Stephen Robinson is out at Aberdeen. The 51-year-old was sacked on Monday, less than eight months after he arrived, with the club second bottom of the Scottish Premiership and still reeling from Saturday's 4-0 home defeat by Hibernian. It was the Dons' fourth loss in a row in all competitions, and the board decided that was enough.
Robinson is not leaving alone. Brian Kerr and Stephen Craigan have also left the club, and Stuart Duff has been placed in interim charge while Aberdeen look for a replacement.
The numbers that ended it
Three wins from twelve league games is the figure that sticks. Across all competitions Robinson managed 28 matches and finished with 11 wins, five draws and 12 defeats. Aberdeen are the joint lowest scorers in the league, and they have kept just two clean sheets in the top flight, despite Robinson shuffling between a back four and a back five.
The squad itself tells a story too. Fifteen players came in over the summer, yet only goalkeeper Marius Muller and full-back Nesta Guinness-Walker have featured in every league game, alongside top scorer Kevin Nisbet. Even Nisbet, the captain, was cheered off by fed-up supporters at the weekend.
Miller and McLeish on what went wrong
Club hero Willie Miller did not hold back after the Hibs game, calling it utterly embarrassing and telling BBC Sportsound that Robinson looked like a man who was lost. He went further when judging the players, saying they were not up to scratch for a team with top-six expectations. Asked about the summer recruitment, Miller pointed out that fifteen out and fifteen in is a huge turnover, and that Robinson inherited a club in a shaky spot in March before he was given backing to rebuild.
Alex McLeish took a gentler line. The former Aberdeen defender said he did not blame the board, who he feels have worked hard to bring the club back to a decent level, but he accepted that recruitment is everything and that a lot of the new signings have yet to show what they can do.
Another managerial search for Bevington and Pfannenstiel
Robinson was the sixth permanent manager since Dave Cormack took control at Pittodrie in November 2019. He moved from St Mirren in March, on a contract running to the summer of 2029, after three straight top-six finishes and a League Cup win in Paisley. His arrival was never widely welcomed by the Red Army, and BBC Sport Scotland's Tyrone Smith wrote that he looked like he was swimming against the North Sea tide from the start.
The next appointment will fall to recently installed chief executive Adrian Bevington and sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel, who are said to have strong contact books. They will need them. The new man inherits a low-confidence squad, with Kilmarnock away on 21 November, Rangers away three days later, and a home game against Dundee on 28 November waiting after the international break.
Club context: Robinson (51) left Aberdeen after 28 games in all competitions (W11 D5 L12), having signed a deal to summer 2029 in March. Stuart Duff is interim head coach. Next fixtures: Kilmarnock (A) 21 Nov, Rangers (A) 24 Nov, Dundee (H) 28 Nov. Source: BBC Sport.
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