Barry Robson has landed Nicky Devlin and is set to boost his Scottish contingent further - if Aberdeen make the money-spinning group stages of European football.
The Dons will go into the play-off round for the Europa League but would be guaranteed group stage football if Celtic beat Inverness in the Scottish Cup final. New UEFA regulations on squads this season means that each squad has to have eight homegrown players registered and at least four of them must be club-trained on their List A for club competition, as part of any 25 man squad.
Aberdeen currently have Ryan Duncan, Connor Barron, Jack MacKenzie and young Alfie Bavidge who have first-team experience and can be classed as club-grown. Dean Campbell and Connor McLennan would also come into that category but they are both out of contract and would be dependent on them getting new deals, while Matty Kennedy would be classed as home-grown but it is likely he will be departing this summer.
If Campbell, McLennan and Kennedy were all to go then Aberdeen will need to look at Scottish options to boost their numbers. A deal to bring in full-back Devlin from Livingston on a two year deal has now been completed.
Robson admitted: “Nicky is a proven leader and is exactly the type of character I want within my squad here He is an experienced professional who has been captain at two previous clubs, he knows the league well and is equipped for the demands we are going to face next season.”
Devlin is another Scottish-classed player although he would only fill the void from Ross McCrorie’s pending summer move to Bristol City. Aberdeen are in talks to bring some the likes of captain Graeme Shinnie, Leighton Clarkson, Liam Scales and Mattie Pollock back to the club next season.
Aberdeen are pushing for a permanent deal to bring Shinnie back from Wigan Athletic on a permanent basis and he is another who would fall into the home-grown category. Dutch defender Jay Izdes is another long-term target that Aberdeen are trying to nail down.
Aberdeen also have an option to buy Patrick Myslovic from MLK Zilna this summer but that is looking increasingly unlikely. Jim Goodwin brought in a lot of Pittodrie talent last summer but the majority of those players don’t meet the new criteria.
Robson’s recruitment team are working full out as his squad could face a major overhaul. The manager might well need to put a team together who can not only build on third place but the rigours of playing group stage football until Christmas.
Robson is very clear in his recruitment and what he needs to bring to the Granite City. He said: “I’m not so sure ability is the main thing, I have seen a lot of players with ability who can’t perform on the big stage.
“You have to also get players with the right mindset, the right mentality who want to be part of the culture here, being good people and good men.
“That’s a big part of it and it’s not always easy to get when they’re coming from different parts of Britain and Europe.
“We like to have speed in the team, drive and that’s two of many aspects we look for. So we look at the technical side, the physical side, the mental side in depth when we’re looking at players.”
Aberdeen also have number of players who will return from their own loans like Anthony Stewart and Vicente Besuijen. The Dons are also likely to have to fight off interest in some of their top stars, like Duk this summer.
Bojan Miovski would have been another had he not suffered a nasty injury at the end of the season. Robson expects the North Macedonian to be back early in the summer. He confirmed: “Bojan will probably miss the first week or two of pre-season then be back after that.
“I told him we’ll be having a tough first two weeks but he won’t miss it - he’ll have a blast when he gets back! To go and perform the way we need to perform, you need a pre-season and the kind of pre-season I want to do.
“So it will delay him a little but and we’ll need to get him up to where we want him to be for the games when they come around. I don’t want to just throw him in and let him join in when he’s two weeks behind. We’ll need to build that base with him.”
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