fat_tony

Not too many good performances to choose from tonight. Humphrey was bullied out of the game, Murphy too (for the most part anyway). Gow struggled to make an impact and tried to overplay everything (despite some nice play at times), Blackman got penalised every time he breathed near a Hearts player and the defence were poor. Although I actually thought Hateley had one of his better games of late. Even Jennings seemed to be a bit off his game and gave the ball away a lot more than usual. Lasley was the one player who looked really hungry for this today, possibly just glad to be back after being out but I thought he was the best of a bad bunch.

I don't even know what else to say about that. This guy should never have been allowed to referee an SPL game (or even juniors for that matter). As mentioned above, could you imagine the fallout if this guy did this to Rangers or Celtic?

Am I the only one that's absolutely raging after tonight's game and ain't going to let that go until our next home win?! What an advert for Scottish football though. Two teams struggling for any kind of quality (one who is out of match practice, the other just a Jim Jeffries team) a linesman who doesn't even watch the game and a referee who apparently has never even read the rules. No wonder people are feeling like staying away though. I appreciate the sentiment, I'm just not at that stage personally!

The mrs has the car today and was supposed to be dropping it off to my work so I could drive through. No sign of her yet... EDIT: She's on her way. Might still make it through yet, just depends on traffic.

The good thing about the NFL model though is that their primary focus is bums on seats and they have a policy in place of blacking out television coverage for games if they haven't sold enough tickets. Could you ever imagine something like that happening with Sky? Of course the NFL control all their television rights etc, whereas we have umpteen different bodies controlling the game, television, radio and other media.

I know and I was one of the ones who was convinced that Brown would do the honourable thing but Craggs absolutely loves this club. You can see how much every win means to him and (I remember saying this about CB only last week) I don't see him wanting to move. Besides, they would have to at least wait until the summer for him as I can't see Aberdeen paying money for someone who's only got a year or so left in them. If they did somehow get the cash, I'm sure JB wouldn't accept anything less than enough to bring in an able replacement.

They just don't get that they don't have the money or the draw that they did all those moons ago. I doubt any of our players would be interested in moving up to Aberdeen, especially not our captain. Besides, any player that would command a fee (of any sort) is out of Aberdeen's price range.

Absolutely spot on.

I take Kirky's point in saying that whatever we do, isn't really going to affect those 2 old wanks. However, a protest would also be about showing the team how much we care about them and are behind them, as much as getting it round those fucking pricks. As mentioned before, something like simple banners saying "No Respect", coupled with some of our normal songs are likely to have the desired affect just as much (or more) than some random (clever) tune that's been thought up.

Me too then. Craggs is the fucking daddy.

The thing is, is keeping a mediocre and apathetic Aberdeen squad away from relegation a better job than trying to guide a committed and talented Motherwell side to their 4th consecutive season in Europe? People keep describing the Aberdeen job as a step up but the truth is that in footballing terms, it hasn't been a step up since Malpas and even then they were underachieving given their resources at the time.

I keep wondering how long it's going to take before people start to realise that this "potential" that Aberdeen have will never be realised while they persist with the core squad, chairman, board and director of football that they currently have. The only way for them to gain success is to either invest a shed-load of money into the club, which they can no longer afford and just isn't sustainable anyway or redevelop the entire club from the ground up, which the fans won't allow the time to do. Given the proper time, investment and restructuring, I'm sure Aberdeen could grow in stature again but certainly never to the expectations of the fans. No team outside the Old Firm can ever win the SPL without somebody throwing money at them Man City style and even then, there's no guarantee. To be perfectly honest, I think relegation would be about the only thing that would give those fans and that club the kick up the arse they need to revive themselves even to the level of a team like Hibs.

Brown's an Accies man. But I think I remember what you're talking about, did he not say something about being from Lanarkshire and it meant a lot to him to be working for the main club in the area? I'm beginning to think that he must have had a bad day with the Alzheimer's yesterday, it's the only explanation as nobody in their right mind would join Aberdeen now. Tuesday Milne: "Broonie, will you join us"? Brown: "Naw, don't be daft. We're going for Europe again." Thursday Milne: "Broonie, will you join us?" Brown: "Hiya Stewart, not seen you in years pal, how's it going at Aberdeen? Still challenging for league titles and challenging in Europe?" Milne: "uhh...eh..um...aye" Brown: "Where's Fergie?" Milne: "He's...uh....aff to join Man U" Brown: "Whit? Daft bastard, he'll never win anything there! Aye, I'll join the mighty Dons" Friday Brown: "Shit"

Am I the only one who feels a bit sorry for Craggs? He must feel like such a prick this morning after his comments yesterday: BBC On briefly reading the article it actually seems to be slightly favourable to Motherwell's position, talking about us going for a 4th consecutive European campaign while Aberdeen are in a relegation scrap.

Possibly, although we don't necessarily know the full details of the situations behind both. And out of the last 2 managers, we've been shafted by one but the other one's lack of a contract actually worked in the club's favour. But I take your point. We really need to make sure that we get someone who will sign a contract guaranteeing the club compensation should Aberdeen deem it time for a managerial regime change. Perhaps we should have a red batphone in JB's office that Stewart Milne can use whenever he wants to change his management team?

All well and good to say that but what if they were offered a contract on several occasions but turned it down?

Some of the names currently out of work down south: John Barnes (Haha) Phil Brown Chris Coleman Alan Curbishley Iain Dowie Jim Gannon Ruud Gullit Bryan Gunn Paul Hart Chris Hughton Stuart McCall Martin O'Neill Lawrie Sanchez (Previously mentioned at this time last year) Chris Sutton Plenty more available here LMA. Most of those are complete pie in the sky but I think there are a few that would at least be interested in discussing the job.

I really can't believe the way Brown has acted through all of this. I genuinely thought, like many, that he wasn't the type to walk away at the offer of another job. Sadly, it seems I completely misjudged his motives for getting back into football and he's really given MFC a boot in the stones. I hope his behaviour comes back to bite him in the arse. I never like seeing any team relegated but I could certainly make an exception for Aberdeen now. Their conduct has been woeful. An absolute arsehole of a club and if there's any justice, Brown will only have about 10 bob to spend in Jan. Well done MFC on putting out a strong statement condemning the behaviour of all involved.

Probably straight off the post a couple of pages back that claimed he'd resigned.

"Craig, this is God speaking. I want you to change your will, leaving everything to Motherwell Football Club and go take yourself for a dook in the North Sea." Very, very disappointed in him if he has indeed gone to that shambles of a football club. Hope they crash and burn.

I'm not jumping to any conclusions but I'd be extremely disappointed if he were to leave for Aberdeen. McGhee's walking testament to the fact that the board up there will promise more than they can deliver. Any manager taking that job's on a hiding to nothing. Okay, so it's a good time as you can't really do any worse than McGhee but really, there's no light at the end of the tunnel there until they sort out their boardroom. We don't have much (any?) money so it's not an easy gig. However, we do have a better squad than Aberdeen. Smaller, definitely, but on average I'd say we have the better players. Aberdeen were once a big club, but not any more. Nowadays they're a diddy club, like the rest of us outside Edinburgh and Glasgow and it's about time they realised it. Sure, they have potential to get better but there's a lot of dead wood that needs to be removed (at all levels of their club) before they can even begin to think about realising any of it.

I don't know, I mean I take your point but I think that meeting with Aberdeen's representatives would have been more a show of common courtesy rather than any sort of serious discussion. I didn't think there was any chance of them leaving but good to get the confirmation and well done on the club for getting a statement out so quickly.

Nae chance. They've got a gentleman's agreement with us and they're a couple of the few real gentlemen in the game today. Never happen.

£5 an hour if you want to play 5's in Edinburgh.

Sauce?