If nothing else, Neil Warnock will be an entertaining appointment at Pittodrie.
The 75-year-old is an undoubted character who both speaks his mind and gets fully caught up in the passion of the game, which has led to a number of controversies and memeable moments across his 44-year coaching career.
It's also likely to be a shrewd appointment by the Dandy Dons, who are asking Warnock to come in, steady the ship and get fans back onside before the end of the campaign. At which point they'll likely wish him good luck for the rest of his retirement and hire someone a bit younger to take the club forward from there.
Even after four decades in the game Warnock has shown he's still got what it takes to succeed in the dugout, as evidenced by his last spell with Huddersfield Town, whom he managed to save from relegation to England's League One with a streak of six wins, two draws and one defeat to close out last season.
It draws a line under an unpleasant period for Aberdeen fans, who whilst reading this would probably much rather focus on a suddenly-brighter future than dwell on the previous six months. But as good a hire as Warnock is right now, he'd have been an even better one had the board made the move a couple of months ago.
When the decision was announced to sack Barry Robson, one particular question came to mind: 'why?' And not, 'why did they sack him?' That was abundantly clear. Rather it was: 'why on earth did they wait this long?' It's a question that even after all the dust has settled, and Warnock has got himself comfortable in the dugout, that Aberdeen fans should be asking the men in charge of their team.
Aberdeen came into the campaign with the ambition of building on last season's terrific late-season run to third place and the guarantee of at least eight games in European football, with all the extra revenue and prestige that brings.
As Hearts so often told us over the previous 12 months, regularly getting this bounty and creating an own class of club below Celtic and Rangers but above the rest of the Scottish top flight is the only way someone is going to get remotely close to the Old Firm. (That is, the only way without a sugar daddy coming in and spending tens of millions of pounds on a vanity project.) Aberdeen were looking to achieve where Hearts failed by getting to the group stages in consecutive seasons, which would then strengthen their hopes of doing so for a third year and so on.
Instead, unless Warnock is so good that he's able to bring the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie for the first time since 1990, Aberdeen will certainly not be getting their guaranteed eight games on the continent next term. The dream of doing so through the league was done and dusted before the weekend's results saw them fall 20 points behind Hearts in third, a deficit so large that even holding two games in hand isn't enough to conjure a mere sliver of hope that they could come storming back in the event of another Gorgie collapse.
The Aberdeen board hummed and hawed for months while Robson demonstrated he wasn't the right man for the job, but they chose to wait until it was far too late to save this league season.
The truth is, Robson was never a particularly good fit for a club with the resources of Aberdeen compared with over half of their opponents in the cinch Premiership. The former Dundee United and Celtic midfielder wanted his team to emphasise defensive solidity above all else and launch long balls up to the forwards. That kind of approach is bread and butter for many Scottish top flight clubs, who knew they could upset the Dons by merely winning the physical battle, and it's tough to get results with a defensive outlook when the opponent is happy to surrender possession and territory.
Warnock himself has typically found success himself with direct play and aggressive pressing, so the Pittodrie squad won't be subjected to a massive deviation in style of play, but he also has the experience of winning consistently with bigger clubs in England's second tier. Robson was still a novice in the position.
I do have a certain degree of sympathy with the Aberdeen board regarding the initial decision to hire Robson permanently. You'd be hard pressed to find many club stewards around the world who wouldn't give the interim manager the gig on a permanent basis after they'd won seven consecutive matches. But they needed to give the 45-year-old a short leash and it became evident very quickly into the current season that this wasn't going to work out.
That said, I can also understand, up to a point, why Robson remained in the job up until the end of the European campaign. They were competitive in every match despite some stiff competition in the form of Eintracht Frankfurt and PAOK as Robson's approach appeared more suited to this level of opposition.
There was also the League Cup final to consider. The Bojan Miovski-inspired victory over Hibs was maybe the worst performance I've seen from a winning side in a semi-final - had they played anyone else other than the Hampden-haunted Edinburgh club they surely would have lost - but Robson did have a strong record against Rangers with two victories and a draw from four matches before the showdown.
After the 1-0 defeat at the national stadium it seemed the perfect time to say "thanks for your efforts but it's time to go in a new direction". Instead, Robson got another six league games to show his employers what the fans had known for months, which was just enough time to kill off any lingering hope of rescuing the season and fighting Hearts for third.
Nobody can doubt owner Dave Cormack's commitment to Aberdeen, his enthusiasm for trying to bring some consistent glory back to the North East club and the money spent trying to make that goal a reality, but his track record with hiring and firing managers leaves a lot to be desired. Not only does Robson follow Stephen Glass and Jim Goodwin in being an underwhelming appointment, he also follows the pattern of remaining in the job longer than he should have.
Loyalty and patience are all well and good, and it's hard to begrudge Cormack striving for both, but when it's clear and obvious things aren't working out then a change needs to be made. If his next long-term appointment isn't a success, fans will at least hope this is a lesson he's managed to learn.
Neil Warnock needs Aberdeen miracle after Dons left it late sacking Barry Robson
5
0
05.02.2024
If nothing else, Neil Warnock will be an entertaining appointment at Pittodrie.
The 75-year-old is an undoubted character who both speaks his mind and gets fully caught up in the passion of the game, which has led to a number of controversies and memeable moments across his 44-year coaching career.
It's also likely to be a shrewd appointment by the Dandy Dons, who are asking Warnock to come in, steady the ship and get fans back onside before the end of the campaign. At which point they'll likely wish him good luck for the rest of his retirement and hire someone a bit younger to take the club forward from there.
Even after four decades in the game Warnock has shown he's still got what it takes to succeed in the dugout, as evidenced by his last spell with Huddersfield Town, whom he managed to save from relegation to England's League One with a streak of six wins, two draws and one defeat to close out last season.
It draws a line under an unpleasant period for Aberdeen fans, who whilst reading this would probably much rather focus on a suddenly-brighter future than dwell on the previous six months. But as good a hire as Warnock is right now, he'd have been an even better one had the board made the move a couple of months ago.
When the decision was announced to sack Barry Robson, one particular question came to mind: 'why?' And not, 'why did they sack him?' That was abundantly clear. Rather it was: 'why on earth did they wait this long?' It's a question that even after all the dust has settled, and Warnock has got himself comfortable in the dugout, that Aberdeen........
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