In the previous update, we were sitting 3rd in the league. Hearts were absolutely flying and Celtic weren’t far behind them making it a three horse race for the Scottish Premiership title. We’d made our usual good progress in the domestic cup competitions, as we went for a third consecutive League Cup, and aimed to win the Scottish Cup for the 2nd time in three seasons. In Europe, we’ve been majestic. Qualifying for the knockout phase for the 2nd season in a succession.

Competing across four fronts, how would we get on?

Continue reading “Standing Free – End of Season 3” →

I’ve been updating you at the usual regular intervals during the Aberdeen save. Start of the season preview, summer transfer window, half way point, January transfer window, and then an end of season summary and review. One thing I’m finding in this edited database, it’s very easy to fire through time in-game, and because I’m really enjoying the save, I certainly have been firing through. As such, I’m going to slightly alter the regularity of these updates and merge a few into longer posts again, starting with this one.

Continue reading “Standing Free – Getting you up to speed” →

After the heartbreaking end to the league in my first season, we set out to win it last season. It went down to the last day again, but we couldn’t quite get over the line. Celtic pipped us again as too many draws during the season did the damage. A win in the League Cup was all we could muster, as we were defeated in the Scottish Cup final by Celtic as well. They’re confounding all my past experiences on FM, and actually being managed really well by the AI Brendan Rodgers.

As for Europe, it was a brilliant season. The aim was to qualify for the group stage of the Europa League, and get at least one win. We did more than that, qualifying not just for the group stage, but qualifying out of a tricky looking group too. We came unstuck against a strong Liverpool side in the 1st knockout round, however.

It’s time to get the third season underway!

Continue reading “Standing Free – Season 3 Preview – 3.0” →

Last time out, we went through the January transfer activity and set ourselves up for the remainder of the season. The 2016/17 Scottish Premiership season is now finished, so how did we do? The aim at the start of the season was to win the league, did we do it?

Continue reading “Standing Free – End of Season 2 – 2.5” →

I’m not usually a fan of the January transfer window. It’s normally when I’ll scout around for players to pick up on a free transfer to join in the summer as I’m sure you all do as well. I came into January 2017 relatively happy with the squad. As we went into the first week of the window, and I actually put some proper thought behind it, and evaluated the squad. It was time for some change. I had a bit of cash to spend, from our strong league finish last season plus our two cup wins, that I hadn’t fully utilised in the summer as I wanted to be cautious. We brought in players, we seemingly strengthened but it was time to throw caution to the wind.

Continue reading “Standing Free – January Transfer Window – 2.4” →

You’ve seen how well we’ve done in Europe so far in season 2, but now we’ve reached the proper half way point of the domestic campaign. This edited database has a winter break factored into it, however it seems to have shortened this year. Like I keep saying, I keep finding issues that would have been ironed out beforehand if I were any better at the editor!

Continue reading “Standing Free – Half way point – 2.3” →

We’re full steam ahead on the 2016/17 season now. Usually the update from our form in Europe is part of the half-way summary, but there’s been quite a fair bit of action so far this season from Scottish clubs so I thought it deserved it’s own post.

Continue reading “Standing Free – Europe – 2.2” →

So my aims for my second season in charge of Aberdeen are set, and coupled with a beauty of a new image for this series of blogs (in collaboration with FMPressure), we’re ready to get stuck into our outgoings and incomings ahead of 2016/17.

Continue reading “Standing Free – Transfers – 2.1” →

So my first season in charge of Aberdeen can probably be deemed a success on the surface. 2nd in the league, and winner of both the League and Scottish Cup. Not to mention, reaching the Europa League group stage and putting up a worthy effort against some far stronger sides.

But digging deeper, we should have been able to hold out for another couple of minutes to win the league, if it wasn’t for some classic FM ridiculousness. And in Europe, we played well and like I said put up a worthy effort, but on reflection, we could have definitely sneaked a few extra points. How would we rectify this for the upcoming season?

Continue reading “Standing Free – Season 2 Preview 2.0” →

In post 1.1, you saw we trailed Celtic by just a couple of points going into the newly introduced Scottish winter break. We did still have to play them twice, however, and after our narrow 1-0 defeat against them at Celtic Park, they had the upper hand going into the home stretch of my first season in charge of Aberdeen. Here’s how the second half of the season panned out.

Continue reading “Standing Free – End of Season Summary – 1.4” →