Aberdeen Save 2022

[Mr_Grieves]

November


Fixtures

We thrashed Rangers to get the old firm double underway but it was followed by a stunning 12 minute collapse where Celtic scored 5 goals to put us out of the first cup of the season. we recovered with two wins over bottom-half teams.


Table

We shake Rangers off to be 8 points back. Ayr and Dundee made terrible starts.


Champions League

Both young striers fire a warning to Bavidge scoring the 5 goals against Galatasaray. They combined for 3 against Man City who came from 2 goals down to win the tie with a 90th-minute suckerpunch.


Scotland

I missed this earlier on. San Marino got their first win of the save

Two qualifiers to go we need to win both with plenty of goals but with no Bavidge who is injured to score them. Albania is in a similar spot.


Scotland 3-0 Albania

We do what we need to but more of the same against Estonia

And a lot of help.

Scotland 3-0 Estonia

We do our bit and make it to the 2034 World Cup

 

[Mr_Grieves]

December


Fixtures

Our form against the green teams was again tested and shown up as after dominating Hibs for 85 minutes but somehow not scoring they scored twice at the end for a stunning much-needed win. Thankfully this result was instantly nulled by beating Celtic with ease at home and then we played almost all the bottom 6 teams winning every game up to the break


SPL

Celtic look like they had a stinker but missed a game with the league cup final so the gap is only 3 points just past halfway. The rangers had a disaster of a month losing 3 games and are down to 5th. Ayr hit some form. Dundee it big trouble.



Champions League

Came out on top of Atletico to get a massive win towards making the top 8



World Cup Draw

Tough draw but no top side so we have a shot at getting through​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures

No better way than coming back from the winter break than to thrash Rangers. Two more wins followed with rotated teams


SPL

Celtic dropped points at home to Hearts and that takes the gap to 4 points.


Champions League

Two big wins

Table

Tied at the top with Man City and into the last 16 with Celtic joining us



Transfer Window


SPL

Celtic and Aberdeen hemorrhage star players. Celtic make a few signings to replace losing the best player in the League Timo Lambert, for the 2nd time in the save Chelsea spend over £50m for Celtic's best forward.


Aberdeen

Like Chelsea the Dons make sales but all our players are back up, still, i think we lost more players than i would have hoped


In
Colin Lowndes

Only one player joined but it's a Scottish wonderkid i have been chasing for over a year. Expect to see him in the first team significantly as the year goes on


Out
Petr Matocha & Barisic were the 4th strikers and Center Back so no major loss considering how much money we brought in. Julien Briand was coming into the last year of his contract and decided he wouldn't sign on again so cashed in on him for far less than I like. The final sale was Gustavo Amarilla who spent his Dons career on loan never developing into being good enough for the team.​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

The name change caught me off guard a bit ngl

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Got fed up mixing up gamer tags so changed it to the one I've used for the past 15 years. No idea why i didnt change it in here

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February


Fixtures

With no European games, i did some slight rotating which was mostly forced on me by the 8 injuries we got to our 23 man squad. The domestic sides were swept aside with Hibs offering the biggest challenge taking us to half time level before a second half implosion. I am fairly sure the win over East Fife is my biggest win in the save. Checks, Nope we put 10 past Kilmarnock 4 years ago in the Scottish Cup


SPL

Celtic also won all their games including a late winner against Rangers in the old firm to keep the gap at 4 points. Rangers look set to hang onto a top 6 spot with Hearts so far back. The 3 poorest teams in the league will fight for the relegation spots​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

March


Fixtures

We failed to win for the first time but got away from Celtic Park with a point, thrashed St Mirren before the international break then had a stunning 2-1 loss to Ross County where we had a whole second half to get back in the game but failed to have a single serious effort on goal in the second half. One of our worst displays in my time here. Another 7-0 win in the Scottish Cup too


SPL

Celtic also dropped points but won their game in hand so it's a 4-point gap at the top. They are also out of the champions league after being thrashed by Dortmund so its full focus on Scottish football for them



Champions League
1st Leg
AC Milan 0-4 Aberdeen

Incredible result in Milan.


2nd Leg
Aberdeen 4-0 AC Milan
Aberdeen win 8-0 on Agg

We even rested several players and ran through the Italian champions to reach the Quarter Finals


Q/F Draw
Aberdeen vs Real Madrid

Our 3rd K'O tie with Madrid where we have a win each so far in the last 16 games.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

Two games to finish the 1st part of the league, a straightforward game with Ayr we had a total collapse against Hearts. It was the same side that played both games and i have no idea what went wrong here.


Scottish Cup S/F
Aberdeen 4-2 Celtic

The first of two games against Celtic in a week. I thought the match was gone based on recent games when Celtic went 2-1 upright in the half time but two goals in a minute from Bavidge and Petkov turned the game on its head setting up a final with Ross County


SPL

That defeat brings Celtic right back to 1 point behind with the Split incoming and we face our closest rivals at home in the first game. The hibs are in good shape for 3rd, Rangers could still get there or fall back to 6th? Dundee will finish bottom and Ayr and Queens Park will battle to avoid a playoff spot


Champions League Q/F

1st Leg
Aberdeen 2-0 Real Madrid

The game was dead even but the Dons took their chances on home point and are closer to our first Semi Final ever.

2nd Leg
Real Madrid 1-0 Aberdeen
Aberdeen win 2-1 on Agg

Real dominated the 1st half but ran out of steam as soon as they took the lead. I was just waiting for this to go all wrong but thankfully we held on and at the 8th venture into the knockout phase we get to our first Semi


Semi-Final Draw
Dortmund vs Aberdeen

We have the better side of the draw but do not want to be knocked out for a German side for the 6th time​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

SPL Split

5 games to decide the title. We have a 1-point lead but effectively 2 points with a 19 goal lead in goal difference. Could all be decided in game 1 vs Celtic


Match 34
Aberdeen 3-0 Celtic

A humongous win at home to Celtic who we dominated from kick-off/ Hibs all but lock up 3rd place winning at Ibrox

Match 35
Hearts 4-4 Aberdeen

Im not sure if this is any better than losing 4-0. We were 4-1 up and thoughts moved to the 2nd leg with Dortmund. No excuse for this collapse. we had not dared do this in Europe!

Match 36
Aberdeen 3-0 Ross County

The match was on a knife edge till Ewing came off the bench to score two goals right at the end in what turned out to be a brilliant day for non-Old Firm teams as Hibs secured top 3 & a Champions League spot as they held Celtic to all but secure the Dons the league title. Even if we lose our last 2 games Celtic needs a 28-goal swing in their favour.

Match 37
Aberdeen 4-0 Rangers

What a satisfying way to secure a title. Everything is sewn up except 4th, 5th, 6th.

Match 38
Hibs 1-3 Aberdeen

A heavily rotated squad saw off Scotlands 3rd best team.


Champions League S/F
1st Leg
Dortmund 1-5 Aberdeen

As much as this amazing result was a shock i was further stunned when i realized i had not changed my tactics so i went all out attack like in a home against SPL teams and got away with it.

2nd Leg

Aberdeen 0-0 Dortmund
Aberdeen win 5-1 on Agg
The most boring game you could imagine but it was all we needed to retain and reach our first-ever champions league final. Liverpool await


Scottish Cup Final
Ross County 0-5 Aberdeen

We secure the double and gain some revenge for the horrible league defeat a few months ago.
​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Final 2034

From the San Siro

Yep, it's still standing and we can only hope to come close to the 4-0 win we had here earlier in the season.


40 years to the minute of this being written Aberdeen were tied with Real Madrid in the 1983 cup winners cup final and would go on to win the game in Extra time winning the club's first European and being the last team to beat Real Madrid in a European final


Aberdeen vs Liverpool




Aberdeen 2-1 Liverpool AET
THEEEE CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!!!

Liverpool took the lead with their only shot on target in the 90 minutes. We were in total control of the game as Liverpool sat and played on the counter and we looked to have finally gotten the break we needed winning a penalty in the 87th minute. but it was not as Anxo Diaz missed the penalty so with 3 minutes to go i accepted we were going to lose the biggest game of our lives. Diaz, however, was not and he more than made up for his penalty miss by scoring in the 90th minute to force extra time, Liverpool looked more dangerous in extra time than at any point in the game and it was all for nothing as Alfie Bavidge, of course, Alfie Bavidge who has been with the Don through this whole adventure from a team that failed to qualify for Europe the season before i took over to scoring the winning goal in the champions league final. What a way to put a bow on the treble!


Amazing how just like in 1983 it needed a extra time winner for Aberdeen to win the trophy

 

[Mr_Grieves]

World Cup 2034


From Australia

Scotland Squad

Patterson, Bavidge & Doig supply the experienced hands in the team with only 1 other player over 50 caps shows us what a rotated bunch of players this was over the years before i got in

Warm-up wins over Canada & Cyprus set us up for the real challenge of Uruguay and South Korea


Group Phase

Match 1
Scotland 1-1 Uruguay

We were all but locked into the knockout stage until the 92nd minute. We defended so well for so long and to lose this way is sick

Match 2
South Korea 1-1 Scotland

We dominated the game but the Korean keeper saved the first 8 shots on target, the 9th was a goal that was ruled out before Bavidge FINALLY got us a goal but there was no winner incoming and now were relying on luck to get through just like the qualifying group

Match 3

Uruguay get a late winner so was into the second round where we play Mexico


2nd Round
Scotland 2-0 Mexico

We made our first quick start of the competition and survived a second-half red card to former don Alfie Stewart to overcome Mexico and we'll play Norway in the last 16. No Haaland nor Odegaard who have both long retired from International football

3rd Round
Norway 3-2 Scotland

We were made to pay for our terrible start going 2 down after 5 minutes. Left us far too much to do having to attack and leave us exposed. Met the national target but with the luck of the draw we got this should have been far better. Bit ironic being knocked out at the Gabba by Botheim


Final
Germany 1-1 Chile
Germany win on pens

Chile came from our side of the draw and a huge upset beating France was almost topped by beating Germany.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

End of Season 12


Ok, i have to level with you. While writing out my season 13 preview at the end of August i noticed in the midst of celebrating the champions league win i never did a season review. So this won't be the size it normally is and images will be missing but its the best i can do


SPL - Winner

Do not let the gap fool you as the title win was far from dominant. Celtic collapsed after selling too many good players in January when at a point they were ahead of the Dons in the league. Hibs were easily the 3rd best team in the country while city neighbors Hearts were unlucky not to beat Rangers to 4th. Rangers have another tragic season outside the top 3 and could easily have finished behind Ross County.


Playoffs
Ayr 3-3 Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock win on pens

A thrilling playoff final saw Kilmarnock return to the top flight

Managers

Two struggling teams changed their managers. It worked for Queens Park. It certainly did for the other.

In Europe
Rangers beat Watford in the final of the Europa League. Easily Scotland's greatest European season ever.
Celtic got to the Champions League last 16 but was beaten on both legs by Dortmund
Hibs had a run to the Europa League last 16 losing to another English side that started in the championship but have now come good. West Brom
Hearts got to the Europa Conference League knockout phase losing to Napoli
St Mirren got knocked out in the qualifiers for the conference.


Champions League Final
Aberdeen 2-1 Liverpool AET

Squad Review
No pictures because I'm an idiot. Remember to check the 1st post where i update League & player stats at the end of every season

Goalkeeper
Luiz Junior was my only serious keeper last season. Liu Ming will be back to be the sub and cup keeper. His last chance to prove himself with a few prospects out on loan hopefully ready to challenge the 33-year-old no1 next season.

Defense
As usual 3 of the back 4 is settled. Munro again missing plenty of time with injury shows how much we'll miss Rodriguez

Midfield
Like the defense i think we were helped by a settled starting 4. I hope they all stay but main backup Castillo is off to Leipzig for regular first-team football. Barron has 12 months left on his deal and has shown no signs of wanting to renew as he transfers into being a backup. A sale is likely

Attack
Bavidge had his best season ever in terms of stats and well-timed goals. Diaz is locked in as his partner and after him, we have far too many forwards coming through A clearout is needed


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
P488 CS218 R7.05

Locked in No1 but at 33 it is time to give others some time in the cups

Joaquin Obispo - DC
P217 G31 R7.12

Now one of the best defenders in the world, the first top class defender i have produced and kept. Locked in for 4 more years so we have no need to sell soon.

Bradley Cummings - DC
P196 G10 R6.93

Now Scotland's best DC we have 3 or 4 years to see just how good he can get. Obispo will be a good comparison.

Owen Munro - DL
P149 G0 R6.94

How can any player make 149 appearances with the best team in the SPL and never score a goal? Injurys again held him back but as a solid player he is safe till Scotland can produce a better one

Connor Barron - MC
P469 G120 R7.06

The bids came in, mostly from the SPL but with Villareal in Europe i am glad he chose to give Spain a shot. He needs to keep playing to stay in the Scotland squad.

Alfie Bavidge - ATT
P567 G435 R7.52

The man is unstoppable. On a tier of his own atop of Don's forwards. Led the League in scoring, Scored in the Scottish Cup win then scored both goals to win us the Champions League. Now the undisputed best Aberdeen player ever! Sorry Zoltan Varga


Rankings

Club Ranking - 4th

Into the top 5 in Europe. Celtic is not far from the top 10

National League - 6th

Strange that Portugal is so close to Scotland even with their 3 teams probably being better than us. Now very close to France who will need more awful PSG seasons to help us out.

National Team ranking - 37th

A big 10-place jump last season. Things starting to come together here.


Awards

Player of the Year
Alfie Bavidge

The best season in the SPL for any player in the save.

Young Player of the Year
Anxo Diaz

10 titles in a row for Aberdeen and its Diaz's 2nd in a row

Top Scorer
Alfie Bavidge
6th Golden boot

Team of the Year

Dons dominate​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 13
Aberdeen 2034

As the champions of Europe the mission was to carry as much of the squad into next season. I am fairly confident that except for left back i have improved the squad with better quality youngsters coming into the 25-man squad to replace those that left

With over 60,000 people on the season ticket waiting list, i felt it was beyond necessary to increase the stadium. We moved in with a 33,000 capacity and Davie Cormack has given us another 8,000. Good work Cormack. "Turns of sarcasm device"

Squad

Goalkeepers

Kinglseys time at the club has come to an end with Liu Ming getting another chance in the cups but it will be a short leash with u18 keeper Carl Dussart doing brilliantly out on loan last season showing the prospect of finally being a keeper worthy of taking over from Luiz Junior although we've seen many challengers try that before


Defense

We hold onto our starting back 4 once again and the main addition from the loan team is Rory Baxter i player we signed for £17m from St Mirren is now ready to leave his mark in the first team. Alex Gelmark was the only new signing due to a spectacular min fee little over £5m

Midfield

Delighted to again say there is no major disruption in the midfield either. Singh had a spectacular season on loan at Hibs. Time to see if he can do the same at the champions

Strikers

We are totally overloaded in the attack. Diaz and Bavidge will continue starting but Minano & Palmoar return from loan far too good to be on the bench but their value is far too low to sell now.


Manager movement

The SPL was stripped of managers this summer. Arne Slot who had previously managed Holland returns to international management with England. Gio Van Bronckhorst leave Rangers for the job as Turkey manager, leaving Robbie Neilson as the only manager left in his starting job since i started the save. Best for last Malky Mackay the other lifelong manager leaving the amazing job he did at Ross County takes over as Wales manager. County hired Motherwell manager David Hopkins opening the door for Ben Godfrey to take his first job as manager. The old firm hires Matthias Jaissie to Celtic and Barak Bachar both come from Europe's minor leagues and seem questionable appointments in my eyes, Could be good for us.


Transfer Window

SPL

Wish i could filter my transfers out. Celtic quietly spent over £60m in the whole window while Hibs made a solid profit and kept most of their best players.


Aberdeen

In

Looks like a dead-quiet window but we have several players joining on future transfers but 2 join the u18s now.

Out

A big clearout of the backup players, Rodriguez was the star of the bunch being a regular in the team with all of Munroe's injuries. Castillo became a key player in the 2nd half of last season but wanted to play every week and that wasn't happening here. He will be joined in Leipzig by youngster Nicolas Harris. I wanted to loan him out but to offers were beyond expectation. 6 other squad quality players leave.​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

Mon eh Dons

Super Barry

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

A slow start against Queens Park turned out to be a perfect set for beating Rangers before more comfortable wins against Hamilton & Motherwell


SPL

Champions League Draw

European Super Cup
Aberdeen 4-3 Rangers

Alfie was determined to make sure Aberdeen remain the only side win the European Super Cup twice bringing Aberdeen back from behind then scoring the winner in the 91st minute.. This after scoring twice against Rangers in the league where he again won the game this time in teh 86th minute.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September


Fixtures

The regular top two faced off in early September and it was a Penalty early in the 2nd half that decided the game in Celtic's favor. Hibs gave us a scare going 2-1 ahead at the end of the month but we had time to turn it around and get a result as we did in the other 3 games.


SPL

We reach the top despite losing to Celtic but still plenty of teams in with a shout 7 games in. Not Kilmarnock however. Wonder when they will get their first win or point in fact.


Champions League

We start the defense of the European Cup with a win over Barcelona


Scotland

Not the best start in Germany which was a very unfair result. First, 4 shots all went it for the Germans. Holland at home was a great chance for 3 points but it wasn't to be.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

October


Fixtures

3 routine wins as expected. St Mirren were 3-0 down before a late fightback


SPL

Celtic and Rangers drop points to fall 6 points behind with Hibs in 4th. Top 3 scorers in the league are three of the four Scotland regular forwards



Champions League

We eventually got over the hump to beat Ajax before drawing in Germany to Arminia Biefeld. Wait a minute what are they doing here?



A Bielefield has made steady progress from the 2nd tier to European football and now this is their first venture to the Champions League

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November


Fixtures

Can't beat an unbeaten month. Unless you beat Rangers twice in that month


SPL

No change with the top 3 in great form. Rangers were ok too except when they faced the Dons


Hearts go back to the 80s with their Managerial appointment.

Champions League

Not sure what we're doing here. No way we should have left November with less than 3 points. We stand only 2 points off the top 8 but lots of work to do.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

December


Fixtures

Domestic bliss as we win every game

Thrashing Celtic in the league cup final was the icing on the cake. With European form being sketchy at best the Domestic treble is now on.

SPL

The league is very spaced out with big gaps all the way down to Dundee Utd in 5th. Not sure how the Hearts are 1 point above the relegation zone but have the league's top scorer hitting 17 goals in 21 games. 2 More goals and this will be Wallace's best season ever.


Champions League

A draw with Man Utd is one of our better results for this mess of a campaign.


We've dropped to 18th and keeping a place in the top 24 becomes the priority. We still have to play Rennes & Seville who are both below us.

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures

We play the top 3 in a row and beat them all. Rangers put up the biggest fight but their greatest nemesis Alfie Bavidge put them to the square in the 88th minute.


SPL

Despite only dropping 3 points all season Celtic are only 13 points behind so we are in no state to start resting players in the league. Hibs and Rangers move further clear of the back end of the top 6.


Champions League

We did everything we could to make it back to the top 8 with two big wins.


Table

It was not enough. Germany sides & Rangers who can't touch us in Scotland put ourselves & Celtic into the playoffs


K'O Draw
Porto vs Aberdeen

Transfer Window


SPL

Both the Dons & Celtic make a major sale but spend their returns in different ways with Celtic making 2 solid signings for the first team while Rangers have a busier window following on from their European success.


Aberdeen

Very busy summer with almost a full u18s team coming in at a cost of almost £40m


In

For the second summer in a row, we spend a huge fee for a 5* Scottish youngster

Turned out to be our record transfer and the first time I've spent over £20m We might see more of this in the future.

Out
Only 1 sale with Spanish striker Alvaro Minano returning to Spain with Barcelona. With my eyes moving to young superstar Maciver the sale of Minano paid for the whole winter youth intake most of which go back to their old clubs on loan​