This piece is an extract from yesterday's The Dandies newsletter, which is emailed out at 6pm every Tuesday.

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77 days ago, Aberdeen Football Club relieved manager Barry Robson from his managerial duties. Today, Aberdeen appointed 46-year-old Swede Jimmy Thelin as the club's 25th permanent manager. It’s about time too.

Former Elfsborg manager Thelin who narrowly missed out on the Swedish Championship last season will be joined by his assistants Christer Persson and Emir Bajrami. Current Dons interim manager Peter Leven will remain in charge of the club until the end of the season and then take up a role within Thelin’s management team as an assistant first-team coach, a position he fully deserves.

Reports from Sweden suggest Thelin, and his team will begin their employment on the 3rd of June. Ideally, I would have preferred them all to start long before this, so they have time to assess what no doubt be a significant overhaul of the playing staff. From a personal point of view, I am delighted we have secured his services. Our style of football in recent years has been nothing short of awful. Thelin comes with a preferred way of playing which includes a high press and getting the ball wide. He knows how to break teams down who come to park the bus by playing through the lines, a tactic that has been null and void for too long. It’s an exciting prospect and I wish him nothing but the best. He will though require time to implement his style of play which means a degree of patience will be required from the fans. Let’s get fully behind him and see what happens.

I wonder what he thought of the sides' drab draw against Dundee at the weekend. That result meant the Dons have now gone four games without defeat and from those games, the side has only conceded one goal. That’s the only positives I can take from what was another dreadful watch, particularly the second half. I sometimes wonder if the players fully understand what’s at stake, their performances suggest otherwise. This Saturday we have a huge Scottish Cup semi-final against Celtic to contest, the cup remains our only hope of silverware this season with the possibility of competing in Europe on the horizon if Celtic were to retain the Championship title. Will they lift their game knowing a new manager will be watching from afar? That remains to be seen but if this group of players has anything about them, they will!

At this point, I’m going to make a confession. On Sunday afternoon, for the first time, I found myself encouraging a Rangers team to score a goal. I feel violated and guilty. I’m literally shaking my head as I type. Thank God those feelings only lasted for a few minutes!

Having watched Ross County’s historical victory against Rangers I quickly checked the League table to see the effect it had on us. For a moment I was worried, County is now only five points behind us and more to the point, showing a level of fight and determination that I think is seriously lacking from our group of players, and having said that I am still confident that we will avoid the dreaded play-off spot and secure our Premiership status in the coming weeks.

If the fixtures follow suit pre-split Aberdeen should face Motherwell and Livingston at home and St Johnstone, Hibs, and Ross County away from Pittodrie. Up until Sunday Ross County’s form had been erratic as has St Johnstone’s so if that trend continues, we should be fine. All we have to do is concentrate on winning our home games! Do that, and we can all breathe a little easier.