The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Cormack is facing an impossible task
Few managers survive anything close to eight years in charge at a club, so Derek McInnes’s lengthy tenure at Aberdeen represents serious longevity.
Eventually though, even regular qualification for European football and a Scottish League Cup win in 2013/14 wasn’t enough to keep him in post.
I spoke to his assistant Tony Docherty at Tannadice last Sunday and there was no indication that he and his boss were expecting their jotters.
The rumour mill though had been strong that Chairman Dave Cormack was looking closely at his manager’s achievements.
It wouldn’t help that St Johnstone, with a wage budget much smaller than the Dons, have won two major trophies in the time it’s taken Aberdeen to lift one under McInnes.
Fans complained about a lack of goals and wins – and unattractive football.
Allied to a perceived lack of success those concerns proved a lethal cocktail for the manager’s job security.
As chairman of arguably the third biggest club in Scotland, the pressure is on Dave Cormack to find a winning replacement to improve on the Dons’ recent record.
I’m not sure it’ll be an easy task.
Any success must come in cup competitions since the Old Firm’s financial muscle almost certainly rules out title wins.
Just like at Tannadice, a rich tradition still lingers in the minds of many Pittodrie punters.
While the Sir Alex Ferguson years were a magnificent period of unparalleled achievement, they’re also, like the Jim McLean years at Dundee
United, impossible to recreate.
Defining success at a football club is subjective and fans will be split on what it constitutes.
However, when clubs like Aberdeen and United have enjoyed the golden periods they have celebrated in the past, those glory years invariably become an albatross around the neck of a new manager.
Arbroath boss Dick Campbell was a top appointment five years ago at Gayfield.
The fabulous Fifer is a canny operator, as his manager of the month award last week testifies.
After a stuttering start to the season, “The Bunnet”, as Dick is affectionately known, has rallied the Red Lichties.
Despite last Saturday’s home defeat to Queen of the South, the part-timers sit seven points above bottom club Alloa and within touching distance of many of the full-time clubs in the Championship.
Campbell inspires loyalty with his straight forward, no nonsense approach which incorporates humour, a dollop of home truths and no small measure of football nous.
He is a very shrewd judge of players’ abilities and character and is a motivator par excellence.
He puts out teams who graft hard, entertain and never short change the fans.
He’s seen by many, I suspect, as an old-school gaffer.
He undoubtedly is, but that description should be taken as a compliment, not a term of insult.
The qualities it encapsulates are commitment, honesty and a sense of duty.
Bigger clubs may well have missed a trick in not offering him a peg to hang his hat on, but their loss is undoubtedly Arbroath’s gain.
Dick, very ably supported by his twin brother Ian, is a perfect fit for Arbroath, a club where, unusually, ambition and contentment happily co-exist.