IT WILL soon be make your mind up time for some of Pittodrie’s leading players.
Skipper Scott Severin, top scorer Darren Mackie, Jamie Smith, Derek Young, Lee Mair and Jeffrey de Visscher are the star names in the group whose contracts expire next summer.
Aberdeen want to know their plans before Christmas, and hope to avoid the pain suffered last season, when Barry Nicholson, Chris Clark and Michael Hart chose to move on.
Dons boss Jimmy Calderwood said: “If players don’t want to be at Aberdeen then they are better letting me know before Christmas.
“It would allow them to get in ahead of the rush of players who are likely to be on offer in January and increase their hopes of securing a decent move to a new club.
“It would also help us find suitable replacements.
“I would certainly hope to have all them sorted, one way or another, by the middle of January.
“If they want to stay and we want to keep them, then it will be a case of seeing what we can do.
“If players want to leave then we will need to decide if it’s going to be in January, when we can still get a fee, or in the summer, when their contracts expire.
“I’m not here to knacker anyone’s career.
“But if any of them say they won’t be signing, it’s still not certain they would be allowed to leave. We would decide what is best for the club.
“I didn’t want Chris Clark or Michael Hart to leave last January, but we decided the offers we got for players who would be free transfers in the summer were too good.
“We could probably have sold Barry Nicholson then as well, but we decided to keep him for the rest of the campaign and take a hit by letting him leave for nothing in the summer.
“The money we got for the other two helped to take in Alan Maybury and keep Sone Aluko on loan until the end of the campaign, so I saw that as a good bit of business.â€
Dutch winger de Visscher has already expressed fears that his Pittodrie career could be coming to an end. De Visscher has managed just two starts for the club so far this season.
But Calderwood claimed there is still hope for the 27-year-old.
“Jeffrey has no need to worry,†he said.
“I’ve spoken to Jeffrey several times and told him he has been doing really well with the reserves and in training.
“It’s just a matter of waiting for his next chance to force his way into the first team.
“If it doesn’t happen for him at Aberdeen he still won’t need to worry because there would be clubs queuing up to sign Jeffrey if he left us.â€
Calderwood also hopes to make fresh signings in January, although that will clearly be influenced by what happens with the players currently at the club.
He and assistant boss Jimmy Nicholl were in England last week watching reserve and lower league matches.
Coaches Sandy Clark and Neil Cooper are also off on their travels this week.
Calderwood said: “Jimmy and I clocked up the miles last week, so it’s Sandy and Neil’s turn this week.
“It was a good trip because it allowed us to get useful updates on a few of the players who have been recommended to us.â€
Calderwood was spotted at a reserve match between Everton and Newcastle United, which resulted in him being linked with young Magpies keeper Fraser Foster.
Calderwood insists he has no interest in England youth cap Foster, and would rather not say what positions he plans to strengthen at this stage.
“We have specific areas of the squad in mind but it is too early to be specific,†he said.
“In an ideal world you would prefer to be sitting confident the squad you have is good enough to make Europe, but a lot of things could happen over the next few weeks, so we will wait and see.â€
If what he's saying about JDV is true, how come he's always subbed/dropped first? He's never given the guy a decent run in the side apart from the start of last season when he actually looked like a player.
If what he's saying about JDV is true, how come he's always subbed/dropped first? He's never given the guy a decent run in the side apart from the start of last season when he actually looked like a player.