Alan Burrows had only just checked in at Pittodrie to begin his hunt for a new manager when he bumped into Barry Robson. The interim boss didn’t take long to tell Burrows to call off the search party.
After all, the man who would be king had already taken his place on the throne. Aberdeen chief exec Burrows said: “When I met him he said, ‘Oh, here he goes, the guy who is going to appoint the manager.
Don’t worry, Jurgen Klopp is in the building.’ I said, ‘Have you locked him in the f***ing cupboard like?’” It wasn’t a tough decision for Burrows but the due diligence still had to be carried out and the managerial shortlist finalised, which saw discussions held with Chris Wilder and Ricardo Rodriguez in a search that went from the North East to the Far East.
A run of seven wins on the spin, transforming Aberdeen from the bottom six to third place helped Robson convince the Pittodrie hierarchy he’s the man to take the club forward.