When a football manager is sacked it is a clear sign that his employers considered that the person in the dugout had failed.
As we saw last week Pedro was given his marching orders.
It is clear that the chaps in the Blue Room thought he had failed to deliver.
Instead, he had delivered failure.
However, what would success look like at Sevco?
I was told at the weekend that Pedro’s Keep performance Indicators (KPI) were as follows:
- Finish no more than 12 points behind Celtic in the title race.
- Beat Celtic in at least one league match during the campaign.
- Win one of the cups.
If that information is correct then I think they were asking a lot of the likeable Portuguese chap.
Moreover, if similar what is being asked of Pedro’s successor then it really is a tough ask.
Last season Aberdeen finished second with 76 points, a record for the Dons.
A very creditable performance by Derek McInnes and his team, but a full 30 points behind the invincible champions.
The new chap at Sevco will inherit Pedro’s squad and little prospect of receiving game-changing funds from the board.
Across the Clyde, Celtic can easily outspend the five-year-old club.
Although apparently, we shouldn’t construe that to be a sporting advantage.
The problem comes back to The People.
They don’t play “simply the second best” at Ibrox, but that is the best they can hope for.
The epochal events of 2012 set in place a unipolarity on Planet Fitba that even Ronny Deila couldn’t subvert.
Now with Brendan Rodgers in post, the challenge is all the more insurmountable.
Of course, the staunch stenographers will gush that the Ibrox job is one of the most coveted in world football.
However, in the real world, it is hard to envisage a manager of real calibre wanting the Sevco gig.
That is because they know that it is a position that is almost guaranteed to get you the bullet before very long.
If you doubt me then speak to Super Salary, the Admirable Warburton or Poor Pedro.
On Friday the Sevco High Command met in dignified conclave.
The agenda was mainly concerned with the year-end accounts and the Dave King Take Over panel situation.
Today the media is full of speculation about who will replace the likeable Portuguese chap.
The Sevco High Command clearly see the guy at Pittodrie as the best local option.
My information is as of last night there had been no direct contact with Aberdeen regarding acquiring the services of Derek McInnes.
Now, in fairness, the Pittodrie boss might think he could achieve those putative KPIs.
However, it still comes down to “simply second best”.
I doubt that will be good enough for The People.
Of course, the Dons’ boss will cost Sevco a six-figure sum in compensation.
It should also not be forgotten that the Aberdeen gaffer would want his own backroom team to come with him.
All of this adds up in terms of cost, then there is the small matter of paying for the current shambles.
On the same timescale (yesterday evening) I understand that Pedro and his guys had not yet been paid off.
The dogs have stopped barking because they are utterly stunned at what a total shambles the caravan has become.
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Before they can even consider a new manager it’s clear they need a new song book:
can’t get used to loosing you, lets do the time warp again, cant live any more, the party’s over, who’s sorry now, tears in heaven, to name but a few and in reponse it’s only fitting we should add one of out own I can almost picture it in my minds eye 60,000 Tims singing “Everybody hurts….just let your club go”
Why is it ok to tap a manager up, but not a player? From a selfish point of view, I would hope Deek stays at Aberdeen. I would think that Sevco could appoint a high (heheheh hee hee) level managerial appointment easier than Aberdeen. So for Deek to stay at Aberdeen and keep the strong and challenging Dons in 2nd spot and sevco to appoint someone else and with the Hibees on the rise, we could and see a stronger league. Last week I watches a full house at the Edinburgh derby whilst it was live on TV. A full house at Aberdeen V Celtic, again live on TV.
Those who knock our game have an agenda…
Oh, bye the way, I have a fantastic image of an old SPL club crest with a big crack in it (they clearly wurnae ready)… I just cant post it here; pity.
Would it be possible to send me that crest ???HH
I doubt either of McInness or Tommy Wright would want the hassle as they are both aware that there is still scandal in the lockers at Ibrox. Sensible huns now know that all the old guard need to go, and all the delboy contracts etc need to be purged. Those are pre-requisites before they can attract someone to build any kind of attractive professional club. The SMSM are what is holding them back, and that may never change.
Anyway looking forward to Celtic’s possibility to take some kudos or a scalp v Bayern, which with the correct tailor made tactics we have the possibility of. They are not on the level of PSG.
I’d bet that’s the only football managers job in the UK where the ‘Key Performance Indicators’ mention another club in the clauses. They manage it in two out of three.
Pretty much in itself is a ‘key indicator’ of their problem. Everything is about comparing themselves to Celtic , never any inward thinking about what can reasonably be expected of them as a 5 season old club. This will be their perpetual undoing.
Hush, man, you’ll give them ideas!
Top comment 🙂
If they’re looking for someone with experience, knows the league, knows the club, has a history of victories at I-broke and Paradise, then why isn’t Strachan being mentioned 🙂
Neil Lennon?
You have to laugh (again).
The Bears seem to forget that it was RRM in the board that appointed The Hat and Pedro, so the clamour for a RRM in the dugout is baffling.
If Murty can achieve the magical 3 wins in a row then the gig will be his.
The SMSM will big up such an achievement as being better than Pedro for the gullibles to buy and it is a low cost / zero cost solution for the board, while they supposedly search for a Brendan clone.
Reports of a top class manager and war chests are a joke.
The SMSM print this pish but fail to clarify where the funds are coming from.
I assume that Murty now needs an interpreter in the dressing room and at training to get his message across to the latinos. Extra cost for the board?
Can’t wait for Sevco to travel to Dingwall in the harsh Scottish winter and see how the latinos perform.
Happy days.
A self confessed Celtic man is interim manager
If McInnes was thick enough to take the football world’s most desirable job I would doubt Very much that Docherty would follow him, it is possible he would fancy the Pittodrie gig for himself.
I noticed Bomber and Billy davies taking notes at pittodrie midweek…Now i just wonder. ????
Once again another interesting read I hear they need £2.3m too see them thru till end of January and the son of Douglas park has said enough is enough no more cheques ???
Comedy gold
It’s difficult (though not impossible) to envisage McInnes taking the managerial post at the crumvledome given his previous decision when given opportunity to leave the Dons. He rejected the Sunderland job as, among other things, there was instability and uncertainty at the club. If I was being polite, I’d say the same exists at ‘Rangers’. McInnis would possibly be commuting career suicide by going to TRIFC, and still having nowhere near the resources needed to stop Celtic. Tommy Wright would seem a better bet to me.
Why just a six figure sum in compensation?
I would have thought a manager on a four year contract who has finished second in all competitions the year before was worth at least a couple of million – especially if their backroom staff are following.
One other thing, the problem with someone who knows the club inside out taking over is that anyone who knows the club inside out wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.
One minor note from a Dons fan here Phil,
When Sunderland were courting McInnes and Doc over the summer the price to buy out their contracts was £1million, that was before they extended their contracts at Pittodrie until 2019. I can’t see That sum reducing any, in fact, I’m fairly sure Wiggy Milne would increase that with a stipulation that the money be paid in full and up front, so I’d suggest a six figure sum to get them to the crumbled one is wishful thinking.
Also have issues with the suggestion that McInnes is a RRM when you consider he only played in 35 matches during his seven years with them, averaging out at 5 games per season…..
Crumbledome, not crumbled one, fat fingers and an iPhone keypad combined with autocorrect, Ken fit like…..
More of a Rangers supporter from his youth, than a RMM I reckon. I didn’t realise he was at Ibrox for 7 seasons either.
You don’t have to have actually played for them to be a ‘Real Rangers Man’, Stan …
It’s more of an ‘inflexible state of mind’ kind of thing …
Sorry Marko, my mistake, McInnes played an average of 7 matches per season in his 5 years with the old Rangers. As for his state of mind, having met him when my wee boy was mascot for a pre season friendly, he didn’t come across as an utter cunt, so I imagine he’s not suitable for the RRM label
Nor did Swally for a long time.
Have they paid off Warbo and his amigo’s?
The exceptionally, most very excellent mr graeme murty is back in the dugout. They would be crazy to remove him from there
The dogs barking at Pedro’s caravan was his euphemism of the Scottish sports press pack.
He called them dogs.
They started showing him teeth.
Sevco cannot afford a quality management team. It’s very costly.
The next guy has to feed the press pack daily. Every day, regardless how you feel, the press pack needs fed for their column inches. Don’t do it and they turn on you very quickly.
Mongrels.
I’d say you’re doing mongrels a grave disservice here, chief, as if you think those lickspittle arse wiping toadies masquerading as journalists in the Scottish or British mainstream media have any actual ‘teeth’ then I’d say you’re ‘barking up the wrong tree’, as it were …
For those gibbering idiots are more akin to trained worms or other crawling insects, whipped into learning how to stand up on their arses and dance when the greenery is dangled above them but absolutely useless for anything else.
If any one of them had an original thought between them they’d probably suffer a mass extinction event due to the cumulative effects of their trained collective consciousness becoming overloaded with the hitherto completely unknown spark of forward thinking required in deductive imagination and critical analytical objectivity.
These crawlers are less worthy of our time than some dog slime on our shoe, as that must be attended to and wiped off, while these idiots can, and should, be ignored and dismissed at all times and completely, lest they get used to the air time and the idea that they’re somehow ‘important’.
(With my sincerest apologies to worms and other creepy crawlies for comparing them to the UK mainstream media:
All you natural insects were born that way and cannot help your nature while these so called ‘men’ have allowed themselves to be trained that way to turn their tricks in front of us every waking day, without either shame or embarrassment and for that alone they are, and will remain, beneath the lowest form of the lowest life form I can currently think of.)
Another great write up, Phil. Time for another book methinks.
Downfall was an AWESOME read. Keep up the FANtastic work. Brian
(Baz OK)
Derek McInnes could more easily achieve those KPI’s with Aberdeen.
If McInnes was to decide to take the job with the poisoned chalice, I couldn`t see Tony Docherty going with him. Self confessed Celtic man . Then again money does strange things to people .HH
They’ve just sacked a self confessed Celtic man ?
Exactly
Oh dear!
Murty is a self confessed Celtic man!
Oh dear!
And their current interim is a self confessed Celtic man.
And some of their players might be Celtic men tae!
Crivvens Jings, but where will it all end?!
Is this that ‘unseen Fenian hand’ at work again?!!!
Or the unseen Masonic one?
Long may the shambles continue