The thing about Dave Cormack…

Dave Cormack has been at the club for a while now. Time for a closer look.

I should probably start with I have no doubt Dave Cormack is a good bloke, a passionate Dandy, exceptionally intelligent, exceptionally hard working, he will have some incredible talents that got him where he is today. He also, much like the rest of us, won’t like being criticised. Albeit, as with Stewart Milne, if he is a bit thin skinned, he can afford to go out and buy a thicker one.

The thing about Dave though, well at the time of writing it’s been an interesting few days regarding the naming of the training hub thang. I have no particular opinion on it, but it was interesting to observe the reactions. In retrospect, maybe it could have been announced with a little more subtlety. Perhaps a big old reminder of what he had financially contributed could have been gently dropped into a story 48 hours before the announcement. Everything is easy in retrospect.

You pay for it, you can paint it pink and call it Ermentrude if you want. Looking at the supporter reaction, it was more how long he had been associated with the club, that was an issue for those who had a problem, plus those associated with the club not appearing to have been honoured via a naming.

The following day was the pitch naming competition. Ouch. I wonder if that was planned, or at least rushed forward due to concerns at some of the backlash towards Cormack. I personally found this part, unbelievably insensitive. As I put into the meme on WIllie Miller’s achievements with the club. Let me just take that apart.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s name is not on the list, so we can deduct something bigger, one should hope, stand sized is planned there. Then nothing is planned for Willie Miller. Nothing. This deeply concerns me as to just who is in charge of our club.

Presumably there will be a Gothenburg Greats’ Stand. I’d imagine Dick Donald, or Donald Family stand will come too. Leaving one stand for? Who knows… There will of course be corners, bars, hot dog stands, walkways, and enormous bus queues to name after former players and managers. And hopefully a Teddy Scott pavilion at the training centre shouldn’t be beyond someone to come up with.

The number 6 should be retired from our club, and should already have happened. I personally think there ought to be a Miller and McLeish Stand. The central defensive partnership locked together forever. No disrespect to all the greats who left to go to better things, those two gave their entire careers to Aberdeen FC, and could have left a number of times. What they won together is phenomenal. There ought to be a statue of Willie with the trophy outside the stadium, and when Scotland gains independence from an openly corrupt Westminster, Union Street to become Willie Miller Avenue. It’s good having your own blog.

There is a serious point there though. Also Pittodrie has three stands, with no names. Nothing since the Dick Donald monstrosity was put up. Nothing to commemorate Chris Anderson, or anyone else associated with the club. They could have named the stands, and taken the names with them. We’ve already lost a Gothenburg Great. Sir Alex Ferguson has suffered a stroke and is 77 years old. Peter Weir only went into the Hall of Fame last year. Eric Black isn’t in yet. If anything happens to these people without them seeing what is being done in their honour, then fucking shame on you. Naming stuff after people, isn’t for us, it’s for them, and their families, to honour their achievements.

It all goes back to the uncanny feeling that Aberdeen Football Club has been in mothballs the last 25 years. Because Milne really isn’t interested in football, or Aberdeen FC. I also don’t think he is interested in money. That’s why Milne is so successful in business. He loves the deal, he loves building. I watched Willie Miller being inducted to the Hall of Fame, the body language between Milne and Miller was fascinating. A huge hug from Milne to Miller. Willie’s eyebrows almost went off the top of his head in surprise. Is the Willie Miller oversight, really an oversight?

This is revealing so much about those in charge of our club. Because it is our club. Milne has put X amount in, Cormack has put X amount in, but the biggest benefactor of all to Aberdeen FC is the supporters, who put in, what is it on a 15 million plus turnover per year, every year? Is it, all of it? It’s our club. Yet no fans’ representative on the board. No liaison officer, on big picture decisions. And while I’ve no doubt a lot of very good people work at Pittodrie, thay are hardly going to risk their jobs stating their opinions on the governance of our club. They can only be surrounded by yes men and women that they have appointed.

So when Cormack announced we could sell out half of Hampden for a semi-final a year back, a number of Afc employees would have known that wasn’t the case off the top of their heads. As it’s their job to know it. But they presumably weren’t consulted…

So a stadium eight miles from the city centre with a highly flawed transport infrastructure. We trust these people why? Oh no, mustn’t criticise the rich men, they may stop funding our club, they may walk away, and we are destroyed like that club that died? That’s the same man who ran up the debt. The same man who destroyed Pittodrie. His company has received an enormous amount of publicity through his association with the club. Like Richard Branson, every time he is in the media, is a free advert. He is the brand. His name on the company, he dresses in all black, the logo on the adverts is black. That’s not coincidental.

And talk of the investment from the US that Cormack has brought in. Investment? So they are investing money with a view to getting all that money back, and a whole lot more. What are they being promised? These people are not local, they are not Afc supporters, they have no emotional connection to our club. So they will want that money back, and then some. What on earth of the club’s future is being mortgaged?

I want to like them, I want to trust them, a training pitch named after Willie Miller, only if he wins the vote, jumps through the hoop, and what of those who lose? They have insulted some legends, just another bad decision, that’s you respecting our legends is it? It points to any scepticism on their suitability to lead our club forward to be bang on the fucking nose.