2010/2011 Season Thread

[Chris]

Doubt it'll be Strachan, he's McGhee's mate and a similar manager. Don't think the players would take to him.

Trayner and Young on Sportsound last night kept mentioning Roy Aitken, as though they'd completely forgotten he was manager of Aberdeen once before.

[Chris]

I think we need to start employing managers on rolling contracts. There's no way we can afford to be paying off manager after manager until we get it right.

McGhee was on a rolling contract.

[delboy]

I think we need to start employing managers on rolling contracts. There's no way we can afford to be paying off manager after manager until we get it right.

It still surprises me managers are handed long contracts in this day and age since most are lucky to last a couple of years apart from a select few!

It's becoming a bit of a poisoned challice the Aberdeen gig, be interesting to see who gets it. Even read that Calderwood is in the frame to return although thats probably sheer speculation.

[Scootray]

McGhee was on a rolling contract.

Well why are we paying him a rumoured 400k?o_O

[Chris]

Well why are we paying him a rumoured 400k?o_O

Because for some fucked up reason it doesn't work like I thought it would, he gets a years contract then at the end of the year if everyone's happy he gets another one, instead it's permanently rolling for a year each new day. So at any point he or the club can cancel it with a years notice.

[Paranoid Android]

400k is for the three of them. Still a lot obviously.

[Scootray]

Because for some fucked up reason it doesn't work like I thought it would, he gets a years contract then at the end of the year if everyone's happy he gets another one, instead it's permanently rolling for a year each new day. So at any point he or the club can cancel it with a years notice.

There's really no point in it then. I can understand job security and all that jazz but I think a months wages on cancellation would be sufficient. If you're known, it's pretty easy to get a job in football management so shouldn't be too difficult even if it was a shitty lower division job.

[Guest idol_wild]

Apparently it was Scott Leitch all the Dons players despised anyway, so as long as he's away too, then perhaps progress can be made; so long as the players don't despise the mugs who get appointed in due course.

By progress, I mean retaining SPL status for next season. That's all Aberdeen can realistically aim for and achieve for the next couple of seasons.

[Bigsby]

Would be surprised, but happy, if we got Strachan. Maybe he would fancy a wee challenge till the end of the season.

[Woodsinho]

He probably wouldn't ask for too much money either, if he could be persuaded to take the challenge. One of the things he always said while he was with us was that he didn't need the money and that he took the job because he wanted to do, not because he needed to. He lived up to that sentiment when he left by not taking the severance package that he would have been due.

[Scootray]

I'd be content with Strachan.

[Monster Zero]

He probably wouldn't ask for too much money either, if he could be persuaded to take the challenge. One of the things he always said while he was with us was that he didn't need the money and that he took the job because he wanted to do, not because he needed to. He lived up to that sentiment when he left by not taking the severance package that he would have been due.

Well that could be a useful attribute if he comes to Aberdeen, once they are relegated and the fans are baying for blood yet again at least it won't cost anything to get rid of another manager...

[Lemonade]

David Preece for free

With Noel Whelan as assistant?

[Scootray]

No, no, no.

We'll get in Robbie Winters as assistant.

[Lemonade]

From William Hill:

7/2 Gordon Strachan

4/1 Billy Stark

9/2 John Hughes

5/1 Neil Simpson

10/1 Gordon Chisholm

10/1 Gus McPherson

10/1 Neale Cooper

10/1 Terry Butcher

12/1 Derek McInnes

12/1 Jimmy Calderwood

12/1 Jimmy Nicholl

12/1 John McGlynn

12/1 Steve Clarke

12/1 Stuart Baxter

16/1 Craig Brewster

16/1 Darren Ferguson

16/1 Eric Black

16/1 Henrik Larsson

16/1 Ian McCall

20/1 Derek Adams

20/1 John Hartson

25/1 Bruce Rioch

25/1 Duncan Shearer

25/1 Hans Gillhaus

25/1 Paul Sheerin

25/1 Roy Aitken

33/1 Mixu Paatelainen

33/1 Alex Miller

33/1 Billy Dodds

Henrik Larsson? John Hartson? Hans Gilhaus? WTF?

[Paranoid Android]

Getting away from the bottom will obviously be the immediate priority for the new manager, but I think he should still be coming in with the aim of finishing top 6. There's enough talent in the squad to do so.

[Alan Cynic]

I commend your optimism....and hope for the same!

[Lemonade]

Some stat what I read:

McGhee departs, following Wednesday's board meeting, as their least successful manager since they were formed in 1903, with a win percentage of 27%.

Mark McGhee - a tale of Pittodrie woe

By Liam McLeod

"On a scale of one to two, I'd put the Celtic job above Aberdeen."

Those were the words of Mark McGhee on his unveiling as Aberdeen manager in June 2009, having also been linked with his other former club. It was downhill from that moment.

When they were uttered, there was an unease about the appointment, from the fans to the man himself.

For most Dons supporters, there was a willingness for McGhee to do well. He is a Pittodrie legend - he always will be - from his playing days there.

But the club has lurched from one disaster to another under his stewardship.

Among the unwanted records broken under McGhee are a record European defeat (5-1 at home and 8-1 on aggregate to Sigma Olomouc), a record Scottish Premier League defeat (9-0 at Celtic just last month) and a miserable 17 wins in 62 matches with four points from the last 39.

McGhee's final few weeks since the annihilation at Celtic Park have been painful viewing and listening

Cup defeats to lower-league opposition - Dundee and Raith Rovers - added to the pain, while the manager's dealings in the transfer market were also questionable.

The swap deal that led to Ricky Foster moving from Pittodrie to Rangers, with perpetually injured striker Andrius Velicka going the other way, was and still is a head-scratcher.

That left the Dons without a single senior full-back, with central defenders and midfielders being asked to perform that role.

Other McGhee signings have failed miserably.

There was also the treatment of winger Sone Aluko last year, when he went on international duty and was called back supposedly injured.

Jim Leighton's sacking as goalkeeping coach was up there in the strange decision stakes.

Coupling all that with the fact that most of Jimmy Calderwood's Dons' squad did not take to McGhee, it was never going to be a marriage made in heaven.

But anyone who thinks that the club's problems have been solved by the axing of McGhee, along with assistants Scott Leitch and Colin Meldrum, will be mistaken.

In the closing months of Calderwood's tenure, the club won only three of their final 16 SPL matches and went out of the Scottish Cup after a replay against First Division side Dunfermline. There was already a rot there.

The board failed to keep together his and Jimmy Nicholl's best Dons team - the class of 2006-07 - that qualified for Europe.

It is a rot that is threatening to push the loyal Red Army away for good and, if that is to be prevented, there needs to be more focus on the now and not the future new stadium - which, although needed, will need a Premier League club to fill it.

Mark McGhee and assistant manager Scott Leitch

McGhee and assistant Scott Leitch have been under pressure

The club also needs to get out and about the north east - encourage school kids to games, marketing itself around the city better.

Whoever the new manager is, he will have an almighty task reinvigorating the players who are already there.

An out of work manager such as John Hughes or Gus MacPherson would be an attractive option for both the board - and the former managers of Hibernian and St Mirren.

Former Chelsea and West Ham assistant Steve Clarke came close to the Hibs job recently, while former Don Billy Stark - currently youth team coach at the Scottish Football Association - is another in the frame.

Calderwood is unlikely to return to Pittodrie given the nature of his departure last May, but it is the players who must look in the mirror and ask if they gave McGhee 100%.

Perhaps they will be happier with the next appointment than they were the last.

McGhee's final few weeks since the annihilation at Celtic Park have been painful viewing and listening.

Quotes about the supernatural being to blame were testament to that.

For McGhee, his CV - and, indeed, Wikipedia page - have been permanently soiled by this sorry 18-month saga.

[Captain America]

Getting away from the bottom will obviously be the immediate priority for the new manager, but I think he should still be coming in with the aim of finishing top 6. There's enough talent in the squad to do so.

What?!?

You're trolling, surely?

[Johnny Mac]

Dons rule!

Oh wait.....

McGhee had been a dead man walking for weeks now. Feel a bit sorry for him, but it was only a matter of time. Changes are needed at boardroom level too though (along with the playing and management staff).

A fresh man with fresh ideas will hopefully stabilise things and get some kind of response from the players. McGhee had obviously lost the dressing room. Along with the majority of the support.

Dismal.

Hopefully the snow continues and all our games are off in december..... so we can buy some new players and get some of the injured guys fit.

EDIT: Oh, and we should bring back Duncan Shearer in some capacity.... assistant manager preferably.

[Monster Zero]

Dual Ginger Ninjas in Strachan and Shearer, they'll sort 'em out...

[Guest idol_wild]

Getting away from the bottom will obviously be the immediate priority for the new manager, but I think he should still be coming in with the aim of finishing top 6. There's enough talent in the squad to do so.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this, man. Aberdeen players, in terms of technique, skill, mentality, fitness, resilience, and determination are found completely wanting in the SPL, in my opinion. Very limited squad in terms of numbers and ability, and an infrastructure that seems to constantly take a public battering. The fact that the Aberdeen first squad still train on a public park underlines where Aberdeen are currently at. They have the training facilities of teams in leagues beneath them, which is probably where Aberdeen belong.

The club could, and probably should, be relegated this season.

[Guest idol_wild]

EDIT: Oh, and we should bring back Duncan Shearer in some capacity.... assistant manager preferably.

Why?

Have we not learned that people with past affiliations with the club are destined to fail?

Edit: Wait, you're kidding. I was slow on the uptake.

[Johnny Mac]

Why?

Have we not learned that people with past affiliations with the club are destined to fail?

WHOOOSHHHH!!!!

Not in the slightest.

If you sign a manager who produces dismal tactics and formations, terrible transfer market dealings, the inability to blame everyone/thing but himself for poor results..... then yes.... destined to fail. I agree.

I'm putting Shearers hat in as he's a man with passion for the club and has a lot of experience. He was also unfortunate that Stevie Paterson couldn't stay sober or even make it to work on time most days and made an arse of the job up here.

He might also be able to help our strikers hit a cows arse with a banjo.

Brian Irvine would be good to have about the place too (as Jimmy Calderwood would say)..... a la Derek Young

In all seriousness.... Rumor is Cooper/Simmie in the interim.... assisted by Hartley......

[Scorge]

Brian Irvine would be good to have about the place too (as Jimmy Calderwood would say)

Looking for divine intervention, presumably?

Aberdeen relegation would be quite funny though I have a feeling they'd do a Hibs by hitting rock bottom (a 2-1 home defeat to Cowdenbeath/Brechin/etc in front of 4500 punters) then bounce back stronger, get promoted and be far stronger in the SPL next time round.

Or they could go bust....