yet though Jimmy Thelin hasn’t yet arrived in the nation, analysts have already questioned why he was chosen for the Aberdeen position rather than the typical group of managers with Scottish roots.

Stephen Robinson, Neil Lennon, and Malky Mackay have been named most frequently. The argument put up is that these people, who are familiar with the Scottish game, are undoubtedly better possibilities than this stranger.

Let’s evaluate that. In addition to the obvious extra baggage from a troubled history, Mackay was just fired by the squad that was in second place in the Premiership. They are currently in a relegation battle that Mackay and Derek Adams left them in, and an interim manager is attempting to rescue them. How in the universe would he get hired by one of the largest teams in the nation for his next job?

A similar-sized club to the Dons was managed by Neil Lennon in Hibs, and he left them in the bottom six and under a cloud following a falling out with those behind the scenes, despite their early success. Since then, he’s had ten straight disastrous seasons at Celtic and coached in Cyprus for a few months, winning a cup before losing his job due to poor league play.

That implies that these individuals are not even the “safe pairs of hands” that their marketing portrays them as. What is it in them that appeals to us so much more than a hungry, young manager who is bound for success? that they are familiar with the league? Given that their last assignments in that league were failures, what good is that?

Robinson is undoubtedly the exception, as he has done a fantastic job keeping St. Mirren punching above their weight. Derek McInnes would fit the same description.

But does the fact that they are from or have managed in this nation mean that they are so far apart from Thelin?

State it this way. If the Celtic or Rangers positions were up for grabs right now, would our commentators be supporting these folks and rejecting any foreign managers who ‘don’t know the league’? Naturally, no, since it seems that way for those two.

In recent weeks, Philippe Clement has begun to falter at Ibrox, but nobody has been saying, “Ah you see, they should have gone with someone that knows the league.” They would undoubtedly be with another club. Several actually belong to Nick Montgomery, who has just been at Hibs for a few more weeks.

Any other team outside the big two seems to be afraid to hire foreign managers due to some kind of phobia. They both have large, global clubs, so everyone seems to forget that they have an unspoken rule that you have to “know the league.” If that were that significant, you would assume it would matter much more at teams where there is a higher stakes for success, less room for error, and a distinct culture surrounding playing and management in Glasgow.

However, they are not prohibited from selecting Belgian managers who probably haven’t watched many Scottish football matches in their lives. Aberdeen, for example, are criticized for putting out their net and attempting something a little different.

Those who have worked with Thelin have characterized him as an impressive man. Even if they were at a lesser level, he has won titles in Sweden and shared second place in the Allsvenskan with Elfsborg. That is substantially higher than the Hammarby team led by Marti Cifuentes, who was granted the QPR job in the Championship down south and turned around the team’s form, and it is higher than the Hacken team that defeated the Pittodrie team in Europe.

This is not some obscure manager who has been rescued from obscurity; instead, he is confronted with the notion that he is unfit for the Dons and with the assumption that he is bringing someone in from overseas. Could we not welcome someone who might be a breath of fresh air in our game, someone who will probably have new ideas and be a little different from the norm here?

A few years ago, when Daniel Stendel was appointed by the Hearts, the same thing occurred. Alright, it didn’t work out, but his apparent mistrust of a foreign boss put him on the defensive even before the ball was kicked. He did not originate in Siberia. He had won League One in England, a place where our teams often source players, so why can’t they bring in a manager who has achieved success there because he’s not British?

What Malky Mackay and company’s supporters believe they could have accomplished at Pittodrie is unknown, but one thing is certain: Aberdeen supporters are far more excited about the journey Thelin could take them on.

Appointing a manager always carries some risk. Is there a greater risk involved with dating someone from abroad? The risk may be quite little, but the benefit might be far higher than accepting a “safe pair of hands” who might not be all that safe after all.

Even worse, all three of the Dons’ previous permanent managers were Scots. It makes sense why they wouldn’t find traveling down that path to be all that appealing.

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