absent friend

When I read the reports on Aberdeens pre-season in Egypt perhaps we are doing something right. The Dons are playing in excessive heat, they can't even play golf/tennis etc when they are given free time, two of their players have been shown red cards and miss the first game of the season and they have been found wanting in their ability to beat unknown teams. Their manager has even gone into print to apologise to all concerned. What a field day there would be on here for all the 'neggie' posters if that was ICT and their management team!! As has been remarked upon on here earlier, having games that allow our players to enjoy more of the ball will give CC a better understanding of players abilities and if the other team are able to put pressure on the defence all good and well. By all accounts this happened.

Very Happy (signed) Mr D. DUCK

The Daily Retard have stated that his additional income is from sponsors money and I would have thought that somewhere along the line the players must have a win bonus scheme that will be the recipient of this players efforts - if he is as good as his publicity. Sources outwith the club prepared to part with their hard earned profits to part fund a player, who in turn is going to make money for the other players and they, along with Black, are complaining about this?? I don't think so!! Paper talk indeed!

Maybe this article proves the 'fors' and 'againsts' CC supporters as all being correct, over the last period of time. Being a 'for' all along I must admit that I was not aware of the turmoil he was going through - perhaps the 'againsts' were more in tune with his mood and could sense a problem and therefore recognised that all was not well in management, at that time. Honest article and thank Heavens he has accepted the problem and taken steps to sort it. Although maybe we expect him to be, he is not superman, as he admits.

Having perhaps a small measure of apprehension regarding the waygoing of Dods making our defence leak goals, I feel ICT will be more able to claim a top six slot than last season - and we almost made it then. Positivity, positivity, bucket loads of the stuff coming out of the club - roll on the first game!!

Priceless!!

I did not realise that this player had such a huge impact on our winning ways!! All this negativity about the the loss of one player? We have seen them come and go and we have historic proof that this wee club is bigger than any player or manager! Craig Dargo is history - ICT is the future - Roll on the new season! Punch above their weight?...They most certainly have done and will do again!!

Is this the same CC that was leading ICT out of the SPL not so long ago - according to many, many posters on this site! Hasn't he done well??

Backroom staff should be more aware of a players potential than any spectator but it is annoying for us if it is not happening on the day. Mackie, at Aberdeen, still 'enjoys' the boo boys when he is playing and he has now produced the goods on the park but he did have a fallow time. I have yet to meet a Dons fan with a good word to say about him but his manager keep his belief in him. Maybe, as he is a bit younger than Mackie, the boo boys are getting to our Rory. If you are under additional pressure, whither it be a driving test or a written exam, I defy anyone to produce a performance that compares with your natural ability. Maybe he just needs someone else to be the target for the boo boys and give him peace to produce. I still think he is two seasons away from the maturity he needs to be a good striker. Rooney, since he was mentioned, was born mature, in my opinion!

Just a small thought. There may be others like me that saw this thread and passed it by as we have read it all before, ( I thought) It was the amount of traffic on it that made me look at it in more depth. Perhaps it is worth starting a new thread - Singing Wing - so that this worth while experiment gets max exposure. (As you will maybe get in the Singing Wing if our current Summer leaves us)

Scotty Report sharing! The mind boggles! Rig and IHE are job sharing:- Rig 'and the play flowed passed CC urging on his team from the touchline.' IHE ' and the play flowed passed TMTMBS(the man that must be sacked) trying to hide on the sideline.' Rig 'Wilson backheeled to Rankin who crossed and Bayne, getting in front of his marker, nodded home. to completed a winning run that has again given CC the Manager of the Month award! IHE ' Wilson stumbles over the ball and as it squirms behind him,.. another bad signing by TMTMS, Rankin, toe pokes it into the goalmouth where a poorly coached figure, in the shape of Bayne or the poor shape of Bayne, rescues TMTMBS again, by luckily glancing the ball into the net. This is the sixth lucky win on the trot for TMTMBS. The football authorities must look again at this identity mix-up between TMTMBS and Gordon Strachan for the Manager of the Month award!' Bring Ian out of retirement!!

No doubt there will be posters on the Man Utd website questioning whither Alex Ferguson will be able to face the next games and achieve the results they wish for - so maybe CC is in good company!! As a reader and not much of a poster on here, I do enjoy the varying stances that are posted but must agree that negativity appears to be more popular than positive posts. I do not feel that you must be at a match to offer a positive comment on the result especially when you are aware that it came about by astute substitution, according to the reports. Just think back to the flack that CC received when he made the huge(?) mistake in his substitution choice against Celtic, according to the posters on here BUT as I have stated, this balance does not appear to be here when the situation is reversed. I therefore have some sympathy with the topic heading.

It is sad but it is the market we now live in! BIG MAC comes with an incentive - mobile phones come with an incentive - credit cards come with an incentive - etc. all hoping you will stay with the product in the long run. Lets hope 'free' kids do the trick for us.!

If the referee had blow his whistle two minutes earlier against Celtic and we were still in the cup, the above critics would be still in the woodwork. CC a bad manager!! Can I assume that the 88 minutes I watched at the Celtic game was played by a team that was not managed by CC? Can the last minute, 'get out of jail' goal by Lovell make CC a bad manager? Can the injuries to his key attackers, with our limited squad, make him a bad manager? Does being two points away from 7th place make him a bad manager? CC has offered the fans a change away from the punt up the field, to a passing game as we have witnessed, this change can not be implemented without some cost and this can be seen in the lack of ability of some of the players. It is now up to management to recruit new players for this way of playing and off load the ones that are not suited. Sounds easy but all changes take time and as the old saying goes ''fools and......?..... criticise a job part done'!

Can we really look at 'free child tickets' in isolation? Could this new 'free' child perhaps take a new parent, or two, along as well? Assuming they pay the full price, does this not then impact on the 'free' cost of the childs ticket? I find it difficult that say, 300 children turned up without parents and indeed none of the said 300 children will not want to return or if they dragged along grown ups none of them would not want to return. I make the point accepting that it was the wrong game to sell as a good day out. I do feel therefore to make a case against 'free' child seats using the limited edition point is a tad blinkered, is it not a bit more like complaining about buy two, get one free being unfair.

Well Mac Your last posting makes you a big person, in my book!!

Alex, regarding the last part of your post - I feel certain that there is a problem, overall, with fitness now. We were great in the latter part of matches going back to Brews days, match any team for work ethic and I feel certain (some one will confirm this or shoot me down in flames) that we did not let in late goals as we do now. Your point about Black and indeed to a lesser extent Wilson, being unable to do the full 90 mins does point to a training problem. We can not compete with the buying power of the top teams but surely we can hone the players we have to give us their best for 2 hours +. Now I accept that there are players who do not have the juice in their tanks to last 90 mins and indeed some of the best players I have seen have been this way(Liverpools supersub with the red hair circa 1995, comes to mind) but this calls for another management skill, to recognise this problem and take action before the player ASKS to come off! One of the top managers once stated that when tiredness crept in the first thing that was lost was natural skill. We cannot afford to drop any of the natural skill our guys have due to being undertrained if this be the issue.

To back up the point above made by RIG and backed up by Charles, it was the most wonderful/nervy feeling for so much of the game. The pundits acknowledging our game plan was upsetting Celtic - in fact at one point a comment was made that 'Bayne is far too strong for Pressley to handle' - however that does not take away the horrible, horrible after taste of 'so near and yet so far' This was compounded by having to share the 5.10 Aberdeen train home with a crowd of Celtic rowdies. Cards on the table - I predicted a 3-1 defeat due to the gulf in league points we are away from Celtic, the calibre of player they have and the stage they play on(Europe) in comparison to us. Misscall the manager?? He should get all the credit going for giving us 88 mins of belief - we were so, so close!!

Who would be a manager?? Bring back Black into the team last Saturday - 2.15 and he is red carded- all the posters on here would be slagging CC for lacking foresight by putting Black into a 'BIG' game knowing he was suspect under pressure! Don't play him and the same posters offer 'he would have been the saviour' I accept that the thread asks for a future opinion but the content seems to offer what would have happened last Saturday. Bring him back? Of course - he is a wee topper - but hook him as soon as his ill nature shows through. I would start with him, give him a good run and play it by ear, have him accept he is on only as long as he offers the team something positive and make him realise that having the team play most of a game with 10 men is not positive.

I think the article shows Barry up in a very good light and paves the way for a staff position, for him, at the club when the time is right. It is one thing for a local to praise Inverness but for an incomer to say it, it carries so much more weight and this could be important if Barry is part of a team, in the future, urging a player from the central belt to come up here.

I clapped too Rig. However it must be said that the manner in which he received the injury was farcical - on his own and falls over in the middle of the park! I think this contributed to the micky taking at the start but when it was evident that something more serious was the problem, I did feel sympathy for the big guy. I do feel that he has lots to contribute to Scottish football in some way or other, be it management or coaching, so good luck to him.

This one made it home as well, bruised and battered from the pie Q, some of those young ladies punch above their weight when they realise that the pies are running short and they are still a wee bit away from the counter! Great game and once again a super support once they found their voice - SO PROUD TO BE, PROUD TO BE, PROUD TO BE A J.....!!

If this 'Bayne is crap and Dargo is sublime' theme is so correct, why is it that Bayne ran Anderson ragged - to such effect that he nullified Anderson's attacking strengths and when Dargo came on with the defence, by now tired, he made little impression. Bayne for me was one of the best team players on the park today. Rankin I felt was weak, too prepared to turn the ball back to the defence instead of making a run either up the wing or inside to rattle their defence. However the game could and should have been won by a small degree of belief in their own ability. Aberdeen were not a very cohesive team today and all we needed was a player to hold the ball when we were in possession and play an intelligent ball BUT we were a wee bit frantic throughout - none more so than the play leading up to the goal. However that does not take away the enjoyment of the game, yes it felt like a defeat due to the lateness of the equaliser but for 94 mins we were something to be so proud of.

I have two favorite memories on this subject, the one at Tynecastle was, as often is the case, delivered by his own supporter to Donald Ford, Hearts centre forward - "Ford, you wouldn't make a center for a dough ring!!" Then at a game in Falkirk when Alex Ferguson was playing centre for Falkirk against Rangers and all afternoon, in his normal way, he was kicking lumps out of the Rangers defenders. One defender had had enough and fouled Ferguson and this foul awarded to him was met by a chorus of "Protect the ball players, Ref!!" This was pre-segregation and the remark was rewarded by the fans of both sides howling with laughter. Ferguson had a presence on the park but a ballplayer he was not!

quote =Get_off_the_park_ "Form players left on the bench,.........." How on earth are we armchair managers able to assess who is a form player and who is not! Surely this is the weak link in postings of the above kind - they assert facts that can not be proved or disproved. I would contend that CC is in a better position, having trained his players for the previous week, to know who is the form players, who should be sitting on the bench and, indeed, who should be pulled from the field of play! I will also, at this point, agree with the posting that praised the level of debate on here!