Been looking at the SPL, I've noticed for the past few seasons that Aberdeen FC have been finishing as runners up in the league an awful lot. I've never associated them with being anything more than average, yet they continually turn out to be one of the best teams in that division. Despite, in my opinion anyway, them having a very average squad, they seem to do much better than so called bigger teams, like Rangers and Hearts. I know there'll be lots on here who point to the ****ness of Scotland, but what is it that makes them so consistent these days? Apologies if you don't really follow them, but I thought you were best placed on here to ask. Maybe Brady too?
I watched them for many years and they were pretty average by Scotland standards, but the change happened when McInnes came in as manager. He seems to have cobbled together a half decent side, in fact one of their best players is from Hedon, Pawlett has done very well there.
To be fair, I remember them being unbeatable under Alex Ferguson for a while and then being average. Was it 84-ish where they just won everything in Europe including the Scottish League, the French, Belgian and Austrian leagues, Euro cup and the Eurovision Song Contest before Ferguson left?
He's off to MK Dons in the Summer, just signed a pre contract deal last month. Didn't realise he was only 26, he seems to have been around for ages.
the spl especially the last 5+ years has been properly mad hearts and hibs went down to the championship, rangers to league 2 celtic have just been utterly boring it will be back to a rangers/celtic 1-2 from next season dundee united are in the championship it's a very competitive league minus 1st place until rangers are back aberdeen fill their ground week in week out, next season, motherwell will probably be in the top 5 if they stay up, it's a very ****e quality league though no two days aobut it deanos son is one of rangers best players aswell, nice little east yorkshire contingent up in the spl the budgets of celtic and rangers dwarfs the rest, it's poor really
When I was sentenced to 3 years living in that ****ehole, it always seemed that Rangers and Celtic bought any decent players in Scotland, and either loaned them outside of the SPL, or even out of Scotland, thus ensuring their dominance. Is that the same? Was it ever a thing actually?
I wasn't going that far back to be fair, I was up there from 1997-2013 during that time they were pretty poor. They had a half decent team under a Faroes coach Skovail or some name like that for a short time but it didn't last long. What struck me when Celtic and Rangers game into town, the majority of their supporters didn't seem to watch the game, they just spent the whole game goading the opposition fans.
the last scottish team to win the league that wasn't rangers or celtic was 1985... Aberdeen managed by Sir Alex Ferguson who also led Aberdeen to the european cup winners cup beating bayern munich and real madrid in the process wonder how that ferguson turned out as a manager..
how people even put mourinho in the same class as ferguson is embarrassing.. because rangers and celtic were still completely outbudgeting even aberdeen back then ferguson IS the greatest manager in british history IMHO
You are right there, taking Aberdeen from where they were to the success they had was a feat in it's self, but to then do what he did with Man U makes with out doubt streets ahead of anyone else.
I think there's a few factors. Firstly the supporters are pretty full on and they have a good solid support base behind them. The Aberdeen Rangers games at Ibrox were pretty much as insane as an Old Firm derby which is the most unbelievable atmosphere. A good chunk of the tartan army come from the Aberdeen supporters. Secondly, they've always had reasonably top name managers for Scotland like Skoval, Craig Brown. Thirdly, they've always had some really good players, Alex McLeish, Strachan, Leighton, Eoin Jess, Willie Miller, Duncan Shearer and more. More recently, as someone mentioned above, McInnes is a really decent guy who is able to motivate people. He started off at my local team, Greenock Morton, he was one of those guys that was always last off the training pitch, stopped and signed every single autograph and had a real workmanlike attitude, which I all think combines to make him a decent manager.
I was trying to reply to your message, and for some reason everything I wrote had underline, even though I kept turning the underlining off. So I just binned and started afresh. I am still here for another week, and love the place, the food is wonderful, people polite and everywhere clean. I was in China for 10 days, even though they are progressing they are light years still behind here.
As I mentioned things have turned on a upward curve when McInnes took over, I don't know whether Stuart Milne is still the major shareholder, but he is a local builder made good who was a keen Don's fan, and really supported the club as much as he was able.
Yes he is and I think you are right about that. A shame it hasn't worked in our favour having a local businessman (although I get your point he is an actual supporter).
Most of the coastal big cities in China have developed visually pretty well, it is the hinterland areas that are still 50 years behind, and that I think it where China will have problems in future. It is likely that China could break up in years to come, and could boarder on civil war, as there is already an undertone of unrest in some areas. The main problem with China is their mentality, the younger ones are much better than the older ones, who still have a strange mentality.