Jimmy Riddle

The honeymoon is well and truly over. The great white hope that is Jimmy Calderwood is now being questioned by the fans. A run of four successive league defeats, eight league games without a win and a mere 2 points out of the last 24 available in the league has seen Aberdeen's successful start to the season slip into reverse. Some would say that this run of poor form alone is enough to justify open season on Calderwood criticism, but there have been other reasons for some fans to start worrying about Jimmy's credentials. But are they warranted?

Firstly, the Dons recent performances. There is no doubt that the bare statistics are woeful, particularly after the solid start to the season. We all know the Ebbe quote relating to statistics, but the on-field performances, while not being as gruesome as some during Mr. Skovdahl's era, have been short of inspiration at times. This is very disappointing, but they are also a reality check. If we had inconsistently gathered 36 points in bits and pieces over the season and were in the same position we are in now, we would be quite happy - fifth place, 7 points clear of the bottom six. This is what Jimmy was brought in to do – get us in to the top six after our eleventh place finish last season. But the way that our season has gone - great start, poor in the last two-and-a-half months - makes it more difficult for us be happy. Frankly, at the beginning of the season we played pretty much the same way as we are playing now but we got the results. The 1-0 win at Dunfermline last August could easily have been a 2-1 to them, but we rode our luck. We did not against Dunfermline last Saturday - and as we were beaten by a goal against the run of play, we could just as easily have won that one as well.

Jimmy has also been missing his main summer signing, vice-captain Scott Severin. This is a player who in most fans' eyes would have cruised to Dons Player of the Year this season, if he had not fallen to serious injury at the very beginning of the year. It is unwise to ignore the effect this has had on the team in terms of the ability to win the ball in the middle of the park and having some leadership in the centre of the ‘spine' of the team. Due to the current state of Scottish Football, no club can have a large squad with the requisite quality to cope with the loss of as vital a cog in the team's engine. In the circumstances, the Dons have battled fairly well, and have not lost a game by more than a solitary goal during the bad patch. On Saturday, as well as our vice-captain, our captain (Russell Anderson) and the last few seasons' vice-captain (David Preece) were missing, as were Noel Whelan and, for 80 minutes of the game, this season's Mr Consistency, Michael Hart. Zander Diamond did not look fit yet after his recent injury, and this season's Mr Inconsistency, Kevin McNaughton, was given the captain's armband and his unfamiliar midfield role. Yet despite all this, before the Pars' winner, Aberdeen had all the pressure and looked far more likely to grab the winner.

This is an example of how recent games have not been going Aberdeen's way, and if each individual game during the poor run is analysed, a single incident in each game can be isolated that cost us the game. Versus Hibs in December – Preece's sending off in the first half (even then, we were unlucky not to have grabbed an equaliser in the last twenty minutes where we had Hibs pinned back – not much sign of their much-vaunted ‘great football' then…). Versus Dundee – Craig's sending off. Versus Celtic – Sutton's deflected goal. Versus rangers – Esson's flap. Versus Hearts – Pressley's dive. Versus Dunfermline – Byrne/Esson's mistake. This is not to say that most of these are not an Aberdeen player's fault or regular football occurrences, but the question here is: what control over these does the manager have? Jimmy Calderwood is under scrutiny here, and he cannot control individual errors.

Of course, if we were controlling games, then an individual error would not make any difference, right? That is a fair point, but it can be argued that we have been playing like this all season. The only games we have controlled are the Livingston games and the Inverness Caley Thistle ‘away' game at Pittodrie. The rest have been very tight, and either side on the day could have taken the points. Yet, when we are getting the results there are no murmurings questioning the management's credentials, despite the performances being very similar all season.

It is not only on the park that Jimmy has come in for some criticism in recent weeks. His handling of the media has been under scrutiny by some fans, particularly throughout the transfer window. It could be said that Jimmy was attempting to conduct his transfer dealings in the press, and came up looking ridiculous when we failed to get such targets as Lovell, Nicholson and O'Brien. However, another way of looking at this is that Jimmy was using commendable nous in attempting to unsettle the players. All three were quite comfortable at their current homes, and sometimes the only way to shake them up a bit is to let them know they are wanted, and that their present club is prepared to let them go. The tactic did not work, but this was not due to Calderwood's efforts: it was despite them. If all three had moved to other clubs or signed contract extensions, we would be up in arms asking why Jimmy did not at least enquire about them. Using the press is, and has always been, a valid manoeuvre in transfer wheeling and dealing. There are arguments on both sides here – that it is best to deal with players behind closed doors, and that the press should be used as a transfer tool – but the point is that Jimmy is of the latter persuasion and there is no changing that.

However, questions about Jimmy's media skills arose again at the weekend as he criticised Richie Byrne a mere two weeks after signing him. On the face of it, this seems at the least harsh and at the most unprofessional. Nevertheless, Byrne did make a basic error for the goal, and Jimmy was asked directly about it by the press and perhaps he used the opportunity as a motivational spur for Byrne, letting him know that higher standards are expected at Pittodrie than at East End Park. If you look at exactly what Jimmy said, he is actually complimenting Byrne while giving him a roasting: “It was amateur stuff and he should be big enough to handle that sort of situation.” This suggests that Byrne clearly has the ability, but on this occasion he was poor. This is surely unarguable, as every fan at the game saw Byrne struggle, and Jimmy knows how good the lad is – after all, he has bought him twice!

Jimmy's never been in the situation of managing as high profile a club as Aberdeen, and he does not seem to be doing very well in the PR department at the moment. At the start of the season he was applauded for his media skills – being friendly, self-depreciating and not overplaying our decent start to the season – but arguably it is easy to be friendly when the team is doing well. He is feeling more pressure just now, and is perhaps not coping as well with it in the press as he might. This is of far less importance than getting the team performing on the park though, and is a distraction that we should perhaps just forget about.

The next three games are vital for our season. We MUST beat Livingston, who are the poorest team in the division, and then it is the United double-header that could very easily be the difference between an exciting run-in, or nothing. The fans must get behind the team for these games regardless of any niggling misgivings. The time to judge the new management team is next season, and while that does not mean that they are above criticism at the moment, perhaps it does mean sometimes giving what is still a new manager at this club the benefit of the doubt.