There were games last season, once Ebbe had pulled together most of his squad, where the Dandies were playing good football. They managed to entertain more often than not and on occasion even win. I believe that we will win more often this season than last once the injury list is cleared. It won't be easy and it could well depend on getting more out of the attackers and midfield. With the squad we've got we have to pin hopes on scoring more goals than we concede. This may sound a bit like the old Tim methodology and it probably is, but it worked and there is no way our defence is going to improve until the board find some cash for rock-solid defenders.
Failure to improve whilst operating on a shoestring will bring the fans down on the directors like a tonne of bricks, unless the Main Stand does it for us with a few tonnes of girders and asbestos. Whatever, TRF's little band of eager beavers will stay right behind the players who put in an effort. As we like to say from time to time COME ON EWE REDZ!!!
Gratuitous gardening personality cartoon.
17th July - Angus the Bull gets his... (182k)
S-Form signings are introduced to life at Pittodrie...
8th July - Unlike the Pittodrie website we are able to tell you that the Dons stuffed the mighty Elgin City 4-0. The world will be ours!
The real point of the story, though, is the fact that years of mismanagement at Pittodrie are coming home to roost. The present chairman and his predecessor must take the responsibility for our present financial failings. They have been offered much constructive advice from many sources and chosen to ignore them all. An early suggestion passed their way was that players should be signed on performance contracts - a means of ensuring that effort is put in to justify the big money on offer. Instead, for years now, players have been guaranteed their huge weekly salaries no matter what they do - or more importantly - don't do on the park. There are plenty more examples, but they are going into the paper version of TRF so if you want to keep pace, grab a copy early in the season.
Meanwhile, we are launching a project to bring you some of the early Red Finals on the web - starting with the extremely rare TRF 0 which was a freebie handed out round Pittodrie to celebrate the opening of the Dick End way back in 1993. Enjoy.
Call me paranoid, but I thought that all Dons' fans were already part of the Red Army. Seems to me that we've been known by that title (amongst others) for more years than Stewart Milne's worn a wig. It couldn't be that the club are trying to make "Red Army" their property? The implication is that if you don't stump up a tenner for the malodorous membership scheme, you won't be deemed a part of the Red Army. In fact, you'll be a bit of an outcast.
When Ebbe appeared in the TV advert and called on people to join the Red Army, that was a bit different. That was an invitation to anybody who wasn't a regular Dandy to get on board and quite right too. This new campaign is a whole new set of dentures. The Red Army belongs to the FANS, not to Aberdeen or any other football club. This is a cynical attempt to take away more of the fan culture. They already give two fingers to to Aberdeen fandom by ignoring the sheep joke and insisting on trying to associate us with a neo-cuddly soft toy bull that looks as if it was a founder member of the "I've got BSE" club.
Couple the above with the mind-numbingly insulting content of The Inside Line and you can see why TRF is constantly concerned about the administration of Aberdeen FC. These people want to turn us into playdough people who they can push around and milk for cash any which way they please. Well folks, don't let them get away with it. You get the club you deserve.
By the way, if the commercial bods are attempting to grab "Red Army"for some branding exercise, they are too late as far as the internet is concerned - redarmy.com and redarmy.co.uk are already taken along with loads of other variations.
Unlike many punters around, I believe that Ebbe will do the biz for us. I also believe that he has made a major start by changing the squad around pretty dramatically in his first season. Not every one of his new signings has hit the right spot yet, but they have made a difference and there were signs of decent football shining through in a lot of games after the winter break. Now that these guys are settled in they should do better for us than before, when the Scottish game was new to them. Reinforcements are a headache, but the lack of funds for new signings can't be laid at the Dane's door.
The biggest worry here in TRF towers isn't the footballing side of AFC, it is the massive administration that Stewart Milne has built up behind the scenes. There is little sign of improving efficiency but plenty of indications that some of them would rather stir up friction amongst the fans than get on with restoring the club's financial position. Milne seems to have picked up the mess made by his predecessor and made it a great deal worse. Under his stewardship the club has lurched from financial crisis to financial crisis. Much of the PR remains a joke and the fundraisers, admittedly up against it thanks to the crap football of recent years, are simply not bringing home the bacon. Whatever happened to the trumpeted success of Harvey Smith's trip to Houston?
You would be forgiven if you thought that the appointment of Gordon Bennett would make a difference. It certainly ought to, but looking in from far out on the exterior, it looks like he is a Chief Exec not allowed to take the kind of executive decisions needed to turn the good ship 'In a State' round. If there was any hair left your editor would be tearing it out, as it is it looks like all the fans can do is count on a miracle.
