It isn’t just the weather that’s frozen Scotland stiff this January.
The football transfer market has been at an unusual standstill across the country, surprisingly few Premiership sides taking advantage of the winter break to get busy with recruitment.
Aberdeen are among them despite a wholly unconvincing first half of the season, with Barry Robson insistent that any player sourced for him be good enough to drop straight into the starting 11. Not a terribly taxing specification, some might say.
But that little activity which has taken place at Pittodrie confirms the wisdom of that approach.
Whatever resource was expended on the two supposed first-team players who sloped out of Aberdeen without ever having got their boots dirty, it was wasted: their absence here went as unnoticed as their presence had been.
Had the road out of Aberdeen also proved passable for the Dons’ most sellable asset, however, last night – and the rest of the season – may have turned out very differently.
Another goal from the sort of unpromising position that few others could convert underlined Bojan Miovski’s value in footballing terms, but it cannot be ignored that he will also have one denominated in currency.
The club’s strategy of throwing substantial amounts at the wall, in the hope that some of it soars high enough to generate an overall profit, is what underpins its signing of all those players. Failures are priced in; but therefore so is high-pointing the exit fees of those who flourish.
Such is the dilemma of those clubs who do not enjoy limitless wealth. The less they want to lose a player, the more they must.
The actuarial calculations tilt heavily towards Aberdeen keeping Miovski through this window, but enjoy him while you can. More of these and it will likely be his last.
