IF this really is the end of Craig Brown as a manager, then what a typically sensible and pragmatic retreat he announced in Aberdeen yesterday.

The jungle drums have been thumping recently about Brown heading for the well-used gallows at Pittodrie but, no, the 72-year-old produced a deft little sidestep. The talents Brown has brought to management over the years have always been equalled by a shrewd awareness and preservation of his own reputation. It would have been an unpleasant, sour end to a distinguished career if he had finished with the indignity of being sacked. Instead, his time can peter out, if he so wishes, in boardrooms and directors boxes. As a face-saving exercise both Brown and Aberdeen emerged as winners. He does not have the stigma of being dismissed, and the club does not look heartless for getting rid of a respected and popular figure who stabilised the team and generally did an okay job.

There were retrospectives on Brown's long career in management yesterday and the newspapers will carry more of them today. It's all familiar enough: his 16 years on the SFA staff, reaching Euro 96 and France 98, getting out of three of the four qualification groups he contested as Scotland's manager from 1993 to 2002. Regrettably, he's still the last man to lead Scotland to a tournament. Before Scotland, he had some success at Under-16 and Under-21 levels; after it some satisfaction at Motherwell and then the move to Aberdeen in 2010. Over several decades he has been a meticulous, clever, streetwise coach, and a big figure in football and even Scottish culture.

Something doesn't sit right about the idea of writing his managerial obituary, though. It was only a few weeks ago, during an interview just before Aberdeen's Scottish Cup tie at Hibs, that Brown was quietly dismissive of the idea of calling it quits and moving "upstairs". He was pretty insistent that he regarded himself as having plenty more to offer from the dug-out and, frankly, if Aberdeen didn't want him for that there would be an amicable parting of the ways and he'd look to manage somewhere else. If Aberdeen were second or third in the league or in a cup final, there's no way he'd be retiring.

Some awful personal news has been on his mind, of course. He said that the recent death of his daughter-in-law, and the need to see more of his nine-year-old granddaughter, had influenced his decision. Clearly being a manager is more demanding on a man's time than the sort of non-executive directorship he will take on. But Brown has been a coach since 1974. It is everything he knows, and he doesn't regard himself as being over the hill. If, say, a first division club from the central belt or Ayrshire, where his family lives, came in for him would he really turn them down?

When Aberdeen were great, their board of directors consisted only of former players. These days the lack of football – as opposed to business – expertise has been apparent for years and, for as long as he remains, Brown has the experience and contacts to change that. He can play an important role at Pittodrie if he wishes to remain, arguably going on to deliver more for the club from the boardroom than he did from the dug-out. Already he has made it emphatically clear that he will not interfere with his successor's work. Managers-turned-directors are often overcome by the urge to meddle or quietly undermine the men who follow them but Brown's decency will surely guarantee that will not be a problem for Derek Adams or whoever else lands the job.

It will make new demands on Brown, all the same, to still be around the premises while someone else works with players such as Niall McGinn, Johnny Hayes, Mark Reynolds, Russell Anderson, Gavin Rae, Stephen Hughes and Gary Naysmith, all of whom he signed last year. Brown wants the best for Aberdeen but he may have to bite his lip if the next manager gets more out of them than he could. Brown's season turned to ashes when St Mirren won in the League Cup at Pittodrie, Hibs won that Scottish Cup tie, and the league position fell from being joint leaders in November to sitting ninth today.

Apparently, Brown told chairman Stewart Milne on Monday that he intended to retire at the end of the season. Milne convened a board meeting on Tuesday and offered a directorship to Brown on Wednesday. That had unanimous backing. Vice-chairman George Yule's talk of "succession-planning" and the appeal of having a "young, dynamic manager" effectively lit a fire under Brown's management earlier this season. Now the pair will be fellow directors. Brown still has plenty to offer Aberdeen and the club have given him an important role. But let's hold fire on the obituaries. Have we really seen the last of him in a dug-out?