Aberdeen have confirmed the appointment of Neil Warnock until the end of the season as their interim manager.

The 75-year-old arrived in the north-east on Sunday night to conclude formalities with the Pittodrie hierarchy and will take charge of the first team on Tuesday evening when the Dons travel to Ibrox to face Rangers. Warnock, who has been out of football management since leaving Huddersfield Town last year, will be assisted by Ronnie Jepson. Caretaker boss Peter Leven, who took the team for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Celtic, will continue in his role as coach.

Aberdeen dispensed with Barry Robson as manager last week following a 1-1 draw at home to Dundee. The Dons had stuttered under him in the Premiership and are currently sitting in eighth place, 20 points behind Hearts in third. They remain in the Scottish Cup with a last 16 home tie against Bonnyrigg Rose and chairman Dave Cormack believes Warnock, who has managed at 15 different clubs during a career spanning more than 40 years, can revive the Pittodrie outfit’s fortunes.

Neil Warnock will take charge of Aberdeen until the end of the season.

“From the moment we first spoke with Neil his enthusiasm for managing Aberdeen was infectious,” said Cormack. “He has had an incredible career in management, not only in terms of volume of games and winning promotions, but also of coming into clubs at short notice and making an immediate impact. We look forward to Neil, Ronnie and the team pushing hard in the remaining four months of the campaign as we still have a huge amount to play for both in the SPFL Premiership and the Scottish Cup.”

Warnock has made no secret of his admiration for Scottish football and applied for the Aberdeen vacancy more than 20 years ago, losing out to Steve Paterson. He also came close to landing the Hearts manager’s job and wants to bring back some cheer to the Aberdeen fanbase.

“I’m really looking forward to the challenge here at Aberdeen,” Warnock said. “I’ve made no secret of the fact I’ve always wanted to manage in Scotland so when I spoke to Dave [Cormack, chairman] and Alan [Burrows, chief executive] and they asked me to help out it just felt like the right opportunity. By all accounts there is a good group of lads here and it’s my job now to get the best out of them. Aberdeen is a big club with clear ambition and I’m hoping that during my time here the supporters will get behind the team and I can put a smile on their faces.”

Warnock’s contract runs until the end of the season and between now and then, Aberdeen will complete its review of football operations with a view to appointing a permanent manager for the 2024/25 campaign. “Ambitious clubs regularly invest in independent advice to support internal coaching, data analysis, recruitment, and medical teams with the goal of improving performance through continuous learning and development,” said Cormack, “The highly experienced team of independent advisors, who do this work with some of the best clubs across the globe, will make recommendations to allow us to understand what we can improve upon in terms of best practice going forward. The review will include benchmarking the club against similar teams that currently outperform us in Europe. With this work well under way, and due to be completed by early April, we are aiming to have a new management team confirmed by the end of the season.”

Aberdeen appoint Neil Warnock as new manager - assistant revealed, Dave Cormack's views, football review, Peter Leven decision, Rangers bow