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But how can it be that a man who has taken us back to respectability (this year was our third top four finish in four seasons) be so openly loathed and held in contempt by so many of his own fans?
One of his predecessors, Ebbe Skovdahl, recorded some of the most humiliating results in the club's history and yet was infinitely more popular with the fans. Ebbe also gave us one of the more memorable quotes to come out of PIttodrie when he said: 'Statistics are like mini skirts, they give you great ideas but hide the best bits'. If we were to twist it a wee bitty and apply it to the Dons 2007/08 season it would be: 'Statistics...covering up the worst bits'.
I've covered most of what I want to say in Part 1 of the Season Rivet, but broadly speaking there were two Jimmy Calderwoods. 'Euro Jimmy' was great, 'Domestic Jimmy' was at times a liability. Onyway in a rough school report-type format let's break down the year.
Tactics
As already discussed, in Europe they worked like a charm, it was his players' lack of experience that prevented us from picking up points in both Athens and Madrid. We were outgunned in every game but even in the ones we lost, there were enough 'what ifs' to have ye thinking that if we could get back into Europe then we'd regularly reach the group stages.
At home...urrrgh...that feckin Tombola. I've said it umpteen times before but it appears Tango thinks he's playing chess whilst everyone else knows they're playing Ludo. As demonstrated by the relative success achieved by McGhee and Levein, both had smaller and less talented squads but they were set up the same way week in week out, they knew they weren't gonna win every game but they knew if they stuck at it they'd win more than they lost.
Our continual shape shifting once again cost us and once again when he went with a settled and basic 4-4-2 after Munich our performances and later results improved. It's been the same moan since day one but if we concentrated on how to beat our opponents, rather than how we were going to stop them we would have finished third without ever really breaking sweat.
Performances
Once more Euro highs and domestic lows...he was more than willing to claim the credit for the glory nights but when we lost it was always the players' fault. You can't have one and not the other Jimmy and the occasional mea culpa would go a long way in re-establishing your credibility amongst the fans min.
Signings
We'll discuss whether it was Jimmy or Willie who was responsible for these in Part 4 along with our obsession with Pars/United rejects and Dutch amateurs, but JDV didn't live up to the hype (we'll allow him the 'settling in' excuse this time out) and Duff struggled initially. Mair and Young were squad players and did all that was asked of them...thank f*ck Dave Bus was only on a six month deal.
Though one suspects the most important signing for Jimmy was his own contract.
Media
It's the most important and yet the most irrelevant aspect of Jimmy's job.
It's also the most common complaint about the man, hell even the JIG's admit his media hoordom is the one thing that lets him down, though they do rightly point out that there are some among us who try and find fault with his every utterance.
Once again the 'Euro vs Domestic Jimmy' contrast was in evidence. His statements to the press during the UEFA run, with their references to 'The Great Man' etc showed an understanding of the club and fans rarely seen on the home front.
However he could always be relied on to make us cringe every time he went near a microphone (it wisnae every five minutes...it just felt that way) - seriously Jimmy, if I hear the 'My Old Man drinks in his Govan Bowling club' bollocks one mair f*ckin time...
And was there a single game where we werenae 'sloppy' in some department? Or more to the point, did he not realise that ensuring a lack of sloppiness in our play was his responsibility?
But for me his worst faux pas was on 'Traitors Tuesday' in January. Essentially a press conference was called to tell us what we already knew (that Mickey and Chris were off) yet that was lost as Calderwood made the least subtle 'come and get me' plea in history...apparently having the largest budget outwith the OF and the five-ring Gorgie Circus wisnae good enough.
In the aftermath of this, several contributors to this site began the 'Send Jimmy to Coventry' campaign...after all we were only doing what the man couldnae do himself - raising his profile south of the border.
Aside from the usual high quality p*ss-taking fae the Dons-MAD regulars (whoever posted the stuff on the Beeb site about us being fickle buggers who burned doon Stewartie Milne flats when Alex 'C*nt' Miller was sacked was a genius!), it showed a couple of things.
Firstly how god damn easy it is to rig the book on managerial vacancies (we got him to 7/1 on Victor Chandler) and secondly just how easy it is to create a 'buzz' and get someone shortlisted for a job - after all, this is precisely how the Weegia have been getting their favourites jobs for years.
What's odd about his relationship wi the media is that it's all one way, we never hear them singing his praises unless it's when we're having a pop at him (see 'Broadstraik on Wednesday'), yet when a job comes up like the Scotland gig, he's never put forward despite having a better record than say Levein or McGhee and Calderwood is probably too idiotic to realise he's being shafted by his 'friends'.
Summary
Whilst the JIG/JING schism is there it's nae reached Judean People's Front/People's Front of Judea proportions (it came damn close at times though). There is, even amongst the JING community, an overriding wish for the man to do well. After all, there are two ways a manager can leave a club - being tapped up for another job or being sacked, and as being sacked usually entails a horrific run of results I'd rather avoid that exit strategy.
And as the JIGs point out...could anyone do any better?
In terms of league position I have to admit probably not, but for me the problem with Calderwood is that every time I start to warm to the guy he immediately says or does something that reminds me why I hated the bastard in the first place.
If he could cut out the infuriating media bullshit and give me a fitba side I can recognise week in and week out I'd have no problems with him whatsoever….but I ain't gonna hold my breath as I suspect that this time next year our manager will polarise the support for exactly the same reasons he has in his first four years.
He faces a tough summer, he has to rebuild the side and build a team that can achieve what its predecessors did and simulataneously offer us hope that maybe just maybe we can take that one step beyond that we're craving.
Due to the rebuilding I think that barring a catastrophic start he'll be given the first round of games to bed his side in before folk come to a judgement.
Jimmy Calderwood has raised the bar in the last four years at Pittodrie and it's now back to where our size and pedigree dictates it should be, but he has to understand that we expect continual improvement and that bar to be raised incrementally year on year.
The Red Avenger