Scottish Cup: Aberdeen v Raith Rovers
Venue: Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen Date: Sunday, 18 January Time: 14:30 GMT
Coverage: Watch on BBC One Scotland & iPlayer, listen on BBC Radio Scotland & Sounds, follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website & app
Aberdeen will be closer to a managerial shortlist “in a few more days”, says sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel.
The German is leading the search for Jimmy Thelin’s replacement, with Peter Leven in interim charge and having overseen the past two fixtures.
Swede Thelin’s 18 months in charge ended in early January, eight months on from the Dons’ Scottish Cup final win.
“We are in the middle of the process,” Pfannenstiel told BBC Scotland.
“We have worked a lot now on a long list. We are now past that stage so it comes down now to some final candidates. The shortlist right now is in progress. We are not too far away.
“In a few more days we will have a clear idea who will be on that shortlist.”
Aberdeen’s struggles are showing no sign of abating. They are eighth in the Scottish Premiership, having lost five of their past six league games and failed to score in the past four.
“We will take the time necessary to find the right guy,” Pfannenstiel insisted before Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie at home to Raith Rovers.
“It is important for us not to make a rushed decision, it is important for us to really think very well through, to have the interviews to go into the details and that I would rather take a little bit more time with rather than making a decision which is not right.
“We have an important cup game coming up, the next two league games are against two teams who are below us [Livingston and Kilmarnock]. Those are games we have to win, there is no doubt about it, without putting any pressure on the players, but those are results we have to have to achieve our goals.”
While Pfannenstiel would not be drawn on names, he suggested for the eventual appointee “it would be a good benefit if there is knowledge of Scottish football – that is not everything but definitely a positive”.
“Will he be Scottish? Will he be German? Will he be from Mars or from any other planet? I can’t tell you that right now,” Pfannenstiel said.
“We just want to have the right guy who makes Aberdeen better.
“There are some teams at the moment who play some beautiful football in the Scottish Premiership, who have a foreign coach who had never worked in Scotland before and that doesn’t always mean that foreigners don’t work in Aberdeen or don’t work anywhere else.
“It is about playing style, it is about the philosophy, how do you want to play football? But it is also about personality. In Scottish football we have to have a person who motivates you, who pushes you.
“We have a lot of young players, I think they need that guidance to have a guy with a certain experience but also with a certain fire and that is the profile which I have clearly in my head.”
