Fitba eh?! The agony and the ecstacy. But enough of my 1990s drug habits. Let’s look at the talking points of an exceptionally eventful Aberdeen FC week.

In reverse. A performance against The Rangers. A fighting performance, a solid performance, it could so easily have been a win. And for the first time in a long time, enjoyable to watch. Still just one performance, they are not out of the woods, but they’ve found their torch, their boots are on the right feet, and the wee Venezuelan fella may have brought a map… (I tweeted that, and was roundly ignored, so it’s here).

Big Sam getting a wee bit of stick online. For me he was magnificent, apart from his couple of fluffs. It was inevitable he would go off form after improving month on month at such a rate in the last twelve months. He will come very good again very shortly. But he was getting right under their skin, and his aggression looked far more controlled, despite their very clear attempts to get him sent off.

Jon Gallagher. An apology, gotten a bit of stick on here (he’s in the illustration!!) He looked very good playing off Big Sam, and I was loving the wee interplay of him hovering around Sam when the long ball came, and how it was disturbing the opposition defenders. And Ash Taylor, if he had just scored that header, we’d have named a stand after him, if we were the sort of club who honoured players’ achievements…

Damn me and my optimism, I am happy for enjoying a game of fitba for the first time in a very long time.

That press conference

So moving backwards to the midweek press conference. Absolutely not happy at that clearly planned attack on an element of our support and felt, like a few on social media, that was the beginning of the end for the pair of them. They were engineering their own way out. Also that the worst part was tweeted by the official Twitter feed was astounding.

On the back of that performance against The Rangers, I am perhaps giving way too much credit here, but wonder if perhaps ‘the bollocking’ from Docherty may have been not for our benefit. It may have been for the players. They certainly appeared to have woken the fuck up for the first time in sometime at Ibrox.

On the other hand, are mind games really the McInnes/Docherty way?

So here’s what I thought was disgraceful. On the back of a third post winter break performance in a row against teams whose combined player buget don’t add up to a third of ours, we got three ‘nails down the blackboard’ performances in a row. And before they went away they were awful too.

An element of our away support, who had travelled to Paisley, on the back of those previous two performances, started singing McInnes must go, or gtf (I believe).

So, an element of, the most loyal element of our support, who are spending their hard earned, using their free time on following the team, our away support… unless they’ve actually killed someone, those guys are beyond reproach.

Doesn’t mean I agree with them.

But a public fucking bollocking. McInnes is a grown up. A highly paid grown up. You prove them wrong on the pitch, not in a fucking press conference. We are football supporters. Flash us a shiny object* and our attention is immediately moved, and we’ve forgotten everything. And as any primary school teacher will tell you, you’ve made a fucking enormous rod for your own backs there. All the kids now know exactly how to get to you. You’d better be making sure that fucking team of yours starts delivering consistently.

Again though, might that be the idea he was communicating to the team… really don’t know.

Docherty needs to say something very positive about the away support. Even the ones at the back, chewing gum and graffitiing the toilets…

*The shiny object

So in our Pulp Fictionesque storytelling technique (out of order) me jump to the signing of Hernandez. Which, hipster kids, is pronounced ‘Gernandez’. The H sound is pronounced ‘G’ in Venezuelan, in reverse of how it works in Dutch with Gillhaus.

An exciting foreign signing. An exciting signing. Chickens not being counted, but, yes you fucking beauty!! Counting chickens a wee bit then.

And this is where I upset a lot of supporters. Perhaps it’s an age thing. Been watching ALL the Milne years. All the way through. Watching, listening, wondering, analysing, over analysing…

Watching Cormack in action. Absolutely underlines every suspicion about Milne. It was never about spending money, it was about ambition, creative thinking, passion. It’s there with Cormack, it wasn’t there before.

Watch Milne’s last interview with BBC Scotland, referencing the story of McInnes not moving to The Rangers. Who was that for? Was that beneficial to our club or our manager? It was EXACTLY what the Glasgow media wanted for their creepy Glasgow Centric ‘journalism’ though. So who got publicity? The Stewart Milne years.

The Dave Cormack Shed

Back to Cormack, if he would just consider a third option for the stadium, an as yet unfound location for a potential new stadium. Land changes ownership and usage all the time. I’d say within two miles of a train station ought to be the criteria. (walking distance). There’s Aberdeen Station (ideally), Dyce Station, and there could even be some creative thinking for Stonehaven Station.

The third option stops it being about Kingsford or Pittodrie. And then for the benefit of everyone regarding the biggest decision in the history of Aberdeen FC , we would know without any shadow of doubt, the move wasn’t being created to be beneficial to someone’s business empire…

In a year remarkably short on Aberdeen FC highs, there is no doubt 2019 belongs to one man, Sir Sam Cosgrove. The stats speak for themselves, after scoring precisely no goals in 2018, he has at the time of writing reached 973 goals in all competitions for Aberdeen, 267 assists, scored 43 penalties, saved 5 penalties, and punched a seagull clean out. (I don’t do research, you can find the real stats yourself).

To be more serious though, not only did he find his form and develop month on month as a player, he did it with a considerable section of the Aberdeen support on his back willing him to fail, for quite some time. That is something that could, and has destroyed other players, and at that young age is quite something to have turned around.

There is something robotic to Big Sam. Perhaps part cyber might be a less negative connotation. I have always felt there was something of that in Cristiano Ronaldo too. That combination of talent and sheer hard work. Not saying he is anything like Ronaldo as a player, just from the physique and the work ethic, and the steely robotic determination, there is something shared in the mentality.

I read recently he is, as well as our goal machine, studying accountancy. Maybe that was the cold, robotic, cyber vibe I was picking up. Apologies to any accountants…

Scott McKenna

Worth taking a look at Mr 2017-2018 too, Scott McKenna. An important lesson in what can go staggeringly wrong. Albeit he can still save it.

He’s clearly been tapped up, as they bid for him, we know which team it was, and that has contributed to his first half of the 2019-2020 season being pretty appalling by his own high standards. Another point on McKenna is when he was really good for us, Kári Árnason was at the club. It was mentioned a few times, how much Árnason was talking to him during games, or if not playing, during training games. Not saying for a second a 37 year old should be brought back, but it is sometimes worth analysing why someone was previously exceptionally good, rather than why they seem to have lost it a bit.

Cormack Soccer Park

Then there is the training facilities, which are in a shock to all watchers of Aberdeen FC supporters and all things AFC, a universally popular development. Having said that (here we go) after a couple of recent performances, and the discovery that it will cost 750k a year to run, bit of me thought, a little bit of me, just shut the effin’ thing, and make them train on the effin’ beach, with the effin’ tide in preferrably…

As for Cormack, we can only wait and see. He lives on another continent, as does another director, who’s trivial in the scheme of things 2 million contribution for a remarkably large percentage of our club is at the least worth monitoring. The ‘what in the love of God is Gallagher doing in our team’ element doesn’t help that concern.

The loan players in our team has to be one of the biggest concerns of the latter McInnes era. Why are they in our team? If they are with a view to a purchase, fair enough. But developing other clubs’ players, resulting in the temporary nature of our squad. The lack of cohesion and understanding each season, as they start again with another group of new players, what’s the point in having players for six months in our team? I can see what the loan player gets out of it for their career, and I can see what the team owning the player get, and I can see what it does for the manager’s CV, but I don’t see what the Aberdeen FC team get.

If we don’t have enough talent coming through the youth system to deserve those first team development places, we need to be hoovering up the talent from the lower Scottish leagues. It’s not accidental, despite there being plenty good at Aberdeen FC, a lack of continuity is making us have to start again twice a season, and is massively hampering any chance in Europe, as a brand new team is several months away from developing as a team. And in season 2019-2020, in December, still hasn’t clicked.

Pretty sure the cup winning team of a couple of years ago contained no loan players. Here’s to 2020, and Dek revealing he had a cunning plan developing all along proving everybody wrong, and making us all deliriously happy!

What a week. New training facilities, Sir Alex Ferguson, six points. Curtis Main puts in a great performance and scores a goal, the manager looks more like his old self in a post match interview.

We’re not happy of course. We’re Aberdonians. We’re a bit less unhappy than we were.

The opening of the new training facilities. Interesting to hear people speak. Sir Alex Ferguson’s bit about Stewart Milne not being able to take it with him. Utterly beautiful.

Bobby Clark’s speech. Got a real hint of what it was that so many people who knew him, looked up to him for. And the story of Sir Alex, barely started the job, finding and insisting on signing Johnny Hewitt… I’m not crying, you are.

Also for the first time ever a former PE teacher and the phrase ‘touched me in ways…’, was positive. (well it made me laugh!)

Curtis Main

Curtis Main though. It was just one goal, it was just one performance. But here we go again. What is wrong with so many in the Aberdeen support? Seriously what is wrong with you people. The determination, and clear enjoyment in bullying and trying to destroy another human being, and actively damaging the team that you support.

This is nothing new, this isn’t social media (albeit it amplifies it). Gordon Strachan got it, I remember Willie Falconer as a 19 year old getting it. And again, and again as with Sam Cosgrove, the player turns out to be good, and sometimes very good. And yet those in the Aberdeen support, never learn.

Why is Bruce Anderson not playing? What does he need to do to get a game? Often from the same people slagging off Main, who were slagging off Cosgrove before he started delivering.

Because of you, he’s not playing. Because YOU, can’t be trusted to not go after, and try to destroy, a footballer wearing an Aberdeen shirt. Irrespective of age, or experience. You can’t be trusted, because you’ve done it before, and you’ll do it again.

To unlock people’s potential, you have to support them, and make them feel welcome.

Brendan Rodgers

And while I am being self righteous. Brendan Rodgers. WHY IS HE LEAVING NOW, the Scottish media screamed in unison when he left, before picking up the treble, treble. Both showing that the treble, treble in Scotland with that budget, was no achievement whatsoever, and the Scottish media are nothing short of a disgrace. Pandering to supporters of both the Glasgow clubs, who are dangerously out of control as entities in society, as no-one is holding them to account.

March 15th I wrote about why he left when he did. https://thedandydons.com/the-glasgow-media-reach-a-new-low/, and how it mirrored Derek McInnes’s decision to start the Aberdeen FC job when he did. It’s not rocket science, it’s basic common sense if you’re not pandering to the deluded.

He needed to get in there early, to prepare for this season. Preparation is everything in football. And what you see on the pitch today, isn’t what you will see on the pitch in a few months time. Talented people need time and the correct positive environment, to unlock potential. Training facilities, supporters being supportive, just a little vision.

And if you missed the training facilities opening.

https://youtu.be/H06DW4QaDvA

The window is closed. Way hay. From what I saw on Twitter, quite a few were hoping for the return of Jonny Hayes. Helped along by someone insisting ‘they knew something’, and ‘it was definitely going to happen’. Well maybe it nearly happened, one never knows, but really? Did it nearly happen? Should we have been excited about the prospect?

Not for a second criticising Jonny Hayes. Comes over like a lovely bloke, and he was magnificent in an Aberdeen shirt, once McInnes got hold of him. But let’s remember, he left, for money. Quite understandably so, at that stage in his career. He has no idea what awaits after football, he, like all of them, need to maximise their income while they have the chance. Why would he end that stonking salary now? Would he have joined us on loan? Then he couldn’t play them. I think we’ve learned from that one. So, for financial reasons, I don’t think he was ever coming back, at the moment.

Then there’s football. This happens a lot, a player’s former reputation excites fans rather than what he’d actually be. He’s a couple of years older, at an age where pace starts to slip away. A big part of his game. And in the mean time, he suffered a broken leg, which will also have taken a toll on his speed/acceleration.

Still a very good footballer. But not the player we sold. We very much got the best out of him. Selling him at exactly the right time, for a considerable amount of cash, which those with a ‘Everything McInnes bad’ attitude will carefully forget.

Also we have McLennan, McGinn, Wright, Hedges, and possibly Wilson for the wings. Is five not enough? We needed another one? Perhaps Hayes as fullback, where he will presumably be moving to for the latter part of his career. Hayes was a great player, and was a great servant to the club, but just because McGinn came back, doesn’t mean Hayes would.

McGinn was only gone half a season. A bad thigh tear would have lasted that long. It’s almost like he didn’t leave. Had a long holiday in South Korea, earned presumably a huge amount of money on a paid off contract, decided South Korean hotdogs were not nearly as good as mock chop suppers, and came back, to what is definitely, oh yes it is Niall, his favourite club.
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