Summer Transfer chat

[Lencarl]

Derby County left-back Max Lowe's arrival at Pittodrie should complete Aberdeen's summer recruitment, says manager Derek McInnes. Lowe, 21, signed a three-year deal with the Championship club this week and has been loaned to the Scottish Premiership side until January 2019. McInnes says Lowe is a "very good addition" to his defensive options. He added there was "nothing" in reports linking Aberdeen with a move for Sporting Lisbon midfielder Ryan Gauld.

 

So no more signings before the transfer deadline tomorrow then.

 

Let's wait and see.

 

[RicoS321]

I'm not sure about Gauld. An exciting young player no doubt, but where does he actually play these days? If it's attacking midfield then I think we have a duty to give Wright that role for a decent run to see if he can make something of it rather than a loanee. If it's out wide, then it might be decent to challenge McGinn and GMS. Otherwise, assuming the new striker boy is any good, then we stick with what we've got until January. Re-assess the midfield then.

[KennyFuckinPowers]

I'm not sure about Gauld. An exciting young player no doubt, but where does he actually play these days? If it's attacking midfield then I think we have a duty to give Wright that role for a decent run to see if he can make something of it rather than a loanee. If it's out wide, then it might be decent to challenge McGinn and GMS. Otherwise, assuming the new striker boy is any good, then we stick with what we've got until January. Re-assess the midfield then.

 

No need for reassessing the midfield Rico, the legendary Greg Tansey should be match fit by then.

 

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Also, maybe been overthinking things a bit here, but I have a feeling that we've signed Lowe to keep Shinnie happy & persuade him to agree to a new deal.

 

He knows his chances at International level are slim to none for the LB role, let's be honest about that ( Roberston, Tierney, Douglas etc.. ) all ahead of him in that position, Douglas perhaps so, but other two are definitely ahead.

 

I am also fairly sure he's said openly in interviews that I have seen, he sees himself as a midfielder, although he's happy to play where the manager needs him to play. Granted with McKenna & Reynolds being injured, McKenna *possibly* on the move, we'll be shorter centrally, so Considine moves in there, where we know he's comfortable, Hoban can also play in there. So it does leave us short at LB should anything happen to Shinnie, and also Hoban is another doubt for Killie, I personally thought he struggled against Hibs and looked dead on his feet, he's not match fit in my opinion.

 

So there are certainly alternative theories, but I feel Shinnie has stated his desire to be mainly a CM in any contract negotiations and therefore, we've added Lowe. We have plenty of cover now though, in defence and midfield, which is never a bad thing.

[ayrshire_don74]

devlin and to a lesser extent ferguson asids a wholly uninspiring transfer window so far , gleeson has yet to show , forrester looks an utter shiter,  so our faith is with loan signings who appear average at best 

[rocket_scientist]

devlin and to a lesser extent ferguson asids a wholly uninspiring transfer window so far , gleeson has yet to show , forrester looks an utter shiter,  so our faith is with loan signings who appear average at best

 

Devlin and Ferguson are good footballers.

 

They can be excellent in a great team.

 

Unfortunately the majority of his signings are utter shite.

[ayrshire_don74]

agree rocket am giving ferguson a bit of  slack as i expected forrester to be ahead of him , but cant see that now , we will end up 5/6th

[wee toon red]

Ferguson is a great signing and exactly the type of player we should be going after. Anyone who downplays the quality of that signing is either completely lacking in football knowledge or just trying to find any kind of reason to have a go at McInnes.

[A llad insane]

agree rocket am giving ferguson a bit of  slack as i expected forrester to be ahead of him , but cant see that now , we will end up 5/6th

 

Cyber bet we dont finish 5/6th, 3rd at very worst.  i think you are overating the 2 Edinburgh clubs for a start.

[wee toon red]

Lewis

 

Logan devlin McKenna considine (new guy?)

 

Shinnie ball/gleeson

 

Mcginn Wright/Ferguson gms

 

May/Wilson

 

Is a better team than hibs or hearts and will be neck and neck with the hun - maybe even Timothy as well if they contoinue as they’ve stared the season.

[ayrshire_don74]

better how ? we were fucking terrible v hibs

[ayrshire_don74]

any team with dung ball in cm isnt going places

[RicoS321]

any team with dung ball in cm isnt going places

 

Can you name a single fixture in which we've lost in normal time with Ball in midfield?

[Jute]

Can you name a single fixture in which we've lost in normal time with Ball in midfield?

 

This season or last?

 

This season the answer is none but not won any either. He was right back against Dundee and St Mirren.

[RicoS321]

This season or last?

 

This season the answer is none but not won any either. He was right back against Dundee and St Mirren.

 

Both. I ken like, I was being facetious mainly.

[rocket_scientist]

Both. I ken like, I was being facetious mainly.

 

But why?

 

What is the point of pulling wool over the eyes?

 

Like Shinnie + x > better than y + z, what are you doing?

 

We're heading for a major slump.

 

Not only can you not see this, you argue against it EVERY TIME.

 

We will end up in May exactly how you asked us to be.

 

Optimistic spasticism that would've made Ian Dury proud. Block head.

[baggy89]

I think it’s a decent squad with cover in most positions. We should see less round pegs in square holes. It looks like we have the personnel to play in a number of formations to adapt and take a point/points out of most games. We have a group of good young players who it appears McInnes is willing to give game time too. We’re one short who can play that killer final ball but as others have said maybe Wright or Forrester will end up being that player. Our biggest issue is the Huns have gambled and won and today will increase the size of their squad further, and Lennon gives no fucks (which could work either way for Hibs). We’ll finish top 4, and let’s face it it makes little difference where we end up within that 4 (unless first), if we’d finished 3rd last season we’d be in the Europa group stage now.

[RicoS321]

But why?

 

What is the point of pulling wool over the eyes?

 

Because ayrshire_don74 is, almost without exception, unhelpfully negative without reasoned argument. Nobody on here is arguing that Ball is a great midfielder, so the unnecessary attack on him as a player isn't required. In short, he was being a dick about it, so the only reasonable response was either not to respond or a facetious/wind-up type of response.

 

Like Shinnie + x > better than y + z, what are you doing?

 

We're heading for a major slump.

 

Not only can you not see this, you argue against it EVERY TIME.

 

We will end up in May exactly how you asked us to be.

 

Optimistic spasticism that would've made Ian Dury proud. Block head.

 

I've never argued against that, I've only argued over what is put in front of me. My points have been regular and clear that McInnes' problems lie in his recruitment (striker/midfielder - see my points regarding Gleeson), his lack of youth development, his cautious approach - i.e. the same as everyone else. I don't need to argue that further, I don't see it as beneficial. Nor do I see the need to be massively critical of McInnes at every venture because he's done a better than reasonable job so far and we don't live in some alternate univserse where we can afford a better manager or have a chairman with the ability to find one without catastrophically fucking it up.

 

The point about Shinnie is a great case-in-point. People were arguing that Shinnie should be playing left back because he's ace there. My point was that you can't just say that Shinnie is ace at left back and move him from midfield without addressing the gaping hole left behind. We were a couple of days before the end of the window and unlikely to be getting in any further players that would be any good (maybe this new left back will be of course). There was no point in me going over old ground and saying McInnes is shite at recruitment - I've made that once or twice before (Gleeson, Forrester, Tansey) more quickly/aggressively than most - I'm interested in the nuance of "we are where we are, with the players we've got" how we get the best out of the existing situation. I'd say that's the point of a fitba forum and indeed watching fitba - talking about how best we could set up the existing team, not some team that doesn't exist where we've signed an ace midfielder and a 25 goal a season striker.

 

I actually don't mind a major slump, that's what fitba is about for me. Being good one year, shite the next. We're nae the Tims, winning every week. If I can understand, or at least think I can understand, why we're shite because I've watched us every week then that's quite enjoyable and it makes it great (and frustrating) when you see things turn around, or even see us set up well in individual games like we did against St Mirren, Burnley and much of the post-split last season. It makes it frustrating when you see repeated errors such as in our recruitment and in youth development and our apparent (I still haven't seen the highlights of the hibs game) cautious approach to the game, but that's what makes fitba worth it for me. McInnes will be gone in a year or so, and someone else will come in with a different way of working. It's the big things, the major fuck ups that I get annoyed by: the new stadium location, the 11-1 vote split - things that'll fuck us up for generations. On the playing side, the inability to recognise and capitalise the opportunity we had to get into the Europa league last year, which has set us back a couple of years. Those bigger black marks are the stuff that concerns me, the detail is the stuff that is great to discuss on fitba boards and the like. Should Wright have started more games: is he a dick in training, or is McInnes just too cautious? Does McInnes buy too many squad players, rather than supplementing with youth? Should McInnes have said: X,Y,Z after the game (and if he said that a point would have been taken before the game against Hibs, then that's very poor). These sorts of things I think are great topics, but the margin for error is so tight - and the buffer so small - at our level that I find it difficult to be completely scathing either way - especially when I don't know the exact reasons for decisions that are made: attitudes in training, player X decided to go to club Y for £2K more per week and so on (i.e. I don't have a complete picture). I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was optimistic from either? I'd say balanced perhaps, I think we'll finish 3rd this season and won't win any silverware - exactly where our budget and the bookies would put us. I think that our personnel are not good enough to get us beyond that unless we can keep everyone fit every week.

 

 

[rocket_scientist]

I don't thing we have any material differences in our points of view Rico and sorry that I never knew you were in a prolonged debate/argument with another. I was misinterpreting your posts as being overly optimistic and divorced from reality.

 

In the alternate universe that I inhabit - as it's certainly not the same one that Milne and McInnes exist in - I value keeping it simple. The simple truth is that McInnes is not a good enough manager to challenge for the title and I would like, at least once more in my lifetime, whether successful or otherwise for AFC to try and win the league.

[RicoS321]

In the alternate universe that I inhabit - as it's certainly not the same one that Milne and McInnes exist in - I value keeping it simple. The simple truth is that McInnes is not a good enough manager to challenge for the title and I would like, at least once more in my lifetime, whether successful or otherwise for AFC to try and win the league.

 

Totally agree. I think you'd need near perfection for us to win the league - zero mistakes. I think McInnes has too many individual flaws to ever do that. I also think that poor recruitment over the last 2-3 seasons is now beginning to take it's toll. My only hope for a decent season is that Wright finally comes of age and makes that attacking midfield spot his own. That role could be the difference between us challenging for second all the way (again, we're nae going to get first with this squad/McInnes) and scrapping it all the way for 3rd-5th. 

 

I don't think there is a manager in the SPL at present who would take the dons to the league title, and there hasn't been one in recent memory. None of them seem to have the right blend of risk-taking without being shite at the back and the ability to get >50% return (of good players) in the transfer market. I'd include Rogers in that.

[Ten Caat]

Said it before and I'll say it again....

 

Lennon would get us winning trophies given a modicum of support in a transfer window (£2-3million). And if nothing else the team would be fucking good to watch.

[RicoS321]

Said it before and I'll say it again....

 

Lennon would get us winning trophies given a modicum of support in a transfer window (£2-3million). And if nothing else the team would be fucking good to watch.

 

Except that he can't even finish above us and hasn't yet won Hibs a trophy or looked likely to (despite a healthy budget similar to our own). He talks a good game, occasionally performs well against the Tim and the Hun but his tactics are at times bordering on stupidity. He's been outwitted (actually outwitted, not just had an off-day) by McInnes on more than one occasion and has never produced a Hibs team close to the one we had a couple of seasons ago when we were banging in goals for fun. He's "a winner" except when he invariably isn't and goes in a huff blaming anyone and everyone. He lacks nuance and class - he's fucking Kevin Keegan. I don't get the love in, and I certainly don't get your stated to desire to bring him in and give him more money than McInnes has had in total over his 5 years here, that's just fucking stupidity. Nor would it prove that Lennon is a better manager, it would just prove that spending £2-3M in Scotland gives you a good chance of winning a trophy (something I think that we'd have done last season if we'd spent £750K on Moult, or whatever the asking price was).

 

I actually don't mind listening to Lennon's commentary and in some interviews comes across very well but he's shown nothing on the pitch to warrant the weird adoration by some dons fans.

[Lencarl]

Lennon is waiting for Brendan Rodgers to fuck off back down South where he want's to be, and pray that the Celtic Board welcome him back with open arms.

 

He is a waste of space and would bring Aberdeen to a place they do not want to be.

 

He plays to the crowd much like Gerrard.

[KennyFuckinPowers]

Aston Villa have approached us for McKenna now, Sky Sports saying we've rejected their advances.

 

Apparently wanted him on loan, with an agreement to buy him in January for X amount of Million. Looks like a last minute panic offer.

[Kowalski]

Aston Villa have approached us for McKenna now, Sky Sports saying we've rejected their advances.

 

Apparently wanted him on loan, with an agreement to buy him in January for X amount of Million. Looks like a last minute panic offer.

 

£7M according to the EE. We’ve turned it down.