Aberdeen fans have been left fuming with the club after their decision to stand by Jim Goodwin – at least until their clash with Hibs this weekend.
The Pittodrie club, chaired by Dave Cormack, spent 48 hours mulling over Goodwin's future after their Scottish Cup humiliation at the hands of sixth-tier Darvel in the biggest shock results in Scottish football history. It was the almighty stick that broke the camel's back for many and when the CLUB STATEMENT KLAXON sounded on Wednesday night, it was universally expected to be the end for Goodwin.
But Cormack threw expectant fans a curveball with a bizarre statement standing by him, while heaping pressure on the beleaguered boss to get "immediate results" starting at Hibs this weekend. As club statements go it was the strangest of the strange and will no doubt go down in infamy, especially if it simply proves to delay the inevitable. Cans being kicked down the road, anyone?
But it's just the latest in a long line of bizarre and notorious boardroom statements within the Scottish game. Record Sport has taken a look at some of the others down the years.
'Concomitant risk'
The period at Rangers that followed the departure of Mark Warburton was a truly bizarre one. Steven Gerrard would eventually take over and play his part in getting things back on the rails, but the 2017 appointment of Pedro Caixinha who is best remembered for arguing with fans in a hedge went down like a lead balloon, and the club were left scrambling to replace him by October.
Initially, Derek McInnes was the man they wanted but he rejected the chance to leave Aberdeen for Ibrox. That led to a Dave King statement which left confused fans and pundits Googling the word "concomitant" - which hadn't been widely used in the English language for decades. The missive also questioned McInnes’ ability for a club as big of Rangers which was strange given they wanted to appoint him in the first place.
He said: “After the two games against Aberdeen, we requested permission to engage with their manager to assess his readiness and willingness to consider the Rangers position. This was declined.
“We were subsequently made aware by Aberdeen’s statement that, at this stage in his career, it would be best for him to remain in his current post. We endorse that position because moving to a massive club like Rangers is a big step with concomitant risk."
Responding to the statement former Dons keeper David Preece said on talkSPORT: “I had a little bit of a chuckle about this last night. I don’t know what that word means - they’ve made that word up. It just looks so petty.”
Gorgie marathon
One of the best run clubs in Scotland, Hearts have their ducks in a row nowadays but it wasn't so long ago that they really did not. Incredibly, it's just two-and-a-half years since they were relegated to the Championship, with Daniel Stendel failing to pull things back after the hellish end to Craig Levein's tenure.
The premature end to the season sent them down and while fans will argue all day about whether that was fair, Hearts supporters were just as angry with the club for standing by Levein for as long as they did. The writing was on the wall after five games without a win to start the season, but rather than pull the trigger then, Budge released a marathon 1,300 word statement standing by the manager.
We're not going to post the whole thing (you can read it here) but the gist of it was that it was "too early to be panicking and tearing up our plans". Levein was sacked just over a month later.
Harper in, Harper out
On 15 November 2022, Lochee United appointed Kevin Harper as manager. On 20 November 2022, Lochee United parted company with Kevin Harper as manager.
It's since become a legal matter so probably best not to dwell on this one too much but it's a strange situation with the club claiming the decision to hire the former Hibs midfielder was made without the club committee's consent.
They said: “Lochee United can today confirm the departure of Kevin Harper as manager. The decision to hire Kevin last week was made without the ratification of the club’s committee and without the robust recruitment process led by the committee that would normally be required."
Tierney's Parkhead exit
After helping the club to nine trophies in five illustrious years of service, Kieran Tierney remains a hero in the eyes of Celtic fans despite his move to Arsenal. Offers to play for one of the top Premier League teams don't come around every day and with a club record fee at the time on the table, there was no hostility whatsoever towards one of the Hoops' modern day greats.
So when the club released a statement which appeared to lay the blame at his door, it went down about as well as you'd expect. They said: "We did all we could to keep Kieran at Celtic. While the club did not need or wish to sell Kieran, this was an opportunity which Kieran very much wished to pursue and with the club having received a significant offer, we have agreed to the transfer." Fans on social media slammed it as a "classless" attempt at "throwing him under the bus."
Short shrift for Ross
Jack Ross didn't even get a thank you for his services when he was sacked by Dundee United last year. I mean, his services only lasted about three months but, still, it's nice to be nice.
They wrote after the 9-0 defeat to Celtic: "Liam Fox will take charge of the the first team on an interim basis with the focus now fully on Wednesday’s Premier Sports Cup match with Livingston. No further comment will be issued by Dundee United at this stage."
Shota shown the door
OK, it's not strictly Scottish football, but it's worth mentioning. International breaks are normally the ideal time to sack your manager and get a new boss some time to bed in, but Hull City stood by former Rangers striker Shota Alveradze all the way through the October break – only to sack him just hours before their defeat to Luton Town.
They wrote: "During the international break, we had a number of meetings with Shota to discuss the direction of the team and the future of the club. As these meetings went on, it became clear our views weren't aligned so we have made the decision to part ways.
"Shota and Peter (van der Veen) leave with our thanks, greatest respect and fond wishes for the future. Our focus is now supporting Andy and the squad and finding the best possible candidate to drive this club forward."
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