stewarty

Yes, but its pretty clear that any possibility of him staying was undermined by Pedro. Barrie strikes me as the kind of guy that needs an arm round the shoulder. Pedro seemed to provide that only when the mood took him. And there's plenty of evidence of that in terms of how he dealt with other players.

Pedro was full of these contradictions. And I'm not sure that the language barrier quite explains it. Particularly disappointing to see that a) Barrie could well have stayed had he been made the right offer; and b) that we undersold him quite significantly. Perhaps even as much as to pay McInnes' severance....

The mental gymnastics is not really a surprise. Which is why dipping into SSB is fine for a few minutes at most, before the stupidity of the panel kicks in and you are ready to crash the car rather that listen any more. I mean, do they expect us to approach Aberdeen before we've gone through a process and interviewed other candidates? We don't do that unless he is the man we want.

The point has been made already, but looking back, its pretty clear that Pedro's man management was a clear weakness. For whatever reason, he seemed to alienate most of our senior squad members, to the point where it was not only limiting the players who he would select, but it was having a detrimental impact on performances. We can dress that up however you like and point to indiscipline or unprofessional conduct on behalf of the players, but the bottom line is he wasn't getting results and thats when these problems become more and more prominent. I for one quite liked the public persona of Pedro, but for whatever reason that wasn't translated into the dressing room and any trust and backing he had just eroded over time. One of the reasons for that could be communication and whether English as his 3rd (?) language, limited the message or made it difficult to translate. And another sign that it was not player discipline at the heart of the issue was the way they pulled together and put in a performance for Murty at Murrayfield.

The mask has slipped big time. But thats what happens when you are an irrelevance and are over-reaching.

Thats pretty disengenuous. Miller, Sarver, Kennedy - all of them tried to persuade D&P to engage with them meaningfully, yet they proscratinated, deflected and ultimately went with Charles Green. Regardless what the authorities have determined regarding D&P's actions over the period, I will take a helluva lot of persuasion to believe that something nefarious was not going on there. And given what we know now about the way Ashley stitched us up, you cannot possibly be serious that he is a viable investor that has our long term interests at heart. In the real world, people don't look gift horses in the mouth. In the real world, people look at actions rather than words. In the real world, people look at all sides of an argument. Unless you're peddling an agenda of course. But at least be honest about it if you are!

Full back areas continue to be a concern. Elton has done okay in patches but is only on loan for the season. Tav's performances have drawn praise and criticism. We miss him when he's not there and Hodson can do a job but isn't at the same level. Central Midfield - once you take out the perennially injured Rossiter and Niko, we aren't left with enough options. Wings - Windass is unconvincing despite his goal on Saturday. Candeias has been okay, pretty consistent but Nemane looks like a lost boy. Striker - I think we're one light in that area. E.g. take Morelos out the team and we are weakened. Hardie came off the bench and if the rationale is that he's 4th (ish) choice then he needs to get more minutes so we can see if he'll develop into a player for us. Miller is capable of Saturday performance levels but question marks about his age and whether he can do that consistently. Herrera - only seen glimpses of what he's about but so far certainly no better than likes of Waghorn and Garner.

I say an FD in terms of complementing the existing team. Completely agree regarding the appointment of a manager. There is no magic formula or set of rules - we need to make sure those who's judgement is the most reliable to be making the decisions and hope they get it right more often than not. But we also need to make sure that we have the right management team in place and as I say, I think we're a bit light at senior level.

The question of "how" we raise funds is one thing, but can we trust the Board to sanction the spending of it wisely? Two failed managerial appointments suggest they are perhaps too trusting in some respects, or lacking judgement. We all want guys with the club's best interests at the helm, but we shouldn't be blind to their failings. For me, this is most stark in terms of the (still) light Exec Team. I'd say we need a strong FD to complement Andrew Dickson and Stewart Robertson. There's just too much we need to be progressing as a club, and I'm not convinced the catch-all excuses that I've used myself around legal wranglings and previous regimes are the full story any more.

it was pretty clear at the end that yes Pedro had lost the plot. He seemed to alienate himself from key members of the squad continually, wit the final straw being guys like Miller, Wallace, Niko... guys who everyone looks up to given their status and careers. Whether that means that the players were not acting professionally, i don't know. Unless you are in the dressing room, its hard to tell exactly why things went wrong. It wouldn't surprise me to hear that some players were not pulling their weight, or didn't embrace change as much as they could... but as others have said, its the Manager that needs to bridge that gap and make sure the squad is pulling in the right direction. nice guy or not, Pedro was just unable to do that. my immediate reaction to THAT press conference was 'oh oh, he's hit the nuclear button... he doesn't have any space to move after that as you can only use that move once' And so it proved. I think one of the reasons I'm slightly coming round to the idea of McInnes is the way he's turned around his squad from last season. He lost Hayes and McGinn who really were the lynchpins of this team.. he's retained Christie who has been in excellent form and is really developing into a player.... he's invested wisely you to admit. Compare the reaction to Pedro's comments about Aberdeen coming to the end of a cycle. You could see exactly what Pedro meant... And Mcinnes has stuck two fingers up to them and started this season better than the last.

In fairness, that smacks of self-publicity rather than anything else.

One factor I've not heard mentioned is JJ. I assume he is still with the club as there's been no mention of him going. Given his positive impact in terms of helping to bring in Morelos I'd hope that he is someone that the new manager works with. As their playing careers overlapped at rangers, perhaps thats something that gives another indicator that McInnes is the main target?

I think its absolutely guaranteed that they will attempt to rough us up from very early on. We will need to stand up to that and win the physical battle before anything else. Who among the squad is up for it though?

This i think was ultimately one of Pedro's main failings. He was marmite to some of our most influential players, ones who could have helped pull him through some of the more indifferent results we have experienced had he been able to get them pulling for him and what he was trying to achieve. Would another manager been able to put an arm round Barrie McKay and persuade him to stay? Did we really need to sell Waghorn and Garner who at the very least are no worse than the (so far) lacklustre Herrera? That equation alone could have saved enough cash to bring in Walker and Moult in my view.

From memory the prize money distribution is circa £300k difference between 2nd and 3rd place. And its about £500k between 2nd and 4th. Those numbers would surely come into the equation in terms of opportunity cost. Not least due to the potential for de-stabilising Aberdeen

I wonder what Niko's fitness is like. IIRC he's been back in training, and I suspect we could use his creativity, even if its only for 20-30 minutes off the bench, should Hearts prove to be stuffy and stubborn as I suspect they will.

The one aspect of getting McInnes would be the de-stabilising factor to the sheep. Which would be a real shame

What of the Motherwell player flying limbs? Do they attract the compliant officer's attention too?

That is worrying for me, if indeed thats exactly what he said. Playing that sort of card isn't one you can play again. Last throw of the Caixinha dice?

Yes that was utterly baffling. And you know its bad when you agree with Chris Sutton!

I get what you mean now... To put it another way, the referee didn't fail to the various chances that we missed, nor did he fail to clear the corner that led to their first goal, nor did he lose the ball in midfield or fail to track Moult's run that led to their second. On the basis that they took their chances, they deserved to win.

To some extent, yes. The number of occasions where blatant foul play, often dangerous, is ignored or not dealt with has been shocking this season.

I'm not sure I said that, to be fair... Motherwell deserved to win because they took their chances having drawn us into a battle on their terms. We had no answer. I can though say that refereeing performances this season have been consistent in the way that overly physical play has gone unpunished. I'm not arguing that teams are not within their rights to play however they feel is best to get a result, but I am arguing that officials should be applying the laws of the game consistently. We should be pressuring them to do so, via whatever means available to us.

Unless the club acts - both in private with the SFA, and publicly via the media; we're pishing against the wind. I assume we've done the former already, to zero difference. So for me its time for the latter. Regardless of the referee though, we didn't deserve the win yesterday. so I'm wary about going too hard on this.

We had possibly 6/7 players in the starting line up last night who were 6ft plus. He's talking shite and grasping for excuses. Enough!