Writing is on the wall if Glass fails to win at Dens

IT’S not easy to know what Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack was trying to achieve when taking to Twitter at tea-time on Friday to explain his recent low profile as an attempt to prevent ‘anything being taken out of context that detracts from our manager, coaches and players’ focus’.

It sounded a heck of a lot like the dreaded old vote of confidence on a thoroughly-modern platform. If it was purely an attempt to plead for unity in the face of adversity, a quick scroll through the replies will tell you that it didn’t work.

Either way, it is shaping up to be Doomwatch at Dens on Saturday when it comes to manager Stephen Glass. And although the new six o’clock kick-off is an example of what Cormack is good at — delivering ideas to ramp up interest and exposure — giving a large and largely restless away support another three hours’ drinking time could come back to haunt him should they find themselves squinting through the gloom at a tenth game on the trot without a win.

Eight fixtures into the league season or not, it is hard to see how Glass is going to win friends and influence people if he can’t take this squad to Dundee, bottom of the Premiership, and come out on top.

And commercial manager Rob Wicks jumping onto social media on the coat-tails of his boss on Friday to tell punters how he had just witnessed the BBC’s director general Tim Davie give ‘an amazing speech on managing change’ at some leaders’ conference at Twickenham is hardly likely to dampen concern either.

It’s an amazing speech on how to stop a wobbly defence leaking goals when you have spent a fair chunk of the budget overloading the squad with central midfielders that they need to hear. Davie’s thoughts on sprucing up Auntie Beeb are about as relevant to the average punter at Pittodrie right now as French snail-farmers trying to make up for a slow 2020.

Glass was always going to face one major problem after returning to the club he served as a player — the feeling he only got the job due to an old pals’ act with Cormack. There’s also a tie-up between the Dons and Atlanta United — where he coached the B-team and, briefly, the first-team — and that’s seen as another reason he’s there rather than the chairman’s protestations when he was appointed in March that he was the best candidate for the job.

Cormack, of course, can hire whoever he wishes for whichever reasons he wishes. It’s his dough.

However, in football, as in many things, perception matters. It is hard not to look through Glass’s record and wonder who on earth must have been beside him on the shortlist if there was no one else worthy of serious consideration.

In Scotland alone, for example, Callum Davidson won two cups in one campaign for St Johnstone. St Mirren also have a manager steadily improving their side on a budget in Jim Goodwin. What would they be able to achieve with the resources that exist at Pittodrie?

Wicks’ stuff about ‘managing change’ relates to the fact that Glass brought in ten new players in summer and wants to alter the style of play. The problem is, though, that people who study Aberdeen aren’t seeing much progress. The side has kept one clean sheet in 20 games under their current boss. New contracts given to the likes of Niall McGinn and Mikey Devlin raised eyebrows.

For all the credit Cormack deserves for financing an overhaul during a pandemic, you sense Dons fans are starting to wonder whether some of the cash could have been earmarked for a more experienced coaching team and a more experienced director of football.

Much is also said about the Dons not often being outplayed, despite results. This is nothing to write home about. They failed to turn up for the first half of last weekend’s visit from Celtic and have yet to face Rangers and Hibs.

Changes or no changes, a team assembled at this cost, in the most open Premiership in years, has to be capable of beating Dundee.

If it can’t, Glass’s back is against the wall. After Dens, Aberdeen’s next six league games involve trips to Ibrox, Tannadice and Parkhead with Hibs, Hearts and Motherwell at home. A tough run at any time never mind when the public are on your case.

Glass needs to win on Saturday. No bones about it. Sure, Cormack is unlikely to bullet him on the back of one more bad result as it would involve admitting his appointment isn’t working out, but success will become even harder to come by as more and more fans lose faith.

Falling attendances and falling revenue are not something the Dons can afford. Cormack and Wicks’ Tweets gave the distinct impression they can feel the ripples of discontent already. Glass has to act now to stop that becoming a tsunami that will, inevitably, wash him away.