Celtic Will Not Have To Face Our Season-Long Nemesis … But Maybe A Former Boss.

Well, Aberdeen’s Neil Warnock has gotten a result at last, and it’s a fairly spectacular one to have gotten; they’ve knocked Kilmarnock out of the Scottish Cup by 3-1 and I don’t think it’s exaggerated to say that’s a surprise and may even be termed a shock. They’ve been so off the pace that I thought Kilmarnock would make fairly routine work of them.

So I’m majorly surprised by that result, and not only the result but how comfortable Aberdeen actually were, and that’s brought us to an interesting place.

First, and I can’t quite believe this, Warnock picked the moment of his triumph to resign. Yep, he’s gone. I suppose that’s how to do it, on a positive note rather than on a negative one, but I’m rather surprised that he doesn’t fancy a crack at the Scottish Cup, at Hampden.

I mean, if ourselves and the Ibrox club make it through that’s one thing, but if we draw each other in the next round, he might have himself a path to the final and then anything can happen, depending on which side you’re playing and if John Beaton is one of the officials.

Still, the result is what matters. He’s done brilliantly today and bested McInnes. That’s more than we’ve managed to do this season three attempts out of four, and so I’m not terribly disappointed to see that they’ve gone out, because they’d have been a tougher prospect in the semi than Aberdeen, or at least a tougher prospect than a Neil Warnock Aberdeen.

I still suspect they’d give us a harder game. A new Aberdeen boss, whoever that is, will have to bed his thinking and his team in and even with the “bounce” a new boss sometimes gets they’re not going to be in the best shape to try to win a trophy.

An interim appointment to get them through the season whilst they conduct a proper search is one that would make sense, if only they didn’t go for another mad punt. But the rumour mill suggests that it won’t be an interim appointment at all and that’s interesting for a different reason.

Neil Lennon is a name who keeps coming up.

I am tempted to write that off as another daft idea which the Aberdeen board, with their propensity for daft ideas, might consider … but I wonder how daft it is. Aberdeen needs a Michael Howard appointment, not a guy who’ll get them to where they want to get but who’ll sort out the nonsense at that club and move them towards a better place, and you know what? Lennon will do that.

Lennon would interest me if I was an Aberdeen fan. I’d have certain doubts, for sure, but where their club is now those doubts are outweighed by the upside.

The style of football he favours – and which perversely he didn’t play in his second spell as our boss – is much more exciting than what they’ve been watching of late and he will inherit a damned good squad of players, although how much he’ll be able to hang on to them is a tough question to answer.

Rumours are rife that it will be him and that it may even be announced early next week. We shall see. Would I want to face a Lennon Aberdeen? It’ll be a tough prospect, but at this moment I think I’d prefer it to a McInnes Kilmarnock so I’m glad they are out.

But Scottish football, for all its detractors, continues to throw up interesting stories. Imagine a Lennon Aberdeen standing in the Ibrox club’s way of a cup final?

That’s enough to get even the most jaded neutral interested in seeing how things develop and evolve. Of course, they still have to get past Hibs, but their managerial “experiment” goes on and I think ourselves and the Ibrox club, and probably Hearts, will be there in the semis.

Aberdeen are a tricky customer again, but the side that has given us the most grief this season, including knocking us out of the League Cup, are out, and we have settles to score with Hearts, of course.

So let’s see what tomorrow, and the draw brings … but it’ll be interesting.