Aberdeen’s board will give boss Jimmy Thelin the backing to raid the January transfer window, confirms chief executive Alan Burrows.
After a sensational start to the season under the Swede the Reds have hit a slump with a five game winless streak.
Burrows revealed players have already been identified for potential swoops during the winter window which opens on January 1.
And he says any signings will be made with the sole intention of having a direct impact on Thelin’s starting XI.
Players will not be secured in January just to bolster squad numbers.
Burrows said: “The commitment from the Aberdeen board is to look to strengthen the team at every window.
“We always want to come out of a window in better shape than we went into it.
“This January window is no different to that.
“We’ll go into that window with a lot of work having been done already about identifying players for January.
“We have got areas we would like to strengthen the team in.”
Thelin working with transfer guru
Aberdeen boss Thelin has been working closely with the Dons’ recruitment team to identify signing targets for January and future windows.
The club appointed Chris Badlan as new Head of Recruitment in February this year.
Badlan replaced Jordan Miles who left to take up a similar role at English Championship Leeds United.
During his time as Head of Recruitment at Coventry City Badlan was key to the club’s rise up through the leagues from League Two to the Championship.
Several of the players sourced by Badlan at Coventry were signed and sold for a significant profit.
Badlan drove the loan capture and eventual permanent signing of Viktor Gyokeres from Brighton and Hove Albion for £1million.
Coventry sold Gyokeres to Sporting Lisbon in summer 2023 for a club record £20 million.
Gyokeres is now the hottest striker in European football with 25 goals in 20 games this season.
Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal have been linked with a potential £100m move for Gyokeres.
Badlan had a spell as Blackpool’s Sporting Director in 2023 before taking on the role at Aberdeen.
Signings will improve starting XI
Burrows insists Aberdeen will only sign players in January that will improve Thelin’s starting XI.
He said: “The key emphasis is to make sure that if anybody is going to be brought in it is somebody who can really make an impact on the starting XI.
“That’s something Jimmy and our recruitment team have been looking at for quite some significant period of time ahead of this upcoming month.
“But January is also a notoriously tough window.
“If you look through the history of the January window, not just at Aberdeen but many clubs, the percentage of successes to failures are maybe slightly different as in the summer.
“So , we need to be quite specific on the areas we’re looking to recruit.
“The key is to improve the starting XI.”
Thelin given tools to strengthen
Aberdeen boss Thelin will conduct his second transfer window in January as he ramps up his three-year plan to bring sustained success to the club.
The Swede made six permanent signings during the summer along with the loan capture of Scotland international striker Kevin Nisbet from Millwall.
Aberdeen paid £860,000 to sign winger Topi Keskinen from Finnish top flight club HJK Helsinki in the summer.
It is the second highest fee ever paid in Aberdeen’s history, behind only the £1 million for Paul Bernard in 1995.
Burrows said: “I hope fans will have seen in the summer that we tried as a board to give Jimmy a lot of the tools to strengthen the squad.
“We brought in six players, but there was significant investment made in a number of those players.”
Conversation