Jay

Just clocked that. The plot thickens... Hope it transpires that it was a betting scam and that wee c**t O'Riley gets the jail.

Nipped over to Fir Park at lunchtime and picked up £5 tickets for me, Busta and DosserJoe. Don't quite buy the claims of a big away support though. The whole Craig Brown scenario has left a bad taste, but it's still Aberdeen away a week before Christmas. Anyway, looking forward to it - really hope it's on.

Mark McGhee left Motherwell and suddenly folk on here was shiting themselves. Apparently he was going to be taking Clarkson, Craigan, Reynolds and even Klimpl with him. That worked out. As for this time around: Gow? Possibly. Blackman? Possibly. Anybody else? No chance. Why does this crop up just because a manager jukes us for Aberdeen? Do folk genuinely think that it's the same as someone taking a stapler and a couple of pens from their old office job to their new one?

Exactly. No wonder football in this country is so fucked when you've got guys like Paul Le Guen being chased out of Ibrox by fat bastards like Kris Boyd for having the cheek to actually expect professional footballers to eat healthily. Cheers for the info though CraigW, much appreciated. Personally, I would be very disappointed with John Hughes. He (along with the media) seems to have built this complete myth around him that his teams play exciting, attacking football and yet most Falkirk & Hibs fans will tell you it's utter nonsense. John Collins is one that I wouldn't be overly disappointed with ahead of guys like Hughes, McPherson, Calderwood etc - but it would be a bit of a risk on our part I think. Hopefully there's a few other surprise candidates to emerge over the next week or two. Gannon got the job ahead of Aidy Boothroyd and Lawrie Sanchez if memory serves, so there'll no doubt be a couple of names revealed soon that no one's mentioned yet.

Won't make the game on Tuesday unfortunately, going to Sky+ it and hopefully get up the road without knowing what the score was. To be honest, given what's happened last week and the fact that Hearts are flying, I'd be content to see us play defensively and look for a point. Randolph Saunders -- Craigan -- Reynolds -- Hammell Hateley Humphrey -- Jennings -- Lasley -- Murphy Blackman Obviously Humphrey and Murphy can get forward when we're attacking but I'd be looking for them to play a bit more defensively that usual for Tuesday.

If Brown has went to Aberdeen because Milne has promised him the resources to sign players the calibre of David McNamee, I fully look forward to pishing myself laughing at them fighting relegation in vain for the rest of the season.

I trust there'll be old WWF tunes on the bus?

Not a chance! I can see it now - the BBC cameras are capturing the game between Aberdeen and Motherwell. In the background you can hear the 'Well fans dishing out horrendous abuse in the direction of Craig Brown, some of it - no doubt - unbroadcastable. The cameras zoom into the 'Well support responsible and there's John Boyle in the middle.

"show the Aberdeen fans we arent to be taken lightly" What are you even taking about?

Oh aye, obviously - I said on this thread, or one of the others, last week that we may have been losing Blackman in January anyway. As for Gow, well I remain to be convinced that losing him would be any great loss. At the end of the day, this is just deja-vu from when McGhee left. There were delusion idiots on Aberdeen forums combined with panic-stricken folk on here talking about how Aberdeen were going to be signing X, Y and Z. Wasn't McGhee going to take Clarkson, Craigain and Reynolds with him? Christ, wasn't there even chat that we was going to get Klimpl in as well!? They might sign Gow and get Blackman on loan. But then we might have lost both anyway whether Brown & Knox left or not.

What a wee rat-bastard. Who is he to tell us that it would be wrong for us to hold a grudge? The arrogance of the two-faced wee prick is actually unbelievable. Yes Craig, I would take a bigger and better job if I was offered it. But I wouldn't spend the days proceeding it absolutely fucking over my current employers, bullshitting the regular customers, and generally just being a lying, two-faced c**t about it. The only thing worse than a wee scummy arsehole is a wee scummy arsehole who tries to pretend he's a nice guy. As for Aberdeen signing any of our players - Gow & Blackman, possibly. Any others? Not a chance. Bring these bawbags on next week.

How is it remotely a case of double standards? The reason people are outraged with Craig Brown isn't because he left Motherwell for Aberdeen, it's the whole bullshit he was feeding us, the players and the club after he rejected the move the first time, obviously knowing all a long that he was still up for moving. If Butcher was to come out on Monday saying he had no interest in leaving ICT for Motherwell, didn't want to uproot his family, was perfectly happy etc etc, and then moved to Motherwell on the Tuesday, then you'd have a point. But until that happens, I don't see how the two can be comparable. I don't have a problem with clubs taking managers from other clubs, assuming they go about it properly and pay compensation. That's how football works. That said, I don't want Butcher back and I doubt very much if he'll be back at Fir Park in the near future. Compensation aside, I genuinely believe Boyle takes a lot of pride in the managers he brings to the club, thinking outside the box and picking very capable managers no one had really thought of. The very fact that Butcher is linked with the job from an early stage says to me that he wouldn't be Boyle's idea of a good candidate.

Can you still get the really cheap plastic masks with the elastic that goes round your head they used to sell when I was a kid? If so, is there any chance of them doing Harvey Two Face masks? 300 meltit Motherwell fans wearing cheap Two Face masks and bouncing about to "Viva Motherwell" would be a hilarious sight to behold.

I'd agree with that. Even for those who don't have a problem with actually singing it, it shows a complete lack of imagination to simply turn up to Pittodrie after we've lost a manager again and sing the exact same song! Although I reckon with the way this has come about there are a few chants to be had.

I fail to really see what's remotely aggressive about anything I've posted in this thread. Blunt, perhaps. But I prefer to be honest and blunt when I'm stating my opinions on a football message board. Tut tut, in one sentence the whole moral high ground regarding being patronising goes right out the window.

A mere suggestion of a banner for the guys who normally whip such things up for matches. Not a protest. What exactly are we protesting? Craig Brown's shown himself to be a wee two-faced bastard and will get dog's abuse for it from the 'Well support at Pittodrie. Because this is football and we're football fans and that's how it works. The abuse McGhee suffered was perhaps a bit too close to the bone, but at least he knew about it and was genuine shocked by it. Do you think Brown and Knox are going to give a flying fuck if the 'Well support miss some of the game facing the wrong way?

John Boyle is being ridiculously naive if he thinks postponing their appointment til after the 18th is going to make the slightest bit of difference to the antics of the away support.

Ideas of "protests" and "synchronized turning-around" are a load of nonsense. It's a football match and we're football fans. We'll voice our displeasure the way football fans do so. That said, a big banner that says "WE'RE ONLY HERE OUT OF 'COMMON COURTESY'" would go down a treat.

Lies.

Trust Steelmen Online to go into panic mode because Brown & Knox are off to Aberdeen! So he's going to "take" players with him, is he? This isn't a guy going from one office job to another, and nicking a load of Post-It notes and a stapler. How exactly is he going to achieve this mass raid of Fir Park? The only three players he stands a chance of "taking" are Blackman, Gow and Fitzpatrick. Two of whom we would have accepted if they left anyway, and one of whom has barely played this season. Murphy? Reynolds? Aye, very good. Has the appointment of Craigie Two Face at Pittodrie coincidentally coincided with a discovery by the Aberdeen Board of hidden treasure of the coast of the North Sea? Aberdeen cannot afford either Murphy or Reynolds, and I doubt very highly if either - given they both undoubtedly harbour ambitions of playing in England or for the Old Firm - would be interested. Aberdeen will sign David McNamee and Alan Gow, and will open talks with Blackburn in a bid to get Blackman on loan for the rest of the season. It's hardly the end of the world, and yet some posts on here would have you believe that Brown & Knox going to Aberdeen is going to result in the utter decimation of our playing squad.

Aye, I'm quite excited now to see who he brings in. Boyle deserves a lot of credit for the last few years and who he has appointed as gaffers. It would be so easy just to follow most of the other Scottish clubs by falling into the SPL manager merry-go-round, but Boyle always seems very determined not to do that (thankfully) and, Brown & Knox aside, always seems to show a good level of ambition. Let the rumours begin!

Nice wee dig at the end. Ach well, fuck him. We've learned in the last few days that Craig Brown isn't the wee old gentleman who meets with clubs "out of common courtesty". He is, when you take into his comments in the press the last few days through all this, extremely two-faced and I for one am actually please we've gotten rid of such a person. Fuck him. Plus, as someone else said on another thread, the anticipation of a new gaffer is always pretty exciting! But aye, I just hope the Aberdeen game at Pittodrie is on now...