In consideration of our failing season, thought an update to our contract situation might be worthwhile. Apologies for the length.

GK

2023

• Woods (31) - Is he Injured? noticed the boy Ritchie was on the bench Sunday.

2024

• Lewis (34) - Been off form but capable of getting that back made some good saves yesterday. 

No real issues here. Lewis has been out of form, but not really a problem for January or even next summer. 

Defence

January 2022

• Devlin (28) - Injured needs to be released.

Summer 2022

• Considine (34) - Injured and aging but should be given another year extension.
• Gurr (26) - not of the required standard.

2023

• MacKenzie (21) - Injured will be fine once he recovers from injury.
• Gallagher (30) - Injured looked off form when he has been fit.

2024

• Hernandez (24) - Loaned out hopefully Atlanta repay us for the fee paid out on their behalf and the whole sorry mess can be put to bed. 
• McCrorie (23) - arguably a midfielder been OK at the back and we have had little option. 
• Ramsay (18)- Injured could end up receiving offers for him, maybe his current injury will delay them till next summer. 
• Bates (25) - improving. 

I'd hope we are looking to start next season with MacKenzie, Gallagher, McCrorie (is he a midfielder), Ramsay (unless the right offer comes in) Bates & Considine (depending on his recovery). In January, Devlin must be off the payroll, attempts made to get Gurr off too, and fingers crossed Atlanta buy Hernandez (for everyone's sake). Should be planning on 4-6 of the current lot being here next season. Assuming recovery from injuries and no more occurring;

MacKenzie, Gallagher, McCrorie, Ramsay and Bates till end of the season, that are good enough, scope for additions.

Midfield

Summer 2022

• Hayes (34) - can see him signing an extension if offered but is he as effective as first time around? Can we get better and younger for the wage?
• Hedges (26) - will be off, decision is balancing any money offered and what player(s) can we bring in against what little Hedges playing within himself brings for the remainder of the season.
• McGeouch (28) - Injured? (again) imagine he's looking to see what offers he gets and will be trying to minimize injuries to his fragile body in the meantime.
• Ojo (30) - Also seems to be looking to see what offers he gets and we should be able to do better. 
• McGinn (34) - Past it.

End of Loan Summer 2022(If possible cancel them all in January)

• Jenks (19)  - Not good enough
• Samuels (21)  - Not good enough
• Longstaff (21) - Not good enough

2023

• Campbell (20) - Doesn't appear as if Glass rates him that highly.
• Kennedy (27) - Injured (allegedly) tried to get rid of in the summer depending on how true the back injury is, will likely try again.
• McLennan (22) - Injured he's got strength, pace, skill all let down by decision making and consistency. Should be at a higher level if he's going to make it at his club. 
• Brown (36) - Injured? Will give his all and probably been our best player, but he's 36. 

2024

• Ferguson (22) - doesn't want to be here will push for a move to england again in January. 

Next season would be planning on Hayes (to sign a new contract), Campbell, Brown, McLennan maybe Hanratty. Potentially for remainder of the season we have;

Campbell, Brown & Hayes who will give their all all, albeit Brown is 36 and probably will need a rest at some point some & Hayes who is 34 and has 6 months left on his contract. Hedges, McGeouch and Ojo who will be playing with one eye on a signing on fee elsewhere, won't care where we finish and play accordingly. Jenks, Longstaff and Samuels none of whom are good enough and none have a vested interest in our success.  Kennedy and McLennan who are not good enough and Ferguson who is trying to get a move elsewhere. 

Forwards

2023

• Watkins (31) - Hopefully stays injury free for the remainder of the season.
• Ramirez (30) - Possibly Glass's singular piece of good recruitment
• JET (30) - wrong type of player for battling at the wrong end of the table

An aging strike-force. Can't see any of them being here after summer 2023. JET too much of a luxury but can't see anyone taking him off our hands in January. Ngwenya to join them next season?

Youth on loan

• Ngwenya (18) - contract till 2024
• Ruth (19) - contract till 2022
• Barron (19) - contract till 2022
• Ritchie (18) - contract till 2022
• Duncan (17) - contract till 2022
• Hanratty (18) - contract till 2024
• Mykyta (19) - contract till 2022
• McIver (18) - contract till 2022
• Gallagher (20) - contract till 2022
• Milne (18) - contract till 2022

As far as I can find only Ngwenya and Hanratty signed for longer than the end of the season?

Following Sunday it appears we may only have 15 fit outfield players fit. 3 defenders (1 is Gurr and McRorie will be banned for hibs), 9 midfielders (Longstaff might as well not be here, Jenks and Samuels aren't good enough, McGinn has made 2 starts from 7 appearances ), 3 forwards (1 is JET).

7 games till the break and opening of the window. 

Recruitment has been a shambles for a while now, nothing we saw in the summer points to improvements and this must be the most unbalanced & incoherent (almost as bad as this post), uncommitted and aging squad we've had in a long time. Hopefully our DoF has been making several plans based on any number of scenario's.

We have to;

• Mitigate the effect losing Ferguson and/or Ramsay would have
• Take into account the lack of commitment from the 8 midfielders with no contractual obligation beyond the end of the season.
• The imbalance inexperience and decimation through injury of our defence. 
• The age of our attack. 
• And the lack of players in their "prime years" throughout the squad.

And this has to be balanced against;

• how shit January is as a transfer window
• that we have enough to ensure we don't get dragged into relegation worries
• not make rash decisions that fuck up future season with more aging or not good enough players all playing the same positions on high wages. 

32 minutes ago, tlg1903 said:

I would hope given that circumstance we wouldn't agree to a loan without a fee already agreed should we wish to sign him.

 

All the best mcginniesta.  You were the first player in red to get me out of my seat on a regular basis since... Probably zerouali 2bh. 

That was my kinda thinking, hoping we'd learned from Ryan Christie.

Vicente can play on the right and the left.

 

 

P.s. I think it's disgusting Glass pulled off a real coo.

Always bemused me that we never saw McGinn as a striker for a while.

Hot and cold so many times. Non existent so many games but when he 'turned up' he was brilliant!

39 minutes ago, HaarDon said:

Always bemused me that we never saw McGinn as a striker for a while.

Hot and cold so many times. Non existent so many games but when he 'turned up' he was brilliant!

Always saw him moving to a #10, creative, skilled, and can score goals, a position we’ve lacked since Christie/Maddison. Not quite sure what happened to mcginn to be honest. 

2 minutes ago, OrlandoDon said:

Always saw him moving to a #10, creative, skilled, and can score goals, a position we’ve lacked since Christie/Maddison. Not quite sure what happened to mcginn to be honest. 

Nothing happened, just not an impact sub. As soon as he was relegated to bit part player he was always going to struggle. I still think he's better than McLennan, and probably jet and Jenks too, but I understand the need to wind down his game time and if he gets regular fitba at Dundee, I could see him scoring a few. 

Fuck knows what the idiots in the dons support will accuse him of when he scores against us and doesn't celebrate. "He disnae try against them".

Ramsay, MacKenzie, McCrorie, Campbell, McLennan, Barron, Ferguson, Polvara, Besuijen, Ruth.  What an Aberdeen U-23's team that is!!!  Just need a goalkeeper!  Bring back Tom Ritchie from his loan! 

Edited January 25, 20224 yr by SeeBass
Forgot somebody!

Just looked at a few highlights reels of Vicente Besuijen.

This young lad is class!

Great touch, great vision.

Been saying for years that we should recruit youth from countries like Holland where the roots/pedigree of football is far superior to ours.

Well done Glass/recruitment dude for snatching him.

Welcome to AFC.

A mate of mine who's an Ado fan said he was quick and technically very good. Just a bit short. Where've we heard that before? 😂

After last night it is clear we desperately need the recruitment team to get in a creative midfielder to allow us breakdown teams like St Mirren who sit in and try to frustrate us. Also need another striker on the books to give us another option when Ramirez is not working or off form. Emmanuel Thomas clearly is not the answer. Thought of him being our only striking option if Ramirez gets injured is already giving me the fear. Big wages, fee and arguably a better player shipped out was a terrible deal. 

22 minutes ago, Jute said:

After last night it is clear we desperately need the recruitment team to get in a creative midfielder to allow us breakdown teams like St Mirren who sit in and try to frustrate us. Also need another striker on the books to give us another option when Ramirez is not working or off form. Emmanuel Thomas clearly is not the answer. Thought of him being our only striking option if Ramirez gets injured is already giving me the fear. Big wages, fee and arguably a better player was a terrible deal. 

Jet is an utter disgrace I would rip up his contract now! Terrible over weight prick

On 26/01/2022 at 10:43, LightbulbMoment2021 said:

Jet is an utter disgrace I would rip up his contract now! Terrible over weight prick

I agree he has not shown us anything to justify his transfer but I don't agree with calling him a prick! He has done or said anything, to my knowledge to merit that.

Express saying Hedges is off for a medical with Blackburn.

1 hour ago, Stewart said:

Express saying Hedges is off for a medical with Blackburn.

If 200k is correct, for a player leaving in 4 months I suppose you can't disagree. He's clearly set on a move, hope we can bring another in before the window closes.

Copy and pasting this from the Hedges thread, which I just replied too, apologies. 

 

Hedges to Blackburn will be completed tomorrow for 225k apparently. According to Scott Burns, we're interested in some boy called Jacob Davenport on loan for the rest of the Season ( From Blackburn funnily enough ) and McGrath is alive again, McGrath himself having a change of heart and is now keen on moving here. Wonder if we'll use the Hedges money to get McGrath in tomorrow instead of waiting til the end of the Season? Also signing a Striker from England on a permanent and not a loan, which is much needed for me, Ramirez can't be expected to carry the can for the whole Season. 

On 13/01/2022 at 22:29, tlg1903 said:

Glass is wanting to keep Devlin it would seem, he's close to full fitness.  I do think there is a player in there 2bf but we've not seen it really since his first season.  Still, he's probably going to be on a low basic and with consi due back in the near future too that leaves us well stocked with cb's for the rest of the season.  With all cb's fit  we may see Mcrorie in midfield more, especially if ferguson moves on.   

I can't help but wonder if glass is thinking about moving to a 3 at the back more regularly.   He doesn't seem the type that is wed to one system and, personally, I think we look more solid with a 3.  You could also argue that it gets the best out of Gallagher and given what he's on wage wise that's desirable.  A back 3 of bates, Gallagher and Considine doesn't really have too many weaknesses to my eye, I would be quite happy with that starting against anyone in the league. 

 

 

Signing on until.end of the season.

I'll say no more and let you all digest that folks.

This just confirms my suspicions that Glass is completely out of his depth. Devlin had a history of injuries at Hamilton, arrived injured and been injured most of his time at the club. Mental to offer him another deal.

1 hour ago, KennyFuckinPowers said:

Copy and pasting this from the Hedges thread, which I just replied too, apologies. 

 

Hedges to Blackburn will be completed tomorrow for 225k apparently. According to Scott Burns, we're interested in some boy called Jacob Davenport on loan for the rest of the Season ( From Blackburn funnily enough ) and McGrath is alive again, McGrath himself having a change of heart and is now keen on moving here. Wonder if we'll use the Hedges money to get McGrath in tomorrow instead of waiting til the end of the Season? Also signing a Striker from England on a permanent and not a loan, which is much needed for me, Ramirez can't be expected to carry the can for the whole Season. 

Why would we want another defensive midfielder. 

I think Al is suggesting that Ferguson is away? 

2 hours ago, Jute said:

This just confirms my suspicions that Glass is completely out of his depth. Devlin had a history of injuries at Hamilton, arrived injured and been injured most of his time at the club. Mental to offer him another deal.

Better the Devlin you know.

 

But to be serious, I think it's worth one more try with him now his long term injury has been operated on and it's apparently fixed.

I'd rather try him as a fit player than gamble money on some unknown.

5 hours ago, HaarDon said:

Better the Devlin you know.

 

But to be serious, I think it's worth one more try with him now his long term injury has been operated on and it's apparently fixed.

I'd rather try him as a fit player than gamble money on some unknown.

He was given his last 6 month deal to prove his fitness and was injured for the entire period. I just don’t get it. 

1 hour ago, Jute said:

He was given his last 6 month deal to prove his fitness and was injured for the entire period. I just don’t get it. 

Wasn't it a recurring injury though which he's now had surgery on so hopefully fixed.

We shall see.

Looking like McGrath back to not coming.

 

39 minutes ago, Jute said:

Looking like McGrath back to not coming.

 

Not sure he is a great loss to be honest .

11 minutes ago, BigAl said:

Not sure he is a great loss to be honest .

I tend to agree on this seasons form however recruitment team and manager have been chasing this lad since the summer so failure to land their primary target does not look to good.

I think McGrath will turn into an excellent player. If st mirren are accepting Gogic as any part of a deal, then I think we've made a huge mistake not offering them Gurr before he left, or maybe some dog shite off the Cormack park pitches.

Edited January 30, 20224 yr by RicoS321