Greetings! Welcome back to Aberdeen, where season 4 is now well under way and things are shaping up rather nicely. At the end of the last update, I speculated if season 4 would be my last at Aberdeen, so my players seem to have got together to try and convince me to stay. It’s nice, in a way. Let’s see what they’ve been delivering on the pitch.

A rather ridiculous schedule is ahead of us, I mean, who plays a cup final on a Monday? It’s nice of the Scottish FA to look after their Champions League club

Anyway, Hearts feel the full force of our attacking threat for an absolute hiding

That warms us up nicely for the cup final a few days later, where a half time deficit is overturned thanks to the boy Nalis and under appreciated Keith. The trophy is ours!

But the real big occasion is in Tblisi, Georgia another two days down the line. A must win if ever there was one, but it is a third victory in 5 days with Bakayoko and Nalis scoring in all three. Lovely.

We could do with Ajax doing us a favour against Arsenal but they surrender pretty badly and get humped, so we’ll need to go to Arsenal and get a result to secure a place in the last 8.

The Arsenal side is strong going forwards but maybe not the best at the back. You’ve got to be the best at the back to deal with ERIK NEVLAND

Ahh the Nev, finally, seems to have regained his deadliest form. We’re going through!

So who do we get in the last 8?

NOT AGAIN. The old Fergie vs his old club thing was a story for a season, twice was a novelty, but three times? Nobody cares. We’ll see how we get on later.

A striker injury crisis just after Christmas sees both Nevland and Bakayoko sidelined but young Martin steps in to score a vital winner against Rangers.

Our league form is devestating as always. Celtic are brushed aside

With Glasgow firmly in our shadow, we have to face both Edinburgh clubs. Hearts come looking for revenge for the 7-0

A 4-2 deficit at half time sees young Nalis introduced and he inspires a comeback of 4 goals in 19 minutes, and that is that.

Hibs don’t get on much better, though Colding’s injury is annoying. He’s been very good.

We’re also still in the Scottish FA Cup, the draw has been extremely kind all the way through and we’ve barely been tested as we reached the quarter finals. Ayr await us.

The league table is almost laughable. We’re 20 points ahead with 24 available. Celtic have found themselves in second, which I suppose they should be proud of but it’s a hollow victory. Spare a thought for St Mirren too, a very tidy defence but barely a goal every two games. Take a chance man.

It’s fair to say I can really focus on the Champions League. We rock up at Old Trafford brimming with confidence. Potentially, this is the toughest tie we’ll face for the remainder of the competition.

The news is good. Roy Keane, Florian Maurice and Shay Given – who denied us so many times in last season’s semi-final – are all out. It’s still an incredible team.

Normally I throw in an extra centre half but confidence is so high I’m just going to attack from the off and make sure we get the away goal. Colding is out so Billy Mac is in, but otherwise this is full strength.

In these games sometimes your experienced players step up and make you proud. Marc Emmers might not have many games left on the biggest stage but this was his game. His defining game in an Aberdeen shirt as he opened the scoring with a 30 yard screamer followed by a routine 2nd. Giggs, Man Utd’s own Emmers, pulled one back, but we could have had more. Charbonnier was excellent. Dida was better. We’re in the driving seat.

As is my new custom, I’ll be back with leg two next week as we wrap up the season. First though, it’s worth noting that Man Utd are still by far the best team in England. Would my Aberdeen side win the Premier League? Well, yes, probably.

Arsenal though…don’t even get me started on Liverpool. There are some big sides in the bottom half!

That’s all I have for you this week but please do come back next week where we’ll bring season 4 to a close and hopefully win the lot. The quadruple, if you will. Then we’ll see what happens. The Belgian league is a growing force…