Aberdeen FC kickstart recruitment strategy as Barry Robson reveals 'continuous' planning for January move

Barry Robson signed 13 players in the summer and admitted the Aberdeen recruitment team has already started working on their January signing targets.

The Dons manager was the busiest in the top-flight as he brought in Richard Jensen, Ester Sokler, Slobodan Rubezic, Nicky Devlin, Jamie McGrath, Leighton Clarkson, Papa Habib Gueye, Graeme Shinnie, James McGarry, Ross Doohan, Rhys Williams, Stefan Gartenmann and Or Dadia. Robson not only had to rebuild a squad but one that could cope with the demands of competition for success at the highest level domestically and also in European group stage football, at least until Christmas.

His new-look side are on the back of a five game unbeaten run and now looking to be gelling but he won’t be shy in going into the transfer market again if he feels it will strengthen his team. “We have people who are looking at January now,” Robson admitted. "It is a continuous thing looking at players. I’m personally not at the minute, no, but there are other people doing that (for me).”

The Aberdeen manager wanted to move away from an over-reliance on loan players. It was a major summer rebuild but Robson is confident that this core of players will provide the long-term basis of this Aberdeen team moving forward.

He admitted: “It is no secret how many players the club has turned over in the last couple of windows. What we are trying to do is get a settled team, to build a team that will go for another few years.

“We won’t be turning those numbers over. We only have three loans now and the rest of our players are here permanently. All a good age. Some will have a resale value and some will be here for a right few years.”

Aberdeen’s recruitment drive had been far-reaching, bringing in players