Aberdeen FC in crisis as Charmian asks the fans to “be patient”
Aberdeen Chairman, Dave Cormack, ranted on Sportsound after tough questions on Aberdeen’s awful form.
Last Saturday, Aberdeen lost their 5th consecutive league game in a row to Dundee. The Dons currently stand 9th in the league table with only two points away from the relegation play-off place. This loss was the boiling point for many Aberdeen supporters. Demanding for their manager, Steven Glass, to be sacked.
Before the poor results, Aberdeen Chairman, Dave Cormack, had been the most vocal chairman in Scottish Football. Attending interviews and explaining the club's plans and goals was a breath of fresh air for Dons fans. But since the recent form, many Dandies have commented on how the Chairman has been silent.
Due to many complaints, Aberdeen’s social accounts announced that Cormack would go on the BBC Sportsound podcast to discuss the issue.
Cormack explained in the statement: “I’ve Been keeping my head down to avoid any pressure on the Manager and the players. But with results still not going our way and having committed to open communication, I owe it to our fans to address the current situation.”
The podcast started without Dave Cormack, as host, Kenny Macintyre, with guests John Collins, Tom English, and Darryl Broadfoot, made various points on The Reds poor form. He mentioned that Steven Glass has the second-worst percentage win rate of any Aberdeen manager. Also, stating stats such as only one clean sheet in 22 games.
They later commented on the fact that many supporters believed that Steven Glass didn’t have the experience to begin with when taking the Dons role. They also mentioned how their stats don’t correlate to the results, with Aberdeen getting an average of 64% possession across games and many more shots towards goal. They also talk about how they are easy to score against. Balls over the top manage to cut the Dons apart with too many goalkeeper mistakes as well by Joe Lewis (who has been dropped by Glass). Away to Dundee, Aberdeen managed 17 goal attempts while the home side managed only three shots on target. The game finished 2-1 to Dundee.
Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass - Source: SNS Group
Nine Minutes in, Dave Cormack joined the show. He started off by acknowledging that the last 5 games have been “highly disappointing”. He pointed out that Aberdeen has been going through a massive transitional phase since the sacking of Ex Aberdeen manager, Derek McInnes. As Cormack stated positive facts about Aberdeen’s season. Kenny Macintyre suddenly interrupted him with tougher questions. This is where Cormack started to get annoyed.
He said: “If you want to keep pelting questions at me this can be a short conversation.”
It seems that Cormack had notes prepared before the interview which begs the question of why he went on there in the first place if he didn’t want to be asked challenging questions. He could’ve easily gone on RedTV (Aberdeen’s personal broadcast) and discussed his thoughts in a statement.
He goes on to state that since the team are so early into the season, he has “no intentions of making any changes. We believe that the coaches and players will rectify the situation.”
Kenny and Cormack go back and forth interrupting each other which made the interview become a hostile situation.
Throughout the interview, you can tell that Cormack felt very passionate about his views on the Club. He states that he thinks about the football club 24/7. But in the interview, some fans believed that he came across rude to the Sportsound hosts and unprofessional when representing the club.
Cormack mentions that: “we’ve got to stick together as a club, because nobody else, especially you Kenny, care about Aberdeen football club”.
Macintyre then goes on to mention how unfair the comment was. He said: “I’m looking at the messages we're getting from fans and they’re not happy so I’m not going to sit in here and kid on it’s all fine and give you soft questions”
Cormack truly believes that the players and the staff will turn the terrible form around. So overall, the Chairman’s message to the Dons fans is to “be patient.”
Aberdeen’s next six fixtures (in order) are Hibs, Rangers, Hearts, Motherwell, Dundee United and Celtic. All these teams are currently in the top six, so Aberdeen 100% has the hardest run-up incoming in the league. With teams below having easier fixtures, will Cormack have the same message to the fans after the next 6 games are played?