Jim Goodwin: Ireland is the dream

In June of this year Liverpool fell to defeat in the UEFA Champions League final to Real Madrid.

Aberdeen remain the last team to defeat Real Madrid in a European final, that came in 1983 in the European Cup Winners' Cup with Alex Ferguson at the helm.

Today it is Jim Goodwin's task to return Aberdeen to past glories, however they have not won the league since 1985 and the cup since 1990.

"It's a hell of a task," said Goodwin speaking on RTÉ Radio One Saturday Sport.

The Dons currently sit in seventh position, eight points behind Celtic who defeated them 2-0 at Celtic Park on the opening day of the season.

"I think we're relatively satisfied with how the season has went.

"I think things are going okay, we're in the quarter-finals of the League Cup.

"That fixture takes place next month against Partick Thistle with the opportunity to get through to a semi-final at Hampden [Park], which would be a great deal for the supporters and for the players."

Ferguson managed to break the Celtic-Rangers stranglehold in the eighties, winning three Scottish League titles, four Scottish Cups and one European Cup Winners Cup.

The chances of that happening again are even more unlikely. Celtic and Rangers have shared the last 36 titles since Aberdeen's last win.

However, the expectation of Aberdeen supporters can sometimes draw from past triumphs.

"We do have a generation of Aberdeen supporters who were around in the in the seventies and eighties when Sir Alex Ferguson was manager, and they were competing on a European scale.

"[They were] winning trophies domestically, quite consistently competing with Celtic and Rangers, winning leagues, winning cups, it's never an excuse, but it is the reality of the situation."

"At the moment that Celtic and Rangers