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We’ve invited fans of the 42 SPFL clubs (well, some of them at least) to give us a preview of their team’s upcoming season. Let’s find out what Findlay Mair thinks is in store for Aberdeen…

Last season’s Position: 2nd

This Season’s Prediction: 2nd

Best Signing of the Summer So Far – Graeme Shinnie

This should obviously be Graeme Shinnie — the captain of the Scottish Cup winners, arguably the best full back in Scotland and our first left natural left back since Kevin McNaughton left 9 years ago— Gary Naysmith, Ricky Foster, Richie Byrne, Dan Smith, Clark Robertson, Steven Smith and Jim Paterson clearly don’t count as they are not natural at anything.

But, Andrew Considine — though not a natural full back— has proven to be very capable in the position in recent months.

Key Man – Danny Ward

Whereas, last season’s main starter in goal suffered the dreaded curse of Jim Leighton who has doomed every goalie since he retired to be awful in order to prolong his legacy. Scott Brown had a series of high profile clangers — most notably in the League Cup semi-final vs Dundee United and in a 4-0 defeat to Celtic that we won’t talk about again.

The signing of Danny Ward on loan from Liverpool appears to have already proved its worth in the early Europa League qualifying rounds following a fantastic last ditch save against FK Shkëndija and a dominant performance in the remarkable 3-0 win away in the intense heat of Rijeka. That match saw him become an instant cult hero with the red army where he earned his own signature song to the tune of ‘Daddy Cool’ following his every touch. Eugene Dadi would be proud.

The Manager – Derek McInnes

Where to begin with Derek McInnes? What a man. I could honestly write some seriously gross slash fiction featuring our best manager since that one guy in the 80s, Angus the Bull, a Pittodrie Pie and myself. I won’t, but I could.

Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty arrived at Pittodrie with a point to prove after getting sacked by Bristol City for paying money for Ricky Foster. Since then they’ve dramatically turned around a club which had been the punchline of Scottish football for years and trimmed the team of all of the deadwood —barring Jamie Langfield but it’s only a matter of time.

As Liam McLeod so gleefully pointed out in a rare sign of bias from a BBC employee (I’m joking lads, chill out) as Adam Rooney converted the winning penalty in the 2014 League Cup Final, the sleeping giant of Scottish football has awoken. It’s just a shame we didn’t enter either cups last season for some reason. I’m sure that’ll change this time around though.

McInnes has us playing defensively responsible yet attacking football which can be easy on the eye but, as proved against Rijeka, is capable of adapting our style to counter perceived stronger opposition with a back five. If he tries out our new continental style against Celtic then it is possible that the dandies can pick up some points against them next season to make things interesting for a bit until the January window where Deila will inevitably buy up Dundee United once again.

Expectations

All we’ll really be looking for are slight improvements on what we achieved last season. The Dons will already have a longer European run by the end of this week in terms of sheer air miles as we play in Central Asia for the first time against Kairat Almaty in the much anticipated Stuart Duff derby. Aberdeen are very capable of reaching the group stages barring any disasters and avoidance of opponents of the calibre of last year’s final hurdle against Real Sociedad, should they get past Kairat.

As mentioned earlier, for some reason Aberdeen didn’t enter either domestic cup last season but a few more trips to Hampden should be a high priority as we seek to win the Scottish Cup for the first time since the Soviet Union collapsed.

In the league, the aim should be to close the gap on Celtic further to give off the illusion of a close title race in the Scottish top flight. Arguably only Aberdeen, Hearts and Dundee have really strengthened in the summer so this should theoretically see us extend our distance away from 3rd place.

But of course, the ultimate aim is to rid Pittodrie of seagulls once and for all — if only so we can finally catch this sick criminal…

About The Author

Findlay Mair (@fin1991official) is an incredibly handsome yet remarkably sad man who writes his own bio. Nominated for Young Journalist of the Year in 2015’s Scottish Press awards while working for SWNS. He barely ever mentions it.

SPFL Fans’ Season Preview: Aberdeen

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