Aberdeen Save 2022

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 22
Aberdeen 2043


Write up Changes
With several months becoming a bit repetitive at this point and all real-life players now retired i will be combining a few months together for updates.


The Dons won a 5th Champions League and a 4th domestic treble in a row. This time my sole focus of the season is a perfect season in the SPL. Its embarrassing that I've never managed this before


Squad


Goalkeepers

No change between the sticks. Ajay is down to 4*s Lawrie played over 20 games last season as a safe no2

Defence

Very much in rebuild mode with only Cummings over 23. Still overloaded with 5* potential DRs

Midfield

Petrov & Martinez are on the wrong end of the age scale but are still class players, The left-wing future looks very similar to the right-back spot with a 5* Scottish player in Calder our main hope.

Attack

The front 3 are superstars with 10 years at the top left. We wait to see how good homegrown Mark Craig becomes.


Transfer Window


Managers

The big move at the top was Celtic Manager Matthias Jaissle got the German job which led to promotions for Billy Mitchell from St Mirren & Lewis Dobbie from St Johnstone


SPL

So we sold a player or two. None of the traditional top 3 teams made any significant moves.


Aberdeen

In
Most of the Dons signings were about building up the backup players Bosschaart was a bargain at £7.75m half the amount of the signing for the other wing perhaps from the 1800s Asquith Skeete. Didier Zon is the latest 5* potential youth player that comes right into the first team along with Dario Krajcek at right-back while Ikechukwu is for the u18s which i struggled to fill up this season. Probably due to the huge amount of time i spend clearing out the reserves every year.

Out

Right! Deep breath and let go by position

Defence
Back-up Player Antonio never developed to be a starting player. Left wing-back Tremble was a 30-year-old back up so was happy to get paid for him. His younger deputy Cemil Baran fell out with me before rejecting the chance to change his nationality and Chelsea had a bargain at 1.6m. Eloi Calm, Adrian Sother, Mario Henrique and Johannes Gronseth never made the step up to the first team from the loan committee.

Midfield
One of my superstar starting players left winger Kenan Guner leaves after 6 fantastic seasons where he scored one of the highest average scores by a non-striker in the save. He leaves for Tottenham after demanding a move for a new challenge. Now 31 and with his replacement loan ending at Dortmund the timing was too perfect. His backup is also on the move, Trawallys potential had plummeted so we took advantage of a good run of games to sell him to Man City. Right-winger Alex Ockmonek had not developed and was away to command a 92k wage with 1 more appearance so he was a must-sell. German Duran's potential dropped to 3* & Easter Europeans Chrabaszcz & Szczygiel never moved up from the loan team. Neither did Johansson

Attack
Young Swede Fox Anderson was a reasonable prospect who was going to loose time as the 4th striker to Mark Craig so time to go. Brian Kerr never made the jump from the loan program


Jean-Paul Niedermann

8 seasons of starting alongside Cummings had the Portuguese centre-back into 2nd in all-time in Aberdeen center back appearances in my time at the club. Watford did the normal Premiership trick of biding once and then going silly high before i asked for 150m and they put in a mental offer that I can't reject​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

We make our usual stunning start in the league before suffering one of the biggest shocks in years as we go out of the League Cup in the 2nd round to new firm rivals Dundee Utd ending 20 game winning run over 5 years ending the treble run a 4 in a row. Its been a further 11 seasons since a team other than Aberdeen or Celtic won a cup. Is this where it ends>


SPL

European Super Cup

We've now won more Super Cups than any team ever with our 8th win. Non weirder than this comeback


Champions League Draw

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September & October


Fixtures

Congratulations Dundee Utd. First, you ruined the run of trebles, now you ruin my long awaited perfect season. Lots of rotation it is to be this season then.


SPL

Hibs make a great start which is not a huge shock as their squad is very good. Queens Park are the overachievers of the season as Ross County look to have finally regressed back to the bottom half. And i can't explain how all of Dundee Utd's good performances have come against us.


Champions League

We start off with a convincing 2-1 win over 2nd favourites Man City but follow it up with a couple of poor draws. The draw with Milan was fair game since we played almost the whole game with 10 men but we were very poor in Saint Etienne


Scotland

After that awful start, we have turned our campaign around to secure qualification with a game to spare​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November & December


Fixtures

It was all going too well. We won every game by at least a 2 goal margin until the last game of the year where Rangers led twice in Aberdeen but we saved the unbeaten run at the death. They also won the League cup. Their first trophy in 9 years and first domestic trophy in 11 years


SPL

Despite the dropped points the league has been even easier than usual to build a gap this year with Celtic recently getting ahead of Hibs while Rangers are still behind Queens Park. St Mirren is having a stinker of a season and has just sacked their manager Lewis Dobbie 136 days into the job having taken a side with 3 consecutive top 6 finishes to the bottom of the league.



Champions League

Impressive wins in Dortmund & Juventus before one of the worst performances by an Aberdeen team in Europe in many years where Chelsea blew us away and knocked us out of the top 8 automatic qualifying spots.


Scotland

We win our final game to secure the top spot after that losing start.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures

We return to a winning run with 3 big wins and a tighter win over bottom win St Mirren


SPL

Celtic start to stretch their legs in 2nd with two interesting 3 way fights for 6th and 12th


Champions League

Final Table

We miss out on the top 8 for the first time in over a decade. Bayern also fell short and joined us in the playoffs. At least all 3 Scottish sides are still alive


Draw
Napoli vs Aberdeen

One of the 4 hardest draws we could have gotten



Transfer Window


SPL

Celtic & Hibs spend some of their Champions League money, These two moves should put Celtic over the top.


Aberdeen


In

Two South Americans join to fill some of the holes in the players we've sold. They have 6 months to prove they have long-term potential for the first team next year

With left back suddenly in a desperate state, more on that below we bring back a club legend and Scotland LB Owen Munro. He will be a back up but this will help him be more fit for the Euros and he was doing nothing at Man Utd

4 Youth Players join

Out

Two rotational 1st team players attacker Soumah & left back Amado were sold. I may live to regret letting them go in January with a move at the end of the season making more sense but yes, i forgot to add that in the negotiation. Back up MC's Bosiger & Vizcaino were not going to break into the first 11 so bids were also accepted there. Again i worry more about selling the Brazilian but we should have enough depth then including a few strong players in the under 18s​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February


Fixtures

4 wins in the league and one in the cup. The sole down point of the month was an injury to Petrov which rules out one of our best players for the rest of the season

SPL

Rangers chase down Celtic and move into 2nd. Hibs and Queens Park have their top 6 spots locked down. form side Dundee Utd only need to hold off Hearts to secure a top 6 spot. Kilmarnock should be far enough clear of the 3 way battle at the bottom.


Champions League K'O phase
Napoli 2-8 Aberdeen

We demolished the Italians in the 1st leg and played backups in the 2nd leg. Both the other Scottish teams and every unseeded team goes out


Champions League Last 16 Draw
Aberdeen vs Chelsea

They thrashed us in the group phase. What will happen when it really matters in the knockouts​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

March


Fixtures

Beat Hibs in both League & cup then secured the title against Ayr


SPL

No major changes with the 2 games except St Mirren are in major trouble.


Champions League Last 16
Aberdeen 7-0 Chelsea on AGG

There was no sign of the Chelsea side from the group stage as we beat them in both legs with ease.


Quarter Finals
Aberdeen vs Real Madrid

Scotland

2 friendly's​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

We had the rarity of 3 games against the same team in a row and unfortunately for Dundee Utd they lost all 3. Sadly fo us we then put in a historically awful performance at Ibrox for our first defeat of the season despite playing a strong side.


SPL

That defeat probably handed Rangers 2nd place. With the top 3 set, Queens Park has amazingly passed Hibs for 4th. Dundee Utd will finish 6th. All interest moves to the bottom 2. St Mirren are rallying but will it be enough to overtake St Johnstone and avoid automatic relegation?


Champions League
Aberdeen 6-1 Real Madrid on Agg

We edged a tight 1st leg but thrashed them back in Aberdeen

The other 3 games couldn't have been much closer. Hertha will meet us in the semi-finals scoring the only goal of the tie after 181 minutes. Dortmund won at Old Trafford and PSG beat Man City after penalties​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

May


Fixtures

We rotated for every game but won the final 3 games. What we did lose is players. 4 starting players both wing backs and wingers are out of the Champions League final


SPL

Rangers took 2nd with ease while Hibs just stayed clear of Queens Park. At the bottom St Mirren finally rallied to safety but fell just short of 10th and total safety


Scottish Cup Final
Aberdeen 5-2 Hearts

I was not expecting this result halfway through he final where Hearts equalised and were making more than their fair share if chances.


Champions League

1st Leg
Aberdeen 6-0 Hertha
Any need for a 2nd leg

2nd Leg
Hertha 1-0 Aberdeen
Aberdeen win 6-1 on Agg

We lost the game but the tie was long over and we had our first back to back repeat final in the Champions League where we play PSG again.


So far we've had Aberdeen vs Liverpool twice, Aberdeen Man Utd twice but Liverpool Bayern have played the most finals in the save 3 finals Bayern PSG 2.

Top in save appearances

Aberdeen 9
Liverpool 8
Bayern 7
PSG 6
Real Madrid 3
Man Utd 2
Man City 2​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Champions League Final 2044

Aberdeen vs PSG

A repeat of last year's final however i am very worried that the team taking to the field is much weaker than last season. I'd say 7 of the outfield sports are weaker so i am not massively hopeful of being the first team to ever win 6 Champions Leagues in a row


Aberdeen 6-0 PSG

The writing was on the wall after scoring 2 goals in the first 4 minutes. Maciver then yet again took over a Champions League final. As i said before i had no good expectations for this game and to see a team that was down to at best 5 world class players destroy PSG was fantastic.
​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Euro 2044


Scotland Squad

5 players with over 100 caps and the best starting 11 has over 1000 caps with the downside being 4 of them are over 30. Last chance for several players at this tournament most likely


Warm Up Games

Group C

Red cards worked majorly in our favour turning the Spain game in our favor. Kosovo's red seemed to help them before it helped us then we thrashed Greece to win the group. The best part was we managed to rotate every 1st x1 player at some point.

Keeper Emmanuel Kuboneka has broken the national cap record along the way

Last 16
Scotland 3-1 Austria AET

Its pretty shambolic we needed extra time to get past the Austrian but we finally did to set up a game with Sweden in the Quarter Finals


Quarter Finals
Scotland 2-3 Sweden AET

Pretty p155ed off with this. Was 1-0 up and cruising but just couldn't get that 2nd goal. Halfway through the second half Sweden brought on former Don Fox Anderson and it was clear what was going to happen from there. 2 minutes from the end of normal time he scored the goal to force extra time then with 2 minutes of extra time left he scored the winner.


Final
England 1-1 Sweden AET
Sweden won on Pens

They beat England and France on penaltys to win their first European championship​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

End of Season 22


SPL - Winner

We finish on 107 points so not our worst considering i checked out by September when the perfect season dream was dead. Rangers had the best 2nd half of the season flying up and past Celtic to take 2nd place. After last hseasons heroics Hibs are back down to a distant 4th but will return to the Champions League. Queens Park and Dundee Utd make it to the Europa League and Ross County who like Rangers and Dundee Utd ended the season very well are the first team to be rewarded for topping the bottom half with a conference league spot. Hearts finish in no man's land ahead of the bottom 3 of Ayr, St Mirren and St Johnstone who make it the 6th Season in a row the champions go right back down. Cove update. Again they fail to come up after 4 seasons of investment and this season they went into the last day of the season top by 3 points and 2 goals. They lost and missed out in promotion by 1 goal. They spaft the playoffs



Playoffs
St Mirren 5-1 Inverness

St Mirren's stong end to the season rolled into the playoff and It's also 6 seasons since the Championship playoff winners made it to the SPL. after it being almost certain for the first 15 seasons.

Managers

The only in-season change was St Mirren & Queens Park doing a job swap which seems to have worked for both teams.


Europe
Celtic fell in the Champions League Playoff
Hibs fell in the Champions League Playoff round
Rangers disappointed loosing twice to Spanish side Real Oviedo in the Europa League last 16
Hearts had a solid run to the Conference last 16 and will be a tad disappointed to go out to Sturm Graz with 2 defeats
St Mirren also made it to the Conference last 16 despite their terrible league season. They lost twice by the odd goal to Celta Vigo


Champions League Final
Aberdeen 6-0 PSG

Squad Review


Goalkeeper

Rinse and repeat here. I may consider loaning out Lawrie next season to try and reach his potential


Defence

A season of major change in defence. Caseres at right back and Quintana at CB both refused to sign new deals so have been sold despite being our best defenders. Ipsen has not stepped up and is am about to turn 22. Will he get next season to prove himself alongside Cummings? Best youngster Langton was loaned out to play every game while Krajcek will give him more competition than he hoped for to start next season. Skribek is the undisputed no1 at DL. Was nice to have Munro back but he's past it.


Midfield

Petrov's injury brought an end to one of his best seasons. Alvarez, Jacob & Jimenez are the clear best 3 MCs as age hits Martinez. Teenager Didier Zon made a great impression in his first season. Piepenbrock showed glimpses of his class and Boosschaart did much better once Calder went out on loan.


Attack

MacIver & Dujakovic continue to lead the cay. Mark Craig hasn't done enough to secure the 2nd striker spot never mind be a starter, Viera did fine. His stats look worse than he was having spent lots of time on the right wing after Petkovs injury


Players for life
300+ Appearances


Samuel Ajayi - GK
P323 Clean sheets 189

Bradley Cummings - DC
P676 G37

Ramiro Martinez - MC
P373 G69

Dimitar Petkov - MR
P338 G122

Andy MacIver - ATT
P436 G461

Rankings


Club Ranking - 1st

Another Champions League extends our lead at the top


National League - 4th

The top 4 in the league will be straight into the group phase for the season after next thanks to France and especially Italy having a horror season.


National Team ranking - 5th

The highest Scotland has ever been ranked. Hang it in the Louvre


Awards

Player of the Year
Andy MacIver
6th in row

Young Player of the Year
Mark Craig

Top Scorer
Andy MacIver

Dons clean sweep


Team of the Year

​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

Season 23
Aberdeen 2044


The Dons won a record breaking 6th Champions League in a row. 2nd 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


Squad


Goalkeepers

A small change between the sticks. Ajay is back to 4.5*s Lawrie playing 20 games wasn't enough for his development to continue so i loaned him out as he is needed to be Scotlands No. 1 sooner rather than later. Loan hero Julis will be the backup for this season with a view to selling him next season if Lawrie develops

Defence

Langton is back and with the transfers, he will now be starting. The other 3 stay on from last season. The 5* subs Krajcek & Hernandez make for an interesting future at wing backs. Carvalho comes in as backup.

Midfield

The starting 4 should be the same although Martinez has been passed by Jacobs, Jimenez & Zon. Having a nightmare picking 1 of them to join Alvarez in the future. Zon has the most potential, Jacob is already good enough and well it won't be Jimenez. Wingers are spectacular. Our starting players are 5* and our backups are both potential 5*

Attack

Up front will start as last season ended. MacIver and Dujakovic starting. Craig the superstar back up and Viera for emergencies.


Transfer Window


Managers
No changes despite the Euro's summer


SPL

Rangers and Celtic make big money sales and spend virtually none of it.


Aberdeen

In

DC Mauricio Carvalho

Back up DC the only new 1st team player


7 youth players sign up. Remi Vieira is a stretch as only a youth player at £38m but 5* MRs are as rare as hens teeth.

The other £50m of players is me funding Scottish teams mostly buying transfer listed players and loaning them back of favourable fees. Hopefully, this will supercharge the best of the rest and help them in Europe. And in Huntly & Cove's case hopefully, they can finally be promoted. My target is to keep the balance under £1b as the board keep putting the millions i make into an investment fund that i can see anything about.


Out

Lucio Quintana was going to be a starting player in my defence for the next decade until he decided he was not going to sign a new contract so i was forced to sell him at a discount. Yes, 65m is a discount and worst of all it's to PSG our opposition in the last 2 Champions League finals. He was joined in continental Europe with the more planned sale of Yasser Casares. Langton is ready to start so i had to move him on. Ben Farmer was very very close to getting a spot in the squad but Celtic came in and i figured that i might as well help them since most of Scotland's main teams why not them too. Sa'Ar Ofir, Emiliano Pena & Elliot Stapley never broke out of the loan system. Luke Watson was a mid-tier youth player who is almost maxed out on potential. Not sure what Liverpool are thinking​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

August


Fixtures

A shakey start against Queens Park then we thrashed everyone but have yet to play a serious contender


SPL

Queens Park makes a storming start. Dundee Utd yet again. Dont


European Super Cup
Aberdeen 1-0 Leeds

We extend our lead in most Supercups


Champions League Draw

 

[Mr_Grieves]

September / October


Fixture

Two successive winning months where our worst days saw us score 3 goals and scored 8 or more three times


SPL

The first quarter went and we are perfect. Could this be the year? Other questions at this early point is how high is the goal difference going to go? and how many is MacIver going to score?
Elsewhere St Mirren made another terrible start and sacked Derek Young. Celtic have the legs over Rangers and the chasing pack. Queens Park are still interfering with the traditional top 6


Champions League

Three wins but I'm fairly sure i haven't wont a game as dominantly as the opener with Strasbourg where we went 2-1 and 3-2 as far on as the 51st minute but we went on and scored 5 more goals.


Scotland

September was spectacular with wins in Holland and at home to France. The draw at home to Wales probably costs us the top spot unless we can get a big win in Wales and get something from the Dutch​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

November / December


Fixtures

We are still on track for a perfect season and are past the halfway stage. Celtic ran us really close where a goal 4 minutes from time got us the win.


SPL

Maciver is having the most ridiculous season. He hardly plays 90 minutes either. Celtic and Hibs have broken away as 2nd and 3rd as Rangers are recovering behind. Queens Park still punching above their weight while Dundee Utd are the season letdowns once again. St Mirren is still at the bottom with the promoted side Motherwell.


Champions League

I made too many changes for the trip to PSV but normal service has resumed since then and we are still on track for a top 8 finish


League Cup Final
Rangers 1-3 Aberdeen

After beating Celtic 6-0 in the semi we made it hard in the final after taking an early lead wantaway centerback Martin Ipsen got sent off after 19 minutes. The Dons stayed in control and amazingly led 3-0 before Rangers got a consolation


Scotland

We thrashed the Dutch who ended up relegated. On the final day, i thought we had screwed up with a loss in Wales but France also lost so were into the Nations League semis during the summer break.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

January


Fixtures

The perfect season is dead once again. First time in a long time its to Celtic and at Parkhead so understandable. Big wins against the capital teams


SPL

No major changes with the winter break. St Mirren are off the bottom.


Champions League

The win gives us a day off for the final match with the top 8 secured. Celtic joined us in the last 16. Rangers have a playoff with Chelsea

Transfer Window


SPL

Scottish sides spend their cash in January. I was so busy doing so myself i ran out of time to donate more money to my fellow Scottish sides



Aberdeen

In

I had a big falling out with backup keeper Julius and in my rage, i forgot to change the transfer to the summer. The timing could not be worse as Ajay was away at the African nations so i urgently needed a keeper. Will try and flip the Danish No. 2 for a profit in the summer.

4 youths

Out

Two first-team players are moved on. Julius, I've already brought up while accepting PSG's bid for 3rd choice left winger Bosschaart for a 4* profit will allow Calder a chance to develop into a starting player. The bottom 3 are unwanted youth or previously purchased players from the summer​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

February & March


Fixtures

Won every game at a doddle


SPL

The title should be tied up next time out. Celtic look set of 2nd place with Rangers & Hibs fighting for 3rd. Still fighting going on for the top 6 places. Still 3 fighting over the 2religation spots. Celtic are the only team to have scored more than MacIver


Champions League


Last 16 Draw
Rangers pulled off a huge shock knocking out Chelsea and getting all 3 Scottish sides into the last 16

Aberdeen vs PSG

No 3rd final in a row. Big game for the coefficients too


Last 16
Aberdeen 5-2 PSG on agg​

Celtic destroying Rangers in the 2nd leg is the story of the round.


Quarter Final Draw
Man City vs Aberdeen

Man City would be the next best team left standing.


Scotland

WE make a great start beating the two sides most likely to give me problems.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

April


Fixtures

We secured the title at Dundee Utd and the backup players mostly stepped up putting in an especially great performance against Celtic but a not so impressive one at Hibs


SPL

MacIver breaks William MacFadyen 113 year old record of 52 goals in a top flight season. Amazingly the top 6 spots are all but sewn up & Motherwell looks to be in big trouble at the bottom the most interesting battle is St Mirren & Kilmarnock for the playoff spot.


Champions League
Aberdeen 2-1 Man City

They ran us close after winning in the 1st leg and left us very nervous towards the end but were in the semi-finals.​

 

[Mr_Grieves]

May


Fixtures

We even featured some u19s for the final few games as our major drop-off in form shows.


SPL

Yep so nothing changed in the top 6. and speaking of 6 Motherwell is relegated for their 6th SPL season in a row. St Mirren go into the playoffs

Scottish Cup Final
Aberdeen 4-2 Celtic

They may be the best team in the league but even with a man advantage, Celtic couldn't touch us. Shame they ruined our perfect season.


Champions League Semi
Aberdeen 5-3 Watford AET on AGG

Such a weird split of games. All action 6 goal thriller in the first semi followed by 110 minutes of goalless action back at Aberdeen. Into extra time and due to lack of strength on the bench i had saved most of my subs so we managed to dominate extra time and finally score a couple of goals that booked our AWAY game for the final as it will be played in Dortmunds stadium​