Sir, – I read with interest Richard Gordon’s column in Saturday’s Press and Journal in which he states that he had said and written consistently that the Dons needed to sign another out-and-out goalscorer during the transfer window.
Surely he is being rather hard on the Dons management team as not only Aberdeen but the whole of Scottish football from the national team downwards are vainly searching for this elusive character.
In a game where the main purpose is to put the ball in the opposing team’s net it seems odd that, despite the massive increase in coaching at all levels, so few players have perfected the art. The problem extends beyond Scottish football as even in the heady heights of the Premier League most of the top goalscorers were born beyond our shores.
I am well aware the game has moved on since the time we watched Joe Harper, a player who seldom ventured from the opposition penalty area, regularly find the net for the Dons.
Sadly such players with instinctive goal scoring ability exist only rarely in the modern game – or does this natural ability disappear through over-emphasis in coaching and tactics?
Sadly this weekend has seen the passing of Jimmy Greaves, pictured, arguably the greatest out-and-out goalscorer of his generation.
Ivan W Reid, Kirkburn, Laurencekirk.
Time for Greens to embrace reality
Sir, – I seemed to have touched a raw nerve with my description of the Greens.
Would the gentleman prefer “The Greens, an association with a loosely held relationship with reality”?
I was asked to get a grip. Of what I may ask. Is it in understanding some inexperienced Greens’ impractical way of achieving an environmental path that doesn’t consider both the planet and the people that occupy it?
What instalment and what part of the IPCC do they want me to read? To claim that I have read them all would be an untruth but I have certainly read counter arguments to a lot of the doomsday prophesies.
Yes the planet is in trouble. Is it totally caused by human habitation? No. Does it need help in fixing itself? Of course.
The way of achieving this is where our paths differ. The hard-line Greens want all major Scottish infrastructure projects looked at again. Of course they can insist now that they power-share with the ruling SNP.
I am sure that the Green’s MSP Maggie Chapman is a nice person but before making calls like this it would have been better if she had experienced the ups and downs of life associated with working for a living.
Having not had this experience would beg the question: Is she qualified to make any judgement calls regarding the A96?
Rather simplistic but think on this. A vehicle driving from Inverness to Aberdeen at the present time frequently stops, starts, gear-changes, accelerates, brakes, etc uses X amount of fuel generating Y amount of CO2. That same vehicle travelling on an open road would use less fuel generating less CO2.
So this is where people with common sense differ from the Greens.
We would invest in decent infrastructure and concentrate on making sure that the vehicles on the roads are using the best technology available (electric) thereby ensuring that people’s standard of living is improved and also satisfying the environmental needs of the planet.
That seems the best way forward, not the baby/ bathwater approach.
Some scientists and academics believe the big problem is over-population.
The Greens are not alone in ignoring this. China tried and was castigated around the world.
Finlay G Mackintosh, Forres, Moray.