We all expected the wheels to come off the Aberdeen title challenge to some extent. But what we didn’t expect was for the car to drive straight off a cliff edge and plummet into the North Sea.
Defeat at Ibrox on Wednesday night felt like a new low for Jimmy Thelin. They may only have been 1-0 down with 90 minutes played, but it felt like the most comfortable win Rangers have had this season. The sight of a bamboozled Kevin Nisbet bursting a gut to cover the left-back position and head the ball back to his keeper with his team trailing well into the second half just about summed it up. No one knew what they were meant to be doing, and a Rangers team with so many demonstrable vulnerabilities were allowed to coast home.
It was Aberdeen’s sixth defeat in seven games and means they are now winless in 12. It’s the type of run hardly a club in the world would stand for without serious questions being asked of their manager. So it begs the question: why is Thelin seemingly immune to serious scrutiny?
The sheer sharpness of their descent into nothingness perhaps feeds into a feeling that once things turn, they’ll be back on track for good – or at least for long enough to repair the damage. The Dons won their first 13 games under Thelin and didn’t lose until November. They haven’t won a game since the very same month, and the reverse-Cinderella transformation, from a formidable force with genuine title aspirations into a rabble as gutless as they are clueless, surely can’t stick.
They are still fourth, after all, a position they’d likely have taken in pre-season, considering how grim things were looking this time a year ago. What’s worrying though is that this form is just about as bad as it’s been in recent years. Worse, even.
Jim Goodwin won two of his last 12 games as manager; Barry Robson won five. Neither of those men, granted, had shown the signs of improvement Thelin had early in their time at Pittodrie, while Goodwin’s decline was cartoonishly awful, exiting the Scottish Cup to Darvel in between five and six goal demolition jobs against Hearts and Hibs. But neither manager, either, oversaw lasting runs quite as bad as the one Thelin is currently on.
Is it time to sack him? Of course not. But we’re overdue serious questions being asked.
The noises from Pittodrie are that the boss has their full backing and, while they may be using their best poker face and holding talks internally, it doesn’t seem like he’s under any immediate pressure. He’s certainly been backed in the transfer market, with north of £1m spent this month alone, and the signings seem tailored to him.
The January additions of Kristen Tobers, Alexander Jensen and Jeppe Okkels simply need to work. But if one or two early performances are anything to go by, particularly Okkels’ worryingly anonymous display at Ibrox, the signs aren’t great.
Defeats at Ibrox and Celtic Park are hardly the measuring stick for managers in Scotland outside the Old Firm but there was an air of washed-out insipidity about the Dons on Wednesday night that reflected in the face of a manager who lacks personality. It’s a tongue-in-cheek gripe among the press that Thelin keeps his interviews bland and that’s fine when it’s working for him. But when it hits the fan like this, fans want to hear a bit of fire from the man in the dugout. And they’ve had nothing like it.
He’s an affable guy whose style of football has generally been a breath of fresh air for the SPFL. But it’s all gone stale and he doesn’t appear to have the answers. He just needs signings is what you hear from his apologists, but he’s now made 11 of those and five of the 10 outfielders that started at Ibrox were his signings.
Aberdeen are still fourth in the table and their season is a long way from unsaveable. Elgin City away this weekend is a chance to reset and get things back on the rails. But if 2025 continues in the same vein that 2024 ended then there’s no real defence for a man who started well but has driven off a cliff.