Jim will get the red flags flying with pride again
Kevin sad to see Del go but he has faith in new manager
KEVIN RUTKIEWICZ saw red flags at Aberdeen the moment they decided to part ways with Derek McInnes last year.
And the former Dons defender doesn’t mean the giant ones flown in the Red Shed at Pittodrie.
Rutkiewicz knew Aberdeen were in danger after parting ways with the man who had led them to top-four finishes in every one of his seven full seasons in charge.
He takes no satisfaction in the horror campaign that followed which saw the Dons finish 10th and Stephen Glass last less than a year in the job.
But the 42-year-old, who made over 60 appearances for Aberdeen before going on to St Johnstone where he played under McInnes, is certain Jim Goodwin will have them back at the right end of the table.
It might not come with free-flowing football but Rutkiewicz, now managing Lowland League club East Kilbride, said: “I would back Jim to get Aberdeen back in the top six.
“He has good experience in the Premiership, he knows what type of player he wants. Whether it will be all bells and whistles and brilliant football, I don’t know.
“But he will want to make them hard to beat, give them a spine.
“I don’t think Jim will be too concerned about free-flowing football because if he does make the top six it will be an improvement. “I’m not surprised with what happened last season. After Derek McInnes left it proves the grass isn’t always greener.
“He matured me on and off the park at St Johnstone. He gave me guidance.
“Some Aberdeen fans were delighted he had gone but the red flags were there for me. It’s very difficult to do what he did at Pittodrie.
“Alex Smith brought consistency to Aberdeen but in between him and Derek there were a lot of managers.
“There were peaks and troughs but Derek kept them at a very high level.
“So a big change at a club like that was always going to be risky. They were so close to their ceiling that the chance of failure was greater than the chance of this catch-a-star dream.” Goodwin’s reign hardly got off to a flier as the former St Mirren boss only won two of his 10 league games in charge before the end of the season. A messy end to Andy Considine’s Pittodrie career, which saw the offer of a one-year extension turned down and ultimately removed before the stalwart defender signed up for St Johnstone, didn’t help. Rutkiewicz was a team-mate of Considine’s for a brief spell at the end of his own Pittodrie career. And while disappointed at the way it ended for the 35-year-old, he can understand Goodwin’s ruthless decision. He said: “I was with Andrew as a youngster at Aberdeen and he was a very good player then too. “It’s a very brave decision by Jim. I think it would have been much easier to keep him.
“But Jim is a strong personality and has done well at St Mirren. He deserves his chance with Aberdeen.
“He has made a lot of big decisions already – Scott Brown is a massive decision because Aberdeen invested in Brown both as a player and a coach.
“Jim has shown his hand and I think he will earn a lot of respect from the players for that.
“Some will disagree but at least he has been honest and nobody can say they didn’t know where they stood.
“I can understand Jim’s thinking on Andrew as he has come back from a long injury and he is 35.
“It would have been a difficult decision and a difficult conversation.
“But he’s 35 and had a longterm injury – how does he recover from that and is he the player he was?
“That’s maybe where the gap has been too big and both parties just have to move on.”