Summer 2023 Transfer Speculation

[Clyde1998]

That would be a great signing if we were to get him. I'm not going to hold out much hope though.

Aberdeen would be a better pull. As bad as Scottish football is, it's better than league one. Playing European football is a pull for Aberdeen.

Didn't Aberdeen lose their star striker to a National League side a few years ago? Would expect us to be a bigger a draw than any Scottish team, bar Celtic and Rangers.

Adam Rooney. He was 31 at the time and was declining. Aberdeen were paying him around £2k p/w, Salford paid him around £4-5k p/w. £5k p/w is probably the maximum a club like Aberdeen would pay a player; they weren’t going to spend £5k p/w on an ageing player.

As with all these things: follow the money.

[From Despair To Where?]

Aberdeen are pretty much at their ceiling. 3rd place in the SPL. Europe might be a draw but if you look at Hearts this season, that means out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages then out in the group stages of the Conference League.

[Sutekh]

Eh? The season hasn't even ended for some.

If we're looking at OOC players based in England, we can't talk to them until a month from contract end.

I thought you can talk to players as soon as they have 6 months left on their contract, hence signing pre-contract agreements?

Depends how far down the road things are behind the scenes. New bloke might have said he'd agree to come already and identified a few key players he thinks are ideal, that Reading can get to work on, while new bloke ties up some loose ends before it's all announced.

[Sutekh]

Aberdeen are pretty much at their ceiling. 3rd place in the SPL. Europe might be a draw but if you look at Hearts this season, that means out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages then out in the group stages of the Conference League.

That's exactly right. Rangers and Celtic are always the top 2, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts should be the race for the next 3 places, while the rest is just a race to avoid the drop. Though in some seasons after 1st and 2nd it's justicen the race to not be relegated.

They really need to do something to fix the cr@pness of the Scottish league system.

[Hound]

Eh? The season hasn't even ended for some.

If we're looking at OOC players based in England, we can't talk to them until a month from contract end.

I thought you can talk to players as soon as they have 6 months left on their contract, hence signing pre-contract agreements?

Only for transfers between two different countries which is why I specifically stated English based.

*can’t ‘officially’ talk to them…

[From Despair To Where?]

Aberdeen are pretty much at their ceiling. 3rd place in the SPL. Europe might be a draw but if you look at Hearts this season, that means out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages then out in the group stages of the Conference League.

That's exactly right. Rangers and Celtic are always the top 2, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts should be the race for the next 3 places, while the rest is just a race to avoid the drop. Though in some seasons after 1st and 2nd it's justicen the race to not be relegated.

They really need to do something to fix the cr@pness of the Scottish league system.

You're being a bit harsh there. Yes it is basically a 3 tier league and the standard isn't great but it means that every game matters. It's actually quite an exciting league to follow.

[From Despair To Where?]

I thought you can talk to players as soon as they have 6 months left on their contract, hence signing pre-contract agreements?

Only for transfers between two different countries which is why I specifically stated English based.

*can’t ‘officially’ talk to them…

Yeah, but my original post was in response to Jimmy flapping as per because there was no movement in the transfer market as yet....

There's no movement because we can't officially announce anything yet.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

A rumour..:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/foo ... 104163.amp

Up to the player from the look of it

Would be a good signing if we can get him through the door. I know a couple of people who live up in Aberdeen who said he looks like he's been playing for 15 years with how comfortable he is in his position.

Just waiting for Cafu rumour to come through again shortly though now... (actually wouldn't be against this if it was to happen having said that)

[traff]

A rumour..:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/foo ... 104163.amp

Up to the player from the look of it

Would be a good signing if we can get him through the door. I know a couple of people who live up in Aberdeen who said he looks like he's been playing for 15 years with how comfortable he is in his position.

Just waiting for Cafu rumour to come through again shortly though now... (actually wouldn't be against this if it was to happen having said that)

Apparently is likely to stay with Aberdeen.
Gutted, been a dream signing for a couple of hours now!

[Clyde1998]

Aberdeen are pretty much at their ceiling. 3rd place in the SPL. Europe might be a draw but if you look at Hearts this season, that means out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages then out in the group stages of the Conference League.

That's exactly right. Rangers and Celtic are always the top 2, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts should be the race for the next 3 places, while the rest is just a race to avoid the drop. Though in some seasons after 1st and 2nd it's justicen the race to not be relegated.

They really need to do something to fix the cr@pness of the Scottish league system.

Players follow the money - the only way for the standard of the Scottish league to be improved is for millions to be pumped into the Scottish game via broadcasting revenue à la the Premier League.

Aberdeen's revenue was £13.857m in 2021-22, with only £1.621m from broadcasting and £1.976 in UEFA money (leaving £10.260m in non-broadcasting revenue - 'organic' revenue from here). Our revenue in 2021-22 was £16.906m, with £8.449m from broadcasting (leaving £8.457m 'organic' revenue). Aberdeen's 'organic' revenue is greater than ours - as is Hearts (£11.159m 'organic') and I imagine Hibs have organic revenue greater than us (they don't break their revenue down by source in their accounts).

Aberdeen, Hearts and (likely) Hibs have higher 'organic' revenues than Cardiff (£9.480m), Birmingham (£9.175m), Blackburn (£8.419m) and Preston (£4.346m) - for the clubs I checked. These clubs all get greater broadcasting revenue simply by playing in a league with a larger TV deal.

The reason the Scottish Premier is uneven comes down to having Celtic and Rangers (who would compete with, or exceed, clubs like Newcastle, Aston Villa, Leeds, West Ham and Everton in 'organic' revenue - who also get tens of millions in UEFA money) competing with three clubs with Championship level 'organic' revenues and nine others with League One and Two levels of 'organic' revenues.

For the Scottish Premiership broadcast deal to rival the Championship's in terms of individual club revenue, it would require around a 5-6x increase. There's no chance of the Scottish league materially changing with the current revenue distribution both between clubs in the league and between the Scottish Premiership and other leagues.

[Snowflake Royal]

Aberdeen are pretty much at their ceiling. 3rd place in the SPL. Europe might be a draw but if you look at Hearts this season, that means out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages then out in the group stages of the Conference League.

That's exactly right. Rangers and Celtic are always the top 2, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts should be the race for the next 3 places, while the rest is just a race to avoid the drop. Though in some seasons after 1st and 2nd it's justicen the race to not be relegated.

They really need to do something to fix the cr@pness of the Scottish league system.

Celtic & Rangers are PL/Champ yoyo quality, though the PL money would probably see them more PL than Champ.

The other three are borderline Champ/L1 level and the rest are barely L1.

I don't see how losing a couple of games in Europe is any sort of significant draw to an ambitious kid out of Liverpool's academy.

[Snowflake Royal]

5 goals and 8 assists in 34 games over the border. 72% pass success.
Looks solid on shots per game, key passes per game, dispossesed and unsuccessful touches metrics.

Only reservation is he's done it in such an unbalanced league...

Seems positive to be linked to him.

[Hound]

5 goals and 8 assists in 34 games over the border. 72% pass success.
Looks solid on shots per game, key passes per game, dispossesed and unsuccessful touches metrics.

Only reservation is he's done it in such an unbalanced league...

Seems positive to be linked to him.

It’s the right ‘sort’ of player. Don’t know much about him other than the stats but vaguely encouraging

[Pepe the Horseman]

Aberdeen are pretty much at their ceiling. 3rd place in the SPL. Europe might be a draw but if you look at Hearts this season, that means out of the Europa League in the qualifying stages then out in the group stages of the Conference League.

That's exactly right. Rangers and Celtic are always the top 2, Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts should be the race for the next 3 places, while the rest is just a race to avoid the drop. Though in some seasons after 1st and 2nd it's justicen the race to not be relegated.

They really need to do something to fix the cr@pness of the Scottish league system.

Celtic & Rangers are PL/Champ yoyo quality, though the PL money would probably see them more PL than Champ.

The other three are borderline Champ/L1 level and the rest are barely L1.

I don't see how losing a couple of games in Europe is any sort of significant draw to an ambitious kid out of Liverpool's academy.

Zakly. Like claiming Lincoln Red Imps or Shamrock Rovers are a draw because they play in Europe.

[From Despair To Where?]

Looking at the Aberdeen forum, their sources up there are suggesting it's a done deal back to them on loan. They also seem to think European football is a massive draw compared to League 1. There's a suggestion that if Celtic win the Scottish Cup (likely considering they're playing Championship opposition in Inverness CT), then 3rd place gets automatic qualification to the group stages of the Europa League.

They rate him extremely highly.

[Sutekh]

He won't drop down to L1, there's also some Championship interest apparently. Odds are he'll sign permanently for Aberdeen though.

[Clyde1998]

Looking at the Aberdeen forum, their sources up there are suggesting it's a done deal back to them on loan. They also seem to think European football is a massive draw compared to League 1. There's a suggestion that if Celtic win the Scottish Cup (likely considering they're playing Championship opposition in Inverness CT), then 3rd place gets automatic qualification to the group stages of the Europa League.

They rate him extremely highly.

That's not quite right. If Celtic win the Scottish Cup, third gets a Europa League play-off spot (winners to the group stages) - with a guaranteed Conference League group stage spot if they lose it. They'd be guaranteed eight European matches however.

[Snowflake Royal]

He won't drop down to L1, there's also some Championship interest apparently. Odds are he'll sign permanently for Aberdeen though.

If there's decent Championship interest he should go there. He'll earn more. Get more exposure. And have a better opportunity to progress higher.

Or he could play for Aberdeen, have a brief jolly in Europe earning less and then finish in 3rd to 5th in obscurity. I don't think he'd be hedging his bets if he was going to stay in Scotland

[From Despair To Where?]

Again the Aberdeen fans are talking in terms of signing him for £1-1.5m then flogging him back to the EPL for a hefty profit in a year's time.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Yeah I can imagine the player fancies playing in Europe with Aberdeen for a season and then hedging his bets of getting a move back to England somewhere.

Whilst the Scottish league is shit, League One isn't exactly much cop either and most of the other teams in Scotland are probably around L1 level anyway.

I'd certainly go up to Scotland for a season to play in Europe and then hopefully look for a move south of the border if I was wanted, as opposed to just playing L1 football for a season and hope for the same outcome (getting a move elsewhere).