December




Rangers second thumping against us costs Mark Warberton his job. Shove your magic hat. Only a caretaker for now and will wait to get into the new year for there new boss.

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Fixtures



Aberdeen 2-0 Kilmarnock
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The relegation favorites were totally shut down. There one shot from distance makes me laugh even more at Kris Boyds early season complaints about getting a Scotland call up considering he's scored less goals than 19 year old forward Scott McLean


Rangers 1-3 Aberdeen
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Warburton's final stand and he cant say his team didnt have his chances. Rarely fit Niall McGinn opened the scoring but only held our lead for 11 minutes when former Leicester youth player Dodoo finally scored his first goal for the club. It was our own star striker Adam Rooney got 2 second half goals to get the 3 points and send Warburton to the dole line.


Europa League
Roma 5-0 Aberdeen
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All i wanted from the last European game was a performance and result to be proud of. Sadly no matter what we did to Mohamed Salah he ran rings around us. Only 109 fans made the trip which was the saddest part of it for me with Aberdeen fans usually traveling in vast numbers especially for a European game. For those that did travel all i can say is sorry!


Aberdeen 3-3 St Johnstone
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This was a breakdown of breakdowns we went in at half time 3-1 ahead and just had to play it safe, maybe grab a goal on a counter attack but the collective failings on our part seen Graham Cummins pulled one back then yet again Joe Lewis let in another own goal to sum up a miserable day at the office


Aberdeen 1-1 Motherwell
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St Johnstone was a blunderfest on our part but this time we just couldnt score. Most unlike us this season. Motherwell took the lead for about 1 minute but strangely after 2 goals in the first 6 minutes was all the scoring we see today. This was the final straw for the tactic as it is and changes were made at both ends to try shut down the defense and get more action to Rooney.


Ross County 0-3 Aberdeen
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The guys were really up for it. O'Connor & Considine had there best games of the season and the focus on getting Rooney the ball seen him get a hatrick. There will not be a easier challenge than County who have let in 38 goals in under half a season.


Motherwell 0-6 Aberdeen
View attachment 117172
What a difference 10 days make. Maybe it was some Christmas eve magic but our front 4 combined to get 6 goals. McGinn went down injured yet again and a 3rd significant injury has put his long term dons future in doubt.


Aberdeen 3-0 Hamilton
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3rd win on the trot and were right on Celtic's heels. Myles Storey struggled to get going but thankfully Vico brought his shooting boots with him and did his Adam Rooney impression grabbing two goals. Jonny Hayes filling in for McGinn on the left wing grabbing the 3rd.


Hearts 1-2 Aberdeen
View attachment 117170
Toughest test of our rearranged tactics. Hearts did all they could to help us giving away a penalty that Adam Rooney scored. Don Cowie equalized after the break but the chance to close the gap to Celtic was too good to turn down and Kenny McLean grabbed the winner that is only likely to increase the interest from English Championship clubs.






SPFL Table
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What a month. Hopefully we've learned from the warning against St Johnstone & Motherwell and since then our tactics tinkering has worked wonders with 4 comfortable wins and beating Hearts at Tyncastle puts us right on Celtic's heels. Dundee are keeping touch. Rangers are way back in 6th. Hearts have fallen to 7th with Motherwell the biggest underachievers so far. Ross County like Rangers change there manager giving Billy Stark his first managers job in 15 years. I hope there keeper is not payed by the clean sheet!

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Europa Table
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We got the 3rd place finish i'd hoped for. Non of the games against the big two went our way with 4 big defeats. I hope we can look on this in years to come but for now were still a small team from Scotland a million miles from the likes of Man Utd & Roma


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There are no teams left in Europe from Scotland as Celtic finished bottom of there champions league group. It was always tough to expect them to finish ahead of PSG, Leverkusen and Villarreal but only grabbing 1 point is disappointing. The other two Scottish sides Hibs & Hearts also finished 3rd in there groups. They got to 5 points with Hearts doing wonders to draw 1-1 at home to Monaco but Hibs had far easier games than us. It wasnt even close.



 



January




Rangers have a new manager, Former Celtic star Paul Lambert
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Fixtures




Scottish Cup 4th Rd
Morton 0-3 Aberdeen
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Gave some youngsters a run out Wright made a goal and debutant Matthias Klein got the 3rd off the bench.


Aberdeen 2-1 Dundee
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A key game. Would we be pushing Celtic or holding of Dundee in the second half of the season? Rooney decided he would be the difference in the game and the table




SPFL Table
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No real changes Dundee fall away from the top 2 while Hamilton pulls away from Killie at the bottom. 1 point between 8th and 11th




Aberdeen Transfer

We had far more success in January than we had in the summer



Marius Lundemo MC
View attachment 117114
Fresh off a solid season with lillestrom in Norway the former u21 international will be back up to Poyet & Jack and fill the hole Maddison going back to Norwich and Craig Storey going out on loan has caused


Matthias Klein AT
View attachment 117112
My first kid regen. Wouldnt have found him if it wasnt for being half German since the searching for Austrailan wonderkids have not produced much in the past.


Vadim Demidov DC
View attachment 117111
It took us the whole month at least 4 deals falling through to grab a center back. Cant argue with what we ended up with a former norwegian international with 16 caps, good with the ball at feet and all the standard defensive stats. Also coming off the end of the Norwegian season i can only hope Aberdeen fans memory's are not to long of the last time there was a big norwegian influx at Pittodrie


3 Players move out only Peter Pawlett permanently. He had been a pain in the *** from pre season so i'm happy to move him on a free. Craig Storie (Killie) and Jayden Stokley (Reading) will go out for first team action. There were bids on McLean & Shinnie but in neither case the bidding teams were looking to negotiate.




SPL Transfers
View attachment 117110
Celtic selling Tierney is huge, removing Ajer makes our long term target even easier. They and Rangers spent money he rest of us cant.



World Transfers
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All the big moves you expected in January took place.



 
Congrats on the Mickey Mouse cup big man :p
Any chance you could go off topic real quick and should me how we're doing?
 



February


I thought Hearts would be our biggest rivals this season and myself and Robbie Neilson would have a long rivalry. Sadly he didnt make it through the first year.
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Inverness struck first and grabbed a Hearts legend to be there new boss before Hearts sacked Neilson
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Fixtures

Celtic 4-1 Aberdeen
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Stats say we had 9 shots on target but here is a classic case of stats lie as Celtic ran us ragged. Real work to do on tactics against bigger teams. Celtic's strike force may have won the league with this result Dembele and Cornet got the goals as on loan Portuguese winger Renato Santos tore us to shreds


Aberdeen 4-0 Partick
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The boys responded in the strongest possible way to the Celtic result. 2 goals in each half as our front 4 all grabbed a goal and shared the assists between themselves


Scottish Cup 5th Rd
Aberdeen 2-0 Motherwell
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The shutters were down and Motherwell did an amazing job of keeping us out until Carl McHugh got a red card at the very start of the 2nd half. We finally forced a breakthrough but needed a O'G to do it. Miles Storey has been poor on the right wing filling in for the injured Jonny Hayes but got a goal today to keep Wes Burns out of the team. Partick Thistle will be our opponents in the Q/F


Kilmarnock 1-1 Aberdeen
Storey
View attachment 117046
Worse than loosing 4 goals to Celtic? Yes i would say this was Dropping points to the bottom team is bad enough but it was made worse as Celtic lost today and we've screwed up a great chance to move closer to them at the top.


Aberdeen 4-1 Ross County
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There was a moment in the game where it felt like 2nd bottom Ross County were also going to take points off us. Thankfully with the game tied at 1-1 Ryan jack scored a captains goal right on the half time whistle. That motivated the team into a solid 2nd half performance rather than the timid display we gave at Killie last week.




SPFL Table
View attachment 117044
Results really cost us. We would be top if we could do anything but get thumped by Celtic and didnt screw up against Killie there would be nothing between us. That point did little for Kilmarnock who look doomed to last place. Anyone's guess who will be in the playoff. Hearts have lots to do to make it into the top six. 5 points back with 6 games to go till the break.



 



March




Youth Intake
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3 Players are signed up right away. Will look at a few others as time goes on


They are all in line to make debuts in the next few weeks but one has already broken national and club records
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Fixtures




Hamilton 2-3 Aberdeen
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We gave some u20s a shot off the bench and almost paid for it as Hamilton nearly forced a epic comeback


Scottish Cup Q/F
Aberdeen 1-0 Partick
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What a tense or "squeaky *** time" game this was. We got a early lead thanks to a o'g, noticed were forcing a lot of defensive mistakes. From then on wards Partick were fair game. They actually had far more chances and it was not nice sitting through attack after attack in the 2nd half


Aberdeen 4-1 Motherwell
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Feels like we've played Motherwell every month recently. They still havent got our latest tactic figured out as we won this quite comfortably. Kids came off the bench to make and score the 4th goal.


Aberdeen 3-0 Hearts
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First game in charge for old director of football and manager from 2000-2004 Craig Levein. He did force himself to play a striker on this occasion but they were not very attacking and its hard to see them challenge a top 6 spot when we seen them off so easily




SPFL Table
View attachment 116709
The final round of results could go a long way to deciding this seasons results. Dundee beat Celtic to keep there uber slim title hopes alive. Aberdeen in fact are only 2 points behind the leaders while in another table race Griffiths has finally got going and is chasing down Rooney for the golden boot. April will be huge for Hearts trying to chase down St Johnstone and Rangers while the fight for 11th just gets closer



 


Scotland

March Fixtures




Squad
James McArthur, Phil Bardsley, Andy Robertson and Ross McCormack are all missing from the starting 11, Ryan Jack and Liam Bridcutt will have to fill the gap left by McArthur while James Morrison and Kieran Tierney have already filled those spot in the team before and Callum Paterson may have passed Bardsley on the depth chart now




World Cup Qualifier
Scotland 0-0 Slovenia
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The score is heartbreaking as we had never been close to this dominant in any game so far. Doesnt help we were up against Atletico Madrid No1 Jan Oblak. That aside this is a big result as the table shows




Table
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Were 1 point behind Slovenia and England but had we won that game we would have topped the table at the half way stage however we now have to play both of those teams away from home and England is up next and that will be massive. If we loose that then we have no chance of finishing top and 2nd will be a challenge as well if Slovakia join the hunt.



 
Its a shame to see that if you don't win the league it's not only down to failing to beat Celtic, but Inverness also!! double might be in the bag though.
 
Its a shame to see that if you don't win the league it's not only down to failing to beat Celtic, but Inverness also!! double might be in the bag though.


Those highland teams have nabbed plenty points off me. They should help not hinder there "neigbours"
 



April



Spoke too son. After dropping points twice all of 2017 we go six games without a win turning our season on its head
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Fixtures



Dundee 2-1 Aberdeen
View attachment 116517
We have a problem as we loose for only the 2nd time in 2017. Rooney gave us the lead after 20 minutes but Dundee managed to cancel out our usual dominating play and we simply had no response to as they scored twice without reply to bring them back into the top 2 race


Aberdeen 0-2 Inverness CT
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This was as typical a football manager game as your ever likely to see. Aberdeen dominated but Caley had 2 efforts on target to our 8 and of course ICT got both the goals.


Aberdeen 1-1 Rangers
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Did i just moan about loosing to a teams only shots on goal going in? well it was my turn today. First time all year Rangers put up a fight. Lamberts side might be a much harder unit to take down the they were under Warbarton.


St Johnstone 2-2 Aberdeen
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We dropped points but this was a proper game of football. The fans got there moneys worth.


Scottish Cup S/F
Dundee 1-0 Aberdeen
View attachment 116513
Aberdeen's first cup defeat and by a long way our worst performance of the season. 1 shot on target not to mention loosing the possession battle. Dundee have rocked us to the core and we will have to try something different in the upcoming league match otherwise we could be looking at dropping down to 3rd.


Dundee 2-0 Aberdeen
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If i was getting fed up of playing Motherwell then i have no words to describe the site of Dundee in April. We only scored 1 goal in three games. We were better this time out but were worth no better than a draw.


Aberdeen 3-2 Celtic
View attachment 116511
Now this is just stupid. Of all the game to finally get a win in a dramafest game with Celtic. we did play far more defensive, that explain's how we scored 3. Dembele had given Celtic the lead and it felt like we were on the way to another nasty defeat. Jonny Hayes pulled us level against the run of play before Niall McGinn's free kick put us into a half time lead. Young CB Eoghan O'Connell equalize after the break but within 10 minutes McGinn had his 2nd goal against his former team that turned out to be a winner. Shay Logan has plenty history with the Celtic fans and his 2nd yellow card on the 90th minute came as no surprise and made stoppage time even more stressful but we hung on to finally beat Celtic and give us a faint hope of the league title




SPFL Table
View attachment 116510
Celtic are 6 points clear and 3 points away from the title while we need to build on finally winning a game to lock down 2nd spot with Dundee only 4 points behind. Rangers have found some kind of form and look good for finishing in 4th. At the other end Killie's demise is almost official. Any 4 of Hearts, Inverness, Hamilton or free failing Motherwell who have been a disaster since sacking my Scotland assistant Mark McGhee



 
3 defeats to ICT ? and they are 9th lol, definately your bogey team !
 
Foran did beat us before he was sacked. New man Gary Lock is keeping up the tradition. Just finished the season and we accounted for 1/6th of there total points in 3 games
 



May




Fixtures




Partick 1-4 Aberdeen
View attachment 116402
A strong second half rally led by the inspired Kenny McLean gave us a moral boosting win over Partick that not only keeps us alive for 2nd but restarts our title hopes

View attachment 116401
As Celtic and Dundee both lost that all but secures 2nd spot and even better tha gap to Celtic is down to 3 points and we currently have a stronger goal difference. Thank goodness we use that to sort positions rather than results against. Kilmarnock were officially relegated



Rangers 0-2 Aberdeen
View attachment 116400
We were lethal today. 5 shots all on target and 2 goals. Controlled possession after taking the lead and ended Lambert's brilliant run of form

View attachment 116399
Sadly Celtic won and won by 4 goals so were now 3 points behind and the goal difference is still 1 in our favor so we will win the league but Celtic HAVE to loose. Not impossible. They have lost 9 games already this year.



Aberdeen 1-3 St Johnstone
View attachment 116398
Sums up our form since April that has cost us the title. How the players couldnt get up for a title deciding game is beyond me.




Final SPFL Table
View attachment 116397
Celtic won there game at Dundee so no matter what we would have done it was not enough. Not much else changed as Motherwell fall into the relegation play off and have just hired John Hughes to try and save them.



 

Scotland
June Fixtures




Squad
James McArthur, Andy Robertson & Ross McCormack is back after injury. Except Craig Gordon were almost at full strength. This means Jordan Archer should get his 1st cap against N Ireland






World Cup Qualifier
England 3-2 Scotland
View attachment 116385
Our first competitive game against the auld enemy in 17 years seen England hammer us. Harry Kane scored two goals in the first quarter of a hour and it could have been so many more even before the break. We kept them quieter in the second half and with 15 minutes to go Matt Richie had us back in the game. Almost as quickly Jesse Lingard got England's 3rd. Scottish spirit was not dented as Leigh Griffiths made the last 10 minutes exciting but in the end fruitless as captain Cahill & his merry crew move clear atop of Group 6




Friendly
Scotland 3-1 N Ireland
View attachment 116384
Passion was still flowing out of our lads as we fared much better in our second British international in a week. Nothing came from the 1st half but the 2nd half Leigh Griffiths opened the scoring right away but The Irish showed why they are 2nd right on Germany's tail in there qualifying group by equalizing. Our back up striker Jordan Rhodes put us back ahead within a minute and the result was secured in the final minute by our own Ryan Jack ending a great season for himself and the club.




Table
View attachment 116383
A great round of results for England who move 2 points clear of Slovenia who drew with Slovakia. Logically it should be between ourselves, Slovakia & Slovenia for that 2nd spot. All 3 of us have to play at Wembely, we do so in the final group game with Slovakia vs Slovenia is there final game.



 
Whats your team instructions

View attachment 116138

Plan is to control the game.


Lower tempo will lead to slower attacks but we should outnumber them im the box so keep the ball keep the chance of scoring. Narrow pitch less distance to cover ties in with closing down much more. More pressure quicker we'll get the ball back. Shape is structured with discipline shown to freedom. Only players let the system down. Final third is opponent dependent. Tall center backs we'll work it into the box, Small technical center backs then obviously we'll cross it over there heads to Rooney. Built up is the same idea
 

End Of Season 2016/17 Review




SPL
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View attachment 116077


A great 9 month run saw us looking at a run at a domestic treble in our first season together ultimately falling short, running out of gas and all those other saying for ******** up the final months of the season. Our 73 point total in the league was just short of last seasons 75. Suffering far more defeats (9) than i've had in many saves due to a very leaky defense especially against the big teams. Sad that in my first season i almost broke my promise of no double digit loosing seasons. Celtic put 11 goals past us in only 4 games. Behind us there was a worrying improvement from Dundee who were the 3rd best team in Scotland last year. I know they were 3rd but they also picked up the Scottish Cup to end a very progressive season. Rangers had there downtime looking like finishing in the bottom half till Paul Lambert took over and they look like they could be a force fighting for 2nd next season too. Partick also totally overachieved in making the top 6 with St Johnstone. Biggest let down was Hearts. Usually looking on the outside of the top 6 and finished 7th and with Craig Levein retaking control of the team. At the bottom Kilmarnock were finishing bottom for pretty much the whole year, about all they can do for me is hand over there best youths, they have some great u19s. In what i consider a shock Motherwell will join Kilie in the Championship next year after an abysmal 2nd half of the season seen McGhee sacked, caretaker Alan Mahood locked them into the relegation battle and despite adding John Hughes to try and save them it was not enough as Falkirk beat the Steelmen on penalty's. Hibs will be returning to the SPL at last as Neil Lennon's men won the league. Dundee Utd finished 2nd and will be favorites to win the league next year along with Motherwell. League 1 was dominated by Livingston winning the league by 16 points and Forfar won league 2 by a far smaller margin to Arbroath. Edinburgh Citys single season of league football ended with a 3-2 defeat to Hawick RA in the playoffs.




Big 4 league review
Atletico Madrid dominated the league this season with Real and Barca playing a supporting role. Bilbao are back in the champions league, will always have a soft spot for them after my friends save many a moon ago. Europa League spots for Villareal, Celta Vigo & Valencia. Nothing for Sevilla
Is there a better sight than Man Utd being back on top? A throwback season as they fought Arsenal all the way for the title. Man City and Tottenham in the Champions league spots. Liverpool, Chelsea and Leicester in the Europa League. As if it didnt feel like 2000 enough Everton ended the season 17th 1 point clear of Hull who go down with Sunderland & Burnley
Juventus remain unstoppable. Napoli are back into 2nd spot with Inter nabbing the final Champions league spot. AC Milan make a long awaited return to European football with Udinese and Roma who won the Coppa Italia.
Will have to remember the Bundasliga disappears from this screen for the playoffs but if it was there you would see Bayern Munich finished 15 points clear of Dortmund and Leverkusen with Hoffenheim finishing 4th. Wolfsburg & Schalke in the Europa League with 15th placed Mainz who won the German Cup




Early Summer Manager Changes
Billy Dodds - Raith Rovers
Ian Murray - Kilmarnock
Louis Van Gaal - Chelsea



Aberdeen 2016/17
View attachment 116073
A handful of stand out players and notes to take from this season. Goalkeeper & CB distribution was terrible compared to the rest of the team. Is it the system or the players? Wing backs overlapping played a huge role in Rooneys 37 goal season. Niall McGinn was our top performer, Impressive considering how much time he missed. Vico manage 16 goals in a very negative campaign but like the defenders is that the system or the player as McLean was not much better.



Aberdeen Finances
Final balance £2,7m



Other Competitions


Scottish Cup
Dundee 1-0 Inverness CT
View attachment 116072
Dens Park will be home of the Scottish Cup for the 1st time since 1910. Poor poor showing from the old firm



Scottish League Cup
Dundee 0-4 Aberdeen
View attachment 116071
4 goals in the final, 5 in the Semi. Old Firm again showed nothing in this competition either.




Champions League
Atletico Madrid 1-3 Barcelona
View attachment 116070
Barcelona add the Champions League title to there Spanish cup. A small consolation for finishing 3rd in the league




Europa League
Man Utd 3-0 Porto
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Both sides waltzed to the final and Man Utd get there hands on even more silverware




Scottish teams in Europe 2016/17
Celtic - Champions League group phase
Aberdeen - Europa League group phase
Hearts - Europa League group phase
Hibs - Europa League group phase




From 2018/19 Scotland will have 2 champions league spots and 5 teams total in Europe
View attachment 116067




Aberdeen move up into the top 200 teams in Europe ranked at 165
View attachment 116066






Awards



SPL Player of the year
Adam Rooney
View attachment 116068
No Celtic players again? Who from the Aberdeen team is filling out these awards? Even if they were it should have been McGinn's award.




SPL Young Player of the year
Maxwel Cornet
View attachment 116065
Shame it went to a player that was only on loan and not a permanent SPL star




Fans player if the year
Shay Logan
Lost the picture but he won by around 10% from McGinn



SPL Top Scorer
Adam Rooney - 24
View attachment 116064
Lucky that Griffiths only played 24 games but still a wins a win.




Scottish team of the year
View attachment 116063
5 Players from Aberdeen made the team. Joe Lewis is a bit of a surprise while our front 4. Vico, McGinn, Rooney and Hayes all made the team with Shay Logan. They won the league but Celtic's league winning side gave up no players.




 
Last edited:
Solid season

Solid season you've achieved there, you put the foundation. Now I hope you'll be able to retain your best players. I guess until you increase even further club's and country's reputation that'll be the main issue.

Always had a soft spot for Scottish football, keep up the good work, very nice story!
 
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