BEST SIGNING I EVER MADE
I am handing club over in a better position than when I took control and that’s down to McInnes
IN 21 years as Aberdeen chairman, Stewart Milne made some iffy managerial appointments. Most chairmen do. Ebbe Skovdahl failed to match the success he had at Brondby. Steve Paterson left Pittodrie for the final time hidden in the boot of a car. Mark McGhee led the team to joint bottom of the league and a 9-0 defeat against Celtic.
As he prepares to hand over the chairman’s baton to Dave Cormack at the Dons annual general meeting on December 16, however, Milne takes satisfaction from knowing that his last managerial appointment was also his most astute.
‘Without a doubt hiring Derek McInnes is my best decision,’ he insists. ‘That’s allowed me to get into this position where I stand down at the AGM.
‘I will genuinely feel that I’ve handed over the club in a better position than when I took over. Without Derek, I don’t know if I’d have been in that position.’
Amongst Aberdeen supporters it’s not a universal view. A 5-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox was humiliating. A 4-0 home loss to Celtic was no better. And, after a Betfred Cup exit to Hearts on penalties, calls for a change of face in the technical area grew. After six years of McInnes, Dons supporters crave a change to the menu.
‘What I think the fans struggle to appreciate — the thing that’s most important in any club — is that steadiness and consistency,’ counters Milne.
‘I know the difference of having somebody who you can make long-term plans with the belief that they’re capable of driving them through. ‘Let’s not kid ourselves, there will always be ups and downs every season, but it’s having the belief that you’re on the right track and you’ll come through these spells.
‘I’m still convinced that Derek will have us up there qualifying for Europe at the end of the season and battling for the top three. That’s what we need more of in football.
‘If you look at Scotland and over the last 20 years... we’re a bit too ready to chop and change if things are not working rather than having the belief and determination to push on through. We’ve been guilty of that in the past. I’ve been guilty of that.’
There were times when it seemed McInnes be tempted to leave of his own accord.
In June 2017 the Dons boss turned down a move to Sunderland after discussions with then chief executive Martin Bain.
Later the same year came the opportunity to move to Rangers. Despite expectations he would find the job impossible to refuse — and he came close — McInnes turned down another chance to go.
His relationship with Milne and the Aberdeen board was important on both occasions.
‘Everybody knows Derek’s bonds with Rangers and what that club has meant to him in the past. It was always going to be difficult for him,’ admits Milne.
‘I think that he genuinely felt that he had something special at Aberdeen. He had a bond with the club and was part of it and was in a position where he had influence beyond the football.
‘I had faith that he would weigh everything up at the end of the day and come to the right conclusion. Thankfully on both occasions he did.’
A new test of that bond beckons when Milne formally steps down at the agm. A very different kind of chairman, Cormack has entered into strategic partnership with Atlanta United owners AMB Sports & Entertainment, with £5million of new cash going into the club.
Warning the new investment will make no real difference to how much Aberdeen spend, the new man intends to utilise the tie-up to lean heavily on the MLS side’s scouting network and sports science and commercial departments.
An influential, hands-on manager at Pittodrie, much of this could benefit McInnes. Equally, there has to be a chance it could all cramp the style of a coach left to get on with things by Milne.
‘I think that over the last three years Dave had got to know Derek reasonably well, but without any question it will definitely be a different relationship,’ continues Milne.
‘But Dave has immense respect for Derek and values and appreciates what he has done for the club and understands his thinking going forward.
‘I think they will be able to build up a strong relationship.’
Milne will remain on the board as a non-executive director, but will relinquish day-to-day responsibility for both the running of the club and for the longrunning soap opera surrounding plans for a £45m custom-built stadium at Kingsford.
There’s obvious relief at the prospect of regaining some measure of freedom in his life. Expressing ‘mixed feelings’, there is sadness at leaving the helm of a club which consumed his life. Yet there were times, also, when the obsession with the club’s fortunes diverted his focus from his two youngest sons and,
inevitably, his ability to steer one of Scotland’s largest housebuilding firms to dry land in the midst of a global banking crisis.
‘That had a massive effect on the whole country,’ he concedes. ‘Our sector in particular was hit very hard. The challenges around Pittodrie and Scottish football, it took a big chunk out of my life. I see, from my own perspective, some real benefits (in stepping down).’
Most of all in no longer having to fret over the on-off, will-they-orwon’t they question of leaving the club’s traditional home at Pittodrie.
While the £5m investment of the Cormack group and AMB will help with the £750k annual running costs of the state-of-the-art training complex, a recent Pittodrie valuation of £11m leaves a huge funding gap to fill before the diggers get to work.
‘I’m confident that we will get the money,’ says Milne, ‘but it has been made more difficult by the fact we are now moving into year six that the local economy has been struggling.
‘There was a bit of hope during 2019 that everything would move forward, but there’s been no real movement in the property sector.
‘But this is a strong region and it will come back as there’s still real wealth here, but the reason why people don’t want to step-up to be chairman is a clear perception what it’s like.
‘Dave’s got the added benefit that he will be at the other side of the Atlantic most of the time, but when you live in the midst of it when the team is going through a tough period it doesn’t matter where you go, you hear about it.
‘It does consume your life unless you’re prepared to learn to live with the fact you take the good with the bad and there is much more bad than you ever see good.
‘But I get my pride and satisfaction by moving the club in the right direction and obviously the delivery of Cormack Park was massive for me and the club.
‘We have been striving for that moment for so long and these are things I can take back in to my business. It’s about not giving up if you are doing what you think is the right thing.’
Fans must realise most important thing at any club is steadiness and consistency