Who benefits from such an arrangement? Not Clyde, that's for sure, since they won't have the use of their own, perfectly decent stadium, and who will have to fork out ground rent to Killie which is as good as pissing money down the drain. Correct us if we're wrong, but do Livingston manage to fill their ground to capacity for old farm visits? We think not, so what use are the empty seats to anybody? From an Aberdonian perspective, more trips to Kilmarnock definitely won't benefit the Red Army who will have potentially two extra lengthy trips to the back of beyond - no doubt midweek - consequently having their spending power tested unreasonably. Bloody hell, knowing the SPL fixtures incompetency, we'll probably end up having to play there on successive dates and will inevitably end up playing down there in the cup competitions too.
It really does look as if the SPL member clubs want to make it as difficult as possible for SFL clubs to join the "elite" by throwing every possible obstacle in their path. Members, on the other hand, are busy looking after number one with Hearts getting to share Murrayfield with the SRU - that'll be an eerie experience, going to a sixty thousand capacity ground to be part of, at best, a fifteen thousand crowd. It'll be like watching the under-21's at Todders. And Dundee get the nod to share with the Arabs, playing on what is probably the worst pitch in the SPL and which is now destined to be the desert that the Tannalice supporters have always yearned for.
Partick Thistle are outraged for different reasons, because they pushed the boat out to comply with SPL requirements and St. Johnstone and St. Mirren would be justified in feeling miffed for the same reasons, but times have changed and football finances cannot possibly justify the current standards of admission. Things have to change, but can the SPL not cast aside the sickening blubber of self interest in the cause of the clarion call to recovery? Get real and make promotion and relegation that bit easier by having realistic expectations of grounds. After all, why should any sane director of an SFL club risk observing the SPL timetable by spending money even before they know for sure that they will be promoted?
Young Dandies confirm that the Red Army is still capable of defiance against the odds
29th March 2004 - Speculation has mounted recently that SP might consider a summer swoop for Eoin Jess. Would a third spell at Pittodrie for the former boy wonder be a good thing or a bad thing for the Dons?
Presuming there was no transfer fee involved and that his wage demands were not excessive, i.e. that we could
afford such a move, it might not be a bad thing. If we put aside the unpleasantness that overshadowed his departure
under Skovdahl then it might be the move that gives our midfield a whiff of an attacking threat for next season.
Sure he's no spring chicken, but he has been playing for a
reasonably large club in Division One and will have the first yard on most midfield players up here in his head
anyway. We know he can shoot from distance, take a free kick and play the occasional pass. Stick him in a midfield
with the industry of Tosh and Heikkinen, add the pace of Clark or Muirhead, with Booth dropping deep from the front
line and that isn't too bad a set up in my opinion.
Sure it doesn't solve any long term problems but very few signings will these days. If a 20-25 goal a season striker can't be found or is too expensive, then taking some of the goalscoring burden off our current shot shy and injury prone front line may be one of the only options. From the fans viewpoint, some will feel like Jess shouldn't return because of his attitude before he left and that he may not be able to produce what he once did. However, there are quite a lot of fans who remember the spectacular strikes of days gone by, the almost guaranteed goal against rangers, and the comforting thought that if a game was close and there was time left for an equaliser or a winner, there was someone on the park that could feasibly provide that killer pass, or accurate shot to be spilled by the goalkeeper for a tap in from the forward.
It is highly unlikely that our current squad could contrive to create fewer chances in a game with someone of Jess's experience and craft in the midfield. If he is available on a free and the wages are right, it would do no harm for SP to consider taking Jess back to Pitters for his swansong, where it all began. For once, it does seem like that long ago. And let's face it, he wouldn't just be coming here for the money!
Captain Sweaty
Message to the player: The season isn't over yet! We still need every point we can get and don't shrug off your share of responsibility, our club is up to its neck in trouble because every time we have arrived a crucial match, you lot have decided to shirk. Of course there were tryers on the pitch on Saturday, but far too few, there was far to much carelessness and far, far too little effort.
The game of football in general has gone rapidly downhill since it went all "big money" on us and ceased to be the working man's game. As soon as we got players on executive salaries in stead of factory wages we were stuck onto a slippery slope that doesn't look anything like leveling off. UEFA has a hand in this because it has toadied to the few wealthy clubs instead of thinking about the good of the game as a whole. If UEFA don't do something about it mighty quick we'll be left with a handful of huge clubs round Europe and all the others will just disappear. If you fork out to watch the fat-cat clubs on TV then you have contributed to the decline so don't lay all the blame at the Dons' door.
It is getting harder and harder to see a way out of the mess that the Dandies are in, they need to get results to improve finance so that they can (A) get out of debt and (B) get better players, but they don't seem able to get the results unless they can get better players. Where's it all going to end? Fuck knows, and it looks like less and less people care. On the upside, when we field our strongest team, which we haven't managed to do in ages, we have a not bad side - playing 4-4-2 - but we have no strength in depth which is down to the lack of money and as soon as somebody drops out hurt or suspended we've got a problem. All TRF can suggest right now is that players wages need to keep heading towards realistic levels and the manager needs to work harder at finding guys who will play like they care.
Sorry for the absence folks - there was some sort of technical problem for bloody AGES - that stopped us updating the home page. Hopefully it is sorted properly and we can get on with ranting, raving and behaving like radges.
25th March 2004 - A few weeks of absence for the TRF website and what happens? The Dandies backslide and far too many of our fellow Rudolphs go irrationally ballistic. Sure we've had some bad results lately, but we've been having them all season, BUT we are going through a season that has seen Zander Diamond make a huge impact, Scott Morrison has made the left back slot his own, Marcus (The Mop) Heikkinen has gone from strength to strength, Phil McGuire has found his best form after a spell in the wilderness, Budgie Stewart has pushed his way to the fringe of the first team and we have finally begun to develop the basis of a good side. That is all positive after the chaos and damage caused by Ebbe Skovdahl and his wildly irrational and highly expensive policy. Sure, Pele has bungled a couple of his signings too, but nowhere near the scale of Uncle Ebbe - how on earth so many people still worship the Dane is completely beyond TRF. It is clear that we desperately need to strengthen our attack, so let's get focussed on that and stop moanin'.
On the subject of moanin' though - what was that pish headline in the Evening Depress a few days back when they went all scandalised about tickets for the Elton John concert being sold to Dons' fans before the general public. It was absolutely the right thing for AFC to give their loyally long suffering supporters a bit of a boost. The scandal would have been if they hadn't. We all now that tabloids will print anything to try and boost sales, but how many extra readers did they get that day? And how many did they lose for good? Surely a local paper has a pretty steady audience without the banner headlines, why don't they just concentrate on stories about NE pigs going down on the Titanic.
Eppie the Auld Fish Wife