DESPERATE DONS ARE NOW A CLUB DROWNING IN A RIVER OF APATHY
WITH a fanbase growing more disillusioned with each passing week, Aberdeen are stumbling their way through a winter of discontent.
Derek McInnes has tried his best to shrug off the criticism and dismiss it as water off a duck’s back. But that ship has sailed.
One figure in particular from Saturday’s dismal 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup made that clear — and it wasn’t the fact that the Dons fired yet another blank.
Instead, the fact that only 8,821 Aberdeen fans could be bothered to turn up serves as a damning indictment of where this team are at right now.
That’s an appalling home attendance for a club of Aberdeen’s size. It was their lowest home crowd of the season. Lower, even, than in the previous round against part-timers Dumbarton.
Fans have been highly critical of some of the team’s performances this season. As far as they’re concerned, there have been far too many empty jerseys out on the pitch.
But the biggest problem McInnes is now facing is the swathes of empty seats around Pittodrie. The club is drowning in apathy.
I’ve no doubt McInnes can handle the stick he’s been taking. He’s been in the game long enough to have developed a thick skin with these kind of things.
But when punters decide they’ve had enough and can’t even be bothered to turn up, that’s when you know you’re in a bit of bother.
I can vouch for that from my time at Celtic. During Ronny Deila’s second season, the empty seats at Parkhead became a bit of a running joke.
The top tier of the stadium would be closed for Europa League games. Flags would be draped over the empty sections to try and hide it.
It becomes a source of embarrassment. Players aren’t blind. They can see for themselves and are fully aware of what’s going on.
An empty stadium is a massive problem. It deprives the club of much-needed revenue and it also looks terrible on TV when it comes to attracting new players.
McInnes obviously can’t force people to come and watch the team. What he can do, though, is entice them and give them a reason to believe.
Pep Guardiola spoke about this recently. He wanted his Manchester City players to ‘seduce’ the fans and get them flocking into the Etihad.
Aberdeen’s football has become stale and unimaginative. As far as supporters are concerned, that’s the biggest passion-killer of all.
If their team were playing out in the back garden, there’s a worrying number of Dons fans who now wouldn’t even bother to open the curtains.
Saturday’s stalemate against Killie was the fifth game in succession where they have failed to score. Their last goal was against Dumbarton in mid-January — and even that was a penalty.
Their last goal from open play came against Livingston at Pittodrie way back on Boxing Day.
Whatever way you want to slice it, that’s just patently not good enough.
The club have the third-biggest wage budget in the country and a manager who is paid handsomely, but fans feel they are being short-changed.
There’s a sense that they have become a one-man team in attack. If Sam Cosgrove isn’t doing it, then no one else seems capable of stepping up to the plate.
McInnes is now entering a week which could potentially determine his fate as manager. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility to suggest he now has a week to save his job.
Aberdeen travel to Hamilton tomorrow night in the Ladbrokes Premiership. They then host Celtic on Sunday, before heading to Killie for the Scottish Cup replay next Wednesday.
Given that Celtic were 4-0 up by half-time when the teams last met in the north-east back in October, you’d struggle to make a case for Aberdeen getting anything from that game.
Beyond the 4-0 rout earlier this term, Celtic have been imperious at Pittodrie over the past couple of years.
In three games at the venue in all competitions last season, they won all three games by an aggregate scoreline of 10-3.
In the season prior to that, they won both league meetings at the home of the Dons by an aggregate scoreline of 5-0. Need I say more?
So, let’s look more at the games against Hamilton and Kilmarnock. Two teams who have been decent at times this season, but inconsistent.
If we play Devil’s Advocate for a moment and suppose that Aberdeen were to lose against Accies, then get knocked out of the cup by Killie, where does McInnes go from there?
The pressure on him is so intense just now that I would fear for his job should such a scenario come to pass. I’m not sure he could survive that.
He’s heading into his biggest week since taking charge almost seven years ago. Yeah, he won a cup and no one can ever take that away from him.
But that was back in 2014. You can’t live off that for ever and it doesn’t entitle you to a job for life. Fans are certainly entitled to ask: What next?
It’s up to McInnes to provide the answers. Against a backdrop of apathy and silent treatment, he needs to bring back the noise.