danmcconnell1

The first month of the season has been extremely busy, but a huge success so far. Our first match of the new season was away at Inverness and we beat them comfortably 2-0 thanks to goals from Campbell and a Keinan Davies debut strike. We travelled to Norway 3 days later for the 1st leg of the Champions League 3rd qualifying round where Connor Barron scored a solitary penalty to give us a lead heading into the 2nd leg next week back at Pittodrie. More goals followed in our first home match of the season as we beat St Johnstone 3-0 with goals coming from Davies, Clarkson and McGrath. The return leg against Odd back at home finished goalless to set up a tough Playoff to reach the Champions League proper against Benfica who thrashed us in pre-season 5-2. Before that 1st leg though we took on Hamilton in the Viaplay Cup 2nd round and we progressed with a routine 3-0 win thanks to goals from Devlin, Davies and Thomas-Asante. The 1st leg of the Champions League playoff was just 4 days later at the Estadio de Luz and we came away with a lead. We were brilliant against the Portuguese giants as Clarkson and Duncan scored our goals to take the lead back to Pittodrie next week. We did lose for the first time in the league away at Hearts that weekend though, we were 3-0 down at half time. Cameron and Duncan scored to make it an interesting end but we were poor and fell to defeat for the first time this season. We then welcomed Benfica back to Pittodrie for the 2nd time in as many months with a lot more on the line this time around. Benfica won the match on the night, however it was only 1-0 and so we remained level on aggregate, even after 120 minutes. The penalty shoot out ensued and we came out on top, winning the shoot out 3-2 to send us to the Champions League League Phase and the riches that come with it. Just 3 days later we welcomed champions Celtic to Pittodrie and we managed to beat them as well, a potentially season changing moment as we came out on top 2-1, a new signing scored our equaliser before a 91st minute McGrath penalty won it for us. We sit in 2nd after 4 matches in the Premiership with 3 wins and 1 defeat up to now. We'll be facing Valencia, Aston Villa, Dortmund, Napoli, Dinamo, Atalanta, PSG and Juventus in our League Phase fixtures, so it could be a tough campaign for us. We also have a Viaplay Cup quarter final to St Johnstone to look forward to as well. A couple more players left us towards the end of the window, with Besuijen going back to his homeland and Kelle Roos moving south of the border to join Lincoln who have reached the Championship. Our final signing of the summer was the biggest in terms of transfer fee from Liverpool F.C in Uruguay with Luciano Rodriguez for a total of £6.5m. He already has his first goal for us as he was the new signing who scored in the final match of the month against Celtic, so he's had a great start to life with us. He can play anywhere across the front so will provide more depth in that area and hopefully become a mainstay in our side.

On the eve of the new season, we'll recap how our summer has gone. We lost just once in pre-season, winning 5 and losing the other. We beat Elgin City, Odense Boldklub, Horsens, Shrewsbury and most impressively Porto, losing against Benfica. Here is our squad heading into the new season. Some of the old guard have now left and have been replaced by some new faces. The first deal we did this summer was to keep Harrison Ashby at the club. When bringing him in on loan last summer, we negotiated a clause worth £150k to sign him permanently which we decided to take up after an impressive 2nd half of the season last time out. I'm certainly hoping he can overthrow an ageing Nicky Devlin for that position over the next season. Next in is the aforementioned Freddie Woodman on a free transfer from Preston. Woodman has played for the club before in his earlier days where he made 4 appearances during a short loan spell. He's certainly an upgrade on Roos and I'm hoping he'll make the number 1 spot his own this season. Next in was Callum Styles, again on a free, this time from Barnsley. Styles is a versatile midfielder who can also play at LB too, so he's a great option to have. A regular Hungarian international too, Styles brings experience and aged just 25, still plenty left in the tank too. I'm really happy with this signing. The next man in is Taylor Harwood-Bellis following his release from Manchester City. He's a very exciting centre back with bags of potential, to get him in for nothing is an absolute bargain in my eyes. The only sticking point is that we had to include a release clause in his contract in order for him to sign which was set at a non-negotiable £16.75m, which would be a club record sale if it were to be triggered. Anyway, Harwood-Bellis will slot straight in at centre back and brings a touch of class to the back line. The final man in this summer so far is Keinan Davis from Udinese. The former Aston Villa and Watford man is a strong, bulky centre forward who doesn't mind putting his head in where it hurts and has a decent turn of pace too. He's struggled in Italy however has joined us for £3m and I now feel we have sufficiently replaced Miovski, however time will tell if that prediction will come to fruition. Those new arrivals were offset by some departures too. Before the new season officially began, Graeme Shinnie was sold to Sheffield Wednesday for £40.5k and James McGarry to Dundee for £1.3m Dante Polvara was sold after he spent the majority of last season out with a cruciate knee injury, he went back to his homeland of South Africa to join SuperSport United for a fee worth up to £93k. Jack Milne was sold to Kilmarnock for £153k, Shayden Morris to Dunfermline for what could reach £150k, Richard Jensen went back home to Finland to join HJK for a fee which could rise to £1.4m, Mercer was sent out on loan again, this time to Raith Rovers and the final outgoing deal saw Ester Sokler leave the club to join Croatian side Rijeka for a fee worth up to £1.5m. The Scottish Premiership gets underway this weekend so no league table has been generated yet. We have been drawn against Norwegian side Odds BK in the Champions League, League Path 3rd qualifying round with the first leg taking place across the North Sea in Norway, the 2nd a week later back at Pittodrie. Odds BK beat Partizan Belgrade in both legs of the 2nd round so they're not a side we can take lightly, however I am relatively happy with the draw considering some of the other teams we could have faced which include Monaco, Anderlecht and Benfica. Also, we've been drawn at home in the 2nd round of the Viaplay Cup against Hamilton. Pittodrie is the subject of another expansion this season, increasing the capacity by 5328 seats taking us to an approximate capacity of 23230. We've invested heavily in the infrastructure around the club since I arrived, not only increasing capacity but also upgrading both the first team and youth training facilities too. The famous old ground will be back to full capacity hopefully by early October.

Our World Cup qualifying campaign continued with a trip to Wembley in early June, however we were well and truly humbled by the Three Lions 4-0. We did recover well though with a 3-1 win back at Hampden against Ireland, McKenna, Irving with his first for Scotland and Che Adams rounding off the scoring to give us another 3 points. We remain in 2nd which is where I think we may well end up in this group. We're 3 points behind England and 3 clear of Ireland who I believe will be our closest challengers for 2nd. Should we stay in 2nd, then a league table of all 2nd placed sides is created where the top 6 also qualify for the World Cup. If the group stage was to end now we'd be going, so we need to make sure we continue picking up wins against the sides lower than us in the group and hope we can give England more of a contest back at Hampden later in the year.

The season ended with the final 4 matches of the Championship Group in the Scottish Premiership. We began May with a goalless draw at home to Rangers. I really feel as though we're at least on a par with Rangers at the moment, despite still being ahead of them in the table. We've kept them at arm's length for most of the campaign and they've never really been able to bridge the gap between themselves and us. We travelled to Tynecastle next for a meeting with Hearts and thrashed them 5-1, Cameron, Soldo, McGrath, Deas and Clarkson with our goals to see us take away the 3 points from Edinburgh. Our final home match of the campaign was against Motherwell at Pittodrie who we beat 2-0, the goals coming from Onomah and Clarkson. Celtic could only manage a 2-2 draw with Hearts in their penultimate match so this meant we went into the final day just 3 points behind our opponents at Celtic Park, therefore still in with a slim chance due to goal difference of overthrowing the reigning champions. However Celtic were too strong for us on the final day, beating us 3-0 at Celtic Park and winning their 12th league title in 13 years. We ran them very close, however were just pipped at the post by the formidable Hoops. Despite being caught be Celtic in the end, this has been a season of magnificent progress for us. We've split the Old Firm duopoly at the top of the Premiership by finishing 2nd and despite the gap being 6 points to Celtic which seems big in the end, it was a lot closer in reality. To finish 5 points clear of Rangers too is no mean feat, so we're really happy with our season and hope we can progress even more next season, with the added bonus of Champions League football too. We enter the Champions League qualification phase in the League Path 3rd round, so will be keeping an eye on the 2 earlier rounds as to who progresses and look out for who we might face. Here is our squad for the season just finished. Kelle Roos was the main goalkeeper, making 53 appearances, missing just 5 matches all season. In my eyes, our best defender this season was Slobodan Rubezic, he scored 2 goals and got an assist in 35 appearances in all competitions with an average rating of 6.98. In midfield, Josh Campbell muscled his way past Graeme Shinnie to become a regular starter this season, making 52 appearances, scoring 4 goals and assisting 8, he had a very good season in the middle of the park. Josh Onomah had another very season for us, proving to be an absolute steal when we signed him for nothing towards the start of last season. He scored 11 goals and assisted another 10 from the number 10 role in midfield. Jamie McGrath also had a good campaign, scoring 10 goals and assisting 11 from the right hand side, he's our primary penalty taker too, scoring all 3 he took this season. Missing of course is the brilliant Bojan Miovski who had 18 goals before he left to join Utrecht in Holland back in January, so who knows where we'd have ended up had he stayed, but we'll never know now. Either way though, this has been a brilliant season for Aberdeen and I'm really hoping the money we get from competing in the Champions League will help us progress on and off the pitch even further and that we can challenge as well as we did this year and push Celtic even further next time around. Calum Cross is by far and away one of the best regens I've come across in my time playing FM. He's already made 3 sub appearances as the season came towards it's end, breaking both the Scottish Premiership and club records for the youngest player to turn out in both the league and for us. He's a real gem and I really hope that despite his tender age, he can become a mainstay in the team going forward. There will be outgoings this summer due to it being a bloated squad, however I would like to improve towards the top of the pitch and bring in a more reliable goal scorer as Thomas-Asante blew hot and cold in his first few months with us. More competition for him will only be a good thing. There will be some players out of contract and others I am already looking to move on so we'll recap the summer and the international matches with Scotland later on.

We've reached the business end of the season now and began April with a 1-0 defeat away to Rangers, however followed that defeat with consecutive 1-0 wins against Dundee and Hibs, with McGrath scoring in the former and Onomah the latter to end the regular season matches before the split. Our first match after the split was again against Hibs, this time back at Pittodrie and we thrashed them 5-0 thanks to goals from McGrath, Clarkson, Johnston and a Thomas-Asante double, ending his goal drought. We remain just 3 points behind leaders Celtic, but have now confirmed at the very least Europa League football again next season, however if we aren't destined to win the title this time around, and there is still plenty of football left to play to determine whether we will or not, then the very least we deserve is 2nd place and a crack at the Champions League next season. We still have to play both Old Firm clubs post-split so there's plenty of points to play for, plus if Rangers could do us a favour in the derby against Celtic and we could nick at very least a draw, it could make for a very interesting final 4 games.

We began March with a 2-2 draw away to Motherwell, scoring a last minute equaliser which we probably didn't deserve. We found ourselves 2-0 down and only managed to salvage a point thanks to goals by Clarkson and a late Nicky Devlin goal. We lost both legs of the last 16 Europa League tie against Spurs 3-1, Clarkson scored our goal at Pittodrie while Josh Onomah scored against the club where he began his career back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a week later. We bounced back from the disappointment of being knocked out of Europe with a win away from home at Dunfermline beating them 3-1 thanks to goals from McGrath, Emslie and Jensen. Our final match of the month came after the international break with a win at home to Livingston, beating them 3-0 with goals from Soldo with his first for the club, Clarkson continued his good goal scoring form and Aude got his 2nd of the season all before half time as we picked up another 3 points. We remain in 2nd in the table, just a couple of points behind leaders Celtic and still 6 clear of Rangers. If this is to be where we finish this season then it would mean we have a chance of reaching the Champions League proper, which for a club of our size, at our stage of development, would be huge. Obviously there's a long way to go, however we're in a good position and still in with a very good chance of winning the title too. Moving onto the national team, Scotland's World Cup qualification campaign got underway this month with a mammoth win over Liechtenstein in the capital Vaduz, winning 9-0. Our goals there were scored by Che Adams, Ben Doak, a hat-rick for centre back Ryan Porteous, 2 for John McGinn, Gilmour and Stewart as we put the central European side to the sword and showed no mercy there. Then 3 days later, we convincingly beat Montenegro at Hampden by 4 goals to nil with goals coming from Gilmour and Stewart again whilst full back Aaron Hickey scored a brace. We sit top of group D after 2 matches and have much tougher tests to come as we face the likes of England and the Republic of Ireland. Moldova are the other side we'll face as we bid to reach our first World Cup since 1998.

February was another busy month with matches across 3 different competitions, beginning with a 1-0 win away at St Johnstone thanks to a solitary Lyall Cameron goal. We then managed a 3-2 win over Ross County back at Pittodrie a few days later thanks to goals by Rubezic, Clarkson and Julian Aude scoring his first for the club since signing towards the end of last season. Then came the Scottish Cup 5th round tie away at Celtic Park against the Hoops, however they beat us 2-1. Thomas-Asante scored his 2nd goal for the club to give us the lead but Kyogo and a Downes winner in the 92nd minute send Celtic to the quarter finals and us crashing out. 5 days later we travelled to Switzerland to take on the Swiss champions Lugano in the Europa League First Knockout Playoff 1st leg and managed a 2-2 draw as McGrath and Clarkson cancelled out 2 Lugano penalties. We then faced Celtic again in between the Playoffs in the Europa League, this time in the Premiership and lost by the same score line as we did a week previously only this time back at Pittodrie. The game followed a very similar pattern with Onomah giving us the lead but this time Downes scored the equaliser and former West Ham man Felipe Anderson scored the winner late on for the reigning champions to send them top of the league for the first time since the opening weeks of the season. We then welcomed Lugano back to Pittodrie 4 days later for the Playoff 2nd leg in the Europa League and managed a 3-3 draw on the night with McGrath scoring a brace and Connor Barron scoring his first goal since re-joining the club last month to take the game to extra time where we couldn't be separated. The ensuing penalty shoot out followed which we won 4-1 after Lugano missed their first 2 spot kicks. We ended the month with consecutive 1-0 wins in the league away to Dundee United and at home to Hearts with McGarry scoring the only goal in both encounters to give us back to back wins following the defeat against Celtic. All of this means we have dropped to second in the Premiership with Celtic 3 points clear as we stand, however we do have a game in hand where we'll face Motherwell. If we win it, we'll remain level on points with Celtic and just goal difference separating us. We also remain 5 points clear of Rangers as things stand, win against Motherwell and that gap will stretch to 8. We've got another tough draw in the last 16 of the Europa League as we'll face Tottenham Hotspur, however I do have to say the last 16 stage is nowhere near as strong as it was last season in my personal opinion, so who knows, we could spring a surprise against the English side. Due to the transfer window closing in early February, we did make one more signing before the window slammed shut. Nikola Soldo, a Croatian Under-21 international joined from Koln in Germany for a lowly fee of just £100k. He's a young, versatile defender who can play anywhere across the back and in midfield so I feel as though he will be a more than capable replacement for the soon to be out of contract Angus McDonald who won't be offered a new deal at the club and an ageing Nicky Devlin who's also out of contract in the summer. He's been offered a new deal however I'm very happy to have signed Soldo who I hope can become a key player for us going forward.

The start of 2025 has been a mixed bag for us. We began the new year with a win at Dens Park on New Year's Day against Dundee, beating them 2-1 thanks to goals by Besuijen and Duncan. That was followed by a warm weather training camp in the UAE where we took on MLS side Atlanta United in a friendly, beating them 2-1 also with goals coming from Onomah and youngster Fraser Mackie. 10 days later we were back in Scotland and welcomed Arbroath to Pittodrie for our first home game of the new year in the Scottish Cup 4th round as we put them to the sword in the first half with a brace from Besuijen, Shinnie from the penalty spot and youngster Alfie Bavidge scoring his first goal for Aberdeen to see us 4 to the good at half time. Arbroath did score 2 within the first 5 minutes of the 2nd half however we were professional and held onto the victory to send us into round 5 where we'll take on Celtic away from home. We then lost at home to Marseille in the Europa League, however despite the defeat, we had confirmed at least a knockout playoff place in the new year after results elsewhere that night. Then came the most disappointing result of the month, a 3-1 defeat at home to Hibs. Ryan Duncan got us back to 2-1 but we were never really in the game and fell to just a third league defeat of the campaign. We did recover magnificently in the Europa League though, with our final League Phase match away in the Italian capital against Roma at the Olimpico. We won 2-0 thanks to a debut goal for a new signing who I'll get onto shortly whilst the second was scored by youngster Adam Emslie whose loan at Cove Rangers in League 1 was cut short due to him making just 2 appearances for them, he came off the bench to seal the 3 points in Rome. Despite the loss to Hibs, we do still remain top of the Premiership, however Celtic have bridged the gap and the goal difference too, we remain top by the 1 goal we scored in that defeat to Hibs. It's going to be a tough ask now I think to compete with Celtic, however we've done brilliantly so far so I'm definitely not writing us off just yet. We finished 11th in the Europa League meaning, despite just losing once in the League Phase, we will be in the knockout play off next month, we'll find out our opponents in that play off shortly. Finally, we're away to Celtic in the Scottish Cup 5th round as mentioned before. The first player (back) through the door is Connor Barron. After a year playing for Genoa in Italy and just 9 appearances for them, he's back with us for a fee of £2.2m and will not only help our homegrown quota for European competition, but lower our average age and provide brilliant competition in the middle of the park. Hopefully he can get his career back to where it was when he left us last year. Next in is Brandon Thomas-Asante, signed on a free following his release from WBA last summer. He's a player I looked at in the summer however decided I was happy with Miovski and Sokler, however when Miovski came to me and said he wasn't going to renew his current deal, I got to searching for his replacement immediately. That's when I noticed Thomas-Asante was still available on a free, brought him in on trial initially to make sure the scout report was still accurate from the summer, which it was, then when the Miovski deal became concrete I decided to bring him in. He picked up a little knock just after arriving which kept him out for a couple of weeks until the Roma match where he was given a chance from the start and repaid that faith by scoring on his debut. I'm really happy with him and look at that value already, a high of £9.4m for a free signing who's made just 1 appearance for us so far! The final piece of confirmed transfer news (so far, the window shuts on 2nd February), is that goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, who spent time on loan at Aberdeen earlier in his career, will be re-joining the club permanently in the summer following the expiration of his contract with Preston. The England Under-20 World Cup winner back in 2017 hasn't quite hit the heights many thought he would, however he's an outstanding signing for us. Kelle Roos has been brilliant since I arrived however hasn't really had anybody challenging him with much ferocity since I joined and with him starting to decline in my personal opinion, I believe a refresh next season will be good not only for Roos but for the team too and provide more competition. There is potentially more new faces coming in and some older ones leaving in this window depending on the fees involved, we'll see who stays and who goes.

December is always busy in Scotland, particularly for those playing in Europe with extra games to contend with over the Christmas period. We began the month with a 1-1 draw with Celtic at Parkhead, a Jamie McGrath penalty saw us come away with a point against out closest title rivals at the moment. We followed that up with a thumping win over managerless Dundee United back at Pittodrie, Onomah, Johnston, Clarkson and Sokler with the goals there. We then lost for the first time in the league away to Hearts in the capital 4 days later by a goal to nil, then followed that with what was a disappointing draw with Slovakian side Dunajska Streda. We thought we'd won it with a late penalty scored by Miovski with just 2 minutes left, however Julian Aude gave away an even later penalty and the home side took full advantage by scoring it in the 92nd minute to claim a point, just their 2nd of the League Phase. Just 3 days later, we were back at Hampden Park for a replay of last season's Viaplay Cup final against Rangers. A perfect hat-rick scored by the brilliant Bojan Miovski won the game for us and despite Pepe scoring a late consolation for the Old Firm side from the penalty spot, nothing could stop us from retaining the Viaplay Cup and making it 2 trophies in as many seasons at the helm at Aberdeen. The first of three league wins on the spin was a 2-0 win against Motherwell back at Pittodrie thanks to goals from Clarkson and Cameron. We then beat bottom Dunfermline by the skin of our teeth 2-1 after falling behind, Miovski and a very late Harrison Ashby goal claimed the 3 points for us on home turf again. Then we travelled to Livingston where we managed a solitary 1-0 win this time thanks to Ryan Duncan smashing home from just outside the box. The final match of a mammoth month of football was at home to Rangers, however they beat us by the odd John Lundstram goal to get revenge for the cup final defeat earlier in the month. All of this means we top the table going into the new year 3 points clear of Celtic and a huge 8 clear of Rangers. I'm ecstatic with how the season has across all fronts so far and really hope we can continue this good feeling and good form heading into 2025. We've slipped to 11th in the Europa League and with matches against Marseille and Roma to come in January we may well struggle to reach the top 8, however I'm still confident we can make the knockout stages, potentially even with what we already have in terms of points. The Scottish Cup gets underway in mid-January for us too as we welcome Arbroath to Pittodrie. One piece of transfer news is not ideal, but not surprising either. Bojan Miovski, who has 18 goals in 23 matches this season is leaving to join Utrecht in Holland for a huge £16m. This is not only a huge fee for Aberdeen but for Scottish football as a whole. The big fees are usually reserved for the Old Firm clubs, however we're doing what we can to jostle our way into contention for honours in Scotland, so although it's a disappointment to have lost such a great goal scorer for us, it does show we are improving players no end and can command the kind of fees Celtic and Rangers can too. Miovski will be a huge miss not only on the pitch but around the club too, he's a good guy. Since signing from MTK in Hungary for just £650k in the summer of 2022, in 108 appearances in all competitions for the club he scored 56 goals and registered 5 assists in 2 and a half years at the club, making a healthy profit of £15.35m. We'll certainly be looking to reinvest some of that fee on a replacement but also on the club's infrastructure too to try and push us on even more to challenge the Old Firm on a more regular basis and make the success we've achieved this season a regular occurrence.

November was another very good month which began with another win at Hampden against Ross County this time in the Viaplay Cup semi final. We beat them 2-0 thanks to goals from Miovski and McGrath to send us to a second consecutive Viaplay Cup final where our opponents will be Rangers who thrashed St Mirren in their semi final the day after ours. We then returned to Europa League duty against a very good Atalanta side at Pittodrie and we managed to hold them to a 1-1 draw, Miovski getting our equaliser after half an hour which is how it finished. I was very impressed with my players for holding their own against a very good side. We then welcomed St Johnstone 3 days later for our first league encounter of the month and were held to a 1-1 draw again, Lyall Cameron scoring our equaliser this time as we drop points at home. We recovered well though in our trip to Dingwall to take on Ross County for the second time this month and managed to sweep them aside with ease again, 3-0 this time. Campbell, Miovski continues his good goal scoring form while Clarkson scored a lovely free kick in stoppage time to put the cherry on top. We ended the month with our first League Phase defeat in this years' Europa League at home to Stuttgart losing 2-1, a Pascal Stenzel OG got us back on level terms but the German side won it late on to succumb us to defeat. Despite dropping points in the league we remain 4 points clear at the top of the Premiership ahead of Celtic, however Rangers have bridged the gap slightly reducing it to 7 points as opposed to 9. We take on Celtic in our first match of December which will be a real test of our title credentials. Should we win, we'd go 7 points clear at the top, a very commanding lead even this early on and would prove we can more than compete with the top 2 in the country. We've dropped to 8th in the Europa League League Phase table, still a brilliant achievement up to now though in my opinion for a club of our size. Again, should the League Phase end now, we'd be in the last 16 so to be in this position with just 3 League Phase games left, I'm really happy and we should now by all intent and purposes be playing European football again in the new year. We've been drawn at home to Championship side Arbroath in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup, I really hope we'll be able to progress further in that competition this year after last season's embarrassing defeat to Falkirk. And finally, the Viaplay Cup final is against Rangers at Hampden 10 days before Christmas. An incredible year for the Scottish national side ended with 2 final Nations League group stage matches, both away from home. The first in Germany saw Die Mannschasft do the double over us with a 2-0 win in Dortmund. We recovered well though when we travelled to Geneva a few days later and beat the Swiss 3-1 thanks to goals from Adams, Christie and McGinn all before half time. This means that despite being knocked out at the group stage, we will be in the same Division the next time this competition rolls around. Switzerland were relegated to Division B whilst Germany progress to the Nations League semi finals. It has of course been an outstanding year for the Scottish national side as we won the countries maiden major tournament in Germany, Euro 2024. Oli McBurnie scored the only goal of the final, his first for Scotland too remember, in what was a night to remember for the whole of Scotland. We beat some very good sides to get to the final sweeping aside Belgium, Denmark and Turkiye to reach the showpiece event against much fancied reigning champions of Europe Italy. The odds were against us but we came out on top thanks to that McBurnie header and he goes down in Scottish folklore forever and a day.

October couldn't have been more perfect for us. It started off with a brilliant 3-0 win at Pittodrie against Maribor in the Europa League thanks to goals from Duncan, Miovski and Onomah. We then followed that up with a giant win, again at home back in the league against Livingston. We beat them 5-0 with the goals coming from 5 different players, those being Deas with his first for the club, Onomah, Clarkson, Johnston and Besuijen getting his 3rd in as many league matches. Then came the biggest result of the month after the international break, a huge 2-0 win away at Ibrox against Rangers. Former Celtic man Johnston opened the scoring and Miovski sealed the 3 points for us. We followed it up with another win on the road, this time in Bulgaria against CSKA Sofia. We beat them 3-1 with Johnston, McGrath and Campbell on the score sheet. We then managed another win in the league and a clean sheet at home against Dundee, Miovski on the score sheet again as we beat them 1-0. Then came the highest scoring match of the month, a huge 6-2 win away at Hibs. We were 3-0 up inside 8 minutes with 2 for Johnston and a Hibs OG, Miovski, Onomah and Sokler scored 3 more to give us the 3 points. After this perfect month, we've moved to top of the league with a decent little buffer too, 4 points clear of Celtic and a huge 9 clear of Rangers already. I'm really happy with our start to this season and really hope we can continue this brilliant form. 9 wins from our opening 11 matches has been a great start. We're also doing brilliantly in the Europa League League Phase, 3 wins from 3 and we sit 2nd in the table, which as thing stand would see us automatically progress to the last 16. Our first match of November will be the Viaplay Cup semi final at Hampden Park against Ross County, a match I'm really hoping we can win and make it consecutive finals in this competition. The international window saw us get back on track in the Nations League with a 1-1 draw against Switzerland, Christie scoring our goal. A few days later we welcomed Belgium to Hampden and thrashed them 3-0, McKenna, Ferguson and Robertson all on the score sheet for us to give us a 2nd win from 3 matches against Belgium this calendar year. Things are looking a lot better for us in the table as we sit in 2nd place now, however it's only on goal difference ahead of both Switzerland and Belgium.

September has been a very successful month as we continued our good form domestically as well as winning in both cup and European matches too. The month began with a trip to Tannadice to take on newly promoted Dundee United who we thrashed 6-1 thanks to goals from Lyall Cameron who scored his first for the club, Campbell, Miovski, Onomah and a double for Leighton Clarkson. Then came a tougher match at home to Hearts but we still managed a 2-1 win with Campbell making it 2 from 2 and Sokler scoring the other. We then began our Europa League League Phase campaign away to PAOK of Greece and won comfortably in Salonika by 2 goals to nil, Miovski and Rubezic bagging for us. Then came the only blot on our record this month, a 3-3 draw away at Motherwell. Considering we were 3-0 down at half time it's certainly more of a point gained than 2 dropped, however I was very disappointed with our first half performance. Shinnie and Miovski made it 3-2 inside the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half and then a Vicente Besuijen goal in the 93rd minute salvaged a point for us, his first goal for the club since returning from a loan spell back in his homeland of Holland last season. We returned to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 home win the Viaplay Cup quarter final against Hibs thanks to goals from Johnston and Onomah sending us into another semi final where we'll take on Ross County, the topplers of Celtic at Celtic Park in their quarter final, but a side we beat with ease on the opening day, so I'm happy with that draw. The final match of the month was a trip to East End Park to face newly promoted Dunfermline. We ran out comfortable 3-0 winners thanks to goals by Angus MacDonald, his first for the club in his 3rd season with us, Miovski from the spot and Besuijen scoring his 2nd in as many league matches. All of this means we sit top of the Scottish Premiership after 7 matches, a point clear of Rangers and 2 clear of Celtic. It'll certainly be a slog if we are to compete for the top 2 spaces and I would hasten to say we may not quite be strong enough to do so yet, however this group are excelling at the moment, so if we can continue our good form and leave performances like the one away at Motherwell behind us then who knows what could happen this season. We sit in 9th in the Europa League League Phase after 1 match, we take on Maribor next at Pittodrie. We're yet to enter the Scottish Cup, a competition I'm aiming to do much better in this time around after a poor showing last time out being knocked out by League 1 Falkirk. And finally, we're in another Viaplay Cup semi final, this time against Ross County at Hampden Park. Again, having beaten them convincingly on the opening day, I'm confident we can reach a consecutive Viaplay Cup final where the opponents will be either Rangers or Championship side St Mirren. One more piece of transfer news, we signed full back Harrison Ashby on deadline day on loan from Newcastle United. He'll provide good cover for Devlin at right back and will definitely bolster our ranks ahead of what will be a tough season. One final piece of news regarding Aberdeen, I am about to be offered a new deal at Pittodrie, something I'm more than happy with as other clubs were sniffing around in the summer and I turned down interviews from Girona and Everton. Moving onto Scotland, the Nations League group stage hasn't gotten off to the best of starts for us with defeats at home to Germany and away to Belgium. The Germans held us at arm's length to beat us comfortably 2-0 at Hampden, however we gave the Belgians a real game in Brussells, losing 4-3, however we were behind for most of that match. Jacob Brown, Che Adams and Ross Stewart all scored for us but it wasn't enough. We are bottom of the group, however the Scottish FA don't regard the Nations League as an important competition, they're much more focused, as am I, on qualifying for the World Cup in Canada/USA/Mexico in 2026. The euphoria of the summer's success has no doubt played it's part in the lack of enthusiasm for this competition therefore it's somewhat of a free hit in terms of being able to give some fresher faces a chance in competitive competition for Scotland. We welcome the Swiss and Belgium to Hampden next month before trips to Dortmund and Geneva to end the campaign later in the year.

The season has got off to a fantastic start with 7 points from 9 in the league, progression in the Viaplay Cup and qualification for the Europa League League Phase. We began with a comfortable 2-0 win against Ross County on the opening day thanks to goals from Miovski and Sokler. Our first away day was to St Johnstone and we beat them 3-1, our goals scored by new signing Mikey Johnston, Miovski again and Onomah opening his account for the new campaign. Queen's Park of League 1 were our opponents in the Viaplay Cup 2nd round and we beat them easily with goals coming from Ryan Duncan and Victor Enem, the latter making his professional debut for Aberdeen. Both of those are academy products and paving the way for future prospects. The first leg of the Europa League Playoff was away in Austria against SK Klagenfurt and we managed a 2-0 win on the continent, our goals coming from Sokler and a screamer from Mikey Johnston which smashed off the post before trickling across the line and going in off the other post, a cracking goal. A goalless draw at home to Celtic was a great result in between the Playoff 1st and 2nd legs and although we lost the 2nd leg on the night, we did still force extra time after Ryan Duncan's goal was enough to cancel out the 3 Klagenfurt scored on our patch. It remained that way until a penalty shoot out which we managed to win 4-2 thanks to 2 penalties being saved by our keeper Kelle Roos which sparked wild scenes of celebration as we qualified for the Europa League League Phase, the newly refurbished version of the competition which replaces the Group Stage. We'll be taking on PAOK, Maribor, CSKA Sofia, Atalanta, Stuttgart, Duneda Streda, Marseille and Roma in our League Phase fixtures. The top 8 automatically qualify for the round of 16, whilst those sitting in 9th down to 24th face off in the first knockout round, the winners of which take on the top 8 finishers in the league phase. I'm looking forward to this newly revamped version of the competition and certainly think we're in with a good chance of reaching the knockout stages of the competition again. We sit 2nd in the league after 3 matches behind the perfect record of Rangers after 3 matches who're on 9 points, we're on 7, 2 points clear of Celtic. We'll take on Hibs in the quarter final of the Viaplay Cup at Pittodrie. The transfer deadline isn't until the 3rd September this year so I'll quickly update the transfer business done so far in August. The move for Mercer on loan to Airdrie mentioned previously was confirmed so the 17 year old now has a chance at regular first team football there. Pape Habib Gueye also left the club to join Dutch side Waalwijk for just shy of £60k. His career didn't get going here so I was happy to offload with plenty of options in forward areas. We've had one more player come in, Lyall Cameron from Dundee, who incidentally has become the club's record signing, breaking an almost 30 year record set back in 1995. Cameron's deal could reach £1.1m if clauses are met. He's a dynamic young central midfielder with plenty to offer going forward, I really hope he can kick on and become a key member of my team.

A quick update, Pittodrie is going to be expanded by approximately 2000 seats. The club's ambition is to reach the Champions League therefore more ticket sales and more fans being able to access tickets will absolutely help us in achieving this goal.

After a euphoric summer with the national side, my Aberdeen team has had some changes made to it too. There are quite a few very promising youngsters coming through at the club, some of which will certainly be in for some first team football this season no doubt. One of the most exciting is Jamie Mercer, a centre back who broke the club record for the youngest ever player last season aged just 15 years and 356 days. He's in talks with Airdrie over a season long loan deal this time around. The other 2 most promising players are Cammy Wilson, a playmaking midfielder who can play anywhere across the attacking midfield positions, a really exciting talent, and Fraser Mackie, who has been offered out for loan due to the good forward options we already have, but I'd still be happy if he were to stay and get first team football with us too. The first player we signed this summer was centre back Robbie Deas from recently relegated Kilmarnock. He comes in for an initial fee of £500k which will rise to £700k over the next 2 seasons. His value has skyrocketed since signing him too, with a potential value of £1.3m at the moment, he'll be a valuable asset to our defence and hopefully he can progress further and potentially even get into the national team now he's at a higher level. Next in was Archie Mair, an academy product who's come back to Aberdeen following his release from Morecambe south of the border. The young goalkeeper will provide able backup to Roos this season and helps us with our homegrown quota heading into the Europa League Playoff again. Out biggest signing of the summer so far has been Mikey Johnston from Celtic. The Irishman arrives in Aberdeen for a fee of just £500k which could rise to £600k. His value has also skyrocketed to a potential £2m should we choose to sell, I'm extremely happy with this deal following the departure of a certain player which I'll get onto shortly. Johnston played for WBA in the Championship last season and made 28 appearances, however just 5 starts and only registered 1 assist for the Baggies, I'm really hoping he can push on for us and become a key player despite not great stats over the last few seasons. In terms of outgoings, Duk was the biggest name to leave the club as we received £3m from Portuguese side Estrela da Amadora SAD for his services. He'd already confirmed he'd be leaving the club next summer following the expiration of his contract in 2025 therefore it made sense to cash in now while we could and for me, £3m is a fair deal and a good profit on the £400k the club paid for him 2 summers ago. Shayden Morris also joined Dundee United on loan earlier in the summer so hopefully he'll be getting more regular top flight football following their promotion. Ross Doohan has also left to join Dunfermline for a fee of £14.5k. I was certainly hoping to get more for my number 2 keeper however, again, with just a year left on his deal, it made sense to get what we could now instead of losing him for nothing next summer. There are potential outgoings still to come and plenty of room left in the transfer and wage budgets, therefore more players could be coming through the door too, however at the moment we have quite a big squad with quite a few players returning from loan spells away from the club last season who are first team quality, therefore depending on how many we decide to let leave the club, that'll depend on any further incoming activity, but I am happy with the squad at the moment and I'm hoping we can start the new season well.

The Euros got off to the perfect start for us as we beat Albania by a goal to nil in Leipzig thanks to Che Adams scoring for the first time in a major tournament for us. We followed that up with a goalless draw against Hungary in Hamburg, making it 2 clean sheets in a row to begin the tournament and 4 points picked up already. Our final opponents were Portugal, favourites to win the group and they showed it too, thrashing us 5-1 in Hamburg again. Ross Stewart scored for us, another player scoring their first major tournament goal. Our goal difference was the reason we finished as one of the best 3rd placed teams, meaning we would face a group winner in the round of 16, which incidentally would be Belgium. And we were outstanding in beating a very good Belgian side, the final chance of silverware really for many of the golden Belgian generation which still included the likes of Courtois, De Bruyne and Lukaku. Ross Stewart scored his 2nd and 3rd goals of this tournament off the bench late on in Gelsenkirchen to send us into the quarter finals where we will take on Denmark in the Olympic Stadium in the capital Berlin. One piece of bad news was an injury to captain John McGinn which would see him miss the remainder of the tournament. We didn't miss McGinn though as we continued our journey in the tournament with a win against the Danes after extra time. It was goalless after 90 minutes but we raced into a 2-0 lead at half time in extra time thanks to goals from Lewis Ferguson, his first at international level, and another for Ross Stewart, then youngster Tommy Conway also scored his first Scotland goal 4 minutes from time to make it 3-0. Jonas Wind did get one back for Denmark but it was far too little too late as we roared into the semi finals where we would take on Turkiye in Dortmund at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK. The fairy tale continued for us as we thrashed the Turks in Dortmund. Scott McTominay got things underway in the 4th minute before Conway scored again to make it 2. Aaron Hickey scored his first international goal to make it 3-0 just past the half hour mark and we were cruising. Conway got a 2nd of the game and 3rd of the tournament to make it 4-0 early in the 2nd half which was enough for us to make it to a maiden European Championship final back at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in 3 days time where we would take on reigning champions and 2-time previous winners Italy. This time, the fairy tale came to it's most perfect end. A solitary Oli McBurnie headed goal 19 minutes from time was enough to beat the Italians in Berlin and send Scotland into a frenzy.

The final month of the season began with another heavy defeat at Parkhead against Celtic, losing 4-0. Another defeat ensued as our poor end of season continued with a 2-0 defeat, this time at the hands of Hearts at Pittodrie. Our final win of the season came away at Ross County thanks to goals from McGrath, Miovski and Sokler. Then came the final day, at home to Rangers. We gave them a good game chasing them for most of it, going 2-0 down, getting back to 2-1, then 3-2 behind which is how it finished, McGrath and Rubezic with our goals. Celtic were crowned champions on the final day after an unbeaten league campaign. Rangers ran them to the course finishing just 2 points behind their biggest rivals in 2nd. We finished 3rd in what was, on the whole, a successful first season at Aberdeen which resulted in Europa League football again next season and lifting a trophy, the Viaplay Cup back in December, beating both Old Firm clubs in the semi final and final respectively. Here are our players stats for the campaign. Bojan Miovski ended the season as top scorer with 22 goals in 45 appearances. Duk scored 12, 11 for Sokler and Onomah scored an impressive 10 from midfield. James McGarry deserves a special mention too for his 7 goals in his first season at the club, generally from full back or left wing, he's done really well. Jamie McGrath has also done well this season, 9 goals and 13 assists to his name, he's been imperious from the spot too scoring all 4 spot kicks he was tasked with. On a final note, with 2 games left to play, we signed Julian Aude on a free following his release from LA Galaxy. The California based club signed Aude for £4m from Lanus and released him just over a year later and following an MLS save previously on FM24 I know he can become a good little player, so to come in for nothing was too good an opportunity not to explore. He's immediately now worth between £8.2m - £9.4m so could prove to be a very shrewd signing should be perform to the standard I know he can. We now go into the Euros with Scotland with the final squad still to be decided, we'll update once the tournament for us comes to an end.

We got off to a good start in April making it back to back wins beating Livingston 2-1 thanks to goals from Miovski and a Palvara winner. Our final match before the league splits was a poor one, a 3-0 defeat at home to Dundee. The split then happened with us sitting in 3rd, meaning we're in the Championship Group. The first match after the split ended in defeat again, this time away to Hibs with Rubezic scoring our goal. 3rd place is ours. We can't be caught by Ross County and can't catch Rangers, so we've guaranteed Europa League football again next season in some capacity, beginning in the Playoff round based on coefficients as things stand. If I can lead Scotland to a decent Euros then that'll help the countries' coefficient, as well as this season's performances in the Europa League which will have also helped the coefficient going forward for future years, in turn making European qualification, more specifically the Champions League, a more achievable goal.

My Scotland side faced Cameroon at Hampden in the first friendly of the internationals and we beat them 3-0 thanks to goals from Ryan Gauld and a brace for Ross Stewart. We welcomed Nigeria to the national stadium again 3 days later and beat them 1-0 thanks to another Gauld goal. Moving onto the Euros later this summer, our group has been drawn. We'll take on Albania, Hungary and seeded side Portugal. I'm confident of challenging for 2nd spot in this group, I definitely feel like we can beat Albania and Hungary, Portugal will be a challenge.

March begins with convincing 4-0 win away at St Mirren thanks to Duk scoring within the opening minute and a Miovski hat-rick wrapping things up. Next was the much anticipated trip to northern Italy to face AC Milan at the San Siro. We did manage a goal to make it 2-1 thanks to James McGarry, however a 4-1 defeat all but sealed our fate. We did hold them to a goalless draw back at Pittodrie a week later which was a brilliant feat for us, however we went out of the Europa League at the last 16 stage. We travelled to Motherwell the following Monday night and could only manage a 2-2 draw, our goals coming from Miovski and McGarry. The month ended with arguably our closest competitor for 3rd place Ross County at Pittodrie and we beat them pretty easily 3-0. Clarkson, Miovski and Gartenmann all scored for us. We remain in 3rd in the Premiership, 14 points clear of 4th placed Ross County, but 13 behind 2nd placed Celtic, therefore as mentioned before it seems likely we'll be finishing there too.

Firstly, there was no more transfer activity in or out of the club on deadline day. We began February with the visit of Celtic and lost 1-0 at Pittodrie. Just 3 days later we travelled to Glasgow to face the other Old Firm side Rangers at Ibrox and were demolished 5-0. Our cause wasn't helped when vice captain Nicky Devlin was sent off 5 minutes into the 2nd half. However, 4 wins from the next 4 matches have really helped get our season back on track after a rough patch at the beginning of the year. We responded well with a 3-1 victory over St. Johnstone away from home thanks to goals by Duk and a Josh Onomah brace. We then beat Hibs by the same scoreline back at Pittodrie the following weekend, Onomah with another taking his tally to 10 for the season, Miovski and McGrath getting the others. Nicky Devlin returned to the line up for the Kilmarnock match and scored the only goal in a 1-0 at Rugby Park. We ended the month facing St. Johnstone again and managed to beat them again, 2-1 this time. We fell behind but goals from Miovski and McGarry saw us home to make it 4 league wins in a row to end February. As mentioned previously, we've made 3rd place our home this season in the Premiership, the 12 points from the last 4 games have really helped solidify that position after Ross County were closing in for a little while, the gap was down to just 4 points after the defeat against Rangers. We've been drawn against one of the glamour sides in the last 16 of the Europa League, AC Milan. We travel to the San Siro next month before welcoming the Rossonneri back to Pittodrie a week later. I have no doubt we're not strong enough to be challenging for this competition, however I do believe we're amongst one of the strongest, if not the strongest last 16 line ups ever seen in the Europa League as the likes of Ajax, AC Milan, Liverpool and Bayern Munich are all competing for the title.

We haven't got off to the best of starts in 2024 with just 1 point picked up in the league and we've also been knocked out of the Scottish Cup at the first attempt. We lost away in Dingwall against Ross County 3-2, Duncan and Sokler scoring our goals. We then had a warm weather training camp out in Qatar and beat Al-Sadd in a friendly while we were out there too. Unfortunately though, back at home, we lost away at Falkirk in the Scottish Cup 4th round 4-3, Clarkson, Sokler and Morris scored our goals in the defeat. We then had an 8 day break before our next league match away at Hearts where we salvaged a 94th minute equaliser to pick up a point. Shinnie, Miovski and a late McGrath penalty saw us leave with a share of the spoils. Still in 3rd place as we enter February, I have a feeling this may well be where we end up this season as Celtic have pulled well away and Rangers are 11 points ahead now too. They'll be difficult to catch this time around. The Europa League draws are yet to take place for the last 16 as the Playoff round is still to be played and we are of course out of the Scottish Cup now after defeat at Falkirk. With deadline day fast approaching there's still plenty of time for further transfer activity to potentially take place, however it's been a case of 1 in and 1 out in central midfield after Connor Barron was sold to Genoa for £1.3m. He was out of contract in the summer and the academy product had no interest in extending his deal with us so it made sense to cash in and get what we could for him in January. We replaced him with Josh Campbell in from Hibs. An initial fee of £650k which could reach £1m in total, I'm hoping he'll prove to be a capable replacement. Gueye was also sent to Belgian side Eupen on loan for the remainder of the season as he's not getting much game time here due to the good form of both Miovski and Sokler upfront. Duk is another who's expressed he won't be extending his deal with us, however he's under contract until 2025 so despite being open to offers for him, I will more than likely wait until the summer to look at letting him go, unless we receive a satisfactory offer between now and the end of this window. Any further transfer activity will be summarised next month.

December was very busy for us with 9 matches in the space of 27 days. We began with a win away in the capital at Hibs, Miovski and Sokler with the goals there in a routine 2-0 win. Then just 3 days later we welcomed Kilmarnock to Pittodrie who gave us much more of a game, however we picked up the 3 points again thanks to a Duk hat-rick. Duk continued his purple patch with our goal in the 1-1 draw with Hearts before our final Europa League group stage match away to Young Boys. We did the double over the Swiss champions as Jamie McGrath scored the only goal on the stroke of half time from the penalty spot. Next up was the biggest game of the season by far as we took on Rangers back at Hampden in the Viaplay Cup final. Goalless at the break, goals from Duncan and Miovski before the hour mark gave us a lot to hold onto and despite Kemar Roofe getting one back for Rangers, we held on for our first piece of silverware for 9 years, dating back to when Aberdeen last won the League Cup. Within 6 months of arriving in Scotland, we've managed to pick up silverware, beating both Old Firm counterparts in doing so. The league was fast upon us again as we took on Livingston back at Pittodrie and managed a 1-0 win against them thanks to a Leighton Clarkson goal. The final match before Christmas saw us travel to face Dundee however we lost 3-2, just our 3rd league defeat of the season up to now. Goals from Shinnie and Duk were not enough to see us through. We recovered well though with a 3-0 win at home to Motherwell thanks to goals by McGrath, Duk again and Gartenmann. The year ended with the visit of St. Mirren who sit bottom of the Premiership, however we could only manage a 2-2 draw with them, in doing so dropping more points behind Rangers and Celtic. Goals from Sokler and Polvara were not enough to give us the 3 points to end the year on a high. Again we remain in 3rd in the Premiership behind the Old Firm, but if we were to win our game in hand over Celtic and Rangers were to lose theirs, we would be within 3 points of 2nd place and with plenty of football left to be played and also having beaten both Old Firm clubs in the cup, the race for the top 2 isn't over yet. The win in Switzerland confirmed our place at the top of our Europa League group which guarantees us a place in the last 16 and means we avoid the Playoff round in the new year, giving us a much needed midweek break over the fortnight where European football first returns in the new year. And of course, we won the Viaplay Cup against Rangers at Hampden, the club's first silverware for 9 years.

November began with a comfortable 3-1 win in the trip to Motherwell thanks to goals by Barron and another late brace to win it by James McGarry, making it 4 in 3 for him. We then travelled to Hampden for the Viaplay Cup semi final against Celtic, a really big game for us and we managed to beat them by a solitary goal to nil scored by Slobodan Rubezic's first for the club to send us to the final against Rangers a week before Christmas back at Hampden. We then got a brilliant 2-2 draw at home to Villarreal whilst riding the crest of the wave after reaching the cup final, goals from Onomah and on loan defender Gartenman kept us in with a great chance of reaching the knockout stages of this years' Europa League. A trip to Parkhead followed and Celtic got their revenge for the semi final defeat a week earlier with a comfortable 3-0 win, we just didn't turn up in the 2nd half after keeping the scores level until half time. Another big match followed, a dress rehearsal for the final next month against Rangers at Pittodrie where the scores were honours even at 1-1. Duk scored a screamer for us, but we were up against it from the 2nd minute after Barron was sent off very early, so all in all we did well to keep the point. The final match of the month was at home against Slovan Bratislava in the Europa League. Our penultimate group stage match was another 3-1 win against them thanks to goals by Onomah, Gartenman again and Connor Barron. All of this means we remain in 3rd in the Premiership again, but Celtic and Rangers have extended their lead to 5 and 6 points respectively with Rangers at the top of the table after 13 matches played. We're unlucky in my opinion to have reached 10 points after 5 matches in our Europa League group to have not already at least guaranteed qualification, we go into our final group stage match next month away in Switzerland against Young Boys hoping to secure a top 2 place with at least a draw. We've been drawn against Falkirk in the 4th round of the Scottish Cup and will, of course, take on Rangers in the Viaplay Cup final 8 days before Christmas. 2 more wins ensued this month for the Scottish national side against Cyprus and Georgia, winning the former 4-1 thanks to goals by Luis Binks, Lawrence Shankland, Gilmour and Christie. We then beat Georgia in Tbilisi 1-0 thanks to a 90th minute goal by defender Jack Hendry. This means we finished runners up, just a point behind Spain and qualified for the Euros next summer.

Just the one qualifier in October which was against Norway at Hampden, we easily beat them 3-0 thanks to goals by Adams, McKenna and Gauld. The friendly win a few days later in Tallin against Estonia thanks to goals by Brown and McTominay was also nice, however the sweeter news was to come. Norway beat Georgia and Spain thrashed Cyprus which meant both us and Spain now sat on 13 points and couldn't be caught with just 2 matches remaining. This means Scotland qualify for the Euros next summer with 2 games to spare and essentially have an extra month to prepare for this tournament. The 2 remaining qualifiers against Cyprus and Georgia will no doubt be an opportunity for some new faces to come into the squad and stake a claim for a place on the plane to Germany next summer.