At times of crisis – when it feels as if the world is collapsing in on itself – it’s worth remembering, there’s almost always someone else in an even worse predicament than yourself. Even when your own cataclysmic errors of judgment are directly responsible for the arse falling out of the empire, 99 times out 100 some other poor bugger is making an even bigger backside of things someplace else.
Granted, that may not come as any great source of solace to the likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Rishi Sunak after a week of spectacular parliamentary self harming which has left them suffocating in chaos of their own making. But at least this morning the pair of them can take a deep breath, wipe the sweat from their brows and take a crumb of comfort from the knowledge that it could be worse. They could be Aberdeen.
Because when it comes to a lamentable lack of clear, decisive leadership, Dave Cormack has beaten them both. By a landslide. If a week is a long time in politics then 48 hours at Pittodrie felt like an eternity, after Cormack’s big red bus took a wrong turn and ended up being ambushed in Darvel last Monday night.
That Cormack did and said nothing for so long in the wake of that catastrophic Scottish Cup capitulation, made him look like a rabbit caught in the headlights. To compound matters, he then felt forced to break cover on Wednesday night when he released a mealy mouthed, panic-stained statement which was almost as embarrassing and pitiful as the team’s performance at Recreation Park.
At a moment of monumental emergency, Cormack should have either sacked Jim Goodwin, or had the courage to give the manager his unqualified backing. Not only did the chairman do neither, he also made a botched attempt to appeal to the better nature of his club’s supporters, succeeding only in humiliating and antagonising them even more badly than before.
And leaving Goodwin looking like a dead man walking into Saturday’s El Sackico at Easter Road. The whole tawdry spectacle, along with the sudden arrival on the scene of Cormack’s football monitoring board, was horribly unedifying.
Goodwin talked beforehand about the faith and belief he had been shown by the board, while being pushed out onto centre stage with a gun pointed at the back of his head. It felt more like a hostage video than a pre-match interview.
So much so that Goodwin actually thanked Cormack for giving him this one last chance, even though he had just been on the receiving end of a neutering. Goodwin went on to plead for similar forgiveness from a travelling support which had made the journey down to Edinburgh armed with bed sheets calling for the manager’s head before a ball had been kicked.
Talk about awkward? Goodwin should never have been shoehorned into such a no win situation and the fact Cormack saw nothing wrong in any of it points to an alarming lack of self awareness.
Yes, even by the standards of a man who named the club’s training ground after himself. At this point, it must be said, it would take a heart made of granite not to feel at least some sympathy for Cormack on a purely human level.
He has pumped a personal fortune into this football club over the last few years or so and there is no doubting his passion and commitment to the cause are every bit as real as the colour of his money. But there are times when it does feel as if - inside Comrack’s own head - it’s really all about him. And the immediate, puffy eyed aftermath of that 6-0 thrashing at Easter Road provided the perfect example
.
It took 19 minutes for the football monitoring board to be assembled inside the Hibs stadium and to reach the conclusion Goodwin had to leave the building via the nearest exit. As the crestfallen Irishman hurdled over an advertising board and disappeared off into the distance down Leith Walk, Cormack fronted up for the cameras.
His first instinct was to pile praise on the support while underlining he is one of them. “I’ve been a Dons fan my whole life,” he said as if that made the slightest bit of a difference to the depths of despair being experienced in the away end.
Eventually, with voice cracking and bottom lip trembling, Cormack said ‘sorry’ while admitting he fully deserves to be given ‘pelters’ for his part in it all. But is he sorry for the almighty mess he has made? Or sorry for himself at having to cop the blame for it?
Because, from the top down, all this feels symptomatic of a club wallowing in self pity rather than one which has the stomach and the wherewithal to do something meaningful about fixing it. Cormack was correct when he jabbed an accusatory finger at the dressing room and questioned the application of a group of players who have heaped this humiliation upon themselves and their club.
If the minimum requirement is maximum effort then they are guilty of a collective abandonment of responsibility. Their efforts on Saturday, when Goodwin’s head was on the block, were nothing short of woeful. But, even so, Cormack shouldn’t fool himself into thinking this is everyone’s else’s fault. Not when so much of it is of his own doing.
He chose to set this car crash in motion when he took over from Stewart Milne and forced Derek McInnes out of the building, back in far simpler times. There was a clear understanding between the pair of these men which worked very much in Aberdeen’s favour.
What McInnes wanted, Milne did his level best to deliver. And, more often than not, the club was all the stronger for it. Cormack, though, had other ideas which was his prerogative, given how deeply he was prepared to dig into his own pockets to fund Aberdeen’s progression.
Quite simply, he believed he knew better how to get a bigger bang for his buck. It’s starting to look like a very costly mistake.
Perhaps now is the time for Cormack to swallow some pride and recruit a manager from McInnes’ mould. If he loves his club as much as he purports to, then he has to trust it in the hands of someone tried, tested and more qualified to make the decisions that matter.
A quick call to the out of work Neil Lennon or perhaps Gothenburg great Gordon Strachan would seem like an obvious first step. The question is, would Cormack’s ego allow him to pick up the phone?
