January 2026 Transfer Window

[BigAl]

2 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Even the last minute signings of Henry, Kamberi and Hornby filled me with more confidence than this signing today 

Oh and let's just put it out there, I believe they managed TWO goals between them

[BigAl]

9 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Even the last minute signings of Henry, Kamberi and Hornby filled me with more confidence than this signing today 

Sorry proposed signing 

[tlg1903]

I thought Olusanye looked pretty handy at St mirren fwiw 

[BigAl]

11 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

I thought Olusanye looked pretty handy at St mirren fwiw 

I refer you back to the post of KTW15.

No offence mate, but if he is the way we are headed my 60 year love affair could be under threat.

 

[RicoS321]

17 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

I thought Olusanye looked pretty handy at St mirren fwiw 

He was useful at running in the direction he was facing. I think he'll be decent from the bench, making space for Nisbet. Don't think he's good enough at football for the wing unfortunately. A 4-4-2 and some direct fitba when we're trailing should suit him. Like most of our players, he's limited to a few setups.

[wee toon red]

3 hours ago, The.Moog said:

I’m guessing the strategy is to stick wi loans in the main in order to give the new manager maximum flexibility over the squad in the summer.

This boy seems to have a good pedigree tbf. Ariel ability is highlighted in his profile so that’s a big plus.

I am of course also making the rather large assumption that we actually have a strategy of course…

Well that would be completely contradictory to the setup of the club. The sporting director makes the signings, the coach coaches them. Not making signings just because we don’t have a head coach doesn’t make sense. But then not a lot is making sense these days.

[Brochred]

2 hours ago, KWT15 said:

20% (4) of his entire career total goals (20) have come against...  Go on, guess.  

Back using McInnes criteria for signings.

Look on the bright side, maybe he is always inspired by playing at Pittodrie

[RicoS321]

49 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

Well that would be completely contradictory to the setup of the club. The sporting director makes the signings, the coach coaches them. Not making signings just because we don’t have a head coach doesn’t make sense. But then not a lot is making sense these days.

I don't think it's quite that. It's supposed to be a team effort involving the manager. Or certainly that what was hinted at in the past. But, aye, we've certainly got enough in-house to be making signings without requiring the first team coach in the door.

[Panda]

2 hours ago, TheDonbytheDee said:

 

Bring on Livi.

 

 

If Stephen Robinson gets the job at least it'll be his third time in a week facing Livingston, so will know exactly what to do to beat them.

(Didn't beat them on Saturday and at the time of writing is 1-0 down, but let's not allow that to spoil things).

[Ajja]

Possibly also need to factor in the fact that January is a notoriously poor window to shop in. Populated with over-priced, underperforming charlatans. We might just be avoiding wasting too many sovs in this window knowing the next rebuild will be better delivered in the summer?

[wee toon red]

2 minutes ago, Ajja said:

Possibly also need to factor in the fact that January is a notoriously poor window to shop in. Populated with over-priced, underperforming charlatans. We might just be avoiding wasting too many sovs in this window knowing the next rebuild will be better delivered in the summer?

That I can get on board with as a rational explanation.

[RicoS321]

34 minutes ago, Ajja said:

Possibly also need to factor in the fact that January is a notoriously poor window to shop in. Populated with over-priced, underperforming charlatans. We might just be avoiding wasting too many sovs in this window knowing the next rebuild will be better delivered in the summer?

Doesn't excuse no pre-contracts, or loans with agreement to purchase. We managed to sign players in January every other year, it's not beyond us. Loans are a choice, and one we've seen before.

[tlg1903]

4 hours ago, BigAl said:

I refer you back to the post of KTW15.

No offence mate, but if he is the way we are headed my 60 year love affair could be under threat.

 

And no offence to you old friend but you are far too much of an addict to ever give it up and you know it .  You saying this is like Jute saying he's not going to go to a game we all know he's going to but he's just not admitted it to himself yet.  

[Brochred]

1 hour ago, Ajja said:

Possibly also need to factor in the fact that January is a notoriously poor window to shop in. Populated with over-priced, underperforming charlatans. We might just be avoiding wasting too many sovs in this window knowing the next rebuild will be better delivered in the summer?

As we have a surplus of over priced, underperforming charlatans, maybe there will be a lot of movement in the next fortnight

[tlg1903]

4 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

He was useful at running in the direction he was facing. I think he'll be decent from the bench, making space for Nisbet. Don't think he's good enough at football for the wing unfortunately. A 4-4-2 and some direct fitba when we're trailing should suit him. Like most of our players, he's limited to a few setups.

My first thought when i heard the rumour was he could be good for Nisbet.  My aging memory says he was quick, grafted his ass off and was generally a pain in the arse to play against everyone in the league.  We all know there is a proper no 9 in Nisbet and Olusanya is the kind of player who could potentially create the space and opportunity he needs.  I would be at peace with signing him 2bh (sorry Al) 

[Redbull74]

On 19/01/2026 at 20:28, RicoS321 said:

Are we doing the whole not signing players while there's not a long term manager in place again? Horrendous approach. Are we seriously going to displace another first team player for a loanee?

Consider him a replacement in the squad for the now departed Dorrington and the injured Molloy & Tobers. Didn't we only have one centre half on the pitch against Raith? 

[TheDonbytheDee]

6 hours ago, Ajja said:

Possibly also need to factor in the fact that January is a notoriously poor window to shop in. Populated with over-priced, underperforming charlatans. We might just be avoiding wasting too many sovs in this window knowing the next rebuild will be better delivered in the summer?

 Our Summer signings don't usually work out much better either.

I wish I shared your optimism.

[BigAl]

17 hours ago, swaddon said:

Who, Anthony Joseph or Ben Stanway?

Both 

The Stanway rumour is gaining momentum 

Scottish 21 year old defensive midfielder.

Apparently some Polish team and Dundee also interested

[BigAl]

8 hours ago, tlg1903 said:

And no offence to you old friend but you are far too much of an addict to ever give it up and you know it .  You saying this is like Jute saying he's not going to go to a game we all know he's going to but he's just not admitted it to himself yet.  

Touch of the Barbara Dickson & Elaine Paige song about that post.

Of course, you're going to have to be of a certain vintage to get that one 

[RicoS321]

4 hours ago, Redbull74 said:

Consider him a replacement in the squad for the now departed Dorrington and the injured Molloy & Tobers. Didn't we only have one centre half on the pitch against Raith? 

Aye, a good point. However, given that Knoester was just an illness, I'd have hoped that we'd just be seeing out the one game per week schedule with Polvara and Devlin as backup. Keeping the squad lean and getting as many minutes as possible into the existing squad. A loanee that's here to get first team football doesn't really fit with that. If he's not left footed, too, then it's simply a replacement for Milne. Milne is making mistakes still, but game time is massively important at his age, when the biggest component missing from his game is aggression (particularly in the air in the box). I'd be willing to overlook the mistakes for a young Aberdeen fan developing. Not so, an inexperienced loanee going back in the summer.

[wee toon red]

If you ask me - which nobody did - there's a wee bit too much "forward planning" in the way some folk are thinking about this window. Absolutely the club should be looking to the future in terms of signings and player development but there's also the here and now to consider. We've hovered between bang average and rank rotten this season and that's absolutely got to improve between now and May.

Jack Milne, as referenced by Rico above, is a case in point. I think we'd all love to see a homegrown Dons fan excelling every week but he's been struggling a lot recently and we don't have the scope to take him out the team just now even though that might actually be better for his long-term development. Bringing in a loan player to challenge for his position for a few months might push him on but if it doesn't, it's another player we can use to give Milne a break.

If Cameron and Morrison - and Olusanya and anyone else who comes in - improves us enough to get up the table and have another run in the cup then that's better than ploughing on with mediocrity just to hypothetically develop our own players.

[Don Julio]

I have to say I'm with WTR a bit. Sometimes you just need to patch things up for the short term. I know that's not ideal or pretty, but firstly I'd like to see us shore up the defence, stop conceding silly goals and pull away from the relegation candidates and up into the Top 6. The bringing in of McDonald and his mate Matty from Watford on loan did just that for us a year or two back. 

On Olusanya I'm sceptical I have to say, so I'd rather a loan given the risk of it not working out! Particularly as he's coming from outwith the SPFL.

[Blow.Up.Sheep]

if Toyosi Olusanya is the best we can do as far as brining in a striker then we would be as well pack it in and close the doors 

[RicoS321]

34 minutes ago, wee toon red said:

If you ask me - which nobody did - there's a wee bit too much "forward planning" in the way some folk are thinking about this window. Absolutely the club should be looking to the future in terms of signings and player development but there's also the here and now to consider. We've hovered between bang average and rank rotten this season and that's absolutely got to improve between now and May.

Jack Milne, as referenced by Rico above, is a case in point. I think we'd all love to see a homegrown Dons fan excelling every week but he's been struggling a lot recently and we don't have the scope to take him out the team just now even though that might actually be better for his long-term development. Bringing in a loan player to challenge for his position for a few months might push him on but if it doesn't, it's another player we can use to give Milne a break.

If Cameron and Morrison - and Olusanya and anyone else who comes in - improves us enough to get up the table and have another run in the cup then that's better than ploughing on with mediocrity just to hypothetically develop our own players.

But why loans? Morrison is younger than Milne and less experienced. Do we seriously expect him to be better than, say, Dorrington? We're offering development minutes for six months. An experienced defender on loan, I'd be comfortable with. This just seems weird. 

Cameron is less of an issue in terms of the actual loan (although it's still weird given where he plays), but who it's from makes it ridiculous.

Overall, though, it's a disaster in the long term, as we've seen twice before. You simply can't afford to miss the churn of a single window. We should have learned this by now, and we should have the structure in place to see that it doesn't happen. We're going to be looking at around six players leaving in the summer that need to be replaced: Karlsson, Aouchiche, probably Clarkson, the two loanees and likely one from Milanovic, Jensen, Gyamfi, Armstrong etc. that mill around the squad. In order to replace that, you're looking at least ten signings. Again. Two good signings now and you've potentially reduced that to 8. At the very least you've crossed two options of your list. Things need to keep moving. The new manager will once again be doing a complete rebuild in the summer. The chances of getting that right are extremely slim as we've seen every time it has happened. Sign now, even on precontract, to ease the pressure.

[wokinginashearerwonderland]

15 hours ago, wee toon red said:

Not making signings just because we don’t have a head coach doesn’t make sense. But then not a lot is making sense these days.

I think signing players without a manager just brings more potential problems.  For starters, what kind of player is signing for a club without knowing who his boss is going to be?  More importantly, when the new manager comes in, what if he just does not rate the guy?  We are unlikely to win the league , probably won't get relegated, just hold fire for a minute and wait to get the new guy's opinion before signing anyone - even if that means waiting until June.  No one really wants to qualify for Europe anyway.