The alternative is altogether more bleak. Firstly it would put the club’s search for a new manager firmly in the spotlight.

New sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel has been taking the reins and, after it was confirmed Docherty would be returning to Pittodrie to help Leven last week, the German said they hoped to announce a new head coach “imminently”.

That is widely expected to be the former SK Brann and Saint-Etienne manager Eirik Horneland, who would take charge in the summer, reports suggest., external

Assuming that deal gets done, and it has yet to be confirmed, it still raises the question of whether Aberdeen should have got someone else in earlier.

When Jimmy Thelin was sacked on 4 January, the club were only two points from the top six and with the Scottish Cup to defend.

Six weeks on and they are 11 points off sixth-place Falkirk, albeit with two games in hand after terrible weather wreaked havoc with the Pittodrie pitch.

Appearing to write off the last few months of a season has been a familiar feeling for Aberdeen fans in the last five years.

Leven, in his third spell in interim charge, will have managed 18 league matches by the end of this campaign and 29 in total if he has to see out the season.

That is as many as Stephen Glass (29) and only just behind Jim Goodwin (35) and Barry Robson (36) – three of the club’s last four permanent bosses, and the last four were all dismissed in January or February.

Season-ticket holders could justifiably feel short-changed – despite plenty of investment in the playing squad – as another campaign seeps away before the clocks change.

Seven new faces arrived in January to try to arrest the slide, taking the total number of players recruited over the last four transfer windows to 31.

It also means Aberdeen are now relying on players to make the difference who – regardless of their quality – have played very few minutes this season amid form and injury issues in the first half of the season.

The scrutiny on recruitment will increase to an even greater degree should they lose on Wednesday, too.