From Gothenburg to Goodwin

[BaaBaaRedSheep]

On 11th May, 2023 it will be 40 years to the day since the finest moment in our proud history. 

However, as things stand, the management of the club and the erratic performances of our team on the pitch, albeit over many years, are most certainly staining what should have left a long lasting legacy from that rain lashed, Gothenburg night.

As a Dons supporter of 50+ years, before and after 1983, it breaks my heart to witness what we have become.

Saturday's tactics were an outrage and NO Dons manager at home should have ever employed them.

Cormack, Goodwin and Co really need to get the finger out and start giving us a team we can at least be proud of, full of fighting spirit and all that. 

Gone are the days when we could dream of European glory but surely a balanced, tactically astute team on the park is not too much to ask for?

[Broken_Glass]

Sich a simplistic approach. Football has changed forever and clubs like Aberdeen will never compete in Europe.

Money killed football.

[aberdeen1970]

Aye this could have been posted in the Goodwin thread 

[BaaBaaRedSheep]

2 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Aye this could have been posted in the Goodwin thread 

Could have been.

But was attempting to illustrate how far we have fallen in 40 years.

It is not all about changes in the financial playing field. Our club has been mismanaged for years and enough is, surely, enough. 

As an aside note that the Jambos made a £3m profit in Europe this season. 

If we hadn't fucked about with the Glass prawcess etc that could've been potentially us.

[For Fecks Sake]

Just now, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

Could have been.

1)But was attempting to illustrate how far we have fallen in 40 years.

It is not all about changes in the financial playing field. Our club has been mismanaged for years and enough is, surely, enough. 

As an aside note that the Jambos made a £3m profit in Europe this season. 

2)If we hadn't fucked about with the Glass prawcess etc that could've been potentially us.

1)Or how much of a blip in our otherwise run of the mill history that period was?

2)Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I remember correctly just after we stuffed some team in the European qualifying round this place was fucking buzzing about the potential Glass and the squad had while congratulating the "prawcress". We tried something different, it never worked, we went back to a tried and tested approach but at least we gave it a fucking go. Get over it and move on.

[Guest findlay_1903]

Aberdeen are exactly where they should be. The 80’s was a blip. A trophy every 20/30 years is the norm. 
 

Can’t wait to go tonight, COYR!!

[sigh]

3 minutes ago, findlay_1903 said:

Aberdeen are exactly where they should be. The 80’s was a blip. A trophy every 20/30 years is the norm. 
 

Can’t wait to go tonight, COYR!!

Don't accept it, don't ever accept it, otherwise football is lost, the Weegie Duo will continue to hoover up all emerging talent in Scotland, buy better talent from abroad and will continue to kill the game off here, winning all competitions until they feck off and leave us worse than welsh/irish football (its not that far away already).

Aberdeen should be challenging them at the top of the table, every season.

[Ten Caat]

As I've said before, Ferguson was a great manager but he did get very lucky landing our job at the precise time when oldco, in the aftermath of the 1971 incident had to make Ibrox safe. They (correctly) chose to go a lot further than that and for a grand total of £6million (seems cheap as chips 40 odd years later but in reality at that time was a hefty investment), knocked down their old terracing and built 3 brand new stands. This for a while limited their ability to really compete against us and Celtic, not in transfer fees paid but in the actual wages they could offer.....for a few short years, Aberdeen were the highest paying club in Scotland because we had by a long way the best bonus scheme. And as we won more than anyone else, the players earned more than anyone else.

Celtic should have had a clear run for hoovering up trophies in this period but they were in the middle of the "biscuit tin" era and so not only did we take advantage, but even the DABS waltzed in and won a League Cup and a PL title (and were cheated out of a European Cup final place by a corrupt ref)

Findlay_1903 is bang on the money. That era was a blip. But we are surely under-achieving by only winning trophies every 20 years or so. 

[BaaBaaRedSheep]

14 minutes ago, sigh said:

Don't accept it, don't ever accept it, otherwise football is lost, the Weegie Duo will continue to hoover up all emerging talent in Scotland, buy better talent from abroad and will continue to kill the game off here, winning all competitions until they feck off and leave us worse than welsh/irish football (its not that far away already).

Aberdeen should be challenging them at the top of the table, every season.

Is 100% the correct answer. 

The last 30 years have not been acceptable. 

We are a one city club who should be performing much, much better. 

Even feckin' Hearts are heading in a better direction than us, as much as that troubles me to say.....

 

 

[BaaBaaRedSheep]

For those calling 1980's period a blip, you are entitled to say that. 

However we had an opportunity to build upon the era and become at least the permanent third force in Scottish football. 

I know for a fact that BP pushed to invest in the club but the Donald's turned it down. 

Fast forward to the building of the debt creating RDS by SMC and the subsequent appointment of Wiggy onto the board of directors. 

We could have created some form of legacy post Gothenburg but screwed the opportunity up good and proper. 

[Broken_Glass]

28 minutes ago, sigh said:

Don't accept it, don't ever accept it, otherwise football is lost, the Weegie Duo will continue to hoover up all emerging talent in Scotland, buy better talent from abroad and will continue to kill the game off here, winning all competitions until they feck off and leave us worse than welsh/irish football (its not that far away already).

Aberdeen should be challenging them at the top of the table, every season.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[The Gee Man]

10 minutes ago, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

Is 100% the correct answer. 

The last 30 years have not been acceptable. 

We are a one city club who should be performing much, much better. 

Even feckin' Hearts are heading in a better direction than us, as much as that troubles me to say.....

 

 

Hearts are only doing better as Anderson was pumping his cash into them, now he seems to be bored of that we will see. If we had a one of guy putting in some big cash to push us on it could be very different 

[Guest Matt Armstrong's Dog]

7 minutes ago, Ten Caat said:

As I've said before, Ferguson was a great manager but he did get very lucky landing our job at the precise time when oldco, in the aftermath of the 1971 incident had to make Ibrox safe. They (correctly) chose to go a lot further than that and for a grand total of £6million (seems cheap as chips 40 odd years later but in reality at that time was a hefty investment), knocked down their old terracing and built 3 brand new stands. This for a while limited their ability to really compete against us and Celtic, not in transfer fees paid but in the actual wages they could offer.....for a few short years, Aberdeen were the highest paying club in Scotland because we had by a long way the best bonus scheme. And as we won more than anyone else, the players earned more than anyone else.

Celtic should have had a clear run for hoovering up trophies in this period but they were in the middle of the "biscuit tin" era and so not only did we take advantage, but even the DABS waltzed in and won a League Cup and a PL title (and were cheated out of a European Cup final place by a corrupt ref)

Findlay_1903 is bang on the money. That era was a blip. But we are surely under-achieving by only winning trophies every 20 years or so. 

You can apply the word blip, for want of a better word, to a number of periods throughout our history.

For example, Dave Halliday's record was outstanding, winning our first league title during his reign, along with an inaugural league cup triumph and a first Scottish Cup victory, and several other final appearances. Whilst some may argue the toss we took advantage of the fact that his period of success was in the aftermath of WWII and a lot of clubs were understandably rebuilding but so were Aberdeen

To me, and maybe others, I would say his reign was a success rather a blip, which generally is applied to a period of negativlty.

[aberdeen1970]

Just now, Matt Armstrong's Dog said:

 

To me, and maybe others, I would say his reign was a success rather a blip, which generally is applied to a period of negativlty.

Absolutely min. 

Folk are too quick to put down the successful periods in our history as some deficiency on the part of Huns and Celtic rather than good work on Aberdeen's part. 

We've had some excellent sides in our history.  The Fergie team was ranked no. 1 in Europe for a 14 month period, that's fuck all to do with Celtic or the Huns. 

 

 

 

[NorfolkDandy]

1 hour ago, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

................but surely a balanced, tactically astute team on the park is not too much to ask for?

Agreed - Your parting comment is the absolute minimum we should accept 

[Guest Matt Armstrong's Dog]

5 minutes ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Absolutely min. 

Folk are too quick to put down the successful periods in our history as some deficiency on the part of Huns and Celtic rather than good work on Aberdeen's part. 

We've had some excellent sides in our history.  The Fergie team was ranked no. 1 in Europe for a 14 month period, that's fuck all to do with Celtic or the Huns. 

 

 

 

Exactly min. 

I am fucking sick and tired of hearing about the inadequacies of the algae being a major contributing factor to any periods of success we have had. 

Like you say, it has fuck all to do with their inability to equate to their sickening self-entitlement and that they, between them, have the apparent divine right to win every domestic trophy going.

It is more to do that we have been able to eclipse their stronghold on the domestic game, at times, through our sheer ability, strong mentality and strong-minded characters, and the extremely strong will-to-win ethic.

[The Gee Man]

Man U’s fall since Fergie retired shows we had a master at the helm, not a blip, not a failure by other clubs. Simple we recruited a manager at the start of his rise and we need to get that back. Del steadied a ship and now we need improvement 

[1903Fitba]

Posts like this remind me how good my life really is. 
 

You boys need to go out and get a ride/have a beer. 

[The Gee Man]

4 minutes ago, 1903Fitba said:

Posts like this remind me how good my life really is. 
 

You boys need to go out and get a ride/have a beer. 

Yet you have posted on it?

[WesthillWanderersFC]

2 hours ago, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

On 11th May, 2023 it will be 40 years to the day since the finest moment in our proud history. 

However, as things stand, the management of the club and the erratic performances of our team on the pitch, albeit over many years, are most certainly staining what should have left a long lasting legacy from that rain lashed, Gothenburg night.

As a Dons supporter of 50+ years, before and after 1983, it breaks my heart to witness what we have become.

Saturday's tactics were an outrage and NO Dons manager at home should have ever employed them.

Cormack, Goodwin and Co really need to get the finger out and start giving us a team we can at least be proud of, full of fighting spirit and all that. 

Gone are the days when we could dream of European glory but surely a balanced, tactically astute team on the park is not too much to ask for?

Take away that decade & we’re not a consistent trophy winning team though.

Off the top off my head:

1950’s - 2 trophies. 
60’s - none. 
70’s - 2. 
90’s - 2. 
00’s - 0. 
10’s - 1

Yes the tactics were horrific & horrible to see on Saturday. 

Us being unsuccessful is not a new phenomenon.  
History tells us that. 

[For Fecks Sake]

2 hours ago, sigh said:

Don't accept it, don't ever accept it, otherwise football is lost, the Weegie Duo will continue to hoover up all emerging talent in Scotland, buy better talent from abroad and will continue to kill the game off here, winning all competitions until they feck off and leave us worse than welsh/irish football (its not that far away already).

Aberdeen should be challenging them at the top of the table, every season.

Apart from being a rousing couple of words to fellow Aberdeen fans, go tell me what that actually means? 

We had to fucking accept it when Rangers not being thrown out of the league when they should have, we have accepted a governing body that panders to two teams, we accept bias refs, we accept being told our league is nothing without them etc.

Reality is we have to accept it as there is no other alternative (we may if we had a united front with the other teams which will never happen).

All a rather depressing state of affairs in all honesty.

[redone]

3 hours ago, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

 

I know for a fact that BP pushed to invest in the club but the Donald's turned it down. 

 

Really ?… How do you know that ?

And if you do know it , what terms were BP willing to invest on ?

[BaaBaaRedSheep]

16 minutes ago, redone said:

Really ?… How do you know that ?

And if you do know it , what terms were BP willing to invest on ?

Was advised by BP employee at time that they offered a decent amount of cash per annum to have the BP logo on our strips. 

Dick Donald turned the offer down. 

Unclear whether BP were considered too big a global name for little old Aberdeen or he preferred to deal with a more parochial company. 

 

[redone]

3 hours ago, aberdeen1970 said:

Absolutely min. 

Folk are too quick to put down the successful periods in our history as some deficiency on the part of Huns and Celtic rather than good work on Aberdeen's part. 

We've had some excellent sides in our history.  The Fergie team was ranked no. 1 in Europe for a 14 month period, that's fuck all to do with Celtic or the Huns. 

 

 

 

Can’t say I’ve ever heard anyone putting our glory days under Fergie solely down to the Arse-cheeks’ deficiencies.

There were many contributory factors , one of the most significant being that, at that time for a brief period we were on a relatively level financial playing field with them. Certainly night and day compared to the state of affairs that’s existed for about the last 30 years. And which , if anything , is going to become even more skewed in their favour.

[strachanmcgheegoal]

I’ve also always wondered what impact the early Aberdeen socio-economic environment had if any.

couldn’t be many clubs with guys with time on their hands and money in their pockets.

[aberdeen1970]

An excellent crop of youngsters was a huge part of it as well. 

[Broken_Glass]

10 minutes ago, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

Was advised by BP employee at time that they offered a decent amount of cash per annum to have the BP logo on our strips. 

Dick Donald turned the offer down. 

Unclear whether BP were considered too big a global name for little old Aberdeen or he preferred to deal with a more parochial company. 

 

That's a great story with a few beers in you.

[BaaBaaRedSheep]

4 minutes ago, Broken_Glass said:

That's a great story with a few beers in you.

No beers involved. BP employee lived doon the street.

BP also sponsored our Super Cup opponents, Hamburg, at the time. 

[1903Fitba]

3 hours ago, The Gee Man said:

Yet you have posted on it?

I don’t see your point penfold. 
 

 

[redone]

19 minutes ago, BaaBaaRedSheep said:

Was advised by BP employee at time that they offered a decent amount of cash per annum to have the BP logo on our strips. 

Dick Donald turned the offer down. 

Unclear whether BP were considered too big a global name for little old Aberdeen or he preferred to deal with a more parochial company. 

 

Putting aside any nagging doubts about how much this BP employee actually knew about BPs alleged offer.....did he or anyone else at BP know the terms Dick Donald/AFC agreed with the “parochial” company?