| 25th November - The Kingswells relocation debate is getting up a good head
of steam now and it's time for TRF to put it's nut above the parapet and offer a viewpoint on the website. First
off, the location that's been chosen as the Club's preference isn't perfect and if a better one could be found
then it might be easier to support the move (which TRF sees as essential btw). The Charleston site is a non-starter
for a couple of reasons: 1 - Cost, the Dons would be out millions just for the land and before a penny was spent
on building. 2 - The bulk of support heading for an Aberdeen match doesn't come from south of Aberdeen, it comes
from north and west of the city, so it makes no sense to try and channel everybody over to the south side. If no better site can be identified then Kingswells it'll have to be and the councils and the Scottish Executive will have to get their fingers out and sort out the roads because that is the key to success. Aberdeen has been needing a peripheral route for many years and it's a disgrace that we haven't yet got one. Kingswells Infrastructure First Group are presumably looking for that too, but you wouldn't think so to listen to their whining so far. This noisy little band seems to be composed of nutters going by their website and behaviour up to now and it's strange that they have gotten wired into the stadium issue where previously we've heard sod all from them about infrastructure. It couldn't be that they have some misguided concerns about the effect on property prices if the new Pittodrie goes ahead? Even if they were thinking that way, they'd more than likely be wrong. Kingswells could become a more desirable area with many of the people associated with the new development looking to live nearby. As for the irrational scare mongering about hoards of football fans swarming through the streets of Kingswells laying waste to the place, that is so offensive that it has probably turned loads of fans, who might have been sympathetic, off from the locals' campaign. Let's get real, Kingswells is on the other side of a dual carriageway and over fields, the bulk of it is actually miles away from the stadium site. Why on earth would fans want to go wandering over there? The two big flaws in the current plan are that there is too little parking and the means of access and egress are a couple of roundabouts - one onto the main road west where there would often be bottlenecks trying to get out because of shopping traffic heading for home on a Saturday afternoon. The club must recalculate the parking requirements and look at the construction of a flyover to take vehicles to the eastbound lane of the A944 so that the queues can be cleared quickly. A decent sliproad for turning west is also essential. All in all, the idea of this new stadium and the other elements for the site are exciting and remarkably for the Northeast of Scotland and should be baked to the hilt. For once in our local history people have dared to think big and the scheme deserves to go ahead and to be a massive success for everybody that lives in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire an a the airts. |
| 18th November - All this paper talk about Paul Lawrie having an ambition to
own the Dons is probably piffle. However, it does raise a serious question and that is: Should any one person be
allowed to own a football club? Nothing against Paul Lawrie, he's a good Dons' fan and has earned his bit of notoriety
on the golf course, but the answer has to be a resounding NO. Look around the world of football and you won't see
too many clubs that have done well under the guidance of an individual, more often than not solo ownership leads
to problems. Besides that and more important, the fans should all own their clubs, football isn't a business like
any other, it is much more community based and depends on the goodwill of its customers - the fans. In the case of AFC, the Supporters Trust has been set up, in part, to ensure that the Dons' do remain a significant part of the community by keeping the ownership as far as possible in the hands of as many fans as possible. When Rupert Murdoch tried to take over Manchester United, it was the fans who stopped him; the alarm bells rang loud and clear that this was not a man who would have the best interests of that club at heart. In our case, the issue wouldn't be whether Paul Lawrie has the best interests of the Dons at heart, that probably wouldn't be in question. The issue would be around whether he was capable of running a football club and if he wasn't, how could control be passed to somebody who could? Fortunately, it isn't an immediate issue because the guy himself says that he hasn't the money to take the club over. There's also the question of how he would do it. To get a majority stake at Pittodrie, somebody would have to buy out both Aberdeen Asset Management and Stewart Milne or else these two would have to agree, along with the majority of the other shareholders, to a massive share issue that would give the buyer - say - 51% of the club and leave everybody else in the minority. Would AAM and Milne be willing to dilute their interests to such an extent and make nothing out of it? Doubtful. Would they sell their shares? Probably if the price was high enough. Hands would likely be bitten off in the process and bugger the fans and the small shareholders. Hey, business is business. Of course, there are rules about takeover bids, for that is what we are discussing, and such bids can be blocked by minority groups if they can pull together 10% of the equity. It seems pretty likely that the only group that could organise something like that would be the AFC Supporters Trust and that is a mighty good reason for its existence. Better to be ready to deal with any possible future developments than have to react to them at the time. The more people that join, the better placed the fans will be in the future to deal with threats and in the meantime the Trust and its members will work hard to help the Dons become a better and stronger club. |
Livingston vehemently deny that they have more people in the dugout than on the terraces.
Drastic action is needed at Pittodrie to put matters right and the boardroom has to be the source. Let's start with the former chairman who led us into debt in the first place, Ian Donald is serving no useful purpose at Pittodrie. In fact, rumour has it that he costs the Dons a fair bit by treating Pittodrie like a private golf club and brining in cronies who contribute nothing in terms of cash, not even the price of a match ticket, yet they scoop up the sausage rolls and champers like it's going out of style. That's all hearsay of course, but nobody can deny that ID started the financial rot by going into debt to build the new Beach End and then allowing Roy Aitken to blow large wads of cash on wasteful deals with players who did zip for AFC.
Keith Wyness has hardly got his feet under the boardroom table yet, but he has to act fast and mercilessly to get Aberdeen FC's finances back in healthy shape. Otherwise, folks, we might just end up with no Redz to watch and that concept is too inconceivable for words.
Yes, it has to be said, Willie Young of Clarkston probably had his best game in charge of a Dons' match yesterday. It isn't often that a fanzine manages to summon up the will to compliment a whistler, least of all one from nowhere near Glasgow, but the guy hardly put a foot wrong in the Motherwell match. Of course he made decisions that we wouldn't agree with, but he did a good job of keeping the game going, didn't overuse the whistle or the cards and made it mighty clear to the players that he had control of the game. His biggest mistake was the amount of time he allowed the match to run beyond the ninety minutes (probably he thought he was at Iprix of Parkhead) but overall he was okay and might even shade it as man of what was a pretty poor match.
Don't expect to see any more positive words about refs in the near future, because we can guarantee you that we'll now witness a string of uselessly inept refereeing performances stretching way into the future. That isn't a psychic prediction via Gordon Reid's crystal ball, that's just the way it is.
Aberdeen finally find a suitable job for Ian Donald
Let's hope that Bisco is available tomorrow, because he has been the real find for us this season and easily brings the best out of Darren Young. His return coupled with that of Russell Anderson will make the Redz a much stronger side than went to Glasgow last week and should make sure that the match goes our way. Here's to victory. Come on you REDZ!!!!
| 4th November - Hot on the heels of his appearance alongside Stewart Milne in the Pittodrie directors box, Jack Douglas, chairman of the Association of Supporters Clubs is hitting the headlines on the Club website on another tack. A man of infinite ego and infinitesimal personality, Douglas has apparently now taken it on himself to supervise the policing at Ibrox today. This is a very interesting development, since the whole issue of fan security was addressed by the ISG and John Morgan more than a year ago when they went down to Glasgow and discussed our problems with both the local police and Ibrox officials. Strangely, the AFC website chooses to ignore the ground-breaking efforts already made and concentrates on giving Douglas implied credit for something he didn't do. TRF can't wait to see the follow up report when the dust settles after the latest encounter between our lads and the evil hun. |
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