McGhee set for Paris signing dash

Dons manager is ready to take flight to clinch signing of Amiens defender Johnson

By Paul Third

Published:

Mark McGhee is ready to fly to Paris today to make Reda Johnson his first signing at Aberdeen.

The Dons manager is keen to complete the move for the Amiens defender, who impressed while on trial with the club in Austria last week, and stave off interest from other clubs in the 21-year-old.

He said yesterday: “I will try to sign Johnson tomorrow. There has been good progress but it will require a face-to-face to nail it. It will mean going to Paris to do it. We have been pushing his agent but the club has been slow to react. I will have to go there personally to try and finalise the deal and, hopefully, get it done before Friday.

“There are other ones bubbling away, these are pretty exciting times. Some will come to fruition, others won't. What worries me is that by saying how good Johnson is and his name has been in the papers, we have alerted other clubs to him. That's why I'm reticent to talk about other deals.

“If it's not done in time for Europe, there is nothing more I can do. I have been working on this player since we got to Austria last week.”

McGhee is also considering signing a goalkeeper on loan before Friday’s deadline for the Europa League qualifier next week against Fram Reykjavik or Sigma Olomouc.

He said: “Bertrand Bossu is struggling with a hamstring injury and I am now considering bringing in another goalkeeper on loan before Friday as it is a worry.”

If McGhee flies out to Paris, he hopes to head out to Iceland tomorrow to watch next week’s Europa League opponents face off in the second leg, meaning he will miss tonight’s friendly at Peterhead, but he has arranged for a DVD of the game to be made so he can analyse the Balmoor Stadium performance.

Tommy Wright will miss the game and is facing a scan on the knee injury which kept him out of the second half of the training camp in Austria.

McGhee said: “I’m trying to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can. I’m trying to establish in my head what my strongest team will be for Europe. The players I have available now are probably the players I will have available for the game and I need to know what the best combination of players is.

“I was pleased the players took on board what I wanted them to do but they took it a bit literally. I made a comment about concentrating on possession, but we were so determined to execute my ideas we did not go forward enough. It was a starting point and I want to develop it as we go forward.

“We won’t try to change everything overnight. There will be a lot of aspects of our approach next week which will be the same as what they have done here in the past.”