will have had their seat their for several years. I can also understand why the club doesn't want to upset a block of fans which is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds every season. I do think that some kind of "best of both worlds" solution could have been found with a family section in the main stand side of the RDL with "normal" season ticket holders in the side towards the away end with those who have had ST's the longest there being given priority. Keeps the kids away from the big bad away fans and lets them see the players up close as they come out the tunnel. One side of the Merkland could be the singing section, with plenty of space for expansion, and season ticket holders from the RDL can get the pick of the seats with plenty available for general sale tickets. The solution they chose will end in tears when mums and dads complain about the singing sections boys saying a few bad words. I don't think there is an ideal scenario for the numbers they are getting but I don't think this is the answer.

A family stand with a singing section section inside it, this won't end well.

Positive move from the club. Some of the comments on facebook/chat/mad about this highlight exactly why such a group is needed. Homophobia is still a major issue in football and it's good to see we're taking steps to address this.

Also worth noting that the original fixtures had Hearts at home at 3pm on a Saturday and Thistle at home at 7:45pm on a weekday.

F*cked up my bet on Shakhtar vs Schalke and ended up an extra £55 up! Had my £20 free bet on the draw and £14.29 laid against Schalke winning. Benefited this time but need to be more careful in future.