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.

27th June - How much ambition does Andy Thomson have if he'd rather sign up for a while longer with QPR rather than joining the Dandies for a tilt at European competition and playing in the SPL? Aberdeen are better off without a player who prefers to play in the English second division, we need guys who want to do something with their careers, we have already seen enough of players who just wanted to turn up, go through the motions and draw their pay. Let's hope that now Mr. Skovdahl has returned to Pittodrie after five and a half weeks of r and r he's ready to unearth a couple of footballing gems who'll turn out the kind of diamond performances that we have come to expect from Roberto Bisconti. They don't need to be big names, just characters who'll put in the effort and show the commitment that'll keep up the improvements that we saw last season.
	21st June - So the Dons are off to Moldova to play Nistru Otaci in the UEFA Cup. This is a beautiful country nestled between Romania and the Ukraine but it has pretty poor roads and isn't the safest part of the world to visit. Best to take your own food and water and precautions against certain illnesses are essential - check with the Club on this if you plan going. Not sure where they are located relative to the nearest airport, but Nistru Otaci play in a very small ground, not a stadium. TRF will pass on more information once we have had a chance to speak to our Moldovan contact.
19th June - Just what possessed the SFL to vote Gretna into the 3rd division, putting their toes onto the rung of the ladder that potentially leads to the top? It can't have been because of the convenient trip into the heart of the borders can it? Maybe it was because they carry a massive traveling support that will swell the coffers of the teams that they play against. Or it could be that they look like a guarantee of points for the next couple of seasons whilst they get settled in. It doesn't look too likely that this 'new' team will produce a repeat of the Livingston rocket to the SPL, but nobody at TRF's daft enough to say that they won't. Whatever they do, at least they are a Scottish club returned to the right side of the border and it isn't as though the south end of Scotland is overburdened with senior teams. or is it? Time will tell but the canny money is on the never making it out of Division 3 (famous last words or what?).	13th June - With the usual absence of any kind of imagination or sense of occasion, the SPL masterminds have come up with a fixtures list that practically mirrors last season's start. We get the same four teams in the fist month - only in a different order. No sign of bias though because they have definitely not taken our return to Europe into account (except to stick a couple of matches onto Sundays instead of Saturdays) so we'll just have to get on with it. TRF's first gut reaction is that it's the same old same old, but the majority of clubs have been ditching players all over the shop so the shape of the sides that they field could be pretty different from what we saw last time. Thank goodness for Partick's arrival to give us something a wee bit fresher though, let's hope they are bringing the usual peppering of Maryhill madness. Well, they've got the manager who TRF gave the brush off a few seasons ago, so that's a start.
	In the May English local elections, Hangus The Monkey was elected as Mayor of Hartlepool, on a campaign ticket of free bananas for local schoolkids. This is the very same primate who attacked Rachid Belabed when the Chimp Chokers played (and beat) the Sheep Shaggers pre-season 2000. After the game and after a few pints he piled into an Aberdeen supporters' bus, half-canned and kicking up a rumpus. There was just no rhesusoning with him. Hangus refused TRF's request for an interview, saying "You just want to give me a gorillaing." When told of the result, Hartlepool's sitting MP Peter Mandelson was said to have gone ape shit."
13th June - With the usual absence of any kind of imagination or sense of occasion, the SPL masterminds have come up with a fixtures list that practically mirrors last season's start. We get the same four teams in the fist month - only in a different order. No sign of bias though because they have definitely not taken our return to Europe into account (except to stick a couple of matches onto Sundays instead of Saturdays) so we'll just have to get on with it. TRF's first gut reaction is that it's the same old same old, but the majority of clubs have been ditching players all over the shop so the shape of the sides that they field could be pretty different from what we saw last time. Thank goodness for Partick's arrival to give us something a wee bit fresher though, let's hope they are bringing the usual peppering of Maryhill madness. Well, they've got the manager who TRF gave the brush off a few seasons ago, so that's a start.
4th June - With the confirmation that the Dons have lined up their first home game of season 2002/2003, TRF considers itself to be in new season mode - despite the World Cup getting in the road. Rapid Bucharest sound much more interesting than Everton so let's hope they give the Dandies some useful European experience. The last job of the old season is to report back on the survey we ran to try and find out what people really think of Ebbe Skovdahl. And the results are: Most folk think he's doing a decent job whilst a small few (probably the ones who aye get him to wave to them during games) think he's the greatest ever. There were quite a lot indicated that they thought he is nothing special, but we suspect that there was a wee bit of rigged voting one day so take that with a pinch of salt. You can get full details of the voting here, but it looks like a big majority think he'll do. It would be interesting to find out how he's get on if the club could give him decent cash to bring in the players he really wants, but we are all too realistic to expect empty coffers to yield up spending power so we'll just have to see how he makes do and mends this coming season.

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