Ampersand
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Posts posted by Ampersand
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1 hour ago, Swello said:
The Battle for Top 8 is going to the wire though.
Could even finish the season with Top Seven Sunday.
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On 05/05/2024 at 06:41, RandomGuy. said:
I'd rather not allow this idea that we were doomed when he joined, and there's nothing he could do, take root. It's clearly the line he'll use once he's gone.
Was thinking this on Saturday listening to his interview - he will walk if you go down (and maybe if you don't), and be straight back on the radio and podcasting a week or two later trotting out exactly this line. That'll be after Sportsound's in depth analysis that he's 'clearly a good manager', 'wealth of experience', 'inherited a really poor situation' etc. Not long after that he'll be making wry wee quips about the whole thing, and I'll find it galling, never mind Saints fans.
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1 hour ago, DukDukGoose said:
There is definitely a lot of potential in Sokler.
We don't necessarily need him to reach Bojan levels. Others need to step up to the table and score a few more goals.
McGrath aside.
Agree with all this. Sokler may well have been a contingency signing last summer - affordable enough to have as an extra body if Miovski stayed; good enough to use a lot if a huge offer had come in for Miovski late in August. We got him in mid-window I think?
I'd be happy to go with him as 9 next season, with Duk hopefully finding better form and minutes for Bavidge. We realistically need to see if there's anything to be got from Gueye as well, assuming Kristiansund aren't about to cough up most of our outlay on him.
The Miovski money will partly be spent on the scouting network and youth system, won't it? What goes into the transfer budget should be spent further back in the team.
Agree with @Moorie that we won't release many - it's wasteful. Unless someone wants to buy them off us, McGarry, Jensen, McDonald and Doohan will all be around next season I expect.
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10 hours ago, Insert Amusing Pseudonym said:
Garry O'Connor is spherical and exists in a vacuum
He exists as a vacuum as well, does he not? Sure I heard he’s always hoovering up.
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Robertson gave a free kick for the aerial challenge I think? Just incompetent enough to point to the spot, where the challenge was.
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3 hours ago, Drooper said:
I recall McInnes doing pretty well but it was never quite good enough for a substantial proportion of the Aberdeen support.
I expect this is the bit most Dons fans would contest. There was a vocal minority who may never have been happy, but what support doesn't have a frankly dim vocal minority? As @Dons_1988 says, Sportsound repeats the 'What do they expect? They hounded out McInnes etc' nonsense ad nauseam. Same hacks who suggest Neil Lennon for every job going.
McInnes did do well for several seasons, but we were on a downward slope for at least 18 months before he left. And he was also unwilling to work in the structure Cormack and the board wanted to bring in, so it was only going to end one way.
3 hours ago, Drooper said:I would have thought that a solid top 6 finish and a tilt at Europe in his first season wouldn't be a failure, no?
I agree this would be reasonable for Thelin's first season - with evidence of the pitch of some adaptability and well-drilled patterns of play. Some sort of f*cking plan, basically, which we've been missing for a while. If I can see what he's trying to achieve, and I flatter myself that I'm not in that dim minority, then I'd take a top 6 finish and decent cup runs. I expect most would.
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13 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:
The pequeno y grande front two will be a pioneering tactic for the gegenpress teams of the future.
Particularly effective when the 'buenos pies para un hombre grande' variant is deployed.
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4-4-2 is due a comeback I reckon. Pep or Julian Nagelsmann will start using it and it'll be billed as a radical reinvention.
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1 hour ago, DukDukGoose said:
A 'Devlin' as we call it.
Formerly known as a Kennedy.
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5 minutes ago, coprolite said:
Any of the defenders on that list
A centre-back pairing of Andy Considine and Paul Hanlon sounds pacy.
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Over in the new manager thread, in the absence of a new manager to discuss, a few posters were reflecting on our transfer/scouting policy of the last few windows, and how to strike the right balance between data-led recruitment and more traditional scouting (you know, watching a player play football in person). There was also some chat about combining more ambitious international scouting with more pragmatic, safer signings from within the SPFL (as far as any signing is safe).
Hearts have got a few solid if unexciting pre-contracts tied up in the form of Penrice, Spittal and Dhanda. Who would folk like to see us approaching in a similar mould?
I realize this is pretty moot without a technical director and head coach in place, so we'll likely miss the boat on pre-contracts anyway, but going off the contracts ending list on transfermarkt - https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/scottish-premiership/endendevertraege/wettbewerb/SC1 - the pickings look slim.
Maybe bringing Bruce Anderson back as a fairly solid Premiership striking option? Assuming Bojan is sold and Gueye moved on somehow. He screams McInnes-signing, so I'd expect to see him at Killie.
Scott Tanser at St Mirren, maybe? Probably more reliable than McKenzie and less injured than McGarry. Meh.
ETA: I've discounted anyone who, to me, is simply unrealistic, namely Keanu Baccus, Ryan Strain (both heading south I assume) and Beni Baningime (staying put or down south too).
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I would like to believe we’re very far down the line in getting closer to being in a position to move things forward on a timeline that is in line with the medium- and long-term strategic goals of the club.
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6 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:
There was me thinking it was the biggest town in Scotland.
In the most populated region of the country, giving access to a large player pool and theoretically making scouting easier.
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11 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:
good organisation and preparation combined with academic rigour
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1 hour ago, fasda2 said:
Well that’s at least four of us who know plus Klopp himself of course.
Aye, Klopp knows it’s Mark Fotheringham. The Fußballtrainer group chat is buzzing with it, given his reputation over there.
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1 minute ago, DrewDon said:
We want a manager who is on an upward trajectory but has plenty of experience, who has no preconceptions about Scottish football but has knowledge of the Scottish game, who will play attractive, attacking football but is a pragmatist and won't be married to one philosophy, who will be successful but not successful enough that he will ever be tempted to move to a bigger club.
Or, 8 managers who can form like Voltron. Make it happen FMB.
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2 minutes ago, VincentGuerin said:
Getting sacked in the EFL is no way to judge a coach. Everybody gets sacked and it's an environment of streaky teams.
Very true, and as others have said this is what makes Alex Neil unlikely. The EFL managerial wheel of fortune will land on his name again soon enough, for a higher salary (and subsequent payoff) than we're likely to offer.
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38 minutes ago, DrewDon said:
That account just lifts things off forums, other Twitter users, and occasionally from Scott Burns.
Burns himself says only one of those three names is an active consideration, to his knowledge, and I would take a guess at that being Thelin.
As much as I would like it to be Alex Neil, I can’t see him being desperate or stupid enough to take this job on at the moment.
@RandomGuy. - a fuller and better assessment than mine over on the next manager thread.
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10 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:
How reliable is this guy?
If memory serves, reliable when just repeating actual ITK-types' stuff, otherwise not so much. (I might be misremembering though.)
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9 hours ago, 10menwent2mow said:
In the same season that we've won at Ibrox, beaten Hibs with 10 men in a semi, had some very respectable performances in Europe, we have picked up 6 league wins. Half of which have come against the only other two teams currently below us in the table. We've won TWICE out of NINETEEN games against the teams from 3rd to 9th. Those teams are Hearts, St Mirren, Killie, Dundee, Hibs, Motherwell and St Johnstone. This really is as bad as I can remember. f**k, if it wasn't for the 5 points we'd picked up against the bigot brothers to County's zero. And the 6 we've got against them, we'd be cut adrift in 11th.
Aberdeen FC have been well and truly cormacked.
That is properly grim.
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1 hour ago, Leith Green said:
My wife (not interested in fitba) asked me about the differences last night.
What I told her is that Rangers are on a vastly different level - their behaviour, bigotry, songbook, and everything else has to be seen to be believed.
I've had this exact conversation with my wife (also not interested in football). Rangers games undoubtedly bring out peak-arseholery in our support, but the bile from the other end at those games is just relentless.
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35 minutes ago, DukDukGoose said:
Ask yourself why he would leave early.
Fair. I think mostly his own ego - thought he'd stroll it, taken aback by the negative attention he got, an element of 'this isn't worth it.'
I'm guessing you suspect more of 'I'm getting the f*ck out of Dodge - this is a nightmare of a club?' Not an unreasonable conclusion either.
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I think I got overly caught up in the typically over-the-top and ill-informed Sportsound reaction to Warnock leaving - more fool me. Because of the circus around Warnock and Cormack's poor media skills, it all looks a bit worse than it is, really, and this morning's statement is actually fairly reassuring. What has actually happened?
- Club sacks underperforming and underqualified manager (it's on them for hiring him in the first place, of course)
- Club recognises structural flaws; hires well-regarded firm to audit all that, and decides to take time over next managerial appointment
- A vastly experienced, media-friendly interim is appointed who specialises in short-term gigs
- That appointment doesn't work out, so club decides to finalise new manager sooner than originally planned
- Interim decides to chuck it a couple of weeks early (which seems to be what's happened), which isn't necessarily the club's fault
There's not really anything daft going on there, when broken down like that. I expect the DoF will be 'supported' for a few months before being re-assigned or let go, or I hope that's the case. I've talked myself down from calling us an 'exploding clown car' in another thread on Saturday.
All of the above is, of course, null and void if Neil Lennon is appointed.
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37 minutes ago, sophia said:
I think you'd be better off with either or any
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Mathematical Milestones 2023/24
in Scottish Premiership General Chatter
Posted
Leith Walk a sea of green and white as the Bottom Six SPFL PREMIERSHIP CHAMPIONS 23/24 open-top bus makes its way through EH6.