Jim Goodwin reckons the January signing of Graeme Shinnie and Patrick Myslovic has already given his Hampden-bound Aberdeen squad a shot in the arm. Shinnie returned from Wigan last week and came in and made an instant impact as he helped the Dons to their first win in five with their weekend victory over St Johnstone.
Slovakian midfielder Myslovic also came in from Zilina, on loan with an option to buy, and Goodwin hopes he will get clearance and be able to call on him for the first time for this Sunday’s Viaplay Cup semi-final with Rangers at Hampden. Goodwin stated: “New faces do give the place a lift, especially when they are the quality of the players we’ve brought in.
“It also gives the players in those positions a little bit of a jag in the arm to make them realise that if the standards drop and the performance levels aren’t where they should be then there are guys waiting in the wings to take their place. It is healthy for me. Nobody is coming in to take the place of an individual. We are a big club with big expectations and in order to fulfil the expectations we have players capable of helping us achieve those things.”
Goodwin is still hoping to do more business and wants to bring in another defender before the close of the window. The Aberdeen manager has been heavily backed in his first two transfer windows but he believes his strike rate has also been good. He points to the fact that Duk, Bojan Miovski, Ylber Ramadani, Liam Scales, Kelly Roos and Hayden Coulson have all done well, while two or three others have still to hit those same heights.
Goodwin insisted: “Every window you go into and come out the other side of, you want to come out of it stronger and in a better place than when you went into it. We did some great recruitment in the summer, a number of players have been outstanding, some of them have exceeded expectations, the likes of Duk and Miovski. Scales I knew what I was getting with him. Hayden Coulson has been very consistent. Ramadani, obviously, has been brilliant.
“There have been one or two new signings who have maybe taken a bit longer to settle in which is natural with younger players, it takes time to adapt to different coaching methods, different styles of play. That’s natural across the board with any club when you do the volume of signings we made.
"It’s very unusual for 100 per cent of them to hit the ground running but we’ve signed a number of younger players who have got good potential and with hard work on the training ground will develop and become the type of player they can be.”
Goodwin also stated that Aberdeen will continue to push for a longer term contract for Connor Barron. The Scotland under-21 cap still has 18 months left on his existing deal and wants to concentrate on his football. The Aberdeen manager admitted: “The offer has been on the table to Connor for a number of months.
“We’ll continue to work away on that one. Connor is one we like obviously. There are 18 months left on his deal. We are in control of it. Even if the contract was to run down the 18 months then we would still be due a considerable amount of compensation. We’ve left that contract offer on the table and it is up to Connor and his representatives to decide what the next step will be.”
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