January 2024 Transfer Window

[BigAl]

Pray for Orlando Don.

Mikey Johnston is West Brom bound 

[Jute]

It’s only a loan according to SSN so he will be there for Orlando to promote again in the summer. 

[OrlandoDon]

2 hours ago, BigAl said:

Pray for Orlando Don.

Mikey Johnston is West Brom bound 

I’ll be wearing a black armband tomorrow. Although if it’s a loan I won’t totally give up on him.

[tlg1903]

We are apparently looking at James Forrest.  He's solid enough at this level 2bf but I wouldn't exactly call it an inspiring move 

[RicoS321]

48 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

We are apparently looking at James Forrest.  He's solid enough at this level 2bf but I wouldn't exactly call it an inspiring move 

A shite Mikey Johnston? Sounds terrible.

[OrlandoDon]

18 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

A shite Mikey Johnston? Sounds terrible.

Will he at least change his name to Mikey Johnson?

[RicoS321]

Ach, it's just the Aberdeen press trying to unsettle their most talented asset ahead of Saturday's fixture.

[Panda]

1 hour ago, tlg1903 said:

We are apparently looking at James Forrest.  He's solid enough at this level 2bf but I wouldn't exactly call it an inspiring move 

Think you've been bought in by that Agent Alba joker, either directly or indirectly.

Forrest is Cardiff bound I'm sure.

Edited February 1 by Panda

[Panda]

We're not one of the four clubs looking at Van Veen.

Hearts, Motherwell, St Mirren and Kilmarnock were all after him. Looks like one of the latter two most likely to get him.

[Elgindon]

Wingers are like hens teeth these days are they not.If none are available,as long as you have guys on the sides that are attack minded and at least have some pace,and learn or are coached how to use /make space and where to make runs/anticipate others etc.Possibly gives you more variety(or less predictability) in attack? Hence we should maybe have persisted more with Duk on the left,and got A n other on the right

   

Edited February 1 by Elgindon

[OrlandoDon]

Maybe if we need a defender we can loan Rhys Williams?

[tlg1903]

3 hours ago, Panda said:

Think you've been bought in by that Agent Alba joker, either directly or indirectly.

Forrest is Cardiff bound I'm sure.

Oh very possibly, I saw it mentioned on a page on fb. 

[Elgindon]

Bids for Duk(1.75m apparently),and Barron(£500k) have been rejected.Looks like no ins or outs,unless.....

[Panda]

Even though we haven't signed anyone (Philips apart) I think it's a good window with Miovski, Duk, Barron and Shinnie all staying. (Shinnie wasn't linked anywhere but I still worry).

Kilmarnock (our biggest rivals now for fourth - that's our season now) have signed Van Veen, but he's no Miovski.

Get a good manager in and we'll... it's gonna be Jack Ross isn't it?

[Jute]

So in the whole window we bring in only one player to play in a position we already have plenty of cover in and don’t bring in any defenders or wide players. Pretty disappointing to say the least. However on the plus side I am stunned and delighted there were no bids for Miovski as was convinced he would be away this window. Now at least keep his goals until the summer. 
 

Is it soon to open the summer transfer thread?

[Elgindon]

We did try a coupla defenders (Pollock and Kerr),and a couple of other positions, but fell through for whatever reason.Just glad we didnt lose any of the key players.Surprised we turned down the Barron bid,...just have to see what difference a new guy makes with this squad

[RicoS321]

It's great that we've moved on from "player X returning from injury, is like a new signing" to "player X not leaving is like a new signing". There can't be much of a barrel left to scrape.

A fucking disastrous window, and even the BBC are taking the pish by having Robson in our ins and outs list. We were told that it didn't matter that out recruitment guy was leaving at the end of January because all the work was already done, with targets in place. Fuck knows where they got the plural from in targets. We got the guy who we'd already tried to get in the summer.

The cluelessness is stretching so fucking deep that we're considering Neil fucking Warnock until summer. The English John Hughes, a joke figure who's been to Scotland before and really likes it up there.

 

[RicoS321]

Round up from the previous window, ignoring loanees made permanent:

Doohan - pass

Rubezic - success

Gartenmann - success

Jensen - success

Williams - fail

Dadia - fail

Gueye - fail

McGarry - fail

Sokler - success 

Devlin - success

McGrath - success 

I'm counting anyone who's managed to hold down first team minutes or provide something worthwhile from the bench (Sokler) as a success, which is generous, I know. Don't think I've missed anyone. A 60% return is quite a successful window all things considered. Obviously, guys like McGrath and Devlin were known quantities, possibly not subjected to the rigours of our recruitment process, and bolster the numbers a little, but they all count. We failed to pick up any real standouts that will be sellable assets for the future (maybe Rubezic, if he can settle down a little, he certainly has the attributes). A massive turnover in the summer again I expect, so hopefully the new recruitment team will be settled, and have had time to work with a new manager. I expect what will actually happen is that we get some grifter in until summer, then dick about for eight weeks before signing a new manager the day before the window closes, with our recruitment head having just left the previous week.

[Jute]

One of my concerns over appointing an interim manager is that it puts us behind for summer recruitment. We need to get the new manager in now so as he can review existing squad and start working as soon as possible with recruitment team on identifying targets for the summer. 

[tlg1903]

1 hour ago, Jute said:

One of my concerns over appointing an interim manager is that it puts us behind for summer recruitment. We need to get the new manager in now so as he can review existing squad and start working as soon as possible with recruitment team on identifying targets for the summer. 

Agreed, like when Mcinnes came in toward the end of the season to replace Brown.  

 

This really is a complete fucking mess.  I'm absolutely raging with the timing, if Robson was to go cormack should have pulled the trigger after the home defeat to St Mirren not a day befoe e the window closes for obvious reasons. 

[RicoS321]

17 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

Agreed, like when Mcinnes came in toward the end of the season to replace Brown.  

 

This really is a complete fucking mess.  I'm absolutely raging with the timing, if Robson was to go cormack should have pulled the trigger after the home defeat to St Mirren not a day befoe e the window closes for obvious reasons. 

He was saved by scheduling and bad weather. Had we got a result against hearts (which our first half performance deserved), then he'd have been safe for another few weeks. I'm of the opinion that a manager should be given every opportunity to fail, because in the long run an extra few games shouldn't matter. I think the fact that the players hadn't downed tools (like they did for Goodwin) probably helped too. Had we fired Robson after St Mirren, we probably wouldn't have replaced him by now anyway, given last season's process.

Either way, we have a model in place that managers and windows shouldn't matter. We should have targets identified and ready to be pursued. Robson wouldn't have had significant input into guys like Rubezic and Gueye etc, nor do we need him to have anything more than sign off on anyone in January. He didn't have any input in selling Ramadani clearly either, so there's plenty we currently - correctly - take out of the manager's hands. We were told the outgoing recruitment head had done his research and this window wouldn't be affected. Unless we're changing our model back to the McInnes one, then we shouldn't be considering what a new manager may or may not want, we should have the confidence in our recruitment to keep things moving. 

Edited February 2 by RicoS321

[Panda]

4 hours ago, Elgindon said:

We did try a coupla defenders (Pollock and Kerr),and a couple of other positions, but fell through for whatever reason.

Aye Jason Kerr followed Aberdeen on Instagram, then unfollowed them. 

That's how you know transfers aren't happening these days.

4 hours ago, Elgindon said:

Just glad we didnt lose any of the key players.Surprised we turned down the Barron bid,...

Think it's because what they offered is essentially what we'll get in summer anyway as we'll be due a development fee.

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

 

A fucking disastrous window, and even the BBC are taking the pish by having Robson in our ins and outs list.

Don't take it out on the BBC.

Plus I know the fella who takes pride and joy in that ins and outs article, updating it on his days off. We're all proud of him.

3 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

The cluelessness is stretching so fucking deep that we're considering Neil fucking Warnock until summer. The English John Hughes, a joke figure who's been to Scotland before and really likes it up there.

 

And he's so keen he can't even be arsed getting himself up here for tomorrow's game.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they want the next appointment to be shite so they can come out and say we should have just stuck with Robson (which, without fan pressure, they would have).

[RicoS321]

1 hour ago, Panda said:

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if they want the next appointment to be shite so they can come out and say we should have just stuck with Robson (which, without fan pressure, they would have).

There's a strong chance that they will be shite. We've got a poor squad and we're a window behind. Warnock strikes me as the type of signing Cormack would make because he thinks Dons fans would love a "big name" EPL manager. He's probably in the same bracket as those weirdos outside pittodrie giving it the Lennon chat. It wouldn't surprise me if the Warnock story was fed to the P&J by Cormack to sound out opinion. 

[Jute]

After window closes we announce a new head of recruitment.

https://www.afc.co.uk/2024/02/06/badlan-checks-in-at-pittodrie/?fbclid=IwAR1jSXdg2nWuUoFnLYBhp0EVfXB6cXO_V2OTX8SFMJiz6s7WKFt2lwjdfq8

[RicoS321]

2 hours ago, Jute said:

After window closes we announce a new head of recruitment.

https://www.afc.co.uk/2024/02/06/badlan-checks-in-at-pittodrie/?fbclid=IwAR1jSXdg2nWuUoFnLYBhp0EVfXB6cXO_V2OTX8SFMJiz6s7WKFt2lwjdfq8

In fairness, the last guy got the whole windae and preparations are hopefully done in advance. The biggest disappointment is that we missed the cost saving opportunity for him to get a taxi from the airport with Warnock.