Aberdeen fans can’t expect a Porsche when the budget only buys a Vauxhall Vectra
FOOTBALL fans treat their manager the same way they treat their cars. Three years and it’s time for a trade-in. Things are fine at first. A coat of wax is applied every Sunday morning to minor bumps and scrapes. Allowances are made for imperfections.
But then the miles rack up, there’s a few bumps on the road and the neighbour starts sporting a sleek German number like Jurgen. Or a fashionable hybrid like Pep. And the boredom creeps in.
Before long they’re in the car park, pawing the window, craving something new and exotic with the latest UEFA badge on the bonnet.
Kudos to Derek McInnes. To last six years without being driven to the nearest branch of Arnold Clark is a testament to his staying power as manager of Aberdeen.
But the Dons boss has been around so long fans have forgotten what happened the last time they grew bored with a steady, reliable runner.
By 2009 Jimmy Calderwood had spent five years tidying up the shambolic mess left when Steve Paterson was smuggled out of Pittodrie in a car boot.
Yet his reward for leading the club to fourth in the SPL and reaching the Europa League group stage was a nudge towards the exit door.
Some are old enough to remember a time when Aberdeen finishing fourth in the top tier actually was a resignation matter.
But Calderwood’s experience was proof that football fans should be careful what they wish for.
In a quest to roll back the years to the glory of Gothenburg, Dons chairman Stewart Milne turned to Mark McGhee. And, 18 months after that fourth-place finish, a run of six straight defeats saw the Dons spiral down to joint bottom of the league — scoring just two goals and conceding 18.
Half of that tally, lest we forget, came in a shameful 9-0 defeat to Celtic at Parkhead.
McInnes admits that a humiliating 5-0 loss to Rangers last weekend was the lowest point of his time in charge.
It fell miles below the standards set since he took charge in 2013.
But spare us the notion that it was a result, combined with the Betfred Cup exit to Hearts on penalties, that justified grounds for a sacking.
Even if the first-choice central defence of Scott McKenna and Andrew Considine had been fit enough to play, the Pittodrie side were up against it at Ibrox.
With eight players missing, they were lambs to the slaughter.
Scottish football doesn’t really do context or perspective. If it did, a planned protest by a section of supporters before today’s home clash with Hibs would be seen for what it is. Ill-conceived and ludicrous.
McInnes is a victim of his own success. By leading Aberdeen to four second-placed finishes, a League Cup and the longest sequence of home wins at Pittodrie since Alex Ferguson’s reign, he forged a rod for his own back.
With Rangers throwing the kitchen sink at catching Celtic, that run was always likely to end at some point. And fans have now forgotten how bad things were before.
Some supporters regard one trophy as a poor return for the years when the Ibrox side were scrambling through the lower leagues.
And it’s true that Danny Lennon, John Hughes, Jim McIntyre, Alan Stubbs and Tommy Wright achieved the same trophy haul with smaller budgets.
Yet, more than once, the quest for more silverware was foiled at Hampden by a Celtic team embarking on a run of nine straight domestic trophies.
For a club with Aberdeen’s wage bill, halting a team raking in Champions League cash felt like confronting a speeding juggernaut on a Moped.
McInnes is well aware of criticism of his tactical approach to big games. Qualification for the Europa League should be a legitimate goal for a club of Aberdeen’s stature. And a few of the summer signings have still to get on the pitch, never mind make an actual difference.
Yet neither can the bigger picture be swept aside and ignored.
The Dons manager is rarely quoted in the same sentence as Mauricio Pochettino.
Yet last season Aberdeen and Tottenham finished fourth in their respective leagues.
And while the wage bills are night and day, both bosses are banging their heads off a glass ceiling, toiling to get closer to bigger, wealthier domestic rivals who expect to win titles every year.
It’s time for Dons fans to get real. We’d all love a sleek, racy Porsche on the driveway.
But set against what Celtic and Rangers can pay, the budget of an Aberdeen manager stretches no further than a Vauxhall Vectra.