http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/scotland/article4895562.ece

 

From The Times

October 7, 2008

Crunch time for Jimmy Calderwood as Aberdeen plumb the depths

Graham Spiers

 

At some point over the next few weeks, unless there is a sudden and remarkable transformation in Aberdeen’s fortunes, three key figures at Pittodrie will gather rather nervously around a table - perhaps even a dinner table – to discuss the vexed issue of whether to sack their manager.

 

Willie Miller, Aberdeen’s director of football, will lead the debate, along with Stewart Milne, the chairman, and Duncan Fraser, the managing director, and their business will be the fate of Jimmy Calderwood. The manager, amid all his success, has never fully shaken off a capacity for occasional calamity at Pittodrie, and right now he is mired in his worst one of the lot.

 

Aberdeen, humiliatingly, find themselves bottom of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League for the first time in eight years. The club have taken just seven points from their opening eight league matches and were ignominiously bundled out of the CIS Insurance Cup two weeks ago by Kilmarnock. The 2-1 home loss against Hibernian on Saturday meant that Calderwood’s team had lost five straight games in a row, the latest before a paltry crowd of 10,793. It won’t be allowed to go on.

 

While supporters are restless, former players-turned-pundits such as Joe Harper are starting to snipe from the sidelines. Speaking to Calderwood yesterday, it was impossible not to utter the words “the sack†in conversation with him, and they elicited the following response.

 

“That would amaze me,†Calderwood said at the suggestion that his dismissal might be in the pipeline. “I’m not stupid, I know that things like this situation can’t go on for long.

 

“But I know the people at this club, they’re good people, and they know my track record in football. Me and Jimmy [Nicholl, the assistant manager] have done pretty well since we’ve been at Aberdeen and I think we can probably be regarded as among the most consistent managers there have been in Scottish football over the past eight years, in terms of cup finals, semi-finals and top-six finishes.

 

“The sack is not something I’ve ever had to face – I’ve always been able to make my own choices in football. But I’m not complacent, I know there is a big job to get done here.

 

“And while I feel I’ve done well, some bad results have hurt me and the club. Losing to Queen of the South last season in the Scottish Cup semi-final was a bad one. And before that we’d done things like lose to Queen’s Park in the League Cup. So there have been sore ones.â€

 

By general consent Calderwood has restored Aberdeen from their gruesome, breast-beating days of the 1990s, when crisis was almost permanently on tap around Pittodrie. On top of that, it is just eight months since fans were savouring a 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich at home in the Uefa Cup. The bunting that was out that night around the city couldn’t have been greater had Charlie Chaplin been back in town.

 

Yet football lives for the moment, and patience is now wearing thin. Calderwood is taking a savaging on supporters websites, and the town’s local paper has been plastered with disparaging comments from fans about the team and its “inept†manager. As Calderwood admitted yesterday, he has a battle on his hands.

 

“The way our luck has been going, I just knew that St Mirren were going to beat Rangers on Sunday and shove us to the bottom of the league,†he said. “It’s not a nice feeling, and it’s not somethng I’m familiar with. This is a new experience for me, but I’m telling you, we’ll get out of this situation, don’t worry about it.

 

“The daft thing is, I know the team can play well. We actually played okay on Saturday, and we played well against Rangers at Pittodrie [a 1-1 draw in August], and did well, too, against Celtic when we lost 3-2 at Parkhead . So we know we can do it, but it’s a question of cutting out the individual errors that have cost us dear in most of these games.

 

“As for the fans, one problem we have is that some of them still think we should be up there with the giants. Now I’m not accepting the current situation for a moment, but I just feel we need to be realistic. I’ve said it a few times now that when you look at the players that have had to leave the club recently – like Russell Anderson, Barry Nicholson, Chris Clark and Kevin McNaughton – then these have been hard guys to replace. And it’s not as if Aberdeen have a divine right to be up there challenging all the time, even though that remains our goal every season.

 

“This is a fabulous club, and the people that are running it know that me and Jimmy have done fairly well here. So I’ve no fears about that. But of course we have to improve, there’s no getting away from that. If we don’t improve, then the crowds will dwindle, and that won’t help anyone.â€

 

It has been claimed, perhaps a touch theatrically, that Calderwood is “a dead man walkingâ€. Well, every manager bites the dust eventually, though Calderwood and his players will need to get a result against Falkirk in their next league game on Saturday week if a full-blown lynch mob is not to be unleashed. The club’s directors, meanwhile, are getting queasy.

I really don't get the Miller bashing?   

 

We were shit, he was asking questions of the club, they employed him, he came in, got rid of Paterson, took in JC and we've been arguably a lot better since.

 

Yet folk still piss, moan and ask what he's doing.  Perhaps he's not the missing part of the puzzle but he's definitely one of the key pieces if you ask me.

 

I really don't get the Miller bashing?

Aye but he made a cunt of Harry Ramsdens. Did ye nae hear he was bad to rocket once?

You obviously never drank in his pub

 

 

I drank in the Parkway! 

Aye but he made a cunt of Harry Ramsdens.

 

 

Bubba, I'd be surprised if the folk that slag him about Harry Ramsdes actually know what happened there, and why it went tits up

I drank in the Parkway! 

 

Just down from the Toby?

 

[quote author= link=topic=6278.msg92744#msg92744 date=1223491816]

I'd be surprised if the folk that slag him about Harry Ramsdes actually know what happened there, and why it went tits up

 

They made chips and obvisually didn't get the Minijc seal of approval.

I really don't get the Miller bashing?   

 

We were shit, he was asking questions of the club, they employed him, he came in, got rid of Paterson, took in JC and we've been arguably a lot better since.

 

Yet folk still piss, moan and ask what he's doing.  Perhaps he's not the missing part of the puzzle but he's definitely one of the key pieces if you ask me.

 

I really don't get the Miller bashing?

 

It's not miller - it's the position - Dick Donald knew how to run his club, his son was a w*nk and started employing people to run it for him and Milne - well he cannae even run his own building company - so Miller is brought in.

 

It's a wage we can ill afford. (And for all the JMG brigade he gave us calderwood - but I think that was a good move!)

 

So do I. I stand by what I said after the Hibs game, I thought they played some really decent fitba, better than the majority of last season. We will play an awful lot worse and win, we already have in fact.

I'm sure we did play well but almost without exception our best, most entertaining games since JC has arrived have been against Hibs.  Although it sounds promising I suspect that we will revert to type against Falkirk and Hearts. 

It's not miller - it's the position - Dick Donald knew how to run his club, his son was a w*nk and started employing people to run it for him and Milne - well he cannae even run his own building company - so Miller is brought in.

 

It's a wage we can ill afford. (And for all the JMG brigade he gave us calderwood - but I think that was a good move!)

 

It could be argued that Chris Anderson and Dick Donald failed to sufficiently capatilise on our success in the 80s, thus laying the foundations for our inevitable downturn.  Letting Ian Donald take over merely exacerbated the problem

  It could be argued that Chris Anderson and Dick Donald failed to sufficiently capatilise on our success in the 80s, thus laying the foundations for our inevitable downturn.  Letting Ian Donald take over merely exacerbated the problem

 

I'm sure Chris would have made sure we were in a far better position if he hadn't been struck down with motor neurone in 1984. He was one of the visionary driving forces at AFC, tragically lost way too early.

I'm sure we did play well but almost without exception our best, most entertaining games since JC has arrived have been against Hibs.  Although it sounds promising I suspect that we will revert to type against Falkirk and Hearts.  It could be argued that Chris Anderson and Dick Donald failed to sufficiently capatilise on our success in the 80s, thus laying the foundations for our inevitable downturn.  Letting Ian Donald take over merely exacerbated the problem

 

Not sure if its fair to blame Chris Anderson. He was the man responsible for us having the first all seater stadium so was probably ahead of his time. From what I have heard and read I do not think we would have been in the mess we are in now if he had lived longer.

Not sure if its fair to blame Chris Anderson. He was the man responsible for us having the first all seater stadium so was probably ahead of his time. From what I have heard and read I do not think we would have been in the mess we are in now if he had lived longer.

 

Yeah, and he also pushed heavily for shirt sponsors but Dick Donald was against it. Then, not even two years after Anderson passed away we had shirt sponsors... who'd have thought it? 

 

Think it's fair to say that chris Anderson was the visionary, Dick Donald was the conservative, prudent, traditionalist. A good balance perhaps, but things could have been very different had we had shirt sponsorship earlier.

No use crying over spilt milk.

 

(Dry your eyes, petal) 

 

Back to the present day and the Miller bashing:  I keep hearing about his wage being a waste, blah, blah, blah.....

 

I'm not too sure of this but have we not recorded slightly better financial figures each year he's been here too?

 

Last season we definitely recorded a profit didn't we?

 

Therefore I still don't get the Miller bashing!

I'm sure we did play well but almost without exception our best, most entertaining games since JC has arrived have been against Hibs.  Although it sounds promising I suspect that we will revert to type against Falkirk and Hearts.  It could be argued that Chris Anderson and Dick Donald failed to sufficiently capatilise on our success in the 80s, thus laying the foundations for our inevitable downturn.  Letting Ian Donald take over merely exacerbated the problem

 

Anyone thinking Chris Anderson is to blame knows fu(k all.

As for "sufficiently capatilise on our success" - you are probably too young to realise that there hasn't always been money in football.

It was after our european successes that money started to come into the game in a big way, and we got our first shirt sponsor (JVC - which was actually a pretty good sponsor IMO) - we didn't quite achieve the same success in europe again, as the big european clubs were getting richer, we got left behind.

 

Therefore I still don't get the Miller bashing!

 

So you are saying we returned a profit because of Miller?

No, we returned a profit because our fuckwit board, Miller and Milne sold players and didn't replace them.

 

You can't keep generating profit if we have only sh*te available to sell.

 

I suppose you'd applaud Miller and Milne for returning a profit the year we sell Pittodrie and become homeless?

I suppose you'd applaud Miller and Milne for returning a profit the year we sell Pittodrie and become homeless?

 

Hypothetically speaking.

Anyone thinking Chris Anderson is to blame knows fu(k all.

As for "sufficiently capatilise on our success" - you are probably too young to realise that there hasn't always been money in football.

I didn't say I believed that to be the case, merely that it is an argument I have seen before.  Certainly from what I've read Chris Anderson was the real driving force behind the dons and perhaps with his illness and premature death we lost some of that.

 

As for making a profit last year.

I believe we did make a profit but that was before loan repayments etc so we still made a loss.

 

Anyone thinking Chris Anderson is to blame knows fu(k all.

As for "sufficiently capatilise on our success" - you are probably too young to realise that there hasn't always been money in football.

It was after our european successes that money started to come into the game in a big way, and we got our first shirt sponsor (JVC - which was actually a pretty good sponsor IMO) - we didn't quite achieve the same success in europe again, as the big european clubs were getting richer, we got left behind.

 

So you are saying we returned a profit because of Miller?

No, we returned a profit because our fuckwit board, Miller and Milne sold players and didn't replace them.

 

You can't keep generating profit if we have only sh*te available to sell.

 

I suppose you'd applaud Miller and Milne for returning a profit the year we sell Pittodrie and become homeless?

 

Why do you think folk were willing to buy our players then even though they'd been at the club for years and nobody had came in with offers that we'd accepted before?

 

Before then we were quick enough to call Clark, Anderson and Hart shite during lengthy points in their AFC careers.  Who's to say we won't do the same with the current batch?  Mulgrew looking the most likely at the moment.

 

Since Miller's been on board we've been better off and on the park in terms of results.  I'd say that's money well spent.

I didn't say I believed that to be the case, merely that it is an argument I have seen before.  Certainly from what I've read Chris Anderson was the real driving force behind the dons and perhaps with his illness and premature death we lost some of that.

 

As for making a profit last year.

I believe we did make a profit but that was before loan repayments etc so we still made a loss.

 

 

The club as it runs, made a profit.

 

If only we had a very rich chairman . . . .

Or very rich owners - a massive company like AAM 

Or very rich owners - a massive company like AAM 

 

That would be magic. Pity. A rich benefactor could back the manager.