Alan should be tracking Davie as Dons boss
It’s not often that a piece of breaking news takes you aback so take a bow Alan Burrows and Aberdeen.
A man who had spent a career obsessing over Motherwell’s fortunes, after occupying a variety of roles at Fir Park as a diehard fan, has a new chapter to embrace, even if it was flabbergasting and completely left field.
Don’t panic, this isn’t to become one of those ‘he’s a lovely man’ columns so often used to curry favour and ingratiate oneself.
Not in Alan’s case anyway, it’s a David Martindale appreciation piece and more about making a pitch that he should be the obvious candidate to fill the manager’s vacancy with the Dons.
The admiration and likability for Burrows goes without saying and it’ll be good to see him get his teeth into a post which won’t require him to burn the same amount of nervous energy or be as personally invested as he was at his previous club.
It’s a well-established rule that when it comes to business, you leave your emotions at the door.
Burrows and Martindale both owe their breaks into Scottish football to timing and opportunity, as well as being prepared to take the unconventional path which so few have tread before.
Outsiders managing to become established in what is, in the main, something of a closed shop.
The sum total of Martindale’s academic success was being tossed out of secondary school and Burrows admits he “bounced around” after a period in higher education.
This writer’s not one to sneer. A career’s adviser once suggested going down the postman route due the lack of grades or academic prospects but I digress.
Name the Premiership manager who possesses an HNC in Mechatronic Engineering?
Here’s another clue, he also has a 2.1 honours degree in construction project management from Heriot Watt University to his name as a mature student.
It’s that man Martindale.
Dig a bit deeper into his back story and a different picture emerges to the one so often peddled about the onceimprisoned Livingston boss.
There’s a false perception of him which stems from his conviction for involvement in organised crime. So many from that side of the tracks become trapped in a life cycle and he has become an exemplar of rehabilitation and a role model for inmates desperate to turn their lives around. Leading the Lions to fourth place in the Premiership on a shoestring has been astonishing to watch.
The truth is it’s an indictment of the likes of Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee United that they’ve failed to make a similar fist of things as a club with barely a fraction of their budgets.
Martindale’s right with his points-for-pounds argument. Managers with the most money may be hailed as the new messiahs but it’s more down to basic economics they achieve the greatest success.
Organisation, project management and the ability to recruit players for a pittance and weave them into a cohesive unit has been so impressive it surely merits a higher platform.
So as Burrows settles into life at Aberdeen, it makes perfect sense he should consider recruiting from the other side of the tracks.
Martindale merits a bigger stage after he led the Lions to fourth in the table on a shoestring