Stewart Milne has slammed the Sevco board in an interview with the BBC, which was just aired on the radio.
The Aberdeen chairman is still furious over all this, and so he should be.
He left the media out of the criticism, which he shouldn’t have, because the media’s behaviour has been lamentable. They took their steer from Ibrox, and relentlessly pushed the idea that McInnes was heading for the Sevco job.
But Milne did not miss Sevco itself, and in particular the disgraceful statement they released on Thursday night.
He called it “unbecoming” and said it was “totally out of line.” He appeared to call their board cowardly by pointing out that no-one put a name to it.
Milne is never going to be the most charismatic man in the world – listening to him speak is like listening to one of those robotic computer voices, with an Aberdeen accent – but you can tell that he is absolutely furious about the way all this has been handled.
Aberdeen emerged from this week looking good. They handled things well. When Milne and McInnes sat down a fortnight ago and said the matter was closed and that he was staying at the club it ought to have been all over.
He made it quite clear that the club might have been more open to letting McInnes talk to Sevco had they handled the matter better. He is smarting over the length of time this took and the way that it was done.
He defended McInnes with an undisguised dig at the Ibrox club; “he is a better manager than anyone they are likely to conjure up.”
I’m not a fan of the guy, or indeed of his manager, but they drove a JCB through Ibrox this week and have exposed how utterly amateurish they are over there. Aberdeen have shown them how it was done, and even this BBC interview was professional and conciliatory. It cleared up some of the “facts” in the media sphere – in particular on the contract McInnes had – and set out the club’s position absolutely clearly.
This is exactly what Sevco has failed to do. Their own fans are utterly clueless about what comes next, and that’s bad enough but you get the impression that their own board doesn’t know the next move either. Milne knows they are a shambles and he hinted that he’s told McInnes that.
It’s clear that McInnes believes it too.
Aberdeen is the better club. They are the bigger club.
They have a long term vision where Sevco does not.
More importantly, they act like one.
Outstanding.