Reviving A Giant: Aberdeen FC

[MatthewElphinstone]

Hello Lads,

I'm going to start another Aberdeen save, i have decided to drop my old save (Aberdeen FC: Ending the Pittodrie Plight) due to the fact that i find it a grind and i am having problems getting joy out of it..

Now i am switching to what was my private save, one which i have enjoyed thoroughly and still do. I am in my 4th season currently and still have not found a reason to drop the save altogether unlike the other one

Hopefully you guys who followed my season on my previous save will enjoy this one even more (because i certainly enjoy this one even more).

Anyway, Aberdeen were huge in the 80's (hence the title) and i plan to bring them back!

Challenges
​

1) Win the SPL within 3 seasons (pending)
2) Win a domestic cup within 2 seasons (pending)
3) Qualify for an European Competition (pending)
4) Don't be embarrassed in Europe
5) Dabble in International management
6) Become Scotland Manager

Transfers
In

Jari Litmanen (Former Liverpool man and Finland legend), Connor Clifford (Free Agent formerly from Chelsea), Kevin Thompson (Former Rangers and Middlesbourgh) and Emile Mpenza (Former Man City Player)

Out

Craig Murray (loan) Scott Rumsby (loan) Michael Rose (loan) Craig Storrie (loan) Craig Duguid (loan) Rory Fallon (60k - Bournemouth) and Chris Clark (released)

Pre-Season - September

(I know the scorers however the save is so far in that i do not have the match reports so i don't have the the option to view the goals and put in an analysis)

Aberdeen 3-0 Reserve
McGinn, Fallon, Hayes

Raith 0-0 Aberdeen

Hamilton 0-2 Aberdeen
Fallon, Vernon

Darlington 0-1 Aberdeen
Mpenza

Aberdeen 0-0 Middlesbourgh

Aberdeen 0-3 West brom

Aberdeen 0-1 Tottenham

SPL

Celtic 2-2 Aberdeen
Considine, Pawlett

Aberdeen 2-0 Ross County
Milsom, Hayes

St Johnstone 0-2 Aberdeen
Shaughnessy, Rae

Aberdeen 0-0 Hearts

Albion Rovers 0-4 Aberdeen (SLC)
Smith (2), Vernon, Hayes

We end the transfer window top of the league as Celtic only played twice in the league..

sorry for the limited info, the match reports will become more detailed around the November games... (will try to post a makeshift league table every time...)​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

September - January

Aberdeen 0-0 St Mirren

Inverness CT 1-1 Aberdeen
Milsom

Aberdeen 3-2 Motherwell
Shaughnessy, Litmanen, Hayes

Aberdeen 3-1 Ross County
Hayes, o.g, Magennis

Aberdeen 5-0 Hibernian
McGinn (2), Thomson, Osbourne, Robertson

Kilmarnock 0-3 Aberdeen
o.g, Hughes (2)

Dundee United 0-3 Aberdeen
Mpenza (3)

Aberdeen 3-0 Dundee
Smith, Mpenza, Pawlett

Motherwell 3-2 Aberdeen (SLC)
Mpenza, Hughes

Ross County 0-0 Aberdeen

St Mirren 1-2 Aberdeen
Smith, Mpenza

Aberdeen 3-2 Celtic
Litmanen (3)

What a game to get my match reports back! After swiftly going down 2-0 in 15 minutes due to 2 Gary 'OP' Hooper goals and were raped up to the half time whistle, as a team that shouldn't be getting trounced i tapped into my inner Fergie and plugged in the famous hair dryer. And it saved the game! I subbed off Smith and put on Litmanen which then turned the game on its head! Litmanen turned in a shot off the post in the 55th minute. We then proceeded to batter Celtic and led to us getting a penalty which was converted by Litmanen. 3 minutes later Charlie Mulgrew brought down Vernon for a 2nd penalty which Litmanen converted in the 88th minute! We held until the full time whistle on got a deserved 3 points!

Hibernian 2-1 Aberdeen
Mpenza

Poor performance where 2 first half goals from Hibs sealed the deal.

Aberdeen 2-2 Inverness CT
Clifford, Litmanen

Our poor-ish form continued with Cliffords first goal in the red colours giving us the lead. We then went 2-1 down due to Connor Pepper being so good -.-.. Litmanen then scored the equalizing goal in the 79th minute.

Aberdeen 2-1 Hamilton (SC)
Smith, Low (pen)

Another shocking performance saw us go 1-0 down to a torrid 1st division side. The hair dryer was plugged in and turned the game around after Smith equalized with a poachers effort. Then in the dying embers of the match Low was brought down in the penalty area and subsequently converted allowing us to progress.

Hearts 1-2 Aberdeen
Vernon, Litmenen

On return to the first team Scott Vernon repaid my faith in him by getting the Dons off to a flyer. Litmanen doubled our lead and put the game beyond doubt.

Aberdeen 3-0 Kilmarnock
Reynolds, Litmanen (2)

Complete domination, we coasted to victory and Litmanen continued his fantastic form.

Aberdeen 0-2 St Johnstone

You know those really frustrating games? yeah, this was one of them.

Motherwell 1-2 Aberdeen
Considine (2)

UGHHHHHHHH STILL FRUSTRATING! going 1-0 down i was about ready to put my fist through my laptop. Until Considine scored from a corner kick. Considine scored again from an in swinging free kick.

Aberdeen 1-0 Dundee
Hughes

Another annoying match.. Took a 20 yard screamer to separate the sides.

League Table
​

Celtic P: 20 W: 14 D: 4 L: 2 Pts: 46
Aberdeen P: 21 W: 13 D: 6 L: 2 Pts: 45

(I am going to involve the top 2 teams only unless we drop out of top 2)

As you can see we are only 1 point behind although they have a game in hand. Good start all in all.

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

January - End of the Season

Transfers
In

Herold Goulon (free)

View attachment 375396

Out

Russell Anderson (released) Emile Mpenza (released) Jari Litmanen (released)

I'm sorry to release these players but they took up too much wage in their advancing years.

Results

Aberdeen 5-0 Dundee Utd
Shaughnessy, Smith (4)

Dundee. Got. Wrecked. Smith set a new Aberdeen record.

Inverness 2-3 Aberdeen
Vernon (2) Smith

Close encounter shown us go on top. Very exciting game that saw us take the spoils in Inverness!

Aberdeen 0-0 Hibernian

Shocking.

St Johnstone 0-2 Aberdeen
Litmanen (2)

Two penalties saw a poor Aberdeen side take all the points.

Queen of the South 1-2 Aberdeen
McGinn, Vernon

In danger of throwing away another cup tie, McGinn and Vernon come off the bench to put us 2-0 up and we saw out the rest of the game.

Aberdeen 5-3 St Mirren
Vernon (4) Osbourne

Game of the season potential. game of two halves going 3-1 down. We had a countless amount of clear cut chances, and i was confident we'd turn it around. 3 goals from Vernon ensured this plus Osbourne to seal the deal.

Aberdeen 1-0 Dundee
Goulon

Our big French man comes through for us and scores his first goal in front of the Richard Donald stand to bring us 3 points against a resilient and lively Dundee side.

Aberdeen 0-1 Kilmarnock

I was going to gladly accept a draw especially seeing as we were very poor. however right at the death they scored and we were left with our jaws dropped to the floor!

Aberdeen 2-1 Ross County
Vernon, Considine

We won but we were still very poor. Vernon set us off to a flying start blasting it at short range. Just before half time the Dingwall side equalized and looked good to be winners however in the 88th minute a corner was whipped in and met by the head of Andrew Considine who gave us the spoils.

Morton 0-2 Aberdeen (SC)
Vernon, Considine

The same scoring combination books our tickets to the Scottish Cup Semi's as we dominated a lowly Morton who had been incredibly overachieving after beating a few Premier League sides.

Aberdeen 2-0 Motherwell
McGinn (2)

McGinn saving us from poor form! two last ten minute strikes gave us much needed three points. The highlight was a fantastic 30 yard free kick in off the post to put us in the lead.

Celtic 4-1 Aberdeen
McGinn

We were smashed from pillar to post! they were all over us and held 65% possession! Gary 'OP' Hooper scored 2 while Watt and Samaras got the other two. We were never in this game although McGinn pegged us back to even terms after a fantastic lob by McGinn in the first half.

Aberdeen 0-0 Hearts

OMG HOW DID WE NOT WIN!? We were poor in the final 3rd however we were out playing them, out passing them, out.. well everything. We hit the post twice and the bar once! I am shocked as to how we never won.

Dundee Utd 1-1 Aberdeen
Vernon

I'm going to cry. More poor form from us allowed Dundee to hit us on the break in the last minute of the game just to screw over their fierce rivals title chances!

Aberdeen 1-0 Celtic (SC)
Vernon

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA We totally did not deserve to win the match as we were completely ripped in two! they had chance after chance after chance yet Jamie Langfield made a string of amazing saves that kept us alive! in the 89th minute Vernon came up HUGE for the club and booked our tickets into the Scottish Cup Final!

Aberdeen 4-3 Motherwell
Considine, Smith (2), Pawlett

A fantastic end to end game! 1-0 to us then 2-1 to them then 3-2 to us, 3-3 then Pawlett skins 2 people then rounds the keeper before sliding the ball into the back of the net and sending the Aberdeen faithful into raptures and giving us a crucial 3 points!

Dundee Utd 0-0 Aberdeen

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT'S ANOTHER POOR PERFORMANCE!!!!! These are the results we need to fix for next season.

St Mirren 1-2 Aberdeen
Goulon, Vernon

After going 1-0 down thanks to a Thompson goal we finally found the net with Herold Goulon just after the hour mark. We needed another last gasp goal to take the spoils and this time Vernon stepped up to score from the edge of the box.

Hearts 2-1 Aberdeen
Hayes

We had definitely consolidated 2nd a long time ago, however i only chose now to experiment with younger players, going 2-0 down Hayes scored the consolation goal. Although we lost we should not feel ashamed of the result as we had a lot of youth players and gave Hearts a **** of a game!

Aberdeen 3-3 Celtic
Hayes, Vernon, Low

What a game! We were smacked about for 70 minutes of the game before i decided to overload to see if we could give them something to worry about! Hayes scored a free kick followed by Vernon scoring from the spot and again, in the dying embers of the game a cross-come-shot from Nicky Low slipped past Fraser Forster to end the game of the season on a high note for us. The league champions left with some serious thinking to do!

Scottish Cup Final

Dundee Utd vs Aberdeen

Half Time

Dundee Utd 0-0 Aberdeen

Full Time

Dundee Utd 1-1 Aberdeen
(Dundee Utd won 5-3 on penalties)
Smith

ugh i thought we had it until the 90th minute sent it to extra time. Then cue Vernon and Smith, my most prolific goalscorers, missed from the spot.

League Table

View attachment 375399
We overachieved finishing 1 place ahead of what the media predicted. tomorrow i will rattle through who won the awards etc. as i am rather tired.​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

Season 2

View attachment 375800

Sorry lads the start was rushed because i would lose the match reports if i didn't.

Transfers
IN:
(Will only Screen shot important/big players. Screen shots may also include spoilers to the future.)

Daniel Devine (free transfer from Inverness CT), Lauri Dalla Valle (Free Transfer from Fulham), Louis Saha (imminently released as he was not good enough for SPL), Thomasz Cywka (free), Stef Nijland (free), Scott Wooton (free), Sammy Bossut (free) Nikolay Dimitrov (free), Stefan Hager (free)

View attachment 375801View attachment 375802View attachment 375803View attachment 375804View attachment 375805View attachment 375806

(From left to right) Top: Cywka, Dalla Valle, Nijland, Dimitrov
Bottom: Wooton, Bossut

YOUTH INTAKE (last March)

a few players worth talking about

David Wallace (4* PA), Garry Pettigrew (4.5* PA), Richie McKay (4* PA)

View attachment 375808View attachment 375809View attachment 375810

Left to right: Wallace, Pettigrew, McKay

World Transfers

View attachment 375811View attachment 375813

2013/13 Season Awards

FW Player of The Year

View attachment 375815

Player of The Season

View attachment 375817

Player of The Year

View attachment 375818

Young Player of The Season

View attachment 375822

Young Player of The Year

View attachment 375821


Manager of The Year

View attachment 375823

Writers' Manager of The Year

View attachment 375823

WHY IS THERE A THUMBNAIL!

Anyway lads, cheers for looking, Criticism of the layout of the update will be taken into account.​

 

[MatthewElphinstone]

July

Pre-Season sucks, Opening game win European qualifiers prove successful.

Alloa 1-0 Aberdeen

hmm.. I felt that even though we played our youth players we still should have been successful in this match.

Montrose 1-3 Aberdeen
Saha, Clifford, Nijland

Aberdeen 2-6 LOSC
McManus, Wallace

HAHA, fines would have been going out if it wasn't the reserve/youth team

Europe!

View attachment 375927

Aberdeen's last venture in Europe ended in shambles (No not Bayern Munich.. Although the 2nd leg was completely torrid) getting humped at home and away in the qualifying rounds of the competition. The days of Dons may just come back.

Aberdeen 2-1 SV Mattersburg
Cywka (2)

SV Mattersburg 0-1 Aberdeen (1-3)
Smith

THE SPL COMMENCES

View attachment 375938

Pittodrie Stadium awaiting the arrival of Hibernian FC

Aberdeen 1-0 Hibernian
Nijland

The dying embers of the match quickly turned into a blaze as Aberdeen débutante Stef Nijland opens his Aberdeen account with a fierce volley from 16 meters.

Aberdeen Player of The Month

View attachment 375950

Stef Nijland
After scoring the only SPL goal for the dons, Nijland also contributed to two Europa League assists against Matterburg.

My Transfers out will be in my next update.
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