ABERDEEN KNEW what they were letting themselves in for when they showed Jimmy Calderwood the door. They knew they were exposing themselves to a long queue of mouths which would line up to let them know this was their biggest mistake for years, that it was a brutal way to treat the manager who had stabilised them, that Jimmy deserved better and so on and so on. They're going to have to put up with this for a while. The "I told you so" brigade is waiting, ready to pounce on the first sign of a slip-up from whoever comes next.
Stewart Milne, Willie Miller and the club's other directors were willing to bite the bullet and put up with all of this because they want Aberdeen to go further than Calderwood could take them. Appreciation and respect for solid work done since his appointment in 2004? Sure. Aberdeen were on their knees back then after the ruinous reigns of Ebbe Skovdahl and Steve Paterson. It was an opportune time to take over, the room for improvement was enormous and Calderwood was able to haul them back to respectability, at least in the league. He didn't achieve anything exceptional by making them a top-six club again because it was an affront that they were less than that when he arrived. But he brought back their credibility and in one of his five seasons he took them to third. For that, the club showed its gratitude with a long extended contract.
Then there was a growing realisation that this was as good as it was going to get. From Milne and Miller down, Aberdeen want more, want something Calderwood couldn't deliver. They wanted a shot at getting red-and-white ribbons on silverware, something to nourish a support which hasn't seen the Scottish Cup lifted for 19 years nor even been to a cup final in nine. Maybe this seems idealistic or naive but Miller has spent three-and-a-half decades rejecting the "know your place"
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mentality that would have Aberdeen grateful to muddle around unobtrusively in the top half of the league table, maybe making it into Europe every second or third season.
Aberdeen haven't been remotely close to winning anything since they reached both cup finals in 1999/2000, under Skovdahl of all people. Falkirk, Hibs, Hearts, Gretna, Queen of the South, Motherwell and Kilmarnock all made it to Hampden finals while Calderwood was at Aberdeen. Dundee United and Dunfermline managed it twice. His league finishes could not be faulted - fourth, sixth, third, fourth and fourth again - but he led them into some horrible maulings in the cups and was on borrowed time after the debacle of Queen of the South in last season's Scottish Cup semi-final. He was in charge for 10 cup campaigns and each one ended with a whimper. League stability is the bread-and-butter for a club but that doesn't mean there is a need to settle for life among the also-rans. What's the point of a club if it doesn't aspire to win things?
Managers routinely talk about having a natural shelf life, Calderwood included. He wasn't someone who imagined himself being at Pittodrie forever. In January, a couple of days after beating Celtic at Pittodrie, he said: "This is a wonderful club, a fabulous club, but everyone needs fresh challenges. With every season that passes I think my shelf life here is getting shorter and shorter.' You start thinking there is only so much you can do at one club. I know the time is coming when I'll think how much further can I take this club?'" The same thing was going through Aberdeen's mind.
Last weekend they made the decision for him. The easiest thing to do was nothing, stick with him and be reasonably confident that they would bump along in fourth or fifth next season. Given that he has been fully paid up for the remaining two years on his contract that would have been the cheaper option, too. But the evidence was overwhelming over his half decade in charge: they weren't going to make any sort of mark in terms of competing at the business end of any tournament.
Have Aberdeen made a big mistake here? Not yet. Deciding Calderwood's time was up was a decision the board was entitled to take and some clubs might have come to it sooner given the compound pressure which grew after sorry cup exits to Queen's Park, Queen of the South and Dunfermline. Aberdeen have a reputation for being trigger happy with managers which dates back to sacking Alex Smith the season after he lost a league decider on the final day of the season. Smith also won two cups. Calderwood cannot feel as aggrieved as Smith did. There were only four wins in his final 19 games.
That meant the end of the line, his shelf life was over. Their next boss will be told simply this: build on what Calderwood did and make this starved club a contender again. Making it to Hampden shouldn't be beyond an Aberdeen manager.
Overall, a good piece and I think he makes an important point when Calderwood was talking himself up for another job earlier in the season. There is no doubt that if a Championship club came in for JC he'd be off like a shot (we'd probably have let him too...). That was exactly what he was wanting, although the way in which his departure has happened was not as he expected.
As ever, Calderwood has talked himself out of a job with his "just get the pay-offs done" comment.
From Michael Grant in the Sunday Herald:
Overall, a good piece and I think he makes an important point when Calderwood was talking himself up for another job earlier in the season. There is no doubt that if a Championship club came in for JC he'd be off like a shot (we'd probably have let him too...). That was exactly what he was wanting, although the way in which his departure has happened was not as he expected.
As ever, Calderwood has talked himself out of a job with his "just get the pay-offs done" comment.