Martin_T

I would hope that some allowance is made for those of us with variable health conditions for whom it's often a last minute decision.

Barry's 7 game winning run against 5 of last season's bottom 6, Neilson/Snodgrass Hearts and Beale's Rangers still doing lots of heavy lifting. It's pretty much been this way through out Cormack's ownership has it not? Hortz are falling apart though. To be honest we are still shite as well.

Can we safely assume that Dave Cormack has stopped tweeting pictures of himself in full kit etc? So many 'undisclosed fees' on what looks so far to be very average players.

Do look after him.

He seems absolutely raging, posting pictures of geese and all kinds of wacky stuff.

TBH I held back a bit because he seems very angry.

When you've gone from sacking managers for failing to challenge for the title, to squabbling with fans of yo-yo teams, come back to us.

TBF you were able to concentrate on the league thereafter.

We're balancing it out with our head of recruitment being Joseph Savage and Head Coach Francis McAvoy to be fair.

Happy enough with the appointment to be honest, his style of play on admittedly limited evidence, was much more watchable than Neilson's pass it amongst the back 3, then give it to Snodgrass to be dispossessed style. 2 wins from 7 fixtures, but those 7 were tough, Ross County, Celtic, Hibs and Aberdeen at home, St Mirren, Rangers and Hibs away. Arguably the only the Hibs games were below expectation and of course the early sending off impacted the home game.

What do you think accounts for the rise in attendances in Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen in that time?

Goes to show how Dundee United are something of a unique size of club in Scottish Football, approx 1.5x the size of Killie, Motherwell, St Mirren, but only approx 3/5 the size of Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen. Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen, operating with crowds 2.5/3 x their nearest competitors, rarely seem to leverage that advantage to lockdown the 3rd to 5th league placings, which they really should be doing every season. Perhaps the relative quality of player at the lower end, is less sensitive to salary?

Happy to. And we can agree that in the future, this season will primarily remembered for Aberdeen suffering the greatest Scottish Cup humiliation of all time.

It is probably a bit of recency bias, but I honestly believe the Neilson/ Snodgrass 3-6-1 team, in that period from February to April (Played 7, lost 6), is amongst the worst I've ever seen us play.

Indeed, your 'levels ' seem to have nosedived.

Not a bad season all things considered. With when measured on the 2019/20 (abysmal) to 1997/98 (Best I've seen) scale. -Won two matches in Europe -Used European money to make several important infrastructural Investments in our fully Uefa compliant stadium, that will generate additional income for the club for decades to come -Qualified for Europe in consecutive seasons for only the 3rd time this century (2002-4, 2010-12) -Top 4 finish -Finished above Hibs -Only 1 defeat (St Mirren) in the league to clubs out side of Glasgow at home. -All of the above with the spine of last year's team out long term injured. -Reduced Aberdeen from a club that used to sack managers for failing to challenge for the title, to one that is euphoric at finishing above a yo yo club, in a season when they got smacked 6-0 by Hibs, 5-0 by Hearts and Celtic , 4-0 by relegated Dundee United, and suffered the greatest Scottish Cup humiliation of all time live on national television, to a team hammered by Falkirk (!) in the next round.

Yup, think I'm right in saying that an Aberdeen, Rangers and Celtic win on Wednesday, renders the last set of fixtures obsolete. I would imagine that is probably the shortest odds of any scenario at the bookies. Edit not quite, St Mirren could still over take Hibs.

Joel Pereira in 2019/20 , a goalkeeper who literally dived out of the way of shots, played a huge role in Hearts eventual relegation that season .

No offense on my part at least, as it is true. Losing key players, regardless of the calibre of replacements, will impact any team's form.

Persisting with the Neilson/Snodgrass team, which is up there with the worst I've seen play for us, in that February to April period, is probably what will ultimately cost us. Our injuries are still horrendous, even though we've got higher calibre replacements than most clubs in Scotland would be able to bring in. Gordon, Halkett, Baningame and Boyce, the spine of last year's team all out with long term injuries. Can you imagine how Aberdeen would have performed this season with Roos, Pollock, Clarkson and Mijovski out with season ending injuries?

We'll still have to probably beat both Rangers and Hibs to finish 3rd but another positive home performance. Never really bought in to the recent Aberdeen/Robson hype, it was a combination of playing teams at the right time and some basic, but solid defending. Farcical that he's on the shortlist for one of the manager of the year awards. St Mirren could be tricky opponents on Wednesday, but it will take a major turnaround in our away form to take something at Ibrox.

I'm weirdly optimistic that we might win. So no doubt 0-4+ incoming.

Fletcher made himself unavailable for Scotland during Levein's time in charge of the national team, was that ever resolved? 4-6-0 incoming?

You probably don't need told this already, but his 2nd spell at Hearts was awful. Terrible tactics, terrible recruitment, terrible man management, culminating in a club with an annual £9 million wage bill finishing below Hamilton Accies.

Massie and Walker who of course, along with Bauld and Mackay are featured in the Hearts song.