Keith Jackson: Derek McInnes can help guide Aberdeen to a cup double

[ian1964 10,409]

KEITH says the resurgence of Aberdeen under the impressively astute Derek McInnes is something that should be cherished and encouraged at a time when Scottish football is struggling.

 

 

 

DEREK McINNES has done the first part of the job. A huge red monster has been poked in the ribs. Consciousness has now been successfully regained.

 

But here’s the trouble with waking a sleeping giant. You better make sure it gets out of the right side of the bed because you wouldn’t like it when it’s angry.

 

And you most certainly don’t want to be the cause of its ire.

 

For example, if McInnes does not win the League Cup Final – after watching the abysmal manner in which Inverness Caley Thistle self-destructed against Dundee United yesterday – then he may suddenly find himself with some explaining to do.

 

Worse still, even if McInnes does deliver the Pittodrie punters with their first piece of silver since 1995 on Sunday, he might still be chased the length of Union Street by the natives should somehow fate dictate that he loses a Scottish Cup Final to Rangers.

 

Now don’t laugh. I’m serious. Okay so first Ally McCoist will have to find a way of getting past Albion Rovers in a replay next week. And you wouldn’t bet bad money on them doing anything of the kind.

 

Then – against all odds – they’ll have to deal with the effervescence of Dundee United in the semis.

 

At the same time, McInnes will have to negotiate a way past St Johnstone.

 

But the truth is if Rangers somehow make it to the Final, McInnes might never recover from the shame of not seeing this lot off.

 

In fact, the most damning thing about this latest Rangers humiliation is it did not even register as a shock to see them scrambling to salvage a 1-1 draw against a team of part-time kids on £20 a week.

 

A mild surprise? Perhaps. Shockingly unprofessional? Absolutely.

 

But anyone who was actually, genuinely left slack-jawed in amazement at what went on at Ibrox yesterday afternoon has clearly not been paying due attention to the mess this club has made of itself on and off the park in recent times.

 

So woe betide McInnes then if he should somehow find a way not to do away with his old club. Aberdeen, you see, are standing on the shoulders of history.

 

For more years now than anyone cares to remember this has been one big Incredible Sulk of a football club.

 

Consistently, almost without fail in fact it has punched way below its weight. Often embarrassingly so.

 

But two cups and a second-placed finish in the league can end all that.

 

To put it simply even though there was a similar high point back in 1990 the recent years of bottom-six finishes and the ensuing onset of being comatose this could be the single greatest Aberdeen awakening since Gothenburg. Or it could take crestfallen to new levels.

 

But before it goes one way or the other let’s add a sense of perspective to Aberdeen’s rise while

remembering “In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is King”.

 

We could rework that old saying for the modern-day game in this country. In the land of the

incompetents, the mediocre man wins medals.

 

And before this mighty and mobilising Red Army starts frothing at the mouth let me make one thing clear. Recently in these very pages, not only did I write that Aberdeen are now well and truly back but, what is more, all of Scottish football should be glad about it.

 

The fact they have shifted more than 40,000 tickets for Sunday’s cup final at Celtic Park merely confirms that a healthy, vibrant Aberdeen is good for business.

 

The game in this country doesn’t have a lot going for it right now but the resurgence of this club under the impressively astute McInnes is something that should be cherished and encouraged. They have been out cold up north for far too long.

 

But while all of that is true, it would be absurd to start fawning over this Aberdeen team or to mistake McInnes’s players for a new batch of Willie Millers, Alex McLeishs and Mark McGhees when evidently they are not. In today’s world they do not need to be.

 

Aberdeen must only achieve competence to emerge as this country’s second force.

 

McInnes has simply been smart enough to recognise this as a fact.

 

Just look at the slapstick defending that cost Inverness their place in the semi-finals yesterday. Some of it was hysterical. Much of it was beyond parody.

 

And this from a team competing in the last eight of the Scottish Cup? It would not seem unreasonable to expect better of a team playing on a public park.

 

In the current climate, simply being competent, resolute and organised is enough to turn any team into genuine contenders. The difference at Pittodrie is McInnes is both smart enough to realise it and capable enough to make it happen.

 

When he brought in Barry Robson and Willo Flood in the summer, McInnes was hanging his hat on the tried and tested.

 

Men who have been over the course and back again.

 

Even at the peak of their powers they were never considered to be world beaters.

 

Their career highs came and went more than five years ago when both of them ended up at Gordon

Strachan’s Celtic. The truth is, they’ve been on a downward trajectory ever since.

 

The fact they are now the joint powerhouses in Aberdeen’s engine room suggests clearly the decline of the Scottish game has been a great deal steeper and faster than that of their own.

 

McInnes was shrewd enough to identify even if this pair’s best days are beyond them they are still better than most of their contemporaries.

 

And it was the same in January when McInnes pulled off another fine piece of business in bringing Adam Rooney back to the Scottish top flight.

 

That signing, in my view, secured second spot in the table. It may well turn out to have bought McInnes a cup double too.

 

And yet the reason Rooney was available for free was because he had just been released by League One outfit Oldham, despite his previously prolific stint in Inverness.

 

On Saturday, Rooney scored his sixth goal in eight appearances for Aberdeen to knock Dumbarton out of the Scottish Cup quarters.

 

McInnes conceded after that nervy 1-0 win some of his players are starting to feel the pressure that comes with the weight of expectation bearing down on their slender shoulders.

 

That’s human nature and perfectly understandable. But they should worry not. They are the best of the rest and now is no time for self-doubt to get in their way and stop them from reaching out to claim what is theirs.

 

It’s not rocket science. They have the second-best team in the country because they have assembled the second-best group of players.

 

McInnes has spent well. His squad’s wage bill is significantly short of £2million and miles shy of the £6m currently being wasted by Rangers.

 

Which just goes to show sound management is not just as simple as signing big cheques.

 

Yes, McInnes has made Aberdeen a force again. He had better not blow it all now.

[der Berliner 3,231]

I hope that in the very near future, Rangers PR people take not about the constant snide remarks that these media trolls fire our way.

 

Various boards made a few remarks about McInnes doing well at Aberdeen of late, and there you go, an article by Mr. Jackson. We heard the same of Butcher at ICT, where he enjoyed one good season, before defecting to Hibs, who are even 11 points behind ICT these days. Sure, McInnes made us all a bit happier with his double over the Yahoos, fortunate as it was. He also managed to hand Partick their first Premiership home win of the season two weeks ago. And his side trails the Hooped Horrors just 21 points. Not that Jackson see's need to point out the Scum's wage bill.

 

So in essence, he's doing well enough for a team that rarely gets 10k of people into their stadium, which is some 4 times less than we attract every second week.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

I hope that in the very near future, Rangers PR people take not about the constant snide remarks that these media trolls fire our way.

 

Various boards made a few remarks about McInnes doing well at Aberdeen of late, and there you go, an article by Mr. Jackson. We heard the same of Butcher at ICT, where he enjoyed one good season, before defecting to Hibs, who are even 11 points behind ICT these days. Sure, McInnes made us all a bit happier with his double over the Yahoos, fortunate as it was. He also managed to hand Partick their first Premiership home win of the season two weeks ago. And his side trails the Hooped Horrors just 21 points. Not that Jackson see's need to point out the Scum's wage bill.

 

So in essence, he's doing well enough for a team that rarely gets 10k of people into their stadium, which is some 4 times less than we attract every second week.

What the heck are you going on about?

 

Why mention the difference in crowds? The fact he can play good football with far less resources shows how superior he is to Ally.

[Calgacus 8]

a LOT of the snidy remarks were aimed at the whole of Scottish Football in general

[calscot 0]

The thing the author misses is that had we signed the exact same players as Aberdeen, our wages would still be about three times higher.

 

IF we win the League, the Ramsdens AND the Scottish Cup, will our relatively low wages to turnover have really been money wasted? We're a football club so what should we be spending our money on?

 

Our money was spent to do all of this and also provide the main part of a squad to win the league next season. Not many players will sign a one year contract.

 

So are Aberdeen an attractive side to watch?

[ian1964 10,409]

Derek McInnes Managerial statistics:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_McInnes#Bristol_City

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

We're a football club so what should we be spending our money on?

Young players with potential sell on value.

 

Even just good players. Not many objected to us signing 34 year old Claudio Caniggia.

[simplythebest 0]

Young players with potential sell on value.

 

Even just good players. Not many objected to us signing 34 year old Claudio Caniggia.

 

36 year old Davie Weir has probably been our best signing the last 10 years or so.

 

I doubt many really think he should have a squad entirely made up of young players, just that we'd be better with longer term signings than shite like Foster, Smith, Peralta.

[Super Cooper 0]

Derek McInnes Managerial statistics:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_McInnes#Bristol_City

 

Very very impressive with one blip at City.

 

The highest win rate in Aberdeens history is incredible.

 

Del is doing some job and proving Bristol City was a one off, which it was, a shocking decision to even go there by McInnes but he has learned and learned well.

[alexscottislegend 2,057]

I've always seen an ideal Rangers manager is one who has played for us and has learned his trade at a smaller club. The Dark Side seem to have a whole crop who could succeed Lennon: Lambert, Collins, Hartley, McNamara. We just seem to have McInnes and Ian Murray. Billy Davies would have fit the bill a way back too. John Brown could have been a candidate but he seems to be a bit of a loose cannon.