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ABERDEEN annual general meetings used to be an opportunity for disgruntled Dons to chuck rotten veg and insults at the chairman.

Not now.

Stewart Milne no longer needs to wear a flak jacket at the yearly get together having managed to wipe out £15m of debt and finally managing to get a decent team on the park.

It’s all rosy in the red garden - at least it would be if not for a couple of comments that will have made the punters’ hearts sink.

We need Rangers back in the top flight. Hibs as well would be a bonus.

Not this again.

Milne’s missing the Ibrox club. Fair enough. It’s stating the bleeding obvious to suggest the Rangers wilderness years have hit clubs in the pocket.

But some things are best not said.

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Especially when hinting about further reconstruction just makes a mockery of the competition.

Teams get to play in the top flight on merit - not on what they might do for the coffers.

This isn’t the NFL. We don’t have franchises. We have clubs who need to earn the right to get to where they want to be.

The likes of Ross County and Hamilton are clearly not wanted at the top table - but they deserve to be there.

Rangers and Hibs have to do it the old fashioned way by winning games.

If Milne had his way we’d have a 10-team Premiership, with hand-picked clubs and no relegation.

But it’s not reconstruction Aberdeen should be worrying about - it’s construction.

The Dons AGM is becoming like Groundhog Day when it comes to the new stadium.

It’s Never Never Land.

Now Milne’s saying Aberdeen should be in their new home by the start of 2019/20 season. Maybe. Perhaps. If they can find the £20m from somewhere.

Sounds promising eh?

Dons fans have heard it all before. Their side were meant to be in the swanky gaff at Loirston two years ago.

It’s become the shelf you promise the wife you’ll fix when you get time and ended up hanging on by the hinges for years.

Fans are not too fussed it seems. They don’t mind Pittodrie too much. It’s handy for the bus and for the pubs while the new place could be a pain to get to.

They’re happy enough at home but the painful truth is the crumbling ground is holding the club back.

Even more so is the lack of a proper training base.

It’s embarrassing for a club like Aberdeen to have nowhere to call their own, with players getting changed at the ground before hopping on board buses to get to a pitch half the week.

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Pittodrie gobbles up half a million quid every year on running repairs - it’s cost them £4m since the Loirston Loch project started.

Think about what that dosh could do for Derek McInnes’s side.

Aberdeen need to forget about Rangers, Hibs or anyone else. Leave them to it. Aberdeen need to sort themselves out.

Milne’s done a lot right in recent years. Posting a £500,000 profit is some doing when the a*** has fallen out of the game.

But he needs to decide where his club are going in the next few years.

Pittodrie’s done. It’s a soulless relic and about as intimidating for away teams as a trip round Toys R Us.

Aberdeen need a new 20,000 capacity ground - preferably with a sizeable standing section.

A new gaff might get the punters packing it out. It’s not happening at the moment. The Dons averaged under 13,000 last season when they were in the title race right up to April.

It’s the same again this year and 13k for the Hearts game was brutal.

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The Jambos are filling Tynecastle every week because folk enjoy going there. The atmosphere is cracking and punters want to be a part of it.

Sitting in a row to yourself at a Baltic Pittodrie ain’t cutting it.

A new home could create a buzz around the whole club.

Its going to take Rangers years to get back to anywhere near where they want to be. This is a big chance for Aberdeen.

Who knows where the club could go. Perhaps a real title race is not beyond the realms of possibility.

But not while Pittodrie holds them back.

The Dons need to start laying foundations, not looking to bulldoze the league structure again.