Aberdeen Save 2022

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

We get the season off and running with wins in all the games where we expect to get results. So the home game to Rangers. We were tied at 1-1 coming out from the break and Greg Taylor got sent off at the worst possible moment once down to 10 men Rangers had the better of the game and ran out deserved winners.


League

Celtic come out flying. 17 goals in 4 games. Hibs makes a strong start and Ayr look to be in big trouble already


Champions League Qualifier

1st Leg
Nice 1-2 Aberdeen

A great result in France. Totally outplayed them and were in a great spot for the 2nd leg

2nd Leg
Aberdeen 0-5 Nice
Nice win 6-2 on agg

What the **** was this? How has a brilliant away win been spat on with possibly the worst FM performance from any FM team i have ever had? Very bad news this as i spent hight to secure a CL group spot.


Europa League Draw

This is more of a Champions League draw we got rather than the Europa League. Will be tough to get out of this group.


Transfers

We Made 3 more transfers once the season got underway

Gabi Rukavina MR

Very good price for an upgrade on the right wing. Can also work on the left so a great addition.

Alvaro Fernandez GK

The backup and cup keeper is my highest-earning player. He will either be sold for a big profit next season or take over as no1 when if Luiz Junior forces a move

Ross Marshall ML

Looks a solid player but Ross County didn't offer him a contract when he came through and my scouts gave him a 5* rating so a no brainer when he would finally talk to us. Asked the agent 3 times and he said not interestest every time.


Out
I hoped to have a busy window clearing out players i felt let me down or were never going to progress but selling players from Aberdeen is a struggle. One season wonder Dylan Levitt was in my plans but with no movement on other midfielders, i was forced to move on to the Welsh International. Ross McCrorie has been asking to leave for almost 18 months so after not getting any decent offers i let him leave for pennies to the Championship where he should dominate. I also let my two backup keepers leave. Faaris Yusufu is the main one of the two for virtually no profit. He got a run in the team last season and made costly mistakes and gave up almost 1/3 of our league goals in only 12 games. Cut my losses and was lucky to find Fernandez on a relegation release clause.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September


Fixtures

4 Domestic games and we won them all. Did the job in getting the goal difference up against Ayr combined with good wins at Dundee Utd & St Mirren. The League cup Q/F saw another big win this time at Ross County. Europe however is another story. Much like the Nice game, it was a close match but Galatasaray destroyed us 4-1. Worried about how this is going to go from there,

League

Celtic stay perfect at the top but we are right behind with just the red card debacle against Rangers keeping us from being 7/7​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

I signed Levitt on a bosman as well - eventually flipped him to Atletico Madrid for nearly £20 million

 

[Mr_Grieves]

I signed Levitt on a bosman as well - eventually flipped him to Atletico Madrid for nearly £20 million

Wow! I'll be happy with half that!

Also still not got the broadband sorted so updates take forever off a 4G so there will be another big dump of updates when it is fixed or when I'm visiting and remember my laptop

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October


Fixture

3 wins from 4 including a big win at Parkhead between Europa League games which took us tied at the top. Well for 1 week then fitness caught up with us and St Johnstone who held us to a 1-1 draw which actually led to us having to come up.

League

Ross County after selling its best youth prospect is having their best start to a season in years ahead of the capital clubs.

Europa League

This is not an interesting competition for us this season but im delighted to have scraped 6 points from 6 in our 2 of our easier games. Gladbach was actually a tough point that was our worst actual European performance

We are back in the top 8. I don't expect it to last but based on last season we are just a few points away from securing a playoff spot.
​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November


Fixture

A Very good run of results in the League & Cup. We were once again crippled by a red card. Hilariously it went Injury 17th minute. Substitute red card in the 18th minute. We stood strong defensively and got out of Glasgow with a point.

League

Celtic also drew so the gap stays at 2 points with Rangers closing the gap as we stutter.


Europa League

A Bavidge hattrick secured a brilliant come from behind win over Chelsea. We then lost the easier game to Hertha Berlin.

Still very much in the race for a top 8 but not holding out much hope with our form in Europe all over the shop.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

December


Fixtures

It was going too well with 3 wins and a draw, after a Europa League game. We then suffered two catastrophic home collapses before rescuing wins against Motherwell and new league leaders Rangers.


SPL

5 points split the top 3 with Ross County worryingly lurking in an incredible 4th. Not sure Bavidge has a shot at the Golden Boot with Mexican striker Gimenez having a monster start to the season.


League Cup Final
Aberdeen 1-0 Celtic AET

We won our 3rd League cup in 4 seasons but made as much hard work of it as possible. Celtic missed a pen in the 1st half before getting a red card right at the start of the second half. We had all the time in the world to get a winner but needed to go into extra time for our new right winger to slot in the winner in the 113th minute winner.

Europa League

The win all but secures at least a playoff and despite difficult games ahead we have a shot at going right into the last 16.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January

An extremely untimely crash led to a swing in points against us and me having to redo the transfer deadline day, The first time in the save i had been busy on said date.

Fixtures

A perfect symmetrical start to the domestic game in 2026. three 2-0 wins in the league is what you would expect against nontop 3 teams. The only game we had against the old firm was in the Scottish cup where we beat Celtic in extra time between two Europa games.
Then the game crashed and the perfect month was in the bin as we drew 0-0 with Livingston

SPL

Celtic won the old firm tie so we're back to the familiar 3 points splitting the top 3.
If we miss out on the Champions League or the title by 2 points i will be beside myself


Europa League

We finally win with 10 men against Fiorentina and were in the top 5. Draw against Villareal should secure the top spot. So after a great match, we lost 2-1 and go into the last 32 playoffs instead.


Dynamo Kyiv awaits in the last 32

Transfer Window
It all went wild at Pittodrie on deadline day with Miovski demanding a transfer due to lack of game time. Two Mexican teams bid over £7.5m for him and i was most grateful he signed for the higher price. This set off an incredible amount of business in the final hours of the window. Away from Aberdeen Celtic bought a Portuguese wonderkid & Rangers loaned a Polish wonderkid

In

Only Diop and Pedro go right into the first team. What on earth is Porto playing at giving away this stud for under £1m

The other 4 do out on loan or to the u18s. Lots of work to do here next summer,

Out
One major exit among the loans and odd sales.

Bojan Miovski
P132 G83

A solid servant and the vital forward for our first two seasons where the majority of his goals came from. We would not have won the league without him and now the money from selling him could build a spine of the next squad that we hope to challenge​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February
​

Fixtures

3 wins from 4 and the only time we dropped points were at Parkhead

Scottish Cup is totally open. Thanks to this result meaning both Old Firm teams are out

SPL

The old firm is tied at the top and we are only 4 points back and far from out of it.

Europa League KO
1st leg
Dynamo Kyiv 0-3 Aberdeen

Far too many red cards in this game, more so in the big games but at least this time it helped us/.

2nd Leg
Aberdeen 2-0 Dynamo Kyiv
Aberdeen win 5-0 on Agg

Work was done in the 1st leg this just secured our spot in the last 16.


Last 16 Draw
Aberdeen vs Sevilla

Of all the teams you don't want to see in the Europa League


​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

March


Fixtures

The League is in trouble, almost over in fact. A draw with Ross County and a defeat at Hearts is devastating to our treble charge. St Mirren almost finished it off even earlier taking our Scottish cup QF all the way to penalties

League

The old firm is tied at the top but now that we are 9 points behind with 8 games to go we pretty much have to win out to have a shot at the title.


Europa League Last 16

1st Leg
Aberdeen 6-3 Sevilla

Red cards are everywhere once again and this time it's probably knocked out one of the favorites. A red card in the 1st minute, how does that even happen? Sevilla was still well in the fight having the game at 3-2 when a second red card came along and we instantly piled into Sevilla to get a big lead for the 2nd leg

2nd Leg
Sevilla 0-0 Aberdeen
Aberdeen win 6-3 on Agg

Another red card made sure we go over the line with ease after an hour of Sevilla pressure.

Q/F Draw

For the 2nd time this season, we get Nice in a K'O game. We are out for revenge.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

3 wins in the league to do what we can to challenge the old firm and another hard-fought victory in the Scottish cup against Ross County sets up a final with Hearts.

SPL

Rangers lost the old firm and then had their second-worst result of the season drawing with bottom side Ayr to fall 5 points behind Celtic who are still 9 ahead of the Dons.


Europa League Q/F

1st Leg
Aberdeen 2-0 Nice

We get the result that we really should have got in the home leg of our Champions League tie. Still on the here and now this is great for the 2nd leg having a lead to defend.

2nd Leg
Nice 3-2 Aberdeen
Aberdeen win 4-3 on Agg

We scored in the first minute through youngster Junco, who had a bid from Chelsea rejected for him. That should have been that however, Nice spent the next hour bringing it back to 3-3. The winner came 15 minutes from time from Thai forward Muenta off the bench and the Semi-final awaits.

Semi Final

If we can beat Leeds we'll have already played our final opposition​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

SPL Split

Match 34
Ross County 1-3 Aberdeen

The top 3 all win so Aberdeen loose. Ross County is in danger for the 4th place with the capital teams closing the gap

Match 35
Aberdeen 4-1 Rangers

Celtic won again so the league is one game away from being mathematically impossible to catch. We however are right on Rangers tails and we both have to play Celtic. All still to play for, well Except the title

Match 36
Aberdeen 4-0 Hearts

Celtic are champions. Ross County secures an incredible 4th place finish by doing us a huge favor and beating Rangers. Ayrs stunning recovery has them off the bottom for the first time since the 2nd game of the season.

Match 37
Aberdeen 7-0 Celtic

Celtic played their kids while we went full strength expecting which turned out to be a mistake on every level as Rangers were beaten by Hearts so we secure 2nd and a Champions League place once again. At the other end, Dundee Utd won the relegation 6 pointer with Ayr which will be the last position of importance to decide on the final day. The only thing left to play for is 5th

Match 38
Hibs 1-2 Aberdeen

The Kids get an amazing result to end the season with 90 points. Rangers beat Celtic so we finish 3 points off the title with a lot of help from Celtics backups for the last few weeks.


Europa League Semi Final

1st Leg
Aberdeen 2-2 Leeds

We came from behind twice against the Premiership team to be level going into the 2nd leg

2nd Leg
Leeds 0-1 Aberdeen AET
Aberdeen win 3-2 on Agg

A tight and frankly boring first hour was then thrown into chaos with a Doyle red card. FFS! We held on till full time and still had all our subs to make. 4 changes led to us dominating extra time and Andy Bavage of course snagged the winner in the 111th minute to send us to the final!

Chelsea awaits, We've already beaten them in the group phase.

​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Finals Week

The league has always felt like maybe Rangers & definitely Celtic were out of touch and so it proved. Now as we've got stronger and stronger as the season has gone on we were playing far better no more than in Europe where we have notched up several upsets to reach the final of the Europa League


Europa League Final
Aberdeen 0-2 Chelsea

Feel really hard done by here. Chelsea scored with their first two efforts on target then shut up shop happy to hold us at arm's length. We made several chances but took non of them. Much like Rangers 2008 run to the final, it feels like our luck ran out on this night.

Even in defeat, i am so proud of how the boys rose up in this competition supplying a lot of coefficient points for us & Scotland as well as a huge boost in income that will see us increase the number of youth players we can buy this summer as well as improving the facilities and will be the first steps towards moving to our next stadium in the more distant future.

Scottish Cup Final
Hearts 0-6 Aberdeen

This wasn't a match. It was a mismatch. We were in a bad mood after the Europa final and took our rage out on Hearts to wrap up a character-building season on a high.
​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 4 Review


SPL - 2nd

We finish 3 points off doing the treble. Looks far closer than it was as the Celtic's backups lost their last 3 games after winning the title so early. Rangers had another end of season collapse handing us 2nd place with more defeats in the last 7 games than the first 31 combined. Ross County's amazing season saw them finish an incredible 4th and a conference place next season along with HEarts who finished just ahead of Hibs. After just surviving last season St Johnstone was clear in 7th this season ahead of other no man's land teams Livingston, Motherwell, and St MIrren. Ayr looked destined for relegation all season until a late flurry saw them sneak off the bottom only to lose to Dundee Utd and their final game to go straight back down. They will be replaced by Championship winner Queens Park back after 2 seasons away.

Playoff
Dundee Utd 2-2 Partick AET
Partick wins on pens

Dundee Utd did all that hard work to beat Ayr to 11th spot only to go lose the playoff to Partick who will be the 2nd new team in the SPL

Managers
Only Dundee Utd changed managers in the season with former Livingston manager David Martindale taking over at Dundee Utd while his former team Livinston put their club in the reliable hands of Derek McInnes


Champions League Final
Liverpool 2-1 Bayern

Mo Salah did his best Ole Solskjaer impression coming off the bench to score a 92nd minute winner and beat defending champions Bayern Munich in the final


Squad review

Goalkeeper

This shows how insane a season we had where our reserve and cup keeper played only 5 games less than our No1 This was still not enough gor Fernandez who we sold to Hoffenheim a few months ago after his 3rd transfer request. The three keepers in the u19s are all not quite good enough to play for us yet and need loans to develop so i hope all 3 will be out on loan and we pick up a backup gk for free.

Defense

The defensive rating was quite disappointing considering we started a very regular back 4 aside from injuries. Worryingly our best-performing defender Zac Williams is in the last year of his deal next season and is wanting to break the bank to stay. Looks like he'll be on the way out. Sadly it looks as if non of the current back 4 are long term answers. Aznou and Diop are my favorite prospects with Aznou already having interest from English teams. Like the real Scotland side there both left back so no room for both long terms if they turn out to be class. Shout out to former Scottish Player of the year Lisandro Magalian who will be returning to Argentina in the summer. He never recovered from his cruciate injury last year.

Midfield

Unlike the Defense, i am very happy overall with the performance of the midfield. Wingers Pereira & Rukavina have proven to be a league-leading line up and after a very poor first half of the season, Barron came back strong to lead our challenge on 4 fronts. Doyle and Besuijen did very well as the main backups while stars of the future Ross Marshall, Junco and Alfie Stewart made very promising progress. Stewart however has requested to go out on loan to improve his development. It strange after making 53 appearances last season but maybe 30+ starts for a mid table side will be good for him.

Attack

Clearly our strongest area. Bavidge move up another level again this season scoring for fun in all 4 comeptions he finished in the top 3 scorers. Mueanta was his maid partner in crime solidified after Miovsyi left. His replacement teenage Paulo Pedro will have to start sooner rather than later with non of the in-house youngsters looking like they will ever be good enough to compete i will probably use one of the loanees as my 4th striker next term.


Players for life
Here at Aberdeen, we love one of our own coming through and thriving. There are quite a few current Dons i hope to keep long-term so let's have a look at how the spine of our squad is doing in more depth after our first season.

Connor Barron - MC

Not his best season with some terrible performances in the first half of the season. Played much better once Doyle and Junco became regular partners in the middle. Still not been capped but at 23 there is time for him to make an impact.

Alfie Stewart - MC

His first season with a serious role at the club, well our main utility sub playing in the middle, right, and occasionally up front. Was stumped when he requested a loan for development when negotiating a new contract but if thats what the man wants there is plenty MCs who are at the club

Ross Marshall - ML

A new entry is the former Ross County player who signed his first professional deal with us. He plays well and is loved by the scouts and assistant despite not having amazing stats his valuation and interest from down south suggest we have something special here.

Alfie Bavidge - ATT

Now a 30 goal a season striker he has again moved to another level and is about to get a long contract extension.

Last entry
Ryan Duncan - MR

Another season with no development and now going into the last season of his contract even if i can't shift him it's hard to see how he makes my 25-man squad next season.

Youth stars but probably won't be here forever.

The two Spanish players are regulars in the first team but with the interest being shown and Aznou already making noises about moving i can't see them being long-term players for us sadly.


Rankings

Club Ranking - 38th

Another big jump. Expect the same from the next two season.

National League - 11th

How do we get to a Europa League final but the league drops down a spot losing the automatic champions league place? Celtic going out without a win in the Champions League Group and Rangers going out at the last 16.

National Team ranking - 49th

Another drop and no world cup appearance. Why is Clarke still there?, why have i not had a phone call!


Awards

Player of the Year
Ole Solbakken

Celtic dominated of this award

Young Player of the Year
Alfie Bavidge

Might as well rename this award at this point

Top Scorer
Santiago Gimenez - 36

Gimenez ripped the SPL to shreads in his first full SPL season dominating just like the last Celtic forward to move from Feyenoord

Manager of the Year

I feel bad for Kjettil & Malky who both should have finished above me in my opinion

Team of the Year

Celtic dominate. The Dons sneak in 2 players.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 5
Aberdeen 2026

Squad
The Dons have moved on 6 players from last season but it feels like we are stronger in most areas of the squad.

Goal Keepers

Luiz Junior is an absolute class and is a locked-in no1. Despite the Arab teams offering over £20m for him, i can't see why his value would decrease before it's time for one of my 3 youngsters to get a chance. Free signing Frelih is a backup. Nothing more nothing less.

Defense​

​

Our weakest part of the team will see the biggest change for this season. Long standing RB Sildilia leaves us after 128 games. Not the worst player but we already had his replacement Joseda signed on a free during the spring. Another depth signing is superb-looking Bastian Kraus while our final addition is Reo Hatate from Celtic on a free. Very versatile player

Midfield

We added Filip Jorgensen who was transferred listed from Inter to replace Erhahon in a massive profit for us, who i expect to sell in 12 or 24 months for another profit. Nothing else happening in the midfield which performed brilliantly last year. We got a £33m bid for Henrique Pereira which i bit my hand off. He then went on to reject Leipzig. Didn't know if i should laugh or cry.

Strikers

Like the midfield everything was in place from last year, We just hope they all push on.


Summer Transfers & Other notes
The Old firm works their usual wonders in the free market with Celtic especially getting stronger this summer.

World Cup 2026
Italy 1-2 Austria

The final is played by two teams that didn't qualify for the world cup in 2022. And in Austria's case, they win the title almost 100 years after they were favorites for the 1934 competition.​

 

[Klippybo]

Austria favourites for the 1934 World Cup? I beg to differ there. They had the marvellous Sindelar I suppose but with Uruguay not there Italy - the eventual winners were always going to be strong. We can debate in Elgin in a few weeks lol

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Austria favourites for the 1934 World Cup? I beg to differ there. They had the marvellous Sindelar I suppose but with Uruguay not there Italy - the eventual winners were always going to be strong. We can debate in Elgin in a few weeks lol

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

There was no outright betting favorite so its subjective up to the 50s or 60s. Except for Hungary in 54. However Austria 34 was also known as the Wunderteam, Europes 1st golden generation they were considered the favorite for the World Cup trophy, after a 14 unbeaten run. Italy was only fancied through Benito's dodginess and there winning goal against Austria was scored when the Italians pushed the keeper into the goals. And it was allowed to stand & they won 1-0

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

The Hearts performance was class but every other game has been a disaster. Last-minute equalizer at home to newly promoted Queens Park. Come from behind against Dundee Utd and Partick then we finally lost more points against bottom of the table St Mirren. Hopefully, this international break can get us refocused,

League

Alfie Bavidge and Pedro's hattrick at Partick is all that's keeping us off the bottom spot.


Champions League Qualifiers

Somehow a total flip on our form which has been abysmal in the league. We destroyed Metz & Feyenoord two games you'd expect to be very close

Champions League Draw

Chelsea again. Should be looking at getting over 6 points from these games. Will probably need 10 to get to the last 16

Transfers

Nothing significant on the incomings or outgoings since the season started. The more minor sales were Ryan Duncan as discussed for the last 18 months he's not developed and like another youth prospect, Lewis O'Donnell is off to the Championship to try to save their careers in Dundee. A quick addition to the list is u21 striker Jamie Wright. Was planning to use him as my 4th striker after having a solid season in the championship last season. Usually, i don't fold if a big team comes in with a big one since that's a fairly good sign that their quality but i can't see anything in Wright that makes me think he'll be a world beater.

Hopefully, the Gooners have got this wrong but I'm very happy to take £11.25m for a 2nd rate youth prospect.


SPL Transfers

Celtic did well to hang onto their star striker Giminez.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September


Fixtures

Our domestic form has been perfect with 4 wins including thrashing Rangers after the first international break.

SPL

We do what we can to keep up with a perfect Celtic team.


Champions League

This has not started well. Not sure why we are so awful in this competition. The Benfica performance was hopeless at best then we were misfiring against Sociedad before a Bavidge goal right at the end rescued a point from a must-win game.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October


Fixtures

Almost a perfect month in the SPL. Got screwed by Celtic with the long forgotten assist of a 1st half red card. Come how we pulled out a draw though to stop them pulling away. Celtic dropped points and as soon as we had a chance to close the gap we had a pathetic draw at Partick

A red card 6 goals and 3 missed penalties. Some game

SPL

5 points back after a 1/3 of the season. What is going on with the golden boot race? Every month someone else has a clear lead.


Champions League

We get our act together and pull off a huge upset away to Napoli. Probably the toughest game we've had so far.

We also break a crazy record considering its October