Aberdeen are set to pull the shutters down, with boss Derek McInnes predicting there will be no more movement in or out of Pittodrie before Monday’s transfer deadline.
The Dons banked an initial £3million fee last week when they allowed Scott McKenna to join Nottingham Forest, but McInnes also has valuable assets in the shape of striker Sam Cosgrove and midfielder Lewis Ferguson.
Cosgrove turned down a £2.7million switch to Guingamp back in July just days before suffering a serious knee injury.
He is due back in full training later this month but McInnes reckons it is “extremely unlikely” his French suitors will return with a second bid to tempt him across the Channel before the window shuts early next week.
McInnes said: “We are aware that we have players who will be on the radar of other teams but I think losing Scott was enough for now for me.
“We’ve spoken about the merits of allowing Scott to move on for the right reasons. There was no doubt we were stronger with Scott, but since we’ve lost him we’ve put in a couple of good performances and life goes on.
“We need to try to work with the players we’ve got to achieve and I’m confident we can do that. But I certainly wouldn’t want to be losing any more at this moment and we don’t anticipate that being the case.”
And McInnes admits with the Dons scraping by amid the current corornavirus uncertainty, he is unlikely to be able to make any further additions having already brought in Jonny Hayes, Tommie Hoban, Ryan Edmundson, Marley Watkins and Ross McCrorie this summer.
The Reds manager refused to comment on speculation he is preparing to battle with Hibernian to land Motherwell’s Allan Campbell on a pre-contract, but did confirm hopes to extend Hoban’s short-term deal if the defender continues to excel on his return from a long-term injury.
McInnes added: “There are no plans to do anything before Monday. We’ve been really grateful for the support we’ve had to add the players we have done so this season, with Jonny, Marley, Tommie and Ross.
“They’re all good signings on their own merit.
“We’re confident that the injured boys like Matty Kennedy, Mikey Devlin, Curtis Main and big Sam will all be back before too long, so that gives me the confidence that the squad will be strong.
“The board have been very good in trying to support what has been a challenging position for all clubs at the minute and we’re mindful of that.
“It would be nice to add maybe one more but then there’s no manager in the land who will not be saying something similar.”
Fourth-placed Aberdeen welcome basement boys St Mirren to Pittodrie on Friday night but McInnes believes Jim Goodwin’s Buddies are better than their five-game losing streak suggests.
“Somebody has to be bottom of the league and normally in the first few months of a season that can fluctuate regularly,” he said.
“We’ve seen that already but St Mirren have the quality to put a run of form together.
“At this early stage I don’t think you should be getting too up or down about the league table. It’s St Mirren’s turn to be bottom at the minute but I don’t expect them to be there too long.”
