Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack has encouraged Dons fans to expect three or four more new faces at Pittodrie this summer.

Dons manager Jimmy Thelin has signed four players so far – Australian trio Nicolas Milanovic, Kusini Yengi, and Nick Suman, as well as German Emmanuel Gyamfi – but Cormack feels the summer transfer window is still half-complete.

Cormack told RedTV: “At this point, it’s tough to say, but I believe additional three or four players are likely to join.

“I mentioned a few weeks ago that we’d be seeking to bring in seven or eight players, and they’d have to be of high quality.

 

“So we need to balance things out and make sure we have a nimble group. “We’re also going to give some of the younger boys the opportunity to demonstrate what we believe they can do, primarily at the training camp (in Portugal) that begins this weekend.”

“But we’ve got some good signings already.”

Money is available for the manager

The chairman’s remarks came as he outlined the Reds board’s new £8 million investment in the club. Half of the investment will go towards redeveloping their training base at Cormack Park, but Cormack says £2-3 million has been set aside in the event that manager Jimmy Thelin finds a young talent to bring to the club.

The Aberdeen chairman stated, “First and foremost, it’s not all my money.” Half of it is mine, with the rest coming from Tom Crotty (a major investment), Roger Lee, and a few of our friends. It’s a joint effort.

“The investment is primarily for us at Cormack Park to obtain planning permission and construct an indoor training facility.” “Most of that will go to the capital side. “But we’ll set aside £2 to £3 million of that for operational cash flow, as we see fit, because if there are opportunities, for example, to acquire a young player, as we did with Topi (Keskinen), I don’t want us to be unable to do so.

“So that’s really the rationale behind it.”

‘We’ve been using analytics for years’

Aberdeen’s scouting efforts continue apace, and Cormack claims the club is now casting a wider net than ever before in its search for new players.

Analytics has become a buzzword among the Dons’ competitors following Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s interest in the Jambos. However, Cormack claims that his club has been using its own analytic approach for several years. He added, “Look, while everyone’s talking about these analytics and algorithms, we’ve been using them for five, six years, right?

“We’ve tapped into a lot of players, including Bojan Miovski and Ylber Ramadani.

“There is a reason why we paid a million for Topi Keskinen.

“If you saw Topi at the European Championships, he played every minute and scored a few goals.

“So listen, you’re never going to get recruitment completely perfect, and the industry average has been around 50%. That needs to be 70% to 80% for Aberdeen, and that’s what we’re working to reduce.”

Chairman welcomes increased competition in Scotland

Cormack has welcomed greater competition in Scottish football from Hearts, Hibernian, and Dundee United, but he assures that what his opponents are doing will not distract him from his own team.

He stated, “I’m not too concerned about what other clubs are doing. It is critical that we focus on our club’s plan.

“If I get hit by a bus and my family and others refuse to pick me up and assist in driving the club, I do not want to leave the club in a bad financial situation.”It has to be self-sufficient, and what we have today with this player trading ecosystem allows us to outperform ourselves in terms of recruiting and player compensation.

“In terms of Aberdeen, I believe we sold slightly more than £20 million in players over the last five years. “That’s a substantial salary for us. Clearly, the balance is between that and being competitive.”

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