Aberdeen Save 2022

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

After our first defeat of the season, we naturally win the next 3 league games including a revenge win over Dundee Utd. We also saw off Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final


SPL

Hibs & Dundee Utd are now tied for 2nd place and are only split by 1 goal. Celtic look locked into 4th while Queens Park has a good lead over Rangers in what could be the 5th Champions League spot. Hearts vs St Johnstone for the 7th place. At the bottom, Ross County have the most work to do to stay up. St Mirren, Killie & Motherwell are working to avoid the playoff spot and maybe worse.


Champions League
Newcastle 3-4 Aberdeen AET

We threw away a 3-goal lead from the 1st leg but saved the tie in extra time

Celtic needed pens but saw off powerhouses Man City. Dundee Utd won the all Scottish tie. They are rewarded with a Semi Final with Man Utd while we play Celtic in a all Scottish Semi Final​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

May


Fixtures

We equal last season's 37 wins out of 38 but agonisingly to be so close again.


Final SPL Table

Champions League
Semi Finals

1st Leg
Celtic 2-2 Aberdeen

A very even game we led twice and were slightly the better team but couldn't find a winner which could have gone either way

2nd Leg
Aberdeen 6-0 Celtic
Aberdeen win 8-2 on Agg

A red card changed the tie more than i can ever remember. Celtic totally collapsed. Dundee Utd stun Man Utd and we have our first all Scottish Champions League final​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Final 2047


From OAKA Spyros Louis Athens

Dundee Utd vs Aberdeen
The historic first all Scottish Champions League final and would you look at that? Not an old firm team in sight.

The New Firm History
The New Firm is the term used, hailing from the 1980s, to describe the rivalry between Scottish football clubs Aberdeen and Dundee United. Both clubs are located on the east coast of Scotland, in the third and fourth most populous cities respectively.
Although not traditionally a derby, with 65 miles separating both teams, the fixture was seen as a North-east of Scotland derby between the two most successful teams in Scotland outside of the Old Firm during the 1980s. Dundee United also have a more traditional rivalry with their close neighbours Dundee.


Dundee Utd 0-2 Aberdeen

We had total control of the game and Dundee Utd couldnt ruin the most important part of the season after they took our perfect domestic season from us. Nothing to take away from us winning a 9th Champions League in a row and a 11th in total.
​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Nations League


Semi-Finals
Scotland 2-0 Germany

It was a stalemate for most of the game till Maciver on his last legs just back from a 3-month injury gave us a late lead before his Dons strike partner secured our spot in the final


Final
Scotland 5-2 Spain

An extremely unexpected but fantastic victory and a second Nations League win for Scotland. Aguilar gave Spain the lead and i felt that was probably it. However, we were going to get 60 minutes out of the best player in the world in Mr Maciver whose first-half half hatrick had us in a strong position at half time. The second half flew by except for Spain getting a red card to what i thought finished the tie but actually they made it 3-2 for 5 minutes but two stoppage-time strikes secured the second major trophy win for ScotsSadly it was not enough to move us top of the world rankings.

 

[Mr_Grieves]

End of Season 25


SPL - Winner

15th title in a row.

We won 37/38 games and for the 2nd season in a row, we have our 2nd best season ever 1 point off our best. STILL waiting for the 114/114 point season with Dundee Utd costing us a perfect season again. Celtic who previously looked locked into 2nd place have fallen behind Hibs & Dundee Utd. Interesting to see how this works out next season as is expect the current top 4 to be as they are a level above the rest. Due to the success of our top 4 teams, we have a 5th team in the champions league groups next season and amazingly its Queens Park. Rangers rallied towards the end of the season but couldn't get back into the top 5. They and Hearts will go into the Europa League. with St Johnstone proudly returning to Europe 2 seasons after being in the championship. Motherwell, Kilmarnock & St Mirren all spent the season fighting over the playoff spot which St Mirren ended up falling into. A sad story from the bottom of the table as Ross County are relegated for the first time in the save. Europa Conference runner-ups in 2038 and finalists in 2035 and a league-best finish of 3rd in 2032. Following the Europa League win their fortunes slowly turned and they became a bottom-half team. It got even worse last season having to survive the playoff and despite a 55m investment from the Dons it got worse this season and they finished a distant bottom. They will be replaced by Airdrieonians making a 2nd appearance in the SPL. They got 28 points last time. Dont fancy their chances of getting there this time.


Playoffs
St Mirren 4-1 Hamilton

Hamilton fought through from the 3rd/4th place game to face the SPL side. Thanks again to Cove choke Rangers. They put on a far stronger show against St Mirren being tied with 16 minutes to go in the 2nd leg yet St Mirren scored 3 quick-fire goals to save their playoff spots.


Managers

Three of the bottom sides changed managers. The former Turriff manager Deal Donaldson has worked all his way up to the SPL and did the best job out of the 3 hires. Also, that is not THE Andy Cole who would be almost 80 years old in this sim


Europe
Dundee Utds first season back in the Champions League and they stun the world by getting all the way to the final
Celtic reached the Champions League Semi-Final and if not for an early red card, it could have been more
Hibs Champions League run ended to finalist Dundee Utd in the quarter-finals. Their best run in almost a century
Rangers Europa League reached the Europa League Semi-final losing to Spurs
Hearts Europa League run ended at the last 16
St Mirren were the team that let us down. There is always one. They lost the Conference playoff to Turkish side Kasimpasa


Champions League Final

Squad Review


Goalkeeper

Ajay was fine but Lawrie had a brilliant season playing over 20 games once again.

Defence

Solid back 4 once again. I expected bids for Ipsen this summer despite another subpar season.

Midfield

The middle of the park was brilliant with starting wingers Petkov & Piepenbrock.

Attack

Andy MacIver missed 3 months of the season but still leads us in every forward stat. Dujakovic secured his spot at the best of the rest. Could Craig & Hernandez ever move up to the next level?



Players for life
300+ Appearances


Samuel Ajayi - GK
P459 Clean sheets 270

Bradley Cummings - DC
P833 G43

Andreas Alvarez - MC
P409 G55

Dimitar Petkov - MR
P471 G165

Andy MacIver - ATT
P583 G657

Rankings

Club Ranking - 1st

National League - 3rd

Our best national season ever and except for England it is the best season on record


National Team ranking - 2nd

After that was Brazil. There was Scotland. This is ridiculous but a shame the Nations League didn't get us up to top spot.



Awards

Player of the Year
Andy Maciver

Young Player of the Year
Luis Villegas

Top Scorer
Andy Maciver - 40

Team of the Year

Lots of questions here.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 26
Aberdeen 2047

The Dons won a record-breaking 9 Champions League in a row, 11 in total. Only 3 behind Real Madrid now. Yes, i am just copying and pasting it at this point. For the 5th season in a row, my sole focus of the season is a perfect season in the SPL. It's embarrassing that I've never managed this before but this will be tougher than it has been for decades


Squad


Goalkeepers

We have our weakest keeper lineup in over 20 seasons. Ajay was in the last year of his contract and was not going to sign a new deal. I waited through the summer and finally, Real Madrid came along and we worked out a huge fee. Joe Lawrie as i say is a big drop but has done well as a backup and when he had played in over 20 games the last 3 seasons as well as being good for Scotland. Ritter is a pure backup,

Defence

Like in goals, the defense takes a step back with teenage wonderkid Trevor Esson stepping in for Ipsen who leaves after another poor season. The other 3 stay the same.

Midfield

The only position unchanged is the midfield. Petrov being 34 is a concern but he is still one of the best forwards in the world. Backups are stronger than my starting defence.

Attack

Mark Craig is now over 4* and that was enough for me to make him the no2. Behind them, i have half a dozen players fighting it out to not be sold.


Transfer Window


SPL

Our sale brings in nearly 300m. All going back to other Scottish sides


Aberdeen
SPL Donations

In

We only signed one player for the future


Out

Real Madrid do what Real Madrid did in the 2000s and dropped us a 168m bill for our backup striker & long-term no1 keeper. Both were away to start the last year of their contract so this major payday is welcome but at what loss? Ajay at least as we have so many strikers to fill in for Dujakovic. Victor & Nauzet were solid prospects but we were paid 5* and 4* potential prices for 3* players. Rivera & Marco never broke out of the loan squad.


GK Samuel Ajayi 2034-47
P459 Clean Sheets 270 Ave Rating 7.27

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

Celtic almost ruined the perfect season at the very start. No chance it will happen this year


Champions League Draw

Super Cup
Aberdeen 2-0 Tottenham

We win it back after losing to London clubs the last 2 seasons​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September & October


Fixtures

We won 6/7 league games comfortably by at least 3 goals. We had a tougher game with the backups in the League Cup but we won nonetheless.

Then there was the annual slip-up. This time it was Dundee Utd's turn holding us to a draw at Tanadice. Well i say held to it was a deserved result. Are Dundee Utd the first team to catch us up? It definitely is Hibs


SPL

Despite my season being ruined we are clear at the top. The race for 2nd looks very exciting first quarter of the season in. Airdrie look out of their depth which financially the are by a long way.


Champions League

We thrash 2nd favourited Watford and beat another side full of former dons in Hertha Berlin with a 90th-minute winner. Then came our 4th seed match with Cluj for our first-ever meeting in the save. They held us to a draw and led most of the game.


Scotland

Wins against the 3 minos secure our spot at the 2048 Euros. We draw with Ireland who are doing their best to win the group but we should secure that against Malta & Isreal​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November & December


Fixtures

Wins all around as usual in the update after the death of a perfect month.


League Cup Final
Dundee Utd 0-1 Aberdeen

The new firm derby is alive and well. Yet again there was nothing between the sides in the final and the Dons only got the win with a goal right at the end through Maciver of course


SPL

Celtic move into 2nd place as the rest of the top half move clear of the rest. Rangers enter the top 6 for the first time this season and Airdrie finally have their first win.


Champions League

3 Very impressive wins. we are finding our feet after a dodgy start in terms of performances


Scotland

It was far from convincing but we secured top spot in the group on our way to Euro 2048​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures

Rangers gave us a worry but won all around in the league & Cup


SPL

Celtic pull further clear in 2nd as Dundee Utd & Hibs are set to clash in the middle. Hearts after a brilliant January are well into the top 6. Rangers have a terrible month. Airdrie counting the days till they swap back with Ross County. Probably


Champions League

2 wins secure qualification and £5m in the bank. Madness that Cluj was the only side to take points off us when i rotated in both these games but won


Final Table

Not great news for the other Scottish teams. Celtic & Dundee Utd are in the playoffs but Hibs & Queens Park both fall out of Europe before the knockout phase



Transfer Window

Hibs falling out of Europe and losing 2 of their best players. Man City beat me to one Hearts wonderkid after i massively overpay for another


Dons Transfers

In

2 players for the u18s that will almost certainly play a huge role in the 1st team next season.


Out

3 back up players and one long term major star

Robbie Jacob spent over a decade at Aberdeen becoming the best backup DM, MC and MR. Game time was at an all time low over the last few seasons and he asked for a move that i had no problems letting him go for the last 3 or 4 seasons of his prime.

Robbe Jacobs MC
P302 G34 Av Rat 7.17

​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February & March​

Fixtures

With lots of rotation, our form stayed really good until we played Hibs in the cup who made sure there would be no treble this season with our first Scottish Cup defeat in 8 years and only our 3rd in the last 20 years and it's even longer since we went out at this point.


SPL
Titles secured again, Celtic pulling clear of Dundee Utd who are clear of Hibs. Rangers are out of the top 6 and Airdries awful season sees them all but down and sacking their manager.


Champions League
Last 16

1st Leg
Man City 1-2 Aberdeen

2nd Leg
Aberdeen 4-1 Man City
Aberdeen win 6-2 on agg

A stunning comeback in the first leg set the tone for the tie and my favourite part of the Champions League season is complete again. Knocking out city.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

With the league in the bag, we rest players with bigger games around all 3 SPL games. Our only collapse was Hearts.


SPL

The top 4 all look set to finish in their positions with Hearts & Queens Park ready ti fight for the Europa League place. Airdrie was down a long time ago but it's now official. Rangers far from safe from the playoffs in a horrendous 2nd half of the season collapse


Champions League Q/F

1st Leg
Aberdeen 3-0 Watford

2nd Leg
Watford 2-1 Aberdeen
Aberdeen win 4-2 on Agg

We dominated the first leg and almost threw it away down in London till Mark Craig settled the nerves with 15 minutes to go. We'll face Bayern in the Semis in the unofficial final​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

May


Fixtures

A mix of results with major rotation with only the Champions League to play for in May


SPL

Little Changes in the League. Kilmarnock won the Scottish Cup so they will be in Europe next season. But will they be in the SPL?


Champions League
Semi-Finals

1st Leg
Aberdeen 0-0 Bayen

2nd Leg
Bayen 0-2 Aberdeen
Aberdeen win 2-0 on agg

When we drew 0-0 at home i thought we were done for in the 2nd leg but a tremendous win in Munich means its another final for the Dons against Leipzig for the 2nd time in 3 years.282​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Final 2048


From the Puskas arena

A repeat of the final from two years ago where we won 5-2


Aberdeen 4-1 RB Leipzig

No contest! 10 in a row and 12 in total. Real Madrid's record 15 in total is in major jeopardy. Amazing our winning run of Champions Leagues now is longer than the Scottish cup or League Cup​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

End of Season 26



SPL - Winner

16th title in a row. The dream of a perfect season ended very early on so we rotated more than ever leading to us finishing over 10 points off the last two seasons and our worst in 13 years. Celtic are back in 2nd well clear of Dundee Utd who looked to have become the 2nd force in Scotland but had a poor season. Hearts on the other hand had an amazing 2nd half of the season and ended up finishing ahead of Hibs by 1 goal. It's good for Scotland to have Hibs in the Europa. They will be joined in that competition by 11th place Kilmarnock who stunned Celtic in the Scottish Cup final and Queens Park will be in Europe again through the Conference league. St Johnstone is the first 7th place team not to go into Europe in 7 seasons. Rangers downfall goes on but at least pulled clear of the playoff spots at the end of the year. Killie do end up in the playoffs. Will they play championship football & Europa League in the same season? Airdrie were unlucky to come into the league with the biggest gap in money that it's ever had and it showed as they were routed to the bottom all year. On the other side of that Scottish pound note, Ross County returned with the highest points total in championship history


Playoffs
Kilmarnock 8-2 Hamilton

Poor Hamilton gets hammered here again.


Managers

Poor Dean Donaldson worked his way up to the top flight and Motherwells Arab owners gave him the sack with the replacement doing no better. Airdies Josh McPake was on a hiding to nothing. Robbie Dee's efforts to ruin Rangers come to an end as a former World Player of the Year candidate Ely Jardim takes over after getting Chateauroux relegated from the French top-flight


Europe
Dundee Utds Could not repeat last season's miracle run to the final and were knocked out at the knockout phase
Celtic too were out at the 1st knockout round
Hibs Horror season was no better in Europe as they failed to get through the groups
Queens Park's first run through the Champions League group also ended in the group phase but was far less humiliating
Rangers Europa League run was the highlight of their season reaching the last 16
Hearts Europa League run went a round further after knocking out Rangers Man Utd destroyed them in the Quarter Finals
St Johnstone kept up the SPL record of losing a team in the qualifiers. They deserved to be jibbed out of Europe next season after this.


Champions League Final

Squad Review


Goalkeeper

Only one keeper Joe Lawrie with 60 games played with Ritter being a pure backup up and no worthwhile youth candidates

Defence

Three of our four centrebacks were fixed. One of who Cummings is starting to fail. Wing-backs are still set for long term. Esson has the edge over McDougall for the other CB spot with lots of youth prospects on the verge of the team.

Midfield

The wingers were fantastic while the 4 regular players in the middle had mixed but all good seasons

Attack

MacIver was beaten. He did miss almost 2 months which was enough for his side-kick Mark Craig to outscore him. Burbano was the sole regular backup.


Players for life
300+ Appearances


Bradley Cummings - DC
P879 G45

Andreas Alvarez - MC
P447 G58

Dimitar Petkov - MR
P519 G183

Andy MacIver - ATT
P619 G691

Rankings

Club Ranking - 1st

Fergie's two main sides are the top 2

National League - 3rd

We stay top 3 despite other sides slipping up

National Team ranking - 2nd

Can we do something in the Euro to move top of the pile?



Awards

Player of the Year
Andy Maciver

Young Player of the Year
Paublo Burbano

Top Scorer
Mark Craig - 30

Team of the Year

​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Euro 2048
​

From
France


Squad

Is this our best squad? Cummings is the only one who is perhaps over the hill. MacIver, Smith & Rice are all in their prime


Group C

Won the first two games then rested players for the last game with the last 16 in mind


Last 16
Scotland 5-2 Switzerland

We were 1 down and had MacIver injured in the first 8 minutes but came on strong to win comfortably in the end. The German team does not have the bug. That result actually happened


Quarter Final
Scotland 2-0 Denmark

A tense game that we had control of but it took till the end of the game for our sub-DL to secure our semit-final spot against Neighbours England


Semi Final
Scotland 0-1 England

A 112th minute goal from City striker Lee Dilley sets up a England and France final and on the flipside of all the Don's successes, this is heartbreaking.


Final
France 2-3 England

Extra time is England friend​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 27
Aberdeen 2048


The Dons won a record-breaking 10 Champions League in a row, 12 in total. We are only 3 behind Real Madrid now. Yes, i am just copying and pasting it at this point. For the 6th season in a row, my sole focus of the season is a perfect season in the SPL. It's embarrassing that I've never managed this before and after last season's stutters I have a full 25-man squad.


Squad

Goalkeepers

Same two in goals same story

Defence

The defence is not progressing as I liked. Wingbacks are class we have 3 for the 2 positions. Cummings is still as good as anyone at DC as a 35-year-old

Midfield

Vieira has caught up with the legendary Petkov so he will see more playing time once he finishes recovering from his broken leg. Alvarez & Villegas will lead the midfield. Memedi & Kjelstad will get the chance to prove themselves with the first team and Berry is ready to be a starter too. Piepenbrock is the locked-in starter on the left wing. Calder I think is better than the 3* he is given.

Attack

MacIver & Craig will be the starters despite Burbanos mega rise through last season. Ivan Marini will be 4th choice.



Transfer Window


SPL

Look at the Spending. What have I created



Aberdeen

One player for the first team squad. An Argentine wonderkid


SPL Donations

In
Youth players

I found Adam McCart while picking up Hibs players. The best MC prospect from Scotland in the save. Of course, he gets a serious injury less than a month into his stay. Reginaldo is as posh a Brazilian name as you can get. Abate is a great midfield talent that will no doubt cause issues with the amount of midfielders in the squad in 3-5 years time. Messias with a name like that and a right winger has got to be good. Adriazola already has a cap as 18 years old.



Out

I had several midfielders and needed to sell a few. One I had no plans on selling was Didier Zon but Bayerns offer of well over £100m could not be turned away. Espinoza was primed to be the backup striker but Burbanos did enough to let me push Man Utds spending to almost £100m. Same story with Pascutini to Newcastle The other 10 players we sold were a mix of players bought from SPL clubs and youngsters that never made it.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

A dominant start to the season


Champions League Draw

Seems like a bunch of 1&2 seeds and a couple of 4th seeds.


Super Cup
Aberdeen 6-1 Man Utd

Our biggest win in this match​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September & October


Fixtures

Utter dominance in Scotland. Rangers came the closest to giving us problems but MacIver saw us through


SPL

12/12 and then it's the old firm up next. Motherwell's tycoon has maybe got them up I and running. Throwing over £50m at Hearts see them with 10 points from 12 games and stuck in the bottom 5 teams.



Champions League

A Good/Bad and Ugly performance from the 3 games. Liverpool was utterly pathetic till the last 20 minutes


Scotland

4 wins from 4 including a win in Germany has us in pole position to win the group again. Need a result against them at Hampden​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November & December


The highlight of the month is Bradley Cummings breaking Willie Millers long standing club record appearances in the league. One i doubt we'll see broken again

Fixtures

It was all going so well. Winning every game by a two-goal margin. Then in that sticky patch in early December that has caught us out so often once again bit in the shape of Hibs.


SPL

MacIver could be on for a record season in front of goal. Celtic have found their best striker in decades has them clear in 2nd. Motherwell has joined the top 6 while Hearts with almost £80m in transfer profit across the last 2 years are an embarrassment.


League Cup
Motherwell 0-5 Aberdeen

The Old Firm collapsed well before the final opened the way for Motherwells Arab owners to win their first trophy which they were never close to.


Champions League

The win in Germany was full of luck with a late double. We dominated Man Utd and then had a embarrassing result against 10 men of Barcelona makes our January schedule tougher than i'd like



Scotland

We won the group but a worrying thrashing by Germany in our final game. Still no sign of MacIver's unretiring​