Derek McInnes

[RED_JOHN]

While these things are relative, I'm actually not a McInnes happy clapper. At present it doesn't look as though we've recruited well and McInnes is going to have to earn his paycheck this season if we're going to be anywhere close to where we have been in recent seasons.

Of course there's little room for a spectrum of nuance between a pant p*sher and a happy clapper so I'm happy to be labelled as others see fit.

I just find it simultaneously hilarious and depressing that some fans genuinely wanted to sack a manager who had finished 2nd four seasons in a row. I realise that to the likes of Red_John I'm an unambitious loser for lacking the expectation that we should be winning cups and running Celtic close in the league. I can live with that, mainly because my acquired glass half full attitude has made following the club far less stressful. That doesn't mean that an insipid performance against Sevco doesn't ruin my day.

But these are the same kinds of folk who would moan about the MSM and their attitude towards our club and fans. Can you imagine the clichés that would be trotted out about 'fan expectations' if we sacked DM after finishing 2nd four seasons in a row? The retort raised in protest to these claims was usually that we merely expected the club not to struggle season on season as we had done for the best part of two decades. Well we've had that for a while now and evidently there's still a chasm for some between expectations and the actual performance of the club in recent years.

So admittedly you think he must be untouchable? You don’t win prizes coming second and you don’t lift trophies by not winning any cups. We don’t give ourselves a chance and that is my biggest gripe of all. We are ultra defensively set up in bigger matches (even against Motherwell) and play like a poor Sunday league team on a lot of occasions.
I want a different approach. Someone who has the balls to get us playing decent football and having a real go at teams with a big goal scoring threat of forwards and midfielders. We are well off this at the moment and McInnes isn’t for changing. He is done.

[Jussi]

Can you imagine the clichés that would be trotted out about 'fan expectations' if we sacked DM after finishing 2nd four seasons in a row? .

realistically how many teams were we actually competing against for second spot
....in our spending ability
chalk off 80% of the league
we cant compete with celtic chalk them off

rangers were out of the picture & just returning
Hibs/Hearts also on the return

iow we were competing against next to no one for second spot most of the years.

Now Rangers , Hibs , Hearts are back to more competent levels. This is where we judge our ability to compete.

[afc1903mad]

realistically how many teams were we actually competing against for second spot
....in our spending ability
chalk off 80% of the league
we cant compete with celtic chalk them off

rangers were out of the picture & just returning
Hibs/Hearts also on the return

iow we were competing against next to no one for second spot most of the years.

Now Rangers , Hibs , Hearts are back to more competent levels. This is where we judge our ability to compete.

Hearts have been back 3 years and had a huge turnover of players each year.
SevCo the same for the last two years, far exceeding our budget.
Hibs only back 1 year I’ll grant you.

It’s a bit remiss to think they were not competition the last three years

[ragnarok]

realistically how many teams were we actually competing against for second spot
....in our spending ability
chalk off 80% of the league
we cant compete with celtic chalk them off

rangers were out of the picture & just returning
Hibs/Hearts also on the return

iow we were competing against next to no one for second spot most of the years.

Now Rangers , Hibs , Hearts are back to more competent levels. This is where we judge our ability to compete.

Our financial advantage over smaller clubs doesn't guarantee anything. If anything it should result in a higher average performance over a given timeline of multiple seasons but it doesn't necessarily mean we should finish ahead of every team that we outspend every season. To guarantee that you need a massive Celtic level advantage.

Here are the points totals for our nearest rivals during McInnes' management of the club:
13/14 Motherwell - 70
14/15 ICT - 65
15/16 Hearts - 65
16/17 Rangers - 67
17/18 Rangers - 70

These are comparable or higher than the points totals for third place finishers (60-65 was the norm) in the ten years prior to McInnes becoming manager of AFC. So on what basis did we not have competition?

The only anomaly here was 05/06 when Hearts spent a ton and split Celtic and Rangers. Despite their vastly increased budget which allowed them to sign players such as Skacel and Jankauskas they only finished with 74pts which is less than what we achieved in 14/15 and 16/17 (and the league in 16/17 included Hearts and Rangers). Should also point out that Rangers were dross that season and we beat them twice at Pittodrie.

Not sure why Hearts and Hibs are held up as the gold standard. Like us, for the past 20 years Hibs have been utter dross more often than they have been decent. Hearts have been more consistent but they have had their fair share of indifferent league campaigns and teams like Motherwell, United and Caley have had decent teams who were as strong as any comparable Hearts or Hibs team.

Rangers' absence is a bigger factor mainly because the old club would take far more points from other teams. Fair point I guess but I'm not sure that it detracts from our performance over the past 5 years. Of course another team which can vastly outspend us changes the dynamic of the league.

[rico94]

You are p1ssing in the wind trying to defend McInnes on here these days ragnarok.

The majority on here simply don’t like him,some from the day he walked in the door, and all they do is like to remind each other every day why they don’t like him.

He has a lot of flaws but the reality is he is still the best manager we have had in the last few decades,although you are not allowed to say that on here so I will get slated for doing so.

[Mason89]

You are p1ssing in the wind trying to defend McInnes on here these days ragnarok.

The majority on here simply don’t like him,some from the day he walked in the door, and all they do is like to remind each other every day why they don’t like him.

He has a lot of flaws but the reality is he is still the best manager we have had in the last few decades,although you are not allowed to say that on here so I will get slated for doing so.

One point of order.

I hated him long before he walked through our door

[rico94]

One point of order.

I hated him long before he walked through our door

Yeah I know that, you have mentioned it a couple of times

[awafaehame]

You are p1ssing in the wind trying to defend McInnes on here these days ragnarok.

The majority on here simply don’t like him,some from the day he walked in the door, and all they do is like to remind each other every day why they don’t like him.

He has a lot of flaws but the reality is he is still the best manager we have had in the last few decades,although you are not allowed to say that on here so I will get slated for doing so.

Rico, I was a bit meh when he signed up for us. I gave him a chance and really thought he had turned my opinion totally around when we were playing some great football and actually won a cup.
The fact he never seemed to play any youngsters at all, didnt really bother me too much as he was getting his team in place with a few older heads in Robson and Flood etc.
Then he discovered the loan deal.
He seems hell bent on bringing in loans from England or even worse, the tims, and pushing them into the team no matter what.
The football we play since Hayes left is boring as fvck and predictable.
We can all see that May isn't a loan striker, yet McInnes fvcking persists with it.
We could also all see that as long as my airse points south, Cosgrove won't be a 20 goal a season striker.
Why can't our manager see it?
He was very quick to get rid of the likes of Wilde and anyone else that didn't cut it early on. Why doesn't he do it now with Tansey, Cosgrove and even May?
Has his appetite for the job gone after the chances to go to Sunderland and Ibrokes with Scotland's newest team?

I have grown to really dislike the guy over the last few years. His thraanness (think thats how you spell it) really seems to know no bounds now and its very tiresome.

I want him out for the simple fact that I dont think he is taking us forward anymore.
Thanks for the memories Deek, but your time is up....

[RED_JOHN]

He has a lot of flaws but the reality is he is still the best manager we have had in the last few decades,although you are not allowed to say that on here so I will get slated for doing so.

It doesn’t mean he should have a free reign and drag the club down.
My main concern is his negative approach and tactics....a disgraceful approach in Scottish football and currently this season we are rapidly declining. He won’t address this as he thinks he is doing okay and his tactics etc are only limited to being defensively set up anyway.
Oh Derek McInnes

[rico94]

Rico, I was a bit meh when he signed up for us. I gave him a chance and really thought he had turned my opinion totally around when we were playing some great football and actually won a cup.
The fact he never seemed to play any youngsters at all, didnt really bother me too much as he was getting his team in place with a few older heads in Robson and Flood etc.
Then he discovered the loan deal.
He seems hell bent on bringing in loans from England or even worse, the tims, and pushing them into the team no matter what.
The football we play since Hayes left is boring as fvck and predictable.
We can all see that May isn't a loan striker, yet McInnes fvcking persists with it.
We could also all see that as long as my airse points south, Cosgrove won't be a 20 goal a season striker.
Why can't our manager see it?
He was very quick to get rid of the likes of Wilde and anyone else that didn't cut it early on. Why doesn't he do it now with Tansey, Cosgrove and even May?
Has his appetite for the job gone after the chances to go to Sunderland and Ibrokes with Scotland's newest team?

I have grown to really dislike the guy over the last few years. His thraanness (think thats how you spell it) really seems to know no bounds now and its very tiresome.

I want him out for the simple fact that I dont think he is taking us forward anymore.
Thanks for the memories Deek, but your time is up....

Like I said he has a lot of flaws,pretty much the points you have made and I agree with you.

It doesn’t get away from the fact he is the best manager we have had for years though,for that reason and others he will have enough credit in the bank that will result in him being here for a while yet.

I don’t necessarily agree that should be the case but Stewart Milne and co will.