So, Derek McInnes and Aberdeen, clearly seeing the writing on the wall, clearly seeing where the media campaign and Sevco’s silence on the manager front was heading, knowing that it’s a setup to spring on them before the double header, have come out swinging.
Their fans must be pleased that they’ve shown some steel.
Earlier in the week, Milne finally came out from under the bed and told the media that McInnes had assured him that his future was at Pittodrie. Today McInnes himself has said the same. There will be no backsliding. Aberdeen want to keep him and he says he wants to stay. That’s the end of the matter as far as their side is concerned.
Will it end the matter? I highly doubt it. When this weekend’s games are over and the double header between the two clubs looms, Sevco is probably not going to have a manager. If they don’t then the temptation to pull the predictable stunt will be too great to resist; but now they risk a very public snub for attempting something so blatant.
This is the problem with Sevco at the moment; they do not have a scintilla of actual strategy. Their managerial hunt has taken four weeks and it is entirely predictable that they’ll turn up having hired some out of work nobody or left field candidate when the most obvious move was to go for someone experienced and close to home.
McInnes was target one. Murty was target two. Both Plan A and Plan B blew up last weekend, but a lot of people inside Ibrox just assumed that McInnes would hang on as long as it took as the ultimate fall-back option. Today that hope is in ruins.
Sevco fans have enjoyed the last couple of days, but all the while their own club continues to flap over the biggest issue it faces. They are a shambles.
But Aberdeen’s criticism of the media is equally valid. They, too, are guilty of messing the club about. The brazen assumption in many of the stories that McInnes was ready to basically down tools and walk to Ibrox the minute the phone rang was always completely ridiculous. He would have looked long and hard at the squad, at the board, at their general behaviour and I think he was always likely to turn down any approach.
The media did not believe that.
They think “Rangers” and suddenly the post is too good to turn down. It hasn’t dawned on them yet that right now Aberdeen is a bigger draw than Sevco, is a bigger club, is more stable, well run, professional and capable of one day mounting a challenge. McInnes knows all this and more … the media is a disgrace.
I am glad both club and manager at Pittodrie have called them out on it.