Stale, lazy, sloppy- Derek McInnes warned that being staunch won’t be enough

Derek McInnes has been warned that his honeymoon could be as brief as Russell Martin.

Friday’s draw away to Dundee United brought the memories flooding back of last season’s failings. And the seasons before that as well.

At least Martin was detested from before he got the job as manager.

McInnes isn’t a Vegan or Buddhist, he isn’t a member of the Green Party.

He didn’t need to have the magical powers or brown brogues, a club blazer, shirt and tie and regulation grey flannels explained.

McInnes was all over it. He lives and breathes the ethos of the angry bears.

That is why he confronted Nick Walsh at the final whistle.

Playing to the gallery behind him in the Main Stand at Tannadice. After 90 plus minutes of songs that Ian Crocker wouldn’t dare to explain to Sky Sports viewers.

Despite all that the outcome was the same.

Points dropped, a lifeless performance. Players that barely look interested.

MCINNES IS WARNED OF THE STANDARDS HE MUST MATCH

Keith Jackson has watched the movie too many times.

The last 15 years have been almost constant suffering.

McInnes was supposed to change things for the better but Friday night was a huge red flag.

This morning in the Daily Record Jackson opened with:

What he witnessed for himself on Friday night at Tannadice may have come as a nasty shock to the senses. Because there is a laziness and a stale stench of complacency about some of the main players he has inherited which completely belies the fact they hardly boast a winners’ medal between them.

Laziness and a stench of complacency? Isn’t that what McInnes was expected to remove with eight sensational summer signings?

With extra staunch added to the coaching team through Allan McGregor and Jim McAllister, the natural successor to the legendary sock washer that was Jimmy Bell?

Jackson had only started.

It was the complete lack of purpose on the pitch which may have caught him slightly on the hop as he watched Rangers pick up the new season where they left off the old one.

With yet another, sloppy, half hearted performance as well as a couple of dropped league points.

That sounded like the message board frustrations from an angry bear.

But soon there was some flattery for the latest brogue wearer:

He must have been pushed very close to tearing his neatly slicked hair out at the casual, untidy and lacklustre manner in which these players set about digging themselves into the same old hole. One look at Dundee United’s opening goal will have told him a great deal about the monumental size of the task he has chosen to confront.

It seems that eight new signings hasn’t been enough.

A combination of the staunch and born leaders, a team full of captains that will never settle for a draw when three points are demanded by the baying hordes. Like at Tannadice.

Manny Fernandez seems to be the focus for much of the anger:

But the big man is symptomatic of a group of players who, for some unfathomable reason, appear to believe themselves to be a great deal better at playing football than they actually are. One look at last season’s final top flight standings ought to have slapped a few of them back to their senses. They finished third in a perennial two horse race for a very good reason having failed, once again, to add a single piece of silverware to the cabinet.

That’s why McInnes has already added eight new signings to his squad and why he will continue to bring them in right up until the last days and hours of the current transfer window.

McInnes has obliterated the fabled leadership group.

There has been no plea to bring back James Tavernier.

Jack Butland was sent to Hull City.

John Souttar has been told to find a new club. He won’t be shifting till he gets a pay off sweetener.

All summer long we were told how McInnes was perfect for the job.

He knew the club, the league and modelled himself on Walter Smith.

Perhaps sooner than expected Jackson will have to admit that being staunch isn’t enough in the 21st century. Not even uber staunch.