Craig Brown's Dougie Dougie u-turn
Another u-turn
Craig Brown has suffered a Dougie Dougie moment and resigned from Motherwell to take charge of Aberdeen.
After holding talks with Dons pair Stewart Milne and Willie Miller on Tuesday- without being formally offered the job- Brown talked things over with his assistant Archie Knox and decided against continuing the talks.
It wasn’t quite time for street parties but having bitterly lost Mark McGhee to Aberdeen 18 months ago there was a sense of satisfaction around Fir Park at retaining the manager who took them into this season’s Europa League.
Any Motherwell fan listening in to Radio Clyde on Wednesday night would have been further reassured by Brown’s gushing homage to all things claret and amber.
The backroom and office staff were praised by Brown, the enthusiasm and honesty of the young players was highlighted, auld Broon got emotional as he described how happy he was going into work every day whilst a switch to Aberdeen would be the 15th house move of Archie Knox’s career.
Not even the most hard bitten and cynical could have doubted the sincerity of the Scotland manager.
“We had a gut feeling staying at Motherwell was the right thing to do,” Brown explained. “The other hugely influential thing was the attitude of the players. The response we’ve had since taking over has been exceptional.
“These players are so diligent and conscientious. The staff are also outstanding, we have the best backroom staff in the league.
“Motherwell is the club where it all began for me really, so the place is very close to my heart. It would very difficult to match that and very difficult to leave.”
He added touchingly: “Stephen (Craigan Motherwell captain)came in and thanked us for staying. It was a great touch and I believe he was speaking on behalf of the whole squad.
“He spoke to us at lunchtime and it was a nice thing for myself and Archie to hear. If you had any doubts they are removed when your captain says something like that.
“We can only achieve success by sticking together and working even harder than we have been. The players have been magnificent since we came here and it’s a small squad, so we know week in, week out we’re asking a lot from them.”
“They are a superb bunch of boys and one of the main reasons we decided to stay at Fir Park.”
Those comments seemed pretty adamant, just like Dougie Dougie two months ago at Tannadice Brown seemed surer than sure that he had made the right decision.
However at some stage on Thursday Brown decided to leave behind the best backroom staff in the league and the superb boys in the Motherwell playing squad to head north.
On Saturday, for reasons that we may now find out about as he’s unveiled today at Pittodrie, Brown will be in charge of Aberdeen leaving Motherwell searching for a new manager.
Brown’s first home match, next Saturday, is at home to Motherwell!
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