Saving Scottish Football 2021


October


Stadium Expansion
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4 months into our new stadium the speed of the club's growth see the board agree to expand the stadium further


Fixtures
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A nice easy month on the domestic front after we got past the Celtic game. Falkirk are really bad and we got wins over Ross County and Hamilton with two starting outfield player in each game


SPL Table
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Hibs were beaten by St Mirren and it was all the invitation we needed to go back to the top. Hearts are looking fragile. I say this with a cup semi-final against them in November. Aberdeen has a rough month dropping out of the top 6 in the queue behind St Mirren. Rangers are off the bottom but are still only 3 points clear of automatic relegation.


Champions League
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We recover brilliantly from throwing away our first group game by beating Porto 6-1, we were actually level just after halftime at which point we had already seen 3 goals disallowed. Dortmund was a fight of two good attacks. Not sure we can play that way in Germany.
 



November


Fixtures
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A easy win over Hearts booked our spot in the League Cup Final against turn around team of the year St Mirren. We beat HEarts again in the League and St Mirren too. The standout result was a ridiculous 2-2 draw at Ibrox. I will go to my grave confused how both of Rangers shots in this match went in. We had 15 shots on target.


SPL Table
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We stay 2 points clear at the top. Hearts defeat pushes them closer to Celtic than ourselves. Falkirk starting to get cast adrift. Rangers are still only 1 point off the relegation playoff spots.


Champions League
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Some turn around from the day 1 disaster. We beat the Turkish to secure the top spot in the group with a game to spare


 

December


Dundee Utd retain the League Cup
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Fixtures
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Our outstanding December form continued as usual 4 wins in a row before we went to Celtic Park and fought back from 3-1 down to grab a point in a champion's performance. Made better by Hibs drawing with Hearts.


SPL Table
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We reach the halfway stage with an 8 point lead to Hibs who stutters have helped Hearts & Celtic close the gap. This already looks like the 4 champions league teams. Rangers find a run of form that sees them above Aberdeen who drops to 8th


Champions League
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We win with our reserves to top the group


Aberdeen sack Van Dijk
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After having the 2nd longest term as manager (530 days) since i left former Celtic CB Virgil Van Dijk is the 5th manager Aberdeen have sacked in the last decade. The second part of that decade has been a disaster with no trophies won since 2028/29.


This is the moment i have to return and make Aberdeen the best team in the land before building my next dynasty​
 

Return to Aberdeen
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10 years and 6 months after leaving Aberdeen on the top of domestic football i am back to take them there once again
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Season Targets
SPL top 4
Scottish Cup. Beat all non-top 4 teams

Amazingly they finished bottom of their Europa League group so just the domestic stuff to focus on. The League gets my undivided attention. We are 13 points behind Celtic and a Champions League spot. It feels more ambitious than it looks but the Europa League spots are just a win away so i expect to be there by February. The cup focus will depend on how the league goes.


Dons Squad
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Keeper Jorquera, DL Savage, ML J Aroca and the strikers Ruiz & Dunbar would be good players to take this side forward. I'm going to need every penny i can raise to improve the other spots. On the flip side, most of the spots that need to be filled are currently occupied by teenagers with potential so a handful of experienced hands should see the team improve. Van Dijks loan policy was utter mince. 3 loan players in the reserve with unbreakable deals.


As for Dundee Utd i did my job. New stadium that is about to have 40k capacity, over £300m in the bank off the back of the treble last year and a champions league final appearance the year before. Their first-team squad is a bit light but i had agreed to sell every bit of deadwood that was in the squad and extended every first-team player & superstar youth prospect. Speaking of youths their next manager may be taking over the greatest bunch of u19s the world has ever seen.​
 

January

Dundee Utd brings the biggest name to the SPL management game so far.
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Fixtures
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I made my debut in December against Kilmarnock and the feel good factor was through the roof. No signs of that dropping after the winter break when we put 5 past Montrose and then amazingly at home to title challenging Hibs. A wake-up call was just around the corner from Dundee where we lost 3-2 but by far the most important game of January was the must win game at home to 4th place Celtic. We ran out easy 3-1 winners then beat struggling Ross County to end the month on a high.


SPL Table
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Dundee Utd pulls further clear at the top without me and Aberdeen close the gap on Celtic to 7 points. Plenty time to do something about the champions league spots. At the bottom there is suddenly a 3-way tie for bottom spot after Falkirk changed managers.


SPL Transfer Window
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This must have been the biggest January window ever. 5 Different teams sold a player for over £10m. I cleared out Dundee Utds reserves before leaving to give the new man a clean slate but then reinvested that money into Aberdeen buying the best and highest-paid player.


Aberdeen Transfers
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The first window was always going to be a big one. Despite having half a starting squad at an acceptable standard we still need half a squad to do something right away.


Cristian Cardozo and Juan Gallego are my 4th all South American starting CB pair. Gallego's stats are through the roof and was a target for me at Dundee Utd.
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Gustavo Varela was a key midfielder in Dundee Utds growth. Hopefully he'll do the same for us after a poor 2 years at Hearts. Mattias Petersson will be his partner in the middle of the park.
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South African wonder kid De Freitas will get a share of football once fit again.
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Upfront i need a striker partner for
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Mateusz Sqautek was getting interested from Inter Milan so after they put me out of last year s Champions League i massively overpaid to bring the heir to Lewandowski's throne to Aberdeen.



Gonzalez & Warner go to the u19s for now.
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February


Fixtures
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An unbeaten month starting with a point against my old team and following on with 3 wins in the League. In the cup, we thrashed Livingston after forgetting to drop my 1st team. The Quarter Finals against Celtic was a tougher date and we'll have to do it all again in March


SPL Table
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We've made it! With 10 games to spare we've tied with Celtic and are in 4th place. Plenty of time for it to go all wrong but were in a good place. Hibs are bringing the title fight right to Dundee Utd while the bottom three became the bottom 2 as Ross County pull clear.

 

March


Fixtures

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March started with a note of intent from John McGinn's boys. Twice we led but Rangers never gave up and earned the 3 points. We beat all 3 struggling teams fairly easily. The cup replay was a rougher night but we held on to get the semi-final draw with Hamilton which should be a bye to the final


SPL Table
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Dundee Utd look set to retain their title as Hibs challenge faulters. We stay 4th and with just 1 game to the split the top 6 is basically set unless Dundee can pull off a 14 goal swing over Rangers who have been rejuvenated by John McGinn. Kilmarnock vs Falkirk for 11th is going to be a battle.


Taking my former Scotland vice-captain from St Mirren has seen them rocket up the league past his former club and into the top 6 sadly.
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April & May


Fixtures
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What a battle down to the final day. We led on goal difference by 1 goal going into the final day and i was not confident against Rangers while Celtic played a Hibs team playing for fun. We only had this slender advantage thanks to a thrilling comeback from the dead against champions Dundee Utd. 3-1 down with half an hour to go we threw everything at them and prevailed thanks to a late Ruiz double. Celtic did themselves no favours in the big 6 pointer going down to 10 men in the 8th minute but put up some fight to only lose 2-1. We beat Hamilton in the cup as expected.

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They had a lot of fun on the final day pumping Celtic 4-0 while we beat Rangers 3-0 to secure champions league football thanks to a thrilling turnaround in form.


Scottish Cup Final
Aberdeen 1-3 Dundee Utd
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We couldn't stop my former side from doing the treble treble although Villas-Boas won't get the title to himself since i won them the League Cup.
 

Season 16 Review



Managers
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3rd Summer in a row Celtic sack their manager. This time it was deserved. Henry not good in FM either so hopefully an upgrade for them next term.


Aberdeen Squad
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Jorquera is my number one and a solid one at that. However next year he'll have competition so i envision the days of having a league keeper and a cup keeper to decided who stays for 2038/39
Three of the back 4 are more than solid starters for next season. Savage was a youth star for me at Hibs and Aberdeen bought well in bringing him north. Gallego was as good as he looked on the tin while Cardozo was a suitable sidekick that could move if i get a decent bid. Teenager Duncan Dixon will be here next year but another pre-summer signing from Man City's youth team may relegate one of our top youth prospect to the bench.
Despite only being in his mid-20s Varela seems to have lost a step and with Petersson not being overly impressive there might be work to do in the middle. The right-wing is so deep i'll need to sell someone but probably not Estay. Aroca was only supposed to be a temp ML and he played like it.
Up front we should be set. A big should be however. Sqiatek and Ruiz are both on massive wages but are two of the top strikers in the league. NOt sure i can justify the £63k a week they take up especially on Ruiz who is now 30, a dinosaur in my squads. Dunbar is a suitable backup but i wouldn't be in despair if he had to start if we do sell. The other striker is too young, not good enough or both at the moment.
I know we sold a few regulars but this is by far the least amount of players I've used in a season but also probably the most amount of teenagers I've played. More of the same next year.


My Player of the Season
Jhonnier Ruiz
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The Columbian striker did most of his damage during Van Dijk's time at the club but he did more than enough before during and after to earn the teams player of the year


Final SPL Table

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It looks closer than it was. Dundee Utd had Hibs at arm's length after the spilt while Hearts great run of form towards the end makes for an intriguing season next year with Dundee Utd not having me, Aberdeen having me and Celtic also changing manager. Rangers with a full season in John McGinns hands might be too much to ask for a 6-way title fight. Dundee comfortably won best of the rest and get a Europa Conference spot as a reward. St Mirren's season fell apart after their manager change. Hamilton was in no man's land all season while Ross County saved themselves with a charge over the last 12 games. Falkirk and Kilmarnock fought relegation together and Falkirk with their historically worst defence go down. 125 goals conceded. Christ!


Play-Off
Kilmarnock 2-1 Partick
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Despite losing the first leg Kilmarnock survive to fight another season. They will get to fight Championship champions Motherwell for the bottom spot next term.


Europe
Dundee United followed my tradition and lost in the champions league last 16
Hearts got to the Europa League Q/F before losing 5-3 to Liverpool
Hibs went down a round earlier to PSV 3-2
Celtic had their worst European season in ages losing in the Conference 2nd Round to Hamburger
Aberdeen finished bottom of their Europa group and immediately sacked Van Dijk
Ross Couty was thrashed on the Conference playoff by Austrians St Polten
Rangers were our first European victims losing to Ufa in both games of their conference qualifier


Club Rankings
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One year in the top 4 and its. a 9k point season that will haunt us for the next 5 years.


Embargo
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As soon as i listed all the players i wanted to sell and had bids in on dozens of potential players i get this message.

It came to nothing of course​
 

Aberdeen Season 17
Pre Season 2037/38


Season Targets
SPL - Winners
Scottish Cup - Winner
League Cup - Winner
Champions League - Europe after Christmas


We are being very ambitious considering we usually lost to the top 3 last season but I've spent every penny budgeted to us to make the Dons challengers this season.


SPL Pre Season Prices
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Dundee Utd is favourites and after seeing just one of their summer signing that is no surprise. Were in there with Hearts. Underpriced at 8/1 but i understand it. Celtic's latest victim is Pierre Hojbjerg in his first managerial role. This goes really well or really bad. David McCracken is back to replace Euen Grant who took the Scotland job. Despite my very good club record and doing the Euro/World Cup double with France they turned me down.


Aberdeen Transfers
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Juan Moya - GK
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As a growing side, i need a league and cup keeper so i signed Moya on a free. He'll start as the cup keeper.

Joe Tosh - DR
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I thought i was getting England's starting RB at 22 years of age for free. Once he arrived i saw he actually Northern Irish but that's fine he's already good with time to get better.

Alexander Steinnes - DC
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I was scouring the world for a CB on par with Gallego but i was not wanting to spend over £5m. That proved impossible. There was a slightly better 25-year-old in the mix but at 19 Steinnes could go on to be one of the best in the world while already being good enough to start for us.

Ceferino Cairo - MR
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Yes, i know another MR that we didn't need. Cairo however is better than anyone i have for that position and cost me £1.2m from the transfer list. I would be stung by this again before the window closed

Bill Connolly - MC
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Almost one of Scotlands most famous names. As a teenager, he is far and away Scotlands best prospect so i had to pay for it. Long gone are the days of £300k for Kenny McLean


Dominic Johnson - ML
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I needed a starting and sub ML and i get my backup from my former team Hibs. I don't like going back and taking good players from my former sides but £3.6m for a quality winger and no other Scottish sides interested this was a must.

Daniel Kaminski - MR
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Why do i do this to myself? WEre now up to 4 MRs for the one spot. Value from the transfer list beat me again and i just can't turn away from a potential multiple time profit on a player.

Gary Chalmers - ML
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He's French with a name like that? Either way, he is the best winger prospect i have signed at any club. Can't wait to unleash him on the SPL.

Leonel Orozco - AT
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A 4th striker was required once my current u21s proved to be lacking potential and Orozco was one of three gems i had joining from River for under £3m. Sadly the transfer embargo robbed me of the other two but the striker was still there after the embargo and i can see him challenging to start before the end of the season and definitely replacing Ruiz next season.


Out
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Simply put this squad was not good enough to challenge Scotland & Europe's best. Without major changes, we might have put in a title challenge and a mediocre European run but a full clear out of the mediocre players was required. Two big sales from the start were Ben Rotherwell to Celtic for just under £7m. He couldn't break into my first team so not sure what Celtic see in the American international. Roberto Landi was 4th choice MC and plummeting down the order. He has potential but wasn't showing signs of progressing. The of my starters from last year moved on to bring in £18m. I was surprised by the fees for Aroca & Estay. I would have had them the other way around but with better quality joining there time was up. Johan Rozental was on the bench last year for me and with over £20k a week in wages, he had to go. 5 further squad players were let go.​
 


August


Board allow us to use the last bit of money in the bank for 8,000 more seats and a youth upgrade.
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Fixtures
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A perfect start. Brilliant stuff winning at Parkhead then thrashing Hearts at home. Feeling better about this season already.


SPL Table
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We and Hibs make a perfect start with the old firm up next followed by the Dundee teams. Ross County makes a Falkirk like a start.


Champions League Draw
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Not much chance of a top 2 finish so we must beat Galatasaray twice.


SPL Transfer Window
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Dundee Utd make the 3 biggest sales but make the biggest signing in the Saves history

Striker Josh Blakesley was a star with Man City only 2 years ago he led them to a champions league final win over us
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Aberdeen Transfers
No notable moves on our part.​
 

September


Fixtures
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Three straightforward wins in the SPL but we suffer our worst defeat at Easter Road in the League Cup Q/f. Still, a long way to go to catch up with these guys then.



SPL Table
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Despite that defeat, we still lead them in the league by 3 goals. 7 games in and it's already a 2 horse race with favourites Dundee Utd back in 5th 11 points being. Ross County have a point but no win yet.


Champions League
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We got the win we really wanted and needed against Galatasaray but then got served in Manchester​
 

October


Fixtures
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A big month of game and we rose to the occasion with a win at home to Dundee Utd before going to the capital and stealing a p92nd minute point from Hibs. WE thrashed Rangers to remind them where they are these days as well as getting a win over Motherwell


SPL Table
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The result sees us move 5 points clear of Hibs at the top while the rest already look unlikely to challenge for the title. Especially Hearts who make their worst start in a decade.


Champions League
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Just one game and it was a sore one. Any delusions of Champions League last 16 are put in the back window.
 

November & December


Multitasking fail as i was halfway through December before realising where we were.


Takeover
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Its happened. The new chairman walked in with plans to spend £57m on a Hearts striker & Hibs CB. My director of football was put in charge of getting the deals through so he was fired and i cancelled the deals.


Fixtures
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Over the two months, we do relatively well. Won all the games we are expecting to win including at home to Celtic. Our one loss was to Hearts where i was juggling players for the Galatasaray game. Ending the year with an away draw to Rangers & Dundee Utd is not an idea but I'm happy we avoided defeat


SPL Table
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Gaps at 3 points with little difference in us and Hibs. battle for 3rd and at the bottom looks like being tasty. I did not notice how much of a monster Swiatek had been.


Champions League
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We won the important game with Galatasary to secure Europa League football. We gave City a game but needed to win by 3 goals to go through. We couldn't even manage the first part.
Dundee Utd reach the last 16 of the Champions League, Celtic won their Europa League group and are into the last 16, Hearts like us drop into the Europa League, Hibs & Rangers finished bottom of their Champions League & Europa League groups, Dundee Lost there qualifier


Europa League Last 32 draw
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January


Fixtures
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We come back from the break on fire. The u19s thrashed Dunfermline and we beat struggling St Mirren & Motherwell. The big games were against capital sides and we won them both. Hearts were brushed aside but title rivals Hibs put up far more of a fight. 1-0 up and with 15 minutes to go Hibs went down to 10 men and i thought we were safe. Actually, we were not as Hibs scored an 89th-minute penalty. The point was not a disaster since were ahead in the lead. A major stroke of luck seen a 94th-minute winner from Swiatek score another winning goal, probably his biggest winning goal of the season.


SPL Table
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Hibs bad results were not reserved for playing us and just like that were 10 points clear at the top and 21 clear of Dundee Utd and the final champions league spot. Hearts need to get their finger out but or Harry Maguire may be about to lose his job?


Transfer Window


Aberdeen

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5 Players join the youth team two backups leave on loan

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SPL Transfers
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Very quiet window on all fronts. Hibs selling Pavel Nedved? He must be about 65!


 

February


Fixtures
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It was all going so well domestically. We fought back twice to rescue a draw from an ill-tempered game in Dundee. We easily beat Celtic at Parkhead but the trauma for the month was at home to Hibs in the Scottish Cup. We were 2 up and cruising when Hibs pulled one back right on half time. They went on to dominate the 2nd half and turn the game around and dump us out of the cup. Not what we wanted with probable elimination from the Europa League. More on that later


SPL Table
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With the results, there are no major changes at the top, we still hold a good advantage to Hibs even if they win their game in hand. Dundee goes clear in 3rd as Maguire fights for his job managed to jump both old firm terms. No clear worst team in the league so anyone's guess from the bottom 4 who goes down.


Europa League Last 32
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We destroyed Shakhtar in the 1st leg and our backups easily saw our advantage through


Last 16 draw
Aberdeen vs Arsenal
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Gets a lot harder here.

 

March


Fixtures
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We have played 1 game in the past month in a very strangely scheduled month. AWhen we did play the clear highlight was beating Rangers 4-0. We drew 0-0 with Hibs so kept the gap in place and beat Dundee Utd. The one shock and it was a seismic shock against Kille. We led 1-0 as stoppage time began but once the 4 minutes had passed we had lost a League game for the first time since November.

SPL Table
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We go into the Split with a 10 point lead having given up 11 points all season i feel good that the title is in our hands. Only Hibs can stop us and perhaps for the first time the top 6 sides all finish convincingly in the top 6


Europa League Last 16
Arsenal 4-3 Aberdeen
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It was all tied at 2-2 after the first leg in Aberdeen and the same was going on in the 2nd leg. I decided we were not losing on away goals so went all-out attack in the last 10 minutes and Arsenal secured the tie. What else did you think was going to happen in the last 16.​
 

November & December

Multitasking fail as i was halfway through December before realising where we were.


Takeover
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Its happened. The new chairman walked in with plans to spend £57m on a Hearts striker & Hibs CB. My director of football was put in charge of getting the deals through so he was fired and i cancelled the deals.

You probably already know this but the fees for those players come straight from the chairman's pocket and not the clubs coffers.

I had a Spanish save were this happened. I was tempted to cancel but let it ride as I was curious and my clubs balance remained the same.

Also one of those players brought in became my main forward.

Were any of the players any good?
 
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You probably already know this but the fees for those players come straight from the chairman's pocket and not the clubs coffers.

I had a Spanish save were this happened. I was tempted to cancel but let it ride as I was curious and my clubs balance remained the same.

Also one of those players brought in became my main forward.

Were any of the players any good?

**** missed a trick there! They would have been on the bench at best for me.
 

May

Aberdeen are Champions


Fixtures
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The Championship Group only lasted 2 games as Hibs capitulated drawing both their opening games.​
 
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