Season 2019/2020 Rebuilding

[tlg1903]

Basically Cormack has looked at the celtic model and thought "why can't we do that on a contextually smaller scale?".  It does make sense too as I guess when you think about it the biggest selling point about playing in Scotland for a foreign player is the potential access to English football.  As for Hernandez the fee for him seems to have been about 800k...... I'm sure we were all quite shocked by that. Its biggest outlay since the 90's and  no-one saw it coming.  I would love to know more about the deal, I'm sure Atlanta will defo have a finders fee percentage clause but who knows if they are contributing to the transfer fee or wages.  Cormack seems canny and is used to working with yanks so there's a good chance this will be a deal that isn't shafting us. 

 

Ultimately I think we would all like to know the full ins and outs of this transfer because whatever else you want to speculate about I think it's pretty unarguable that this represents a HUGE change in transfer strategy. High risk? Well, riskier certainly but I'm not convinced of that.  I don't think cormack or the board would be so reckless as to go high risk with the clubs finances.  No, I think this is just some very welcome healthy ambition from the club and long may that continue.

 

 

[Slim]

What I don't understand is that if we are signing him in some kind of collaboration with Atlanta, why wouldn't they just sign him directly themselves right now? I mean, they just signed Mulraney from Hearts who is absolute toilet, so they can't be so flush with top class players that they need to see this guy making the step up from Norwegian league to Scottish league before taking a risk in signing him.

[Ten Caat]

Noticed a tweet from Tommie Hoban about an hour ago. Says that recovering from his injury without a club has been more difficult than he thought. Well we did offer you facilities and you chose not to take us up on it....although I do think that Watford have been incredibly mean if they didn't allow him access to their facilities even if they didn't offer a new contract.

 

Anyway he goes on to say that he will be ready to commence full training in a couple of weeks. I hope our support don't get any ideas of us trying to sign him on a short term deal just yet. For one....we have 4 central defenders as it is and now 2 right backs (3 if you count Virtanen, out on loan at Arbroath but doing very well and probably ready to be a full first team squad member next season). If he's only starting full training in mid February, he won't be fit enough to play for at least 4-6 weeks beyond that. And of course....he then has to test out the injured knee to see if it will indeed stand up to the rigours of playing football again. I'd have no problem once again offering training facilities and then offering him the chance to play a few reserve games for us to see how things go. But I'd be very wary of offering him even a short term contract just now. Our centre back position may well change in the summer....McKenna might be sold and if Devlin still hasn't re-established himself  I cannot see him being happy to hang around a whole lot longer as 3rd/4th choice. If Hoban is still unattached at that point and we have a vacancy for a central defender then he might be worth a punt.

[BigAl]

Training facilities and a pay per play deal is about the extent of what I'd offer at present TC

[RicoS321]

What I don't understand is that if we are signing him in some kind of collaboration with Atlanta, why wouldn't they just sign him directly themselves right now? I mean, they just signed Mulraney from Hearts who is absolute toilet, so they can't be so flush with top class players that they need to see this guy making the step up from Norwegian league to Scottish league before taking a risk in signing him.

 

I don't think the collaboration is anything other than scouting resources. We're not a feeder club. However, I wondered if there was any possibility of us actually pooling our scouting department costs at a "group" level, along with sharing the costs and profits of any new signings/player sales? Not sure how this would work with regard to the rules like. Basically, we have a single recruitment department with SA, Europe, UK branches that work in the same fashion and pass player info to the dons or Atlanta as requested (i.e. if they're looking for a defender, then they would get the benefit of the knowledge of our scouts in europe as well as their own).

 

As for Hoban, he's missed the boat a little I think. I can understand him not coming up to Aberdeen to train without getting paid, it'd be quite a trip away from family with the possibility of zero return. If ever fit, he'd be better than Taylor. I'd be tempted to give him a one year in the summer.

[SeeBass]

I still can't believe Paul Bernard in 1995 does remain our highest transfer fee paid.  Was hoping Mr Ronald Hernandez might nick that record!!  How much would P.B. worth in today's market??

[DantheDon]

1 million in 1995 must be worth about 2.5 going by inflation. However Football is a different thing altogether Andy Cole joined Man utd for 7 million in 1995. Even if you discount some of the outliers a lot of players are going for around the 80-100 million mark. So from that point of view Bernard today would have cost somewhere in the region of 10-15 million today.

 

Also I don't know if I would offer hoban anything at this stage. He obviously doesnt fancy joining us, so what's the point.

[BigAl]

 

 

Also I don't know if I would offer hoban anything at this stage. He obviously doesnt fancy joining us, so what's the point.

 

Not sure I get this to be honest ?

Why do you say that he obviously doesn't fancy joining us ?

Is it because he hasn't taken us up on our offer prior to now ?

McInnes is quoted as saying that it is only now that Hoban is ready to get on the grass and do a bit of work and that there was no point in him coming up prior to that.

[DantheDon]

Not sure I get this to be honest ?

Why do you say that he obviously doesn't fancy joining us ?

Is it because he hasn't taken us up on our offer prior to now ?

McInnes is quoted as saying that it is only now that Hoban is ready to get on the grass and do a bit of work and that there was no point in him coming up prior to that.

 

Fair enough big Al, I hadn't read that so I was uninformed. I got the impression he had refused our offer of training facilities. If that's the case I don't have a problem with getting him in on a mostly pay as you play type deal.

[BigAl]

Fair enough big Al, I hadn't read that so I was uninformed. I got the impression he had refused our offer of training facilities. If that's the case I don't have a problem with getting him in on a mostly pay as you play type deal.

 

No worries Dan.

Reckon we'll see some movement on this in the next couple of weeks or so

 

[LA-Don]

Tommie Hoban has apparently accepted the invite to train with us and joins up next week. Hopefully he’s the creative #10 we so desperately need!

 

Reeks of desperation

[Ten Caat]

I'm sure it is only to allow the loon to get up to match fitness and play a few reserve games to test out his knee. He won't be ready to do that for around another 4 weeks or so having been out so long. But as for signing him? There's just no room for him in the squad right now with 4 centre halves and 2 right backs. So even a pay-as-you-play deal would be throwing money away.

 

If he can come through a few reserve matches in March/early April......depending on how we go in our next few games our season could well be over anyway (out the Cup and struggling for holding on to a top 6 place in the league). If that were the case, I'd have no problem letting him play in a few first team fixtures as a possible trial for next season. At least one of McKenna and Devlin are likely to leave in the summer. Only then would I be offering him a deal, assuming he has indeed proven his fitness.

[ayrshire_don74]

Agree TC we dont need him ...

[Elgindon]

Tommie Hoban has apparently accepted the invite to train with us and joins up next week. Hopefully he’s the creative #10 we so desperately need!

 

Reeks of desperation

 

Am desperate enough to give it a try...assuming Hernandez isn't up to it

 

 

 

[ayrshire_don74]

800k and already not up to it, i mean even for DM (dont think its his signing) that is a cracker , i dont believe he is shit , neither is Mcgeouch, Ferguson regressing... maybe there is another reason..

[Panda]

I still can't believe Paul Bernard in 1995 does remain our highest transfer fee paid.  Was hoping Mr Ronald Hernandez might nick that record!!  How much would P.B. worth in today's market??

 

You could argue Robbie Winters was the most expensive signing, on account we paid £700k plus Billy Dodds for him, and Dodds at the time was clearly worth a hell of a lot more than £300k, so the deal was worth well over a million.

 

[Panda]

Hoban is probably a signing for next season, when we will need him

as McKenna likely will be away. Makes sense to get him in now as it'll likely take more than a few weeks in pre-season to get him properly fit.

 

 

[tom_widdows]

You could argue Robbie Winters was the most expensive signing, on account we paid £700k plus Billy Dodds for him, and Dodds at the time was clearly worth a hell of a lot more than £300k, so the deal was worth well over a million.

 

In terms of damage down to the team it certainly wass the most 'expensive' signing.

I was probably naive when I first heard the Winters rumours to think it would mean a Winters & Dodds Strike Partnership (which with my limited football knowledge i think would have been great) so it was a real punch in the guts to find out Dodds was shipped out only a couple of weeks after he had scored a hat trick in the cup at Caley Thistle, and the promplty scored a hat-trick on his debut for the Arabs.

 

Alex Miller  :hammer: :hammer:

[ayrshire_don74]

was impressed with Brophy last night more to him than I thought, Killies lb looked good also (on loan from QPR)

[Ten Caat]

Agree about the Killie left back Hamalainen. If our attempt to sign Leigh goes tits up then I'd be happy with us trying to get him instead, although I suspect QPR would be looking for a fee likely in excess of that we paid for Hernandez.

 

Against Hamilton, I liked the look of Gogic. He is an absolute beast and one thing we lack (apart from a genuine number 10) is a real hard bastard. Also pretty quick over the ground....he outpaced Kennedy then totally outmuscled him in the second half when it looked like Kennedy had been put through on goal. With what Hamilton pay....we could double his wages and he'd still be only at or around our average wage.

[redordead]

Agree about the Killie left back Hamalainen. If our attempt to sign Leigh goes tits up then I'd be happy with us trying to get him instead, although I suspect QPR would be looking for a fee likely in excess of that we paid for Hernandez.

 

Against Hamilton, I liked the look of Gogic. He is an absolute beast and one thing we lack (apart from a genuine number 10) is a real hard bastard. Also pretty quick over the ground....he outpaced Kennedy then totally outmuscled him in the second half when it looked like Kennedy had been put through on goal. With what Hamilton pay....we could double his wages and he'd still be only at or around our average wage.

 

In all fairness to him, Ojo has really found a bit of dig recently. Possibly as he stops worrying about injury. He's bbeen putting himself around really well and dominating. Best of the 3 in there by some distance. I think Ferguson has reached his potential and its bang average. Mcgeouch seems tidy so far but not creative in any way.

[TheDeeDon]

Tommy Hoban potentially coming in to replace McKenna for the season. Given his injury record it could backfire very quickly, but on the other hand IF he keeps fit we will have a decent player.

 

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/donsnews/call-to-hoban-after-blow-for-mckenna/

 

 

[Jute]

Tommy Hoban potentially coming in to replace McKenna for the season. Given his injury record it could backfire very quickly, but on the other hand IF he keeps fit we will have a decent player.

 

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/donsnews/call-to-hoban-after-blow-for-mckenna/

 

Surely there has to be another free agent option other than Hoban. He has been injured for large chunks of his professional career. Would rather we looked at an option who might be fit enough to play games if needed.

[LA-Don]

Surely there has to be another free agent option other than Hoban. He has been injured for large chunks of his professional career. Would rather we looked at an option who might be fit enough to play games if needed.

 

We have Logan, Hernandez, Devlin, Considine, and Taylor, plus I think Leigh is back in training, plus Campbell can fill in at left back. Think Hoban is a win-win cheap option right now and we address the bigger picture in the summer.

[Panda]

He's inviting Hoban up to train and if he proves his fitness, then he'll sign. I don't see anything wrong with that really.

 

I'm sure in summer we'll be looking for a new left sided centre back anyway with McKenna sure to leave and Considine likely to attract big offers after the world sees his talents at Euro 2020.