Transfer Blues, Hoops and Reds

By: TheNorthernLight | February 4th, 2009

Reading the Celtic blog this morning put a wee smile on my otherwise dour face.

The January transfer window came and went, and with it, the hopes and expectations of fans of the Old Firm. We’ve all seen the desperate ‘For Sale – Please’ signs up at Ibrox, the club seemingly willing to sell anyone for a bit of cash. Kris Boyd and Alan McGregor where transfer targets for Birmingham and Arsenal respectively, but in the end only Boyd came close to going (his transfer almost completed where it not for his personal terms, whatever that means). For Walter Smith, it’s business as usual.

Across the city meanwhile, Celtic are on the hunt for their fourth title in a row. Except, things are not going smoothly. They’re in pole position, but they’ve somehow managed to squander a seven-point lead down to only two, with their arch-enemies are hot on the heels. They’ve still got quite a few games to go, not to mention those pesky Cup distractions. Sounds like this is *the* time for the club to get the bank book out from under the mattress and get stuck into the transfer market to secure those players that will bring home that fourth title in a row.

And what happens?

Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip.

Now, I can imagine the sense of disappointment amongst the Celtic faithful; you’re the biggest club in Scotland (after Rangers), you’ve won the league loads of times, you’ve got a bitchin’ stadium, a PR-friendly manager and Henrik Larsson once played for you. Your club has been linked to several potential signings (Ched Evans, James McArthur, Marek Chec, Gelson Fernandez, Stephen Fletcher to name but a few), but in the end, who do you get? Willo Flood, practically on a free from Dundee United. Like, wow. It’ll take a while to take the bunting down from lamp posts all across the East End of Glasgow, that’s for sure.

As Scottish footie blog Inside Left pointed out, it’s probably down to the fact that Scottish football, and even the top clubs in Scottish football, are not the attractive propositions they once where. Scotland was always a selling league; once upon a long time ago, our players went to Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and so on. Now, they go to Doncaster, Watford and Norwich, clubs able to pay more than most Scottish teams. Likewise, for the few players coming to Scotland, most are coming from big teams in minor leagues.

The good thing about being an Aberdeen fan is that we had no expectations in this transfer window or indeed any transfer window. We could sit and watch the hilarity and hysteria from the sidelines. As early as December Jimmy had already said that we’d not be spending any money on new transfers and, though he expressed fears about Miller possibly going somewhere, deep down we all knew that our players would be safe from marauding agents sent across land and sea from England, Spain, Italy and so on. We had one new addition, the distinctly unimpressive so far, rabbit-in-the-headlights Javan Vidal from Manchester City but that’s about it so far.

Aberdeen’s big enemy are not clubs and agents raiding Pittodrie, rather, our problem is players wanting to leave. We have quite a few of the first team squad out of contract come the summer, meaning not only will they leave, they’ll also leave for free (an Aberdonians worst nightmare). Jamie Smith, Darren Mackie, Derek Young and Lee Mair are all available after season’s end. Scott Severin, another one of the players the club are keen to lock into contract negotiations looks set to follow his predecessor as club captain, Barry Nicholson, out of the club in the summer.

No matter what you or I in my capacity as Aberdeen fan might think of these players (Mackie, Mair and Severin should stay, Young and Smith we can lose), finding replacements is clearly difficult for an unfashionable club that has seen better days. That list contains most of our midfield (or midfield options), a defender and our other striker and that’s a worrying thing. And what’s worse – if we where to lose those players, I reckon Jimmy would jump ship also (and I never thought I’d ever say that!)

And I don’t blame them; if I can get paid more and have a more interesting job elsewhere, I’d move too. But whereas my company would have no trouble replacing me, for Scottish football clubs, finding replacements for lost talent is a bigger problem. If our big two cant attract talent north of the border, what hope is there for clubs like Aberdeen?

And, in the long run, what hope for Scottish football?