2021–22 Aberdeen F.C. season
The 2021–22 Aberdeen F.C. season is Aberdeen's 108th season in the top flight of Scottish football and the ninth in the Scottish Premiership. Aberdeen competed in the Scottish Cup, the League Cup and in qualifying for the inaugural season of 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League. Summary. May. This will be the first full season of the reign of manager Stephen Glass, assistant manager Allan Russell and player-coach Scott Brown who arrived from Celtic in July. Scotland International defender Declan Gallagher signed a pre-contract from Motherwell. Striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas signed from Livingston. Goalkeeper  Gary Woods permanently joined from Oldham Athletic after his loan spell last season. June. Young winger Teddy Jenks joined from Brighton and Hove Albion on a loan deal, Jack Gurr joined from manager Glass' former club Atlanta United on a free, and American International Christian Ramirez signed from Houston Dynamo for an undisclosed fee. July. The club announced all pre-season fixtures were to be played behind closed doors but two matches were cancelled due to COVID-19. Scott Brown was announced as Team Captain with goalkeeper Joe Lewis becoming the Club Captain. August. Aberdeen were knocked out of the League  Cup by Championship side Raith Rovers. This followed with being knocked out of Europe by Azerbaijan side FK Qarabağ in the Play-off round. September. Lewis Ferguson was called up and made his debut for the Scotland national team. The club however suffered a miserable September, losing all three matches in the Premiership. Niall McGinn and Lewis Ferguson were both called up for their respective countries for the October internationals. October. Having lost five league games in a row, Glass was under pressure but was eased with wins against both Edinburgh clubs and were unlucky not to win at Ibrox . November. On 20 November, the Dons lost to Dundee United, however off the pitch player Funso Ojo was assaulted by a United fan and was sent off for a second bookable offence. The fan was later charged and banned from football. Ojo himself also assaulted a separate United fan after the match. He was later charged for the incident December. After three wins, the Dons lost at Easter Road to a Ryan Porteous goal, but during the match he was involved in an incident with Dons forward Ramirez for which he was later given a three match ban. Young full  back Jack MacKenzie signed a new contract. The year ended prematurely due to the Covid variant Omicron and the club were forced to play in front of 500 fans against Dundee on Boxing Day as the Dens Park side struggled to field a team. January. Midfielder Matty Longstaff returned to his parent club after a disappointing spell with the club. Austin Samuels also returned to his parent club. Promising young American College player Dante Polvara signed a contract for the club. The club signed Dutch forward Vicente Besuijen on a four-and-a-half year contract. February. After a poor  run of results including a fifth-round defeat in the Scottish Cup to Motherwell, Stephen Glass left the club on 13 February. He was replaced by Barry Robson as interim manager. The club appointed Jim Goodwin as manager on 19 February Before the match with Dundee United, a statue was unveiled of their most successful manager to date, Sir Alex Ferguson. March. It was announced that Team Captain and player-coach Scott Brown had left to pursue his coaching career elsewhere. For the second time during the season The Dons went 10 matches without a League win. Jim Goodwin’s  first win as manager came in a 3-1 home win against Hibernian on 19 March. The club descended to 10th place in the league. April. It was revealed that long-serving defender and former Club Captain Andrew Considine would leave at the end of the season after rejecting the offer of a new deal on reduced terms. Michael Devlin and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas had their contracts terminated and left the club. A home defeat to Ross County consigned Aberdeen to a place in the bottom 6 of the league. Results & fixtures. UEFA Europa Conference League. Aberdeen qualified by finishing  in fourth place in the 2020–21 Scottish Premiership and entered in the second qualifying Round. They knocked out BK Hacken 5–3 on aggregate to enter the third qualifying Round against Breiðablik. They also knocked them out 5–3 on aggregate but lost the play-off round 4–1 on aggregate to Qarabağ. Squad statistics. Appearances. Goalscorers. "As of 30 April 2022"