A six-year first is brewing in Scotland and it’s largely down to an unheralded Swede using one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s ‘favourite words’.
From the 2018/19 season onwards, Celtic and Rangers have held a duopoly over Scottish football by always finishing in the top two.
But this term, one of their rivals has their elbows out and are showing all the hallmarks they’re up for a title fight.
After ten Scottish Premiership games, Aberdeen remain unbeaten and are level with Celtic on 28 points, with the Hoops only ahead thanks to a vastly superior goal difference.
But Aberdeen are slowly building a sizeable advantage over third-placed Rangers, with a 2-1 win over the Glaswegian side on Wednesday widening the gap to nine points between the two.
So, what has changed for Aberdeen after a campaign where they finished seventh?
The biggest, and most important change, is the face in the Pittodrie Stadium dugout.
Jimmy Thelin, a 46-year-old from Sweden, had never played, let alone managed, outside of his home nation prior to his move to Aberdeen.
Thelin made over 300 appearances as a player for IF Hagapojkarna before he transitioned into coaching and worked his way up from Jonkopings Sodra’s Under-17s in 2009 to the first team in 2014.
Before Thelin had taken over, Jonkopings had never finished above 7th in the Superettan, Sweden’s second tier.
But he led the team to fourth in his first campaign and then got the club promoted to the Allsvenskan for the first time in 46 years after Jonkopings finished first in 2015.
Against the odds, Thelin kept Jonkopings up in 2016 but it was only a matter of time before one of Sweden’s bigger teams poached him.
Thelin joined Elfsborg in January 2018 and two seasons later he had taken the club from 12th up to 2nd in the Allsvenskan.
The 46-year-old led Elfsborg to another second-place finish in 2023 and was later appointed Aberdeen boss in April.
It has proved to be a perfect marriage so far, but what has been the key to the success?
According to Alex McLeish, who played for Aberdeen when Ferguson was in charge, it is down to a key tactic of Thelin’s and it’s one the former Manchester United boss often employed.
“It’s brilliant,” McLeish said on talkSPORT’s White and Jordan.
“Jimmy Thelin, by all accounts, is a very humble guy. Sir Alex Ferguson always tried to say to us to be humble during our careers and grow up like a good human being. In that sense, Jimmy has done a great job.
“He’s also done a great job on the field. That amazing comeback against Celtic, when he changed to 4-2-4 and took the game to Celtic. They ran at the defenders, they showed a great degree of tempo, which was always one of Sir Alex’s favourite words.
“Play with tempo and that’s what Aberdeen have been doing. They really spooked Celtic at Celtic Park.”
The comeback against Celtic in question took place only a few weeks ago.
The Hoops were 2-0 ahead inside 27 minutes thanks to goals from Japanese duo Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi.
But Thelin made some key tweaks during the break and within 15 minutes into the second half, Aberdeen were level.
Any two-goal comeback is impressive, but for Thelin’s side to pull it off against Celtic on their home turf is why McLeish believes there’s something special in the works.
“He’s [Thelin] going for it,” McLeish said.
“To have all those victories in that particular run he’s having right now, he is showing he is a manager to be reckoned with.
“To do what he did in the second half, and I know he likes to play with tempo and he really spooked the Celtic defenders. He’s been doing that the whole season and his changes at half-time were quite the story in terms of going to that Celtic team and going down 2-0.”
McLeish also highlighted the importance of ‘belief’ Thelin has given Aberdeen as the Scot again likened the atmosphere at Pittodrie now to what it was under Ferguson.
“He [Ferguson] always wanted to play fast,” McLeish said.
“He actually said things like, ‘When we go to Celtic Park, when we go to Ibrox, we take throw-ins quickly. When we get a corner, you run to the corner and look as if you’ll play it in straight away before they get organised.’
“And it really spooked. When we went to Ibrox and Celtic Park back in the day, then we started to get a little stranglehold and won one or two games there. The belief that soared through the squad was quite incredible.
“And that’s where Jimmy Thelin has got this Aberdeen team in this moment.”
With Aberdeen unbeaten in their 15 games across all competitions this campaign, fans are hopeful Thelin can land the club’s first piece of silverware in over a decade.
More optimistic supporters may even think the Swede can emulate Ferguson’s feat of winning the Scottish Premiership, which the legendary manager did three times in charge of Aberdeen before he joined Manchester United.
In fact, Thelin recently revealed Ferguson shared some wise words of advice in his bid to break up the Celtic and Rangers stranglehold on the Scottish top flight.
“Yes, I met him [Ferguson] and had a short talk with him because he is a busy man, very popular,” Thelin said.
“We talked a little bit about the game we played there and about living in Aberdeen and how his time was here.”
Thelin added: “We talked about how it was to live here and he wished me luck. I was really young when he was here and he went to United.
“It was more not about the tactical things, more about leadership, how you can for such a long time at two clubs be inspirational to new players and try to keep going.
“That is the thing you try to do yourself when you are a coach is to be consistent.”
Thelin and Aberdeen face a daunting challenge to maintain their unbeaten run this season as they face Celtic in the semi final of the Scottish League Cup on Saturday.
Victory would lead Aberdeen to a final where they’ll face Motherwell or Rangers.
