The Famous Aberdeen - Season 2022/23

[DukDukGoose]

1 minute ago, Thenorthernlight said:

What I’m clinging to is that we’re waiting for Ferguson to be sold so that the two/three players we bring in are of a higher quality,

If we were to bring in two/three now without the Fergie fee, it would be lower quality?

If we start the season with the squad as is, we’ll struggle in a few areas. 

What I’m a little confused about is that we allegedly bid for Jamie McGrath (so a transfer fee is available to pay?) & we tried to sign Clark Robertson, so wages available for a defender.

Surely we have alternatives to those two? 

I'm assuming Jenks was the McGrath alternative. Could be a case of taking a player on loan for a year and offering a contract to McGrath in January. Doubt we'll get near him on a pre-contract though.

We definitely need to get some fat off the wage bill. Whether that's Ferguson or a couple of the others then I'm not sure.

 

[Thenorthernlight]

12 minutes ago, Merkland Red said:

I'm assuming Jenks was the McGrath alternative. Could be a case of taking a player on loan for a year and offering a contract to McGrath in January. Doubt we'll get near him on a pre-contract though.

We definitely need to get some fat off the wage bill. Whether that's Ferguson or a couple of the others then I'm not sure.

 

The likes of Ojo & Kennedy, who we wouldn’t miss, are contracted so we’d need to be creative 

[Thenorthernlight]

1 hour ago, Rodhull said:

Yeah I'm not anywhere near full blown panic mode yet but as said the squad is painfully thin in a few places and going into the first European game having only played a couple of games makes it feel like the squad is going to be very unprepared.

 

The closer we get to the Hacken game, the less optimistic I am.

Effectively two pre-season kickabouts at Cormack Park for the squad, against a Swedish team who are in mid-season, & have the “new manager bounce”.

And even if we strengthen the squad before the game, if those players are English based, they’ll be even further off the pace than our lads.

Glass obviously thinks we have enough to see us through.

                                 Lewis

Gurr/McCr  Gallagher Considine MacKenzie 

                                  Brown

Hedges Ferguson Jenks/McGinn Hayes

                                 Ramirez

Subs: Woods, Gurr/McCrorie, Ojo, Campbell, McGeouch, McLennan, Kennedy, JET & McGinn/Jenks

Fancy 1-1 at Pittodrie next week. 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Thenorthernlight

[logie skid boys]

2 hours ago, Merkland Red said:

I'm fairly comfortable with where we are at just now. Nobody around us have really strengthened too much at this point. 

Aye feel the same .    .  squad looks decent enough   .sure be fine to get us through the first 3 weeks.    there  will be more ins and outs

to come and that will be down to Ferguson going.

[DukDukGoose]

30 minutes ago, logie skid boys said:

Aye feel the same .    .  squad looks decent enough   .sure be fine to get us through the first 3 weeks.    there  will be more ins and outs

to come and that will be down to Ferguson going.

Aye. I'm not saying I'm happy with this squad for the rest of the season. I'm just comfortable with where we're at now considering the pond we fish in.

[Thenorthernlight]

5 minutes ago, Merkland Red said:

Aye. I'm not saying I'm happy with this squad for the rest of the season. I'm just comfortable with where we're at now considering the pond we fish in.

Ferguson staying/leaving will have a big impact on our squad. 

It might be better overall if he leaves. Assuming we receive a sensible offer.

No point in having an unsettled player.

We can bank 50%-60% of the fee & bring in a two or three better players for smallish fees potentially. 

 

 

[DukDukGoose]

1 minute ago, Thenorthernlight said:

Ferguson staying/leaving will have a big impact on our squad. 

It might be better overall if he leaves. Assuming we receive a sensible offer.

No point in having an unsettled player.

We can bank 50%-60% of the fee & bring in a two or three better players for smallish fees potentially. 

 

 

Yeah. That should be the club's policy anyway. Hoping that's exactly what happens.

[big al]

5 hours ago, Suspect Device said:

Our first game is a week on Thursday but we've still no idea how much of a crowd we're 'allowed'.

Frustrating when you see a full Wembley on Sunday. All maskless. I can see us being allowed 2,000 all socially distanced and masks being heavily policed.

I also fear this will be the case.

Getting so close to the match day now, very poor that nobody knows who can attend.

[tarapoa]

1 hour ago, Thenorthernlight said:

The closer we get to the Hacken game, the less optimistic I am.

Effectively two pre-season kickabouts at Cormack Park for the squad, against a Swedish team who are in mid-season, & have the “new manager bounce”.

This was something that was very much within the control of those at the club to do something about - even allowing for the Cove call-off.

We are always told there's no substitute for match fitness/sharpness etc...............and it seems the club feel a couple of bounce games at our training facility is sufficient.

Despite a couple of hairy moments vs Shkendija, RoPS and Fola, the last regime avoided the ignominy of many Scots clubs in being papped out of Europe right away against unseeded opponents.  They will do well to avoid that fate this time.

 

 

[Thenorthernlight]

42 minutes ago, tarapoa said:

This was something that was very much within the control of those at the club to do something about - even allowing for the Cove call-off.

We are always told there's no substitute for match fitness/sharpness etc...............and it seems the club feel a couple of bounce games at our training facility is sufficient.

Despite a couple of hairy moments vs Shkendija, RoPS and Fola, the last regime avoided the ignominy of many Scots clubs in being papped out of Europe right away against unseeded opponents.  They will do well to avoid that fate this time.

 

 

Agree. 
Think Glass gives off the impression of being over-confident about this. 

Rude awakening might be coming up come 29 July. 

[coprolite]

It smells like an old people's home in here with all the pant pissing. 

It's not like we'll be starting with Stuart Duff and Derek Young in defence. 

[scoobles]

It smells like an old people's home in here with all the pant pissing. 
It's not like we'll be starting with Stuart Duff and Derek Young in defence. 

Even Mcghee got a better reception and he was bitter about not getting the Celtic gig.
So many people don't remember Alex Fkn Miller

[tarapoa]

5 minutes ago, coprolite said:

It smells like an old people's home in here with all the pant pissing. 

It's not like we'll be starting with Stuart Duff and Derek Young in defence. 

True - that game does give me nightmares.

Last season the team had a similar lack of pre-season matches compared to normal, and were yards off the pace against Sevco, who had gone and played the likes of Lyon and Nice. 

By the time Europe came round, they were fine - but alas we're back to the scenario of this being the first competitive match.

[coprolite]

1 hour ago, tarapoa said:

True - that game does give me nightmares.

Last season the team had a similar lack of pre-season matches compared to normal, and were yards off the pace against Sevco, who had gone and played the likes of Lyon and Nice. 

By the time Europe came round, they were fine - but alas we're back to the scenario of this being the first competitive match.

Agreed it's not ideal. We could have done with more games. But that's balanced against the risk of positive tests and isolation from more games. And we hear training is more intense so that should help, although it's not the same as proper games. 

On the signings front, we've strengthened. Maybe not as much as we'd like to but i'd rather we got the right players in for the rest of the season than panic sign for a game that will be in the balance anyway. 

Lots of love, 

Happy clapper

[SamuraiJock]

I think we’ll get a lot more out of Kennedy this year than last (where he played most of the season as a wingback). I know a lot of folk have seen enough to think he’s shite, but he is a creative player that fits the wide roles in a Glass team. Would be a mistake to get rid of him without a better winger arriving in his place.

[coprolite]

10 minutes ago, SamuraiJock said:

I think we’ll get a lot more out of Kennedy this year than last (where he played most of the season as a wingback). I know a lot of folk have seen enough to think he’s shite, but he is a creative player that fits the wide roles in a Glass team. Would be a mistake to get rid of him without a better winger arriving in his place.

Maybe, just maybe, he'll be better with strikers that can hold the ball. He did show flashes, perhaps 3 over the season. Unconvinced. 

[Thenorthernlight]

15 minutes ago, SamuraiJock said:

I think we’ll get a lot more out of Kennedy this year than last (where he played most of the season as a wingback). I know a lot of folk have seen enough to think he’s shite, but he is a creative player that fits the wide roles in a Glass team. Would be a mistake to get rid of him without a better winger arriving in his place.

He offers nothing.

No pace, seldom scores, seldom gets by a full back.

Just don’t see what he brings us at all. 

[Bogbrush1903]

4 hours ago, tarapoa said:

Despite a couple of hairy moments vs Shkendija, RoPS and Fola, the last regime avoided the ignominy of many Scots clubs in being papped out of Europe right away against unseeded opponents.  They will do well to avoid that fate this time.

 

 

I sense they're using the Hacken matches as part of the pre-season because we don't feel like a club preparing for a real crack at getting to the Conference League group stages.

I could be wrong, we'll see what happens against Hacken but you usually get what you deserve in Europe. If we're under-prepared then Hacken will expose it, not in a  Sigma-esque fashion, but going out to Hacken would, I suggest, be our worst exit in many a year if you use UEFA's club rankings as a guide (although the Rijeka exit was hopeless).

[big al]

54 minutes ago, Thenorthernlight said:

He offers nothing.

No pace, seldom scores, seldom gets by a full back.

Just don’t see what he brings us at all. 

He’s a head down player too often.

 

[d31]

I'd settle for Glass bringing one of the 'write offs' back to life: Kennedy, Ojo, McGeouch and McLennan. 

I'm hopeful we'll have enough to beat Hacken next week but I agree with all comments that we are underprepared fitness wise and the squad depth would not take a lot of injury/covid/suspension to quickly be badly exposed. 

I wonder if we would get the third striker on board before the game as probably that we would be most exposed to an injury.

I want a first pick winger, first pick centre back and squad player striker but we can probably survive without signing the first two for the first three matches of the season and see how the likes of McGinn, Jenks, Hayes, McLennan and Kennedy are looking. I am assuming Hedges is the only clear first pick in the attacking midfield/wing positions.