Desperately seeking success

ANDREW SMITH

NOT everyone of an Aberdeen disposition will be determined to make Graham Rix feel as uncomfortable as possible this afternoon. The club are to place an extra steward beside the away technical area, approve their tannoy announcer's play-list and vet any supporters' banners to prevent Rix's first match as Hearts head coach from descending into a nasty, public humiliation of a convicted sex offender.

Their efforts are almost certain to prove futile but at least Rix should receive a warm welcome from Aberdeen's players. Principally because Jimmy Calderwood's charges will know full well that, were it not for the distracting presence of the Englishman, the indignation of the home fans would be reserved for them.

"If we're winning the game, or playing well and looking like doing so, then the fans don't need to bother with that kind of stuff [about Rix]," says Calderwood, who diplomatically judges Hearts latest appointment only as a "football person" and so "a great coach", by repute. "I'd hope our performance takes all the stuff away from that."

Few regular observers of Aberdeen this season would place any great store in such a turn of events. A city that obsesses, often neurotically, about the exploits of its football team is once more hacked off by their on-field misadventures. Just as with John Cleese's character in the film Clockwise, it is not failure that the Pittodrie faithful cannot stand so much as the hope preceding it.

In the summer, Calderwood talked up a squad he spent £500,000 on transfer fees augmenting; the largest investment in player bounties of any side, Hearts included, outside the Old Firm. Between buys and Bosmans, Barry Nicholson, Jamie Smith, Steve Lovell, Jamie Langfield and Stevie Crawford were attracted to Pittodrie in what seemed impressive playing of the market from the Aberdeen manager. His enthusiasm over the enhanced possibilities for a team only pipped for the UEFA Cup-earning third place by goal difference in his first season was therefore entirely understandable. Entirely inexplicable is what has happened since, however.

Aberdeen are now languishing in seventh place in the Premierleague after only one victory - the obligatory win over Dundee United - in eight matches. The malfunctioning of all areas of Calderwood's side in the CIS Cup defeat away to Motherwell a fortnight ago has proved a damn-bursting moment for the Pittodrie faithful.

Out they have poured their frustrations in press phone polls and hotlines. In these hardly a soul within the playing department has been spared, and certainly not Calderwood. He has been berated for tactical tinkering that has left Aberdeen with no fixed formation in switching between 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-5-2 and, even, 3-4-2-1. It matters not to the critics that regular reconfiguring of team set-ups has always been a feature of his modus operandi.

The endearingly garrulous Calderwood didn't exactly help his own cause in lambasting his players following the cup exit at Fir Park, however. He raged about their lack of "passion and anger" and questioned whether it was going to have to be "goodnight to some of them" if they continually under-performed and failed to show the "desire needed" to play for the Pittodrie club. Calderwood can hardly be surprised if punters have now taken up such themes and run with them, although they have yet to run to him with any such gripes.

"The local paper has been scathing, but people have jobs to do and if that happens, it happens. It is up to us to try and change it," Calderwood says. "It was all hosanna last season so you can't say 'that's great but I don't accept this side, I don't think it's fair'. But the sickening thing, the annoying thing, is that I've never had it personally and it has all been these phone-ins in the local paper.

"In a year and a half, or even the past couple of weeks, no-one has come to me [and complained]. They have been absolutely brilliant with me. You have to accept the good with the bad and that is why we need good people, with character, to get out of it. I've been lacking a few things in my time but I don't think character is one of them."

As a team, Aberdeen have been bereft in every respect of late, the consistently excellent Smith and the dependable Russell Anderson apart. It just has not happened for new signings Nicholson and Lovell, currently injured. In addition, Scott Severin, now sidelined with a foot fracture, has been shifted around unhelpfully. To some, indeed, a lack of cohesion throughout can be attributed to Markus Heikkinen, a natural midfield partner for Severin, joining Luton in the close season.

Aberdeen have fared little better in defence. Emerging centre-back Zander Diamond has undone his good work of last season over an error-strewn period capped by a red card in the loss to Motherwell. His frightening faltering has helped deny the side the solidity that was integral to them earning points and plaudits aplenty last season. Calderwood bemoans that his backline did not do "the dirty things, like getting in among people" in the CIS Cup defeat. The Aberdeen manager does not accept that he did the dirty on his players by publicly hanging them out to dry. Had he not, it seems his sanity might have been threatened in a profession he admits regularly messes with his mind.

"The day after the cup-tie I was reading a few papers and I thought 'whoaf, was I too hard on them?', but I wasn't. Then you see big Chissy [Gordon Chisholm] complaining about Dundee United, big Alan Kernaghan complaining about Dundee and what's happening with big Alex [McLeish] and think, 'Jesus, what are we doing this for'?

"But that is only a moment. Sometimes you feel like that at quarter to five, or half-past 10 on a Tuesday night if it's that bad. What can you do? You have to keep trying to instil in them what brought you success. It is when you are in this situation that you see what kind of group you have. We think we have signed good players. Wee Jamie's done brilliantly but at the moment the rest are not performing and the jury is, probably rightly, out.

"I spoke to Sir Bobby Robson a couple of weeks ago and it is not just about signing good players - or what you think are - but signing good people who can drive you out of the kind of run we are on. It is all right when you are winning, but you need leaders when you are not. I'm not running away from my responsibility, but you can only do so much and then it is up to your players. You have shockers but if you are a good person you get over them and won't be hiding."

Calderwood concedes, though, that he may be forced to place Diamond in temporary hiding as a consequence of the 20-year-old suffering a debilitating dose of the backpedaling blues. Indeed, only when facing the team in blue that plays out of Ibrox, as in the scoreless draw there a fortnight ago, has Diamond had any sparkle.

"Everything went crescendo, hosanna, great for Zander last season but he's the intense sort who will go home and worry about why it isn't now," the Aberdeen manager states. "But he has the bottle to come back. He knows he has made mistakes but at Ibrox he played really well. Then at Motherwell it was Russell's touch that got Zander sent off. The lad knows himself and he's off saying 'sorry, lads I made a mistake'. Zander does not hide. That is his character and with the way he is you just hope he comes back. But as a manager the question is: how long do you let it go on if it is happening all the time? If we have everybody fit, I may need to say, 'Zander, come and have a wee look from the dug-out for a game or two'."

As with all others following the Pittodrie club's fortunes, any such experience might unavoidably involve grimacing helplessly. Calderwood could give the youngster lessons in that.

Taken from the Scotsman