Valuable lessons must be learned by the Aberdeen board after a dire season that is completely unacceptable.
To finish a lowly 10th in the Premiership is simply not good enough with the resources, budget and fan base the club has.
Aberdeen supporters will rightly demand a vast improvement next season.
Following the appointment of Jim Goodwin in mid-February the hope was there would be an immediate new manager bounce. That results would pick up to give supporters optimism for next season.
Ultimately that hasn’t happened as Goodwin has secured just two victories in the 13 games since arriving at Pittodrie.
Nothing has changed since his appointment and there have been no real signs of improvement.
It is a major summer for everyone at Pittodrie to turn that around.
Board need to do their bit by funding any signings required
Manager Goodwin has indicated he is looking to strengthen in every position.
That is a lot of players and will require a lot of finance if he is going to be able to achieve that during the summer window.
It is going to take a lot of work this summer from the manager, head of recruitment Darren Mowbray and director of football Steven Gunn.
The chairman and board of directors also need to do their bit by funding any signings required to get Aberdeen back on track next season.
The board took a gamble when appointing Stephen Glass as manager.
When you take in a young manager who is untried and untested, he must be given all the support possible.
However, the January transfer window this year didn’t excite.
Within weeks of the January window closing, Glass had left Pittodrie.
That will have been very disappointing for the board, who had the expectation that experiment would work.
However, when there is a transfer window it is vital you maximise that chance.
That wasn’t the case for Aberdeen in January.
The club must take full advantage of the summer window.
Even in the most difficult of times fortunes can be quickly turned around
There is a huge rebuilding job ahead and a team can quickly turn things around if the recruitment is done right.
For an example, Aberdeen supporters should look back to 2004 when Aberdeen finished a lowly 11th in the table.
Only one team was relegated from the top flight at that time.
I was involved with Aberdeen at the time and recommended Jimmy Calderwood to come in as the new manager.
In Jimmy’s first season, he led Aberdeen up to fourth in the table.
That was equal on points with Hibs who finished third.
It is an example that even in the most difficult of times fortunes can be quickly turned around – if a new manager gets the support from the board for recruitment.
Aberdeen supporters will be hoping that is the case this summer after a season they will want to quickly forget.
Hope a season as disappointing as the one just finished doesn’t happen again
There has been very little to cheer about for the Red Army.
A first finish in the bottom six since 2013 and missing out on European qualification was bad enough.
However, the remaining post-split games at least offered the opportunity to build up some momentum going into the summer, and to create some positivity ahead of such an important transfer window.
That didn’t happen as Aberdeen only secured one victory in the five post-split games – against Dundee, who were eventually relegated.
In the post-split games, the Dons secured just five points from a possible 15.
Having missed out on European qualification Aberdeen will kick off next season in the group stages of the Premier Sports Cup.
The hope is that the Dons, with the backing of the board, will be far stronger to ensure a season as disappointing as the one just finished doesn’t happen again.
Considine still a quality defender and won’t be short on offers
I was surprised defender Andy Considine had the offer of a new contract withdrawn by Aberdeen.
When you discount the sentiment surrounding Considine, the bottom line is he is still a very good defender.
There is obviously the sentiment that he has been in the first team for 18 years.
Then you add in the fact that he suffered a serious knee injury in August whilst representing Aberdeen.
Yet, when you take away all the sentiment, he remains an excellent player who not long ago was in the Scotland international set-up.
Considine has been Aberdeen player of the year on a number of occasions in recent years.
He is well respected at the club.
That was shown by the amount of hugs he got from players on the pitch when coming off in the 0-0 draw with St Mirren.
Contract talks should have been handled better
Everything seemed to be going well in terms of the noises coming out of the club in terms of Considine signing a new contract was concerned.
Unfortunately, the whole thing blew up and got rather messy.
🔴 One final lap of Pittodrie for Andy Considine.#StandFree | @AndyConsie4 pic.twitter.com/DFFiKVHyTR
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) May 15, 2022
It should have been handled much better.
The decision was made by Jim Goodwin to let Considine leave Aberdeen.
Every manager has the right to make those calls when he comes into a club.
However, when you look at what Considine can bring to the club it was a surprise.
He understands Aberdeen, is a Scotland international and still has a couple of good seasons in him.
When there is turmoil and change at a club, you need that type of player around the dressing room who can lead by example.
It was great to see Considine get a much-deserved standing ovation in his final game for the club on Sunday.
He has history with the club and his father Doug has history with the club, having been part of the 1980 title-winning team.
I’m sure he will attract attention from a number of clubs and will get signed up.
In the time Considine was on the field of play on Sunday, it was clear he brings calmness and an experienced head to the defence.
That will be looked upon very favourably by other managers who are looking to improve their squad and get experience into their team.
Right decision for the wrong reason
Referee Don Robertson got Aberdeen’s controversial penalty call right, but for the wrong reason.
There appeared to be a push by David Bates on Scott Tanser.
However, that wasn’t the reason for the initial award of a penalty to Aberdeen being overturned.
The referee changed his mind because the linesman thought it had come off Tanser’s head and not his hand. I can’t understand why he could possibly think that, as Tanser’s hand was up way above his head.
VAR is not going to be introduced into the Premiership until after this year’s World Cup.
If that penalty incident was to be reviewed by VAR, however, the spot-kick would have been chalked off for a push by Bates.
In one of the other controversial decisions of the afternoon, I think the referee was wrong to disallow Ross McCrorie’s goal.
He had a good view of the incident and it appears he thought St Mirren keeper Jak Alnwick was being impeded.
Having watched it again, that doesn’t appear to be the case as there were a number of players in the box.
There was a St Mirren player in front of the keeper, so it appears the referee got that one wrong.
Manager Jim Goodwin is justified in feeling disappointed with the referee’s performance.