RicoS321

Good update from Cormack on the AFC YouTube channel. Returning some sanity to proceedings. Get the utd game out of the way and we've then got a few weeks to turn things around. No timeline from him, but it doesn't sound like they'll either rush it or hang around. A lot will depend on the preferred candidate.

He was being groomed for management, not necessarily at Aberdeen. In other words, he was being progressed. He shouldn't have been working under McInnes and Docherty, that's the point, AFC should have been developing him and Cormack should have been making that distinction on day one when he mentioned succession planning as important. Or we rip it up and start again after every manager, with zero continuity.

There is a chance that not having McInnes would arrest the fairly steep decline, maybe even take a bit of pressure off the players. Some prospective candidates might not come out of the woodwork until a job is actually available too (real prospects like uber-dandy Pressley). I think you've got a point if it's Glass, as there's no reason that couldn't be "oven ready", but in reality it's only been a week and we're in the middle of a pandemic that will affect interviews etc - the sort of thing that couldn't take place when the manager was still in place. I think the six matches McInnes had prior to his first full season were very beneficial and I hope we could get a handful of matches under the belt of the new manager by summer. The Scottish cup is fine for a couple of rounds, if we can't beat the minnows even without a manager then we've got no chance.

It is a failure. Robson was being groomed for management, and we've failed to get him to the next rung. Ordinarily, I'd agree that a manager would pick their assistant, but this is a promotion within the company structure effectively. It's the equivalent of Martin Canning's promotion at Hamilton. He should be joining us as head coach under someone with experience and we should have the foundation already in place ready for him as this clearly isn't some overnight decision by Cormack. Glass, or someone like him, is pretty much the last piece of the jigsaw. It's an entirely different prospect from a current manager and should be treated as such. If we're just throwing Glass in without the surrounding support then it's a fucking horrendous decision. Brown is an irrelevance in that regard.

I think it is a bad thing. McInnes' failure shouldn't be a failure of everyone in a well run club. If we're not seeing the progression required then we move them on. If Robson wasn't at the required standard, he should have been moved on before now. Glass is being promoted way above his current standing, I'd suggest that we as a club are in a better position to pick his assistant, or should be if we had any sense of a plan. He's picking his mate, which may or may not be a good thing (I've no problem with Brown as such, just the whim on which he's being appointed). If Glass is coming anywhere near pittodrie, it should be as part of a well organised club that transcends his management. Each position has its role and metrics to guage that role. If that requires a dof above, then great. This nonsense that we rip everything out and start again (I know that's not what you're suggesting) each managerial change isn't the way to run a club. If Robson was part of a transition process - which was mentioned when he was kept on - then he's either failed, or we're failing him. I appreciate that it was pre-Cormack but these are exactly the preparations that should have been made prior to firing McInnes. If McInnes has been working with someone not good enough over the years, then the club should have been able to guage that and deal with it. We don't want a club built round a manager, and there's a massive opportunity with Glass to rectify that.

Glass is five years older than Goodwin, and two years older than McInnes was when he joined the club.

Eh? Are Celtic reaping the benefits of Scott brown's coaching? What are you expecting? When do you ever hear of the good work of a youth team coach? The point is that Robson was brought in/kept on with the idea that he would progress with us. If he's being overtaken by a player with little or no coaching experience then we should look to remove him from the payroll. It reeks of the lack of planning at the club. If Robson isn't good enough to take on the assistant role at this stage then he's not going to be. The whole point in having Glass is that it's a planned, "internal" appointment. Brown as assistant is just making it up as you go along. I don't believe we'll get a good season out of Brown as a player. It was visible in the last game we played against them. Brown couldn't manage the ninety. That's in a team that can carry him in a three/five. He's simply of no use in our games against sides we expect to beat, where we need a sharp midfielder capable of covering ground.

Do we really want to be relying on a regressing 36 year old in the centre of our midfield? I'd expect him to be on our bench and we wouldn't be denying Campbell minutes just to keep brown ticking over for the handful of games where he might be useful as part of a midfield five. Our midfield isn't where we're lacking in games against the bottom 8-9 teams. From a playing perspective, I'm not convinced Brown would offer us anything now.

You'd have to wonder what Robson would think about Brown coming in too? He'd be better off moving on if there's no obvious route to management for him, assuming that's what he's after (which I always had). I'm not sure what Brown offers that he wouldn't.

I've just seen Durrant, John Brown and Mark hateley with Dave Cormack at the marcliffe.

Why is Glass any worse/better than Ferguson? I'm not saying he is/isn't. Both are hypothetical good/bad manager appointments, not having much experience of management between them. Like KGB's excellent point about the association between hard player and good manager, there's very little correlation between good player and good manager either.

Robson? Has he got form for that sort of thing?

They tend to come out on top, and that's probably the issue with Brown. He's downed tools on a couple of occasions as a player, under Collins at Hibs and deila at the Tims. I wouldn't trust him not to do similar as assistant, putting himself before the team and manager. Perhaps he's matured since those situations and I'd probably give him the benefit of the doubt, but they do concern me. If his ambition is to one day manage a club, I could see him throwing a manager under the bus to save himself.

He failed to do that as captain this season for the Tims. He also defended a racist against one of our current players, accusing him of lying.

Aye, he was a total dick. There's only so much belief suspension can go on with one character. I've seen a lot worse, but I wouldn't recommend it. Snowpiercer on Netflix been half decent.

I very much doubt Ferguson would come anywhere near Scottish football. Don't think he'd have time for all the shite that would come with it for him. He'd likely sign for us and then the SPFL would fail him in the fit and proper person test.

Amazing. Can't believe this is the first I'm hearing of it. Fucking Dundee United.

With a director of football I said. My assumption would be that the director of football saw enough in Glass to appoint him manager and would know better than me. If we appointed a manager first, then DOF, I'd be extremely concerned (unless it was just a timing thing).

He also missed the fact that St Mirren have also been successful in recruitment this season, more so than Rangers I'd say. If he believes they haven't been successful then it contradicts his position on Goodwin. You can bet yer airse that Gerrard isn't doing the recruiting too, which is how it should be. He should be criticising AFC for the recruitment and McInnes for the management of the poor recruits. As for the bit about third place every year, trophies and challenging the old firm, those are the strategic goals of the board, so it's right that we aspire to that. However, it's also right that Hibs and hearts have those same aspirations as our budgets are roughly the same. If our recruitment isn't spot on or our injuries too unfortunate then we simply don't have the depth to guarantee third every year. What should be clear to you, though, is that McInnes was given every opportunity to maintain that strategic target and failed to work towards that in three consecutive seasons. Just not quite good enough.

Yep, nae bad McMaster. It's very, very simple to talk like that though, and a whole different thing to put it into action. No attempt to even discuss the absolute gulf in finances between McMaster's days and now doesn't help his case. McInnes deserved the opportunity to try and improve on his 16/17 high point, and he failed. I agree with his assessment on Goodwin too, but he hasn't had a meagre budget at st Mirren, he's been backed well enough to get him into the top six. He's been very successful in the transfer market so far. For me, he's the best of the names I've heard mentioned.

I've no idea, I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.

Good post. However, the quality of information is largely irrelevant, because the dons are unlikely to be signing that calibre of player. It's also the type of information gathering that you would want the club to be doing through a network of scouts, it's not really the skill of a manager, which may or may not be a skillset Maloney has. To be honest, that type of scouting analysis work I'd far rather was done by a fixed team reporting to the manager like Belgium have done. The last thing we need is a manager coming in signing their own players (within reason, of course), because that route will always be out of date after 12-18 months. We need a proper structured scouting process with specified targets of success with a goal of getting a 60% strike rate in the transfer market. We've been way below that for years and it shouldn't have been McInnes' job to fix that. The manager should have a veto on recruitment, instruction on the position required and the ability to suggest targets in our league for further scouting, but he shouldn't be providing the analysis. Greg fucking Tansey looked good against us sometimes, but our scouts should have been able to provide analysis that showed his workrate wasn't there and offered better. They should have been watching him in twenty games to McInnes' three. Signings should be done on consensus. I'd that's already happening then we need to do it far better.

I completely agree (although dof plus Glass would be acceptable). However if he were being touted without the Atlanta connection, folk would be describing it as an interesting, left-field suggestion worthy of merit. As always, fan reaction is rarely based on actual ability.

Right, okay. I'm not advocating Goodwin, I'm suggesting he's better - or certainly less risky - than the other names mentioned. You do realise that you're asking for quite a lot? Remember, if we're looking at league one in England for our players, then we're nae going to be signing a manager who's having great success in any top league in most of Europe. It's a bit like when we sign a player. You're either looking for someone who's had success previously, but hasn't for some time, maybe had some down time or whatever (call it the Bryson type appointment) and is looking for a way back in. Someone who's up and coming at a team lower than us in Scotland like Goodwin (the Kenny McLean equivalent), who we've caught just at the right moment in their career before bigger clubs take a risk. Someone doing similar to Goodwin in the European leagues, second tier probably who wants a bit of publicity in the UK and has so far flown under the radar (unlikely in today's market). Someone who's a number two, untested at managerial level, like Maloney who has played for some good teams and is looking for their first opportunity. I don't really buy into the experience of big matches personally, all teams have big matches, they're just relative. No manager worth their salt treats them any differently. It's the sort of thing the scum say when they sign a player or manager "....what it takes to play for Rangers/Celtic.." pish. It's fairly meaningless. Personally, I'd like us to get a manager who's good enough to be attracting attention from other clubs in a couple of years.

It was Pressley who was the boyhood dandy though. Foster has always been a hun, so it was fair enough for him to go.