Holding on to what you’ve got

By: TheNorthernLight | January 2nd, 2009

Aye aye, and thanks for hanging on – it’s been a while since I last updated the site. There’s all sorts of reasons which I wont burden you or me with, but suffice to say that the Xmas and New Years break comes with a resolution to make at least three updates per week on the wee A’deen corner here on The Offside.

So – apart from fifth – where are we at with the greatest team north of the Tay? When last we filled these pages, the Dandies where due to head down to deepest Ayrshire for the game against the ‘marnock. We all know how chillie it got against Killie and the game was cancelled, possibly due to the fact that Jefferies and the lads forgot to put 50p in the meter. Everyone got hot under the collar about it, Tango perhaps got even more tango-esque but really, at the end of the day what the hell are we doing playing football in the middle of winter anyway? Surely the SPL would have learned their lesson from seasons past that winter football is a bad idea. Hell, even Napoleon became unstuck on his winter excursion into Russia back in 18-oatcake, so what chance a grass pitch in Ayrshire, or muddy fields in Inverness, Coatbridge and Motherwell?

The break seemed to do Jimmy and the boys good though. Wins against Falkirk (Lee Miller getting on the scoresheet twice), Inverness Caley (Mulgrew bangs in another) and of course last weeks epic against Hearts sees us shoot up the table like a mad shooting thing. It’s a shame that Celtic have as-good-as won the league already of course so there’s not much left to play for really. Except perhaps sticking it to other mid-table mediocrity (aye, that’s you Hearts, United and Hibs).

Ah well. It’s January which means transfer window time for most teams. Not for Aberdeen though. No, we’re going to try and hang on to our squad as much as we can, with Severin, Mackie, Smith, Young, de Visscher and Mair all able to talk to other clubs. Now, dont get me wrong, I love Aberdeen FC more than life itself, but I just cant help thinking that there are agents fighting for parking places down Pittodrie Street hoping to steal away our first eleven.

They’re all good SPL players sure enough, but unless they’re crazy they’d be fools to go elsewhere. Severin and Mackie we need, the jury is still out on Smith (I want to see him play a game first), while de Visscher is worth hanging on to. Young .. well. Our big risk is losing the impressive Aluko as well as Miller. Should Aluko be sold, we’d lose a lot of impact and danger down the left wing, while Miller is starting to score and as the good Lord knows we need more goalscorers in the team.

Truth is, Aberdeen really need a good defender to shore up the middle of the back line. I’ve not heard any news about players coming north, but there was an article in the P&J the other week wherein Calderwood mentioned something about himself and Jimmy Nichol scouting players in the English Second Division. Now, those of you old enough to remember another manager who tried the same thing might recall other class lower league players such as Keith Edwards, Peter Nicholas, Tom Jones and the great Gary Hackett, all of whom wasted everyone’s time and money at Pittodrie with displays that would make Ali Dia blush.

We wait with baited breath.