Pre Season review 2017/18
Summers spending has not gone to plan. Overspent for a u21 defender, Made a huge upgrade at center back, our weakest spot then added two free players to replace players leaving. No sign of a revolution yet as 70% of the players i targeted would not even talk to me, 20% rejected the Dons for bigger teams the final 10% all of 3 players only Killie's Adam Frizzel is ready for the first team in a limited roll at best. We'll see how far we get through August we can go before i widen my player search.
My biggest debate with the board is they wont let me add to our 3 coaches. Even the plea of how much we need this to keep up with our opponents. I did have to make one coaching change in the summer. Paul Sheerin got offered and accepted the job as Alloa manager leaving my u20's without a manager. You'll notice i like to use faces familiar with the team for my backroom staff whenever possible so here's my first fledgling
Zander Diamond U20's Manager
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Did not realise how much work the training and youth facilities needed till i seen this on FMinside.net
Pre Season prices
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Slight changes from last year. Celtic are out to 3 we're now 2nd favorites into 5,50. The bookies think Hibs are coming right back into the SPL and into the top 6. If Falkirkyabass is feeling fruity he can get his team at 1000/1 tied with Hamilton & Inverness CT for bottom spot.
Season Targets
SPL - Top 2, over 75 points, less than 9 wins
Scottish Cup - Win
League Cup - Back up players till later stages
Europa League - Group phase
No change from last year really. Improvement in the league is explained and expected. Once again for the money if nothing else we have got to reach the Group phase of the Europa League
Fixtures
Old firm games are usually the ones we look out for and are nicely spaced out. Sadly it looks like our first two trips to Glasgow will potentially be right after Europa league games.
Pre season friendly's
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The aim of this summer was to bring in the money. Europa league qualifiers were warm up enough. Draws with Lens & Leverkusen were good results. Defeat to Norwich & only shutting out Coleraine is a worry.
Europa Results
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The IFK Mariehamn result looked like a slow start as we got warmed up and were still missing a few players. Worrying moments where we had to score a late goal to win at Pittodire are long forgotten thanks to convincing results against Slovenian team NK Olimpia and a very impressive thrashing of Portuguese side Vit Guimaraes puts us into the play off against FK Qarabag who reached the group phase of the Europa League last year and were even worst than us getting only 1 point at Tyncastle of all places.
Aberdeen Transfers
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I look on is disbelief at the time i've spent to make 6 transfers!
In
Eric Mathoho DC
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Here is our marque signing that is set to cause a riot. South African international and winner of this seasons African Champions League with Kaizer Chiefs. Our center backs were a disaster last year and a dream combination of speed, strength and any key defensive stats. If he doesnt tidy up our defense them i need some serious tactical adjustments.
Emir Dilaver DR
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The loss of fans player of the year Shay Logan may have led to me being decapitated. The real life me would be disgusted but in football manager you can not say no to £1m for a 29 year old in the last year of his contract. So as you can probably tell from how this starts here we have a replacement player. Nothing more nothing less. best DR on a free i could find. We'll see how he starts the season as there is still 4 weeks to buy a better right back if required.
Jordan Archer GK
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Earned his first Scotland cap at the end of last year and i seen enough there to figure he was a upgrade on Joe Lewis as our No1. The sole worrying thing from here was he only kept 7 clean sheets in League 1 so like Dilaver at right back his first few games will be huge for his future at Pittodrie
Adam Frizzell AM
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The stand out U20 Scottish player in the game already has 32 SPL appearances under his belt for Kilmarnock as they got relegated last season. His first team chances will be far less at Pittodrie but in a backwards way i think it could help his development spending some time with the u20s
Alen Brtan DC
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A real case of blood rushing to the head on this one as total fee's will see this be the clubs biggest transfer ever (£1.1m) although in the long term in could turn out to be a bargain. Croatia is probably my favorite hunting ground and his early progression and 2 summer U21 caps. He and Callum Dickson both have 4* potential and can use the u20's to develop a partnership.
Ian O'Brien MR
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The best willing and able youngster from the SPL teams. Hamilton have a strong history of pulling magic out of there youth system. Will need a lot of training to become a first team player but worth it for £170k
Out
As of now we have made a £1.4m profit on transfer fee's so let see how this happened. First man out was
Diego Seoane £650k. A back up wing back and with Scott McKenna returning to claim a back up spot in the team any cash for 29 year old back up is welcome. I've already discussed
Shay Logan so little more to say than Derby gae up £1.5m and i can not wish Shay anything but luck in the English Premiership. The next transfer took me by surprise.
Christian Antoniazzi left our u20's team to join AC Milan. Ok he looks like he could do a job for Aberdeen but with every major Italian side bidding we ended up falling out so i decided to offer him to clubs before he put in a transfer request and became worthless. 10% of his next fee will belong to me. With the influx of defenders there was no space in the squad for
Ash Taylor who joins Hearts for £375k. It came down to him or Consie which is not really a question at all is it! Final player leaving is striker
Jayden Stockley. We moved away from 2 strikers as the season went on last year so i took £110k from Birmingham as he fell down to 4th on the depth chart. Youth striker
Lawrence Shankland was released to Dundee United,
Joe Lewis may have been the Scottish GK of the year but has yet to find a club for this season while
Neil Alexader retired
Squad
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Two 4* players and only two players in our best eleven that are 3* or less. Slow but sure progress.
Youth team make giant steps, Giant expensive steps.
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Starting 11
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4 Changes from last season and to the shock of nobody its all defensive signings to try and plug the gaps that cost us two trophy's at the end of last season.
