New managers bring fresh starts.
A fact which has been a major boon for peripheral members of Aberdeen’s squad: so frequently has there been one, they could generally bank on there being another opportunity to reset their status on the horizon, however far out of the picture they appear to be.
So it is for Vicente Besuijen and Shayden Morris. It is less than two and a half years since Besuijen was brought to Pittodrie, but the club is already on its sixth manager in that time; Morris, bought less than two years ago, is now playing for his fifth.
It is fair to note that both have thus far had a tendency to quickly fall from favour.
Besuijen’s fallouts with Jim Goodwin and Barry Robson were clearly more serious and intractable, but Morris has been similarly swift to disappear from view after finding a variety of early roles.
The latter has perhaps finally set himself up to outlast the honeymoon thanks to his most impressive contribution in a red shirt.
It would have been easy for the winger to have been too shocked by the perfection of his first touch to make use of it, but by getting his head down and exploiting the situation he ensured he imprinted himself on both the scoresheet and Jimmy Thelin’s consciousness.
By contrast Besuijen, insofar as he sought to achieve anything, was likely playing to attract potential buyers. Pittodrie’s phones will be quiet today.
Despite, remarkably, still having two years of his Aberdeen contract left, it felt awkwardly as if too much water had flowed under the bridge for there to be a route to redemption here: the forward-looking spark of his first season was notably absent, an obvious chance to burst back into contention missed. There may not be many more.
