“The noblest prospect a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England”. The writer Samuel Johnson penned those words in 1773.
He could have written them for a legion of Scottish football managers, for that’s where most of them would love to be, given the riches on offer there.
And yet Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes has bucked the trend by rebuffing the advances of Sunderland FC, newly relegated from the land of milk and honey in the Premier league, to commit to the Dons for another two years.
The former St Johnstone boss did a fine job at McDiarmid Park on a tight budget, and has subsequently made the Dons the second force in Scotland.
The managerial stock of “Del”, as he is known in the game, is at its highest, and he could easily have concluded that he can achieve no more at Pittodrie, where their most recent annual turnover of £13.45 million is dwarfed by Sunderland’s eye watering £108 million.
However, the picture is not as clear as it seems. The Wearside outfit were once known as the “Bank of England club”.
Their propensity to spend big in the race for trophies in the 1950s was ultimately unsuccessful, but they were and remain a club with enormous potential.
Their debts though, are over £100 million, and they appear to have been a chaotic outfit for some time.
McInnes would have been leaving a top Scottish club which has won the European Cup Winners Cup and the European Super Cup, appearing in 127 European matches, for an English club which has competed in Europe just four times.
Despite a reported salary of £1.5 million as an inducement, he would find himself in a fiercely competitive league, possibly asked to slash wage budgets, and would have been unlikely to have been given the time he has had at Aberdeen to restore the Wearsiders’ recent misfortunes.
McInnes was right to talk to them to see what was on offer.
He is an ambitious man and the opportunity to manage Sunderland, albeit in the English second tier, presented a chance to pit his wits against some of the great names in the game south of the border, like Aston Villa, Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, and Derby County.
He has made the right choice to stay at Pittodrie though. He has a new team to build, European football to look forward to, and in recently appointed director Dave Cormack, an influential figure with ambitious plans for the Dons.
McInnes will undoubtedly be offered the chance in future to manage in England at a big club.
The financial gap between the Scottish game and that of our behemoth neighbour is stark, and I can think of some managers who would have simply seen the pound signs and jumped at the opportunity to manage what is undoubtedly a club with great potential.
The Aberdeen boss though has looked at the broader canvas and decided it was a picture he didn’t want to be in. I think he’s made a very wise decision.
