Town’s second pre-season trip is to Scottish Cup winners Aberdeen, who celebrated their first silverware since 2014 by beating Celtic on penalties in the final, a feat that prevented the Bhoys from achieving a treble.

The club where Alex Ferguson achieved success ended up finishing fifth in the league to go alongside their cup triumph under the stewardship of Swede Jimmy Thelin, who was in his first season in charge having joined from IF Elfsborg in June 2024.

It was a rollercoaster of a season for the Dons, starting the season going 16 unbeaten in both league and League Cup, topping the table before getting hammered 6-0 by Celtic in the League Cup semi-final.

Following that result, they beat Dundee but then failed to win in 12 games. This prompted a bit of a squad and player overhaul in January where they regained some form which allowed them to finish in the top six before the league split into two groups.

They then struggled again towards the end of the season with four straight league defeats before their historic cup triumph right at the end of the season.

Goalkeepers

Former Cambridge United keeper Dimitar Mitov made the move to Scotland on a free transfer back in 2023 when he joined St Johnstone and he had an excellent first season which saw Aberdeen move to sign him last summer.

He kept six clean sheets last season, making 77 saves in total. It was the keeper’s heriocs with two cup final penalty saves that secured the trophy as he denied both Callum McGregor and Alistair Johnstone.

The Bulgarian didn’t play all the matches as he suffered a six-week injury which saw him miss a chunk of game time between December and February with 27-year-old Ross Doohan - who has since joined Celtic - stepping in to start 14 games in total over the course of the season.

Third-choice Tom Ritchie spent the first half of the season on loan in Scottish League Two with Bonnyrigg Rose and is yet to make an SPL appearance and has left the club. He looks to have been replaced by Aussie Nick Suman who joins on a free from Cove Rangers.

Defenders

Aberdeen largely operated with a back four but there was no real consistency in the starting line-ups with a number of players featuring across the backline.

It was experienced heads Nicky Devlin and Graeme Shinnie who led the way in terms of appearances. Devlin chalked up 31 games at right-back and got on the scoresheet four times whilst Shinnie started off the season in central midfield before the Dons skipper switched to left-back for the last chunk of the season, taking over from Jack MacKenzie, who signed on a free in the summer from Plymouth Argyle and has now left the club.

Alexander Jensen, a 23-year-old from Denmark, was signed in January to compete for the right-back spot, joining from IF Brommapojkarna and looks to have been an excellent pick-up, starting 15 games and bringing both defensive solidity alongside a creative output with three assists.

The centre-back unit this season will consist of two January signings, Latvian Kristers Tobers and Dutchman Mats Knoester, both of whom played consistently after signing. They’ll be alongside younger defenders Gavin Molloy, who started 19 games ,and Jack Milne, who only started one game in the league but was chosen to play in the middle of a back five for the Scottish Cup final.

Slobodan Rubezic, who spent last season out on loan at FK Novi Pazar, will return whilst Alfie Dorrington, who made eight appearances in his loan north of the border and enjoyed it so much he’s returned for a second spell.

Not many players will have played in the Ghanaian Premier League and the Eerste Divisie last season but that is the case for left-back Emmanuel Gyamfi. The 20-year-old German joins from Schalke having spent the second half of last season on loan at VVV Venlo.

Midfielders

Aberdeen’s double pivot in midfield was largely made up of Ante Palaversa in his debut season having signed from Troyes alongside former Liverpool youngster Leighton Clarkson. Twenty-three-year-old Clarkson started off as more of an attacking midfielder but ended up playing deeper as the season progressed, finishing with four goals to his name.

That positional change came as Sivert Nilsen’s season was cut short with an eye injury. He missed the last nine league games having made 26 appearances up until that point with Thelin switching to a more youthful make up in the central area.

On the fringes of central midfield but not making many appearances were 24-year-old American Dante Polvara, who only made one start, and 22-year-old Scotsman, who Ryan Duncan who spent the season out on loan at Queen’s Park.

Also keep an eye on young 17-year-old Fletcher Boyd, who has done well for the Scotland U17s in recent times and could be one for the future.

Jamie McGrath is the final player to include in this midfield group but he operated largely in the number 10 role and finished the season with a respectable four goals and six assists but has left to join Hibernian on a free transfer.

McGrath’s replacement looks set to be Adil Aouchiche, who has joined on loan from Sunderland. The 22-year-old former PSG youngster has never really kick-started his career at the Stadium of Light and spent the second half of the season on loan at Portsmouth.

He last faced Town at Portman Road back in January 2024 when he came off the bench and really struggled to get up to the speed of the game.

Icelander Kjarten Mar Kjartansson has also joined from Stjarnen where by all accounts he looks to have struggled, getting sent off in the Icelandic Cup and putting in a series of underwhelming performances. At just 19, the Aberdeen scouts must have seen something in him to take a punt though.

Forwards

The most logical place to start this round up of forwards is with right winger and Dons’ 2024/25 player of the season, Shayden Morris. The former Fleetwood player enjoyed his best campaign to date having been a bit part player since joining in 2022.

He still only made 11 starts but had the most appearances in total of anyone in the squad with 38, proving to be highly effective off the bench with his energy, attacking thrust and chance creation.

Elsewhere in the wingers unit, Jeppe Okkels has returned to Preston North End leaving just Vicente Besuijen, who was kept as a squad player last season following two loans back to his homeland in the Netherlands the previous two years and Topi Keskinen, who made 32 appearances and lit up the U21 Euros with two goals in the group stage.

That just leaves the central striker berth which was occupied by five players across the course of the season. By far the most successful were former Millwall man Kevin Nisbet, who you may remember scoring a consolation volley for the Lions against Town back in 2023, and Pape Habib Gueye. They finished with 11 and six goals respectively with Gueye more often than not actually dropping back to play behind Nisbet.

Slovakian Ester Sokler made 21 appearances but only found the net twice, while Peter Ambrose only made one start and Oday Dabergh, who has now returned to RC Sporting Charleroi following an unsuccesful loan, only made three.

With Nisbet returning to Millwall, the Dons have raided the Championship for another striker, this time on a permanent deal, with the signing of Kusini Yengi.

The 26-year-old Australian, the brother of former Town U21s striker Tete, excelled in League One and was a big part of Pompey’s promotion with 13 goals but struggled for both game time and goals last season. He’s an excellent finisher and will be hoping to refind his scoring form north of the border.

He’s been joined by another Australian with the signing of Nicolas Milanovic, who will provide competition on both wings having joined from Western Sydney Wanderers, where he scored 12 goals and assisted six in his best season to date. At just 23 he still has plenty of room to grow.

The Teams

Like Blau Weiss Linz the previous week, Aberdeen are slightly ahead in terms of pre-season preparations with the SPL kicking off in just over a week’s time and as such are likely to go with their first choice XI.

Town are once again likely to pick two sides for each half. The only changes I can foresee are a potential switch in terms of which sides start which half, with my prediction being the side that finished the BW Linz game is likely to start this one.

It was also clear to see that the Jack Clarke right-wing experiment was not a success so he could be swapped with Jaden Philogene.

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