We know for certain it will be another post-split in the Premiership’s bottom six for Aberdeen – and fans of the managerless Dons will be wishing the league season could just be over right now.
Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Livingston means, following this weekend’s pre-split closer against Dundee, and for the second time in just three seasons, supporters will have to endure five miserable fixtures counting down to the end of the league games.
Mercifully, Aberdeen still have the Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic next weekend and hopefully a cup final silver-lining to look forward to.
But, on reflection, the way the 2023/24 Premiership campaign has ultimately panned out for the Dons has been staring us in the face since last year.
Way back at the start of the season under Barry Robson, Aberdeen found it tough to balance involvement in the Europa League play-offs and then the Europa Conference League group stage with domestic action.
There were some rays of light through the clouds with some very good showings in Europe, and there was hope – once the gruelling schedule cleared up and with games in hand on a lot of their Premiership rivals – those kind of performances would translate to the league and they would rise up the table.
However, looking back, there’s rarely been a trace of the required performance levels in Aberdeen’s Premiership matches I’ve attended this term.
And they have never really threatened to go on a run of wins – having not strung three league victories together all season.
Robson was eventually relieved of his position in January, and after one game of Peter Leven taking charge – a creditable home draw with Celtic – we had the 33-day Neil Warnock interim manager gamble, which did not pay off, obviously.
I said around the time of Warnock’s appointment I thought Leven should have been left in temporary charge until Aberdeen worked out what they were doing about a permanent manager.
Leven is back in interim charge now, and the stalemate at Livi followed back-to-back wins.
If they had left Peter – who has demonstrated he has a good enough working relationship with the players to pick up points – in the wake of Robson’s exit, maybe Aberdeen could have found a way into the top six.
But, as I say, I think fans will have feared a bottom-six finish for many months now and I’m not surprised it has eventually closed in on the Dons, whose Premiership campaign will peter out instead of there being any top-six excitement.
The manner of Saturday’s 0-0 draw with rock-bottom Livingston was fittingly poor fayre.
It was reminiscent of one of those boxing matches where two dwindling prizefighters try in vain to land a significant blow on their opponent.
The only moment of excitement was Bojan Miovski’s late, late goal – and we were robbed of it due to a VAR offside call.
Despite plenty of effort from both teams, there was little quality.
It made for as uninspiring an afternoon as the 0-0 draw in East Lothian at the start of the season, which says something about the disappointing nature of both club’s league campaigns.
Clarity on next Aberdeen manager – even confirming summer arrival – better than speculation
Though Aberdeen fans won’t get their wish of the Premiership season ending straight away, the next best thing would be clarity on who the next permanent Dons manager will be in the coming days.
The club are reportedly determined to land Elfsborgs’ Jimmy Thelin as their next boss, though a deal could hinge on waiting until July for his arrival as he is understood to not want to leave the Allsvenskan club – who are desperate to keep him – in the lurch.
Having to wait until the summer, even for the right candidate, is not an ideal situation.
However, even if there is an announcement making clear who the next manager will be and when they will be arriving, it would not only placate supporters, but also surely help the Reds players and interim boss Leven focus on the semi-final, and stop questions about it being asked of the club’s hierarchy.
There have been previous Aberdeen club statements saying they were close to an appointment and then delays in recent weeks, and I think it would be good for everyone if a line was drawn under the next boss rumours and speculation.
If the incoming Aberdeen manager is not going to be in post until the summer, I think it will be difficult to begin assessing the squad ahead of next term, as a lot of these calls are made at close range on the training pitch.
But I disagree with the idea the Dons will need another huge rebuild this summer after 15 signings since the end of last season – including the expensive, wholesale revamp of the squad last summer.
It remains to be seen which players will depart the club once this term ends, and top-scorer Bojan Miovski may potentially need to be replaced.
But, using the forward areas as an example, you have also got the likes of Duk and Ester Sokler waiting in the wings.
With the exception of adding a few more leaders and signing fresh faces in some positions of weakness, you would hope the new manager will be able to get a lot more out of the good players who are already at the club – and turn them into a good team.
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