Derek McInnes

[Mason89]

I thought the saying was an infinite number of monkeys in an infinite amount of time. A trophy, a number of cup finals and a significant number of semi finals and qualification for Europe every year is a fair amount of getting something right. That's not to say the time was up, that's between McInnes and Cormack, rather to put into perspective what he did (and didn't) achieve. It wasn't, as you appear to be suggesting, all bad.

The cup counts. The rest is the absolute minimum I’d expect from any Aberdeen manager. He was very well compensated for winning less than St. Johnstone did.

[man-erg]

The cup counts. The rest is the absolute minimum I’d expect from any Aberdeen manager.

Presumably based on Aberdeen's form in the 80s/early 90s.

[Mason89]

Presumably based on Aberdeen's form in the 80s/early 90s.

Based on the fact we’re Aberdeen

[rico94]

The cup counts. The rest is the absolute minimum I’d expect from any Aberdeen manager. He was very well compensated for winning less than St. Johnstone did.

Cormack has already said that McInnes has raised the bar.

I would expect any Aberdeen manager who fails to qualify for Europe to be fired.

I would say they should also be fired if they haven’t won a trophy after 3 seasons.

[Mason89]

Iwould expect any Aberdeen manager who fails to qualify for Europe to be fired.

I would say they should also be fired if they haven’t won a trophy after 3 seasons.

That sounds pretty fair to me

[dons8321]

I thought the saying was an infinite number of monkeys in an infinite amount of time. A trophy, a number of cup finals and a significant number of semi finals and qualification for Europe every year is a fair amount of getting something right. That's not to say the time was up, that's between McInnes and Cormack, rather to put into perspective what he did (and didn't) achieve. It wasn't, as you appear to be suggesting, all bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngmf8G5xKas

[pieandbovrilman]

Cormack has already said that McInnes has raised the bar.

I would expect any Aberdeen manager who fails to qualify for Europe to be fired.

I would say they should also be fired if they haven’t won a trophy after 3 seasons.

Aye I’d agree with that , if the bar has been set I think that would be reasonable expectations ....possibly with a bit of leeway if we made good progress in Europe, I.E Europa league group stages or beyond .

[TheDeeDon]

Aye I’d agree with that , if the bar has been set I think that would be reasonable expectations ....possibly with a bit of leeway if we made good progress in Europe, I.E Europa league group stages or beyond .

What about a manager who builds a good young team, bringing through good quality players from our own ranks and plays decent football, would you give that person time if they seemed to be building something good, but maybe fell short of Europe or the holy grail of third place, or even maybe even struggles for a season whilst building a team/squad?

For me anyway, the only way we can compete is by bringing through our own players and I want a manager who goes down that route and is not scared to blood the kids and I don't mean five minutes at the end of a game we a losing.

[pieandbovrilman]

What about a manager who builds a good young team, bringing through good quality players from our own ranks and plays decent football, would you give that person time if they seemed to be building something good, but maybe fell short of Europe or the holy grail of third place, or even maybe even struggles for a season whilst building a team/squad?

For me anyway, the only way we can compete is by bringing through our own players and I want a manager who goes down that route and is not scared to blood the kids and I don't mean five minutes at the end of a game we a losing.

Me personally? It won’t be my decision but I’d be happy to see an up and coming manager come in with fresh ideas and rebuild a squad with a view to keeping that squad together for a few seasons to try and win something.

So let’s say season 2021/22 is the first full season of this rebuild, if we were playing attacking football as you’ve suggested but maybe just missed out on Europe would I wasn’t to sack the manager ? If that’s the question you’re asking me then the answer is no I wouldn’t .....as long as we’d won a cup I’d be happy enough missing out on Europe .

[The_Moog]

Why did he love Aberdeen FC though? I'd guess because it was great money for relatively easy work - expectations within the board were easy enough to meet year on year - 4th place finish was obviously acceptable as that's what it's been the last 2 years. You could tell the difference once Cormack took charge, it was still great money, but the expectations changed and he obviously wasn't enjoying the pressure.

As I've said previously, I've nothing against him and wish him well - the first few years were good, but he got too comfortable and complacent and I think lost his hunger - he definitely didn't have the drive and enthusiasm to take us where the new regime claim to want us to be in the coming years. I'm not sure where he'll end up next, I suppose that will tell us a lot about him and about how he's really thought of in the football world and how his "achievements" have been viewed by other chairmen around the UK.

Again, a fair summary Don.

I've said before, I think overall he did a good job - first 4 years certainly - and I wish him well, but we need to be clear on the fact that at no point did he ever over achieve in his 8 years.

Even the season we won a cup, we really should have won the Scottish cup too - completely blew that when it was ours to take.

Every league finish was only in the position that we should have achieved - or worse.

One cup win, given the state of most of the top 5 clubs over that period is in my view under achieving

Europe was also a big disappointment and the failure to ever progress past 3rd qualifying was base level expectations at best. I'd say it was under achieving.

It was clear for at least 2 - 3 years now that he had taken us as far as he was capable of doing. I agree Don that Cormack has clearly raised the bar with him regarding targets and expectations and DM's simply not been able to cope. Good on Cormack, if it was still Milne, we'd be stuck with the guy cruising along to hit his easy targets for years yet.

The other thing I'm utterly sick of is the constant references to where we were before he arrived. Yes we were pish, but that was purely down to having a football club that was completely mismanaged both on and especially off the park for the best part of 25 years.

Not being completely incompetent, and not completely fuucking up at your job, is not a reason to keep a football manager on once they have shown that they have reached the limit of their potential and abilities. That's where we were with DM.

Milne really needs to fuuckin go as well. The man's an absolute stain on the club and no good can ever come from having him hanging around. Come on DC, get that fuuckwit oot the door too.

The new appointment will tell us a lot about Cormack and the Boards ambitions (aye the US side of the board cause Milne would likely just appoint Sheerin, Robinson or something equally tedious and uninspiring).

This is their chance to make a statement so lets see what happens. For me "raising the bar" means:

Regular European group stage qualification - ideally Europa League but I'll take the new tourney to start with
Getting close enough to the uglies to be seen to be a genuine challenger
Regular wins over the uglies (aye every season) and no more spineless capitulations
Cup semis every year
Cup final at least once every 2 years
Cup win at least once every 3-5 years

None of that should be unrealistic. We wont always achieve it, but you've got to set the standards.

Oh, and off the park I want to see us try and lead a genuine push among the other clubs to look to change the whole structure and setup of the Scottish league. That would start to make up for Milnes disgusting spineless failure to back the removal of 11-1 voting. Until I see us trying to force genuine change to a system that is entirely designed to only support and perpetuate the unbelievably tedious two club duopoly, I'm frankly not interested if I'm honest.

Over to you DC...