It's not exactly been a slow week football-wise, has it? I'm honour-bound, however, to leave Newcastle United and Schadenfreude for another time. After all, we've had an SPL season with only one managerial change (which came too late for ICT, but let's not talk about that), and then, as soon as the season is over, out the door go Jimmy Calderwood and Gordon Strachan. Both departures, though will have caused only mild surprise. What is surprising, and mystifying, is the way both managers had been vilified by their support; fiddling their expenses and getting season-ticket holders to pay for cleaning their moats could hardly have made them less popular.
I've discussed Calderwood and his perma-tan before, and the fact that, with gradually diminishing resources, he has kept taking Aberdeen into the top six. Heck, the Dons squeezed into the (appalling named and utterly pointless) Europa League at the expense of Dundee United, but United fans will remain convinced that Craig Levein can walk on water. So Aberdeen have buggered up cup runs a few times in recent years against lower division teams, does that really constitute a stick to beat the management team with?
It's unclear at the moment whether Tangoman jumped or was pushed, but he will fancy his chances of getting a half decent job down South where, in the Championship or League One, he will show exactly what he can accomplish with half-decent resources; lets face it, if Aberdeen couldn't even afford to keep Chris-runs about a lot but does nowt else-Clark last season and Jamie-can't keep his hamstring intact for more than 10 minutes-Smith this summer, they must be dirt-poor. And, considering the expectation, who would take the job?
Strachan's departure was expected last season, and the fact that he had once said that four years was about the longest time a manager should stay at a club like Celtic, many suspected him to walk, title or no. Gordon might be about as good at PR as the Catholic Church, but considering his success at home and abroad, the level of criticism from Celtic fans over the last few years is astounding as well. Its hard to discern much more depth to this level of dislike other than "he isn't Martin O'Neill"; would it be unreasonable to wonder whether this was due to Strachan's lack of any links to Celtic or Ireland, rather than footballing reasons? You tell me.
The big problem for Celtic is that there is no obvious candidate to walk into the job. The likes of David Moyes have been mentioned, but at this moment in time, I would say that Everton are a bigger club than Celtic, and have better players as well. Moyes, frankly, would be a fool to walk away from Merseyside - he hasn't yet taken Everton as far as he can, I reckon.
It will be very interesting indeed to see how things pan out at both clubs during the close season, but I will quite happily bet anyone 20 quid that both sides finish next season with fewer points. Calderwood was the best thing to happen to Aberdeen for more than a decade, while Strachan, in hindsight, may well turn out to have got Celtic punching rather far above their weight...
L.
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