ONE of them ended last season in disarray — the other defied the odds by lifting the Scottish Cup.
So why am I convinced Hearts will be very good and Aberdeen, well, I just don’t know?
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Monday night’s powderkeg clash at Tynecastle should tell us a lot about both teams.
But there has already been plenty of evidence to suggest it’s the Jambos who will be the third force this season.
When they finally turned to Derek McInnes in June, the feeling at the time was it was a no-brainer.
Nothing’s happened since to change that opinion.
The signings, with the help of Jamestown Analytics, look about as promising as it gets.
Claudio Braga has got the potential to become the darling of Gorgie fans.
He has style, swagger, and has already shown he knows where the goal is.
Oisin McEntee was a wrecking ball against Sunderland last weekend next to Cammy Devlin.
Alexandros Kyziridis has pace, power and a desire to run at worried defenders.
Stuart Findlay has settled in at the back alongside Frankie Kent and Craig Halkett.
Lawrence Shankland, having finally signed his deal, has come back looking sharp.
That’s not even counting Pierre Landry Kabore and Tomas Bent Magnussen, soon to be in the door.
Then there’s McInnes himself, who gets what a Hearts team at Tynecastle should look like from his previous experiences as a visiting boss.
That’s 11 men on the front foot. Wingers getting to the line and swinging in crosses.
It’s not rocket science. It’s the way Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown got them to play.
It’s the perfect style for a stadium as tight as Tynie with the support so close to the pitch.
But for some reason successive Jambos bosses have tried to get their sides to control games with endless passing.
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And the crowd, so often a weapon, ended up bored to tears.
I can’t see past them for third place — and that’s despite rivals Hibs having improved.
David Gray’s side were excellent over the second half of last season and will be a force again.
I can’t wait to see how Thibault Klidje settles given the money Gray has spent on him.
But no Scottish club in recent times outside the Old Firm has found a way of coping with regular European football on top of their domestic commitments.
I fear that will be the case with Hibs as well, which will only help their bitter rivals.
Then there’s the Dons, who we know will be playing league phase football until Christmas.
That’s what did for Barry Robson two years ago as his side fell off a cliff in the league.
The question is has Jimmy Thelin recruited well enough to deal with it this time around?
Monday will give us an indication of where Nicolas Milanovic, Kusini Yengi and Kjartan Mar Kjartansson fit in.
All the indications are there will be more new faces to come.
But they need time to settle, that’s not something teams get a lot of when they are playing Thursday/Sunday/Thursday.
Thelin has credit in the bank and rightly so. The Cup win was a remarkable achievement. But he needs to steady the ship and help them be more consistent.
If he doesn’t? I have a hunch ex-gaffer McInnes and his Jambos will leave them trailing.
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