THIS WAS exactly the sentence Jimmy Calderwood came out with in one of his newspaper columns last week: "Now it is time to stand aside and let somebody else take centre stage." Was this the bombshell revelation? Had he finally succumbed to the will of a huge section of the Aberdeen support? No, not so fast. He was giving his advice to the losing Ryder Cup captain, Nick Faldo. It wasn't a column about Calderwood himself standing aside to give someone else the reins at Pittodrie, although if he ever writes that it will be the most popular one he has ever done.
Calderwood telling anyone else to clear off and let another man take over met with incredulity and hoots of derision from supporters, but then again he can barely open his mouth these days without his observations being treated with scorn and hostility. And it is fan power which dictates that the clock is ticking.
Director of football Willie Miller appealed to supporters to give him time in the aftermath of the inept Co-Operative Insurance Cup defeat at Kilmarnock in midweek, but that was a plea which will fall on deaf ears. Calderwood has lost the fans. Sooner rather than later that will cost him his job at a club which cannot afford to ignore them.
Whether he limps on for three games or three months, he is a dead man walking at Aberdeen. Privately he knows it and so do senior figures at Pittodrie. Enough of the support has made up its mind about him and the coming weeks will see dwindling attendances and a widespread desire for change. Home games will feel as though they are taking place in a half-empty morgue. Another couple of defeats and demonstrations are likely. The point will be reached at which chairman Stewart Milne and his board of directors will be forced to act out of financial necessity.
Some have said that Calderwood will be spared because Aberdeen cannot afford to sack him (along with coaches Jimmy Nicholl and Sandy Clark he signed a new, three-year contract in January). The more significant fact is that no club can afford to prop up a struggling, unpopular managerial regime. Aberdeen were bundled out of the Co-Op Cup before they could make money from a single home tie. Crowds are down to the extent that barely 11,000 turned up for last weekend's home match against Dundee United and if live coverage on Setanta was a contributory factor then so, too, were the previous home losses to Caledonian Thistle and Hamilton and the general mediocrity of Aberdeen's play this season. Calderwood has been living on borrowed time since the day his team conceded four semi-final goals to a First Division team, Queen of the South, and pitifully skittered away a golden chance to reach their first Scottish Cup final in eight years.
Calderwood has been a good manager for Aberdeen, the first appointment they got right since Miller himself in 1992. Having survived for more than for four years he is the longest-serving of Sir Alex Ferguson's eight successors. In the SPL only Jim Jefferies and John Hughes have held on for longer. He has established them as a top six club again - although it was an affront that they were below that when he joined - and taken them on a memorable run to the last 32 of the Uefa Cup last season. There have been exciting one-off results against the Old Firm. He has made Aberdeen respectable and will be able to look back on his time with satisfaction.
But managers have a natural shelf life and results are showing he has run his course and taken Aberdeen as far as he can. When he criticises his team it is for the same failings time after time: sloppy defending, individual mistakes, a lack of character or communication among the players.
The message doesn't get through where it matters: on the training ground and in the dressing room. What are the chances of that changing in the weeks and months ahead?
Those who defend him claim the club will sink again if he leaves. They ask if Aberdeen want to return to the days of Ebbe Skovdahl or Steve Paterson? But a club's standards are not set by the worst appointments in its past. Those two helped Calderwood by dragging the club to such depths that he arrived when there was plenty of room for improvement.
The question Milne, Miller and chief executive Duncan Fraser have to ask is whether a new manager would transform the fans' morale, improve attendances and gate receipts and, crucially, get more from the current squad than Calderwood. And they will know the correct answer.
The Celtic support's repertoire at away games includes a couple of songs which have been silenced at Parkhead for quite some time and do the club no favours. They have been criticised for still belting them out, and rightly so.
Credit where it is due, though, and that means applause for those behind the banner demonstration at Rugby Park last weekend. They pointed out the absurdity of £25 Kilmarnock v Celtic tickets being dearer than those for AC Milan v Lazio, Feyenoord v Ajax or Bayern Munich v Werder Bremen league fixtures. "Rip-off prices = empty seats," was the message in a stadium with plenty of them.
A legitimate, mature, proper complaint in contrast with the rubbish normally associated with Celtic and Rangers away from home. It was a protest which had to be made, and which deserves to succeed.
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See you, Jimmy…
ON THE SPOT: Michael Grant
THIS WAS exactly the sentence Jimmy Calderwood came out with in one of his newspaper columns last week: "Now it is time to stand aside and let somebody else take centre stage." Was this the bombshell revelation? Had he finally succumbed to the will of a huge section of the Aberdeen support? No, not so fast. He was giving his advice to the losing Ryder Cup captain, Nick Faldo. It wasn't a column about Calderwood himself standing aside to give someone else the reins at Pittodrie, although if he ever writes that it will be the most popular one he has ever done.
Calderwood telling anyone else to clear off and let another man take over met with incredulity and hoots of derision from supporters, but then again he can barely open his mouth these days without his observations being treated with scorn and hostility. And it is fan power which dictates that the clock is ticking.
Director of football Willie Miller appealed to supporters to give him time in the aftermath of the inept Co-Operative Insurance Cup defeat at Kilmarnock in midweek, but that was a plea which will fall on deaf ears. Calderwood has lost the fans. Sooner rather than later that will cost him his job at a club which cannot afford to ignore them.
Whether he limps on for three games or three months, he is a dead man walking at Aberdeen. Privately he knows it and so do senior figures at Pittodrie. Enough of the support has made up its mind about him and the coming weeks will see dwindling attendances and a widespread desire for change. Home games will feel as though they are taking place in a half-empty morgue. Another couple of defeats and demonstrations are likely. The point will be reached at which chairman Stewart Milne and his board of directors will be forced to act out of financial necessity.
Some have said that Calderwood will be spared because Aberdeen cannot afford to sack him (along with coaches Jimmy Nicholl and Sandy Clark he signed a new, three-year contract in January). The more significant fact is that no club can afford to prop up a struggling, unpopular managerial regime. Aberdeen were bundled out of the Co-Op Cup before they could make money from a single home tie. Crowds are down to the extent that barely 11,000 turned up for last weekend's home match against Dundee United and if live coverage on Setanta was a contributory factor then so, too, were the previous home losses to Caledonian Thistle and Hamilton and the general mediocrity of Aberdeen's play this season. Calderwood has been living on borrowed time since the day his team conceded four semi-final goals to a First Division team, Queen of the South, and pitifully skittered away a golden chance to reach their first Scottish Cup final in eight years.
Calderwood has been a good manager for Aberdeen, the first appointment they got right since Miller himself in 1992. Having survived for more than for four years he is the longest-serving of Sir Alex Ferguson's eight successors. In the SPL only Jim Jefferies and John Hughes have held on for longer. He has established them as a top six club again - although it was an affront that they were below that when he joined - and taken them on a memorable run to the last 32 of the Uefa Cup last season. There have been exciting one-off results against the Old Firm. He has made Aberdeen respectable and will be able to look back on his time with satisfaction.
But managers have a natural shelf life and results are showing he has run his course and taken Aberdeen as far as he can. When he criticises his team it is for the same failings time after time: sloppy defending, individual mistakes, a lack of character or communication among the players.
The message doesn't get through where it matters: on the training ground and in the dressing room. What are the chances of that changing in the weeks and months ahead?
Those who defend him claim the club will sink again if he leaves. They ask if Aberdeen want to return to the days of Ebbe Skovdahl or Steve Paterson? But a club's standards are not set by the worst appointments in its past. Those two helped Calderwood by dragging the club to such depths that he arrived when there was plenty of room for improvement.
The question Milne, Miller and chief executive Duncan Fraser have to ask is whether a new manager would transform the fans' morale, improve attendances and gate receipts and, crucially, get more from the current squad than Calderwood. And they will know the correct answer.
The Celtic support's repertoire at away games includes a couple of songs which have been silenced at Parkhead for quite some time and do the club no favours. They have been criticised for still belting them out, and rightly so.
Credit where it is due, though, and that means applause for those behind the banner demonstration at Rugby Park last weekend. They pointed out the absurdity of £25 Kilmarnock v Celtic tickets being dearer than those for AC Milan v Lazio, Feyenoord v Ajax or Bayern Munich v Werder Bremen league fixtures. "Rip-off prices = empty seats," was the message in a stadium with plenty of them.
A legitimate, mature, proper complaint in contrast with the rubbish normally associated with Celtic and Rangers away from home. It was a protest which had to be made, and which deserves to succeed.