Aberdeen Club History

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The current Aberdeen FC was born out of the merger of three city clubs; Aberdeen, Victoria United and Orion in 1903

The new club won the Scottish Qualifying Cup before being admitted to the league, played its first season in the Scottish Second Division and was then elected, rather than promoted to the First Division. The club has never since been out of the top tier in Scottish football. Under the management of Jimmy Philip, the club enjoyed steady and unspectacular progress for the first quarter-century of its existence. The club's first Scottish Cup final did not come until 1937 under Philip's successor, Paddy Travers, but no trophies were won prior to the Second World War.

After the war, new manager Dave Halliday steered the team through a period of unprecedented success, winning a Southern League Cup, a Scottish Cup and the club's first league championship as well as appearing in three more cup finals – one a League Cup – all in the space of ten years. His successor Davie Shaw acquired a League Cup as well as another Scottish Cup final appearance, but then the club endured a decade of relatively poor results in the 1960s.

The 1970s saw the beginnings of an upturn in fortunes, as first Eddie Turnbull and then Ally MacLeod led Aberdeen to cup successes during a period of high managerial turnover, before the manager who was to have the greatest impact on the club, Alex Ferguson, took over in 1978. Under Ferguson's guidance, the club won three league championships, four Scottish Cups, the European Cup Winner's Cup, the European Super Cup and a League Cup – all in the space of seven years.

Following Ferguson, a succession of managers tried to live up to the standards he had set, most meeting with little or no success. The low point of the club's history came in the 1999–2000 season, when they finished last in the Premier division - avoiding a relegation playoff only on a technicality. Subsequent to this, and with the club in debt for the first time following the construction of a new stand at one end of the ground a policy of trying to live within their means has meant that the club has not approached the heights of the 1980s, yet in recent seasons has begun to show consistent improvement, particularly since the arrival as manager of Jimmy Calderwood in 2004.