As transfer windows go, this was not a particularly exciting one for Aberdeen. Aside from some tinkering at the margins of the squad, the departure of Ryan Hedges and the accompanying arrival of Vicente Besuijen was as splashy as it got.
But the first half of last night’s Premiership card offered Dons fans a reminder there are worse ways to approach a transfer deadline than quietly.
As they peeled their eyes away from the on-field offerings and scrolled the scoresheets on their phones, the Red Army may have been faintly amused to note Callum Hendry and Bruce Anderson had been the only players to find the target in a sedate opening period around Scotland’s top flight.
For it is only 12 months since they were two of the deckchairs being shuffled frantically around Aberdeen’s less-than-titanic attack in Derek McInnes’ desperate, doomed attempt to circumnavigate the looming iceberg.
That – then as now – felt like a scattergun and panicked approach, throwing as much sharn at the wall as Aberdeen could find and hoping some of it might score a goal. This January’s activity, by contrast, appeared to be guided by some sort of philosophy, even if one could justly question whether it is quite the one so heavily advertised in the populist strategic vision.
Dutch debutants have enormous footsteps in which to walk, but, with the obvious caveat that he is not Hans Gillhaus, Besuijen showed enough here to suggest that he will be an important part of the Dons’ arsenal for years to come.
He will need some time to adjust to what is clearly a very different type of football. But time is what Aberdeen have invested in here. Sometimes steady wins the race.
And if all else fails, remember this: far worse deadline days were had than Aberdeen’s.