Just flitting through my Google RSS feeds, it struck me how many times under-pressure Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee has been in the press lately. Every hour another story pops up with the latest in a series of press statements made to shore up his own position, one which, if the Aberdeen fan's forums are to be believed, is getting more tenuous by the minute.
In the last 24 hours he's said that his sacking would be unfair and that he wont walk away. Not just that, he's confident that job is safe and going so far to insist he's here for the long haul, ready to prove the doubters wrong.
All noble sentiments, but then again, what do you expect? You'd hardly expect him to turn up to a press conference to tell the assembled hacks "lads, the job's fucked, so that's me away then".
Although he's come close.
The Dons are now officially enjoying their worst start to a season by any club manager since records began. Even the most abysmal manager the club has ever had, Steve Patterson, managed better over the same time period. McGhee insists he is doing all he can to avoid the same fate that met Patterson (i.e. smuggled out of Pittodrie in the boot of a car) but given our current form, namely eight wins in 34 matches in charge and painful humiliation in Europe and both Scottish domestic Cup competitions, it's hard to not see the inevitable happen.
My guess is that the Aberdeen Board, seeing the newspaper articles and the falling attendances at Pittodrie are concerned - and if they're not, they should be. My guess is also that they're aware that it'll cost a lot to bring in another manager, unless we get someone in who is currently unavailable, which immediately rules out two obvious candidates, Derek McInnes and Billy Reid. Derek Adams at Ross County is also a possibility, but given the negative press about Aberdeen these days (most of it from McGhee himself), it would take some selling-job to make anyone come to the club.
But now I'm speculating.
But here's the funny thing: now that McGhee seems to be making the sort of noises that usually preempt a sacking, I'm actually starting to come around to thinking that despite my feelings about the the job he's done so far (which are well documented throughout this site), I've resigned myself to the idea of having to stick with McGhee and in to giving him more time to sort it out.
I base this mainly on the fact that a) it would cost too much to get rid of him now and there's not realistically anyone else out there to replace him, and b) even Alex Ferguson took a while to get started at Pittodrie, another manager who had to win around the dressing room before the successes started to roll in.
The Dons are 10 points from the bottom of the table and the season's jiggered, that much is for sure. But unless things get even worse and Falkirk, St Mirren and Hamilton don't suddenly come into a rich vein of form, the chances are we won't get relegated. So now might be a good time for McGhee to blood the youngsters that he's always on about in the team and start finding replacements for the deadwood, deadwood such as Jerel Ifil and Mark Kerr, to name but two.
With no pressure to achieve anything other than some credibility, why not just go for broke? Take a chance. Put the youngsters in. Play hell for leather football, and let the players off the leash. It might just produce the sort of gutsy performances that the team has been lacking so far this season and get confidence and belief back in the players and the stands. After all, there is nothing to fear but fear itself.
[originally published to the Aberdeen page at The Offside]
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