Aberdeen have been tipped to challenge for the Scottish Premiership title by Gary Lineker and Micah Richards, thanks to their stellar performances so far this season.
The Dons have had a perfect start to the 2024/25 campaign, winning all five league games and getting to the semi-finals of the Premier Sports Cup. Jimmy Thelin’s side currently sit joint-top of the table, alongside reigning champions Celtic, and are five points clear of third-placed Rangers.
One Scottish football fan sent in a question to The Rest is Football podcast, asking Lineker, Richards and fellow host Alan Shearer what they thought of Aberdeen’s season so far – and the response was clear.
Lineker said: “We’ll move onto a football question, a Scottish football question from Dan – ‘What do you make of Aberdeen’s start of the season under Jimmy Thelin? They’ve won 11 out of 11, joint top of the league and in a cup semi-final, can you remember any other manager’s having a start like this?’
“Well, they’re absolutely flying, Aberdeen, aren’t they, since they’ve brought him [Thelin] in. They’ve got Pape Gueye, I think it is, who’s their top scorer. Can they maintain it? We’ll have to wait and see. They like playing a high press, I’ve caught a couple of their games.”
Shearer added: “Interesting though, isn’t it? At least there’s some other team that’s challenging other than the big two, so that’s good to see.”
Richards compared the Dons’ early run to that of Leicester City’s Premier League triumph in 2015/16 and Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten season last term – noting that once you get started, it’s harder to lose a game due to sheer confidence.
He said: “I’ll be totally honest, I’ve only seen highlights of the games, I did a bit of research and, like you said Gary, he [Thelin] wants to play attacking football. He takes risks at the right times, free-flowing football, that is sort of his ethos and I haven’t seen them play live this season so I don’t want to lie to people. I eventually watched an hour of their football and they do look impressive. Whether they can keep it going for the whole season, I’m not entirely sure but it’s a great start.
“You know what happens? It’s like the Leicester thing, isn’t it – once you win that many games, you get that confidence, you think it’s sort of like Leverkusen last season, where they just go on a run and you start to believe. Good luck to them because, it’d be nice up in Scotland if they could shake it up a little bit, you know?”
Richards also mentioned that the two Glasgow teams are the ones mentioned most for the title, so another team to be included in the conversation is “nice”. He added: “We’re always talking about Rangers and Celtic, so you know, it’d be nice for Aberdeen [to win the league].”
Lineker then joked: “It would be refreshing. The only thing is I can’t ever remember Aberdeen producing a great manager before. I’m being ironic there, obviously that’s where Sir Alex Ferguson started his epic, epic rise in the managerial world.”
The Dons have a tough trip next up to Dundee on Saturday to take on Tony Docherty’s side. A top-of-the-table clash against Celtic at Celtic Park awaits after the October international break.