Stephen Robinson's Aberdeen reign is over inside eight months, with the head coach sacked after winning just three from 12 Premiership matches this season. The Dons sit second bottom and Saturday's 4-0 home defeat by Hibernian was their fourth straight loss in all competitions. Brian Kerr and Stephen Craigan have also left the club, with Stuart Duff placed in interim charge.
Club hero Willie Miller described Saturday's result as "utterly embarrassing", going on to tell BBC Sportsound listeners that Robinson resembled "a man lost". The 51-year-old former Northern Ireland international previously managed Oldham Athletic, Motherwell, Morecambe and St Mirren. On the back of three successive top-six finishes and a League Cup triumph, Robinson left the Paisley side for Aberdeen in March, agreeing a contract until the summer of 2029.
The sixth permanent manager since Dave Cormack took control at Pittodrie in November 2019, he steered the Dons away from relegation trouble last term before overhauling the squad with 15 signings. Across 28 games in all competitions, Robinson departs with a record of 11 wins, five draws and 12 defeats. The next manager will inherit a squad low on confidence, the joint lowest scorers in the league.
Robinson chopped and changed between four and five at the back but that yielded just two top-flight clean sheets. Of the plethora of summer recruits, only goalkeeper Marius Muller and full-back Nesta Guinness-Walker have played in every league game. Top scorer Kevin Nisbet is the other player to have done the same and scunnered fans cheered when the captain was replaced at the weekend.
"The players aren't up to scratch, not up to playing at this level and dealing with high-ish expectations," was the damning assessment from Miller. "I'm not talking about trophies, I'm talking about being in the top six and they're nowhere near that." After the international break, Aberdeen travel to face Kilmarnock on 21 November then visit Rangers three days later before their next home game against Dundee on 28 November. Former Aberdeen captain, manager & director Willie Miller You are looking at 15 payers out and 15 players in, so it is a huge turnaround of players, was that all Stephen Robinson?
I would imagine probably yes but I don't know because I am not privy to that information. But at the same time, when you make that amount of changes, when you have assessed the squad and to be fair on Stephen as well he came in at a very uncertain time and relegation perhaps staring the club in the face so he managed initially to get the performances with the players he inherited. But then you make all the changes with the support from the board, you bring all these new players in and I think there was never a stable formation either.
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