Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin expects more departures than arrivals before the summer transfer window closes.
Leighton Clarkson became Aberdeen’s 11th signing of the window when he joined on loan from Liverpool ahead of Saturday’s 4-1 win against St Mirren.
Goodwin hopes to make one more addition to his squad, while he expects others to move on to new clubs.
Defender David Bates was close to joining Legia Warsaw before his move broke down, while striker Christian Ramirez has been linked with a move away after falling down the pecking order at Pittodrie.
Quality recruits
Goodwin said: “The squad is probably a little big now for my liking.
“I like to carry 22 players, including a couple of young ones. We have that just now with Jack Milne and Ryan Duncan.
“Before the window shuts, I would anticipate a couple at least to go out.
“There are one or two who are frustrated with the lack of game time as you can imagine.
“That is totally understandable. Those conversations have been had.
“I still want another one in as well.
“The directors and chairman have been extremely supportive up until now.
“You can see the quality in our recruitment. Bojan Miovski scored two goals on Saturday, Duk (Luis Lopes) came off the bench and made an instant impact with his goal and Leighton Clarkson did well.
“The recruitment team led by Darren Mowbray and all the scouts as well as the director of football Steven Gunn deserve a huge amount of credit.
“It is very pleasing up until now.
“As much as I want the fans to be going away excited and enjoying their beers after the game, we shouldn’t get carried away.
“We played against 10 men for large parts of the game.
“We should be well capable of winning the game, but some of the football was very exciting and entertaining.”
Building team relationships
Goodwin has been heartened by the way his new-look Dons team are coming together after a busy period of recruitment following last season’s disappointing campaign.
The Dons boss said: “You need good relationships all over the pitch.
“The two centre-backs need to have an understanding and work well together.
“It is the same with the midfield and striker partnerships.
“You need to work on the different rotations and movements of the full-backs and wingers.
“It is all very well talking about it and working on the training ground, but you need good quality players to carry out what you are trying to coach.
“Players deserve all the credit.
“The Celtic game (a 2-0 defeat) was a disappointment because I felt we could have taken something from that game.
“But with the four League Cup games and the St Mirren game, I think the fans are starting to see what we are trying to do.
“We are not going to get it right every week and there were still bits of Saturday’s game that frustrated me.
“I want us to get better and more consistent.
“I can’t be too critical as it was a good day’s work.
“But we have a long way to go, this is only one win and we have a difficult challenge again next weekend.”
‘A really good display of football’
Goodwin felt his side delivered entertaining football for the 14,420 crowd at Pittodrie on Saturday and hopes to do the same again when Motherwell make the journey north this weekend.
He added: “We’re delighted with the result and the overall performance – 65, 70% of the performance I’m really pleased with.
“As always, there are always parts we could do better. We let the tempo drop out in the second 45 minutes and when they get their goal it brought a bit of nervous tension.
“But we managed to see the game out strongly. I can’t be too critical of the overall performance.
“It was a really good display of football.
“We want to be entertaining and the fans saw that with some of the goals we scored. Even at 11 v 11, we were in control.
“The fourth goal was the one I was most pleased with. I don’t think you’ll see a much better goal than that this weekend.
“Not just the finish, but the build up with the play in the corner to get out of trouble. It was a great ball round the corner from Christian Ramirez.
“I’ve not sat here as a manager too often off the back of a 4-1 win so I’m very, very pleased.”