Libero

Any hopes of signing Michael Higdon (even though they may have been futile in the first place) are gone as he has just signed for Tranmere. I think the chances of us signing another striker for the remainder of the season are gone now. Pretty embarrassing to think that we have one senior striker at the club just now.

More rumoured speculation on teams sniffing about our players: Given how many times we have lost talent and money by not having our players secured on long term contracts I find it amazing we are in the position where we could have yet another rebuilding job on our hands this summer

Delighted Tansey is still here but a totally bizarre situation. Seems we have ruffled a few feathers with this saga. Clarification from the club would be nice to clear our name but seems its not just Aberdeen confused by what happened:

We better start getting more of the squad tied up on extended contracts or we'll have another raft of central midfielders joining in the summer! Only speculation at the moment but undue speculation all the same!

IMO we would be the most logical option for Stokes. We have a lack of strikers/attacking players and he would most likely start most games for us. He would get exactly what he needs in a manager that knows how to get the best out of him while gaining much needed minutes on the pitch. At Dundee united he would be competing with Billy Mckay and that new Finnish lad for a starting berth and he would be scrapping it our each week in a relegation battle. At Hibs he would once again have competition from 3 or 4 other strikers and be playing at a lower level. I think from Celtic's point of view they would probably prefer us as well seeing that he would be getting regular football and be away from the goldfish bowl of Glasgow. Applying common sense or logic to this however is a waste of time, who knows where he will end up!

Ive just heard that we are close to securing a striker on loan from Swindon, Miles Storey wikipedia entry here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Storey

Fon Williams Raven Meekings Warren Williams Wedderburn Tansey Doran Christie Mutombo López

Anthony Stokes on loan? He's been told he has no future at celtic......connection with Yogi when he was at Falkirk

Looks like they are vulnerable from the wings going by a couple of those goals, we didn't use the wings nearly enough in our home leg and its something i've noticed under Yogi. He likes to have his attackers playing narrow and letting the full backs push on but our full backs were often too deep meaning we had no-one to put crosses in and Lopez and Christie were often being pulled wide leaving no-one in the box. We need to get our full backs forward and get decent crosses into the box for Lopez, Christie, Doran, Tansey to attack

really happy with the look of both of them Going to look even better with a europa league sticker on the arm

I'm sure I recall hearing from someone that Calum Ferguson recently had to have an MRI on a back injury. No idea whether it is keeping him from training/playing. Haven't heard much about him this pre-season. I would imagine the front 4 would be something like this: Doran---------------------Christie---------------Williams/Roberts -------------------------------Lopez-------------------------

So we need to register our squad for Europe today and we don't have 25 players to fill it, we don't have a recognised senior striker at the club, we have no assistant manager, have 1 senior fit goalkeeper available and no-one seems to know what strips we will be playing in when the season starts. Certainly not hitting the panic button yet but I don't think anyone can deny that we are quite a bit behind schedule. Very surprised that we are leaving things so late considering our season starts in less than a week!

Libero.... the title you chose for the thread and the quote above from the OP don't seem quite to square with what you now seem to be saying in post #22. Again I would disagree. Our wage budget will have a set limit which we can offer a player but do you not think that offering a player the chance of European football would be a very big selling factor for the club? IMO it would be a huge draw to a lot of players that wouldn't normally be interested in a smaller club. Clubs all over the world use the fact that they are playing European football as a selling point so I don't believe that we should be any different. Over the years we have expanded our reputation throughout Britain and Europe as giant killers in the cup, or the small team from the North punching well above our weight but now that we have qualified for a European competition then our reputation will be enhanced even further, I firmly believe this can help the club in attracting a different calibre of player not available to us before irrespective of the wages we offer

A lot of people on here seem to be under the impression that strengthening the squad somehow means bankrupting the club or spending money we don't have. Butcher in his time here strengthened the squad each year without bankrupting the club, Pele did it every season he was here without bankrupting the club, why cant Yogi? I have never said that we have to splurge money we don't have on adding to the squad I am merely saying that to have a squad ready for domestic and foreign pursuits then we have to bolster the squad. Yogi has stated himself there will be around 4-5 departures over the close season. We will be losing our captain who will be a huge player to replace, we have no senior strikers contracted to the club beyond the summer so this team will require replacements and additions and I have full faith in the board and management in doing this within our means. The whole point of the thread wasn't to discuss a shopping list of European superstars, it was to see if and where we need to look at strengthening for next season

I'm not saying we should deviate from the secure operating system that the board has in the place, nor am i saying that we should put ourselves into debt signing numerous players for an assault on Europe. Remaining sustainable is what we are about and many if not all clubs aspire to that. I have no issue with that and encourage it. All I am saying is that the club is venturing into new ground and potentially prosperous ground at that. Surely adding a couple of loan players or having more than one recognised striker at the club is worth the moderate outlay?

I agree that a couple of experience players being added to the pool wouldn't break the bank considering that we should do reasonably well out of this season. I found the payments for next seasons Europa League qualifying round payouts: Source: http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/news/newsid=2146866.html

I'm not saying we need to pay transfer fees but I don't think many would disagree that we need to strengthen the squad I'm sure I read somewhere that money for points and participating in European competition is much more lucrative next season following a review of monies paid to clubs. Also just qualifying for the group stages of the Europa league gets you £5million minimum then would it not be worth a couple of extra yearly wages in the hope that we may get a favourable draw in the qualifiers? If Aberdeen can qualify with a mediocre team a few seasons ago then why cant we? Call me optimistic if you want Surely being in a cup final and securing 3rd place in the league would give enough money to cover the wages of a couple of extra players? Or if not, surely bigger clubs would love to sound promising youngsters to a club competing in Europe?

I know the season isn't over and we have a huge game left this season but given that we are back in action quite a bit earlier next season due to European participation ( woohoo!! ) I wonder if Yogi has begun to look at the squad and see where it needs strengthened for next season? I would imagine we would have to operate a slightly larger squad pool given that we'll be competing both domestically and abroad Quite a few other clubs are signing players on pre-contracts and assembling squads for next year so I wonder if there is work going on behind the scenes to supplement the squad for a huge season next year. Obviously Shinnie is going to be a huge loss for us so will left back be a position needing filled or will Tremarco fit straight in with Babtie coming in from the youths as back up? Will Ofere be here next season? His goals have been huge for us but other than the big man we dont have a great deal of options up front given the speculation about Marley leaving. IMO we need a left back, a right winger and 2 forwards (even if Ofere stays) Now that we are competing in Europe does this open up a new standard of player available to us? Any thoughts on if/where we need squad reinforcements?

Errea has obviously worked for ICTFC over the years and vice versa hence the long standing loyalty each has shown each other. I don't know the ins and outs off how much these things cost so don't really know what is feasible to the club in terms of looking to a new supplier. One thing I personally feel is, that whilst I am of the age that I don't regularly wear football strips I would certainly be more inclined to wear one with a mainstream brand such as Adidas and Nike. Call me a brand snob if you want but that's just a personal opinion. As a side note I will probably look to purchase a top for the cup final and would regardless of brand seeing as its a one off

Confirmed on the BBC Website and twitter that Raven has signed a new 1 year deal. I agree with many others on here saying it should have been longer but good to have him on board for another year #EatSleepRavenRepeat

LEAGUE. CUP. FINAL!!!!!!!!

Rings true with what i've heard, hear we are looking to sign two players, one most probably being Kink but heard that Prince Rajcomar and the other lad have left #notintheknow

Just found this; "Dutchman Prince Rajcomar, most recently with Thai side BEC Tero Sasana, and Serbian attacker Marko Vukanovic, formerly of Swiss side FC Baulmes, have both been training with the club."

Twitter suggesting that we currently have a striker on trial called Prince Rajcomar, don't know much else at the moment Highlight reel here:

From what I have read it really helps with the style of football we are trying to play. If it adds an additional revenue stream then great; we can do with all the additional income we can get. IMO it makes football and business sense so i was glad to hear the club were looking into it. Really hope that the funds can somehow be secured for it