'Dons need to end managerial uncertainty with semi-final looming'
Aberdeen began their turgid league season with a goalless draw at Livingston and it was perhaps apt that another drab stalemate at Almondvale consigned them to the Premiership’s bottom six for just the second time in 11 seasons.
The damage done during Neil Warnock’s month in charge proved to be irreparable when it came to clambering into the top half of the table. A points tally in the low 40s is usually enough to secure top six; that should not have been out of reach even after Barry Robson lost his job.
The only positive to come from West Lothian was that Aberdeen nudged a point further away from 11th placed Ross County. That gap is currently seven and with County up against title-chasing Rangers on Sunday, they have a real chance to surely put any play-off fears to bed when they host Dundee the day before.
The Scottish Cup could yet provide the sort of plot-twist that Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino would dismiss as far-fetched. It’s been 34 years since the Dons got their hands on that piece of silverware and should they upset the odds and end that seemingly perpetual wait, it would also return them to the group stage of European competition next season. More on that next week.
However, there can be no getting away from how insipid a league campaign this has been for Aberdeen, their worst since 2012. Eight wins from 32 matches does not acquiesce with the financial outlay at the start of the season and the club’s general, and very public, ambitions.
Should success continue to elude them in the Scottish Cup, it will be the League Cup group stages next season and a smaller budget for whoever eventually replaces Robson as permanent manager.
It was points spilled at home to Dundee that saw Robson relieved of his duties at the end of January and despite the club stating at the start of March that the search for a new manager was at “an advanced stage”, the post remains vacant.
On loan defender Stefan Gartenmann, who Robson was keen to sign full-time, was vocal in the wake of the Livi game that the managerial uncertainty was “frustrating”.
Given the significance of that semi-final against Celtic in Glasgow, which is looming large now, the club could do with an assurance either way, even if that means the new man starts in the summer.
