Aberdeen have been in a state of freefall for some months now, but it took the threat of relegation to bring the big picture sharply into focus.
Despite chairman Dave Cormack saying only last week that the club would not be rushed into appointing a new manager, sitting back and doing nothing was no longer an option. Finally, the penny dropped.
For all the Dons may have wanted Peter Leven to steer them through choppy waters as interim boss until the summer, the Scottish Cup debacle against Dunfermline last weekend left no-one in any doubt that the ship was sinking.
An SOS call has now been issued to Stephen Robinson and, barring any late hitches, he will leave St Mirren to take charge at Pittodrie.
The Northern Irishman is a good manager. He led St Mirren to three successive top-six finishes, took the club into Europe, and won the League Cup earlier this season by beating Celtic at Hampden.
He has taken the Buddies as far as he possibly can. Although their league form this season has taken a dip, he will leave as a bona fide club legend.
Aberdeen’s ‘global’ search for a manager has ended up with Stephen Robinson of St Mirren
Despite his achievements, however, it’s fair to say that the club’s move for the 51-year-old hasn’t gone down overly well among Aberdeen supporters. They are, quite justifiably, questioning the whole recruitment process.
Eirik Horneland looked like he was set to take charge last month, only for that move to break down due to personal reasons.
When Aberdeen played Celtic last week, Cormack then rolled out the red carpet for Sandro Schwarz and even name-checked the German in an update to supporters.
That was clumsy and ill-advised. The fact Cormack has poured a lot of money into Aberdeen is one thing but, when it comes to the running of the club, he only seems to open his mouth to change foot.
When Aberdeen hired Lutz Pfannenstiel as their new sporting director last October, he was supposed to oversee the football department.
Speaking at the time of Pfannenstiel’s appointment, Cormack said: ‘In particular, his technical knowledge, academy development experience and global recruitment network were key factors in the board selecting him for this critical role.’
Given that it is now over two months since Jimmy Thelin was sacked as manager, Pfannenstiel and his Pittodrie paymasters have dithered. They have overseen a ‘global’ recruitment process that ultimately took them no further than Paisley.
It is extremely difficult to believe that Robinson is Pfannenstiel’s chosen man. Rightly or wrongly, it was an open secret that Aberdeen were looking further afield than any managers operating in Scotland.
Robinson is a fine manager, having led St Mirren to a League Cup triumph, but many Dons fans are questioning their club’s process in finding a new boss
The influence of Alan Burrows – the Aberdeen chief executive who is tight with Robinson from their time working together at Motherwell – ultimately held more sway.
Aberdeen backed themselves into a corner and eventually had no option but to press the panic button. Robinson’s appointment will be an act of utter desperation rather than the culmination of a competent and thorough recruitment process.
That is not intended as any slight on Robinson. He has proven himself to be a good boss and has earned his chance at having a crack with a bigger club.
But the fact he could well prove to be a good appointment in the fullness of time doesn’t excuse what a shambles this whole process has been.
Where does it leave Pfannenstiel in the grand scheme of things? By appointing a manager on their own doorstep, and one whom he is unlikely to have endorsed, the Dons have rendered his role redundant.
Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment. Suppose Aberdeen had gone out and appointed Robinson in January immediately after sacking Thelin.
His stock was sky high at that point, given that he had just won the League Cup with St Mirren a few weeks earlier.
There wouldn’t have been half as much uproar among fans. But, in choosing to dilly-dally for over two months before hitting the panic button, it shows a staggering level of incompetence from those in charge.
Dons chairman Dave Cormack admitted last week that the club’s managerial situation had become ’embarrassing’
In his address to supporters last week, Cormack admitted the club’s managerial situation had become ‘embarrassing’.
Robinson will be the club’s sixth appointment during Cormack’s stewardship as chairman. In terms of bringing sustained success, none of them have been any good.
Thelin was afforded the biggest budget of any Aberdeen manager in history. He won the Scottish Cup, which was an outlier and a glorious anomaly, because the team’s league form nose-dived over the past year.
Stephen Glass was a disaster, as was Neil Warnock, albeit in a caretaker role. Jim Goodwin and Barry Robson both looked like they might have had potential, but were unable to stop the rot once it set in.
At what point does Cormack actually pause for a moment of self-reflection? The club have wasted an incredible amount of money over these past few years on managers and players.
Robinson will arrive with the very clear task of steering the club away from any relegation trouble. With the team currently eight points clear of the play-off spot with nine games to play, he’s more than good enough to do that.
He will strip things back to basics, probably go with his favoured 3-5-2 system, and instil a bit more fight and structure to the team. Granted, as the 3-0 loss to Dunfermline proved last weekend, that wouldn’t be difficult.
But, if he signs a long-term deal as expected, the ambition and demand from supporters will stretch way beyond staving off the threat of relegation.
Robinson’s success at St Mirren has been built on extremely clever recruitment, especially in being able to pluck players from the lower leagues in England.
The Scottish Cup defeat to Dunfermline appears to have been the last straw for the club as they went into a third month without a permanent manager
Again, how does that fit with Pfannenstiel’s ‘global recruitment network’? With a massive overhaul of the squad to come in the summer, the two are going to have to meet somewhere in the middle.
Robinson will not accept players being forced upon him, while Pfannenstiel will want to identify some of his own signings in order to justify his position. It looks an awkward fit.
If Robinson goes in there and makes a quick impact, he will have far more power than Pfannenstiel. Don’t be surprised if the bold Lutz doesn’t last beyond the summer.
During his time at St Mirren, Robinson has built the club exactly the way he wanted. At boardroom level, he had an excellent relationship with Jim Gillespie and Keith Lasley.
Robinson knew he had a good thing going. He lived in Ayrshire and his family were settled. But this is a chance he can’t turn down as Aberdeen come calling.
A bold new adventure now awaits in the north east. Pittodrie has been a graveyard for so many managers over these past few years. It will be on Robinson to breathe new life into this big beast of Scottish football.
