Aberdeen will not win the Scottish Premiership barring the kind of Celtic implosion that would render Brendan Rodgers borderline unemployable. It is simply that the illusion of a proper challenge from outside Glasgow allows not only supporters of the Pittodrie club but also neutrals to dream. Aberdeen head to Celtic Park on Saturday with the teams locked on seven wins from seven and a sense of occasion guaranteed. Regardless of outcome, Jimmy Thelin’s men can look positively towards the remainder of the campaign.
It has not taken long for Thelin to collect adulation in the north-east of the country. There is a misplaced sense that followers of Aberdeen not only yearn for the halcyon days of Alex Ferguson but believe they could ever be replicated. What they do demand – and with just cause – is that the club should be at the competitive forefront of the Scottish game, jousting for honours and at least laying gloves on the Old Firm. While the title is a pipe dream, Aberdeen can certainly battle a hugely unconvincing Rangers for second. Last season, they were reduced to providing a stage for Neil Warnock’s tired standup. The attendance of more than 19,000 when Hearts visited Pittodrie earlier this month emphasises how quickly a serious Aberdeen manager can captivate audiences. The turning of heads elsewhere in Scotland proves of how necessary new narratives are.
Thelin’s record is 13 wins from 13 since a summer switch from Elfsborg. The 46-year-old’s calmness and clarity are his key attributes. The improvement of players already at Aberdeen is more telling than the level of those Thelin has signed. Aberdeen, free from the European scene which can demoralise Scottish teams, were instead able to garner momentum against East Kilbride, Queen of the South and Dumbarton in the League Cup.
Scottish clubs spend 38 games sweating to get into Europe followed by months trying to untangle themselves from the mess that environment creates. While it is easy to sniff at the standard of opposition, Thelin had leeway to implement what is actually a pretty straightforward football vision. That he had a body of work in management stretching back a decade and 250 games in his native Sweden meant Aberdeen’s hierarchy could identify precisely what they were getting. Playing for long spells without the ball at Celtic Park will not concern Thelin given he mastered counterattacking in his homeland.
“Our best chance of getting a result [at Celtic] is by being true to ourselves and the identity we have tried to create,” he says. “Of course they are going to test us, they are a really strong team but we also have to show what we are good at.” Thelin will be well aware Aberdeen have not won at this venue since 2018.
There are asterisks to be placed alongside the Aberdeen form this season, much as many are unwilling to acknowledge them. The playing of three teams – Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Hearts – at home after the opposition faced draining European ties has been a stroke of fortune. Aberdeen’s Premiership fixture list thus far has been an undeniably soft one, yet Thelin’s role has been to take advantage of these breaks. Aberdeen also had to cope with the departure of their hugely influential striker Bojan Miovski to Girona.
Pittodrie badly needs to be either redeveloped or replaced. Thelin’s work has seen discussion move away entirely from Aberdeen’s stadium-sized elephant in the room. “This is still a long-term project,” he says. “Game by game, stay humble, respect opponents. This is October, we have until May. A lot of things can happen. Nothing has changed in terms of how we think.”
Still, anybody who cares for the bigger picture should want this theme to continue. Celtic’s monopoly is harmful – including for Celtic – because it exposes a glaring lack of competition. When stakes are properly raised, as witnessed again in Dortmund in the Champions League, they are routinely embarrassed. A one-horse race is fine when the horse is Secretariat.
There was audible scoffing in recent days when Hearts unveiled Neil Critchley, last of Blackpool, as their new head coach. The rationale there was obvious; Tony Bloom’s football analytics company, with whom Hearts are poised to announce a formal tie-in, pointed heavily towards Critchley as the best fit. If Hearts and Bloom can prove as mutually formidable as both parties sense they can be, the kind of on-field plate shift which Scotland’s Premiership so desperately needs could take place.
A league with no winner other than Celtic or Rangers since 1985 is broken in a sporting sense. More power to Thelin as he takes Aberdeen on a fairytale journey, however long he can, ultimately, maintain it for.
