Source: FOOTYMAD
Hard Work Done But Is It Enough
Mark McGhee was confident last season and is again this season. We all know what happened last time out - only time will tell this time around Mark McGhee is confident he has done all he can to improve Aberdeen during the summer break. However, he worries that the changes may not be enough to meet the demands of the Pittodrie fans. McGhee endured a difficult debut season in the Aberdeen hotseat, bowing out of the cup competitions to Dundee and Raith rovers before finishing ninth in the SPL. During the summer he has brought in Northern Ireland pair Rory McArdle and Josh Magennis, English forward Scott Vernon, Scotland midfielder Paul Hartley, former Plymouth midfielder Yoann Folly and back-up goalkeeper Mark Howard. Hartley has claimed he came to Aberdeen to win trophies but McGhee is unable to share quite the level of confidence as his new captain. The worried manager said: "I don't know this year because I don't know how good they are going to be. We have done as much as we could this summer with regards to recruitment and we'll continue to do that. There will be players who are going out of contract and coming in demand at the turn of the year and there will be more change. And I would hope that the change will keep improving us to the point where we would have enough to start winning trophies again. Whether that's now remains to be seen." That is not to say McGhee has not been pleased with the way his recruitment drive has gone ahead of the SPL opener against Hamilton at Pittodrie. He said: "I think it has been everything we could have hoped for. We had a process to go through in terms of finding new players. There was a lot of due diligence done, we had opportunities to trial players and train with them and we have come out of it in good shape. I felt reasonably confident at this time last season and it didn't turn out that way. Getting that many players in was a big ask and we have managed it with the amount of money available. So I think we can be pleased with ourselves in that and it's just a case of how good they turn out to be." Hamilton have won twice at Pittodrie in two seasons and McGhee is not banking on a home win. He said: "It would be great to get off to a good start, it would give everyone a tremendous lift and show that the work we have done has borne results. For us to start well would set us up nicely but I'm sitting with a new squad and a new team and I have still to see how it's going to function." Editor Ger Harley (ger@scottishfitba net)Admin Team (admin@scottishfitba net)This is Scottish-Fitba Net
