Shaggy Jenkins

Murray Davidson's 33, Liam Craig and Craig Bryson are 35, so yes we've known for a while that our central midfield was going to need younger legs. If the striker you're talking about is Eetu, he wasn't signed in time for the European games and doesn't seem to be considered an out-and-out striker anyway. Crawford and MacPherson were also not signed in time for the European games.
If we'd signed a good central midfielder and good striker in the summer, instead of panic-signing seven or eight players (several of whom have so far struggled to even get a game) in January when we were bottom of the league, I think we'd have spent less money and we'd be further up the table.

But the board has thrown money about. They've just waited until we're on the verge of relegation to do it. I've never called for the board to needlessly spend, but it was obvious before this season started that we needed to bring in a striker to help with our goalscoring problems and ideally a central midfielder to cover for Craig/Davidson/Bryson's ageing legs and McCann's possible departure. We didn't strengthen at all - in fact we arguably weakened - and as a result we lost out on a bumper pay from Europe (Galatasaray and LASK were both better than us, but not unbeatable) and we're now close to losing our place in the Premier League (suddenly it's not just Galatasaray and LASK who are better than us, but Dundee and Ross County).
None of this is said with hindsight. Loads of fans were saying these same things at the time.

That's kinda how I read it. Sounds like a manager who knows we are going down and is starting damage control. Even worse one that is secure in the fact that it will effect his employment not one jot 

I'd like to give the players a little credit here, as I think for the most part they've all upped their games in recent weeks. Last night I thought Crawford and Middleton in particular produced their best performances in months. McCart seems to have recovered something resembling his old form, our wing-backs bust a gut, and Hendry looks like a completely different player from the one that barely got a touch of the ball against Arbroath at the start of the season.
However, I really wonder what it would take for Callum Davidson to actually try to win a game. Every week we see the same overly cautious approach, the same reluctance to make proactive changes during a game, and inevitably the same collapse when the opposition scores and we're left clinging on. I can't help but wonder at this point if he's been reassured that his job is safe no matter what, and he already has an eye on next season. His attitude towards playing his new signings certainly suggests to me that he is building for the future rather than desperately trying everything it takes to get us out of the very deep hole we're in right now.
Yes the injuries have been horrendous and we've had some awful refereeing decisions go against us, but we're bottom of this league because of Davidson's approach to games. I'm beginning to reach the belief that this squad would actually be comfortably mid-table if only we had a decent manager.

That's kinda how I read it. Sounds like a manager who knows we are going down and is starting damage control. Even worse one that is secure in the fact that it will effect his employment not one jot 

Also, the 'avoiding relegation would be a bigger achievement than winning the cups' comment. I know what he's trying to say: 'if we turn this around, we'll have done really well' essentially. But it sounds like: 'winning the cups was a once in a lifetime thing, there's no chance we're going to avoid relegation'. 

While that is true that its hard it shouldn't be impossible with the money we have available.
It didn't stop Rudden, our target, joining Dundee.  It didn't stop Boyce joining hearts or Lafferty joining Kilmarnock when they were rooted to the bottom.
We paid a fee for Bair, Macpherson and Mahon who don't appear to be good enough to start or in Macphersons case we should have known better after the previous 6 months.  We also threw a 2.5 year deal at ali crawford .
That money could have been used towards Forrest, Jones or Rudden who are starting for teams around us and would have improved the team.
Its a pretty poor defense of our recruitment to say we are bottom of the league what can be done.
 

Bair was awful in Paisley.  I hope that was a result of the game situation rather than us wasting money on a dud.  There wasn't even signs of a good player there as everything bounced off him and he got smaller as he jumped.  Will Callum even bother to give him a chance as he didn't with Eetu or Melamed for a long time.  I'd start him against hearts or rangers just to see if he has something about him.
Gallacher and Sang look to be no better than we already have.
Butterfield, cifti and Hallberg have questions over their fitness.
Macpherson and Crawford were here already and aren't good enough.
Cleary is a big downgrade on Kerr and I think he's a bit of a soft touch but he may improve.  
Overall our business in January was a mixture of desperation and being turned down by our main targets and having to settle for taking Hendry back from his loan spell.
Our recruitment is shite and I have no idea what our supposed head of recruitment is doing when you see better options joining clubs around us (or in forrests case actively reject us).

As I said either they are not good enough or Davidson doesn't trust them. Either way ,down to Davidson.
Think we have to bite the bullet and pay the compo and let Davidson go.

Callum for Aberdeen. 

Their fans went vocal about their poor performances while we have a wee moan on here and hope it will be better next week. 

Can we finally put to bed the notion that 4-4-2 will solve our problems? Switching to 4-4-2 last night wasn't just ineffective: it actually made us worse.
I was worried as soon as I saw the starting line-up, especially with that midfield. I'd be interested to know just how many of those changes were enforced, because for me Butterfield and May have been a key part of our improved performances of late and yet they were both left on the bench.
In fairness I thought we played OK in the first half, but when we lost the equaliser we seemed to lose all shape and all hope and Davidson just doesn't have the tactical nous or motivational skills to fix that once a game is in motion. And in a situation where we're fighting for our lives and need to make a change in the middle of the park, I have to question the decision to bring on the inexperienced Charlie Gilmour rather than someone like Liam Craig who has been around the block and is a natural leader.
Central midfield has been a big issue for a while now. We made how many new signings during the window - eight? And yet Hallberg was the only one of those brought in to address our midfield issues. Hallberg does look an excellent signing but we saw last night and in the second half on Saturday that when he's not there all of our midfield problems return. For me it's bordering on jaw-dropping that the manager was given a virtually unprecedented license to go out and fix our squad, and yet he neglected to fully address our biggest problem area.
At this stage I have some major question marks hanging over some of our other new signings. Are they genuinely better than what we already had? Were they signed to strengthen the right areas? I'm having serious doubts. Chucking good money after bad is a phrase that comes to mind.
 

From what I saw of them before they played for us, I'd say Vertainen is the better of the two, tbh. 
With Bair we just need to hope his sheer size causes problems for teams.

This squad is nowhere near good enough to bounce straight back up if/when we go down. 
 
 

For me, the transfer window was Davidson's last chance. He's chucked a load of the club's money at a huge haul of new players, and we're no better off than we were before. 
Changing the manager is the only option we have left and the board must act while there is still some glimmer of hope that we might at least finish 11th and get a play-off. As things stand, looking at the disarray the team is in and the fixtures we have coming up - we're on course to go straight down.

Totally correct McCart been getting a lot if stick about his displays, but Liam Gordon hasn't been much better, but he goes under the radar, his distribution is awful, when mahon came on for him at livi last week the defence looked far better and we started to play better from the back.

Let’s look at the facts. First half, we had by far the best chances. 
 
We got f*cked over by a shocking penalty decision. 
 
that potentially had an impact, but after a poor 10 mins, making wholesale player changes and changing shape reeked of desperation. 
 
left us completely disjointed. 
 
I don’t think the players believe in the coaching staff, I don’t even think the coaching staff believe in themselves now. It feels like they are waiting for the payoff. 
 
we have a massive squad that should be good enough to comfortably stay in this league. 
 
Right now. That isn’t translating onto the park and our inability to perform for more than 45 mins says more than anything. 

As bad as a saints team you will ever see no fight terrible unorganised 

Heartbreaking to see us getting made to look unorganised, ill-disciplined and outplayed by St.Mirren. What a fall from grace!!

I think May would do well in the position Crawford's currently playing in.
Looking back, Derek McInnes often played him in that sort of role for Aberdeen and I think he'd spotted even back then that May was no longer a prolific striker but he has a lot to offer a bit further back.

May has looked more and more like he'd be better playing as a midfielder for ages now. He'll always work hard. Think with all our new forwards and when Kane comes back he will possibly lose his position.

Forks? Chris will have the sprinklers on.

It is off. Happy with that. One week closer to having Nadir back and Cleary, Mahon and Hallberg up to speed.

Hearing the game is off?

there's a level the broons are comfortable at, they didnt reinvest to take the club forward and now we are reaping those rewards. If we go down, we will be there for a long time