It is now two months to the day since Aberdeen sacked Jimmy Thelin. The Swede was relieved of his duties back on January 4, with the club sitting eighth in the Premiership table.
Thelin was axed after a 1-0 defeat to Falkirk and a run of five matches without a win, but it had been coming for a while.
He had been on the slide for quite some time. The club could easily have pulled the trigger at least six weeks before they finally did so. Perhaps more.
That is not intended to discredit the Scottish Cup win at the end of last season. But look at the club’s league form over the past year or so.
The Scottish Cup win was an anomaly. A glorious anomaly, but an anomaly all the same. Everyone could see it.
Aberdeen failed to win any of their first six matches of the new season. They took only one point during that period and didn’t even score a league goal until October.
Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack has invested lots of money but made many bad decisions
It was obvious that things were only heading in one direction under Thelin, who had been backed with significant investment in the playing squad over his 18 months in charge.
Why, then, does it continue to feel like Aberdeen were caught on the hop by it all? Two months down the line, they are still no further forward.
They still do not have a permanent manager in place as Thelin’s successor. They still sit eighth in the league.
In terms of points, they sit closer to the relegation play-off spot than the top six. They are having a horrendous season — and it could yet get a whole lot worse if they don’t get their act together.
They take on Celtic at Pittodrie tonight, before the defence of their Scottish Cup sees them face Neil Lennon’s Dunfermline at East End Park in the quarter-finals on Saturday night.
That would be a tricky tie even at the best of times. All the more so when Aberdeen continue to limp on with Peter Leven as interim manager.
Let’s be clear, none of this mess is on Leven. It’s not his fault that the club have wheeled him out for the umpteenth time as caretaker.
The problems at Pittodrie are well above his pay grade. It’s chairman Dave Cormack, chief executive Alan Burrows and sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel who are under the microscope.
They are the three men who are in charge of how the club is being run — and they have clearly made a pig’s ear of the search for a new manager.
Cormack gave an update to supporters last week, citing ‘unforeseen circumstances’ in the delay to appoint a new boss.
Aberdeen defender Liam Morrison is sent off in his side’s 3-2 home defeat to Dundee
He then gave another update last night and admitted the whole thing has become ‘embarrassing’.
It’ll be a whole lot more embarrassing if Sandro Schwarz, the German who was name-checked by Cormack last night, turns them down.
Cormack confirmed that several candidates had been interviewed, but most who made the final shortlist were not available to start work straight away.
Which begs an obvious question. If they weren’t immediately available, why were they on the shortlist in the first place?
You can’t just write half a season off. Yeah, of course, in an ideal world any new manager would have a full pre-season to put their stamp on things.
But football rarely exists in an ideal world. Clubs need to show a degree of flexibility and an ability to adapt on the move. There’s a difference between due diligence and lacking urgency.
You can’t just stand still. The top clubs always have a succession plan in place. They can see round corners, especially in the case of a failing manager such as Thelin.
Former boss Jimmy Thelin led the club to Scottish Cup glory last season but it was an anomaly
The writing was on the wall for weeks if not months, yet Aberdeen have clearly had no sort of contingency plan in place.
Nobody can question the level of investment that Cormack has made. He has pumped money into the club and done a lot of good things in terms of the facilities and infrastructure.
But the football department continues to be a shambles. The appointments of Burrows and Pfannenstiel have to be questioned.
The pair of them look to be out of their depth. Burrows gave an interview to Sky Sports back in January about the managerial situation, but it was all a bit muddled and unconvincing.
It is now just over three years since Burrows arrived as chief executive. In his two full seasons so far, the club have finished seventh and fifth in the league.
It’ll be seventh — at best — this time around, given that the top six is out of reach. The club continue to burn through managers.
Big clubs simply don’t operate like this. They carry out their business in a swift and decisive fashion.
Last weekend’s loss at title-chasing Hearts was the Dons’ 11th defeat in their last 17 games
They don’t name-check managers like Cormack did. There’s a difference between transparency and just not handling a recruitment process properly. This is clumsy and ill-judged.
That’s not to say the appointment of a new manager should be rushed. But nor should it be dragging on for over two months, with half a season basically being written off.
Between them, Cormack, Burrows and Pfannenstiel have cocked this up. The stuff about ‘unforeseen circumstances’ and managers not being available is just a cop-out.
Right now, Aberdeen are in freefall. They are only eight points ahead of Kilmarnock in the relegation play-off spot.
It’s not inconceivable that they could yet be dragged into trouble. On and off the pitch, it’s a wholly unsatisfactory state of affairs.
In terms of who should be held accountable, the three stooges running the show would be a good place to start.
