Recruiting a manager for your football club is not a foolproof exercise. Many pitfalls must be navigated.
But among them, avoiding appointing one based on a podcast anecdote is one of the more obviously signposted, and it is to be hoped that Dave Cormack refrains from blundering into it twice.
Whilst in the midst of a 33-day psychedelic trip during which those inside Pittodrie seemed to be doing the best they could to completely torch the squad’s ability to prevent disaster, it served no positive purpose for supporters to turn up the heat still further.
Now that it is over, we can clearly state that this was a ludicrous chapter through which Aberdeen Football Club was cheapened, if not damaged beyond immediate repair.
There may be some situations in which hiring a manager with vast experience of the method, but evidently zero knowledge of the players available to them or their opponents, can have the space to grow into mutual success; late-season caretakership, where each point dropped in exploration raises the relegation pitcher’s waterline ever nearer to the old crow, is patently not one.
Warnock’s fable has not had a happy ending, and it is hard to imagine how anybody could truly have convinced themselves one was likely.
The most obvious explanation is that all involved reckoned this tenure would be a bit of a laugh in an otherwise mirthless season, where no real harm could be done.
Though the latter, with hard work, can still be true, the former assuredly wasn’t. No fun was had. The club deserves more respect than it is being shown.