VincentGuerin

Yet, here we are. We're in a miles better place than Aberdeen any way you cut it.

I don't think hyperbole is really fair. Aberdeen have been bottom six two years in three. The general trend for them is poor. They've repeatedly made bad decisions, and off the pitch they have an enormous problem that their rivals don't have. Every other "big" Scottish club has hit historically poor performance when addressing stadium issues, and Aberdeen have that still to come. Maybe they buck the trend in that regard, but nothing about how the club is run suggests that'll be the case. Aberdeen finished ahead of us and we had to take that on the chin for a bit, which wasn't enjoyable. But I think in the long-term, we'll be seen to have had a better last decade. Of course I hope Aberdeen have a bad decade. It would be very funny. But it's far from purely wishful thinking, as any sober observer can see.

I've not posted about Aberdeen for ages. You can engage with the post of ignore the post. What grinds the forum to a halt is poor responses along the lines of what we've seen above. I stand by the post, by the way. I think it's an entirely fair picture of Aberdeen's situation. I think you'll struggle to keep up with Hearts and Hibs over the next decade due to your failure to make hay while the sun shone. And I was reponding to people on here referencing your good run over us and putting it in context. You did have it over us for quite a while. But what do you have to show for it? Aberdeen were asleep at the wheel while Hearts and Hibs were getting stuff done.

Take the night off, mate. You’re having a swing at a perfectly reasonable post. Take it easy.

That's great if you are in a bad mood and want to make the chat silly. We're takking about Aberdeen's current direction. They're not hiring this guy a decade ago. Things have changed around Aberdeen and they are starting to see the consequences of not making the most of their opportunity ten years ago.

It's an on-topic post. Unlike yours, old mucker. Care to join the discussion?

That's great for you to cling on to, but we're not in administration now, we're not recovering from that any more, and we're no longer throwing loads of money and resources at building a new stand. You did have the better of us for a few years, but we've come out of that with a completed modern stadium and a club that's on a sure footing with a proper infrastructure, and we're about to play group stage football for the second time in three years. Aberdeen have nothing to show for that period, even in the medium term. It's been wasted. You built nothing and now you're in danger of being left behind. In terms of status, you're looking like you've regressed to the world before Hearts, Hibs, and Rangers imploded. Aberdeen have now been third in the league once in the last six seasons (already looking more luck than judgement). They've been in the bottom half of the league two years out of three. They've repeatedly shown poor leadership, poor judgement, and a total lack of strategy. Since Hearts were promoted we've (so far) out-performed Aberdeen by 43 points in less than three seasons. It's hard to argue that it looks like there's been a large momentum swing from you to us. Aberdeen might bounce back next year. This guy might do a good job. You can never really tell. But it's unarguable at the moment that Aberdeen's purple patch is beginning to look very much like a window of opportunity that has now closed, and been absolutely squandered, to no real long-term impact.

Aberdeen fans really need to get ovet this bizarre obsession they have about the impact of geography on media reporting.

I see that on Booking.com the Killie hotel has a risible rating of 8.8. With our hotel's 9.6 rating (EXCEPTIONAL), we really should be swatting this mob aside. Hearts win or Naismith out.

Oh, I'm sure it happened. But, it was three years ago. So...?

If I was the Inter kit man, I'd lock the Milan dressing room then just take the keys up the road with me. Next Milan home game - CHAOS. Fucking beautiful. What a plan.

Sorry, mate. Maybe next season. MAYBE.

NEVER.

Because of the degree to which it can be measured. Same as how two people might be 5'10, and we call them the same height. But if we were to be able to measure further, we'd find one is a tiny bit taller than the other.

Aye. Barring a monumental collapse (and a stunning finish from Killie) this season will go down as "pretty good", I'd say. 3rd place, two trips to Hampden and only beaten by the sticky buns there, won an unseeded tie in Europe. Nothing really to complain about, which is simultaneously very nice and quite annoying. Had we avoided the OF at Hampden, we'd probably have had a cup final, which would have elevated things a bit. Interesting summer ahead. A lot going out the door, I reckon. I'd expect a rather different looking team next season and it'll be interesting to see what kind of market we go for and how much we spend.

He's far too positive to be me.

I've got some reservations about this one. Hearts will come into this game with a bit of baggage and in need of a lift after the semi-final defeat and they'll know that a victory will see Kilmarnock check out of the race for third. But I can see us being good guests here and not taking anything home with us. That said, the tough game Killie gave us a few weeks ago should serve as a wake-up call, and Hearts might just floor us all by picking up a point. I hope nobody gets booked.

Agree with this. As he pushed forward my mate next to me shouted "That's the game, son", and I murmured my agreement, just as he lost the ball. We'd been crying out for someone to do that, and he's just unlucky the way it unfolded. Someone should have taken the booking. Two really poor goals.

You could ask the same question about why your average Austrian fan is more interested in German football than your average German fan is in Austrian football. It's higher profile (circular, I know, but that's just how it is), it has better media coverage as it has a bigger population and therefore a bigger market, and it's a football set-up that contains some of the best teams in the world. That all filters down. All these things added together make something more appealing. Why do more Scottish people take an interest in La Liga than the Portuguese league?

That doesn't really matter. If you live in Stockport, you'll be interested in the National League as some of the clubs will be local to you, you'll have likes and dislikes, some of your mates will support the clubs involved. What's that person's motivation for watching Partick Thistle against Ayr? Even if it is exciting. English football has its own excitement every season. Could you tell me how exciting the Northern Irish or Welsh leagues are this year? I've got no idea. It's not relevant to me at all. There will never be interest in our game in England beyond football geeks and people with links to Scotland. And that's fine.

I think there's a circular aspect that is related to the tv coverage our own league provides. All your average English punter ever sees of our league is Livi v Celtic, Killie v Rangers, Hibs v Celtic, Motherwell v Rangers... A lot of these games are attack against defence with an inevitable outcome. And, given that nothing else is ever televised, people assume that's all there is. I've taken mates to Tynecastle who have been genuinely surprised how professional and high-quality the whole thing is, as they tend to think it's essentially amateur stuff. That's basically the impression our league gives off, so there's no demand for any coverage. It starts with our clubs.

It's not quite the same thing. Women's football happens in England and is of interest to the local population. Of course media attention drives interest, but to what end would there be media attention on Scottish football in England? What does the local population do with that? There's only so much space, and England is a more multi-sport envronment than Scotland as well. They've got the Premier League, well-supported lower league, cricket, rugby, etc to cover. It's a very hard sell to say that their audience is being served in any way by shoe-horning in coverage of something that just isn't relevant to them. We have our own coverage. It may be shite, but that's a different issue. The plus side to all this is that most of my English mates have absolutely no idea Hearts have been relegated twice in the last decade. Didn't register at all. Which is nice. Most folk reckon we're still owned by that Latvian/Russian/foreign guy.

Jesus Christ. Good night to you.

f**k me. BECAUSE IT'S QUITE GOOD. And, to be honest, aye, it is miles better than Motherwell v Aberdeen.

So what's your fucking point? BBC One and Five Live are defacto English stations. If you haven't grasped this, then I can'thelp you. Scotland has its own BBC media. They cover Scottish football. Absolutely nobody who isn;t accessing BBC Scotland's Scottish football coverage in the UK gives a flying f**k about Scottish football, so it is not widely covered elsewhere. What part of this is difficult for you? The BBC's regional English output is irrelevant in all of this. English people find English football interesting. They do not find Scottish football interesting. Do. You. Get. It?