4 new faces at least

[rico94]

Problem is, most Dons fans of a certain age have seen the "club must back the manager" moment come and go over many many season previously. We have a budget and we stick to it. Full stop. That budget may have increased but surely we're talking about a relatively small increase over years gone by. If the well is dry, the well is dry. I suspect it's that frustration that will drive McInnes towards a fresh challenge this summer to take advantage of his good reputation at the minute, rather than risk another season with a new uncertain squad only to find out his name is mud at the end of it and the job offers aren't so sparkly.

Until we have 20,000 at Pittodrie/New Stadium every week, these are the facts of life.

No excuses from the board,there is no debt anymore(cleared by someone else) plus we must have made a fair bit from finishing 2nd and the cup runs and if we sell Hayes or McLean that money also has to go back into the squad, none of this well is dry stuff there must be a good chunk of wages freed up from Jack, Taylor and McGinn as well. No ones expecting us to pay millions of pounds for players here but its not impossible for us to get good players in for 300-500k, we used to do it in the late 80s and early 90s.

[NewOrleansRed]

Its a worrying time to be honest. Selling Hayes to Celtic would be a disaster for us, if we are to even think about getting near them next season. If you sell your best players to your rivals, then whats the point? it would take big money for me to be happy and that money would 100% have to be reinvested back into the transfer kitty.

We have already replaced Jack, so thats not a problem, easy shoes to fill. The issue for me is we have to replace Taylor, Reynolds and Considine, along with Mcginn and possibly Hayes. We could even lose McLean if he attracts attention and Logan is an attractive player for other clubs too. Luckily theya re under contract and would require a fee, but I'm not convinced it would all be reinvested. These are worst case scenarios of course.

As for point on Reynolds and Considine, they just aren't good enough and if we are to progress and they will need replaced. Rooney needs someone to back him up with Stockley out and we would ideally want to strengthen on our striking options so it may cost us money.

McInnes and Milne have their work cut out! I have a mix of fear of the unknown and excitement about a freshening up!!

Its a massive summer for us. And that's an understatement. I personally want

Devlin
Maloney
Christie
GMS
New Striker

But i strongly doubt that's what we're getting.
Just a wee bit of food for thought. I came home the cup final (great day, shyte score) and at the last minute a mate from Belgium (big KAA Gent fan whom I've adopted.....aye the team....nae my mate... and vice versa) decided to fly over last minute and come with us to the game. He got a ticket and all worked out great. Got into a great pre-match conversation with him in the boozer which may or may not offer a little hope for the future.

Only a few years back KAA were based in their traditional 1920's built home; The Jules Ottenstadion. just shy of 13,000 capacity and if you look at pictures of it, it's exactly what you'd expect from a provincial teams stadium from that era. Would easily be mistaken for a Scottish teams ground. They decided to build a purpose built 20,000 all seater in an industrial estate further out of town in 2003, but due to objections and enviromental concerns the Ghelamco Arena wouldn't get built until 2013 i think.

KAA Gent live in the shadow of bigger teams traditionally with Anderlecht topping the pile with a budget that usually would very much dwarf their own. I'm sure you're seeing the similarities here. There was a natural pecking order that was reinforced and existed as the status quo. The Ghelamco Arena ultimately helped change that. KAA became champions of Belgium for the first time in their history in season 2014/15 with home games selling out at 20,000 each week. Gent is a beautiful city with a population very close to that of Aberdeen and the stadium, which i visited last year, is quite incredible. It's the sort of place you'd WANT to take you're family to to sit and watch football. It's the sort of stadium a player would walk into for the first time and say "i want to play here".

My friend said to the group of us (while wearing his KAA Gent and Dandies pin badges) "Gent were Aberdeen, Where you are now is where we were not long ago. But we changed things".

Gent went on to compete in the Champions league and for anyone who didn't catch it, they made the Europa League quarters i think having knocked out Tottenham. Last year they sold their keeper and top midfielder for a combined price of 18m Euro's. Impressive stuff. Point is, while you can't make a direct comparison with all the variables, there's surely hope in there that the club might be on the right track and that 10 years from now, our expectations might be quite different.

Sadly i think this year's team has had it's chips and will be picked off including the manager. We just have to avoid the textbook Matalan Catalan fall from grace.

[Pacman1903]

Not just now as he is out for 9 months with leg injury.

Ok on par then

[RedStarTorphins]

Its a worrying time to be honest. Selling Hayes to Celtic would be a disaster for us, if we are to even think about getting near them next season. If you sell your best players to your rivals, then whats the point? it would take big money for me to be happy and that money would 100% have to be reinvested back into the transfer kitty.

We have already replaced Jack, so thats not a problem, easy shoes to fill. The issue for me is we have to replace Taylor, Reynolds and Considine, along with Mcginn and possibly Hayes. We could even lose McLean if he attracts attention and Logan is an attractive player for other clubs too. Luckily theya re under contract and would require a fee, but I'm not convinced it would all be reinvested. These are worst case scenarios of course.

As for point on Reynolds and Considine, they just aren't good enough and if we are to progress and they will need replaced. Rooney needs someone to back him up with Stockley out and we would ideally want to strengthen on our striking options so it may cost us money.

McInnes and Milne have their work cut out! I have a mix of fear of the unknown and excitement about a freshening up!!

You say "McInnes has his work cut out"
The problem is that he's going to leave.
We'll be faffing around appointing a manager when the players (what's left of them) report back for training.
We've usually got most of our signings done before then, however, we can't if we don't have a manager.

[GlezgaRed]

I reckon more than 4 players will come in as it'll be quantity over quality sadly, I just can't see Sunderland coming for McInnes so it'll be his type of player we'll be getting linked with...

I'll stick with 4 players for the thread;
Greg Tansey (done deal)
Devlin or a new Ash Taylor (Englandshire lower league)
Maloney/GMS/Christie or another Englandshire lower league wide player we've never heard of
Liam Boyce (he should be our No.1 target)

Can also see a couple of loans in the mould of Stewart/May/Shinnie etc


I really would like to see us get an actual left back in this summer aswell.

[red_mist]

Great post.

Looks a decent stadium at Gent, the only change I'd make is to have the fans all the way down to pitch level (as per Tynecastle). More intimidating to visiting teams if fans are actually in their faces going over for throw-ins etc.

Gives some hope that Aberdeen could actually step up a level to regular Europa League and make a real challenge for the Title.

(Plenty of parallels with Gent but I'd temper that with Anderlecht etc. being much smaller clubs than the Old Firm)

[Donanddusted]

Liam Boyce (he should be our No.1 target)

Alas, even though it was only NZ, an International goal scorer isn't going to want to come to a club that is going through big changes.
Nor will our chairman want to pay a transfer fee...

[RedStarTorphins]

I reckon more than 4 players will come in as it'll be quantity over quality sadly, I just can't see Sunderland coming for McInnes so it'll be his type of player we'll be getting linked with...

I'll stick with 4 players for the thread;
Greg Tansey (done deal)
Devlin or a new Ash Taylor (Englandshire lower league)
Maloney/GMS/Christie or another Englandshire lower league wide player we've never heard of
Liam Boyce (he should be our No.1 target)

Can also see a couple of loans in the mould of Stewart/May/Shinnie etc


I really would like to see us get an actual left back in this summer aswell.

Devlin is out long term.
We might try for him NEXT summer when he's available free.
Agree - it'll be "who" from Coventry or wherever.

Boyce? Forget that. He'll cost £500k?

We know the McInnes type of signings... but that's a moot point, or will be.
He'll be trying to get Sunderland promoted.
It'll be more a question of who DM will try & take with him.

[vinnydesalvo]

Aye - but we could always tempt them with Stockley as part of the £500k deal. Just leaving the £490k to be split into long-term instalments.

[rico94]

Devlin is out long term.
We might try for him NEXT summer when he's available free.
Agree - it'll be "who" from Coventry or wherever.

Boyce? Forget that. He'll cost £500k?

We know the McInnes type of signings... but that's a moot point, or will be.
He'll be trying to get Sunderland promoted.
It'll be more a question of who DM will try & take with him.

I believe Ross County stated recently they wouldn't consider offers below 1 million for Boyce.

We could always us the 1 million we will get for Hayes