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25th May - We didn't think much of Davy Moyes as a fitba player a few donkeys back and now we've ceased to think much of him as a manager too. He seemed to be shaping up well at Preston, but his outlandish decision to change his mind over the playing of a pre-season friendly at Pittodrie is right out of order. If he was reluctant to come to the northeast he should have simply turned down the deal right away, but to agree then change his mind coz he'd rather play the Pars is uncivil, unhelpful and unprofessional. Not that anybody up this way will be too bothered at the prospect of not seeing Everton, they must be one of the worst Premiership teams around, but he has done AFC an unnecessary disservice and hampered their pre-season planning and preparations. Let's hope that Dunfermline give his side a fearful spanking but in front of a tiny crowd whilst the Dandies are lording it over some significant continentals at a packed to the rafters Pittodrie.
17th May - Harping on about such a tedious and worthless topic as the ongoing escape attempt by the weegie two is not what TRF wants to be doing, but the latest squeals and pleas from the English Nationwide League can't pass without comment. They want the old farm to go down there to save their finances. Never mind what such a move might do to Scottish clubs, after all the time has come to look after number one - well, division one. Suddenly, where we might have felt sympathy for Bradford City going into administration, the combative side sneaks out and without a hint of conscience leaves us hoping that the administration turns to receivership. As to the rest of the Nationwide girning about the loss of TV money, they'll just have to bite the bullet like the SPL clubs are doing and start getting their finances in order. Football money has been sucked away from the game by players on far too high wages and by agents taking slices off the top and bottom of every deal that they've been involved in. Let the players and agents suffer now, not the clubs on either side of the border. This might be a good time for everybody to sit around a few tables and look at the way that the entire British game is organised and consider ways to make more of it more attractive to more people without depending on great gobs of cash being splashed about in all directions. Good competitive football played against a wide variety of opposition will always be a draw. If managers and coaches were to allow players to express themselves more instead of tying them up in disciplined, tactical knots then they might get on a road to pleasing crowds even when they aren't winning every game. Spice teams up with liberal infusions of precocious homegrown talent and the turnstiles would soon be clicking. Cut back on televised football too. A return to taking part and playing the game entertainingly and sportingly and with less emphasis on the silverware might do more to ensure the survival of football than clubs selling their souls to Rupert Murdoch.
14th May - Unbelievable! That twat Rob MacLean comes on the Radio Scotland news this evening and tells us that the English FA have announced that there is no way that the Old farm will be allowed to enter the English leagues next season or any other season. AND IN THE NEXT BREATH he tells us "But of course they will go sooner or later"!! What is it about a huge chunk of the Scottish sports press corps that they can't get a simple bit of information salted away in their tiny pea-sized brains? The laws of the game here, there, at UEFA, at FIFA do not and will not allow clubs to leap from country to country seeking more cash! It is a concept completely against the spirit of association football and will not happen! So why, oh why, oh why must the donkeys passing for journalists keep on getting suckered by the Weegie teams into repeating this ever more boring story? All that they are achieving through the uncertainty that they are creating is a weaker domestic game - the very thing that they constantly gripe about. Would it not be more in the interests of these two whining clubs to work with everybody else to make the game stronger and more competitive? Or would that risk another club breaking their cozy monopoly like happened in the eighties?	10th May - If you have been swithering about going to the game on Sunday, hesitate no more. The Redz need us all and it'll be a grand old day top be at a fitba match. We may be having to field a weakened side but so are the tims so it'll be youth v youth and there's still third place for us to play for. It looks like Derek Whyte will get his wish and play one last time for the Dons before he moves on to ? we don't know. Maybe it'll be the employment exchange, but the very club that we are facing on Sunday continues to screw around with whatever chance the SPL might have of swinging a TV deal for next season and the uncertainty won't help much with season ticket sales either. SPL finances are in a mess and the driving force has been weegie in its origins. In the TRF book, that's another good reason for the Dandies to get out there straining at the leash, they need to punt celtic for everybody else in Scottish football - a token gesture maybe, but a great way to send them homewards to think again. Let's all get down to Pittodrie and make sure it happens.
5th May - This season's TRF survey of the most brutal sides in the SPL has drawn to a close and the full results can be found along with all of the other findings from the 2001-2002 polls right here. It came as no shock to find that people found the two weegie teams to be the most unpalatable when it came to the physical, but Motherwell were probably the real hooligans on the pitch. After all, we can assume that any interloping hun or tim who happened on the poll would automatically vote against the other side. The Steelmen tried hard to live up to their nickname and were the length of Pittodrie street ahead of the team voted next worst - Dundee. Following not too far behind the jute heavers was Kilmarnock who did seem inclined to put the arm on opponents if they thought they'd get away with it. All the others are kind of also-rans, which probably reflects well on them in sporting terms - especially Hibs who barely picked up any votes - so well done to them. Football is a very physical game and nobody can really object to that, but what we witnessed from some of our SPL rivals was unacceptable and it has to hoped that next time round they'll take a more sporting approach without actually lying down and giving up. Maybe if teams tried to secure victories by playing the game instead of punching, kicking, elbowing and head butting their way to the odd point they would attract crowds because they have actually become entertaining. If managers and coaches allowed their players a bit more room for expression through their repertoire of skills it would help too.
4th May - Scottish Cup Final day without a Scottish team in it is like the Highlands without heather and grouse. Scottish Cup Final day without the Dandies playing is as bleak as the highlands shrouded in a dank swirling mist. It's just not the same without the Red Army gracing the terraces, enjoying the big occasion and partying no matter what. That attitude of mind is reminiscent of the Tartan Army and not without reason: The bulk of the support for Scotland's national side comes from the north and northeast of Scotland, the heartlands of Aberdeen football Club and since, often as not, the Dons find themselves playing one or other of the old farm in a final, there is an underlying current of Scottishness in the games. It is the proud, scarlet clad Scots against the grubby representatives of interloping foreign powers.
The gruesomes of Glasgow are very far removed from Scottishness, with celtic being so deeply rooted in Irish culture and the ever so loyal rangers operating under the illusion that they are some kind of English side, slightly misplaced by an accident of geography. Students of the Scottish game have known for a long time that the old farm have no real interest in the domestic game and this knowledge has been cemented even more firmly in place by the recent actions of the two wantaways. Sadly, of course, we are likely to be stuck with them for a long time yet - even though the vast majority of fans around Scotland would be happy to see them depart to a new obscurity in the nether reaches of English football (a classic irony that the most Irish of clubs want to ply their trade in the country that they most despise). Of course, like every other club in Scotland, AFC have foreigners in the ranks and that's fine, no club is an island and a little rub of overseas input can help to broaden the horizons of any team. That being so, it is also true that the future of the Dons lies in the development of home grown players. Bringing up kids through the youth programme from an early age and keeping them together as much as possible creates a camaraderie and spirit that just can't be bought off the football market shelf. Coupled to that, Aberdeen are putting in more effort than any other club in the nation to bring quality coaching to as many kids as possible through their community coaching scheme, mentoring the top players of the future. History too, shows that the Dons set the pace for Scottish football, for they are the only club in the nation to have won more than one European trophy whilst fielding entirely Scottish teams. They have also furnished the national squad with many fine players, despite the selection bias that prevails with the idea that as many internationalists as possible should be drawn from the old farm - whether the players are any good or not. Tie in the fact that on the all too rare occasions that a Scottish game goes on at Pittodrie the hose full signs are always on show and that is why Aberdeen can claim, first and foremost, that it is the most Scottish of clubs. It is a factor that should be latched onto by members of the Tartan Army, because many of them are at a loose end when the national side isn't playing and they could well do with a bit more practice in creating that unique Scottish atmosphere - something that most of us can't get enough of - and where better to do it than at Pittodrie? Despite all of the current difficulties besetting Scotland's national sport, Aberdeen FC are, over time, still the club most likely to fly the Scottish flag in the unending quest to break the stranglehold of Glasgow's foreign teams on our domestic competitions. They deserve all the backing that they can get from all over Scotland - they dare to dream - they are the Scottish Reds.
2nd May - Scottish football's crisis continues to deepen and the mud gets slung further and further afield as people - especially the press - try to pin blame on all and sundry. Strangely, though, lots of people still don't seem to realise just how serious things are since the old farm blocked the TV deals that would have allowed clubs to keep going. The effect of that action was to rip a couple of million quid per club out of their budgets for the next three or four years and truth is that there is no magic wand to be waved that might make the problems go away. Football is faced with the need to take dramatic action to get costs down before more well known names go out of business. In the case of Aberdeen FC, it has been a story of millions being lost year after year and not very good players taking away large piles of cash that would have seemed generous if paid to the managers of major companies. It was folly from day one for AFC to start hiring guys who were going to be guaranteed big bucks whether they produced the goods or not. It took the high publicity campaigning of AFC2000 to get our board to sit up and take notice and make some sort of start towards getting wages under control. Years later, though and the club is still losing millions and it may yet have to take savage action to save money and get itself back in the good books of its bankers. Living within its means must be the priority for Aberdeen FC and the fans have to help that happen. We can help in lots of ways, but let's look at the simplest of them. First: stop demanding that the club go out and buy players with money it doesn't have, get real folks, if we take the pressure off and show understanding of the problem it'll make it a lot easier for the management to negotiate deals with players. Second: If every regular fan could persuade one other person to get along to the next game we'd have a full house and AFC would get some much needed cash. One game isn't enough though and we need to talk people into getting down to Pittodrie regularly next season too - no matter who we are playing. That may not be so difficult if the Dons can make some headway in Europe and get into the sectional part of the UEFA Cup tournament. Third: Anybody who has influence with businesses could put in a bit of effort to persuade them to spend a bit of cash around AFC - sponsorship, advertising, using the stadium for meetings, dinners and promotions - there are loads of options. The bottom line is that things could get worse before they get better, but if the people of the Northeast want a top football club they are going to have to do something to help ensure that it survives.

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