G-Unit

Reform in the mud in Aberdeen. Good.

300. Bloody hell.

I've had a well earned week off but the boys smashed it without me - thanks again to Nathan and Cammy for stepping in. All eyes on Saturday. COYR.

@MarkGordonMedia Aye, genuinely lovely chap.

@tchocky83 He’s a great lad, heard nothing but good about him from anyone who actually knew him whiist he was here. Look forward to listening to this.

An absolute delight to talk with Dante about his time at the Dons and just what getting his hands on the Scottish Cup meant. Exclusive interview now available at abzfootballpodcast.com

@donmcgowan Counterpoint... Anas Sarwar simply demonstrated (again) that he has absolutely no political chops about him and the whole thing fell into Starmer's lap - no playing of anyone, just sheer incompetence from the Scottish branch office manager.

The UK media were played yesterday. Starmer laid them out to dry and made them look ridiculous. From Sam Coates to Lewis Goodall, Laura K and Robert Peston, they were fished-in by the Labour comms team and left on the hook, wriggling in the sunshine. It has to be said, this was one of the smartest moves I've seen from the Labour PR team since they came to power. If you didn't hear/see — around lunchtime yesterday, Anas Sarwar, Labour's leader in Scotland 'let slip' to a journo at the Times — Geri Scott, that he was planning to hold a presser that would call for Keir Starmer to step down. This spread like political wildfire throughout the rank and file of establishment broadcasters and political editors, to the point that they were unable to contain their palpable excitement — they all took to the air waves to explain to us why Starmer was now a dead man walking. See some posts below for examples, but I'm going to pick on Lewis Goodall for a second. I was listening to LBC after the 'news' broke about Sarwar and Shelagh Fogarty brought in Lewis to discuss the bombshell breaking story. There was such a sense of excitement between the two presenters with Goodall speaking, at length, about how this would be the 'fatal blow' to the Prime Minister and could spark an avalanche of cabinet level resignations. Even at that point I felt slightly embarrassed at the desperation in their voices. Anyway, the press conference came and went — Sarwar was asked afterwards if he'd told the Prime Minister about his speech, to which he told us, “yes, we spoke this morning, and we strongly disagreed”. Oops! Have you spotted the fatal flaw in his plan yet? About an hour or so after the speech, tweets began to appear from the cabinet, Lammy first then Rayner, Darren Jones etc. etc. Even serial plotter [allegedly] Wes Streeting put forward his full throated support for Keir Starmer. It then became clear to me what had happened. Starmer and his team had realised that Anas Sarwar was about to throw him under the bus, but they manoeuvred it into a political master stroke. By holding his MPs back until after the presser, one by one they made Sarwar's treachery starker and starker. Each tweet that dropped reinforced Starmer's position and pushed the Scottish Labour leader further and further into the wilderness until he was left stranded on an ice floe that was floating away from shore, desperately pleading for help. By employing some patience and some serious political nous — the likes of which we have not seen to date — Starmer allowed the media to bay for his blood and then have to climb down. He made his adversary in Scotland look like a prized turnip. And … he shored up his own position at a meeting of the PLP last night. Now, I've been as critical of Starmer as plenty of people, but this … this was his shrewdest move, so far. As my old dad used to say: he's not as stupid as he's glaikit looking. A quick special mention has to go out to ITV's political editor, Robert Peston, who took to Twitter after the dust had settled to explain to us all why it was a bad thing that Starmer's team had rallied around him. 🤦‍♂️ Patience is key.

🇦🇹 EP279 - OUT NOW. 🥬 Hibs review; 🥕 Falkirk preview LINKS -> linktr.ee/abzfootballpod…

Genuinely think this is one of the most frustrating iterations of any Dons side in history. Show flashes of being a good outfit but keep shooting ourselves in the foot and can't put together more than 15-20 mins of good play at a time.

@chatswithem It must be exhausting trying to find a reason to complain about EVERYTHING. "where is there anything resembling Christmas..." At a cursory glance, I can see a present, holly, Christmas lights and snow - all fairly representative of, wait for it, fucking Christmas. Touch grass.

People seemingly a bit cross me pointing out that I have noticed less and less imagery to do with Christmas . It's just an opinion. But it's true . Where is there anything resembling Christmas on these latest cups? Compared to these older ones which are so much more cheerful and have fun relevant imagery It's a thing. British people are seeing Christmas markets being watered down to winter markets etc etc And these latest Costa cups have ZERO Christmas

I've noticed Costas Christmas coffee cups are getting less and less Christmassy? And that's a trend I'm seeing in general A friend of mine lived in Qatar and they weren't essentially allowed to celebrate Christmas but there were " winter markets" And that's what I am seeing in the U.K.

@Luke3045 Somewhat missing the point though - not necessarily saying that they were "good" - but they were consistently involved in the side during the initial run last season and both contributed in the Cup Semi & then the Final.

How fucking short are some people’s memories man? Have also seen a mention of McGrath in the replies ffs 😭😭😭😭

A couple of happy loons...

In continuation of our support of the @AberdeenWomen's team, delighted to be able to confirm that we are sponsoring @ilijoe1 for the 2025/26 season! All the best for the season ahead Emma!

We just about made it through this. Voices and emotions held together with IPA and the knowledge that we'd won the Scottish Cup. Up the Dons.

@craigrobb1903 @AbzPodcast Aww mate!

@tchocky83 @AbzPodcast Ace Gary!! Can beat the feeling, COYFR !! Can’t believe I was stuck on the Siem day, was a North Sea tsunami for sure !!

The wee man is 7, same age that I was in 1990. To get the chance to share yesterday with him, with my brother and my best pal was just incredible. Many tears shed. This is what it means. Up the Dons.

@tailso1988 @GilesGraeme @FreeNwakali He was, typically, up there but that's no real surprise given we spent a shit load of time playing aimless passes along the back line before smashing it long.

@GilesGraeme @FreeNwakali Not sure @tchocky83 is fairly in the know with the stats. I liked gartermann thought he was very solid just played in a poor team and defence

Garternmann making his first start for Switzerland today

@pdram @AbzPodcast It's an odd one right now. I do think people are also underestimating (a) the injury list compounded with (b) a number of players just completely losing form/confidence, etc. I'm not sure as a manager, how you can legislate for individuals not doing the basics right.

Hibs won that it a canter. Where do we go from here? Pretty obvious Thelin can’t get a tune out of this squad, but dumping the manager doesn’t seem to work for us either…I’m at a total loss…but that appears to be no different than anyone in charge at Pittodrie (where IS Burrows btw??)

FT 2-0 Plenty of ball but little to show for it. Change of shape helped a bit but the game was done by then thanks to another couple of pieces of shocking defending that gifts Hibs the win. To be this late in the window and we've not addressed the glaring issue is appalling.

@pdram @AbzPodcast ... For all of that though, the lack of ingame management compared to start of the campaign is a worry. That said, he's not going anywhere, you can see that in terms of the investment laid out this window so we are going to have to get behind him.

@pdram @AbzPodcast ... that he is clearly struggling to find a team that is capable of performing to the level needed. You can see this by the sheer number of changes made every week in starting eleven. He has a track record of seeing through a run like this and coming out the other side....

FT 0-3 Abysmal. Can't score, can't defend. 3 goals scored in our last 10 league games, 19 conceded in the same run. A No. 9, a creative playmaker, a central midfielder and some confidence needed pronto.