Graham Spiers On Aberdeen Fans - January 2009

[Karl Fletcher]

Came across this article from the Times while googling something completely different.

 

Quite amusing to read more than four years on.

 

Love the total irrelvance of him mentioning Mourinho being a Porto fan managing Chelsea in the same breath as a Rangers fan managing Aberdeen. Totally and utter bonkers comparison.

 

Anyway, Spiers has been proven spectaculary wrong on this one, no Graham, we do not miss Jimmy.

 

Fully expect this thread to descend into a mongfest at some point but what the hell.

 

Are the vehement Aberdeen fans who wanted Jimmy Calderwood sacked three short months ago still around? The same ones who regularly like to claim that he is "clueless" and a "tactical buffoon"? I only ask, as I look at the Clydesdale Bank Premier League table and see Calderwood's team sitting pretty in third place.

Aberdeen is a special Scottish club - for any lover of Scottish football, these words require no further explaining - and there is a core of their fans who simply will not be satisfied.

Just ask Alex Smith about that. The former Dons manager to this day still recalls a time, just four months after his Aberdeen team had been beaten to the 1991 Scottish Premier League title by Rangers at the death, when a fan outside Pittodrie subjected him to the most vitriolic abuse he had ever witnessed in 40 years in football.

Get Calderwood on the same subject, and he is colourful and bemused more than resentful. Following the Dons' stirring 4-2 win over Celtic on Sunday, which hoisted his team to third spot while blowing open the race for the 2008-09 title, Calderwood was asked about "some protestors" who had agitated for his removal. "Some?" he spluttered incredulously. "Try 10,000 more like."

For some reason Calderwood and Aberdeen FC have never been fully and madly in love with each other. Calderwood, for his part, appears to have done little wrong, unless consistently improving the stock of the club can be regarded as a failing. In his four full seasons with the club, Aberdeen have finished 4th, 6th, 3rd and 4th. Given the erratic shambles of the club in the post-Alex Smith period, this would seem to amount to commendable progress.

The reasons why Calderwood gets a bad press among some Aberdeen fans are weird. Some deem him to be a closet Rangers fan, which must be about as stupid a criticism as there is going (did Chelsea fans ever worry that Jose Mourinho might be a closet Porto fan?). Others see in Calderwood a certain old-school style of management, and there is some truth in that - he can be aggressive, energetic and slightly blustering in approach - yet it doesn't seem to affect his success as a coach. There can only be one conclusion amid all this - Calderwood is a talented manager.

Yet he senses his time may be approaching its end at Pittodrie. In an interview today in The Times, Calderwood says: "Five seasons in the modern game is a long time to be at one club. Everyone needs fresh challenges, and with every season that passes I think, 'my shelf-life here is getting shorter and shorter'. There is only so much you can do at one club. I know the time is coming when I'll think, 'how much further can I take Aberdeen?'

Thus, ironically, his Aberdeen critics may have their wish granted, if Calderwood soon decides that enough is enough. Those same fans would have to hope that, over the following four years, their new man has as much success as Calderwood has had.

 

[Huntlysheep]

Chelsea fans don't have a hatred for Porto, Aberdeen detest everything Hun.

[a don in oz]

Yeah, don't actually see anything wrong with what he said there.

[Dynamo]

 

there is a core of their fans who simply will not be satisfied - I'm failing to see any argument to this however when it's used in a wider context and not in the context of 'Jimmy Calderwood'.

 

We have MANY fans who'll never be happy.

 

Look at any signing, manager we sign or anything the club does, just unhappiness all round.

 

 

Every clubs the same.

[Karl Fletcher]

Every clubs the same.

 

Exactly.

[oilcat]

Aaaaaand where is "talented manager " Jimmy Calderwood now eh Speiersey?

 

Graham Spiers is, was and always will be a prick

[Stoney]

Delicious irony..........

[King Street Loon]

graham spiers is an incredibly bright journalist and hes proven that with a "spot-on" article

 

jimmy has had 4 successful jobs since us, cheers

You're consistent Frunkie, I'll give you that.

[Henry]

graham spiers is an incredibly bright journalist and hes proven that with a "spot-on" article

 

jimmy has had 4 successful jobs since us, cheers

 

[The Hulk]

jimmy has had 4 successful jobs since us, cheers

I only recall him having 3 jobs, none of which lasting as long as 5 months. I wouldn't class him as having been a success since he left AFC, and I say this as someone who likes JC.

[Stoney]

Avoided relegation with Go Ahead eagles, even though they were in no danger of going down till he took over

[Stoney]

saved killie

saved ross county and won them a cup

kept go ahead eagles up

did something for me

 

He took over all those teams and left them in exactly the same position as he started.

 

Took over killie in 11th 2 points clear of 12, end of season they were erm......2 points off bottom in 11th.

 

At least your both as equally thick as each other.

 

"I cant understand where it all went wrong"

 

 

[Stoney]

 

He took over all those teams and left them in exactly the same position as he started.

 

Took over killie in 11th 2 points clear of 12, end of season they were erm......2 points off bottom in 11th.

 

At least your both as equally thick as each other.

 

"I cant understand where it all went wrong"

 

oh how i wish the plethora of managers we have had since him could leave us in the same position he did

 

Erm they have probably bettered his 3 wins in 20 games or whatever it was so.....yes they probably have

[diamondsr4ever]

he has been given jobs to save teams from relegation, which he carried out well enough and made a few quid, he will have a few bob in the bank will old JC, I think the issue with JC was that the press didnt really say what they really felt about him, as he was nice to have around, great for soundbites and a media darling.....he was soon enough found out when the chips were down and his old school style was exposed.

 

he may appear again someday in the lower leagues, JC knew he was out of his depth

[At The Border Guy]

I'm hardly pro- or anti-Calderwood, but regarding his jobs since leaving Aberdeen: It was hardly exciting Great Escape-type stuff. Killie and County pretty much stuttered to the end of their respective seasons in the same way they'd played in previous months without him. He didn't make them any worse, mind you...

[Pudgie]

Aw not again!

[Henry]

At least this is a proper JC thread Pudgie min, take some comfort from that.

[Jocky Balboa]

He took over all those teams and left them in exactly the same position as he started.

 

Took over killie in 11th 2 points clear of 12, end of season they were erm......2 points off bottom in 11th.

 

At least your both as equally thick as each other.

 

"I cant understand where it all went wrong"

 

 

 

Millertime forgets that had Killie not beaten us at Pittodrie that season, JC would have had them relegated. Spectacular Managerial record...

[Pudgie]

At least this is a proper JC thread Pudgie min, take some comfort from that.

I suppose. I had hoped it would turn into an anti-Spiers thread but looks like I've been mistaken. Fuck it, I'll do my best.

 

It's easy to get duped by his nasally, posh sounding voice but he talks a load of shite most of the time. He speaks as if he's attached to the Scottish fanbase but that really isn't the case. He can come away with some great points mind you. I think it was him that said the powers that be should just decide on a league structure and fucking be done with it, but that's more common sense than an earth shattering journalistic unearthing.

[Huntlysheep]

Aw not again!

Just fit i was thinking loon.

[ebbe]

I always thought graham spiers was rocket_scientist.

[Henry]

he was hearing internal murmurs about him coming to the end of his shelf life

 

he himself didnt believe it

 

Everyone needs fresh challenges, and with every season that passes I think, 'my shelf-life here is getting shorter and shorter'.

 

[Dynamo]

in hindsight, would we not have been better giving him longer in the job?

 

have we improved, on the playing side or financially, since he left?

 

Every chance we'd have had a shit season under Calderwood looking at the squad he left.

[Stoney]

in hindsight, would we not have been better giving him longer in the job?

 

have we improved, on the playing side or financially, since he left?

 

We have improved on his last 6 months here on both fronts,

 

Next question.

[tup]

You lads are talking some pish on here these days

 

Its barely worth reading.

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

Definitely enjoyed Jimmy's 5 years to the 4 that preceded

[Byrne Baby Byrne]

That hun game in 2006 was to go 2nd. Celtic romped it that year. Huns were awful under Le Guen then pulled away from us under Smith.

 

That game was very disappointing though. I still cry thinking about Novo's fluke goal

[Stoney]

I loved calderwood till that game,

 

fucking wank playing no strikers.

[ebbe]

Yeah it was great being managed by a fat ignorant fuck who despised and insulted us and who thought he was superior cos he was a gallus weegie, egged on by a bitter weegie boss who failed big time as a manager, as a husband, as a person and as a businessman. A fucking joke figure who everyone laffed at with his interviews and his tombolas and his decision-making and his results. Only a fucking dickhead could consider his reign and the 4th place finish a success. The fitba was terrible and he capitulated to his beloved huns in December 2006 when we should have gone top of the league in a very poor SPL, just like he did in January/Feb 2009 after we had beaten the Hertz (Lee Miller) and the tic 4-2 in three consecutive full houses at Pittodrie.

 

easily you're greatest ever speech.

 

well said.

[dave_min]