January Transfer Window
One of the more interesting January's
Aberdeen
In
Nowt
Our squad was over loaded. Youth players weren't getting enough action and the wage budget is still well over planned so cuts had to be made
Out
Chris Keogh - 131 games and 8 goals
The Irish international ended his 5 and a half year stay at Pittodrie.
Worked his way into the 1st team before better youth started coming through forcing him to more to Aston Villa on loan last season and after returning in the summer he failed to win a place back in the team regularly so he was sold to Middlesbrough for £6m
On Loan
Two attacking midfielders expecting this year to be there breakthrough year but have ended up going out on loan to try and further there development.
Andy Lane - Celtic and
Cristian - Levante are going to spend the second half of this season to show me they are worthy of a place in Aberdeen's 1st team
Drama on the 31st
Drama doesn't cut it!
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7 of my best players all got offers many of which were very tempting and some of which even negotiated!
Firstly the offers for Brett Archer, Alex Butler and Chris Pierce were all well bellow what I'd accept so were rejected and forgotten about
Derek Sneddon will never be sold by choice while im in charge
That leaves 3
Mark Loeffen - £22m - Man City
Had this been another team i would have considered negotiating a deal for double the price at the end of the season but he is too important to sell at this stage in the season
Arnaud Bamba - £17m - Paris SG
Bamba's huge wages, £55k a week are our biggest cash flow problems. Like Loeffen i would have needed a far bigger offer and a deal at the end of season but PSG didnt budge on either so Bamba stays
Joesep Cabestany - £22m - Man City
This was the closest of the close. He was almost on his way to Madrid last summer but a deal just fell short as Man City did here. We had agreed to complete the deal in the summer but Man City will never know how close they came to buying him. Man City started at £15m Aberdeen at £26m my final negotiation was £22m to £24m but they ended talks with 2 hours of the window left.
So despite all the offers all the superstar stay!
World Transfers
Barcelona spend £43.5m on a right back and sell Bojan to Roma again
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SPL Transfers
Celtic make there move to get back into 2nd by buying a center back and a winger, neither of who have a great
track record
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Dons resist big offers for there big stars
Another transfer window closes much to the delight of everyone associated with the Dons. "
Every time the window opens were at major risk of loosing any of our best players to the bigger teams although its been a long time since we lost a player by choice to one of the big teams. Ever since Lee Burns took over either he or myself have managed to talk the players round and tell these big clubs where to go with there offers" This tactic may have worked so far but as the players are mostly still kids in there early 20's and who's to say as they enter there prime will there desire to win bigger trophy's with bigger teams may sway there train of thought. Even if the players stay at pittodrie through the prime of there career will Aberdeen prove to be as loyal once the players hit there 30's and the last chance of a big pay check for there services comes? We'll have to wait and see.
