Hejdå och tack

So it ends.

Jimmy Thelin’s tenure at Aberdeen Football Club comes to a halt at game 80 - a feeble 1-0 defeat at Falkirk proving to be the final straw for the Dons’ hierarchy as they pulled the plug on the Swede’s 3-year project at the halfway point.

Dave Cormack highlighting in the official press release from the Club that the decision has been reached “as both results and performances have fallen below the required standard and are not commensurate with the level of investment made in the first-team squad and football operation”.

It’s hard to argue with that summation and there is little point in doing so.

The cold, hard facts of the matter remain that since our record-breaking start to last season, results and performances have been, in the main, poor. Easter Road in midweek was the tipping point for this show but it appeared that one further insipid showing was what was required for the decision to be made.

One bad week and all that, eh?

CEO Alan Burrows & Sporting Director Lutz Pfannenstiel were in attendance at the Falkirk Stadium on Saturday and those who were around the pair at full-time reported a level of frustration with the display on the field that made Sunday afternoon’s decision feel imminent - the simple question was whether the chop would come now or they would allow this week’s double header with Rangers play out.

There is an argument (and it’s a strong one) that this decision is still one made too late in the day - the writing was on the wall as far back as Tannadice earlier in the season and there is merit in that. The Club clearly wanted to give Thelin the opportunity to show if he could turn things around and there was a glimmer that this may be possible after our October/November/December run which saw us climb the table.

The displays against Kilmarnock, United, Hibs and now Falkirk saw us regressing rapidly - failing to notch a single shot on target in our last two games is a statistic that can’t be ignored and the showing against Falkirk was up there with one of the worst performances from an Aberdeen side in living memory.

It was time and, for once, the Club have acted.

Thelin’s Legacy?

On arrival at Aberdeen, Thelin was at pains to give everyone in his inherited squad an opportunity to prove themselves and it shouldn’t be forgotten that he managed to get the best out of the likes of Pape Habib Gueye & Shayden Morris during that first season. Both players were so far out of the reckoning on Thelin’s arrival that you’d have been likely whisked off to your nearest medical facility if you’d have predicted that both would be sold for seven figure sums merely 12 months later. There was clearly an ability within Thelin to squeeze the best out of some players.

His immediate impact at the Club was outstanding. A club-record run at the start of the season, the Club felt like an entirely new beast - Rangers dismantled just before Halloween at a raucous and intense Pittodrie - we were here and we were ready to disrupt the applecart.

Hindsight is always 20-20 and, when you look back on that early season run it is apparent that we were often riding our luck in games and we were overperforming our “data” most week. When the side was in the groove though, we were decent to watch which made the dramatic collapse in our form following defeat at St. Mirren all the harder to stomach. Truth is, we never really recovered from this. A little run here and there of form but nothing to really hang our coats on. This season, well, the least said about that the better?

Thelin departs Aberdeen with a fairly middling overall record, in all competitions:-

P80 W33 D16 L31 F109 A115 GD -6

A win percentage of 41% sees him tied with Barry Robson and marginally behind Jimmy Calderwood (42%). It places him 14th in the all-time list of AFC’s permanent managers - as he was the 26th permanent appointment (we’ve allocated Jocky Scott & Alex Smith an appointment together and one on it’s own for Smith) then that record is about as mid as it comes.

In the league, Thelin’s record takes a bit of a hammering:-

P58 W22 D12 L24 F68 A85 GD -17

A win percentage in the Premiership of just 38% - that places him below Robson (42%) albeit, with the exception of Derek McInnes (53%) & Jimmy Calderwood (42%), no-one since Willie Miller has had a higher league WP.

The long and short of it all though, is that Thelin managed one thing that no manager has done since Alex Smith & Jocky Scott did in 1990 and he remains in an exclusive club of only 6 men to have guided the Dons to lifting the Scottish Cup - history will rightly focus on on this achievement and it’s for this reason alone that it is a relief that Thelin has been let go at this juncture, before the support base turned entirely toxic on him.

He gave so many of us our greatest day when it comes to supporting our Club and he should always be afforded our respect and grace for that afternoon in May.

For that alone, Jimmy will always be welcome in the Granite City and the man should never have to buy a drink in the North-East when (and if) he does return.

Hejdå och tack, Jimmy.

Who Next?

The real shame is that we’ve been unable to kick on from that glorious day at Hampden. With the rarity that is both sides of Glasgow being in disarray, this season represented a real opportunity for someone to make a serious tilt at disrupting the status quo.

For the time being, it appears to be Hearts’ opportunity to do so, but it could have also been us. There are a multitude of reasons why this chance has disappeared from our view and we dug into some of them in the last blog - what’s been has been - the only thing that matters now is that we move onwards and forwards and that we do so efficiently and effectively.

Who next?

Well who knows - we will pop something out on our thoughts on this in the coming days.

For now, it’ll be Peter Leven stepping into the dugout for a 3rd time - assisted by Craig Hinchcliffe and Lutz Pfannenstiel himself as we travel to Ibrox on Tuesday evening to take on a Rangers side who suddenly find themselves back in a title race.

All eyes are on Lutz Pfannenstiel and the rest of the executive team at AB24 - are they up to it?