Loan star Liam Scales has revealed Aberdeen will have to wait until late in the summer transfer window for any clarity on his future.
Centre-back Scales’ loan deal from Premiership champions Celtic expires at the end of the season.
Scales only has two games remaining of his Pittodrie loan – against Hearts and St Mirren.
The 24-year-old is ineligible to face parent club Celtic in the final game of the campaign due to the terms of his loan deal.
Centre-back Scales confirmed he is set to report back for pre-season training with the Hoops and will then discuss his future.
But Scales insists he “loves” playing for Aberdeen.
However, he has two years left on his Celtic contract and admits he does not know what the Parkhead club have planned for him.
It is understood Aberdeen boss Barry Robson is keen on securing Scales for next season.
Scales has been key in a defence who have secured six clean sheets in seven games to elevate the Dons up to third in the Premiership table.
He is set to start against Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday in a potential third-place decider.
The defender said: “I have two games left to finish as strongly as I can to put myself in a good position for when I report back to Celtic in the summer for pre-season.
“That is what I am assuming will happen.
“I will need to go back there and discuss what plans they have for me.
“I am looking forward to taking a break in the summer.
“And I don’t think I’ll be worrying too much while I’m off about what the future holds.”
‘I love playing here, it has been brilliant for me’
Aberdeen attempted to secure Scales on a permanent deal last summer under former boss Jim Goodwin.
The Dons pushed the Parkhead club to try to receive a figure on a fee which would get a deal for Scales over the line.
However, Celtic were not willing to sell the defender then.
A season-long loan deal was the only way for the Dons to get Scales to Pittodrie.
Scales said: “I love playing here – it has been brilliant for me.
“But I can’t decide now what’s going to happen, because I really don’t know what’s going on between the clubs.
“I don’t know what Celtic have planned for me, so there’s no point jumping ahead and rushing things.
“All I can do is finish the season strongly then take it from there.”
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Limited feedback on loan from Celtic
Left-sided centre-back Scales signed for Celtic in summer 2021 in a £500,000 switch from Shamrock Rovers.
He has formed a rock-solid Aberdeen back three alongside Mattie Pollock (on loan from Watford) and Angus MacDonald.
Scales said: “There hasn’t been much feedback from Celtic.
“All I have heard recently is that they’re happy I’m playing games, getting experience and doing well.
“They just let me get on with it, which is the way I wanted it.
“I wanted to just come here, focus solely on playing for Aberdeen and not really think about Celtic.
“I think separating the two and focusing on being an Aberdeen player has helped my performances here.
“They have been happy to let me get on with doing that and are happy I’m getting experience and playing games.”
Aberdeen’s granite-solid defence
Aberdeen’s defence have conceded just two goals in the previous nine Premiership matches.
No other top-flight team, including champions Celtic, boast recent defensive stats as impressive.
It is in stark contrast to Aberdeen under former manager Goodwin, when the Reds registered just six clean sheets from 23 league games.
Aberdeen are now in a position where they can secure third on Saturday if they beat Hearts and Hibs also lose to Rangers.
Scales said: “It’s going well at the moment and we have had a lot of clean sheets.
“We are going in the right direction and if we keep clean sheets we know our forward players will score goals.
“Obviously that didn’t happen for us at the weekend (0-0 Hibs).
“But and I think all over the pitch we might have had an off-day there.
“We know when we don’t concede goals we have the ability to go and win games by outscoring the opposition.”
Third is the motivation, not revenge
This weekend, Aberdeen will return to Tynecastle for the first time since a humiliating 5-0 loss to Hearts in January.
Much has changed since then.
Hearts held third place in January and the Dons were in the bottom six.
Scales insists there is no notion of revenge at Tynecastle – securing third and a potential cash boost of £5 million for the club.
He said: “It is completely different. We are a different team now and a lot of things have changed.
“We proved that point when we beat them up at Pittodrie (3-0) a couple of months ago.
“I don’t think that (5-0 loss) is really on the mind of anyone at the moment.
“We just know what is riding on this game, which is massive – how, if we win, we can finish third.
“That is the main motivation.”
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