Dons could cash in by selling Scotland international attacker lee for £700,000
By Michael Gannon
Published: 17/08/2009
Mark McGhee has lamented the Scottish football exodus to England. But the Aberdeen manager may have to brace himself for a departure from closer to home as Middlesbrough consider making a bid for forward Lee Miller.
McGhee used his programme notes to highlight the financial crisis in the game in Scotland and spoke at length on the topic after his side’s dismal 3-1 defeat against Celtic on Saturday.
The Dons manager has watched leading Scottish players depart the SPL to earn lucrative contracts in the English Championship with Scots clubs being forced to shop for replacements in English League 1 and 2.
Aberdeen’s Scott Severin, Hibs’ Steven Fletcher and Motherwell pair Stephen Hughes and David Clarkson were among the players who headed south in the summer and now Aberdeen attacker Miller could follow the gold rush.
Middlesbrough chief scout Gordon McQueen was at Pittodrie on Saturday to watch Miller and the Teesside club is poised to make a £700,000 offer.
The 26-year-old targetman is in the final year of his contract and the Pittodrie club could be tempted to cash in.
The money would certainly aid McGhee’s rebuilding mission at Aberdeen, which is looking an increasingly formidable task. Saturday’s 3-1 defeat only flattered the Dons as a rampant Celtic could have inflicted a far more damaging scoreline.
Jerel Ifil, the recent recruit from Swindon, will be a welcome addition, but the rest of the Dons squad looks stale and there is little competition for places.
Aberdeen require three or four new players, but financial constraints are likely to limit the manager to just one more signing.
McGhee said: “It is not a case of how many players I want to bring in. I could answer that with Chinese mathematics, it is more realistic to ask how many can we get?
“I think we probably have the budget to bring in one more player. The best young players in the SPL have all gone down south. A chunk of the quality which has been in this division is recent years has been replaced by players from a slightly lower level. That has got to impact on the quality of the SPL.â€
Ifil endured a fraught competitive debut but still managed to enhance his reputation with the Dons supporters, winning the sponsors’ man of the match award. The 27-year-old was far from the worst on show as Aberdeen were torn to pieces in the opening 45 minutes.
Aiden McGeady struck twice and Scott McDonald added a third before Aberdeen were booed off at half-time. In the second period Celtic eased off in anticipation of tomorrow’s Champions League qualifier against Arsenal and the Dons salvaged some pride through a superb Sone Aluko strike.
Ifil urged the Dons supporters to keep the faith and promised better is to come from him and his teammates. He said: “Commonsense will tell you not to judge us on just one game. It is a long season and we should be judged over the campaign.
“You need time to build some form. It was a game I had to play in to experience. You could see the quality Celtic had. It felt as though we were constantly under attack. They were good and we were below par.
“They will be very similar to Arsenal in terms of the quality of players and their speed of thought. They do everything quicker and coming from League 1 I have not experienced that in a long time. There is no comparison with League 1 but it is something I want to get used to.â€
