Thelin feels warmth of Aberdeen fans again after cold winter

Aberdeen’s winters can be miserable.

On a gloomy, bitter night on Union Street, Winterfell has nothing. Particularly if you only need a red and white scarf around your neck to warm you up on January 25.

In crisis, the city’s football team, which had 15 victories in their first 16 games this year, were magnificently unbeaten in every category.

In 13 games without wins, including the most recent humiliating 3-0 home defeat suffered by St Mirren, a cataclysmic collapse in form had resulted in 10 defeats. The fantasy of title challenges had been replaced with a relegation form’s blind panic.

“Either adapt or die,” is the phrase. Before his side lost 2-0 to Hibernian in their next game, Jimmy Thelin reportedly has a month to sort things out, according to one enraged fan.

No panic was reported in the public, just a persistent message from Thelin, the club’s cool and composed new manager, that things would turn around.

The Swede remained unwavering inside the club despite it being difficult to see from outside.

The most divisive football campaign that could have ever been ended in a fairytale book, but one that was saved by one thing: belief.

Few outside of Thelin’s inner circle were as supportive of his team’s performance in Glasgow’s south of Celtic, who are chasing the title.

Roundly defeated in their previous four meetings and recovering from a spluttering fifth-place finish. For Saturday’s final, it was obvious something had to change.

It was difficult to see Thelin’s masterplan as the competition progressed. At half-time, 16 percent of possession. No encouragement or shots.

Aberdeen was still level and set the stage for a dramatic penalty shootout shock, which would rank among the many historic victories in this illustrious old competition thanks to the late substitutes and game plan used by the former Elfsborg head coach.

The heroic shootout goalkeeper for Aberdeen, Dimitar Mitov, described him as the “best manager I’ve ever worked with.”

“It’s his daily fundamentals,” he said of his management of the team, our training, and the little details he adds.

The most crucial moment, he said, is when we made it to the final, and I’ve never seen this before. There were no buts. The boys adopted that mindset.

As he addressed the audience in a standing ovation around the Hampden pitch, Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack declared, “With Jimmy, we feel we absolutely got the right guy.”

In the final, Thelin displayed a tactical awareness. He prepared a game plan to topple Celtic after giving them two days off, and it turned out well.

a change in the management, the operating system, the pragmatism-based change of approach. No wonder given Brendan Rodgers’ team’s tendency to demolish Thelin’s men occasionally this year.

The Swede also showed bravery in doing so. One thing is to recognize that something isn’t working. It’s quite a feat to do it and roll the dice as you approach the end of history.

The gamble has paid off, earning them £6 million and immortality, which is guaranteed to be played in either the Europa League or the Conference League until December.

Given that he received a lot of support in January, how much of it Thelin will get to invest in, but he has earned the right to return to the Aberdeen team with an air of optimism behind him.

Cormack led a run that turned out to be a success and ended with a trophy in the cabinet. He was persistent in his pursuit of Thelin. one that hasn’t lived there in a generation.

On Sunday, a Union Street bus parade will bring the frostiness of a winter of dismay to life.

Postmortems about being killed by St. Mirren will be regarded as irrelevant amid the glory, which is lost in the sea of red and white scarves and flags.

Thelin and his team will face new challenges and expectations. That will come later.

The Pittodrie manager deserves to live in the present day after this season and the most exhausting of days. Just a moment, really.

He told BBC Scotland, “You see how much it means to everyone.”

“Football is such an amazing sport because of that. Keep believing and try everything you can every day to stay strong in the challenging times.