Aberdeen chairman uses Hearts and Hibs example over where Dons have had to improve amid next manager search
The Aberdeen chairman has made a Hearts and Hibs reference in a lengthy address
Dave Cormack has used a Hearts and Hibs example to show the challenges Aberdeen now face at Premiership level.
The Dons won the Scottish Cup in 2025 but that has been an outlier in an otherwise difficult Premiership stint since Hearts gaffer Derek McInnes’ departure in 2021. Aberdeen have twice had European group or league phase football, but have also had bottom six battles, including this season where they look destined to miss out on a top half finish.
They have been without a manager for most of this year since Jimmy Thelin’s sacking and face Celtic at Pittodrie on Wednesday night. McInnes made Europe and top three finishes a regularity during his Aberdeen stint on top of a League Cup triumph, but some of that came amid Hearts and Hibs spending time in the Championship, while Rangers rose through the divisions after administration. Cormack insists the top flight in Scotland is now a far stronger environment they’d had to keep pace with.
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He said when asked if he was worried about the club’s league position: “You can be worried about it. But we've got to make sure on the league position that we maintain a distance from that 11th best spot.”
Cormack later added: “Nobody promises you a bed of roses in life. You have to deal with what you've got but we talked about this a bit earlier. Some people think this is like a vanity project for me. Well, after nine years and £26m, right? A little bit of abuse, ok, a lot of abuse at times. This for us is, in a lot of ways, a labour of love.
“People often remind you that it's a marathon and not a sprint. So when we talk about six years with the stadium, talking to the council and trying to do that, getting Cormack Park in place, getting the investment in place to compete. It is way, way, way more competitive, this league now than it was 10 years ago.
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“Hearts and Hibs, relegated, Rangers coming up from the leagues, and so we've had to step up as well. I think we have. The key thing from here is getting better return for what we're investing and getting some consistency.”
As they hunt a new manager, former Mainz and New York Red Bulls boss Sandro Schwarz is in the frame, amid delays around Eirik Horneland who recently left post at Saint-Etienne. Cormack added on Red TV: "The preponderance of coaches coming forward want, for health reasons or otherwise, a fresh start in the summer. They want a full pre-season to get their methodology instilled.
"What I would say is that we had a shortlist of about four candidates and we narrowed that and some of these guys aren't necessarily available to come and look at Aberdeen and look at what we have here. It's important that we keep confidentiality because if candidates don't want you to talk about them then we have to respect that. The situation with one of the candidates is that there's a personal challenge, family-wise, that we have to respect. One I can talk about because he said it was OK to mention it is that visiting from yesterday through to the Celtic game is Sandro Schwarz. He's here to check us out and vice versa, but he's a candidate."