False Dons

“I don’t like looking back, but the success we had last year was built on us playing with a lot of confidence, being difficult to beat, and we did the dirty things well, defending, getting in amongst people,” says Jimmy Calderwood, a frown creasing his bold, exuberant features. “We’re not doing that well enough and the other side of our game hasn’t been consistent enough either.”

It was only goal difference that separated Aberdeen from Hibernian and third place in the Premierleague last season. Now they are further behind, the distance measured in points, defeats, lack of confidence. Calderwood attempted to improve the side during the summer, signing five new players, yet the team has faltered, losing its way and so also its certainty. You wonder if the side’s balance has been upset by their arrival, but then Markus Heikkinen, the midfielder who provided so much ballast, also left for Luton and maybe it is his departure that is proving more destabilizing. “The big question is, how do we get out of the hole that we’ve dug for ourselves?” adds Calderwood from behind a veil of puzzlement.

It is only a brief confusion. Calderwood is a manager of substance, with each of his previous five seasons in Scotland bringing progress from the year before. Sitting behind a desk in the Pittodrie media room his presence seems to fill it, as though you can reach out to touch his irrepressibility. His team travelled to Ibrox last month and played with focused determination in a 0-0 draw, then three days later lost meekly in the CIS Cup quarter-final at Fir Park. This unevenness so maddened Calderwood that he ranted at the referee after the Motherwell game, which earned him a two-match touchline ban, and then lambasted his players to the media.

“It (inconsistency) is the worse thing in football,” he sighs, a sound that seems so hollow from one so jaunty. “The day after, I was reading a few of the papers and I thought, ‘Whoaf, was I too hard on them?’ but I wasn’t. What can you do? It’s no use hiding. That’s when you see what kind of group you’ve got. We think we’ve signed good players, but at the moment they’re not performing and the jury is, probably rightly, out. It’s up to them to show us, but we think we’ve signed good people.”

He smiles, a big, beaming, generous gesture, and for a moment it is though he hasn’t a care in the world. Calderwood is an optimist, but also a believer. There are a number of individuals in his squad whom he trusts and he knows that time will prove him right. Of the newcomers, only Jamie Smith has performed well, his goals and his surging movement carrying him into the Scotland squad. Barry Nicholson, whose runs from deep became a character trait at Dunfermline, has been only an outline of himself so far, while Steve Lovell, the former Dundee striker, has struggled with injuries and Stevie Crawford remains beset by the hesitancy that has dogged him since he left East End Park for Plymouth last season.

Other players, too, have quivered with doubt. Russell Anderson, normally so reliable, has had good days and bad, Scott Severin’s dominance has shrivelled and, most noticeably of all, Zander Diamond has wavered haphazardly. At times, the spindly defender has seemed as panic stricken as a child who has suddenly forgotten how to ride his bike, and his predicament embodies the thinness of Calderwood’s options. “He’s got the bottle to come back,” Calderwood stresses. “But how long do you let it go on? If you’ve got everybody fit, you may need to say, ‘Zander, come and have a wee look from the dugout for a game or two’.”

So where, in this team of shadows, will the guiding light come from? The answer, of course, is from within each of them. “I’m not running away from any responsibility, but you can only do so much as a manager. It’s up to your players,” Calderwood adds. “You need leaders when you’re not winning. But we wouldn’t have got where we did last season if we didn’t have character. We’ve got to stand up and be counted. That’s why it’s great that we’re playing Hearts, in a strange sort of way.”

The visit of the Tynecastle side today brings together two clubs that are strangers to serenity. For Aberdeen, it is on the field that the sureness of their footing has slipped; for Hearts, it is only on the pitch that they seem convincing. Calderwood played for Birmingham against Graham Rix’s Arsenal side, and he looks askance when he is told that it has been front- page news that the recently- appointed Hearts head coach, who is a convicted sex offender, will be accompanied by a minder at Pittodrie.

“Is that right?” Calderwood asks with a quizzical squint. “Oh well, I got one when I went back to Dunfermline. I thought it was quite funny then, actually. If you’re born in Castle-milk and you’ve lived in Govan, there wasn’t much fear going to Dunfermline. But it’s sad that it’s front page news (for Rix), is it not? Okay, he’s done what he’s done — and we’re just talking about football here, it’s for other people to decide for themselves about it — but players who’ve worked for him say he’s a great coach. I actually think it makes our task a lot harder. They’ll be wanting to prove themselves and they know with all the nonsense going on that there’s going to be a certain atmosphere. But win, lose or draw, he is very welcome to come in for a drink.”

Calderwood insists that he “expects the Old Firm to be above Hearts at the end of the season”, but that does not dilute the significance he would take from a positive result. In a way, the swirling drama around the Tynecastle club clouds the reality of just how important this match is for Aberdeen. They need a lift, a sign that they can rediscover their direction. Calderwood is asked if he has a message for the supporters and his answer reveals the other complexity of this match: its effect on the home side.

“Our fans?” he says carefully. “It’s nothing to do with Hearts, but we’ve let our fans down badly and the message is, ‘Back us to the hilt’, because you always need your fans on your side. We’ll try to win this game to get a bit of prestige back into our season. And if we’re winning the game then they don’t need to be bothered with that kind of stuff about Rix.”

There is the lingering trace of a siege mentality within Pittodrie. After supporters were critical of the team in the city’s newspapers, the players in turn refused to speak to the local press after the Motherwell defeat. While Calderwood has variously described the players publicly as “amateurs”, “too nice” and “not good enough” this season, he is merely repeating accusations he has made to them in the dressing room. With his own popularity, among supporters and the media, still intact, it is the players who are carrying the brunt of the responsibility. As Calderwood says, there is now no place to hide.

“It’s not a case of the players sulking,” says Crawford, who signed from Dundee United in August. “We know we can do better. We can’t guarantee a result, but we can work harder and hopefully turn the corner. We understand the fans’ frustration and there’s no excuses. The manager doesn’t hold his feelings back and it can be hard to take sometimes in the dressing room, but at least you know exactly where you stand. One week we ’re up and the next we’re down and that’s probably what does his head in. The boys know it wasn’t acceptable against Motherwell and hopefully there will be a reaction against Hearts.”

There has to be. Aberdeen have lost something, the traits that brought assurance. If this season isn’t to slip into obscurity, they must rediscover themselves

Taken from timesonline.co.uk