Aberdeen manager Stephen Robinson has identified sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel as the man with the hardest job at the club, tasked with reducing an overcrowded squad after a busy summer of recruitment.
The Dons have made eight signings so far this summer, but only one player—Per Bratveit—has left the club. Players such as Marko Lazetic, Nicolas Milanovic, Ante Palaversa, Kusini Yengi, and Peter Ambrose have been made available for transfer but remain at the club. Record Sport has reported that Elfsborg are close to securing a deal for right-back Alexander Jensen.
Robinson on Squad Imbalance
“There are way too many players at the moment so we have to cut the squad back,” Robinson said. “Players will move on, Lutz has the hardest job at the club right now because it’s easy to get players in but much harder to get people out when they have long contracts. There’s a pride involved as well. I have been honest and open with players I don’t think will play if everyone is fit. So for their own pride and career, it’s important they go somewhere to play football.”
Robinson noted that the transfer market is still slow due to early pre-season schedules and the World Cup, but activity has picked up in the last week. “It’s still very early, we’re back earlier than Europe and England plus the World Cup is on which always slows things down. But things have started to move a little bit in the last week or so, I’m confident that in the next fortnight or three weeks things will move more. Hopefully by the time the season starts we’ll have the balance in the squad right.”
Ideal Squad Size
The Dons are currently in the Netherlands for their pre-season training camp. Robinson admitted that managing a squad of 30 players is unsustainable. “We have a bit of work to do to balance things up because it’s virtually impossible to keep a squad of 30 players happy. For me, ideally 23 players, three goalkeepers with a few younger boys within the 23 is the ideal size of squad. That gives you a real base of 20 first-team players, a few kids and three goalies so everyone is fighting for places.”
Robinson has yet to see Kusini Yengi in action after the Australian striker spent the end of last season on loan at Japanese side Cerezo Osaka. The door remains open for him to revive his Aberdeen career. “I saw Tete before when he was at Portsmouth, he scored a lot of goals in League One. Everyone has a chance, they can all come in and change what happened previously. First and foremost, it will be about getting fit for him then showing us what he can do. We have brought in a lot of forward players so there’s going to be real competition there. But he’s got a lot of attributes I like, it will be about seeing if he can fit into the team.”
Board Backing and Future Signings
Robinson expects more signings before the transfer window closes, but that depends on outgoings. The Aberdeen board has made a seven-figure kitty available, allowing him to sign Moroccan striker Ayoub Mouloua and Brentford winger Tony Yogane, as well as Lewis Mayo, Brad Lyons, Alexander Briedel, Connor Ronan, Dan Happe, and Toyosi Olusanya.
Robinson praised the board for enabling early recruitment. “I’d love to make loads more signings but I’m not sure Dave and the board will like to hear me say that! I have been very lucky because they’ve allowed me to bring players in before we have moved players out. A large amount of our resources have been taken up by players who are already here. But if we’d sat and waited on one-out-one-in then it wouldn’t have been the right way to plan things. The backing from the board has been tremendous. We do have to balance it, we have to get players off the books and that process is happening. When people leave we will look to bring more players in. But getting that core in early is good business because you pay a lot more at the end of the window if you’re scrambling around trying to get players in late. That could have been the case if we’d waited for players to leave first but the board decided they’d back me to do it and trust we will get people out to balance things back up again.”
