Jimmy Thelin’s 18-month spell in charge of Aberdeen can be described as a real football rollercoaster – one which reached the ultimate high, last season’s Scottish Cup glory, but which also plunged to some real lows.
The appointment of the Swede in the summer of 2024 was widely welcomed as a move showing the club were thinking out of the box. He arrived in Scotland with a big managerial reputation back in his homeland but he’s just not been able to succeed in the Scottish Premiership.
It is hard to put your finger on exactly why – he has certainly been backed financially, more than any other Aberdeen manager.
Despite that, his teams have consistently failed to deliver – a fifth-placed Premiership finish last season and their current position of eighth bearing testament to that.
He brought in a lot of players – a few, the likes of Peter Ambrose and Kusini Yengi, have seen barely any game time, while a lot of the others have, so far, failed to impress. The football that has been served up has also been a tough watch.
While fans and boards of directors can accept losing if there is a clear sign of progress, they won’t accept it if there is little, or no, evidence that the team is heading in the right direction. That was the point the Red Army, and the Pittodrie powerbrokers, were at.
Has all of the above been down to coaching, tactics or recruitment? Possibly a bit of everything. The only surprise is perhaps that it has taken so long for the change to be made.
There have been a number of points during this campaign where I have walked away from post-match interviews with Thelin thinking he was a beaten man and his time was up, but he managed to soldier on – until now.
I will remember him as being a thoroughly nice man – but being nice doesn’t win you football matches. Maybe he was too nice, who knows.
It will be fascinating to see the route the club now go down as they seek to bring in their 26th permanent manager. That process will be led by recently appointed sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel. The German’s arrival was accompanied by a lot of talk about his global network of contacts.
Given that, will the Dons go international again – or can the solution to their managerial conundrum be found much closer to home? We will find out over the coming weeks.