Ripped Up & Rebuilt?
A new league campaign kicks off in earnest, is it a new Don at AB24?
Being polite, the 2025-26 season was a sub-optimal one from an Aberdeen FC perspective.
The Club came into the campaign riding the crest of a wave following that magical day in May that saw our 8th Scottish Cup secured and the hope was that we would use that as a launchpad to propel the Club forward.
Oh, how naïve we all were.
A season that started poorly and never really recovered from there - powderpuff in defence, toothless in attack and looking tactically & operationally clueless. A tough Conference League draw didn’t help matters and by the time a 1-0 defeat at Falkirk rolled around in early January, the FMB finally acted to relieve Jimmy Thelin of his responsibilities.
A laughable recruitment process for his replacement saw us continue to stumble towards the abyss - a disgracefully meek defeat at East End Park that saw us relinquish the Cup appeared to be the moment where the FMB actually appeared to realise that we were deep in the shit - any hope that Peter Leven would be able to navigate us towards a mid-table finish were extinguished in short order.
Panic stations set in which saw the arrival of Stephen Robinson - this article is not going to rake over how we got to that stage or whether he is (or isn’t) the right choice to move the Club forward.
The Northern Irishman is here and, in fairness to him, he fulfilled his initial brief in pulling us away from the Premiership trap-door whilst undoubtedly having his eyes opened as to the standard of squad that he had inherited.
A 3-2 defeat at Dens Park on the final day allowed us all to draw a line under the season and all eyes turned to the summer.
The Rebuild
Many assumed that given the level of contracts that had been dished out by the Club in prior years that any attempts to carry out a full-blown gutting of the squad was unlikely. Credit where it is due to the FMB - they significantly backed Robinson to bring in the players that he wanted ahead of offloading a number of those individuals who had no future at the Club.
This meant that a large chunk of our recruitment was done ahead of time and, although the squad is not yet complete, we come into the first league game with a relatively recognisable first XI & associated subs that will, likely, form the core group for the season as a whole.
It’ll be no surprise that, in the main, the Club have taken a step-back from the “Moneyball” approach that has been the core theme of our transfer activity since the summer of 2022/23. Instead, the focus has been more on ensuring a balance in the squad of players who have played in Scotland before or are coming from more comparable leagues and whilst the player trading model has not been completely thrown in the bin, it’s clear that the main focus in this year’s window was adding stability, physicality and experience.
11 (EDITORS NOTE - make that 12) players in the door at the time of writing, let’s take a whistle stop tour on the incomings:-
Lewis Mayo
The first summer signing announced by the club, a consistent performer in the SPFL, Mayo arrived from Kilmarnock on a free transfer after his contract at Rugby Park expired.
Brad Lyons
Swiftly following Mayo, Lyons was also picked up following the expiry of his deal at Kilmarnock where he had been captain last season. Alongside Mayo, Lyons had somewhat fallen out of favour at Killie towards the back end of last season albeit it’s not clear how much of that was due to Neil McCann planning for this season and bombing out those who were not going to sign new deals.
Alexander Briedl
Perhaps more in keeping with the player trading model, former Austrian U21 midfielder, Alex Briedl penned a 2-year contract upon expiry of his deal with Austrian Bundesliga side, BW Linz. A graduate of the RB Salzburg system, at 24 years old, Briedl has decent experience under his belt and was one of the top performing central midfielders in Austria last season despite BW’s relegation.
Connor Ronan
Step back to 2022 for a minute as the Dons finally got their man… Ronan had been an impressive figure at St. Mirren under Jim Goodwin & Stephen Robinson during a loan spell in Paisley and Goodwin tried to bring him North in the summer of 2022. Ronan, instead, headed Stateside to Colarado where he’s been a consistent performer during his spell in the MLS. An opportunity to return to Scotland & to work with Robinson proving too difficult to turn down and he signed a 2 year deal with the Club holding an option for a further year. At 28 years old, Ronan’s prime may just be arriving.
Toyosi Olusanya
No major surprises that Olusanya returned on a permanent transfer after a 6 month loan spell last season. The attacker well known to Robinson from their time at St. Mirren together - Olusanya netted twice in 18 appearances last season.
Dan Happe
A towering centre-half, Happe arrived on a 2 year deal (club option for a third) following expiry of his contract at Leyton Orient where he had been the archetypal “one club man”. With over 250 appearances with the O’s, helping them earn National League & League Two titles, Happe brings experience and presence & a raking left foot.
Tony Yogane
Signed on a permanent deal with the Dons paying a six-figure fee to Brentford to secure his servies - Yogane signed a four-year contract after impressing on loan with Dundee last season. 42 games for the Dark Blues last season means that, despite his age, Yogane knows the league & what it is all about - the hope will be that he can bring his creativity on the flanks to the fore.
Ayoub Mouloua
Perhaps our main “punt” of the window comes in the form of Moroccan striker, Ayoub Mouloua. Arriving on a three-year deal (club option for a fourth) after the Dons agreed a fee with FUS Rabat, Mouloua has been handed the No. 9 shirt and hopes are high for the Moroccan striker once he has time to adjust to the Scottish game. Capped by his national side twice, Mouloua is hailed as having real potential & ceiling if he can get going. Comparisons in stature & style to Miovksi & Hamza Igamane mean that this one could be a really exciting move if we can get his transition to Scotland right.
Lewis Smith
Livingston’s stand out player last term, Lewis Smith takes a big step in his career moving North for an undisclosed fee, rumoured to be in the region of £300k. Signing a three-year deal, Robinson hailed this business having tracked him at St. Mirren previously and the Dons fighting off other SPFL & EFL interest to land him. His numbers last season, despite Livi’s travails, were impressive & the question now is if he can take the step up.
Nesta Guinness-Walker
With concerns on Emmanuel Gyamfi’s fitness raging on & with interest in Mitchel Frame, the Dons moved quickly to sign up a player who brings experience from the EFL - making the move from Northampton Town where he was player of the year last campaign - at 26, NGW is coming into the prime of his career and is well known for his physical stature & ability to get forward. He also has a fantastic name.
Marius Müller
With interest in Dimitar Mitov rumbling on, the Dons have been proactive in sourcing a genuine competitor for the starting GK shirt in the form of Müller who arrived on a free transfer from VfL Wolfsburg. At 33 years of age, the German stopper brings epxerience & stature and Robinson clearly views Müller as the current No. 1, slotting him straight into the team since his arrival.
EDITORS NOTE - they’ve done it to us again… Make it 12….
Chris Cadden
29 year-old Chris Cadden becomes the 12th signing of the window, signing a 2 year deal after the Dons secured his release from Hibernian. Well trailed over the course of the window, this one announced just before lunchtime on Friday. Cadden had previously worked with Robinson at Motherwell and he adds more experience at RB. Mixed reactions to this one with Hibs fans, seemingly glad to be shot of him with chat about legs having gone, etc. What this means for Nicky Devlin and Dylan Lobban remains to be seen…
Quite the number of players coming in, so far they’ve been balanced off with the departures of Topi Keskinen, Nico Milanovic, Marko Lazetic, Alex Jensen, Graeme Shinnie, Ryan Duncan, Vicente Besuijen, Tom McIntyre & Elvis Bwomono. Loanees Lyall Cameron, Liam Morrison & Dennis Geiger also returning to their parent clubs.
One would still expect further outgoings to take place prior to the summer window closing - there appears to be little place for Ante Palaversa, Kusini Yengi or Peter Ambrose and rumours continue to abound in relation to Dimitar Mitov & Mitchel Frame. With Mats Knoester & Kristers Tobers also due to return from injury - one wouldn’t be surprised to see moves for the likes of Gavin Molloy or Jack Milne as well - the squad still remains relatively bloated in defensive & midfield areas.
Pre-Season / League Cup
A huge focus from Robinson and his coaching team has been on building fitness & team spirit. The squad has been put through a heavy pre-season schedule, with no fewer than 6 games taking place prior to the start of the League Cup group stage. A training camp in the Netherlands, designed to help build bonds within the squad appears to have done the trick - not an easy feat with the sheer turnover in the playing squad over the summer period.
Into the LC Group stage and the Dons, in the end, made relatively comfortable work of progressing to the Last 16 - eventually coming top of the pile of all teams who made it through thanks to 4 wins from 4 against Brora Rangers, Queen’s Park, Queen of the South and Kelty Hearts.
Now, you’d fully expect us to win all 4 of those games and we shouldn’t read too much into those results. The performances & style is probably the element that is more notable. We’ve looked decent enough in spells during these games - Robinson certainly doubling down on his willingness to go with a back 4 to date. We’ve yet to really put together a full 90 minute showing but, that’s no real surprise at this stage of the season. Brora was stuffy & tricky on a sticky pitch, our first half v Queen’s Park was good but our drop off in the second half a little concerning. A dodgy first 45 at Palmerston was swiftly overcome with a tidy showing in the second half and we never had to get out of first gear against an, objectivley, poor Kelty side last weekend.
The main takeaways though from those games are probably in the shape that we’ve adopted - mainly working in a 4-2-3-1 but showing some fluidity to move into 4-3-3 and even into 4-4-2 from time to time. We’ve also shown a willingness to move the ball around on the deck in triangles. Full backs and wingers are being given the freedom to bomb on and we look a different beast in terms of attacking set-plays.
Kevin Nisbet has also managed to hit the goal trail early - 6 goals in 4 games (albeit 3 from the penalty spot) sees him over 50% of the way to matching his entire season tally from last campaign.
I don’t really think we’ve seen the best of Kevin Nisbet in his two prior seasons until the winter months rolled around. This can be explained by his lack of proper pre-seasons & working in a team not setup to provide him with the chances he thrives on - hopefully, a full summer’s worth of training & fitness work, coupled with the confidence that goals bring mean that we can see more of the Nisbet that we expect.
All positive?
Well, kind of.
Defending set pieces still looks like it could be a concern and I’m not convinced we have a lot of pace in our defensive line when they are turned facing their own goal - opponents who work down the channels or over the top may find some joy. We’ve also, as yet, not really been tested in terms of our out of possession work - Robinson has made a lot of noise about wanting to be a high-pressing outfit.
His St. Mirren sides were consistently well placed on the data front when it came to successfully turning over ball in the opponent’s final third but that takes time to coach & implement - the trigger points for a press need to be effectively communicated & executed on field & getting them wrong can lead to being opened up quickly by sides who thrive on tempting the press.
For me, the biggest positive I have seen to date is that each of our summer acquisitions has shown something in their short times with the Club that don’t have me reaching for the bleach. That’s not something that could be said about our recruitment in the last few windows.
Mayo, Lyons & Happe all look like steady-eddies - nothing particularly flash about them but they will do a job for most of the games we face. Guinness-Walker looks a decent piece of business, reminding me of Shay Logan. Defensively though, we’ve not been really tested to date - this will be the key marker for players to be judged against.
Lewis Smith has got off the mark with a goal and has looked threatening at times, albeit he has also faded out of games from time to time. Yogane, similarly, has shown threats & I think he has a lot of positive attributes but we may need to be patient with his development - it’s a massive step up in expectation from both Livingston & Dundee for both our new wingers to adjust to.
Minutes for Briedl have been somewhat limited but he’s looked tidy on the ball - the big question will be how he deals with the physicality of the league. Olusanya is Olusanya - we know what we are getting. Is he going to score 20+ this season? Unlikely but he does offer a “nuisance factor” that sometimes is under-played. He is trusted by the manager (rightly or wrongly) and he has the chance to prove the doubters wrong.
Connor Ronan has probably been the pick of the bunch, operating in the No. 10 role, his willingness to show for the ball, to look to pick passes & unlock defences together with his set piece delivery will be key for us this season - he looks like a player relishing the opportunity presented to him by Aberdeen.
Mouloua needs a goal to get going but in his brief showings, he shows a decent turn of pace, willing to make runs & he’s getting himself into good positions to score from - he’s been unlucky with some ridiculous blocks by defenders denying him a first goal but I think there are obvious positive signs to work with.
In goals, Müller looks like a good pickup. He’s not really been tested to date but his triple stop against Queen’s Park, followed up by the late save ensured we took the 3 points there. Again, the test will come when we see more balls being fired into our box & how well he deals with these.
One of the big questions surrounding the Club was, following the departure of Graeme Shinnie - who would take on the “official” captaincy. The armband has been passed around the squad during pre-season & the League Cup group phase but, today, it was confirmed that Kevin Nisbet would take the captaincy with Brad Lyons named as vice-captain.
The Season Ahead
So… Just what are we expecting? Perhaps supporter & Club aims will be divergent?
From a Club perspective, the general perception externally is that they are desperate for a season of relative stability.
Stephen Robinson is the 5th permanent manager of the Club of Dave Cormack’s tenure at the head of the Club - we’ve turned squad after squad after squad over in the last 6 seasons. Buried in there are those mad spells that saw Neil Warnock arrive and those interim spells underneath Robson & Peter Leven.
That level of turnover is simply not sustainable and it’s no wonder that we’ve suffered significant ups and downs over the same period.
With all that said, a steady campaign that ends with us sitting in the Top 6 and having made progress in both Cups (Semis?) would probably be seen as a relative success by the Club and, perhaps if we take the fan-hat off, that’s not unreasonable?
For all of that though, when you look at the Scottish footballing landscape - this season is one that presents itself as being one that someone could grab by the scruff of the neck.
Until recent days, Celtic’s summer window has been underwhelming. Derek McInnes’ stewardship in Govan will be interesting to watch - he’s gone down a very particular route of recruitment but is it one that will make them genuine challengers for trophies? How do Hearts bounce back from a summer of chaos? Motherwell have also lost a manager & a number of key players - can they replicate their fine showing from last season? Hibs look like they are going to do Hibs things - a relatively quiet window for them. Falkirk may struggle as well having lost a number of key players from last campaign. United are United and it’s hard to make a case for the likes of St. Mirren, St. Johnstone, Dundee and Kilmarnock to improve much on last campaign.
Frustratingly, we are back in rebuild mode and we may find it hard to be THE Club that jumps on another season of opportunity - time will tell.
Predictions:
4/5th place finish in the league
League Cup Finalists
Scottish Cup Semi-Finalists