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Saturday 30th  March 2024:  kick-off 3pm

Scottish Premiership - Aberdeen v Ross County

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P&J: Calderwood happy as new squad starts to take shape


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http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/658139

 

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood is delighted with the speed of his team rebuilding.

 

Gary McDonald has signed from Oldham, while a medical is all that will stop Richie Foran completing his £50,000 move from Southend next month.

 

French goalkeeper Bertrand Bossu and midfielder Stuart Duff should sign contracts with the club this week with Irishman Alan Maybury’s future the only one causing concern.

 

The former Hearts and Leicester City full back is still in talks with the club about a deal having impressed since his arrival in January.

 

Calderwood said: “We are making good progress on a number of fronts, which is pleasing and I expect Willie Miller (director of football) to complete a lot of business this week.

 

“All being well, we should have a lot of the squad places filled very quickly which I am very pleased about.â€

 

Calderwood has offered goalkeeper Bossu a two-year deal on the insistence of goalkeeper coach Jim Leighton, and hopes the 27-year-old will provide competition for Jamie Langfield.

 

He said: “Jim was very positive about Bertrand. He hadn’t trained for three weeks when he arrived here.

 

“He lives in Calais, but he was keen to come and within a couple of hours of speaking to him his wife had driven him through the tunnel to Gatwick and he caught a plane up to Aberdeen.

 

“Jim pummelled him in training to test his character and he handled it really well.

 

“Our goalkeeping coach is not the cheeriest person at the best of times, but he was really positive about Bertrand and said he was worth taking a gamble on as he was technically excellent.â€

 

Calderwood is also backing Duff to make the same sort of impact as Derek Young next season following the former Dundee United player’s impressive end to the campaign.

 

He said: “Alex Smith, a man whose opinion I rate very highly, told me Stuart had been really unlucky at Tannadice and was worth taking on.

 

“When he came in, the first thing he did was be on the wrong end of a ricochet which gifted Hearts a 1-0 win and straight away some supporters were on his back.

 

“I talked to him about it and he said he could handle it. Since then he has gone on to silence his critics, just as Derek Young has done. I am delighted for him.

 

“He knows we do not have a lot of money to throw about at the club, but he is really keen to sign here.

 

“Stuart is an Aberdeen supporter and he is living his dream by playing for the club. “He played really well in the last couple of games and he has a good eye for goal. He played wide left towards the end of the season and he gets forward into good positions. A good finisher, I expect him to get among the goals next season.â€

 

Former Motherwell forward Foran has agreed terms on his move north and once the formalities of his move have been completed, Calderwood expects the player to make a big impact.

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Squad for next season looks like:

 

Langfield

Bossu

Bateman

 

Diamond

Considine

Foster

Touzani

Mair

S. Smith

 

Severin

McDonald

Young

Duff

J.Smith

De Visscher

 

Miller

Mackie

Maguire

Foran

Paton

 

We need a right back (hopefully Maybury) a centre back, left back and a left winger IMO (in that order of priority).

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I guess that is a question for a Motherwell forum. He is tenacious and hard working from what I can remember.

 

From what I remember he was a pretty good player for them and if he's used to his best ability then he'll hit the back of the net for us a good few times.

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Which part?

 

“Jim pummelled him in training to test his character and he handled it really well.

 

“Our goalkeeping coach is not the cheeriest person at the best of times, but he was really positive about Bertrand and said he was worth taking a gamble on as he was technically excellent.â€

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I guess that is a question for a Motherwell forum. He is tenacious and hard working from what I can remember.

 

Motherwell supporter I asked said that he always runs out of steam after about an hour and will likely be in the headlines more for what he gets up to off the pitch, especially at Aberdeen where he'll be under a biggers spotlight.

 

If Foran's the only striker we sign, we're in for a long difficult season.

 

Bossu sounds garbage, lets not forget Jim Leighton highly rated Ryan Esson as a goalkeeper.

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“Our goalkeeping coach is not the cheeriest person at the best of times, but he was really positive about Bertrand and said he was worth taking a gamble on as he was technically excellent.â€

 

Then again Leighton has been working with Langfield and Soutar for the last two years so maybe his judgement has been affected.

Seriously though this guy couldn't oust Clayton Ince over the last two seasons!!!

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This bit scares me somewhat:

 

Can't we just keep on putting him through his paces until we make sure he's right?

 

He's out of a job and probably itching to stick around.

 

Maybe there was concrete interest from Altrincham or Kings Lynn or the like?

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Very weak looking squad. No commanding centre half at the back, no real ball player in midifield that will play more than 3 games a season and very few goals from the strikers. Nothing in that team makes me want to go out and buy a season ticket. Hopefully the big wow factor signings are still to come but I have my doubts.

 

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fuck sake - how many months of this greetin about players we've not even seen yet have we to endure yet?

 

I don't even see pre-season as a judge of the new players.

 

Asking supporters of other clubs not often a good idea - a dundee fan told me steve Lovell was "f**kin brilliant and we'd robbed them in the transfer fee" and look at any Utd fan's Lee Miller comments (still coming out with them  ;)).

 

I'm just gonna think they're the real deal till i see them in a real game and make my mind up then.

 

 

...priority signing has to be some really hot over-18 year old cheerleader lassies  :thumbsup:

 

I agree, BUT, this  Bossu Character has been deemed not good enough to play regularly for:

 

Barnet

Rushden

Gillingham

Torquay

Oldham

Darlo

Accrington Stanley (Who are they?)

and Walsall

 

The only club's supporters we could possibly expect to pass opinion on him are Hayes who he played for during the season they got relegated from the Conference.

I expect we will not get a chance to pass judgement either.

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I agree, BUT, this  Bossu Character has been deemed not good enough to play regularly for:

 

Barnet

Rushden

Gillingham

Torquay

Oldham

Darlo

Accrington Stanley (Who are they?)

and Walsall

 

The only club's supporters we could possibly expect to pass opinion on him are Hayes who he played for during the season they got relegated from the Conference.

I expect we will not get a chance to pass judgement either.

 

Maybe they all had shit defences  ;)

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what all very well and good ajja - BUT WE HAVE A SHITE DEFENCE  ;D ;D ;D

 

Not during the last three games v. the OF I saw, all in the last couple of months (wasn't at Ibrox). Defence was awesome.

 

But yeah, know what you mean stoney. Need a proper LB, and Consi aint getting any better. Then again, it was only this season that Zander finally showed some consistency though, coincidentally when he cut back on the bevvy. Who'dathought? Still makes howlers, but less often.

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