History of Aberdeen F.C.

Aberdeen also have the distinction of never having been relegated: other than two seasons during World War I when they dropped out of competitive football for logistical reasons and were subsequently re-admitted, they have spent every year since 1905 as members of the top division, a record bettered only by Celtic.

Undaunted, the club applied for membership of the Scottish League for the following season, and were duly elected, although to the Second Division, rather than the First which the directors had aspired to.

With the arrival of League football in 1904–05, Aberdeen changed kit colours to black and gold, resulting in the new nickname of the Wasps.

At the end of that first season, despite having finished seventh out of 12 teams, Aberdeen were elected to the new, expanded First Division, and have been in the top tier of Scottish football ever since, a record shared with only Celtic.

Once in the First Division, however, the club's progress was steady rather than spectacular – a Scottish Cup semi-final appearance in 1908 and another in 1911 being the highlights of the pre-war period.

In that season of 1910–11, Aberdeen recorded their first victories over the Old Firm, and led the league for a time, but the silverware ended up in Glasgow as was becoming customary.

Wartime affected the club as much as any other, and in spite of spending cuts and other economies, by 1917 the situation was untenable and, along with Dundee and Raith Rovers, Aberdeen dropped out of competitive football for two seasons.

Philip was still in charge, and continued to oversee a team capable of isolated good results, but never quite able to sustain a challenge long enough to win a trophy.

It wasn't until the publication of the club's official history in the 1970s that it became clear that there had been a suspicion of a betting scandal; no action was taken against any player at the time.

[4] The Second World War effectively shut down senior football, but Aberdeen continued to put on games featuring any players who might be in the forces and stationed nearby.

[5][6] Halliday inspired Aberdeen (now playing in red shirts) to their first senior silverware in 1946, winning the Scottish League Cup (although this was a reduced wartime version of the competition known officially as the Southern League Cup), and taking his team back to Hampden the following season in the same competition, although they were defeated on this occasion.

He retired in 1965, making way for Eddie Turnbull, who led Aberdeen to two Cup finals against Celtic, losing in 1967, but gaining revenge in 1970.

During the summer of 1967, Aberdeen played a season in North America as part of a fledgling league called the United Soccer Association.

During this decade, Aberdeen had 5 managers, Eddie Turnbull, Jimmy Bonthrone, Ally MacLeod, Billy McNeill and Alex Ferguson.

As Scottish Cup holders in 1970–71, Aberdeen once again qualified for the same competition, but this time were eliminated in the first round following a 4–4 aggregate tie with Honvéd.

Ferguson became manager in 1978, following the departure of McNeill to Celtic, and set about building a team which would win more in the next eight years than in the entire history of the club to that date.

Players such as Jim Leighton, Willie Miller, Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan developed under Ferguson's guidance to be the backbone of a team with a winning mentality.

[12] Miller was replaced by Roy Aitken, but his initial success in avoiding relegation did not last, and despite a League Cup win against Dundee in 1995–96, the club continued to struggle.

Alex Miller and Paul Hegarty had spells in charge in the late 1990s, but success remained elusive, and with the financial burden of a new stand putting the club into debt for the first time in its history, the directors turned to Stewart Milne, a local businessman whose firm had built the stand, to bring business acumen to the running of the club.

The Danish-born Ebbe Skovdahl became Aberdeen's first non-Scottish manager in 1999, and his time in charge coincided with some of the heaviest defeats in the club's history, together with the first time the club had ever finished bottom of the league – the ensuing relegation play-off with Falkirk being avoided as Falkirk did not have a ground which met Premier League standards.

Big things were expected from his replacement, Steve Paterson, who was regarded as a promising up-and-coming manager, and he led the club to a decent seventh-place finish that season.

In May 2009, having secured a 4th-place finish in the Scottish Premier League and a return to European competition, Jimmy Calderwood left his position as manager of Aberdeen by 'mutual consent'.

Aberdeen won the 2014 Scottish League Cup Final 4–2 on penalties, after a goalless draw, a success that saw them lift their first trophy in 19 years.