Forget performance data... the only stats that save a boss are points on the board
PICKING a degree course at the age of 17, most teenagers fret over future employment prospects and the scandalous price of digs or a pint in the Union.
When an offer came through to move to Aberdeen in 1987 my own judgment was clouded by something else altogether. The local football team.
It wasn’t just North Sea oil which placed the Granite City on the map. The football club’s contribution to Scottish football was almost as valuable as the black gold flowing into the UK economy.
Between 1980 and 1986 the Dons won three league titles, four Scottish Cups, a League Cup, a European Cup Winners’ Cup and a European Super Cup. They lorded it over domestic rivals. They lorded it over Europe.
To impressionable teenagers like me, Aberdeen and success seemed to go hand in hand. When the oil was flowing and the trophies were effortless, it felt like a good place to be and you didn’t have to be an Aberdeen supporter — or even like them much — to respect what Willie Miller, Alex McLeish and Co brought to the party.
In October 1989, the Dons beat Rangers to lift the League Cup after extra-time at Hampden. Later that night, a convoy of buses dumped hordes of intoxicated, jubilant fans on Union Street and it felt like triumphant soldiers returning from the Western front.
Two years later, the hard grind of boning up for finals was put to one side to crowd round a wireless in a student flat in King Street to listen to commentary of Aberdeen facing Rangers in a final-day league decider. When BBC Scotland were still welcome at Ibrox, it shows how far back we’re going here.
In the 30 years since that 2-0 defeat, the Dons haven’t had a sniff of another title and, offered the use of a DeLorean to travel back to an era when Celtic and Rangers glanced anxiously over their shoulders, some of us would set the Flux Capacitor for 1983 and happily pull the lever.
First in the bucket seat, you suspect, would be Stephen Glass. Under his stewardship Aberdeen have now gone ten games without a win. They have lost their last five in the league.
In a feisty defence of his manager on radio earlier in the week, chairman Dave Cormack made the point that Robbie Neilson at Hearts and Callum Davidson at St Johnstone both endured tough times last season and came out the other side. Glass could still do the same.
With games against Hibs, Rangers and Hearts in the next week, however, it’s just as plausible that he’ll lose every one of them.
By doubling down, the chairman has only reminded fans of who appointed Glass in the first place and made it difficult to take drastic action if things lurch from bad to worse over the next seven days.
Bristling under interrogation from Sportsound host Kenny MacIntyre, Cormack made some reasonable points. But he was wrong to claim that no one outwith Aberdeen cares what happens to his club.
In the context of Scottish football the Dons are an important footballing institution. Only Celtic and Rangers are bigger and the spectacle of the game only benefits from strong, defiant competition from the North East.
The problem is that Aberdeen’s current league position fails to reflect expectation.
The top five slots in the Premiership are occupied by teams from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. A big city outfit, Aberdeen were ever presents under Derek McInnes. And their absence now sticks out like a sore thumb.
The chairman can point to data suggesting the team are performing better than their current position in the league might suggest. But there’s only one piece of solid data which can really save a manager’s job. Points on the board.
Dave Cormack wasn’t the only chairman who came out all guns blazing this week. At an edgy Q&A with fans Falkirk’s Gary Deans revealed discussions with his Aberdeen counterpart over a strategic review into the SPFL being co-funded by Hearts, Hibernian, Dundee and Dundee United.
Ideally, the American owners would like entry to the SPFL Premiership to be subject to certain criteria in future. It’s safe to say that a grass pitch will be one of them.
Strip it down, however, and the condition of entry to the Premiership which trumps all others is winning football games. That’s one criteria Aberdeen really need to meet as soon as possible.