Schwarz in talks with Aberdeen but is only one 'candidate'

"The preponderance of coaches coming forward want, for health reasons or otherwise, a fresh start in the summer," the chairman said. "They want a full pre-season to get their methodology instilled.

"What I would say is that we had a shortlist of about four candidates and we narrowed that and some of these guys aren't necessarily available to come and look at Aberdeen and look at what we have here.

"It's important that we keep confidentiality because if candidates don't want you to talk about them then we have to respect that.

"The situation with one of the candidates is that there's a personal challenge, family-wise, that we have to respect.

"One I can talk about because he said it was okay to mention it is that visiting from yesterday through to the Celtic game is Sandro Schwarz. He's here to check us out and vice versa. But he's a candidate."

Asked if Schwarz could be appointed quickly if he talks worked out, Cormack said: "That's got to be determined.

"We could have hired a coach and put someone in place within two weeks. But would he have been a 10/10 fit?

"For me, it's embarrassing that we're having to go through my sixth permanent appointment and some in the Premiership have been through seven, eight or nine in that time. The average tenure is 1.2 years.

"We will take our time to get the right manager in place."