Robson confirmed

[tlg1903]

Time for a dedicated thread for the Gaffer I think.  

 

https://www.afc.co.uk/2023/05/01/robson-and-agnew-extend-their-aberdeen-stay/

 

I'm pleased with this though I can understand trepidation. Overall though it got to the stage the club didn't really have a choice but to give him it permanently. 

[RicoS321]

Should have waited until after third was guaranteed. We've jinxed it now.

It's the right thing. Hopefully we're relaxing the strategy too, and allowing him a window or two to build his own team. The whole "third place gets millions" thing is really toxic in my view, and has a hugely negative impact on a manager trying to build a team. Robson will likely get zero patience from fans and board in that regard, but he'll know that and be up for the challenge. That'll mean we can't afford to be precious about style of play and entertainment too.

Edited May 1, 2023 by RicoS321

[Panda]

Steve Agnew staying is also great news. 

[tlg1903]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Steve Agnew staying is also great news. 

Indeed.  I had heard rumour he was going back south in the summer regardless as he has a business in London. 

[tlg1903]

1 hour ago, RicoS321 said:

Should have waited until after third was guaranteed. We've jinxed it now.

It's the right thing. Hopefully we're relaxing the strategy too, and allowing him a window or two to build his own team. The whole "third place gets millions" thing is really toxic in my view, and has a hugely negative impact on a manager trying to build a team. Robson will likely get zero patience from fans and board in that regard, but he'll know that and be up for the challenge. That'll mean we can't afford to be precious about style of play and entertainment too.

True but it would be a real sickener not to get 3rd now all things considered 

[Jute]

2 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

Should have waited until after third was guaranteed. We've jinxed it now.

It's the right thing. Hopefully we're relaxing the strategy too, and allowing him a window or two to build his own team. The whole "third place gets millions" thing is really toxic in my view, and has a hugely negative impact on a manager trying to build a team. Robson will likely get zero patience from fans and board in that regard, but he'll know that and be up for the challenge. That'll mean we can't afford to be precious about style of play and entertainment too.

Guaranteed pumping at Ibrox now. 

[RicoS321]

50 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

True but it would be a real sickener not to get 3rd now all things considered 

Yes, I was more thinking ahead to next season. If Robson doesn't get 3rd this season he should be sacked.

[redordead]

He's done brilliantly and nobody can really argue that he didn't earn a chance.

Five games to go though against the top sides mean I'd rather the club had waited.

What happens if we get five pastings?

Does this mean that attacking football is binned next season for pragmatism? ( Not that we've seen much attacking this year )

Or do we expect Barry to entertain?

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

1 hour ago, redordead said:

He's done brilliantly and nobody can really argue that he didn't earn a chance.

I think you're right and good luck to him.  He's a local boy, an honest type and one of those you just want to succeed.

2 hours ago, redordead said:

What happens if we get five pastings?

I mentioned months back that I hate interim appointments and don't see what they bring to the party.  By giving the job to Robson on an interim basis, all we did was back ourselves into a corner.  He was nowhere near the top of anyone's wanted list and I cannot recall anyone on here actually suggesting we give him the job on a full time basis after Goodwin was sacked.  Now we have given a rookie manager a two year contract, trusting him with (I'm guessing) maybe a couple of million in the summer to recruit.  If we get a couple of hidings before the season is out, lose a couple of big players in the summer and have a poor start to the season, we'll be back to square one.  There are striking similarities here to what happened at Man Utd with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, again the club being backed into a corner due to a good run during a period where an interim manager was in charge.

2 hours ago, redordead said:

Does this mean that attacking football is binned next season for pragmatism? ( Not that we've seen much attacking this year )

Or do we expect Barry to entertain?

One thing I hope fans stop chuntering on about is the need to play entertaining football.  We've just won a few on the bounce and it's the first thing people start on about.  Was it entertaining being humped by Darvel or Hibs?  If the last year has taught us fans anything it should be that winning football is what fans want.  I hope the days of our centre halves and goalie trying to play like Beckenbauer are well and truly gone. 

[Elgindon]

As said,it was hard for the club not to give him the job,along with the need to push on with sorting contracts and new player searches.Think a 2 year contract was the right length for both sides too.

   Think Robsons got a good football brain,though he sometimes comes across a bit,cant be arsed with the spotlight.Hoping he learns to settle into the role more over time

    

Edited May 1, 2023 by Elgindon

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, redordead said:

He's done brilliantly and nobody can really argue that he didn't earn a chance.

Five games to go though against the top sides mean I'd rather the club had waited.

What happens if we get five pastings?

Does this mean that attacking football is binned next season for pragmatism? ( Not that we've seen much attacking this year )

Or do we expect Barry to entertain?

We've got a massive rebuild in the summer and that needs to begin now. If we can turn two of the successful January loans into signings (MacDonald and Shinnie, one down, one to go), that'll alleviate a few problems caused by inaction in that window, but we're still way behind where we need to be. That requires a management decision now, and there's equally as great a chance of Robson getting five pastings as any other manager (unlikely, you'd have to suggest).

Pragmatism has to be the key next season. It's ludicrous to expect a manager to be able to get ten new players to gel into some beautiful footballing side and the board need to learn their lesson from trying to force Goodwin to do so. Entertainment will come in the form of results only, unless we get lucky, and it'll be inconsistent too. Exciting teams need to be built over time, and they can't be maintained for long on our budget. Our best side under McInnes took about three years to build, and probably 18 months to unbuild again.

[RicoS321]

7 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

One thing I hope fans stop chuntering on about is the need to play entertaining football.  We've just won a few on the bounce and it's the first thing people start on about.  Was it entertaining being humped by Darvel or Hibs?  If the last year has taught us fans anything it should be that winning football is what fans want.  I hope the days of our centre halves and goalie trying to play like Beckenbauer are well and truly gone. 

It's not the fans that are asking for this in fairness (at present I mean, it was clearly something expected of McInnes), it's part of the club's strategy and it's very clear that there was pressure at interview stage (at least) on both Glass and Goodwin, and that there was an expectation on them to play exciting football at the Dons. I think most fans will be very happy with the level of performance and entertainment served up by Robson so far. It remains to be seen whether it's possible to be consistent and entertaining in the SPFL on a budget (I don't believe so).

[Panda]

2 hours ago, redordead said:

Five games to go though against the top sides mean I'd rather the club had waited.

What happens if we get five pastings?

And had we appointed Chris Wilder and got five pastings in his first five games, what then?

It's all a bit theatrical anyway is it not? What evidence is there to suggest a team that hasn't conceded a goal from open play in seven games is about to take five pastings? 

2 hours ago, redordead said:

Does this mean that attacking football is binned next season for pragmatism? ( Not that we've seen much attacking this year )

Or do we expect Barry to entertain?

Is this another myth that Robson is going to play defensive football every week based on Ross County being a bit of a battle?

We were attacking in the wins over Motherwell, Hearts and Dundee United (all with three goals scored).

We were actually more attacking and scored more goals against Rangers than Celtic did at Hampden yesterday.

4 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

 

I mentioned months back that I hate interim appointments and don't see what they bring to the party. 

Interim bosses are a necessity, unless you wanted Cormack to take charge, or the players to run the team themselves.

It's allowed us to give Robson a chance, see how well he's done, and appoint what appears to be a competent boss and coaching team.

4 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

If we get a couple of hidings before the season is out, lose a couple of big players in the summer and have a poor start to the season, we'll be back to square one. 

Again, what if Chris Wilder or some super coach from Spain had come in and done the same?

 

4 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

 

There are striking similarities here to what happened at Man Utd with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer,

Is that the Ole Gunnar Solksjaer who was a league title winning manager before going to Man Utd?

 

4 minutes ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Was it entertaining being humped by Darvel or Hibs? 

Yeh the defeat to Darvel happened because we were too attack minded. Should have stuck 11 men behind the ball.

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

15 hours ago, Panda said:

Is that the Ole Gunnar Solksjaer who was a league title winning manager before going to Man Utd?

Sadly no, it was more the Ole who got Cardiff relegated.

15 hours ago, Panda said:

Interim bosses are a necessity, unless you wanted Cormack to take charge, or the players to run the team themselves.

It's allowed us to give Robson a chance, see how well he's done, and appoint what appears to be a competent boss and coaching team.

Interim bosses are never a necessity, just a pantomime.  If Cormack had been a bit more pro-active with his decision making, he could easily have had a full time boss in a few days after Goodwin had departed. The truth is, we have no idea whether Robson is a competent boss, that is exactly the problem.  We've appointed a manager who has managed at the top level for 10 games.  Let's be honest, if we had been humped 5-0 by Rangers last week, the fans would have wanted someone else.

 

[Reekie_Red]

I was not in favour of Robson at the time. Too inexperienced, and the job wouldve completely chewed him up and spat him out, just as its done to every manager since Fergie in the end.

 

I was still concerned that we would give him the job but lose out of Agnew who is clearly the experienced head he is leaning on. But getting both of them is a sound piece of business, particularly as they've done the business with the results, albeit many of them have been ugly wins ... but wins nonetheless. 

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Interim bosses are never a necessity, just a pantomime.  If Cormack had been a bit more pro-active with his decision making, he could easily have had a full time boss in a few days after Goodwin had departed. The truth is, we have no idea whether Robson is a competent boss, that is exactly the problem.  We've appointed a manager who has managed at the top level for 10 games.  Let's be honest, if we had been humped 5-0 by Rangers last week, the fans would have wanted someone else.

 

There are many reasons why interim managers are a necessity. Not least, there was clearly a huge desire to keep Goodwin for as long as possible and give him every chance of succeeding. You can see from Hearts and St Johnstone's lack of appointments that there isn't a whole host of decent managers out there waiting for their chance to get sacked for not finishing third in the SPFL. It's really not that attractive a position, and the strategy also limits the number of managers that we can even look at (beyond whether they actually want the job). I suspect that due to health issues and previous failed appointments, Cormack was also very keen to wait until Burrows was in the door too, and if Goodwin could have staved off being horrendously shite for another month we might have seen a more considered appointment. 

As it turns out, I think Robson is a really good fit for us and where we are as a club. We're in the process of implementing the recruitment strategy, which is designed to remove significant responsibility from the manager, and we also want clear pathways from youth to senior football. Robson has a lot of experience with our youth team and isn't well placed to interfere with recruitment, to the extent that Mowbray is more experienced and will have more authority than Robson in that regard. It's exactly the setup that we should have had in place for when Glass arrived (as I argued at the time, Robson should have been part of his management team ahead of Brown), but didn't. If the recruitment team can succeed in the coming windows then we have a structure there that transcends Robson and is something we can sell to future managers as a working system. Had we got an external manager, we'd likely have seceded control significantly in those areas and been in the same place again in 18 months time. 

In the end, it's not just experience that matters with managers, it's ability and a good dose of luck. There are plenty of experienced managers who fail due to lack of luck or because they're not actually very good. 

[Panda]

18 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

If Cormack had been a bit more pro-active with his decision making, he could easily have had a full time boss in a few days after Goodwin had departed.

You wanted Neil Lennon, who couldn't even come back to Scotland until April.

The Neil Lennon who was twice appointed Celtic interim manager before convincing the club to give him the job permanently. 

Never works tho, apparently.

18 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

 

The truth is, we have no idea whether Robson is a competent boss, that is exactly the problem.

Do we not? He's just won 8 out of 10 games. I'd say he's proved to be a competent boss.

What we don't know is if he'll he a long term success, but there's not a single manager in the world who could guarantee that.

18 hours ago, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

.  Let's be honest, if we had been humped 5-0 by Rangers last week, the fans would have wanted someone else.

 

What a weird take. 

Yes, had recent results been terrible, there would have been more criticism and doubts over his ability.

And when we don't score, we hardly ever win.

[KGB]

On 02/05/2023 at 08:49, wokinginashearerwonderland said:

Let's be honest, if we had been humped 5-0 by Rangers last week, the fans would have wanted someone else.

And if Alex Ferguson had not won all those games with us and Man Utd he'd have been a crap manager. 

[manc_don]

Nominated for manager of the year. Which is pretty mental in itself. Don’t think he deserves to win it, nor will he, but absolutely wild that he’s been nominated in the first place. 

[RicoS321]

7 minutes ago, manc_don said:

Nominated for manager of the year. Which is pretty mental in itself. Don’t think he deserves to win it, nor will he, but absolutely wild that he’s been nominated in the first place. 

Given the turnover of managers, there are few options left. Mcpake at Dunfermline for the whole leagues probably best overall performer, but obviously it'll go to the plucky underdogs' manager when he wins the treble.

[Panda]

Well I think the general consensus on this thread was that it was the right choice to appoint him, and most were prepared for some inconsistency and erratic performances as Robson's new signings settled in.

I think it's fair to say we've fallen short of even that. Being 10th isn't the worst thing, it's the fact we deserve to be 10th. 

I tend to think Cormack, because he won't want to be known as a trigger happy chairman, the bar will rise now for what deems to be a sackable offence. For McInnes it was the football being boring and Aberdeen struggling to finish third, for Glass it was bottom six and out of the cup, then Goodwin survived a horrendous run of results and a cup exit to Darvel - pretty much quitting himself after the Hibs thumping.

Therefore I don't think Robson is in any danger, even if we lose the next two games. 

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Well I think the general consensus on this thread was that it was the right choice to appoint him, and most were prepared for some inconsistency and erratic performances as Robson's new signings settled in.

I think it's fair to say we've fallen short of even that. Being 10th isn't the worst thing, it's the fact we deserve to be 10th. 

I tend to think Cormack, because he won't want to be known as a trigger happy chairman, the bar will rise now for what deems to be a sackable offence. For McInnes it was the football being boring and Aberdeen struggling to finish third, for Glass it was bottom six and out of the cup, then Goodwin survived a horrendous run of results and a cup exit to Darvel - pretty much quitting himself after the Hibs thumping.

Therefore I don't think Robson is in any danger, even if we lose the next two games. 

Agreed. He'll be given another window. In my opinion, we shouldn't be getting rid of any manager until we've tried every last thing to make it work. I don't know much about Gunn at all, but his move into director of football was a strange one, and it's apparent over the last few years that we're lacking someone with good footballing knowledge in the club, that sits above Robson and is a permanent member of staff.

[BigAl]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

Well I think the general consensus on this thread was that it was the right choice to appoint him, and most were prepared for some inconsistency and erratic performances as Robson's new signings settled in.

I think it's fair to say we've fallen short of even that. Being 10th isn't the worst thing, it's the fact we deserve to be 10th. 

I tend to think Cormack, because he won't want to be known as a trigger happy chairman, the bar will rise now for what deems to be a sackable offence. For McInnes it was the football being boring and Aberdeen struggling to finish third, for Glass it was bottom six and out of the cup, then Goodwin survived a horrendous run of results and a cup exit to Darvel - pretty much quitting himself after the Hibs thumping.

Therefore I don't think Robson is in any danger, even if we lose the next two games. 

Having paid good money to sit through that today, not for the first time under Robson I disagree.

Patently obvious to everyone in the way end where the issues lie. We can all see it 

Either Robson hasn't got the tactical knowledge to change it or he is just too fucking stubborn to admit he got it wrong 

Either way, he has a very large sword he is in real danger of falling on.

The clock is ticking for me.

[Panda]

43 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Having paid good money to sit through that today, not for the first time under Robson I disagree.

Patently obvious to everyone in the way end where the issues lie. We can all see it 

Either Robson hasn't got the tactical knowledge to change it or he is just too fucking stubborn to admit he got it wrong 

Either way, he has a very large sword he is in real danger of falling on.

The clock is ticking for me.

Oh I wasn't saying we should stick with Robson, I'm saying I can't see Cormack or Burrows making a change.

I'm genuinely bemused at how Robson isn't connecting the dots every week.

I don't know how he and Gunn can put together a good squad, and then with that squad play such turgid tactics.

[RicoS321]

3 hours ago, Panda said:

I don't know how he and Gunn can put together a good squad, and then with that squad play such turgid tactics

In fairness, I don't think we do have a good squad. We've probably got a good first eleven. Maybe another 2-3. Then we're not very good at all. The balance is absolutely atrocious too, meaning change isn't that easy. That's to be expected with such a large turnover of course, and we've had a full strength team to choose from on numerous occasions. I expect that it won't be long until we hear how much we've missed big Shayden.