Latest news with #Elfsborg
Daily Record
15 hours ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
Jimmy Thelin vows Aberdeen Scottish Cup win is only the start as Swede reveals one of his biggest eye openers
His first season in the Granite City was full of ups and downs but ended on the ultimate high at Hampden Jimmy Thelin believes there are solid foundations at Aberdeen from where they can build on their Scottish Cup success. The Swede has just completed his first season at Pittodrie and it has had its ups and downs, but ended with the ultimate high of a first trophy in 11 years. That will give the Dons confidence going into the new season as they look to go again and also have the added extra of European group stage football, as they go into the Europa League play-off round. Thelin said: 'There are a lot of good foundations here which make it possible for Aberdeen to be the big club in Scottish football that we are. There's a lot happening which is good for the future.' The 47-year-old swapped Elfsborg for Pittodrie last summer. He believes the switch has been as good for him as it has been for the Dons. Thelin acknowledged: 'So there's an adaptation, of course, but I have to say I am in a really good position with the opportunity I've had coming here. 'To come to a new environment, a new country, a new league, new colleagues - you learn all the time. 'You learn a lot about yourself also. It has been a really exciting year so it's been a very good decision I made to come here.' The Swedish manager was chairman Dave Cormack's only choice and he moved heaven and earth to get him. It meant he did the first six months at Elfsborg before he moved to Scotland last June, but for the manager the time has gone in a flash. He said: 'Do I see progress in this team? First of all, I have to say the time has gone very quickly. 'It has been a long season, I started in Elfsborg and did the pre-season there and then six months. 'So for a year and a half I have been working through a lot of windows, but it has all happened so quickly it feels like yesterday.' Cormack and his board have also backed him heavily in the transfer market as he revamped the first-team squad, bringing in the likes of Dimitar Mitov, Alexander Jensen, Kristers Tobers, Mats Knoester, Ante Palaversa, Topi Keskinen, Sivert Nilsen and Peter Ambrose and Gavin Molloy. There were also a number of loan signings that have now returned to their parent clubs. He has already added Australians Nicolas Milanovic and Nick Suman for the new season. Thelin believes progress is being made. He added: 'Always when you have a new staff, things change and it takes time but you can see the players have their team goals. 'How they arrive with chances is more connected, and you can see the small progressions over time on the pitch. 'I think the players are adapting more and more to what we want to achieve and how we work. 'The intensity of training, the way they are pushing themselves more and more. There are more steps being taken.' One of the biggest eye openers for Thelin has been the relentless fixture calendar. He explained: 'Here the football is very intense, the amount of games through the winter and the time just disappears. 'Of course, we have to be aware of the schedule here because there are more games than in Sweden. 'You have what we would call the 'British weeks' with so many games in a row. 'Some weeks you are playing for nine points, three games in very quick succession. 'Even when the windows are open you are still playing for a lot of points, so you have to manage this.' A lot of his signings have come in from overseas. It has taken a bit of adaptation and at times it has been a real eye-opener. The Aberdeen boss said:' I like the league, there's really high intensity and the game flows a lot. 'There is hard contact and a high tempo. Sometimes there's no free kick and you just keep going. 'I remember Alexander Jensen's first home game and he was on the end of a really hard tackle. 'He looked around at the referee who just said play on and you could see in his face he couldn't believe it. 'He was thinking 'what the Hell' but he got up and started to run again. 'The players have to adapt quickly and they have done that. 'There are such good emotions in this country, everyone is living the game all the time. 'When you have an attack, a corner - the fans make a noise. I have only had positive feelings."
Daily Record
4 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Record
Jimmy Thelin brought Aberdeen calm when needed most as Alan Burrows offers honest assessment of Swede
The former Elfsborg boss guided the Dons to their first Scottish Cup triumph in 35 years by beating Celtic at Hampden last week Alan Burrows reckons Jimmy Thelin hasn't just delivered silverware – he's brought a sense of calm to Aberdeen when they needed it most. The Swede sealed his place in Dons history at the weekend by leading them to victory over Celtic at Hampden – ending an 11-year wait for a trophy and landing their first Scottish Cup in 35 years. Thelin let his emotions really show for arguably the first time since the season began, soaking up the jubilant scenes across the Granite City. Aberdeen chief executive Burrows said: 'We need him to be calm, because he's one of the few people who are calm. When you take me, the chairman and others – all very emotional! 'It's an emotional club because it's got such a rich history, and such big expectation because it's a big city. When you've got that, people like Jimmy – who are calm in there – ensure everyone is on the straight and narrow. 'He's very, very good. Not only for around the club, but managing upwards, sideways and downwards. He's a really good guy.' Thelin was headhunted from Elfsborg by Dons chairman Dave Cormack, who refused to take 'no' for an answer from the Swedes. The club chief wanted to get away from the regular turnover of managers and insisted that his new boss would be given time and it was a long-term project. Burrows said: 'He's done remarkably well. Listen, we were saying when we appointed him – 'this is a long project. 'Aberdeen are trying to get away from this churn of managers that we've had over the previous four or five seasons' and we were saying to everybody at the start, 'this is going to require patience, it's going to require a bit of time'. 'Then we go and win 11 games out of 12 and completely blew that up! 'That takes everybody's expectations up really, really quickly, but we always knew that in the first season – as he was getting used to Scottish football and building his team – that it would take a bit of time and effort. 'That manifested itself through the middle of the season but the mark of anyone is to try and keep calm, keep doing the things you're doing, not abandon your principles. That's the ultimate credit. 'He's remained the same guy from day one. That's a mark of a really good manager, who can keep on that straight line.' Cormack has vowed to back Thelin again, with the majority of the riches from their European campaign. Burrows said: 'It's crazy. John Boyle once said, very poetically, 'in football one minute you're a peacock, the next you're a feather duster'. Don't get too high and try not to get too low. 'Hopefully, what we've demonstrated through the course of this season was a resoluteness about this project, about this manager and we'll continue to try and back him.'
North Wales Chronicle
25-05-2025
- Sport
- North Wales Chronicle
Jimmy Thelin proud to put ‘a smile on the city' as Aberdeen lift Scottish Cup
The Dons arrived at Hampden as huge underdogs but overcame an unfortunate Alfie Dorrington own goal at the end of the first half to equalise in the 83rd minute, after Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel fumbled a low Shayden Morris cross into his own net to make it 1-1. With neither side able to find a winner, penalties were required and goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov – who pulled off a huge save from Daizen Maeda in stoppage-time – made himself the hero by saving Celtic's first and fifth spot-kicks from Callum McGregor and Alistair Johnston respectively. Thelin looked emotionally drained as he reflected on a triumphant end to his roller coaster first season in charge of the Dons since arriving from Elfsborg last summer. 'What can I say about my feelings?' he said. 'I think you hear outside today with our supporters, the face of our supporters, the smile on the city, the players, the staff…all this week we have tried to visualise how we can win this game and create this belief inside the squad and how to compete. 'Celtic is a really good team. Brendan (Rodgers) is a really amazing manager, but the way the players competed out there, how they defended together, they were cramped, they were tired, but they kept believing and I'm so proud. 'I'm happy, relieved, tired and I'm going to enjoy this evening.' Remarkably, the Dons' last triumph in the competition, in 1990, also came on penalties against Celtic and Thelin praised his goalkeeper Mitov and his four kickers – Graeme Shinnie, Dante Polvara, Oday Dabbagh and Ante Palaversa – for coming to the fore. 'Dimi's saved some penalties before and he's so good in this situation and so mentally strong in this important moment,' said Thelin. 'But also the guys who took the penalties, they were really, really good penalties in the top corner.' By winning the Scottish Cup, Aberdeen – who finished fifth in the William Hill Premiership – are guaranteed European football until at least December next term, starting in the Europa League play-off with a parachute into the Conference League. Thelin believes coming through such a formidable test will stand his side in good stead for the big matches awaiting them next term. 'When you win you can take a lot and I think so many players today grew a lot, they get the feeling that they can do it and it's going to help them in the future,' he said. Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers suffered defeat in a final for the first time in his managerial career but said his side could have 'no complaints'. 'Clearly, while we're very disappointed, we know that we didn't play anywhere near the standard needed,' said the former Liverpool and Leicester boss. 'We didn't do enough in the game.' Rodgers was of no mind to blame Schmeichel for his error, adding: 'He's obviously apologetic to his team-mates but he's been outstanding for us all season. It's just unfortunate at that time in the game.' Rodgers was philosophical, despite missing out on the third treble across his two spells in charge of Celtic. 'I'm not angry,' he stressed. 'This is a team that's given me so much with their honest and quality of their football. 'Finals do this sometimes. There's been so many times when I've sat in here and it's been different. I've had 11 finals up here and down in England and this is my first loss. You have to accept that.'
BBC News
07-03-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Argyle's Baidoo needs time to adapt to English football
Plymouth Argyle head coach Miron Muslic says Ghana forward Michael Baidoo needs more time to adapt to English 25-year-old signed for a then-club record fee from Swedish side Elfsborg in early January but has struggled to make an has yet to score a goal and has not started a game since the 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on 1 February when he was taken off at half-time with the score says fatigue is a factor with Baidoo playing a full season in Sweden - which runs from March to November - before moving to Argyle. "He finished the season over there and joined here. He came here without a break," Muslic said."Imagine you have to play throughout the whole season and you just have to continue another season, that's almost somehow unfair to Michael."He's a very good lad. He tries hard, but he looks just fatigued and he is struggling at the moment."We've tried to give him all the support he needs, but it's not easy for him, and then adapting to Championship, it's physical here."That's a different type of play, a different style of play and he's obviously struggling with everything in a moment."
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Spurs, a long-awaited academy generation and the hope for more nights ‘made in Tottenham'
Ange Postecoglou called it 'a night made in Tottenham'. Last month, Tottenham Hotspur's 3-0 win at home against Elfsborg sealed a top-eight Europa League finish and confirmed their spot in the round of 16. They needed 70 minutes to score but it ended up being a routine victory, registering 80 per cent possession against a Swedish side technically in their pre-season. More significantly, Tottenham finished with four academy graduates on the pitch, including three of the goalscorers. Advertisement Goalkeeper Brandon Austin filled in with Guglielmo Vicario injured and Antonin Kinsky not registered for the European squad. Dane Scarlett scored four minutes after coming on, then Damola Ajayi doubled the lead on 81 minutes, three minutes after his arrival. Mikey Moore put the icing on the Tottenham cake in stoppage time. 'We were enjoying it. You should enjoy it,' said Postecoglou. 'People can say, 'Look at the opposition', but it's a European night, you've (got) young Tottenham boys out there. It's a special night for the club.' A special night in a difficult season. Tottenham are 12th in the Premier League — they have not finished in the bottom half since 2008. They recently won consecutive league games (1-0 vs Manchester United and 2-0 vs Brentford) for only the second time this term, and it was their first instance of back-to-back clean sheets since October 2023. They followed up those wins by beating Ipswich Town 4-1 on Saturday but recent form is papering cracks. Postecoglou, a man of his playing principles, has repeatedly defended his team's performances in an injury-hit season. 'We've been doing this since the middle of November,' he said this month. 'I don't know how else to explain it. This team is trying its hardest to play under the most extreme two and a half months, asking 18-year-olds, 17-year-olds and senior players, with no rest, to play Thursday-Sunday. 'If you think that is not a factor in how this team is performing then there's nothing else I can say. There's got to be a better appreciation for what a very small group of players have been doing.' It begs the question: why is the squad 'very small'? These are the moments when having an academy-to-first-team pathway is essential, to provide depth and rotation options. To help satisfy profit and sustainability regulations (PSR), it is increasingly important for clubs to generate a profit from academy-trained players. Developing talent is a means to acquire the funds (or balance the books) to fuel recruitment strategies. Advertisement Five of the Premier League's conventional 'Big Six' sides are the top teams for minutes given to 'club-trained' players this campaign. Club-trained is defined as being at the club for at least three years between the ages of 15 and 21. Tottenham, who have only given 1.2 per cent of minutes to academy graduates, are the exception. Playing academy graduates does not guarantee success. Manchester United are having a worse season than Tottenham. Manchester City have more defeats than wins since the start of November and the FA Cup is their last realistic chance of a trophy this season. However, look at any of the 'Big Six' clubs' success stories — from Chelsea's Champions League, Manchester United's FA Cup, City's Premier League titles, Arsenal's evolution and this season's runaway Liverpool team — and they owe to their academy in some form. Tottenham and Postecoglou are not opposed to playing youngsters. The average age of their starting XI in this season's Premier League is the joint-third youngest (25.9, with Bournemouth). They have actively recruited youth: Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Yang Min-hyeok were teenagers bought under Postecoglou, who has also developed Brennan Johnson (23 years old), Destiny Odogie, Pape Matar Sarr (both 22) and other young players. GO DEEPER How English football academies went from peripheral to essential in the space of a decade It is a shift and overcorrection from the older teams used by Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte in an (ultimately fruitless) effort to earn silverware. Tottenham were losing Champions League finalists in 2019 and sensed they could win something. Academy-to-first team pathways tend to be closed loops. Young players are more likely to join clubs with a clear route to the first team — and players stay there after breaking in. Only six players born in 1990 or later have come through the Tottenham academy and made 100-plus Premier League appearances (at Tottenham or elsewhere): Harry Kane, Adam Smith, Harry Winks, Kyle Walker-Peters, Steven Caulker and Andros Townsend. Oliver Skipp, on 93 Premier League games and now at Leicester City, is close to making that six. Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal have 14, 15 and 13 graduates born since 1990 with over a century of Premier League appearances. Advertisement When Ryan Mason was Spurs' caretaker head coach in the spring of 2023, after Mourinho departed, he said, 'Of course I see the value in the academy and having homegrown players — but at the same time, players have to be good enough. They have to earn that opportunity. It's not an easy route to the top, especially at a club of this size.' He was speaking from experience, having broken through under Pochettino in 2014 after loan spells at five clubs. Mason is archetypal of the players who have made the jump from academy to first team at Tottenham: a diminutive, technically proficient central midfielder. It is the type of player coaches tend to love and help control games, but is rarely a matchwinner. Skipp, Winks, Tom Carroll, Alex Pritchard and Jamie O'Hara are further examples. Of course, the glittering graduate is Kane. The north London boy joined aged 11 after being released by Arsenal. Like Mason, he needed multiple loans in English football's lower divisions before breaking into Spurs' senior side. He scored more than 200 Premier League goals for Tottenham, then fetched €100million (£86.4m; $110m at the time) when he joined Bayern Munich in August 2023. The mural by the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium proudly describes him as 'one of our own'. Academies, though, are not to solely be judged on their singular generational talent — Phil Foden (Manchester City), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) — but rather the consistency with which young players break into the first team and become established starters or fulfil squad roles. There have been too many examples of players leaving Tottenham's older academy age groups and forging careers elsewhere: Noni Madueke once captained Tottenham's under-16s, left at 18 for PSV, then earned the Dutch side £28.5million when he joined Chelsea four years later. Likewise, Walker-Peters. He is a versatile full-back who was man of the match on his Premier League debut (a 2-0 win at Newcastle United) in 2017, and became the second-youngest player to assist three goals in a Premier League game in December 2018. Walker-Peters only made 12 league appearances for Tottenham, then joined Southampton permanently (for £12m) after a loan spell for the second half of 2019-20, and is closing in on 200 club appearances. Marcus Edwards is another. Pochettino once said he had stylistic resemblances to Lionel Messi. Tottenham earned nearly €8m when he joined Vitoria Guimaraes in 2019, having made one first-team appearance. He has since played Europa League and Champions League football with Sporting CP, winning the Portuguese title last year. He joined Championship club Burnley on loan in January. Advertisement There is an argument that the talent has just not been there. London is one of football's hotbeds. Arsenal and Chelsea have enjoyed age-group success and maintained a pathway to the first team in recent years. West Ham United's academy has a formidable reputation, while even former Premier League teams Watford (Jadon Sancho) and Charlton (Ademola Lookman, Joe Gomez and Ezri Konsa, all from their 1997-born generation) have recent academy success stories. Queens Park Rangers (2022-23), Arsenal (2018-19), Chelsea (three times) and Watford (2024-25) have all knocked Tottenham out of the FA Youth Cup since 2017. They have not reached the semi-finals of the competition — the under-18 equivalent of the FA Cup — since Chelsea beat them 9-2 over two legs in 2017. Their 4-2 FA Youth Cup defeat at Vicarage Road last week was symptomatic of first-team problems. Tottenham conceded twice in eight first-half minutes to go 2-0 down and shot themselves in the foot with red cards either side of half-time. They still tried to play with a high line and the left-back rolled inside during build-up. A video of Watford under-18 assistant Lloyd Doyley played before kick-off, and he made the point that these games are a test for youngsters as they bring 'family, cameras and expectation', which are not always there in their league games. Importantly, Tottenham's youth teams have been successful in recent seasons. The under-21s finished top of the Premier League 2 last term. In the 2022-23 season, the under-17s and under-18s won the Premier League Cup — they beat Aston Villa (3-1) and Nottingham Forest (5-1) in their respective finals, at their opponents' stadiums. That group of Tottenham under-21s is scattered (and that age group this season is 22nd out of 26 teams). Jude Soonsup-Bell and Yago Santiago left permanently for Spain's second tier, joining Cordoba and Elche. Brooklyn Lyons-Foster went to HJK in Finland and Nile John is with Feirense in Portugal's second division. Again, that can be viewed as players not seeing a pathway and not being prepared to wait, or the talent not being of sufficient quality. Meanwhile, defender Alfie Dorrington (Aberdeen) and forwards Jamie Donley (Leyton Orient) and Will Lankshear (West Bromwich Albion) are on loan spells. Donley is playing well in League One, scoring six goals and five assists in 25 appearances and forcing an own goal with a halfway-line strike against Manchester City in the FA Cup. Lankshear was the top scorer (18) and player of the year in the Premier League 2 last term. A powerful runner in behind, he started the campaign with the first team, notably scoring the opener before being sent off away to Galatasaray in a Europa League match. As Mason and Kane's routes to the first teams show, development is rarely linear. It requires patience. Success at the academy level is not a guaranteed predictor of first-team performance. Successful youth teams do not necessarily produce outstanding individual players, but it is a marker of improvement. The biggest challenge is for Tottenham's academy players to perform at — and maintain — the physical levels that Postecoglou's system demands. According to the Footovision graphic below, Tottenham are sprinting in and out of possession more than any other Premier League team. It's interesting that Postecoglu's whole point is that players are out. I don't understand, as I have said before, if the injuries are non-impact muscular injuries, and they are incessant, how is the physical conditioning not on the coaching staff? It's totally to do with the… — Meia Armador (@MeiaArmador__) February 9, 2025 Research shows physical output is significantly greater at first-team versus academy level, but that gap is even greater at Tottenham. Postecoglou said recently that academy players have been required to make up numbers in first-team training sessions. Adaptation to increased loading does not happen all at once — it takes time and careful management. Advertisement Moore, who can play out wide or as a No 10, jumped straight from the under-18s to the first team this summer. The 17-year-old missed two months at the end of 2024 (due to a virus, not a muscular injury), which prompted Postecoglou to say, 'We're going to take our time' with his development. 'We will protect him, and we'll be guided by how he feels,' the head coach added. Speaking to The Athletic in May 2024, one coach who worked with Moore said, 'He's the first (academy) player for a long time who has a good chance of breaking into the first team.' GO DEEPER 'A special talent' - what could come next for Spurs and England's Mikey Moore The benefit for Tottenham is that Wayne Burnett and Stuart Lewis — their under-21 and under-18 head coaches — have been in place since the summers of 2017 and 2021. Simon Davies, part of Manchester United's famous 1992 academy generation, joined the club in 2022 (as head of coaching methodology) and has been academy director since June 2023. That stability is essential to support players progressing through age groups. Part of the reason Tottenham spent £45million to build the Hotspur Way training ground in 2012 was to boost the academy. Their vision was 'to be one of the world's leading football clubs renowned for a long tradition of developing young talent that plays football the 'Tottenham Hotspur' way'. The training ground was to be the 'elite environment that attracts, retains and develops top quality players, providing an ongoing supply of academy graduates to the first-team squad'. Over a decade later, their return on investment is underwhelming — but this generation looks more promising than the ones that preceded it. Postecoglou needs more nights 'made in Tottenham' and he might have them soon.
