Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack is anticipating transfer bids for Lewis Ferguson and Calvin Ramsay this summer.
Both players have been linked with several clubs during recent transfer windows and the Dons’ resolve is expected to be tested again at the end of the season.
Leeds and Liverpool are reportedly weighing up a move for right-back Ramsay, while Watford failed in a move for Scotland international Ferguson last summer.
Cormack insists the Dons do not need to sell and offers will only be accepted if they come at the right time and make financial sense for the Dons.
‘We want to plan ahead’
He told The Press and Journal: “We are expecting bids to come in for the players.
“We don’t know what those bids will be and who they will come from.
“But what I will say and this is something we have been putting in place for a couple of years, if anything is going to be done we want it to be done early.
“We are not going to wait.
“There was a situation with Scott McKenna a few years ago when a bid came in the day before we got on a plane for a European match.
“We want to plan ahead.
“The recruitment team wouldn’t be doing their job if they weren’t looking at other players to come into the squad if the right bids come in.
“It would be foolish to say we don’t expect bids.
“They need to be the right bids for Aberdeen as we don’t need the cash.
“It has to be the right deal for Aberdeen and it has to happen early so we have the opportunity to reinvest and bring in other players we would like.”
Whether or not Ferguson and Ramsay move on, Cormack has vowed to make the funds available to new Dons boss Jim Goodwin to strengthen his squad.
The Dons sit ninth in the Scottish Premiership – only five points above second bottom St Johnstone – with four games remaining.
The vision: ‘playing attacking and entertaining football that wins’
Cormack said: “We believe going into this window that we are better prepared to get the recruitment right than has been the case for a few years.
“That is down to the clear strategy on the football side, not just with Steven Gunn and Darren Mowbray, but with Jim Goodwin as well.
“They are working collaboratively and they are talking to players they want to bring to Aberdeen on a daily basis.
“These are good players therefore it is competitive to get them.
“We lost out on a German under-21 international in the Eredivisie (in the January transfer window).
“That is going to happen but we are out there looking at these players. They are players with the quality of the likes of Vicente Besuijen.
“Next season the fans will see a changed squad. Jim wants the average age to be younger. He wants to play a high-pressing, attacking game.
“I think the fans will see us deliver on the vision we have of playing attacking and entertaining football that wins.
“The league is very competitive. Hearts and Hibs are very well run clubs.
“It is good news and healthy for Scottish football that the league is so competitive.
“We will step up our game.
“Jim will have a significant, significant budget.
“The fact we haven’t done great this season will not detract on what we invest in the football budget.”
‘Appeal to the Dons’
Despite a poor season, Cormack has been encouraged by the number of season tickets already sold for the 2022-23 campaign.
He said: “I would appeal to the Dons fans that we need you, it is about all of us coming together to get behind the team.
“Our season ticket sales – now at 6,400 – are well ahead of any target we have had before.
“We are on track to get 10,000 season tickets, these are paid-for season tickets.
“People come because they want to be excited by the football and they want the environment, like the Red Shed or the family area.”
While the Dons fans can expect to see plenty of new faces next season, Cormack says the club’s promising youth players will be given the chance to make their mark.
He added: “We want to bring in quality, not quantity.
“We have got some young players who can move up to the first team squad, we have to make room for them.
“You have got players such as Kieran Ngwenya and Ryan Duncan who can come up to the first team squad and there are one or two other contenders.”