Daily Express - Diamond to Charlton

[BobbyBiscuit]

CHARLTON are chasing Aberdeen defender Zander Diamond.

 

The big centre-half is out of contract in the summer and is high on the wanted list of Addicks manager Phil Parkinson.

 

The English League One outfit could better his current wage, even though he is the top earner at Pittodrie, and Parkinson believes the Dons ace could help them make their mark if they were to get to England’s second tier.

 

Championship side Barnsley are also looking at Diamond and he may get other interest at that level, although his stock has fallen dramatically in recent times.

 

He had been tipped for a move to the English Premier League earlier in his career but has failed to hit the heights and this season has been a major disappointment as the Dons have slumped to the bottom of the SPL table. On Friday the player dropped his biggest hint that he is ready to quit.

 

Aberdeen have already told their out-of-contract players they will need to take wage cuts and that is something Diamond is not keen to do.

 

The introduction of Craig Brown and Archie Knox as their new management team is unlikely to sway the defender into staying.

 

The pair, who will be officially unveiled at a Pittodrie press conference this morning, have been given the green light to gut the squad that got Mark McGhee the sack and getting Diamond off the wage bill would allow them to bring in new blood.

 

Express Sport revealed on Saturday that Brown wants to make former Scotland cap David McNamee, who is a free agent after his release from Plymouth, his first signing.

 

He is also trying to sign Nick Blackman on loan from Blackburn and Alan Gow, both of whom are set to see their Motherwell deals expire next month. Motherwell and Aberdeen are already at loggerheads over Brown’s departure, with the Steelmen claiming the Dons went behind their backs and have since reported them to the SPL.

 

But Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne has hit back and claims they were first approached by an agent, representing Brown.

 

Milne said: “An agent contacted the club last week with regard to Craig and Archie and we indicated we would be keen to talk. Craig subsequently informed Motherwell that Aberdeen were interested in speaking to him and they raised no objection.

 

“Motherwell’s subsequent statement on Wednesday referred to the fact there had been discussions between the parties without any suggestion of criticism of ourselves and it was therefore a surprise to us and Craig to learn of the accusations of inappropriate conduct.”

 

The SPL are set to investigate Motherwell’s claims.

 

Probably too good to be true.

[Stewart]

Fingers crossed.

[manc_don]

Please let this be true. I am a firm believer that he is a troublemaker within the squad and hopefully we can pick up a fee for him.

[Harcus]

Get rid in January if possible.

[BigAl]

Competiton for his signature, hopefully means a fee coming our way.

To think I was always told the 25th December was Xmas day.

[mizer]

We certainly didnt get the impression from him that he knew anything about this post match on Saturday but the comment of "new players will have to come in" comment from another player takes on a less critical meaning.

[tlg1903]

The only thing i regard as a shame about this is that once upon a time it would not have been out of the question to get over a mill for diamond.  wont be sorry to see him go but its a shame that thats the case

[BigAl]

The only thing i regard as a shame about this is that once upon a time it would not have been out of the question to get over a mill for diamond.  wont be sorry to see him go but its a shame that thats the case

 

Can't disagree with that A clear indication of just how much his stock has fallen owing to the level of performances he has been churning out week after week

[BobbyBiscuit]

comment of "new players will have to come in" comment from another player takes on a less critical meaning.

 

Eh?

 

I'm not sure this isn't just a regurgitation of a story from last year, they've been linked with him before.

[Azteca1903]

No real substance to the article, but it can't be a bad thing to have Diamond linked with a January move away in the papers. It's not like his on-field performances are going to attract any sort of interest.

[baggy89]

No real substance to the article, but it can't be a bad thing to have Diamond linked with a January move away in the papers. It's not like his on-field performances are going to attract any sort of interest.

 

Aye funny how its made its way onto the main page of the BBC rumours section too. Zander's agent has obviously been working hard as I doubt his performances have even got him on the "radar" of Swindon Supermarine.

[Superstar Tradesman]

The only thing i regard as a shame about this is that once upon a time it would not have been out of the question to get over a mill for diamond.  wont be sorry to see him go but its a shame that thats the case

 

I doubt we'd ever have got a million for Diamond.

 

I do remember him being touted as a player we may one day get a million for.  But the boy decided to read his own press rather than knuckle down and become that player.

[Guest ally s]

I doubt we'd ever have got a million for Diamond.

 

I do remember him being touted as a player we may one day get a million for.  But the boy decided to read his own press rather than knuckle down and become that player.

 

Calderwood was in the paper last week saying we rejected a bid of over £1 million not long after we beat FC Copenhagen.

[bilbobaggins]

Calderwood was in the paper last week saying we rejected a bid of over £1 million not long after we beat FC Copenhagen.

 

Calderwood has bene known tyo speak shite but fuck me, if true, the person who rejected it should be shot.

 

 

[manc_don]

Calderwood has bene known tyo speak shite but fuck me, if true, the person who rejected it should be shot.

 

I disagree. At that time we were trying or should have been building a team on the back of that season. In hindsight , yes we should have accepted the offer but id guess that was why we said no ta.

[Tyrant]

I doubt that's true. An offer of £1m + would have given Stewarty an erection and there's no way we'd have turned it down.

[bilbobaggins]

Granted but if we all accept that a youth system is our only way forward then cash offers like that for our players should never be rejected.

 

 

[Sandaldinho]

If he goes it will be sad, not because he's leaving, but because he could have been a much better quality player than he turned out.

 

won't miss him though and think we will ultimately benift from his departure

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

Moving to Charlton, the final blow to the faltering career of a guy who should be the main man at Pittodrie now.

 

What a disappointment of a player.

[Ptayles]

I doubt we'd ever have got a million for Diamond.

 

I do remember him being touted as a player we may one day get a million for.  But the boy decided to read his own press rather than knuckle down and become that player.

Be lucky if we got a tenner for him just now

[Ajja]

Not sure of the facts but I'd guess that more than 90% of young players labelled as 'potential' stars fail to reach their early career hype. No surprise really that Diamond has faltered en route, he has grown up (or failed to) within a difficult club culture and has not been big enough to raise himself above the mire.

 

It will always be a challenge to both maximise the results of a young star and also realise a cash value for them. You either have to sell them when their star is rising, in which case you lose the opportunity to benefit on field as someone else reaps the best of them, or you have to look to harvest their ability and run the risk that you miss that big fee. Unfortunately Aberdeen FC have a track record of failing on both fronts most of the time.

[Labirinth7]

Think he has missed having an experienced vocal defender next to' him. When he was showing lots of promise Russel anderson was keeping a close eye on him. No wonder our defence is shit when we have replaced hart severin anderson and mulgrew with ilfil and robertson. I know Times Are hard but i think that makes wasting approx 1 million fucking about with managers even more inexcusable. Looks like the lack of investment inplaying staff will deteriorate further according to' this report. Heads would have rolled for such poor management anywhere else. I think there will be' an apathy amongst the support until the board admit they have Made a complete cunt of things. They make me sick

[TENEMENTFUNSTER]

Think he has missed having an experienced vocal defender next to' him. When he was showing lots of promise Russel anderson was keeping a close eye on him. No wonder our defence is shit when we have replaced hart severin anderson and mulgrew with ilfil and robertson. I know Times Are hard but i think that makes wasting approx 1 million fucking about with managers even more inexcusable. Looks like the lack of investment inplaying staff will deteriorate further according to' this report. Heads would have rolled for such poor management anywhere else. I think there will be' an apathy amongst the support until the board admit they have Made a complete cunt of things. They make me sick

 

Anderson followed by Severin.

 

Agree with all of that Labia 7.

[Edinburghdon]

Lets be honest, no one will pay a fee to take him off our hands in January, so the best we can hope for is using his wage effectively in the summer!

[Tyrant]

We (Craigy B & Archie) need to decide whether it's worth keeping him on with the wage he's on or if we should punt him, free up £3k a week and try and get someone else in January which is a time known as a bad one for picking up good players for f'all.