aberdeen face competition in striker bid

Dons in chase to get the Wright man

 

By Paul SMith

 

Published: 09/07/2008

 

Aberdeen have opened talks with Darlington as they target forward Tommy Wright. The 23-year-old has fallen down the pecking order at the English League 2 side following the arrival of former Clyde player Adam Proudlock.

 

That has alerted a string of clubs to Wright’s availability and the Dons are among those who have expressed an interest.

 

Aberdeen have not yet made a bid for the former Leicester City trainee and face competition for his services.

 

Cheltenham Town are understood to have already had an offer rejected by Darlington and at least one other English side has also had an approach rebuffed.

 

Aberdeen were prepared to pay about £50,000 for Southend United’s Irish forward Richie Foran and can afford to pay a fee for the right player.

 

Wright, a former England under-19 international, has a record of 17 goals in 46 league starts for Darlington and has caught the eye of Jimmy Calderwood and his scouting team.

 

Although currently recovering from a knee oper- ation, Wright is expected to be fit for the start of the season.

 

After beginning his career at the Walkers Stadium, Wright went on to play for Brentford and Blackpool on loan before a move to Barnsley.

 

At Oakwell he had a spell on loan at Walsall and then Darlington before completing a free transfer move to the Quakers in January last year.

 

While Calderwood attempts to strengthen his attacking options, the move for defender Tim Bakens has stalled.

 

The Press and Journal revealed yesterday that the Dutchman was unhappy with the initial contract offer from the Dons.

 

Calderwood has since confirmed the wage problem and said: “I had contact from Tim’s agent on Tuesday morning. We made him an offer and the agent made us a counter-offer. If the terms we have now been quoted are what he wants then he will not be coming"

I don't understand this one at all?  Â£100,000 is a helluva a lot of money for us... this guy must surely be a good prospect?  However, at the same time this is a player who can't get his game for a team in the lower reaches of the coca-cola leagues.  If he's not good enough for league 2, surely he's not worth spending £100,000 on... or is he?

 

Has anyone actually seen him play?

I know the standard of Scottish football is shocking, but if you were in his position which away trip would you prefer - Exeter or Celtic?

 

Cheeky cunts

I don't understand this one at all?  Â£100,000 is a helluva a lot of money for us... this guy must surely be a good prospect?  However, at the same time this is a player who can't get his game for a team in the lower reaches of the coca-cola leagues.  If he's not good enough for league 2, surely he's not worth spending £100,000 on... or is he?

 

Has anyone actually seen him play?

 

if we have actually bid £100k for him then JC is taking a big risk on this one. as you say£100k is big money to us so if this guy ends up shyte then JC will lose even more fans.

Some great comments on that message board!

 

I wouldn't stop Tommy Wright from moving on especially if we receive a fee for him but Aberdeen & scottish football in general is a crap career move.

 

I can never understand why any professional footballer player who is English would want to play in Scotland. Its a shit standard, most places are like stepping back in time, its fucking freezing & most importantly everybody in England will forget you still play the game with 5 minutes of you arriving in Scotland. You just disappear up there, sometimes never to be heard of again.

 

You don't get long to be a pro footballer & I wouldn't waste one minute of it playing in Scotland, a backwards step going there.

 

A typical attitude that you'll commonly encounter down here... I can take that sort of critcism from some quarters, but I've been to Darlington and its a fucking shite hole.

 

Typical Aberdeen trying to sign him on the cheap. I bet when they phoned to make the enquiry they reversed the charges.

 

The Scottish section of my family (all bloody Dons fans!) have been on about Tommy the Bucket wanting all of the info. I really hope we dont lose him because he is a very good player at our level, which as i always point out is a MUCH higher standard than the Scottish Pub League!

if we have actually bid £100k for him then JC is taking a big risk on this one. as you say£100k is big money to us so if this guy ends up shyte then JC will lose even more fans.

 

Its a huge risk! I would have thought fair play if it was the guy killie were after who's an international etc...but then again, no risk, no gain. We'll just have to trust JC on this one.

Funny how he says that players just disappear up here.

 

who else plays for darlington? 

 

It's not his fault. He's backward cunt. Was it Darlington where they all send hate mail to their chairman who built a huge stadium that never gets filled?

Their stadium looks nae bad - Darlington Mad has decent photo.

 

A ground like that for AFC would do me.

 

Back on topic though,  I love to go a wandering, along the cliffs of dover.......................

When Cheltnham Town are in for the same striker as us I just know its time to take up fucking golf this year 

 

Cheltenham wouldn't normally, but we've just sold our only hope of staying in League 1 for £425000 (IMO a disgrace of a fee, he was worth at least twice with the prices being paid at the minute). I also think it's fairly nailed on that Wright is going to Rochdale, which is even more of  1) an indicator of his talents

                                                        2) an embarrassment for us that he would rather go to another L2 club.

 

Their stadium looks nae bad - Darlington Mad has decent photo.

 

A ground like that for AFC would do me.

 

Back on topic though,  I love to go a wandering, along the cliffs of dover.......................

 

You can't fucking sit down in it though seat spacing is for the all the sub five foot inbreds with flippers for feet they've got as supporters.

You can't fucking sit down in it though seat spacing is for the all the sub five foot inbreds with flippers for feet they've got as supporters.

 

Stand then 

Stand then 

 

 

 

 

Internet polis or pretending it's kkk chat ?

 

 

Un problemo?

Its a huge risk! I would have thought fair play if it was the guy killie were after who's an international etc...but then again, no risk, no gain. We'll just have to trust JC on this one.

 

Agree - might just bombard AFC's e-mail system until someone takes notice.

 

this guy is on a hiding to nothing, 100k is a lot for us to shell out on a player, surely there must have been a chris porter etc floating about we could have picked up as a freebie?

He and Peter Thomson are probably much of a muchness. If Thomson was as amazing as some people are making out, surely someone other than Killie would have reportedly been interested?

He and Peter Thomson are probably much of a muchness. If Thomson was as amazing as some people are making out, surely someone other than Killie would have reportedly been interested?

 

Don't think anyone's making out that the kid's amazing. He just looks like a value trade.

Don't think anyone's making out that the kid's amazing. He just looks like a value trade.

 

On an aside according to the BBC rumours looks like you were right about Pidgley.

Don't think anyone's making out that the kid's amazing. He just looks like a value trade.

Exactly, 100k on someone with a great goalscoring record is a risk worth taking, i'm sure he'd do a job for us, probably not as good as he is doing at his current side but he'll get atleast 15 goals here in the spl.

He and Peter Thomson are probably much of a muchness. If Thomson was as amazing as some people are making out, surely someone other than Killie would have reportedly been interested?

 

I think with Peter Thomson, the fact he is an international and perhaps the parallels with Kevin Doyle, have made him a more exciting proposition.  I watched that Youtube that someone posted the other day, and while I appreciate its difficult to make an informed judgement from a couple of minutes of video, the standard of goalkeeping and defending was reminiscent of Saturday afternoon down my local park in Nottingham.

 

he'd be a gamble... but, as reading found out, one that could pay-off big time!

anytime we sign a player for any money its going to be difficult for him.

 

as soon as he has a few games without a goal or decent performance we will have the usual moaners with "what a waste of transfer fee's" etc.

 

I just get annoyed at the fact AFC can only be linked with the likes of Thomson and Wright due to the state of the club.

Darlo really is a complete shitehouse of a place but their stadium looks the dog's bollocks.

 

It was George (crooked as fuck) Reynolds that gave them their stadium but who knows who's under and in it!

 

If JC and the board are willing to fork out 100k on a player, then they must be pretty damn sure about him. One thing is certain, they had better be or the usual suspects will be sharpening knives.

It seems everything has been agreed with the player just awaiting the clubs to agree the fee according to the Darlington manager.

 

Did see Darlington a couple of years ago and the standard is dreadful. I am just hoping JC knows what he is looking at and thinks this guy can make the step up.

 

The best player on the park was Pineapple heed so that is saying something about the standard.

The best player on the park was Pineapple heed so that is saying something about the standard.

 

Kingston?

 

The standard is abysmal, there isn't much doubt about that. You do have to wonder why no-one in England higher up the league wants to take a punt on the guy with the money on offer down there.

 

Good to see the board making some real money available though but I would have preferred it had they coughed some dough to keep Hart. Be nice if this fella does his bit and appreciates in value, a return on the investment would be nice.

Kingston?

 

 

Na it was the original Pineapple Jason Lee!