Aberdeen Save 2022

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 10
Aberdeen 2031


Scotland Manager

Despite an abysmal last 18 months in charge, Steve Clarke was never sacked after missing out on the world cup then finishing bottom of their Nations league averaging 3.4 goals against per game and getting thrashed by England twice. ANYWAY, he retired and finally after 10 seasons i finally get the national job

Sadly the Scottish Squad is awful.

On the flip side, we have already qualified for the Euro 2032 as we
and Wales are the hosts.

Squad


Goalkeepers

One small change in the keeper's depth chart. Backup Berg was sold for a drastically inflated price so Steven Kingsley finally gets his chance to be the backup. Domestic backup only. Not risking him against Europe's finest

Defense

Christ look at the age! No major changes here with only Denielco Elissetche stepping into the starting x1. Rodriguez does not play up to that rating. Munro & Cummings will get more than their fair share to reach their potential

I did overpay for a backup DR

Midfield

Few changes here either with only the right wing up for change with Briand likely to get the majority of starts. Ethmane will immediately drop into the Mudryk-sized hole in the squad. Strum from Bayern & Gibson from the u18s look like outstanding prospects if Martinez eventually forces his way out.

Strikers

Bavidge and Montien are the clear starters here with Pedro likely to fill in gaps in MR or back up these two. New signing Paul Ewing is in to back up the exact spots that Pedro will. Endrick is going to annoy me all season. He wants at least £68k to stay which is £27k more than Bavidge and £18k more than Martinez. I am confident that after making this decision he'll score 30 goals as a backup.

Transfer Window


SPL

Celtic join us in having a busy window. while Rangers rely on free's as teh get closer to Hearts than the top 2

Aberdeen

In

With a major shortage of prospects from our academy & Scotland as a whole the squad that has seen little change this summer, i was scared into buying far more European based players with South America failing me the past 2 years.

Out

Did not realize just how much money we made this summer. The whole right-wing is sold for £95m. I regret selling Ariza immediately. He was far better than i gave him credit for, Jakoljevic was good but plenty of good RB prospects running around. Mudryk more than served his purpose as the backup winger signed on a free. I expect to miss him badly as soon as some of the few natural wingers we have get injured. After those 3 it was mainly backup players getting moved on. Bergs's offers had me laughing all the way to the bank while Marc Vaughan, Ofori, Dorsaz and the often mentioned Marshall all fell short of being good enough for the long term future of the Dons. I didn't mention Santiago who leaves for Salzberg in a bargain deal that has freed up money for the 9 youngsters above.
Jess & Lewis were in my long term plans as final members of my squad but the English sides are offering stupid money for their abilities

​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

We started the season on absolute fire before coming a cropper against Celtic. we were on the better side according to the numbers but the points don't lie. Fight on!


SPL

Champions League Draw

Some run of away games through November & December​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September


Fixtures

All is well in the domestic game. Hearts right off the international break was the biggest challenge we had and after sneaking past them we had no problem against the bottom half team's Queens Park & Inverness


SPL

Celtic lost to St Mirren led by the strongest force in Scotland. Ethan Laidlaw in autumn. This was enough to open the door for us to go top. Rangers have only won 1 game in the first 7 making by the worst start of any top 3 teams so far in the save..


Champions League

The first half-red card ruined what should have been a solid 3 points.


Scotland

We had my First 2 games as Scotland's manager. Venezuela was a thrashing as expected but South Korea defied the XG thrashing we gave them to escape Hampden with a draw.


Of course Bavidge gets involved

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October
​

Fixtures

No issues at home. We win all our games and the only one i expected to give us any trouble was Ross County who are going strong in 3rd and that turned out to be our biggest win.


SPL

Celtic also won all 4 games and we pull away from the pack for the first time. Rangers are still in the bottom half.


Champions League

We win our two October games to get the campaign underway a game late.


Scotland

This is possibly the most hopeless defense I've ever seen. 3 Shots on target over the 2 games and we let in 4 goals.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November


Fixtures

Mixed results against Celtic with a thrashing of them in the League before getting sucker-punched out of the League cup. Reserves just beat Motherwell and we used a stronger team to beat Queens Park.


SPL

The win against Celtic secures our lead in the league. Rangers finally reach the top half on goal difference.


Champions League

We thrash Atletico in Spain before PSG edge us out in Paris so we're in a reasonable spot for the Champions League


Scotland

Two big wins although the performances still lacking.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

December


Fixtures

We had a major wobble losing to St Mirren & Ross County following on from a dodgy performance where we sneaked a win over Hearts. Got some better results toward the end of December but still not playing great. Had 1 game in January a win over Queens Park before the break.


SPL

If Celtic win their game in hand the gap will be down to 3 points. Ross County having a fantastic season in 3rd.


Champions League

A massive win over Chelsea


Table

With just Salzburg 28th and Rennes 29th to play we are in a fantastic position to reach the last 16.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures

The Dons come back from the winter break and win all 3 games. Ross County was an interesting one where Castillo got a start and was injured after 4 minutes and we conceded a goal in the build-up play.


SPL

Rangers make their move but are still very close from 3rd to 6th


Champions League

We have our easiest games and win them both to secure a top 8 spot and a bye to the last 16

Table

Transfer Window

SPL

I have some explaining to do. Real Madrid rips off Celtic by taking the league's top goalscorer for £26m. His replacement is instantly the best forward in the league

Aberdeen

In

We leave our business too late with 3 players added for the Future. Petkov is 5* and class. Left-back Ivan is coming as i expect Rodriguez to be on the move soon and Munroe is currently sulking about not getting a move to Man Utd. Liu Ming was on the shortlist and i finally pulled the trigger. 18 years old with 17 caps he was probably born as China's no1. Could be a good commercial move as well as having the potential to be a future no1. These moves now give us eight 5* players which if they develop means our starting 11 will be full of 5* players and homegrown players in the next 3/4 years. The summer of 2032 is the last summer i plan to sell my best players. Balance has us in a position to make big moves now if required although with the aim to spend up to £30m a year on development players which despite being on a lower scale up to now has worked tremendously but now i hope to hold the cards when a big team comes calling.


Out
Little tip. If you don't need the money immediately from a player sale i have started to negotiate differently

Martinez is an example. We were offered around £60m cash now with 30% future fee. I negotiated so we get £5m now with £100m spread over 3 years so rather than getting £60m and maybe a £5-10m bonus in the future we will get an extra £35m guaranteed spread over the next 3 years. I feel like an idiot for not doing this sooner or in the case of Staricco i stupidly started by asking £80m and clearly, they laughed at us and accepted.

Both Argentine internationals cleared just over 100 games for the Dons from Coln & Velez for just over £5m each in 2028. Martinez i have no doubt will go on to be one of the best players in the game. He had over 2 years left on his deal but at this stage we have great depth in young midfielders, three 5* players! I asked for over £100m in the last 2 windows, and this time Arsenal and Bayern bit with Arsenal winning out. Staricco is a star in name and on the pitch. Best as a CB but is still one of our best players at DM, and MC. Could have and should have got more from Liverpool for him but Clearly, this is a huge drain on the club but will enable me to get ******* into being an every-week starter. Midfield is immediately a bigger problem but we have the best depth i have had for any position in this save by a mile with three 5* MC players, 2 more homegrown players too.​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

Lambert is a bit good...

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Lambert is a bit good...

Also is still 22 so time to develop. Scary

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

Thankfully his personality means it's likely he's there for a good time, not a long one

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February


Fixtures

The brain drain has hit. A heartless defeat against Rangers was in the middle of a worrying draw at Hearts then one of our most pathetic performances fighting to get a point from a home game with Inverness. Amazing what happens when you let go of £185m of players from the spine of your team.


SPL

All this sadness has let Celtic take over at the top of the league


Champions League Draw
Juventus vs Aberdeen

I wouldn't fancy us against Juventus u18s just now​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

March


Fixtures

Christ on a stick what is going on here? Another goalless effort at home to Hibs this time. The rage was taken out on Dundee Utd and as for Celtic in the cup

That's one way to end a 4 year 22 match unbeaten run in the Scottish Cup

SPL

Celtic also lost to Rangers who are suddenly only 12 points off the top spot. Can they make it a 3 horse race?


Champions League

1st Leg
Juventus 2-0 Aberdeen

Our amazing run reaches the European games too

2nd Leg
Aberdeen 5-0 Juventus AET
Aberdeen win 5-2 on Agg

It took extra time but we pulled it off to reach the quarter-finals once again.


Q/F Draw

Bayern was knocked out by PSG being the only way we could draw another team.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

We got the result against St Mirren but lost the league with two dismal defeats to Celtic. Need to pull ourselves together to try and secure 2nd place.


SPL

Ross County Move up into 3rd and are 4 points ahead of Rangers. Cant they do the impossible?


Champions League Quarter Finals 1st Leg

1st Leg
Aberdeen 1-2 Inter

We had the lead in the first half but Inter used their star striker to swing the game.

2nd Leg
Inter 2-0 Aberdeen
Inter won 4-1 on Agg

The aggregate score made it look worse than it was. Inter slowed the game right down and we went for it in the last half hour and paid.



Scotland

Euro 2032 Draw

As hosts & no1 seeds, we get a cushy draw


Nations Draw

This B group is harder than our Euros group​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

May


Fixtures

Since we threw away the league just a quick frustrating update since we played well only missing out on a perfect month by drawing at Ibrox


SPL

Looks respectable in the end.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

End of Season 10


SPL - 2nd

We lose our SPL title after 4 in a row. Celtic was very close to us the whole season but our season flipped after we sold two of our best players in January and took a major step backward. Despite this, it was only 3 points gap in the end but i am more worried about the tanking we got playing Celtic at the end of the season. Enough about us though the story of the season and maybe the save so far is Ross County beating Rangers for 3rd spot and the Champions League where they will play qualifying rounds and are locked into European football after August. Rangers and Hibs are joined in Europe by Hearts after Rangers won the Scottish Cup St Mirren just missed out on a top 6 finish but were well ahead of the bottom 5. At the bottom of that pile was Dundee Utd who fell apart at the end of the season


In Europe
Celtic reached the Champions League last 16 while their Old Firm rivals never got out of the group.
Hearts the Europa League Group
Hibs & St Mirren went out in the Conference playoffs


Playoffs
Motherwell 1-4 St Johnstone

The saints bossed the 1st leg and end a miserable 6 days for Motherwell when they first lost the Scottish Cup and then get relegated.


Managers

Adrian Mutu loving life in Scotland



Champions League Final
Real Madrid 3-2 Liverpool

All 5 goals come in the first half as Real Madrid extends the number of titles won.


Squad Review

Goalkeeper

Uneventful season in goals. Luiz Junior underperformed and Kingsly the back up overperformed for a backup. The Chinese wonderkid coming in will muddy the water here. Luiz is only 31 so far from ready to be replaced by choice.

Defense

A season in flux for the defense. Ideally, Obispo & Cummings would be my ideal starting centrebacks but Obispo's poor ranking leaves me with a choice to make between the half dozen center-backs at the club. Right back Elissetche could be on the way out with a 5* player coming through the youth system and a poor rating for the year. Feustel the back up did ok when needed. Left-back is also in flux. I want Munro to be the starter and i want someone to put in a stupid bid for Rodriguez so Ivan can become a proper backup rather than a straggler in the squad.

Midfield

The wingers were the stars. Pedro in his final season at the club was solid on the right as he was upfront and Briand has shown enough to be the regular starter next season. Bakardzhiev continues to be a star player and with his backup leaving in the summer there is no contest for him. The engine room of the team is all over the place. Connor Barron who is away to turn 30 had his worst season in the save and could now be ready to drop into a backup role and let some of the 5* players coming into the squad next season take over. Maybe even his protege Jordan Gibson Benjamin Strum disappointed in his first season and we'll see how he fairs with youth competition next season. Speaking of which the youngest members of our squad Singh & Harris both did brilliantly in their few appearances this year. Need to get them more games next season somehow.

Attack

Bavidge of course was brilliant but aside from him, the forwards were a huge letdown this season. Montien got a ridiculous offer to move to Arsenal and I don't mind as he was either injured or not performing at the level of previous striker partners. Ewing performed better as the backup as Endrick scored when needed but was always the final choice. Damian Palomar was hot or cold but still a teenager he should get another chance


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.

Luiz Junior - GK
P388 CS165 R7.05

Not a vintage season like the rest of the squad. New threat to his position came from China in the summer

Bradley Cummings - DC
P102 G4 R6.93

First full season starting most games. Very solid start to his career

Owen Munro - DL
P88 G0 R6.95

New entry at Wing back. Signed a long-term deal during the season and should be our left-back for life.

Connor Barron - MC
P427 G116 R7.12

Our Connor had his worst season at the club. Just in time for a pile of 4* & 5* midfielders joining

Alfie Stewart - MC
P200 G23 R6.88

Firmly a backup now. Only our poor depth in midfield helped him get that many games.

Alfie Bavidge - ATT
P475 G353 R7.42

The man is unstoppable. On a tier of his own atop of the Dons forwards


Rankings

Club Ranking - 8th

National League - 6th

National Team ranking - 47th

5 place jump despite only playing friendlies A good Euro could see us back in the top 40 for the first time since 2024


Awards

Player of the Year
Lovro Zvonarek

Young Player of the Year
Ramero Martinez

He only played half the season!

Top Scorer
Beto

Low scoring season and its the 34-year-old Rangers striker that beats BAvidge by 1 goal

Team of the Year

3 Rangers players but nobody from County?​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Euro 2032


The Squad

Only the strikers recognize each other, few if any class players except Bavidge. This tournament came 4 years too late or 4 years too early for Scotland to do anything

Warm-up games

Worrisome


Match 1
Scotland 0-0 Albania

Groups on a knife edge already after we bore the nation to a 0-0 draw.


Match 2
Norway 2-1 Scotland

We were hopeless in front of goal and Tierney came off the bench got injured then gave away a penalty to cost us the point and put us bottom and in BIG trouble. Going to be a national disgrace if we don't beat Slovenia

Match 3
Slovenia 1-5 Scotland

We finally show up for our home tournament and get the 4 points that take us into the last 16. Albania won the group,

Last 16 Draw
Scotland vs Portugal

The first time we'll play a top team since i took over

Last 16
Scotland 2-1 Portugal

What a thrilling turnaround to get a ridiculous result. Portugal dominated the first half and took the lead just before the break. Then with one final shout to focus David Turnbull who wasn't starting when i first took over hit the equalizer and my mind had already shifted to penalties. We didn't get that far and i thought it was going against us when for the second game in the competition one of my 3 subs almost ruined the game as Paul Maxwell a former Dons youth player got sent off and it looked like that was the end. It was the end for Portugal as just like in many champions league games in the last minute of stoppage time Alfie Bavidge of course it was Alfie Bavidge nipped in to win the game and take us to the Quarter Finals


Quarter Final draw
Scotland vs England

I am stunned to find out that as hosts we will play AWAY in Wales for this game making this an away game. Ridiculous


Quarter Final
Scotland 0-3 England

It was one game too far for the Scots who were outmatched massively at every position. England was only 1-0 up at halftime so we were still alive. The game went out of our hands when our extra man in defense Leon King got injured and before i could make a sub-England scored twice and the game was gone.

Still a great run to the last 8 but the only real high point personally was beating Portugal. Lots of work to do with this team.

Final
England 1-0 France

Cole Palmer scored the winner in the battle of the best 2 teams in the world during the save.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 11
Aberdeen 2032


Dons super squad 2.0
We made a heavy change in the squad over the last 18 months and i hope to have our 4-5* youngsters in place and starting to be sent into the first team.


Squad


Goalkeepers

Liu Ming joins the fray of Keepers having been China's No. 1 since birth i think. Will get him as many games as possible unless someone comes in to play him as a no1. Luiz will be number 1 and Kingsley wouldn't join anyone on loan so is wasting years as our No3

Defense

Some real class in here. Filippo De Falco could be the best DR of all time. Obispo & Cummings are ready to own the DC spots for a decade. Enrique Rodriguez should have turned into a class DL but a cruciate injury at the Copa America has set him back.

Midfield

A whole lot of changes here. Bakardzhiev is the only starter to survive. Right winger Mauricio Leon was chased in January but he chose to sign a new contract in Mexico. We went again in July and this time at double the cost we get our long-term, right winger. The middle is the biggest change. Sturm wasn't up to starting yet so i bring back Hubschman & Zahustel are the new starters in the middle with Barron dropping to a backup after a really down season. Diego Reyes joins as a backup but a very good Mudrik-style back up.

Strikers

Bavidge is starting of course but the order after that takes a huge change. Javi Soto joins as a play-now starter for the big games while behind him and hopefully playing more than him are Anxo Diaz & Dimitar Petkov both 5* talents. which one will be Alfie's long-term sidekick?

Managers

Some strange appointments from the big teams. Real Hire Stevie G almost a decade after he slipped out of the Villa job. And even weirder is Man Citys Jack Grealish gets his first manager's job right at the top with Arsenal Somehow.


Transfer Window


SPL

The old firm has a very quiet window while our work fills up most of the page.


Aberdeen

In

Most of our major moves are for future players that won't be available till 2033..

Out

One very emotional sale and several players from last year's squad. We start with the main sale. Paulo Pedro was the longest-serving outfield player i have signed for Aberdeen after 7 seasons at Aberdeen playing up front and on the wing. With the next breed of regens coming in the time was here to sell him to make his big move to Dortmund.

Paulo Pedro
P285 G171 Ave 7.26

So onto the rest. Our biggest sale of the summer by far was Hollman Montien. Amazingly I was ready to see him leave after the January window as he just never matched up to Bavidge and when I saw a few English teams flirting with him I thought I'd try for another £100m but Arsenal saved themselves by only spending £82m again like the winter sales over 3 seasons so this will help our income long term. Issa Ethimane & Hugo Silva had established themselves as suitable backups but were never getting the jump to be in the first x1 so taking the daft offers that came in was a no-brainer. Mamadou Voli Bi had been with us for a while and for him, the right time and opportunity came for him to go play regularly. Not sure what Villa sees in Mauro Assogna who can't get into our 25-man squad.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

We come out roaring to start the season. One tough game at Ibrox that i think would have gone the other way last season turned into a win with Barron coming off the bench to score the winning goal from the spot.


SPL

Celtic are having a similar start to the season with there title defense leading the way tied with ourselves.


Champions League Fixtures

Not a terrible mix. 4 mega powers will make the top 8 unlikely this year.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September


Fixtures

I am lost for words. Every game had a major smack of despair. Hearts were 3 goals up in the first 18 minutes and we were no danger after that. At home to Dundee, our Chinese wonderkid faced his first SOT for us and conceded in the 95th minute. Ayr despite the run of form i rested most of the best 11 and ended up having a close game that we lost on penalties. Inverness was just sad. We were being early on and Soto got a red card after 32 minutes. From then on no matter what changes i made, they had no effect and for the first time possibly ever we score no goals and no points in a league month.

SPL

7 Games in and i don't think we can afford to lose another one of the 31 remaining games


Champions League

So with this historic collapse, you'd be scared to look at our European form

I have no explanation. These destructions of major Liverpool one of Europe's best teams and a stacked Inter team is beyond explanations


Scotland

Better news from the Scotland games​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October


Fixtures

What an insane difference a month makes. We thrashed Livingston before the international break and came back firing on full power. St Mirren & Ross County were thrashed with little resistance but Queens Park who had just conceded 8 to Celtic were far more resistant to our efforts but we got the win.

The result of the month however was reserved for the home tie with Celtic. We took the lead in the 3rd minute through backup winger Diego Reyes but by the hour Celtic were ahead and that's how it stayed till the 84th minute when another backup Benji Strum pulled us level. Celtic were flattened out and for what seemed like the dozenth time at least Alfie Bavidge scored in stoppage time to win the game.


SPL

Without question the maddest turnaround in a table i have ever seen in 1 month. Celtic were 9 points ahead of us but only managed to pick up 4 points from 5 games copying our awful September run. Hibs and St Mirren are right there to. Rangers are scrapping with Ross County again.


Champions League

Just one game and we had no problems going 3/3


Scotland

2 away games and 2 wins. I overestimated Finland who is only ranked 85th in the world and with several players rested we saw off Wales in Cardiff.​