Jimmy Thelin will forever be an Aberdeen hero - decision to part ways is painful but the right one
Swede made history at Hampden but Scottish Cup win masked issues
When Jimmy Thelin took over as Aberdeen manager in June 2024, the softly-spoken Swede addressed his long-term ambitions for the club.
"For me it's more about the three years," Thelin stated in his first press conference as Dons boss. "When you're at a big club you always have expectations. Everybody knows that already.
"It's more about taking it step by step. We have to aim high but we have to look also at the long term. We need to grow as a team, be stable season by season, be able to challenge for the top six and add to that."
Halfway through the three-year project and Thelin and Aberdeen are no longer an item, the 47-year-old sacked on Sunday afternoon amid a miserable run of form.
Less than 24 hours earlier, a stony-faced Thelin watched his Aberdeen team fail to muster a shot on target in their 1-0 defeat at Falkirk. Consequently, they dropped out of the top six of the Premiership. The manager spoke post-match of players needing to drop their egos. Such talk is always concerning.
Truth be told, Aberdeen have been uninspiring for quite some time under Thelin. Their form in 2025 was largely underwhelming, with the huge exception of the Dons landing the Scottish Cup for the first time since 1990. The surprise penalty shoot-out victory over Celtic at Hampden gave many Aberdeen fans one of the greatest days of their lives.
Scottish Cup win masked issues
For chairman Dave Cormack, a lifelong Don, it was the crowning moment of his tenure at Pittodrie. But even the credit of such an achievement runs out. Aberdeen have been going backwards for some time under Thelin and now the hierarchy have acted.
The game against Falkirk was Thelin's 80th in charge of Aberdeen. He won 34 of them but 16 - just under half - were procured in the first four months of his tenure during a dream start. The fall-off since them has alarmed many supporters.
Aberdeen kept pace with Celtic for the first part of last season but ended up finishing fifth in the Premiership. A 14-game run without a win in the league undid some of the early-season work when, across all competitions, Thelin was victorious in his first 13 matches and sparked talk of what proved to be premature predictions of a title challenge. The Scottish Cup run masked some of the issues under his watch, mainly that opposition managers had quickly worked out his style of play. The Swede was loathe to change it, only switching from a back four to a back five in the final after taking counsel from a squad sick of hidings from Celtic.
Thelin will forever be a hero in the north-east for leading the team to the Scottish Cup. That's why his departure will be painful for so many Aberdeen fans, yet time doesn't stand still. Aside from the Hampden triumph, the past calendar year is largely grim reading. Just 11 league wins in that period is not good enough for a team with aspirations of being at the sharp end of the division. He was close to losing his job earlier in the campaign when Aberdeen were bottom of the league at the start of October, only for wins over Dundee and St Mirren to spare him. That was the last of his lifelines.
Thelin would likely have raised a concerned eyebrow when new sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel took office in November. The German has taken time to assess the football department at Aberdeen and will have given his own verdict on what is going on at Pittodrie. Results as well as performances haven't been good enough. Thelin switched to a back three this season but that has failed to eke enough out of his players, many of whom are laced with creativity and pace. An Aberdeen side lacking in entertainment has been playing with the handbrake on.
Thelin has been heavily backed by his superiors. Sizeable cash has been spent on the likes of Marko Lazetic, Kevin Nisbet, Kusini Yengi, Jesper Karlsson, Topi Keskinen, Adil Aouchiche, Kenan Bilalovic, Stuart Armstrong, Alexander Jensen and Emmanuel Gyamfi. There are more. His inability to find the right blend in midfield made his team easier to play against, and there has always been a doubt about how robust defensively they have been.
Chance missed to challenge Old Firm
Some factors have not helped Thelin. He lost his assistant coach Emir Bajrami a year ago after he returned to Sweden for family reasons. The Conference League draw he was handed was extremely tough, facing four teams that finished in the top eight of the standings as Aberdeen failed to win a game on the continent – including a home draw with Noah of Armenia.
Nevertheless, it was becoming increasingly apparent that Thelin did not have the answers on how to turn the situation around despite having talent at his disposal. “Results ultimately decide the tenure of this profession, and as such I take my share of responsibility," Thelin said within a club statement. "We have tried to give the situation as much time as possible, but recent performances have been significantly below the standards we expect," was the big take from Cormack.
This is a sad end for a man who will be forever etched into Aberdeen history. The fact that Thelin was quoted in the release confirming his departure shows the respect for what he delivered on May 24, 2025. The scenes in the Granite City that weekend will live long in the memory.
However, with Hearts and Motherwell improving as Aberdeen have regressed, it will grate that it is the Jam Tarts and not them who are challenging the Old Firm. This was the right call by the Dons, no matter how hard it was emotionally given the money spent on the squad, and the desires of Cormack and Co for Aberdeen to be major players in Scotland and beyond. It is now over to Pfannenstiel.
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