Stephen McGowan: Thelin's Red revolution has given the SPFL a shot in the arm - even if they don't end up staying the course
When it came to predicting football results, Paul the Octopus was an oracle of the world game.
Before a match at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the talented mollusc’s keepers would present him with two food boxes, each decorated with the flags of the teams playing in the upcoming match.
The Inspector Gadget of the aquatic world would reach out one of his eight tentacles and take his pick.
By the end of the tournament he’d amassed a record of 12 correct predictions out of 14; a success rate of approximately 85.7 per cent.
Regrettably, the expected lifespan of an octopus is shorter than that of the average manager of Hibernian and Paul’s fame came shortly before his death in October 2010.
Despite efforts to find a copper bottomed replacement, the Opta Supercomputer has proven less reliable than an underwater cephalopod.
Jimmy Thelin has transformed Aberdeen's fortunes, with the Pittodrie club flying this season
Paul the Octopus correctly picks out Spain as winners of the 2010 World Cup semi-final
Aberdeen's Premier Sports Cup win over Spartans extended their winning run to 11 matches
And, if Aberdeen carry on as they are, the predictions drawn up before the Scottish Premiership kick-off by Opta’s nerds and boffins will look even more underwhelming than usual.
It hardly needed data software to come up with Celtic as the likely champions. After 12 titles in their last 13, a toddler’s abacus could have worked that out.
The *real* embarrassment for Opta is that they tipped Rangers to finish second, Hearts and Kilmarnock to build on their third and fourth place finishes of last season and, get this, Aberdeen to finish fifth.
After five games in charge, Jimmy Thelin’s Dons actually boast a 100 per cent record in the league. Proving that supercomputers are less reliable than a Spectrum ZX built in 1982, they sit joint top of the league with Celtic.
Beat Dundee today and the Pittodrie side will equal the Scottish record of 12 successive wins set by Martin O’Neill’s Celtic in 2000.
There’s a reason why columns like this are usually written in September, and no later.
The fixture list has been kind to the Dons so far, with games against Kilmarnock and St Mirren coming on the back of their opponents' midweek European involvement
In season 2018/19, Craig Levein’s Hearts went 13 games unbeaten in all competitions before their first meeting with Rangers ended in a 3-1 defeat.
Shortly after that they went on a run of one win in ten games which did nothing to aid Levein’s recovery from a summer heart attack.
After the game at Dens today, Aberdeen host Hearts at Pittodrie next weekend and the coming weeks will provide an accurate gauge of just how improved this Dons side really are.
Alex Ferguson’s contention that the team which wins trophies wins games in Glasgow will be put to the test for the first time in a fortnight.
After that there’s a midweek game against Rangers at Pittodrie on October 30, before they head back south for a Premier Sports Cup semi-final against Brendan Rodgers’ double winners three days later. Throw in another couple of games against Glasgow’s big two in December and Thelin’s early promise will be subjected to some serious scrutiny before Christmas.
Kevin Nisbet has been a welcome addition up front following the sale of Bojan Miovski
So far, the SPFL’s fixtures software has been kinder to Aberdeen than Opta’s supercomputer.
Six of Aberdeen’s 11 games have been won against lower league opposition. Seven have come at Pittodrie.
Of the five league games played so far, three of them came against teams which finished in the bottom six of last season’s Premiership. The other two were home fixtures against Kilmarnock and St Mirren, both of whom had played away from home in Europe the previous Thursday.
None of which alters the fact that Thelin has signed well and, crucially, improved the players already there.
Dons fans speak of skipper Graeme Shinnie looking ten years younger. Jack MacKenzie has come on in leaps and bounds.
The combination of Graeme Shinnie and Sivert Heltne Nilsen has been a big hit in midfield
Seven clean sheets are a testament to the intelligent recruitment of keeper Dimitar Mitov, with veteran midfielder Sivert Heltne Nilsen already shaping up as a Pittodrie player of the season.
Reacting to the sale of top scorer Bojan Miovski to Girona for £6.8million, Thelin brought in a hungry Kevin Nisbet and set about transforming Papa Gueye from a striker who couldn’t strike a cow’s backside with a banjo into the new Romelu Lukaku.
By doing the simple things well, Thelin has improved Aberdeen instantly and anyone who cares about Scottish football should welcome that.
Everyone has their own idea on what a battered game needs most. A 16-team top flight. Summer football. More youth development. Celtic and Rangers clearing off to England. Burning the SFA blazers in a big fire.
Three decades since they last made a serious pitch for the title, nothing would do more for the credibility and spectacle of the SPFL than Aberdeen keeping Rangers at arm’s length and giving Celtic a sustained run for their money.
Scottish game must stop biting the hand that feeds
A new UEFA report reveals that, when it comes to football, Scotland just can’t get enough.
The ‘European Club Talent and Competition Landscape’ reports that the SPFL recorded significantly higher attendances per head of population than any other top flight last season.
The Premiership boasted 18.36 attendees per 1,000 people. That figure is 80 per cent higher than Portugal’s Primeira Liga, the second placed country, which has 10.23 paying punters per 1,000 people.
Attendances across Scottish grounds compare favourably to other European nations
Third was the Dutch Eredivisie with 9.16 matchgoers per 1,000 people, followed by England’s Premier League with 6.77 attendees.
An outsider might see the figures and conclude that the SPFL is doing something right.
Try telling that to the fans asked to pay £38 to go to a Premier Sports Cup semi-final in November when energy prices are on the rise.
Or the diehards travelling up and down the country for 12.30pm kick-offs on a Sunday to accommodate broadcasters who don’t pay nearly enough for the inconvenience.
Not to mention the supporters who had no idea if they’d be going to tomorrow’s Rangers-Hibs game at Ibrox until late on Thursday afternoon.
Our game is keen to take sponsor cash from alcohol firms, but less keen to serve up any drinks
On one hand fans in Scotland are regarded as an anti-social rabble who can’t be trusted in away grounds. On the other they’re a cash cow, there to be squeezed and milked until there’s nothing more to give.
Now, at last, come signs of football fans being treated with a modicum of respect.
Since 1980 supporters have been banned from having a drink inside grounds. Now, SNP MSP George Adam has called for a rethink on the ban. And, with Scottish elections looming in 2026, Health Secretary Neil Gray knows a vote winner when he sees one.
If the door is beginning to open, it’s time for the SFA and the SPFL to give it a nudge.
The ban is anachronistic nonsense. It’s time to stop biting the hand that feeds.
Brown made the right call in side-stepping St Johnstone
Receiving a ‘thanks, but no thanks’ from Scott Brown, St Johnstone owner Adam Webb went back for another try. He fared no better the second time.
Scott Brown is burnishing a nice reputation for himself as manager at high-flying Ayr United
Forget all the fluff about St Johnstone making no managerial offers. The gig as Craig Levein’s successor was clearly Brown’s to decline and, seeing red flags waving everywhere, decline it he did.
The former Celtic captain made a wise decision. His instincts served him well.
Ayr United are a progressive club, sitting top of the Championship and clearly heading in the right direction. It’s hard to say the same of St Johnstone.
Carry on as he is, winning games and challenging for promotion, and Brown is a future manager of Hibernian. Time will tell if that looks like a better move than St Johnstone.
