{"id":423723,"date":"2026-02-13T14:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423723\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T14:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T14:25:10","slug":"eirik-horneland-set-to-become-aberdeen-manager-but-not-yet-as-tony-docherty-makes-an-unexpected-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/423723\/","title":{"rendered":"Eirik Horneland set to become Aberdeen manager but not yet as Tony Docherty makes an unexpected return"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Norwegian is close to agreeing a deal that will see hi take over at Pittodrie in time for next season<\/p>\n

Eirik Horneland(Image: Philippe Lecoeur\/FEP\/Icon Sport via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Aberdeen are in final discussions for a deal that will see Eirik Horneland<\/a> become their new boss in the summer.<\/p>\n

The Dons have been in talks with the Norwegian boss for more than a week. and Record Sport understands the deal is now at the advanced stages and is expected to be finalised in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Horneland, however, isn\u2019t in a position to take the Pittodrie job until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The Scottish Cup holders will leave interim boss Peter Leven in charge and he will bring in Tony Docherty<\/a> to assist him between now and the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Former Dundee and Ross County boss Docherty was previously a long-serving No. 2 at Aberdeen under Derek McInnes.<\/p>\n

He will join Leven in the dugout for Sunday\u2019s Premiership trip to Motherwell.<\/p>\n

Leven has been in charge since Scottish Cup-winning boss Jimmy Thelin was sacked in January.<\/p>\n

Putting Leven in charge gives Aberdeen<\/a> time to finalise a deal for their top target Horneland.<\/p>\n

Dons\u2019 sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel has led the managerial search.<\/p>\n

It is his first appointment at Aberdeen and he has decided Horneland is the man to take the club forward and is worth the wait.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Dundee boss Tony Docherty<\/p>\n

The German previously tried unsuccessfully to appoint him as head coach of his former club St Louis City.<\/p>\n

It now looks to be second time lucky although he and the Dons will still need to play the waiting game.<\/p>\n

Horneland left French side Saint Etienne at the start of the month.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian was also on Aberdeen\u2019s radar before they appointed Thelin.<\/p>\n

He c ame to the fore after an impressive spell at SK Brann<\/a> where he took them from the second tier to second in the top-flight and to Norwegian Cup glory.<\/p>\n

Horneland has previously managed at Haugesund and Rosenborg.<\/p>\n

It is more of a trend on the continent where managers are reluctant to go into job mid-season and Horneland has done that twice previously with varying success.<\/p>\n

Leven is now in his third spell as interim boss, following the previous sacking of Barry Robson and the departure of Neil Warnock.<\/p>\n

He has steadied the ship and Pfannenstiel and chairman Dave Cormack will look for him to do the same over the coming days.<\/p>\n

This starts with Motherwell in the league and then again on Wednesday at Pittodrie, as they look to begin the latest defence of their Scottish Cup.<\/p>\n

Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google\u2019s preferred sources. Click HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Norwegian is close to agreeing a deal that will see hi take over at Pittodrie in time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[13717,152723,218,30724,8058,101,155790,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-423723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-aberdeen-fc","tag-eirik-horneland","tag-football","tag-jimmy-thelin","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sports","tag-tony-docherty","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}