Porterfield's debut

[BogBrush1903]

I'm having an argument with myself here...Can someone tell me which match was Porterfield's first as manager? And how many games Knox had as caretaker?

And were Ferguson and Knox co-managers from the start of the 1986/87 season until Ferguson's departure in November?

[vinnydesalvo]

Huns at home, 1-0, Elephant Man.

Archie took the reigns for three games in the interim; (h) St Mirren 0-0, (a) Hearts 1-2 and (h) Clydebank 5-0.

http://www.afcheritage.org/Team/Mana...?manager_id=13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986%E2...on?wprov=sfti1

[Feck_the_Huns]

And were Ferguson and Knox co-managers from the start of the 1986/87 season until Ferguson's departure in November?

Aye they were. Knox returned to Pittodrie from Dundee in summer 86 as co manager.

And Fergie became a director at the same time, I think.

Appears that Fergie had already had his card marked by Bobby Charlton, about a potential managerial vacancy, whilst in Mexico for the World Cup that summer.

We’ll always wonder how things would have transpired had Man U not come knocking. Which other clubs would have tickled his fancy? How would AFC have progressed had he stayed, in the face of the cheating years at Ibrox?

IMHO, I think Fergie had gone a bit stale, the Davie Dodds signing proved to me the drive had gone out of him a bit. We were well on the slide when he left mid season.

[InversneckieDob]

Aye, I think Fergie's departure was imminent one way or another.
But to me the significant factor, on a wide variety of levels, was Chris's demise.

He was the drive and vision to Dick's stereotypical Aberdonian parsimony.

Whether his stewardship and enthusiasm would've worked to rekindle Fergie in the face of Souness's over-spending at Aye-brokes.......who knows?
I do feel that his time was up whatever.

But it's unarguable, to me at least, that had Chris not been struck down, the club would've been steered in a wholly different direction post-Fergie

Porterfield's appointment, whilst looking statistically respectable in light of events to come, was an unmitigated disaster.

[Feck_the_Huns]

Aye, I think Fergie's departure was imminent one way or another.
But to me the significant factor, on a wide variety of levels, was Chris's demise.

He was the drive and vision to Dick's stereotypical Aberdonian parsimony.

Whether his stewardship and enthusiasm would've worked to rekindle Fergie in the face of Souness's over-spending at Aye-brokes.......who knows?
I do feel that his time was up whatever.

But it's unarguable, to me at least, that had Chris not been struck down, the club would've been steered in a wholly different direction post-Fergie

Porterfield's appointment, whilst looking statistically respectable in light of events to come, was an unmitigated disaster.

Of all the other disastrous appointments post Fergie - Aitken, Alex Miller, Ebbe, Pele and McGhee, Portaloo’s was right up there, especially when we still had a semi decent squad then. He would never have been appointed had Chris Anderson still been around. Pittodrie would probably have been upgraded too.

[InversneckieDob]

He would never have been appointed had Chris Anderson still been around. Pittodrie would probably have been upgraded too.

Chris's illness and passing was the single most defining event of our recent history.

As you say, he'd have never let the Pitt wind down the way it has, he'd have seen us through the Deadco overspending years without simultaneously overspending ourselves and he'd have got a training ground started thirty years ago.

I really do not think it is possible to overstate Chris's influence in the lead up to the "glory years" , Fergie himself described Chris as a visionary.

He always said that Chris predicted the influence that TV would have on the game a generation before it happened.

What happened to Chris was a tragedy on a personal and familial level, but it is also one of the biggest tragedies ever to befall our club.

[BogBrush1903]

Porterfield was one of the cheapest, laziest appointments we've ever made. I would say he's up there with Alex Miller, and I suspect Jimmy Bronthrone but I'm too young to know. At least the likes of Skovdahl, Paterson and McGhee you could see the board's thinking although they all turned out to be horrendous. Paterson though was a cheap and lazy appointment and obviously no background checks were done, or at least heeded, with his drink and gambling problems.

Ok, I've changed my mind. Porterfield, Paterson and Alex Miller were the three laziest. Alex Miller probably wasn't cheap.

I was 11 years old at the time and I remember when I first heard of the Porterfield appointment on Reporting Scotland. I wasn't aware of his 1973 cup final winner (the only thing he was famous for) and I was confused thinking who the hell is this?

But, I was young & naïve, and Aberdeen had always been successful in my conscious years up to then, so I naturally thought we had got our man. And I think he went about 22 games unbeaten before he succumbed to the anglicised mindset, that if a player is not bad in the English lower leagues then he'll be a revelation in the pishy Scotland top league.

He was an Englishman with a Scottish accent and didn't even take an assistant who knew the league in Jimmy Mullet or whatever. He was always going to fail and his unbeaten start was thanks to the players more than him. Then he got caught at the beach with his trousers round his ankles. Only Paterson could match him in public humiliation for an Aberdeen manager.

Although I agree, Ferguson wasn't really caring about Aberdeen after the end of 1985/86. He knew that he was leaving...So can anyone explain when then he became a director and took Knox back as co-manager that summer when he knew that he was off.

Ferguson always had a plan so what was his thinking with those two moves?

[Feck_the_Huns]

Then he got caught at the beach with his trousers round his ankles. Only Paterson could match him in public humiliation for an Aberdeen manager.

I remember something about that latterly in the Northern Light/Red Final, but never remember it being reported at the time. Caught wi a hoor, was he?

[Mason89]

Wrong man at the wrong time but doesn’t deserve to mentioned along with Paterson, McGhee & A. Miller

[BogBrush1903]

Wrong man at the wrong time but doesn’t deserve to mentioned along with Paterson, McGhee & A. Miller

Porterfield was arguably the worst of those named because he was given the best hand to play with. He did take us to one of three of the classic League Cup finals of the late 1980s against Deadco but unfortunately it was one of his own buys from the English leagues that lost his nerve in the penalty shoot-out.