2008/2009 Season Thread

[The Milner]

I've spoken to quite a few Aberdeen fans who said that season under Ebbe was far more fun than most of the seasons since... Even last season, outside the UEFA Cup, most of my mates with season tickets said it was boring and shite.

so we should be pushing for third every year, but if we get to the cup finals its ok to finish second bottom of the league. great future that...

[Dave-IRL]

I've spoken to quite a few Aberdeen fans who said that season under Ebbe was far more fun than most of the seasons since... Even last season, outside the UEFA Cup, most of my mates with season tickets said it was boring and shite.

Hindsight is often 20-20 though Cal - I bet if you asked them the same question after that season the would have said it was shit. I know some St Mirren fans who reckon being pumped by Brechin and Queen of the South on a regular basis and watching the complete and utter dross John Coughlin turned out for Saints (Mark Crilly, Laurie Ellis, Ricky Robb, Robert Dunn, John Baird, Allan Russell, Brian McGinty - what a team!!!) was better than this season. I have absolutely no doubts that they would have hated every minute of that season at the time. But some folk just like to moan and complain all the time.

[Soda Jerk]

Man, I'm excited for Wednesday. Apart from suspensions to Alves, Abidal and Fletcher, both teams looks set to have full strength squads with the recovery of Iniesta, Henry and Ferdinand. Still, that's a big chunk of Barca's already dubious backline out, but it's also United's finest retainer of the ball out. Even though Barca will see about 60% of the posession like they always do, it really could go either way. If Manyoo score an early goal like last years semi 2nd leg, or like Chelsea did a couple of weeks back, the attacking pressure for the rest of the game is going to be intense. Barca don't sit back on leads though, so even if they score two, it really isn't over. It's gonna be so good.

[Lemonade]

haha club of our size, remind me why people think aberdeen are a big club again please.

Well first you tell me why Hearts, Hibs, United and our other rivals in the league are bigger than us please. As you pointed out yourself, we've had consistely had more success recently than our rivals:

but how many teams who rebuild every year have consistantly delivered like aberdeen have?

Hibs were ace three years ago, lost their players and now are in midtable syndrom, hearts did the same and fell of the radar for a couple of seasons, motherwell last year were good, lost a few of their big players and this year failed to get into the top 6,

[Kieran_imray]

I'm behind Barca for this one. Imo they play the nicer football. They also don't have the worlds biggest wanker wearing a no. 7 shirt for them. That and I'm a bit bored of the Premiership monopoly of the Champions League just now.

[Murrr]

I actually think that Milner is bang on the money here, for the most part.

Who are we gonna employ that's going to do a better job than Jimmy? Every appointment that we make should be looking to better the previous manager's achievements, and we've managed to get in the top six every season for the past five years with two European runs. That's an absolutely fantastic record, and the next step would be to get into Europe and third place every season, with some cup success too. I don't think that there's a man out there capable of using Aberdeen's limited resources to get to this stage, do any of you?

The cup thing is a bit of a pain in the arse and going out to lower league opposition is a massive pain in the arse but no manager is perfect. I've stopped going to Pittodrie because the brand of football that Aberdeen played under Jimmy was rank rotten, but it got us points and it got us fourth in the league through merit. I'd much rather finish fourth in the league with boring football than fail to reach the top six with a more attractive brand.

I don't know what Aberdeen fans expect these days.

[The Milner]

It's fair enough that JC lost his 'best' players and had to rebuilt, but he also kept deadwood like Mackie when he should be looking for fee's for these sorts of players. The board provided what little they could, but Jimmy didn't go looking for that little bit more by selling off some players. Scottish teams have to wheel and deal abit more now, something that Jimmy was terrible at.

I don't think the buck shouls have stopped at JC. Willie Miller should step down and his wages be used to take in a player or two. What does he really do at the club? Negotiate the contracts? Provide a business mind at Todders? He can't negotiate his way around a chippy, let alone a football club. Deary me.

honestly can you say that anyteam would be willing to pay for the likes of makie and foster? For all his bad points i can see why JC likes makie, he wears his heart on his sleeve everygame, Foster there is no excuse tho. But everymanager has their favs.

JC didnt wheel and deal??!!! He got severn on a free, best bit of buisnes the club has done in years, Aluko cost next to nothing, Josh walker was a fine loan singing as was vidal this year. The only thing he has been able to do is wheel and deal as he has hard hardly anymoney for transfer fees in 5 years. I think he has spent less than 1million in transfer fees since he has been at the club, 5 years, 1million, 4 top 6 finishes, three cup semi finals and through the group stages in europe, again not bad for such an inept manager.

[Murrr]

I'm behind Barca for this one. Imo they play the nicer football. They also don't have the worlds biggest wanker wearing a no. 7 shirt for them. That and I'm a bit bored of the Premiership monopoly of the Champions League just now.

I'm backing Barca purely because the vast majority of the Man United "fans" I know only seem to come out of the woodwork towards the end of the season when they're about to capture the league/cup(s). I think a lot of it hinges on whether or not Rio plays. I think he's one of the best defenders in the world (easily), and they might struggle to contain Messi and co. without him. That said though, Barca are missing Iniesta, and he's a massive player for them, so who knows how it'll go down.

Good news on Tyneside today is that Habib Beye's staying for at least one more season. This is absolutely fantastic news; Habib's an incredibly likeable footballer and he's been the best right-back we've had since Warren Barton in the mid-nineties. He'll by the best defender in the Championship by quite some margin, and with him and Taylor staying that's two less bodies we need to bring in over the summer.

Now all we need's for Al to sign-on and we'll be good to go.

[The Milner]

Well first you tell me why Hearts, Hibs, United and our other rivals in the league are bigger than us please. As you pointed out yourself, we've had consistely had more success recently than our rivals:

i never said anyone was bigger than anyone else, thats not the point i want to know what makes aberdeen a big club compared to others.

If your basing size of club on sucess would you say stoke are a bigger club than newcastle because of this season?

[Lemonade]

Todays stories:

Anybody and everybody linked with Celtic job in the Scottish press.

In other news, the Pope is Catholic and bears shit in the woods.

Albion tight-lipped over Mowbray link | Scottish Premier League | Football News from TEAMtalk

Coyle cool on Celtic job talk | Scottish Premier League | Football News from TEAMtalk

Among the names in the frame being touted by the rest of the media today are Davie Moyes (Scotsman), Neil Lennon (Scotsman), Owen Coyle (The Times),Roy Keane (Daily Express) and Tony Mowbray (Mail).

David Moyes? Dream on....

[Murrr]

Todays stories:

Anybody and everybody linked with Celtic job in the Scottish press.

In other news, the Pope is Catholic and bears shit in the woods.

Albion tight-lipped over Mowbray link | Scottish Premier League | Football News from TEAMtalk

Coyle cool on Celtic job talk | Scottish Premier League | Football News from TEAMtalk

David Moyes? Dream on....

Hope they get Mowbray, like. I think he's a very good manager and him leaving might just screw up West Brom's promotion push; they're my pick to win the Championship this season, and onviously I don't want that to happen...

Keane won't leave Ipswich so soon after joining, Moyes won't leave Everton, and Coyle seems to want to stick with Burnley (good on him). I'd piss myself laughing if they got Lennon...

[Nev]

Man, I'm excited for Wednesday. Apart from suspensions to Alves, Abidal and Fletcher, both teams looks set to have full strength squads with the recovery of Iniesta, Henry and Ferdinand. Still, that's a big chunk of Barca's already dubious backline out, but it's also United's finest retainer of the ball out. Even though Barca will see about 60% of the posession like they always do, it really could go either way. If Manyoo score an early goal like last years semi 2nd leg, or like Chelsea did a couple of weeks back, the attacking pressure for the rest of the game is going to be intense. Barca don't sit back on leads though, so even if they score two, it really isn't over. It's gonna be so good.

0-0 then?

[Soda Jerk]

There'll be goals. There just has to be. Barca can't sit back. United will break, lose possession, Barca will break and be devastating. If John O'Shea uses his bouncy-castle first touch as always, he's going to get raped. That should probably be their tactic. Punt it skywards towards O'Shea, watch his terrible composure spill the ball all over the shop as if it were a rugby ball, and nick it in the attacking third. Goal-o-rama.

[The Milner]

There'll be goals. There just has to be. Barca can't sit back. United will break, lose possession, Barca will break and be devastating. If John O'Shea uses his bouncy-castle first touch as always, he's going to get raped. That should probably be their tactic. Punt it skywards towards O'Shea, watch his terrible composure spill the ball all over the shop as if it were a rugby ball, and nick it in the attacking third. Goal-o-rama.

haha there you go again!! Leave the boy alone!!

[Soda Jerk]

I love to hate John O'Shea.

[Dave-IRL]

John O'Pies

[Guest idol_wild]

John O'Shea for Man of the Match and the winning penalty in the shoot out.

[Soda Jerk]

He'll probably score a hat trick in normal time too, just to make look the fool. Like he did when he scored against Arsenal, and then assisted Carrick's goal a couple of weeks later.

[french_disko]

I would take Duncan Ferguson as he has done a stonking job at Peterborough, but apparently we can't have him.

Duncan????

[french_disko]

Aberdeen fans who had fun watching their side get drubbed 7-0 away and 6-0 at home by Celtic? And liked the fact we only stayed in the SPL because Falkirk's stadium was too pish?

Firstly, we were beat by Celtic AWAY by those scores - not at home.

Secondly, we didn't stay in the SPL due to Falkirk's stadium being pish, we only avoided a play off for that reason.

[Hugh_Jazz]

I'm just at my wits end reading some of this shite about AFC.

Why are there so many people that singularly refuse to give Jimmy Calderwood any credit whatsoever despite 5 consistent years of challenging for 3rd/4th spot, a fantastic UEFA cup run, and qualifying again for Europe this season?

I can only imagine that either they didnt live through the previous 10 years of abject failure, frequent embarassment and totally awful football, or have just got very short memories. I even read somewhere that somebody preferred the Skovdahl era. Fuck. Right. Off. The only "good" thing, if you can call it that about the Skovdahl era, was that the club went in a completely new direction......signing up an unknown foreign coach, buying a bunch of foreigners that we've never heard of. In a way, it was refreshing....the reality on the pitch however was fucking chronic.

Success is always relative, and considering where we were when JC took over and the tools at his disposal, he has been a success. That is an indisputable fact. He inherited one of the worst Dons side in recent memory and a youth setup that had fallen apart and had all but stopped producing first team players. Add to that a tiny budget and regularly losing his top players with barely a penny to show for it. Despite that, he has been totally instrumental in not only steadying the ship in terms of results, but also financially. Without the improvement in results we'd still be losing cash hand over fist, instead of our debt situation improving overall during his tenure.

Another thing being mentioned a lot is the standard of football under JC. Personally, I judge quality of football on results. Managers are not paid to pander to the artistic desires of the fans....they are paid to win by whatever means possible. Jimmy's win/loss ratio is significantly better than his recent predecessors and with the players at his disposal, results will always be ground out, rather than opposition teams being swept aside. It is up to the manager to recognise that fact, and he should be applauded for finding a way to succeed with what in all honesty is a pretty ordinary group of players, rather than being lambasted for not playing like the Brazil '82 side.

...and finally, cup runs. Fucking cup runs. They've been a disaster, no doubt. But they are one-off games, and shit sometime happens. In our case, shit has happened a few times recently, but it is just not logical for a team that does well in the league to be fundamentally incapable in the cups. Personally, I absolve the manager of blame for this, and lay responsibility at the door of the players who simply haven't got themselves up for the cup games. Motivation shouldn't be the manager's responsibility, that comes from the players, and they failed us. Funny how we did so well in the UEFA cup....that's a cup isn't it? Given time, the squad would evolve and the cup results would inevitably have improved, but we Dons fans don't 'do' patience do we? To sack a manager because of "his" performance in a handful of games, despite performing well in our bread and butter league games is a nonsense to me.

If we end up picking one of the names being bandied around for JC's job, I have a very bad feeling that the boo-boys are going to find out exactly how good a job JC did over the past 5 years while our league form goes down the pan. Leaving aside the pie in the sky hopes of splitting the OF, Cup runs are basically the only thing he didn't achieve, and that is a very sorry reason to sack him IMO. He was far from perfect, but he's the best we've had in a long time and I wish him well.

Over to you Milne. Don't fuck this up.

[Guest Exposure @ Lemon Tree]

Celtic manager job - I hope to fuck Lennon is not promoted.

It's no coincidence that the departure of Tommy Burns and the arrival of Neil Lennon in coaching roles resulted in Celtic going from sometimes playing pretty football to playing boring negative shite football and sometimes scraping 1 goal victories.

Someone mentioned Frank Rijkard on a Celtic forum. Clearly never going to happen, but I then started dreaming of a Rijkard/Larsson dream team leading Celtic.

We'll more than likely get a Mowbray/Lennon team, which wouldn't be at all bad.

Just so long as we don't get Jimmy Calderwood

[Lemonade]

Celtic manager job - I hope to fuck Lennon is not promoted.

It's no coincidence that the departure of Tommy Burns and the arrival of Neil Lennon in coaching roles resulted in Celtic going from sometimes playing pretty football to playing boring negative shite football and sometimes scraping 1 goal victories.

Someone mentioned Frank Rijkard on a Celtic forum. Clearly never going to happen, but I then started dreaming of a Rijkard/Larsson dream team leading Celtic.

We'll more than likely get a Mowbray/Lennon team, which wouldn't be at all bad.

Just so long as we don't get Jimmy Calderwood

I hear John Barnes is looking for work.

How about a Barnes / Dalglish 'dream team'?

[Guest Exposure @ Lemon Tree]

How about a Barnes / Dalglish 'dream team'?

What could possibly go wrong?

[Kieran_imray]

Firstly, we were beat by Celtic AWAY by those scores - not at home.

Secondly, we didn't stay in the SPL due to Falkirk's stadium being pish, we only avoided a play off for that reason.

Firstly, fair point, my bad, But still, not exactly great is it?

Secondly, given how we were playing that season, I'm not convinced we would have won the play off. And still, WE FINISHED BOTTOM OF THE LEAGUE!!! I mean Jesus fucking Christ, surely Jimmy has to be held in higher regard than Ebbe.

Oh, wait, no, he is from Govan! Of course, lets hate a manager who has done better for us than almost anyone since Alex Ferguson purely because he is a Rangers man who occasionally has cup slip ups and doesn't play the most exciting open football (with below par players he has bought with the naff all money he is given to spend) in order to maintain vague consistency in results!! It all makes perfect sense now!! I mean, after all, he did only stop us languishing in relegation battles.....