TRF Front Page Archive August 2001

These items have appeared on the TRF homepage and we wouldn't want to deprive you of anything that we have posted, so browse away.

26th February - No match against one of the old farm can be classed as "normal" and the aftermath of these games falls into the same pit. There was us thinking that every team in Scottish football was allowed to try and compete with every other team to the best of their ability. Some are good at it, some are not, but it is their prerogative to have a go anyhow. Well, apparently not. Even in the early years of the 21st century, when mankind, who have progressed from the seas and the swamps, through living in the treetops to walking the open planes and who have developed the arts and sciences to a fantastically sophisticated degree, discovered cures for myriad diseases and established democracies (well, more or less) throughout much of the world, it seems that there is still one massive taboo remaining in Scotland. A massive cancer on the arse of the land of enlightenment, of Walter Scott, Rennie Macintosh and Alexander Flemming, we are still not allowed to compete against Glasgow's biggest pair of football teams. If your favourite club has the temerity to try, referees will allow the Weegie players to commit mayhem on their opponents and turn a blind eye to all but the worst excesses. The Weegie press will concoct sensationalist lies about missiles (a scarf) being hurled onto the pitch and harp on about the red hand of Ulster making an appearance (how far would one of those get on the home terraces when the huns are, allegedly, risking life and limb in the vicinity of Pittodrie at all other times?). Cap that by a manager trying to excuse his players for provoking the crowd and risking causing serious trouble, and then topping it by claiming that the fixture will be one of hate from now on and you are witnessing what passes for the top end of Scottish football.

There is always a load of bollocks spewed out by the press about Aberdeen's matches against either half of the old farm, and you can bet your bottom dollar that in the build up to Saturday's game at parkhead we will now get at least one of the tabloids trying to create animosity amongst the fans that just isn't there. Few if any Rudolphs will have much respect for celtic and their hangers-on, but hatred? Probably not.. Shouting the odds during a match has been going on since the very beginnings of the absolute game and the violence associated with it has decreased steadily over the years. As for the Lennon behaviour at the end of last night's cup tie, did anybody give a toss that he was having a bit of a celebration? Nope. He got dogs abuse during the game because he was behaving like a spoiled brat and getting off with a multiplicity of fouls that would make Desperate Dan's ma flinch. But dogs abuse doesn't mean that anybody is going hunting for agro after the game, it's a part of football all round the world, but the Weegie press love to stir it up to try and sell a few more copies of their slimy rags. The crass and cynical commercialism of it turns the stomach of any right thinking person, but it won't stop because they sell more copies to the great unwashed followers of the old farm than to anybody else. The reason? It is only the gullible who buy such pap and only the gullible who even come close to believing what is written there and it's only the gullible who will be conned into buying extra copies because of histrionic headlines.

The Dons lost yesterday because they didn't play well enough, but they didn't resort to the violent play that characterises celtic's game these days. Nor did they bleat and whine about it afterwards. To listen to Martin O'Neill last night, you'd think that the sour grapes were coming from a losing manager rather than a winning one. At least Ebbe Skovdahl is honest and realistic about matches and doesn't find any need to degenerate into spouting bilge to please the gutter press. Let's hope our club never tries to remodel itself along the lines of wither of the gruesomes of Glasgow.

23rd February - Today's dinner time edition of Sportscene was as insultingly ignorant as ever. The ever dependable duffer, Voogie Dypond, managed not only to trail the preview of Monday's game by saying it was all about Celtic's cup tie at Pittodrie, he also to show a complete inability to do his homework by telling the information starved viewing public that Leon Mike was desperate to do well in the match. Funny that, I could have sworn that the Dons were major protagonists in this tie too and forgive me for worrying about the facts, but isn't Leon prevented from playing because he wasn't signed in time? Good thing the BBC is a national TV station and consequently neutral and unbiased when it comes to covering the national sport, we wouldn't want people to form the view that the Queen Margaret drive folks are just as prejudiced in favour of the Glasgow Gruesomes, would we? It's just sheer coincidence that they only show matches involving one or other of that pair and pure accidental that they have been ramming the huns down our throats almost nightly in recent weeks.

Never mind Voogie, you probably kept the timmish part of the audience happy today with your choice of words. And hey, your ignorance about all things AFC will only serve to add that wee bit of extra resolve to the Dandies and the Red Army for Monday night. Thanks a lot!

23rd February - The rallying call by Keith Wyness for Monday night's Cu tie against Celtic has picked up mixed reactions here at TFRHQ. Naturally, as dedicated Dandies followers and lovers of big crowd atmosphere, the TRF crew would love to see a sellout for the game, preferably with all the tickets in the hands of true Rudolphs, but the emotional blackmail by oor Chief Exec is a bit out of order.

"If the Aberdeen fans really want us to win this game they will have to do their bit from the stands", was the Wyness call, coupled with dark hints that if we don't turn out in force for this one we might compromise the chances of a fifty-fifty allocation of tickets for a Hampden final. That's al very well, but the answer has to be if he really wants a full house, he should be fighting to prevent the game being shown live on Sky - especially on a Monday night.. The harsh fact of modern football is that fans will not turn up in the same numbers at a stadium if they can sit at home or in the pub and view the game with a drink in their hands. This version of sods law applies just as much to the old farm as it does to anybody else so neither the SFA nor anyone else can expect to use poorer turnouts at matches as an argument over Cup final tickets. They'd be laughed out of court.

Football clubs take their fans too much for granted and have to work hard to promote their home games and to temp the punters through the turnstiles. The days of people just turning up no matter what have gone forever. Of course the Red Army want the Dandies to win through and of course they'll give them superb vocal backing at the game, we have been starved of success for too long not to want to go all the way this time round and it's a good bet that by Monday night the club will have sold a lot more tickets than the 11,500 mentioned in the local evening paper.

This season's home crowds have been better than AFC have enjoyed since 1991 so Wyness has little real cause for complaint so long as the trend is upwards. He should also bear in mind that a lot of people won't take their kids along to a match where they will have to be subjected to the unpleasant presence of 4,000 or so zealots who will sing and chant their way through a repertoire of songs of hate that are against everything that decent Scots believe in. If the Club was to show some balls and cut the numbers (not so easy with a cup tie due to SFA rules) of Celtic or Rangers supporters allowed into Pittodrie they probably wouldn't notice any financial difference because far more of their own fans would be willing to turn out. The recent poll on this website shows that the majority of our fans want to see the ticket allocation for the old farm reduced by half or even cut to 500. The Pittodrie authorities would do well to take note.

21st February - Top marks to North Tonight and its serpentine sports sage Tyrone 'Teapot' Smith for sounding a warning to Dons contract rebels Robbie Winters and Hamich Zerouali (sic) in last night's bulletin.

Short of real news and clearly amused by the potential transfer of former Aberdeen 'hero' David "Fa?" Rowson to Eh-lex Smith's high-flying Dundee United, Hissing Tyrone apparently decided to fashion a new angle to this homecoming story. By suggesting a return to Pittodrie.

Before anyone panics this is never going to happen. We all know that, nobody at AFC would consider it, Rowson himself is probably well aware that he's burnt his boats once and for all. Snakehips Smith knows it too, which is why he allowed himself this spot of mischief-making. There was no story - other than the sussurating Grampian anchorman phoning Rowson and asking a terrifically leading question. If, in some parallel universe somewhere, where less water had passed under the bridge, you were offered the opportunity to rejoin the Dons, what would you say? Well, given what he knows now, aye…

That, of course, was all the verification Tizer needed to proceed with what amounted to little more than an assassination of poor wee Dave. TRF suspects that the man who covers every square inch of our screens during his three-minute round-ups has grown tired of good players abandoning his favourite team and was sending out his own plea to those presently attracting the attention of the vultures. The report was at pains to point out, among other things: (a) that it was Rowson himself who rejected the chance to sign up at Pittodrie last summer; (b) that the loon isn't getting a game for Stoke, despite their being in the far from glamorous surrounds of the English Second Division; (c) that Ebbe replaced him with the outstanding Bisconti, several times the player Rowson will ever be; (d) that the Dons are not only managing fine without him but embarking upon their most impressive domestic season for six years (since Rowson arrived on the scene in fact); (e) that nobody would be willing to pay a transfer fee for him; and (f) that Keith Wyness wouldn't even talk to the player's agent, Gordon Smith, after the rumpus he caused twelve months ago.

Even the subliminals weren't kind to DR - though he managed to score a dozen goals in his six years in the Dons first team, including a few pretty good 'uns and an uproariously amusing one past Gordon Marshall, only one was shown in the VT. As was the only goal that has so far been scored by the bald Belgian who took his place. As was, indeed, Willie Young showing the former Scotland under-21 skipper a wholly deserved yellow card in a certain match against celtic - a match in which Pittodrie afficionados will recall he would later produce a card of an altogether more serious colour to both Rowson and Darren Jacksie. Add in the library footage of a plooky S-former screwing up some keepy-ups in front of the GTV cameras and you've got yourself a very one sided looking story, and quite right too.

Rowson, as we all implored him at the time to no effect, has made the same mistake as countless before him. Believing, encouraged by money-grabbing bacteria from the 10% brotherhood, that the grass is always greener on the richer side of the fence, he sold himself into utter obscurity and now wishes he hadn't. Our very own Desperate Dan has used his Tyrone Power to bring the plight of the forgotten ex-Don once again to local prominence, to stop those at Todders who might currently be mulling over a big-bucks move to reserveland from chucking their promising careers down the pan.

It may be too late for Winters and Zero, but when the same story appears on North Tonight this time next year with your names on it, don't say Tyrone didn't warn you, lads. 16th February - A new signing for the Dons is a pretty rare experience these days, so it's very satisfying to welcome Leon Mike on board and to have seen him celebrate his arrival with a goal on his debut. Here's hoping that was the first of many successful strikes for us by the twenty-year old and that he'll fit in nicely with all of the other young talent at Pittodrie.

It's pretty clear that Mike will have to be the first of several new faces coming to Aberdeen in the next few months as we brace ourselves to say goodbye to Winters and Zerouali whose agent will surely drag them off to bigger wages and obscurity at some English first division clubs where they will be lucky to get a game. It seems such a waste. You would think that these guys would realise that the Dons are on the way up now and that they could be a part of something worthwhile with the prospect of a bit of silverware becoming a distinct possibility. Naturally, every player should try to get the best deal he can, but that doesn't always mean it should revolve entirely round money - even if that's what it means for the agent.

Solberg's departure is another story and won't really have much impact on AFC because he was already lost in the fringes of the squad and unlikely to feature much more. We don't know about Guntveit yet, but he does put in a power of work and like Darren Young seems to have benefited from Bisconti's arrival. Let's hope his situation gets sorted out quickly and we know his and everybody else's situation before the end of the season.

The Dons' squad is still pretty thin and there's a need for more additions without putting the club's already precarious finances under greater strain. A tall order, but surely possible, especially with the additional cash earned from a top six place and a much improved points total. Now if we can only make it to the Cup final, it might even be that the board will boost Ebbe's budget enough to let him relax a wee bit over the players he wants instead of worrying unduly over the risk of making wrong decisions.

Dons' Chief Exec reveals more details of how the new AFC Global Scouting scheme will operate....

10th February - Dons' fans can seldom have seen as appaling display of namby pamby, indecisive refereeing as they did yesterday against Kilmarnock. Kevin Toner failed to stamp his authority on the match and in so doing allowed Kilmarnock to stamp all over the Dons. Despite plenty of strong-arm tactics during a mighty dull first half, the canary coloured whistle tooter contented himself with a few finger waggings to the Ayrshire thugs when it was obvious to the bulk of the crowd that he needed to flash a couple of yellows to ensure that Kilmarnock didn't get too far above themselves. Because he failed to assert himself he opened the door to a second half of brute force and ignorance by Kilmarnock's yobboes and we were faced with the prospect of mayhem if the Dons had lost their cool. Fortunately for us and no thanks to Toner, the Reds managed to restrain themselves most of the time and justice was done to the extent that Killie didn't get away with all three points.

The game was one that we should have won and would have if Eugene Dadi had taken one or more of the hat-trick of chances offered him by his teammates. Let's hope he sharpens up for the arrival of the Arabs in a few days time, because we really need to win as many matches as possible to have a chance of overhauling Livingston and bagging a European place for next season. At least now we can think about such things instead of fretting over the dangers of relegation that haunted us for the past few seasons.

Objects for derision - Number one

What would you pay to get on the pitch at Pittodrie?

1st February
Aye, OK, a bunch of daft sods may have proved recently that it's actually not that hard to get on the park at Pittodrie, though they didn't grace the hallowed turf so much as disgrace it. Here's hoping that, in the fullness of time, they pay for the privilege too.

We're talking here about the opportunity to get your boots on and play on the field where dozens of your dreams have been fulfilled and hundreds more dashed. Very few get to do it, an annoyingly large percentage of which take the piss by not trying an inch one they get there, but none of us would say no to the offer. And now is your chance. Your chance to cross the white line by means which are not only not illegal but positively altruistic. Your chance to play at Pittodrie - for charity.

Football Aid is that charity. In order to raise money for a range of charities including the British Heart Foundation, the NSPCC and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Football Aid has teamed up with clubs across the country to give squads of everyday fans like us the chance to buy the right to play in specially-arranged matches on 49 of the UK's most famous grounds. What's more, the chosen few will also be able to tell of the day they stepped out in the same XI as a real Dons legend - last year's teams were skippered by Doug Rougvie and John Hewitt, and Rougvie has already been signed up to do service again this season. And as if all that isn't enough, it's tax deductible. A noble cause and a bright idea: everyone's a winner, baby, that's the truth.

This year's Pittodrie match is taking place on Sunday 14 April, with a 2pm kick-off. All you have to do to stand a chance of taking part is visit the charity's website (www.footballaid.com) and make a bid for the shirt you want to wear, then sit back and wait to see if you've been successful.

Last year, Football Aid's first, this event raised thousands of pounds up and down the country. Among the most valuable shirts, believe it or not, was the garish number 7 jersey of celtic, but while most of us set about figuring out exactly how many weeks of giro money went towards several grand's worth of sporting apparel the conspiracists were speculating that the buyer was actually the 'real' Henrik Larsson desperate to prove that there were still some players on the go that he could look good against. It's unlikely that any of the AFC sarks will go that high, but every penny counts so don't be miserly. Look everywhere for that extra bit of loose change - down the sofa, in the washing machine, even Robbie Winters' heid. It might swing the balance.

What price scoring a tap-in from the same blade of grass as Harper or Shearer? What price depositing someone into row F of the Main Stand á la Cooper or Richardson? What price pulling off a great save in the same goal as Clark or Leighton? Even, what price making a fool of yourself by scoring a calamitous o.g. in a manner owing much to Regi Blinker (a misfortune which befell one poor punter last year - not naming names but he shares a moniker with a once and future St Midden striker who was until very recently the only player to score a winning goal for Aberdeen against Livingston)?

What price indeed - only you can decide. Get over to footballaid.com and lodge your bid.

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26th February - No match against one of the old farm can be classed as "normal" and the aftermath of these games falls into the same pit. There was us thinking that every team in Scottish football was allowed to try and compete with every other team to the best of their ability. Some are good at it, some are not, but it is their prerogative to have a go anyhow. Well, apparently not. Even in the early years of the 21st century, when mankind, who have progressed from the seas and the swamps, through living in the treetops to walking the open planes and who have developed the arts and sciences to a fantastically sophisticated degree, discovered cures for myriad diseases and established democracies (well, more or less) throughout much of the world, it seems that there is still one massive taboo remaining in Scotland. A massive cancer on the arse of the land of enlightenment, of Walter Scott, Rennie Macintosh and Alexander Flemming, we are still not allowed to compete against Glasgow's biggest pair of football teams. If your favourite club has the temerity to try, referees will allow the Weegie players to commit mayhem on their opponents and turn a blind eye to all but the worst excesses. The Weegie press will concoct sensationalist lies about missiles (a scarf) being hurled onto the pitch and harp on about the red hand of Ulster making an appearance (how far would one of those get on the home terraces when the huns are, allegedly, risking life and limb in the vicinity of Pittodrie at all other times?). Cap that by a manager trying to excuse his players for provoking the crowd and risking causing serious trouble, and then topping it by claiming that the fixture will be one of hate from now on and you are witnessing what passes for the top end of Scottish football. There is always a load of bollocks spewed out by the press about Aberdeen's matches against either half of the old farm, and you can bet your bottom dollar that in the build up to Saturday's game at parkhead we will now get at least one of the tabloids trying to create animosity amongst the fans that just isn't there. Few if any Rudolphs will have much respect for celtic and their hangers-on, but hatred? Probably not.. Shouting the odds during a match has been going on since the very beginnings of the absolute game and the violence associated with it has decreased steadily over the years. As for the Lennon behaviour at the end of last night's cup tie, did anybody give a toss that he was having a bit of a celebration? Nope. He got dogs abuse during the game because he was behaving like a spoiled brat and getting off with a multiplicity of fouls that would make Desperate Dan's ma flinch. But dogs abuse doesn't mean that anybody is going hunting for agro after the game, it's a part of football all round the world, but the Weegie press love to stir it up to try and sell a few more copies of their slimy rags. The crass and cynical commercialism of it turns the stomach of any right thinking person, but it won't stop because they sell more copies to the great unwashed followers of the old farm than to anybody else. The reason? It is only the gullible who buy such pap and only the gullible who even come close to believing what is written there and it's only the gullible who will be conned into buying extra copies because of histrionic headlines. The Dons lost yesterday because they didn't play well enough, but they didn't resort to the violent play that characterises celtic's game these days. Nor did they bleat and whine about it afterwards. To listen to Martin O'Neill last night, you'd think that the sour grapes were coming from a losing manager rather than a winning one. At least Ebbe Skovdahl is honest and realistic about matches and doesn't find any need to degenerate into spouting bilge to please the gutter press. Let's hope our club never tries to remodel itself along the lines of wither of the gruesomes of Glasgow.
23rd February - Today's dinner time edition of Sportscene was as insultingly ignorant as ever. The ever dependable duffer, Voogie Dypond, managed not only to trail the preview of Monday's game by saying it was all about Celtic's cup tie at Pittodrie, he also to show a complete inability to do his homework by telling the information starved viewing public that Leon Mike was desperate to do well in the match. Funny that, I could have sworn that the Dons were major protagonists in this tie too and forgive me for worrying about the facts, but isn't Leon prevented from playing because he wasn't signed in time? Good thing the BBC is a national TV station and consequently neutral and unbiased when it comes to covering the national sport, we wouldn't want people to form the view that the Queen Margaret drive folks are just as prejudiced in favour of the Glasgow Gruesomes, would we? It's just sheer coincidence that they only show matches involving one or other of that pair and pure accidental that they have been ramming the huns down our throats almost nightly in recent weeks. Never mind Voogie, you probably kept the timmish part of the audience happy today with your choice of words. And hey, your ignorance about all things AFC will only serve to add that wee bit of extra resolve to the Dandies and the Red Army for Monday night. Thanks a lot!
23rd February - The rallying call by Keith Wyness for Monday night's Cu tie against Celtic has picked up mixed reactions here at TFRHQ. Naturally, as dedicated Dandies followers and lovers of big crowd atmosphere, the TRF crew would love to see a sellout for the game, preferably with all the tickets in the hands of true Rudolphs, but the emotional blackmail by oor Chief Exec is a bit out of order. "If the Aberdeen fans really want us to win this game they will have to do their bit from the stands", was the Wyness call, coupled with dark hints that if we don't turn out in force for this one we might compromise the chances of a fifty-fifty allocation of tickets for a Hampden final. That's al very well, but the answer has to be if he really wants a full house, he should be fighting to prevent the game being shown live on Sky - especially on a Monday night.. The harsh fact of modern football is that fans will not turn up in the same numbers at a stadium if they can sit at home or in the pub and view the game with a drink in their hands. This version of sods law applies just as much to the old farm as it does to anybody else so neither the SFA nor anyone else can expect to use poorer turnouts at matches as an argument over Cup final tickets. They'd be laughed out of court. Football clubs take their fans too much for granted and have to work hard to promote their home games and to temp the punters through the turnstiles. The days of people just turning up no matter what have gone forever. Of course the Red Army want the Dandies to win through and of course they'll give them superb vocal backing at the game, we have been starved of success for too long not to want to go all the way this time round and it's a good bet that by Monday night the club will have sold a lot more tickets than the 11,500 mentioned in the local evening paper. This season's home crowds have been better than AFC have enjoyed since 1991 so Wyness has little real cause for complaint so long as the trend is upwards. He should also bear in mind that a lot of people won't take their kids along to a match where they will have to be subjected to the unpleasant presence of 4,000 or so zealots who will sing and chant their way through a repertoire of songs of hate that are against everything that decent Scots believe in. If the Club was to show some balls and cut the numbers (not so easy with a cup tie due to SFA rules) of Celtic or Rangers supporters allowed into Pittodrie they probably wouldn't notice any financial difference because far more of their own fans would be willing to turn out. The recent poll on this website shows that the majority of our fans want to see the ticket allocation for the old farm reduced by half or even cut to 500. The Pittodrie authorities would do well to take note.


21st February - Top marks to North Tonight and its serpentine sports sage Tyrone 'Teapot' Smith for sounding a warning to Dons contract rebels Robbie Winters and Hamich Zerouali (sic) in last night's bulletin. Short of real news and clearly amused by the potential transfer of former Aberdeen 'hero' David "Fa?" Rowson to Eh-lex Smith's high-flying Dundee United, Hissing Tyrone apparently decided to fashion a new angle to this homecoming story. By suggesting a return to Pittodrie. Before anyone panics this is never going to happen. We all know that, nobody at AFC would consider it, Rowson himself is probably well aware that he's burnt his boats once and for all. Snakehips Smith knows it too, which is why he allowed himself this spot of mischief-making. There was no story - other than the sussurating Grampian anchorman phoning Rowson and asking a terrifically leading question. If, in some parallel universe somewhere, where less water had passed under the bridge, you were offered the opportunity to rejoin the Dons, what would you say? Well, given what he knows now, aye… That, of course, was all the verification Tizer needed to proceed with what amounted to little more than an assassination of poor wee Dave. TRF suspects that the man who covers every square inch of our screens during his three-minute round-ups has grown tired of good players abandoning his favourite team and was sending out his own plea to those presently attracting the attention of the vultures. The report was at pains to point out, among other things: (a) that it was Rowson himself who rejected the chance to sign up at Pittodrie last summer; (b) that the loon isn't getting a game for Stoke, despite their being in the far from glamorous surrounds of the English Second Division; (c) that Ebbe replaced him with the outstanding Bisconti, several times the player Rowson will ever be; (d) that the Dons are not only managing fine without him but embarking upon their most impressive domestic season for six years (since Rowson arrived on the scene in fact); (e) that nobody would be willing to pay a transfer fee for him; and (f) that Keith Wyness wouldn't even talk to the player's agent, Gordon Smith, after the rumpus he caused twelve months ago. Even the subliminals weren't kind to DR - though he managed to score a dozen goals in his six years in the Dons first team, including a few pretty good 'uns and an uproariously amusing one past Gordon Marshall, only one was shown in the VT. As was the only goal that has so far been scored by the bald Belgian who took his place. As was, indeed, Willie Young showing the former Scotland under-21 skipper a wholly deserved yellow card in a certain match against celtic - a match in which Pittodrie afficionados will recall he would later produce a card of an altogether more serious colour to both Rowson and Darren Jacksie. Add in the library footage of a plooky S-former screwing up some keepy-ups in front of the GTV cameras and you've got yourself a very one sided looking story, and quite right too. Rowson, as we all implored him at the time to no effect, has made the same mistake as countless before him. Believing, encouraged by money-grabbing bacteria from the 10% brotherhood, that the grass is always greener on the richer side of the fence, he sold himself into utter obscurity and now wishes he hadn't. Our very own Desperate Dan has used his Tyrone Power to bring the plight of the forgotten ex-Don once again to local prominence, to stop those at Todders who might currently be mulling over a big-bucks move to reserveland from chucking their promising careers down the pan. It may be too late for Winters and Zero, but when the same story appears on North Tonight this time next year with your names on it, don't say Tyrone didn't warn you, lads.	16th February - A new signing for the Dons is a pretty rare experience these days, so it's very satisfying to welcome Leon Mike on board and to have seen him celebrate his arrival with a goal on his debut. Here's hoping that was the first of many successful strikes for us by the twenty-year old and that he'll fit in nicely with all of the other young talent at Pittodrie. It's pretty clear that Mike will have to be the first of several new faces coming to Aberdeen in the next few months as we brace ourselves to say goodbye to Winters and Zerouali whose agent will surely drag them off to bigger wages and obscurity at some English first division clubs where they will be lucky to get a game. It seems such a waste. You would think that these guys would realise that the Dons are on the way up now and that they could be a part of something worthwhile with the prospect of a bit of silverware becoming a distinct possibility. Naturally, every player should try to get the best deal he can, but that doesn't always mean it should revolve entirely round money - even if that's what it means for the agent. Solberg's departure is another story and won't really have much impact on AFC because he was already lost in the fringes of the squad and unlikely to feature much more. We don't know about Guntveit yet, but he does put in a power of work and like Darren Young seems to have benefited from Bisconti's arrival. Let's hope his situation gets sorted out quickly and we know his and everybody else's situation before the end of the season. The Dons' squad is still pretty thin and there's a need for more additions without putting the club's already precarious finances under greater strain. A tall order, but surely possible, especially with the additional cash earned from a top six place and a much improved points total. Now if we can only make it to the Cup final, it might even be that the board will boost Ebbe's budget enough to let him relax a wee bit over the players he wants instead of worrying unduly over the risk of making wrong decisions.
Dons' Chief Exec reveals more details of how the new AFC Global Scouting scheme will operate....
10th February - Dons' fans can seldom have seen as appaling display of namby pamby, indecisive refereeing as they did yesterday against Kilmarnock. Kevin Toner failed to stamp his authority on the match and in so doing allowed Kilmarnock to stamp all over the Dons. Despite plenty of strong-arm tactics during a mighty dull first half, the canary coloured whistle tooter contented himself with a few finger waggings to the Ayrshire thugs when it was obvious to the bulk of the crowd that he needed to flash a couple of yellows to ensure that Kilmarnock didn't get too far above themselves. Because he failed to assert himself he opened the door to a second half of brute force and ignorance by Kilmarnock's yobboes and we were faced with the prospect of mayhem if the Dons had lost their cool. Fortunately for us and no thanks to Toner, the Reds managed to restrain themselves most of the time and justice was done to the extent that Killie didn't get away with all three points. The game was one that we should have won and would have if Eugene Dadi had taken one or more of the hat-trick of chances offered him by his teammates. Let's hope he sharpens up for the arrival of the Arabs in a few days time, because we really need to win as many matches as possible to have a chance of overhauling Livingston and bagging a European place for next season. At least now we can think about such things instead of fretting over the dangers of relegation that haunted us for the past few seasons.
Objects for derision - Number one
What would you pay to get on the pitch at Pittodrie? 1st February Aye, OK, a bunch of daft sods may have proved recently that it's actually not that hard to get on the park at Pittodrie, though they didn't grace the hallowed turf so much as disgrace it. Here's hoping that, in the fullness of time, they pay for the privilege too. We're talking here about the opportunity to get your boots on and play on the field where dozens of your dreams have been fulfilled and hundreds more dashed. Very few get to do it, an annoyingly large percentage of which take the piss by not trying an inch one they get there, but none of us would say no to the offer. And now is your chance. Your chance to cross the white line by means which are not only not illegal but positively altruistic. Your chance to play at Pittodrie - for charity. Football Aid is that charity. In order to raise money for a range of charities including the British Heart Foundation, the NSPCC and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Football Aid has teamed up with clubs across the country to give squads of everyday fans like us the chance to buy the right to play in specially-arranged matches on 49 of the UK's most famous grounds. What's more, the chosen few will also be able to tell of the day they stepped out in the same XI as a real Dons legend - last year's teams were skippered by Doug Rougvie and John Hewitt, and Rougvie has already been signed up to do service again this season. And as if all that isn't enough, it's tax deductible. A noble cause and a bright idea: everyone's a winner, baby, that's the truth. This year's Pittodrie match is taking place on Sunday 14 April, with a 2pm kick-off. All you have to do to stand a chance of taking part is visit the charity's website (www.footballaid.com) and make a bid for the shirt you want to wear, then sit back and wait to see if you've been successful. Last year, Football Aid's first, this event raised thousands of pounds up and down the country. Among the most valuable shirts, believe it or not, was the garish number 7 jersey of celtic, but while most of us set about figuring out exactly how many weeks of giro money went towards several grand's worth of sporting apparel the conspiracists were speculating that the buyer was actually the 'real' Henrik Larsson desperate to prove that there were still some players on the go that he could look good against. It's unlikely that any of the AFC sarks will go that high, but every penny counts so don't be miserly. Look everywhere for that extra bit of loose change - down the sofa, in the washing machine, even Robbie Winters' heid. It might swing the balance. What price scoring a tap-in from the same blade of grass as Harper or Shearer? What price depositing someone into row F of the Main Stand á la Cooper or Richardson? What price pulling off a great save in the same goal as Clark or Leighton? Even, what price making a fool of yourself by scoring a calamitous o.g. in a manner owing much to Regi Blinker (a misfortune which befell one poor punter last year - not naming names but he shares a moniker with a once and future St Midden striker who was until very recently the only player to score a winning goal for Aberdeen against Livingston)? What price indeed - only you can decide. Get over to footballaid.com and lodge your bid.