New Aberdeen boss Jimmy Thelin will have to address the club’s £1milllion-plus loan conundrum during his first transfer window at Pittodrie.
The Dons had players the club had spent £1.2m on out on loan last season – that is a lot of investment for minimal return.
Now Thelin must decide whether Vicente Besuijen, Pape Habib Gueye and Jayden Richardson have any future at the club.
Signed for £400,000 from ADO Den Haag in January 2022, Besuijen was on loan at Dutch club FC Emmen last season.
Right-back Richardson, signed for £300,000 from Nottingham Forest in summer 2022, spent last term on loan at Stockport and Colchester.
A £500,000 signing from Belgian top-flight KV Kortrijk last summer, striker Gueye joined Norwegian Eliteserien side Kristiansund BK on loan in February until July,
That is £1.2m of expenditure plying their trade away from Pittodrie.
One of Thelin’s priorities during the pre-season will be to decide if Besuijen, Gueye or Richardson have any future under his new regime.
Besuijen has two years remaining on his Pittodrie contract, but recently admitted “mentally, I had a very hard time at Aberdeen.”
Gueye also has two years left on his contract, with Richardson in his final year.
Winger Besuijen has offered the most compelling argument to reignite his faltering Aberdeen career under new boss Thelin.
The 23-year-old made a huge impression at Eerste Divisie club FC Emmen.
Besuijen scored in seven of eight games, and also pitched in with an assist, in Emmen’s run to the semi-finals of the promotion play-offs.
The attacker scored in the first leg of the semi-final – a 1-1 draw with NAC Breda.
However, Emmen lost the second leg 3-0.
New Aberdeen manager Thelin played a counter-attacking game at Elfsborg with a lot of onus on creative, fast wingers.
Besuijen could certainly fit into that system and he impressed in his first six months at Aberdeen before falling out of favour under former boss Jim Goodwin.
Attacker Besuijen has not featured for Aberdeen since the disastrous 1-0 Scottish Cup loss to non-league Darvel under Goodwin January 23, 2023.
It will be a clean slate for Besuijen under Swede Thelin.
And it will be fascinating to see if he grabs it this summer by continuing the form he displayed on loan back in his homeland.
Striker Gueye, meanwhile, will return to Pittodrie next month after his loan spell in Norway.
The 24-year-old has only started one game for the Dons since his big money move last summer – that was the 2-2 Europa Conference League draw away to HJK Helsinki. And Gueye was substituted off at half-time in that match.
Gueye has only had 132 minutes of first team action for the Dons.
However, the striker has been scoring for Kristiansund BK in the Norwegian top-flight.
Gueye netted in the 3-1 defeat of Sarpsborg on Sunday to take his tally to four goals in 11 games.
The Senegalese striker will surely get the chance to prove himself under Thelin this summer.
It could also hinge on whether or not star striker Bojan Miovski, who netted 26 goals last season, remains at Pittodrie beyond the summer transfer window.
Clubs across Europe are monitoring Miovski with the view to a summer swoop.
But with Miovski contracted until summer 2026, the Dons, and Thelin, are in control of that situation.
Full-back Richardson may face a battle to resurrect his Aberdeen career, however.
The 23-year-old Englishman spent the first half of last season on loan at English League Two Stockport, starting only five games.
In January, he switched to League Two Colchester, where he started nine times.
Nicky Devlin is in possession of that right-back berth at Aberdeen and started 51 games for the Dons last season.
With more than £1m worth of signings out on loan last season that is a massive investment with no return – and Thelin must decide whether they have a future at Aberdeen or not.
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