It will have been a difficult week for Derek McInnes and everyone at the club in the wake of last Saturday’s humiliation in Dingwall.
It is never a good idea to lose to the bottom team in the league; to do so at a time when there’s a mixture of anger and apathy felt by an apparently growing section of the support is even less sensible.
Fair play to John Hughes and his County side, they grasped their opportunity and it was a magnificent and timely result for them, but that Aberdeen squad should never have been brushed aside so easily.
The magnitude of the loss has inevitably sparked much debate about where the club is right now and whether or not there should be a change of management. One online post I saw suggested that the game had an “end of an era” feel to it; it is entirely understandable that some saw it that way.
In the final analysis, none of our feelings really matter. They may feed into his thinking, but the one opinion that counts is Dave Cormack’s, and he will have been giving the matter much thought in the days following that heavy defeat.
In his career as a successful businessman, Dave has not been one for kneejerk reactions and, given his love for the Dons, he would only make such a momentous decision if he was convinced it was right.
He and the manager speak regularly; Derek will have been left in no doubt what the chairman’s thoughts are. He has credit in the bank, plenty of it, and while it is easy for fans to call for his head, finding a replacement who would move the club forward would not be easy.
Derek is due to celebrate his eighth anniversary as Aberdeen boss in March. In the past three quarters of a century, only Sir Alex Ferguson has had a longer tenure.
In an entirely different era for the game, Sir Alex was a serial winner; his position, after a tough start, was never in question, but Derek has not earned that kind of security.
He has certainly had the backing of the current chairman and his predecessor, Stewart Milne, but the manager has, in recent years, split the support.
There are those who value the stability he has brought, the highs he has delivered and the silverware he secured on that memorable Sunday afternoon at Celtic Park. But his detractors point out that was back in 2014, that he has failed to build on that single trophy success and that the style of football being delivered is at times tough to watch.
It is true to say that Derek has not been able to replicate the exciting team he assembled in the 2016-17 season, one which amassed a record points haul and scored goals for fun, and too many signings in the last couple of years simply haven’t worked.
His time in charge will eventually come to an end one way or another, and there is no doubt this is as demanding a period as he has experienced since his appointment in March 2013.
When the spotlight has been on him in the past, Derek has come out fighting and got the results he needed. The next few matches will reveal whether or not he can do so again.
Lennon surely living on borrowed time
I have to admit to being surprised that Neil Lennon remains in his post as Celtic boss.
His ill-advised news conference smacked of desperation and of a man who knew his days in the job were numbered, and I felt sure the draw at Livingston would have sealed his fate.
The signings of Patryk Klimala, Albian Ajeti, Vasilis Barkas and Shane Duffy have proved spectacularly unsuccessful; given the money spent on those players, it might collectively be the worst piece of recruitment Scottish football has ever seen.
The fallen champions have imploded in so many ways this season, their woeful campaign summed up by the club’s worst run of results in two decades at a time when they needed wins to try to put some kind of pressure on league leaders Rangers.