Alistair Trail

Husband, Father of 2, Top red #AberdeenFC, decent darts player, poor golfer

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

Thanks to @IvoGraham for the orange goodies for suggesting @AberdeenFC legend Alex Mcleish is the greatest ever orange thing at the Lemon Tree @APAWhatsOn

[The Famous Aberdeen @TheFamousReds]

The players don't deserve the backing but this is our club. Relegation is not an option. Let's get a massive 3 points on Saturday 🔴⚪️

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

@GuillemBalague This perfectly sums up why modern day football, especially the Premier League is now dull and completely lacks any flair and excitement.

[Guillem Balague @GuillemBalague]

Now that Arsenal fans are booing their own team and former players are lining up to criticise, let me offer the bigger picture, the one you hear across Europe.

Arsenal are not seen here as a team that has stalled. They are seen as a reference point. As the team many look at when trying to understand where elite football is heading.

The game has shifted, it is no longer enough to dominate the ball or to attack well. The top sides now compete in, and often decide matches through, the four phases that make teams excellent: organised attack, attacking transition, defensive transition and structured defence. At the highest level, those phases matter more than possession percentages or aesthetic debates.

This is where Arsenal stand out.

Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal control space, time and another very important element, rhythm. They are aggressive without being chaotic, but can create chaos to find gaps, they are compact without being passive. Their pressing is prepared in detail, lose the ball and the reaction is immediate. The opponent is denied oxygen.

Across Europe, this is understood as modern dominance.

The key battleground today is transition. Not what you do with the ball, but what happens the instant you lose it. Defensive rhythm has overtaken offensive rhythm. Space is smaller and time is shorter. The teams that survive are the ones that arrive first, win duels, plus reset order before danger appears.

Arsenal do this as well as anyone.

In Europe, Arsenal are seen as a team that has absorbed Guardiola’s ideas and pushed them forward, they have strengthened them for a football world that now plays faster, presses harder, and it totally punishes hesitation.

At the very moment Arsenal are being questioned at home, they are being analysed as a model.

Progress is often uncomfortable and it rarely moves in straight lines. Arsenal don’t look lost. In my eyes they look early!

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

@Mike_kim714 Huge fan, really enjoy your honesty and views of the pro golf world

[Michael S. Kim @Mike_kim714]

Giving away my Titleist staff bag that I used from the Open Champ to the BMW I believe.

Must be a follower

Comment, like, retweet for a chance to win!

[Aberdeen FC @AberdeenFC]

A day etched in our memories forever.

📹 // Jack Rowley.

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

4th best day of my life. 2 kids born, wedding, Aberdeen winning the Scottish cup. Emotional #COYR #Aberdeen

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

@ukgolfguy -4 to win

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

I don't understand how robson, as a creative midfielder, can set up his team to play like this. The midfield is just bypassed the whole game. Its brutal. The quicker he goes the better #robsonout #afc #aberdeen

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

Robson needs to go for me. Watching @AberdeenFC is so frustrating. There is no attempt to play football. Its just hoofball, try to win second ball or high press. No creativity, no pace, no plan b, just rubbish. 1/2

[Out of Context Football Manager @nocontextfm1]

This is the greatest video I’ve watched on TikTok, goosebumps through the whole thing

[Red Point of View @ARedPOV]

Best video of the goal and celebrations so far.

Volume up...

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

Totally agree, blown away by the atmosphere @AberdeenFC @Eintracht

[Aldo @aldop1903]

The myth of the European atmosphere at Parkhead and ibrox well and truly smashed. Frankfurt hands down best stadium and noise I've ever seen & heard.

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

All booked, Frankfurt here we come @AberdeenFC #EuropeanTour #COYR

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

@AberdeenFC Such sad news, brilliant man, one of the nicest you will ever meet. Great loss and will be sadly missed.

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

@CBSSportsGolazo @Carra23 Wasn't @CalvinRamsay signed from @AberdeenFC, brought in as competition for @TrentAA. He will be a great player once he gets over his injuries @Carra23

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

I would like to confirm that I am also unavailable to host @BBCMOTD @GaryLineker

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

Alan Shearer pulls out of tomorrow's Match of the Day after Gary Lineker steps back https://t.co/wQXHqBu8dx

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

@Capital1903SC Very sad news, Dougie was a great guy, always very welcoming on the bus and full of interesting AFC stories. Top Red. RIP Dougie

[Alistair Trail @AliDandyDon]

Anyone know why @MotherwellFC were allowed 6 subs yesterday? None of the subs seemed to be for concussion @AberdeenFC

[Aberdeen FC @AberdeenFC]

Get in!!

A big +3⃣ at Pittodrie. COYR!

#StandFree | #cinchPrem