Aberdeen sack Derek McInnes

[ABZ RED]

McInnes 25/1 to be next Reading manager. Paul Clement favourite.

 

See they're struggling now but normally, surely, that's the size/funds/ambition of club he'd plan on taking up to TGLITW.

[vanderark14]

Reading are on the verge of breaking FFP rules after they paid off and sacked Jaap Stam.

 

That comes from a couple of Reading season ticket holders I work with

 

If that is true, McInnes wouldn't go there just like he never took up the Sunderland job because they're fucked

[robbojunior]

@@robbojunior

Haha. Everyone is at it

[Dal Riata Don]

I think that any talk from DM about work at 'other clubs' is just a way to deflect the conversation from why we've gone off the boil largely this season.

 

Barnet may be looking to hire again by the end of the season - he could take Maynard, Considine and AOC with him.

[Guest the shepherd]

 

That's an incredible statistic! I've just done a quick check and heres the breakdown:

 

 

Scottish 14

French 3

Italian 4

Portugese 3

Chile 1

 

 

And overall:

 

English 58

Scottish 36

Italian 4

French 3

Portugese 3

Ireland 1

Chile 1

Who is other Italian? I've worked out Ancellotti, Ranieri and Conte but not the elusive fourth Eyetie. Vialli and Di Matteo never won it, so am stumped. Dalglishio dizna count.

[True_Don]

Mancini

[Guest the shepherd]

Mancini

Cheers True_Don?. Forgot about the fairytale match Man City won against QPR on the last day of the 2011-12 season.

[maryhilldon]

Well played

Stop licking Robertos arse, it's creepy now.

[Chewie37]

For every Scottish twat like McGhee you have got at least three Pardews or what not. Even English managers are starting to struggle to get a management job down there.

I agree that most English clubs think it's beneath them to appoint an SPFL manager. Every now and then you get a shock though, like Norwich and Alex Neil.

Yeah there's the safe option managers who seem to pick up a job no matter what, the clubs who take a gamble with some inexperienced Scottish and non-English managers don't seem to give them much time anyway

[maryhilldon]

Going to the semi final @@Millertime me old mucker?

Fancy few beers the Saturday night you tidy fucker?

Friends with benefits?

[1903Fitba]

Reading fucked.

 

8 mil for Aluko as well.

 

Hahaha

[maryhilldon]

Absolutely.

Modern metrosexuals eh? It is the 21st century i suppose, follow your heart.

[dj_bollocks]

How many Championship teams aren't riddled with debt ? Especially ones that were in the EPL ? I think he'd find it hard to find a solvent club in the Championship, he's be better off finding a League 1 side with ambitions to get to the Championship and do a Bournemouth... Can't see him getting a Championship side without some sort of issue...

[maryhilldon]

To spice things up even further, my da, his pal and my missus in attendance also. I'm just greedy.

Ooft! Now that is 'modern'.

[mcdougall(4)]

Appointment was 5 years ago today according to the Facebook post I made about it at the time ...

[muttonhumper]

Appointment was 5 years ago today according to the Facebook post I made about it at the time ...

 

Go on then... share with us your opinion on that day.

[muttonhumper]

Updated

Last published Feb 19th

 

Analysis on the record of Aberdeen' versus the cheeks, pitted against other "provincial" clubs records 2017/18

McInnes record:

Played - 6
Won - 0
Drawn - 0
Lost - 6
Scored - 1
Against - 15

Others:

Beat Celtic:
Hearts
Kilmarnock

Drew v Celtic:
Hibs
M'Well
Kille
St Js
Hibs
St Js

M'Well

Beat Sevco:
St Js
Dundee
Hamilton
M'well
Hibs
Killie
Hibs

Killie

Drew v Sevco:
Partick
Hearts
Killie

20 occasions in Scotland this season the Glasgow cheeks have failed to win.

AFC capitulations: 6 out of 6

[mcdougall(4)]

 

Go on then... share with us your opinion on that day.

Underwhelmed.

Derek mcinnes.

Is the best we can do.

[Panda]

 

Go on then... share with us your opinion on that day.

Well I can't answer for him, but I remember being massively against it. Thought it was an unambitious appointment. I remember Steve Clarke was on my wish list who I'm sure was only an assistant manager at the time, but I would have been happy enough with Derek Adams.

 

Anyway, McInnes proved me wrong, he's been a good manager for us. Adams/Clarke, don't think either of them would have done significantly better than McInnes.

[RUL]

Adams has done some job at Plymouth I noticed the other day.

 

There's a decent interview in the times with mcinnes, largely repeating a lot of what he;s said elsewhere recently but the journo asked him outright about moaning cunts on afc chat, questioning his tactics and results in big games. He kind of batted it away saying he's aware of the comments but he makes decisions to win the games, if we don't win he accepts that people will question him but he's comfortable with the decisions he's made.

[The Oxford Don]

It is indeed a good article, he takes on board the criticism about results in big games and comes across as sincere in his determination to improve it.

[King Street Loon]

Linkage??

[BWG]

Aye can someone copy and paste his interview because am I fuck registering on their website.

[King Street Loon]

So if McInnes is aware of fan opinion, who is he on here and is he in the 1000 club?

[BWG]

He might actually be @@Millertime. I always thought it was weird how confident he was about McInnes turning down the huns. It's as if he knew something, almost like he had inside information. Has McInnes ever mentioned Ford Capris or shoulder width before?

[Guest milne_afc]

Derek McInnes vividly remembers the Aberdeen FC he walked into five years ago tomorrow. The club was lying ninth in the old SPL on March 25, 2013 when McInnes and his assistant, Tony Docherty, took up the reins. Craig Brown and Archie Knox were willingly stepping down and McInnes found a club mired in mediocrity and even lethargy.

 

Craig and Archie were very good coaches, and Id known Archie a long time, so I knew how driven he was, said McInnes in a long, reflective conversation I had with him this week. Also, there were some good players at Aberdeen at the time but, for some reason, the club kept falling short.

 

I had to find out why. I had to ask: why has this club failed to reach a certain standard so often? And it quickly became clear to me that there had to be changes.

 

McInnes recalls that, in those early weeks getting to know the inner sanctum of Pittodrie, he knew something was very wrong.

 

I was taken aback at how I found the club operating. I had been at St Johnstone, with nothing like the resources at Aberdeen, but we tried harder there. We operated more efficiently. We had a better way of working. What became clear to me was that there were certain people at Aberdeen who felt the club was there for them, and not the other way round.

 

 

 

There was a lethargy at the club. The afternoons at Pittodrie felt very quiet when I first went in. We needed to be more efficient, more professional, more active, make our recruitment better. The club just needed energy and some inspiration and those were among the first things I set about trying to achieve.

 

One of the first matches McInnes was involved in as the new Aberdeen manager was a fixture away to Hibs in April 2013, which became a drab 0-0 draw. He cites that occasion as a measure of where he has taken the club since.

 

 

There was maybe seven or eight thousand at Easter Road that day, with a few hundred fans down from Aberdeen. It was a nothing game, with little or no atmosphere, and it epitomised where Aberdeen were at the time.

 

Aberdeen versus Hibs should be a much bigger game than that. And now it is. You watch, after the upcoming split, when we go and play them. There will be 17,000 or 18,000 there, with a big Aberdeen support. Thats what a Hibs-Aberdeen match should be about.

 

It has not been perfect, not by any means, but I believe weve made Aberdeen a far bigger, more dangerous animal than it was when I first arrived. Look at our league finishes, look at our cup finals, look at our attendances. The club is far more relevant now.

 

And yet, as he quite openly acknowledges, McInnes is not without his critics. The Aberdeen fans in the main admire and applaud him, but the stick McInnes is still beaten with is over his record of wins in big games. His inability to get the better of Brendan Rodgers, below, in nine attempts so far including two cup finals is the most frequently cited objection.

 

Ive heard the criticism that weve not won enough of our big games and maybe its fair, maybe its valid, he says. Im not averse to criticism. Weve played Brendan Rodgers Celtic nine times and weve never beaten them. So you leave yourself open to criticism with that statistic.

 

Id beaten Neil Lennons Celtic. Id beaten Ronny Deilas Celtic. But Ive not beaten Brendans Celtic yet. So there is criticism over it. All I would say is, last season no domestic team could beat Celtic, they were invincible. So it was not just an Aberdeen thing. This is the strongest Celtic team in a generation. Nobody could beat them.

 

Is McInnes too cautious against Celtic and Rangers? Does he over-tinker with his tactics? These and other arguments are tossed back and forth among various pundits and supporters. He is happy to offer his own perspective.

 

I could go into various aspects with you of why I did this, or why we [tactically] went that way, and I could give you perfectly cogent reasons for doing so, he says. But I wont, because there is no point. You live by results. I work in a results-driven business.

 

Suffice to say Celtic have been a very, very good team under Brendan Rodgers, with resources far superior to anything we have at Aberdeen. These are just the facts.

 

My recent shape with Aberdeen has been 4-2-3-1. Its what I like and its what I think suits the team. Seven times against Celtic in that [nine-game] period Ive played 4-2-3-1, and twice Ive varied it, with either a back five or a 4-4-2. The definition of madness is that you do the same thing over and over again and it doesnt work, so Ive been happy to vary it on occasion.

 

Willie Miller, an Aberdeen legend, and a frequent, vocal admirer of McInnes as the Dons manager, has nonetheless been among those who have offered some criticisms of McInness approach to certain games.

 

Listen, I know the media is there, and the media has its part to play, he says. And I know that a part of that is, people are paid to offer their opinions. I wont name names but Im happy to choose who I listen to and who I dont listen to. I can tell you, I sleep every well at night. I dont lie awake worrying about any of that stuff. I trust myself and I know why I make certain decisions.

 

Sometimes it is easy for people to point out our failings, rather than what we have achieved. But I think we have achieved considerably as a coaching staff and as a team, if you consider the fate of Aberdeen over the previous decade before I came in. Five years ago Ross Country could beat Aberdeen. Caley Thistle could beat Aberdeen. St Johnstone could beat Aberdeen. So weve come a long way from those days.

 

McInnes has had at least four opportunities to leave Aberdeen for a bigger club or a more well-paid job, but has rejected each of them. Had he chosen to pursue other intimations there might have been further opportunities. Most famously, he turned down Rangers in November and once more opted to stay in Scotlands north-east.

 

It was a big call by McInnes, having played for Rangers, and been a supporter of the club in his youth. Ive got no regrets about any decisions Ive made in football in recent times, he says. There were times when Ive had things to weigh up, but Ive no regrets. I know I did the right thing.

 

I feel Ive been intensely loyal to Aberdeen. But it is because I love my job and I love this football club. I like and admire the staff we have at the club. I really like working with my chairman, who has grasped the baton in terms of trying to take Aberdeen forward.

 

McInnes says he feels there is a lot of unfinished business for him at Pittodrie

 

Weve had a consistent run of second-place finishes. Weve qualified for Europe every season in my time. Weve won a cup and weve been to other cup finals. We have a chance soon of reaching our third cup final in the last two seasons. Last season we came within inches of winning the Scottish Cup against a very good Celtic side. So I feel a degree of satisfaction, given where Aberdeen was before I arrived.

 

McInnes says he feels there is a lot of unfinished business for him at Pittodrie. There is almost a Sir Alex Ferguson-type zeal in his comments about his remaining ambitions for Aberdeen.

 

Five years might seem a long time to some people, but I still have lots to do at this club. It is about constant striving, constant improving, trying to make the team and the club better.

 

I feel there is no room for sitting back at Aberdeen, no room for a breather or giving yourself a pat on the back. It is about us constantly trying to get better.

 

The challenge is obviously there against clubs like Celtic and Rangers, clubs with far greater resources. But it is a challenge I really relish and want to take on again. My job here is to keep the fires lit, to keep trying to find new inspiration. Actually, I love this job.

[Guest milne_afc]

What a load of shit.

[The Boofon]

No mention of this place on it at all.

 

Fuck sake.

[ebbe]

Garbage, “I know who I listen to” (ReliableSmell, tinhatlogan etc)

 

Won’t hear of critism at any point, quite upset he didn’t quote me as a clueless arsehole tbh.

[RAZOR]

Last season we came within inches of winning the Scottish Cup against a very good Celtic side. So I feel a degree of satisfaction, given where Aberdeen was before I arrived.

 

Loser mentality. He should of been absolutely fucking gutted. It gave me no satisfaction whatsoever.