Aberdeen's 156-mile next manager destination might be right - the journey is the issue

The surprise news that Aberdeen had triggered a clause in Robinson’s St Mirren contract and had begun formal talks over bringing him to Pittodrie was greeted with much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Using X, Facebook and forums as wholly accurate thermometers to take the temperature of an entire fanbase would be misguided. There will be plenty Dandies who will be sitting quietly going ‘okay, let’s give Robinson a chance’. You just won’t hear them as vociferously.

So which side of the debate has most credence? When Aberdeen sacked Jimmy Thelin in early January, it was widely expected that the club would go down another continental route. Sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel has global contacts and many anticipated him to turn to his own book.

Let’s be honest: a two-month search was not expected to land 156 miles south in Paisley, where Robinson has been residing since 2022.

Robinson may well be the right choice. The 51-year-old Northern Irishman will leave St Mirren a legend. He’s won the Premier Sports Cup, taken them to Europe and finished three times in the top six of the Premiership. A generation of Buddies have never had it so good.

In the league this season, it’s been more of a struggle. St Mirren are three points above the relegation play-off position, having won once in the top flight this year. The recent formbook probably doesn’t appease Aberdeen fans.

The greater body of work should. Prior to St Mirren, Robinson was also a success at Motherwell. Northern Ireland have long thought of him as an international manager. Hibs have been admirers. And given he has achieved practically all he can in Paisley, you can understand why he would want to move on to a bigger club, a fresh challenge.

Ultimately time will tell whether the destination is the right one. Aberdeen fans certainly aren’t happy with the journey. From Thelin to Robinson, they have spent two months speaking to a number of candidates, the majority foreign. Norwegian Eirik Horneland is said to have been offered the position but a family matter became an insurmountable obstacle. German Sandro Schwarz sat inside Pittodrie a week ago to watch the Dons lose to Celtic. Chairman Dave Cormack name-checked him in a state-of-the-nation interview, where he also said Aberdeen would wait as long as it takes to land the right man.

Seven days later, St Mirren gave Aberdeen a green light for a deal to be sealed.

St Mirren and Aberdeen on similar league trajectory

In between, the Dons also capitulated in the Scottish Cup, falling 3-0 to Championship side Dunfermline Athletic in the meekest defence of the trophy they won ten months ago. Afterwards, a beaten-looking interim manager Peter Leven said that the team is “in trouble”. Those words may have prompted Cormack and Co to act.

The limpness of Aberdeen’s performance in Fife was worrying. Bottom spot is beyond them but they are only eight points clear of 11th-placed Kilmarnock, who occupy the relegation play-off position.

The irony of Robinson’s impending appointment is that St Mirren, in tenth, share similar form lines with Aberdeen, having won just once in the Premiership in 2026. Throw in that Robinson’s style of football is rightly or wrongly bracketed into the “industrial” category and you can see why some Dons fans are miffed. Earlier this season, Scottish football pundit Chris Sutton said St Mirren are an “ugly watch at times and I wouldn’t open the curtains if they were playing in the garden”.

Prettiness doesn’t always win you points. Pragmatism often does. And perhaps Cormack, having watched his team show the fortitude of a sandcastle of late, finally decided enough is enough. Inspiration may have come from Edinburgh, where Hearts plumped for ex-Dons boss Derek McInnes over a plethora of “sexier” candidates. And look where that has got them, top of the league. Sometimes the formula doesn’t have to be overcomplicated for Scottish football.

It wasn’t that long ago, though, when Aberdeen pinched Jim Goodwin from St Mirren. The Irishman failed to make the step up. Robinson is more experienced and with tangible success to his name, he is certainly better qualified.

That may not be enough solace for Aberdeen’s Red Army, who will be questioning why it has taken so long to land on a man who has been under their noses since day one. It will also raise questions about Pfannenstiel, and whether what he was bringing to the party from abroad was of sufficient quality.

In the immediate term, Aberdeen must redress the slump, and Robinson must quickly get a tune out of an expensively-assembled tombola-esque squad. There are no easy fixtures right now. Their tumble down the table has hallmarks of Hibs in 2014, when they were relegated in the play-offs following a similar slide. That happened under watch of Terry Butcher, who was appointed from Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a move that on paper, made sense.

Strip away the elongated hunt and there is logic behind Robinson, who will be Cormack’s sixth manager since sacking McInnes in early 2021. But understandably, Aberdeen fans are becoming increasingly vexed at the direction of the club, less than a year on from one of its greatest days.