Earlier on today we published a link to a story in which Mark McGhee, the new manager at Aberdeen insisted there would be “no cup slip-ups on his watch.”.
Well, only hours later and Aberdeen can add Dundee to the list of teams that have knocked the Dons out of a Cup competition in recent years, alongside other greats of the Scottish game such as Queen of the South, Dunfermline and Queens Park.
Let’s get something straight right from the start. I don’t care how well we played to get back on level terms. Aberdeen are an SPL side, Dundee are not. We should never, ever have gotten into a situation where we find ourselves 2 goals down against a team from a lower division.
The signs that this is going to be a year of hiding behind your tartan rug and flask whenever Aberdeen take to the field have been there since the team returned from their holidays. A poor pre-season, a disastrous European campaign that managed to make Falkirk’s performance in Liechtenstein look not half bad at all and a tepid start to a season that has seen us win 2 games, one of those against a poor opponent, Hamilton. And keeping three clean sheets is all very well, but it’s not much use if you’re not scoring yourself either – in those three games we scored only once, and even that was not from open play, but through a set-piece 2 minutes from time.
The defeat to Celtic aside – almost a given these days – our fifth place in the league owes more to the misfortunes of others than our devastating performances on the park.
It´s easy to blame our lack of progress on our lack of new signings over the summer. It´s a familiar story we’ve peddled before on this site so excuse us for trotting it out again. The theory goes that, hampered financially through the sacking of Calderwood and his backroom staff, not to mention the compensation paid to Motherwell for the services of McGhee and Leitch, Aberdeen failed to strengthen over the summer, making do with distinctly average signings that neither excite nor impress.
The ironic thing about this evenings defeat is that Dundee have been particularly busy in this season’s tranfer market for a First division club with a history of poor (financial) management, Backed by – and here’s another irony – an Aberdeen born, Aberdeen supporting businessman, Calum Melville, worth approximately a third of the reputed wealth of Aberdeen owner Stewart Milne, they’re not afraid to take a risk by investing in playing staff that will push Dundee towards promotion.
Perhaps if the cautious board at Pittodrie where willing to spend money on building up the squad and providing their managers with funds to not only buy but also pay players, Aberdeen might well still be the third team in Scottish football. In short, the lack of progress is infuriating, the lack of long-term vision, other than avoiding financial ruin is holding the club back. You have to speculate to accumulate, as the old adage goes. If Dundee, Hibs, Hamilton, Motherwell and Dundee United can do it, why not Aberdeen?
Yet, for all our lack of signings, the question remains: given it is more or less the same squad that finished fourth in the league last year, what is going on down Pittodrie Street that Aberdeen cannot seem to produce a decent performance from one week to the next?
Aberdeen spent £200k getting what was, in their eyes, the best manager for the job in hand to the north-east. It´s not a popular view, but questions have to be asked about McGhee´s approach to the job so far. Why is he not getting similar performances out of this team that his predecessor did? Why are the team underperforming?
On Saturday, Aberdeen travel to Ibrox for their second big test of the season. We´ll be there, supporting our team, but based on what we´ve seen so far, it´s not going to make for comfortable viewing. The funny thing is that we´ll probably win and for a short time all our troubles will be forgotten.
But it would be nothing more than papering over the cracks. The facts remain: Aberdeen are just not good enough. And if you want evidence of that, you should have been at Dens Park tonight.
Related posts:
- The Monday Ballbag
- The Wednesday Ballbag – CIS Cup Linkage (Part 2)
- The Ballbag’s Scottish Football Four to Follow
- The Scottish Football Four to Follow
- Scottish Fitba Weekender
Tags: Aberdeen, Dundee, Dundee United, Hibernian, Inverness Caley Thistle, Motherwell, Ross County, St Johnstone
What is the situation with Milne these days anyway, is he still only in it for that valuable beach-front property on which Pittodrie sits?
The man is a muppet. With minimal investment we could easily establish ourselves the 3rd club in Scotland, and these days the OF isn’t that much further ahead. Last night it was embarassing that there were players out there playing for Dundee who were probably on the same wages as some of the Aberdeen players.
On the one hand I think it’s great that AFC are doing their best to keep afloat at a time when there are other clubs struggling to get through a season. Again, I’d rather see a shite Aberdeen than no Aberdeen at all.
But what I just don’t get is why the Boards vision of sucess seems to be based solely on keeping the bank-book in the black. And sacking a relatively sucessfull manager at great expense, then bringing in a pretty mediocre manager at even more expense is surely not going to make the bank manager happy.
Stewart Milne is worth anywhere between £250m and £450m, depending on the reports. If that man was to pump just 1/10th of that into the club’s transfer kitty, we could have bought every one of the players McGhee was after, and more besides. Out with the dross (and there’s a lot of it – Foster, Mackie, Wright, Young, McDonald and Kerr if they dont get their fingers oot!) and in with the new.
You have to take some risks in any business, and this is no different. Look at Dundee: the second biggest transfer window spenders after Celtic this year. I’m not saying they’ll win the league or the cup, but at least they’ve shown some ambition. Maybe that’s why they’re in the final of the Alba Challenge Cup and the next round of the League Cup, and Aberdeen arn’t.