So where do Aberdeen go from here?
It looks certain there will be no permanent manager until the summer.
Eirik Horneland, who recently left Saint-Etienne, had been strongly linked but has said he would not be taking any new job until at least the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack was forced to admit Sandro Schwarz was a candidate for the job after the former New York Red Bulls head coach was spotted at Pittodrie last week.
Former Aberdeen captain and manager Willie Miller thinks another six-month wait for a new manager is too long.
“You’re in the mire now and there’s no sign that the new manager is going to come in anytime soon,” he told BBC Scotland. “So it’s an awful situation to be in.
“The players were totally disheartened, outplayed and ineffective.
“The last seven seasons have been tortuous. When you don’t have a leader in place, it makes it worse.”
Former Dunfermline winger Ian McCall finds it astonishing Aberdeen have not gone out their way to secure either Falkirk’s John McGlynn or Motherwell’s Jens Berthel Askou after both have secured top-six finishes for less cash-rich clubs.
“It is a big risk going into the [Premiership] split without a manager and it beggars belief,” he said. “There appears to be no long-term plan.
“If you look at recruitment, who’s been a huge success since [Bojan] Miovski? There’s not many that I can see who have improved a squad.”
Indeed, of 13 permanent and seven loan signings made in this season’s two transfer windows, only four started at East End Park on Saturday.
Which is probably why Darren Mowbray, the talent spotter who brought Miovski to Pittodrie before the striker was sold to Girona, has just been reappointed as Aberdeen’s head of recruitment after his spell with Southampton.
Sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel has also been in place since October, but BBC Scotland’s chief sports writer Tom English reported the German was on social media “late night, early hours of the morning, arguing with fans” after the cup exit.
“It is just symbolic of where Aberdeen are,” he suggested. “The amount of money that’s been spent, Dave Cormack’s money, investors’ money, fans money on a series of duds.
“I can see them getting relegated the way they are going.”
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