Jimmy Thelin to Aberdeen FC hits wall of silence as Peter Leven reveals what the dressing room has been told
Peter Leven has ordered all talk of Jimmy Thelin or a Scottish Cup semi-final to be put on hold until after the caretaker Aberdeen boss deals with Dundee.
The build-up to their final game before the split has been dominated by news that Elfsborg manager Thelin is set to be incoming at the end of the season. Leven, who is expected to remain as first-team coach, is in interim charge and he admits he is due for talks with the Pittodrie hierarchy next week . He told club officials he didn’t want any distractions before this weekend’s home Premiership clash with Dundee.
Leven said: “I’ve not had any chat with the club. They’ve said to me they’re going to have a chat with me Monday. But I said to them, ‘Listen, whatever’s speculated, I don’t want to know anything about it until after this weekend. My full focus is getting three points against Dundee.’"
Aberdeen lost to Dundee away last time out but Leven expects to see a very different performance this time around. The Dons have a Hampden Scottish Cup semi-final date with Celtic next weekend but Leven has told his players that if they want a starting place in the showpiece occasion then they will need to perform against Dundee this afternoon.
Leven added: “I can only focus on Dundee. The semi-final will take care of itself. My full focus is on Dundee and I’ve got to take it game by game We were a wee bit inbetween in our passing and going long the last time
“But we’ve had three or four games since then and the boys know their responsibilities to a tee now. We need to learn from it – what their weaknesses are and what their strengths are – and we’ve worked on that this week.
“They’ve done very well. Dundee have got good players, especially in midfield. But we’re at home. We’ve got to take the game to them. We’re unbeaten in three, two wins and a draw, so we’ve just got to build that momentum and keep going. It will be a tough game.”
Today’s match might be meaningless in terms of the top six split for the Dons but it could all have been so different if Bojan Miovski’s later winner at Livingston hadn’t been controversially chalked off, despite a VAR failure. It would have still been a long shot but Leven knows they would have still been in the fight.
The interim boss said: “I think VAR has been good at times but as we all know, if it’s not working you’ve just got to go with the referee’s decision at the time and we never did that. For me, you can’t guess, it’s impossible – people are fighting for points.
"Livingston are fighting for points, and obviously it’s gone for them this time but you can’t make educated guesses. It would have been three wins in a row and then that confidence grows even more.”
The SFA came out and made a statement saying that their decision was still right but Leven has a different opinion. He added: “I never realised until Monday the lines were actually broken.
“The club spoke to the SFA, and they said, ‘Yeah, it was an educated guess’ – and I think that’s incredible. If you can’t get the lines, you’ve got to go with the on-field decision. So it’s frustrating, really frustrating as that’s the thing, the clubs are paying for it.
“Listen, they’ve got to come out and say why it’s not working Obviously the club made the statement and the SFA have made a statement and drawn the lines – but they’ve drawn the lines on the wrong person.
“It’s frustrating but I just need to move on from it. But whatever I say is not going to change the result. I can’t get angry about it, because it will have a negative effect on me and I’ve never seen anybody change a result after two days.”