A Light In The North - Aberdeen FC

[Klippybo]

Russell Anderson
1996-2007 & 2012-15
407 apps, 20 goals
Defender

Anderson spent 10 years with the club in his first spell and actually got a testimonial before he was sold to Sunderland for £1m - the 2nd highest transfer fee received by the club. His career down south was ravaged by injuries and he eventually returned and was part of the side that won the League Cup in 2014. He won 11 caps for Scotland.

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JANUARY

William Hill Scottish Cup 4th Round

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson (D.Campbell), Lihadji, McLennan (Kennedy), Arezo (Cosgrove)

A fantastic return to action after the winter break. An own goal gave us the lead and then we were pretty dominant and hit the woodwork 3 times before Dean Campbell finally sealed things in injury time. I gave debuts to Toni Lato and Matias Arezo here but Arezo hobbled off injured.

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez*, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson, Lihadji, McLennan (Kennedy), Cosgrove

Just looking at my writing sheets (sad I know) but David Tunrbull has only played in 11 league games this season - he really needs to improve his fitness. That being said it has given Dean Campbell a chance to excel.

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, Findlay (Porteous), Devlin, Lato, D.Campbell (Cochrane), McGeouch*, Ferguson, Lihadji, Kennedy (Hedges), Cosgrove

With Arezo arriving it is important that Sam Cosgrove takes his chance when he starts and he did so here by scoring the 2nd goal.

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin (Findlay), Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch (D.Campbell), Ferguson, Lihadji, McLennan, Cosgrove (Arezo)

I ******* HATE RANGERS!!!!!

Our 2nd defeat of the league campaign and once again it comes against the great unwashed. We took an early lead through Connor McLennan but that was as good as it got for us unfortunately.

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Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell, Findlay, Devlin, Lato (Leigh), Turnbull, D.Campbell (Cochrane), A.Campbell, Lihadji (Hedges), Kennedy, Arezo

We fell behind early on and I was a bit worried but Arezo scored his first goal for us at the end of a fine team move to bring us level. Kennedy had a goal disallowed but Allan Campbell scored his first goal for us to get us the points.

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SUMMARY

We went into 2021 full of confidence having just won the Betfred Cup and in a midst of a title challenge. That confidence was boosted further more when we beat Celtic 2-0 in the Scottish Cup. Our league form was decent too although the 2-1 defeat to Rangers angered me but hey ho.

Transfer wise I said goodbye to Andrew Considine and Lewis Duncan who left the club to join Dundee for £57k and £22k respectively. Considine is a club legend but wanted a new challenge so I let him go. Miko Virtanen joined Crewe for £35k while after strengthening the squad I allowed Bruce Anderson and Florentin Pogba go out on loan.

Incoming were 5 players at a cost of just over £2m. I had already arranged 2 deals for the window and the main one was Matias Arezo who joined for £725,000. The 18y/o striker will finally provide decent competition for Sam Cosgrove up front and he should improve into a leading SPL player.

I had also arranged to sign Nathan Cooney from Dundee United for £75,000. He caught the eye when we played against them and I was amazed that they were willing to let him go so cheaply - especially since they were playing him every week!

I headed into the window wanting to sign a left back as Florentin Pogba wasn't cutting the mustard. I then came up with a double deal for one player. Having seen that Toni Lato was available on loan and a pre-contract deal I decided to do both - brought him in on loan until the end of the season and then agreed the pre-contract with him to join permanently in the summer.

Then on deadline day I brought in 2 great young prospects. Firstly I spent £1m on Finlay Robertson of Dundee. For me to pay £1m for a CM prospect is quite a big step but I think he will be worth it. Hopefully he will get plenty of game time and develop into a fine player.

Finally I spent £525,000 on Mohamed Daou of Real Betis. The 17y/o regen looks a great prospect and was interesting Real Madrid and Barcelona so to pick him up is a fantastic piece of business.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
RONALD HERNANDEZ

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LADBROKES PREMIERSHIP

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[Klippybo]

Drew Jarvie
1972-82
386 apps, 130 goals
Forward

Signed from Airdrie for £72,000 Jarvie was a key player for Aberdeen throughout the 70s. He won the League and League Cup while at Aberdeen but his 3 international caps for Scotland happened when he was at Airdrie.

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FEBRUARY

William Hill Scottish Cup 5th Round

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson (A.Campbell), Lihadji (Hedges), McLennan*, Arezo (Cosgrove)

We were struggling here until I made my subs and then everything changed. Cosgrove had a goal disallowed before he put us in front and McLennan wrapped it up in stoppage time. We play Dundee United in our next match too and was originally going to play them the game after that but the 3rd one was postponed!

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Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell, Findlay, Devlin (Porteous), Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson (A.Campbell), Lihadji, Kennedy (Hedges), Arezo*

Back to back 2-0 wins over Dundee United. Despite Sam Cosgrove's performance off the bench against United a few days earlier I decided to stick with Arezo and he repaid my faith in him with the opener.

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, Findlay, Devlin, Lato, Tunrbull, McGeouch, Ferguson, Lihadji, McLennan*, Arezo

A terrific performance. Arezo and McLennan scored doubles with McLennan scoring with a superb strike for his 2nd while Arezo scored with a fantastic individual effort for his 2nd. St.Mirren are rooted to the bottom of the league and look doomed.

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UEFA Europa League 1st Round 1st Leg

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez*, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson (D.Campbell), Lihadji (Hedges), McLennan, Arezo (Cosgrove)

An awful game and an awful performance. This really was dreadful and even though we got the late winner I cannot accept such a performance. They had a last minute goal disallowed fortunately.

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Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, D.Campbell, McGeouch, Ferguson (Robertson), Lihadji*, McLennan, Arezo

Talk about a game of two halves!!! We were sensational in the first half and fired in 6 goals with Lihadji grabbing a fine hat-trick. Arezo also scored for the 4th league game in a row but our performance in the 2nd half was not acceptable and we lost the half 1-0. At least Finlay Robertson made his debut in that half.

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UEFA Europa League 1st Round 2nd Leg

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin (Findlay), Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson (D.Campbell), Lihadji (Hedges), McLennan, Arezo*

This match was just as bad as the 1st leg!! We fell behind but levelled when Arezo fired in from the edge of the area and with that away goal we were never really under threat.

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William Hill Scottish Cup Quarter-Final

Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell*, Findlay, Porteous, Leigh, D.Campbell (Barron), A.Campbell, Cochrane, Hedges, Kennedy (Ross), Cosgrove (Daou)

I took the decision to play my backups here as this match was inbetween 2 big European games and I figured that my backups should be good enough to beat the Championship side and they did all but beat Falkirk. We had nearly 30 shots on goal to their 1 such was our dominance but we couldnt find the net and will have to play in a replay. Daou made his debut here.

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SUMMARY

At titmes this month we were irresistible as shown by our 5-0 win over St.Mirren and our 6-1 victory over Motherwell. However on the other side of the coin we were pitiful against FC Kobenhavn and although we put in a good performance against Fallkirk in the cup we couldn't win the match.

We find ourselves 7pts behind Celtic in the league table with a game in hand but my main aim is to finish in the top 2 as 2nd place means a Champions League qualifying slot and if we were to get involved there with the finances that it brings that would be a game changer.

In the Scottish Cup if we beat Falkirk we will face Kilmarncok in the semis and in the Europa League it looks like our run is soon to be over as we have been drawn against Napoli.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
MATIAS AREZO

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LADBROKES PREMIERSHIP

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[Klippybo]

Brian Irvine
1985-97
384 apps, 40 goals
Defender

Signed from Falkirk for £110,000 Brian Irvine was a solid CB who was always good for a goal. He won 1 Scottish Cup and 1 League Cup while at the club and also 9 Scotland caps. His crowning moment came when he scored the winning penalty in the 1990 Scottish Cup final. On a personal note one of my best friends is his cousin and I remember playing football in the park with Brian as a kid!

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MARCH

UEFA Europa League 2nd Round 1st Leg

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin (Findlay), Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson, Lihadji (Hedges), McLennan*, Arezo (Cosgrove)

What a result and what a performance. Our performance was so good I am actually annoyed that we didn't win as we had 30 shots to their 7 and they had a full strength side out. I really cant fault my players despite not winning.

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna*, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, D.Campbell (A.Campbell), Ferguson (Robertson), Lihadji, Kennedy (Ross), Arezo

We are on fire in the league. That's 15 goals in our last 3 league games and Arezo now has 7 goals in 5 league starts. Turnbull scored a fine free-kick too.

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UEFA Europa League 2nd Round 2nd Leg

Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell, McKenna, Devlin (Findlay), Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch, D.Campbell (Robertson), Lihadji, McLennan*, Arezo (Cosgrove)

WOW. I thought the first leg was a one off and that we had missed our chance but no - we put in another great performance, almost as good as the first leg, to win 1-0 and somehow knock out Napoli. Overjoyed!!!

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, Findlay, Devlin, Lato (Leigh), D.Campbell (Cochrane), A.Campbell (Robertson), Ferguson*, Ross, Kennedy, Arezo

A disappointing result but after our recent exploits I suppose I can forgive my players - especially since I was missing a few players here. Arezo's run of scoring in the league is over here but Ferguson is now into double figures for the season.

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William Hill Scottish Cup Quarter-Final Replay

Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell (Ramsay), Findlay, Porteous (Cooney), Leigh, Robertson, A.Campbell (Barron), D.Campbell*, Cochrane, Ross, Kennedy, Cosgrove

Once again I went with my backups and while the performance wasn't quite there the result was. Sam Cosgrove got the only goal of the game as he converted a rebound after Dean Campbell hit the bar. Nathan Cooney and Calvin Ramsay made their debuts here.

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Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch*, Ferguson (Robertson), Lihadji, McLennan, Arezo (Cosgrove)

Efe Ambrose is known to have a brain fart every now and again but he excelled himself here as he scored 2 own goals in the first 14min however I didn't think either were own goals and I think that Arezo and McLennan have had goals taken off them!!!

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Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell*, Findlay, Devlin (Porteous), Leigh, Cochrane, A.Campbell, Ferguson, Ross, Kennedy, Arezo (Cosgrove)

Arguably this result ends any feint chances that we have of winning the league unless we beat Celtic twice and win our other remaining matches which is unlikely. Probably our worst performance of the season tbh and we were lucky to get a draw.

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SUMMARY

Forget the league results and the (*****) youth intake - the highlight of this month was our 2-1 aggregate victory over Napoli in the Europa League. We were excellent in both legs and fully deserved to progress into the quarter-finals and out of all the teams left in the competition we hae been drawn against Rangers!!!! Arguably that is the best draw for us but if we dont progress I will be livid such is my hatred for the great unwashed lol.

In the league I fear that our title hopes are over unless we win the rest of our matches which would include 2 fixtures against Celtic and one against Rangers. 2nd place should be achievable though and a place in the Champions League qualifiers.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
CONNOR MCLENNAN

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LADBROKES PREMIERSHIP

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[Klippybo]

Eoin Jess
1987-96 & 1997-2001
379 apps, 94 goals
Midfielder

Jess was one of the most skilful players to ever come out of the Aberdeen youth ranks. In his first spell with the club he won 2 League Cups and a Scottish Cup before moving to Coventry City for a club record £2m fee. He soon returned to Pittodrie though for £700,000 and was a key player in the side before controversially leaving the club to join Bradford City. He won 18 caps for Scotland and scored 2 goals.

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APRIL

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, A.Campbell, McGeouch, Ferguson (Robertson), Lihadji, McLennan (Kennedy), Arezo (Cosgrove)

If we had any real chance of winning the title we had to win this match but as it is we go into the split 6pts behind Celtic and unless they monumentally collapse they will get the title.

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UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final 1st Leg

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin (Findlay), Lato, A.Campbell, McGeouch, Ferguson, Lihadji, McLennan (Kennedy), Arezo (Cosgrove)

We were shocking here and were fortunate only to lose by one goal and still have a decent chance of qualifying however we will have to play much better in the 2nd leg if we have any chance of progressing.

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UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull, McGeouch*, Ferguson, Lihadji, McLennan, Arezo

GET IN!!!!!

WE REACH THE EUROPA LEAGUE SEMIS!!!!!!

What a result this is. We were on fire in the 1st half and surged into a 3-0 lead and when Ferguson scored immediately into the 2nd half to make it 4-0 I was in dreamland. They pulled a goal back and then McLennan had a goal disallowed but when they got their 2nd it was nervous times as one goal would see them through but we held on.

I think what helped us was the fact that Rangers had their cup semi in between the 2 legs while we had a free weekend so my players were fresher for this match.

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Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell, McKenna, Devlin, Lato (Leigh), Turnbull, McGeouch, Ferguson, Lihadji, McLennan (Kennedy), Arezo (Cosgrove)

We got back to league action here and got a decent win after falling behind. McGeouch isnt renowned for his goals but he has scored in successive games now.

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William Hill Scottish Cup Semi-Final

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez, Findlay, Devlin, Lato, D.Campbell (Barron), A.Campbell, Cochrane*, Hedges, Kennedy (Ross), Arezo (Cosgrove)

We reach the Scottish Cup final despite having to play most of my backups here. We took the lead when Hedges converted a penalty and that was that until they levelled in stoppage time to take us into extra-time. Connor Barron then tapped in the winner and Hedges got his 2nd to seal the deal.

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Lineup - Lewis, O'Donnell, McKenna, Findlay, Leigh, Turnbull, McGeouch (D.Campbell), Ferguson, Lihadji (Kennedy), McLennan, Arezo (Cosgrove)

Our 3rd defeat of the league campaign sees us drop down to 3rd position and now our Champions League position is seriously under threat. Celtic better beat Rangers when they meet!!!!! Arezo is now really struggling in the league as after scoring in each of his first 5 league starts he hasnt scored or performed well in his last 6.

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UEFA Europa League Semi-Final 1st Leg

Lineup - Lewis, Hernandez (O'Donnell), McKenna, Devlin, Lato, Turnbull (A.Campbell), McGeouch, D.Campbell, Lihadji, McLennan (Dykes), Cosgrove

A great result. We took a surprise lead when Ronald Hernandez scored and we held on until the 53rd minute when Aubameyang levelled. I was gutted when Lacazette scored in stoppage time but was overjoyed when Dylan McGeouch scored our 2nd.

With home advantage for the 2nd leg we have to be confident but we are still 2nd favourites.

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SUMMARY

Our league form slightly faltered this month as we lost and drew against Celtic but our cup exploits were phenomenal. In the league we are in 3rd place and need to overhaul Rangers to get a Champions League place. Our final league game of the season is at home to Rangers and that will be a huge game.

Rangers will also be our opponents in the Scottish Cup final as we reached it by beating Kilmarnock 3-1 after extra-time despite having a weakened side out.

Lets mention Rangers again lol. We faced them in our Europa League quarter-final and lost the first leg 2-1 at castle greyskull but in the 2nd eg we surged into a 4 goal lead and won 4-2 to make the semis where we faced up against Arsenal and got a great 2-2 draw away from home. Th eother 2 semi finalists are Chelsea and Real Madrid so I cant see us winning it.

Mind you - Aberdeen were the last team to beat Real Madrid in a European final lol.

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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
DYLAN MCGEOUCH

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LADBROKES PREMIERSHIP

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[Mr_Grieves]

BEASTMAN!!!!