RiG

There is a reason I am getting caught up in the Man Utd/ICT comparison because that is my whole point :004: I know full well ICT can replace players like other clubs do but the manner and timescale in which we can replace them is vastly different to certain other clubs. That's basically what I am saying - we find it harder than some/most clubs to replace talented players because we won't attract the best and are, for the most part, a stepping stone club. This is what other managers have been judged on as ICT have seldom lost many important players all at once. Last season you could argue the spine of the team was lost when Dargo, Dods and Brown all left. Have we replaced them? In Browns case yes but the other two I'm not so sure. Through in Rankin as well as Black and perhaps Wyness and these are 5 hugely talented players that ICT were/are very lucky to have and replacing them is going to be **** difficult. We'll just need to see who comes in. And looking at one of the other threads I see something about Juanjo? :017:

CaleyJaggy To be honest I am not sure you really have a point. Can you clarify what it is? You haven't even addressed any of the points I made in my post about the problems ICT face compared to Man United in attracting players to the club which is what your recent posts have been about - likening Brewster and Black to Ferguson and Beckham/Van Nistlerooy which is not comparable. Correct and of course they shouldn't but I am not disputing this in the slightest. How many times do I need to say this - I am not saying that we couldn't attract a player as good as or better than Black. What I am saying is that is not as easy as you seem to think with your whole Brewster/Black & Ferguson/Beckham analogy. Beckham went out and Ronaldo came in. Black, in theory, goes out, who comes in to replace him as easily as Man United replaced Backham and Van Nistlerooy? This is my point. ICT don't have the financial clout, reputation or even location to be able to easily and readily attract talented players in a comparable manner to Man United who could click their fingers to find replacements for one of their players and you would get half of the worlds footballers chapping down their door for a shot at Old Trafford. In fact you have actually managed to go against your own argument by listing two players ICT have never replaced fully in Dods and Dargo. Throw in Rankin and you have 3 key players that ICT have yet to fully replace and our league position has suffered as a result. What makes you think that Black will be so much easier to replace than those three? What has this got to do with your Craig Brewster, Ian Black, Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham analogy which is what I am talking about?

Got any in mind? And how have ICT done with regards to replacing Dods and Dargo and now Rankin? We have become worse since these players departed and our league position backs that up.

Again you are missing the point. I'm saying we wouldn't find doing it so easy to accomplish as a club like Man United might do. We don't have infinite wealth. We don't have a great reputation. Like it or not our location is an issue when it comes to signing players. How many players do you hear saying Manchester is too far away and they want to move to be closer to their families? We could do it if we wanted to but "Player X" would not be as easy to replace as you might think. An excellent case of this would be Darren Dods whom we have struggled to replace despite bringing in a couple of new defenders or even Dargo when he left for St. Mirren. Did Man United have the same problems when they needed a new striker to replace Van Nistelrooy or a new midfielder to replace Beckham? Put simply - it is harder for ICT to attract a player to replace their top players once they depart. A problem Man United do not suffer from.

You are completely missing the point. Ferguson could sell players of that talent because he know he could buy in players just as if not more talented. Brewster and ICT can not do the same. The comparisons ends with "selling a top player". Sure he could get rid of Black if he so wishes but we cannot easily bring a player to replace him or others like United could do. By the way, Van Nistlerooy didn't get to start the League Cup Final and was benched for numerous games after. That's where a fall out was rumoured to have come from :004:

The 2nd one. Gretna are dying and are on life support from the SPL. The SPL seem to be doing whatever they can to try and get the club to limp to the end of the season before they dump them onto the SFL while inconveniencing fans in the process whereas the best thing to do would be just to let them die. The administrator is wanting to wind the club up and has said even if they make it to the end of the season this will likely happen anyway. The SPL just don't want a bigger mess than they already have to clean up. And Motherwell are hardly innocent here either. Their ground now no longer has working USH! Has their pitch been relaid? This whole Gretna saga underlines just what an absolute joke the SPL is. Falkirk and St. Mirren should be spitting blood at the suits at this latest shambles.

"Blacks tells Brewster he doesn't want to play for him"

The guy is a fool. Of course there is that infamous Lennon v Juanjo incident when we had the double team of Freeland AND MacDonald :007:

But ~ 5 days notice of the change is an absolute scandal!

Gretna breaking more rules I believe. A disgraceful decision. Lets hope no fans had already made plans to travel. The SPL is an utter shambles.

What a bunch of idiots the SPL are! I hope no one had bought train or bus tickets to Edinburgh/Livingston prior to this announcement! :008:

Brewsters tactics are long ball to the striker(s) and this was still evident even when MacDonald went up against Jones. Odd thing is, even under Brewster, when we do pass the ball we do it well. We do have a good passing team available to us so it beggars belief why we whack the ball up the pitch at times.

I read that as saying Brewster doesn't want to talk about it...

I think you miss the point. The downturn in ICTs fortunes are related to Brewster and Co. and their actions. The contract fiasco of several key players, the alienation of players like Rankin, Black and Wyness, key squad members being sold, poor tactics being employed and backroom staff "leaving" in a cloak and dagger style. The players might not have been great but so many have been played out of position and others used in daft scenarios while employing useless tactics it can be seen why so many have been ineffective. At Easter Road in January Dean Macdonald was brought on and stuck up front against Rob Jones while we continued to pelt long balls up to him. Now is it MacDonalds fault that he hardly did anything in the final few minutes or the managers due to employing such ineffecient tactics? Cowie - a rip roaring success on the right has been moved all over midfield since and has been much quieter of late recently. Bizarre way of looking at things!

You know that Rankin leaving wasn't the only thing to have happened since that good run that might be responsbile for our current shocking line of results?

"The 4th Official has indicated there will be a minimum of 4 minutes stoppage time" MINIMUM!

You can't have had much contact with MacDonald before then? :004: He is consistently as bad as Freeland and also Murray. Also Craig Thomson is meant to be pretty bad as well.

Not since we heard about the United dressing room falling apart prior to Levein arriving. Who was manager there again?

No he wouldn't. Lets get this straight - you say he should have been booked because: 1) He raised his hands "aggressively" 2) He "looked a bit passionate or angry" That's almost as bad as the poster earlier saying he was lucky not be arrested! You're not Charlie Allan or Stewart McKimmie are you?

Hysterical nonsense from the Evening Express regarding Russell Duncan:

Hat - trick in the CIS Cup Late penalty winner at Pittodrie Headed equaliser on Saturday

Taken from an Aberdeen site via P & B: -------------------- Yesterday - winner - 90 mins 02/01/08 - winner - pen 85 mins 13/01/07 - equaliser - 90 mins 06/11/06 - equaliser - 90 mins 05/08/06 - equaliser (for them) - 89 mins 01/04/06 - winner - 85 mins -------------------- Pretty staggering how many late goals we have conceded to The Sheep :007:

I don't think I put it well at all - it's just a list of bullet points really :004: I agree about the corners though I did note a couple of players move further back after the first few corners were over hit but still not that great overall. Even though Rankin sometimes struggled to get the ball past the first man when taking a corner when he did they were usually excellent. It's a shame we don't have someone with the same whip and bend he had. Instead they seem to be more "lofted" up to the back post as you point out. A wee bit of variety wouldn't go amiss.

Just going to list various things I noticed or thought of during/after the game: Overall the game was poor in terms of the football played. Aberdeen seemed more likely to try and pass it but we were too reliant on hoofing the ball up the park as usual. However, there was some nice passing in places I felt. Our line up was odd. Not sure about Tokely in midfield really. He was caught out a lot by Aluko but stuck to his job well on most occasions. However, in our system the right midfielder needs to help cover back with our right sided full back and this he couldn't to due to this lack of pace and Proctor was often left exposed. The first Aberdeen goal was abysmal defending from Proctor, Tokely, Munro and McGuire. Far too easy for the lad to cut inside and stroke the ball past Fraser. Niculae being ball greedy! Why oh why did he not pick out Cowie all alone with an empty net in front if him? Worst decision by anyone of the entire 90 minutes. Odd goal to level with but we'll take it. I thought it was going to head out of play till Bus(s) arrived to smash a header into his own net. Duncans finish was a sweet strike and I believe his yellow for his celebration was incorrect however the highlights might clear this up as to what happened. Seemed that it was the reaction of Aberdeen players and fans that got him booked. Especially when you consider Nicholson celebrating in front of/baiting the ICT fans. Personally I think both should have been allowed but if MacDonald was to book Duncan then he should book Nicholson. It was a fantastic goal they equalised with but Hastings was too slow to close down and allowed Foster (?) too much time and space to pick out the runner into the box with McGuire static as Nicholson rose. Could Ikey have come for it? Cracking goal nonetheless but we made it easy. Duncans sending off - will be interesting to see just what he does with regards to "kicking the ball away" from MacDonald. Can't help but fele that there wasn't too much in it but we'll see (hopefully) in the highlights. Put us on the back foot for the 2nd half but we coped well under intense pressure at times though on other occasions we were falling apart. Seemed to galvanise the effort from the lads so that was appreciated given recent performances showing so little enthusiasm. Munro had a spectacular goal line clearance from Miller or Mackie I think it was. Miller then went on to miss an open goal as he sidefooted wide. More dodgy defending from us allowed this opportunity. Our free kicks at the edge of the box were atrocious. We had a horror one from Duncan against "Team X" but Imrie topped that yesterday with his one. Something we need to work on clearly. Any chance of Rankin giving the lads some pointers? Subs were interesting. I actually think the players he brought on were good - Hart added fresh legs and plenty of effort in the midfield and putting Marcus on retained our balance. However we could have used another pair of fresh legs in there to help us hold the ball up away from the goal. That's where Wyness came in. Players like McBain and Cowie were tiring badly although that's too be expected. We still looked a threat on the counter. Forced some corners and had a few reasonable efforts e.g. Marcus going for glory and I think Hart and Tokely both had breaks into the box that just failed to result in anything. Killer goal at the end where we just couldn't clear our lines and up popped Maguire to steal in to get the winner. Positives The sheer effort from the team was a huge positive and something we haven't seen in a long time. Some of the goals we scored were excellent I felt. I thought McBains goal was a great finish as it could so easily have got stuck under his feet (see Brown in the Rangers v Celtic game) Niculae was brilliant in holding the ball up and looking for the clever pass into space - no long ball mince here! Negatives The result obviously The possible lack of discipline from Duncan and Munro that resulted in the red cards The defence still needs a lot of work The fact that we were crying out for another pair of fresh legs to help take some of the heat off the lads towards the end was ignored

Yes.