Selecting the subjects to adorn an official club calendar is risky business. Ins and outs happen so quickly at football clubs, it is a fool’s errand to speculate whose faces fans will want to see a year down the line when they flip the final leaf.
Hat tip to Aberdeen, then. At time of printing, it would have seemed rather optimistic to imagine that Dandies would spend the month of Christmas gazing upon their team’s two top scorers when they elected to fit Ester Sokler and Pape Habib Gueye to the page. Definitely a better job was done at the year’s end than its start.
And as that calendar reaches its expiry, the Dons can find some comfort to salve any disappointment at leaving Edinburgh this week with only two points, having been in good positions to have made it six.
For while it remains 2024, we can still say that it was only last year that Aberdeen faced the exact same pair of league fixtures, and were on the receiving end of a record-breaking battering.
Though the unexpected depth of their opponents’ struggles is as significant a factor as Aberdeen’s own qualities, to be at the stage of lamenting draws in the capital – particularly at Tynecastle, where pickings have been vanishingly slim – is swift progress.
Especially with so many changes made to the starting line-up from Tuesday: plenty of compelling material for this year’s calendar compilers.
The Reds remain more than 20 points clear of both Edinburgh sides – Hearts already would require to gain a full point per game to reel them in by season’s end – and, for the moment at least, have been able to recalibrate their own targets to focus on other rivals.
Wins come in many different shapes; not all register as such on the table.
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