What Aberdeen FC dressing room thinks of Jimmy Thelin as Jack Milne eyes next step

Jack Milne believes Jimmy Thelin can help Aberdeen continue their momentum from last season.

The defender is expected to feature in Wiener Neustadt tonight for Scotland Under-21’s friendly against Austria. Milne, 21, played for Aberdeen against Eintracht Frankfurt and HJK Helsinki in Europe last season. And domestically, he also scored a penalty in the dramatic Scottish Cup semi-final penalty shootout defeat to Celtic at Hampden.

Although the Pittodrie side endured a disappointing Championship season in which they used managers Barry Robson and Neil Warnock, caretaker Peter Leven attracted a strong reaction as the Dons won four of their five games in the second half of the season. Thelin has left Elfsborg and is on a short break before officially starting work at Cormack Park.

The Swede has a reputation as a manager who insists on his team using a pressing game and Milne would love to be part of Thelin’s Reds revolution. He said: “It’s always exciting to have a new manager. We’ve all heard great things. I haven’t met him yet, I don’t think any of the boys have.

“But we’re all looking forward to working with him. At the end of last season you saw the quality we have. It was always there but we just couldn’t get it right. Then we had a bit of a run at the end of the season.

“Even in the game against Celtic at Hampden, even though we lost, we showed a lot of quality. If we can do this consistently, we can be where we want to be. Look at the teams we faced in Europe: we beat Eintracht Frankfurt and we played PAOK and HJK Helsinki.

“There was no match where we were dominated. It was just the championship where we lacked consistency. Coming through the academy, we were always trying to move up the pitch, pretty much man to man.

“It’s how I grew up, so I would say it suits my game. We will return to training on June 24 and we will go straight to the League Cup. We will want to win all the group matches. We reached the final last year and we hope to do it again. »

Milne came on as a substitute for Scot Gemmill’s side in Monday’s defeat to Turkey and enjoyed working with the team during their summer camp. He added: “It was a late call-up but luckily I didn’t have a holiday planned. I loved the week. »

“I was a little nervous at first. We had no luck against Turkey but it was great to be there. When you come here, a lot of boys are very good technically and tactically. There is so much talent. » Gemmill will be without first-team call-up Tommy Conway and Dundee’s Michael Mellon.