Pawlett agrees new Dons deal

youngster commits future to aberdeen with four-and-a-half-year contract

By Alex Martin

Published:

Aberdeen manager Mark McGhee is confident all his players who will be free agents at the end of the season will sign new contracts.

Youngster Peter Pawlett is poised to become the first to extend his stay at Pittodrie.

Pawlett's agent, Darren Jackson, has confirmed the 18-year-old has agreed a new four-and-a-half-year deal at the club.

“Peter is close to signing a new deal with Aberdeen,” said Jackson. “He is happy there and he is ready to sign a new long-term deal. Peter has a fantastic attitude and ability and he is getting a chance in the Aberdeen side.”

Club captain Mark Kerr, defenders Charlie Mulgrew and Richard Foster, and midfielder Gary McDonald are free to talk to other clubs from January 1.

Mulgrew has already rejected the offer of a long-term extension to his contract, but McGhee plans to meet with the agents of all three players and is bullish about the prospects of keeping them.

Youngsters Pawlett, Fraser Fyvie, Michael Paton and Chris Maguire have also been offered contract extensions.

McGhee said: “We are making progress. One or two of the younger players have asked for a bit of fine tuning and we hope to meet agents this week. I am positive we will re-sign all the players we want to re-sign.”

The young quartet have become first-choice players for the Dons this season and McGhee wants his club’s most saleable assets to continue their development in the SPL. But he knows the club must match their ambitions and said: “We realise we have a stake in the young players and we have to protect them.

“We believe if we can develop them properly then, in a few years, they will be worth money to us.

“That is what we and every club has to do. Clubs are developing players to fund the next generation.

“We cannot say to players to stay and train and we will make you better, but we will be a team which finishes down the table.

“We have to give them the chance of getting to a cup final or qualifying for European competition. They have to be enjoying themselves and not wanting to be anywhere else.”

McGhee will lead the Dons to Motherwell on Saturday for the first time since leaving Fir Park in the summer. The meeting between the teams at Pittodrie on August 29 was marred by obscene chants from some Well supporters.

Asked if he had any trepidation about the return to Lanarkshire, the manager said: “Are you kidding me? Have you seen some of the places I went back to as a manager? Not at all. The support I got from the majority of Motherwell supporters in the aftermath of the match at Pittodrie far outweighed anything which went on during the game or any damage that was done.

“I went out for dinner with the chairman John Boyle and a few of the people there after the match.

“Of course I want to go back there and see my team beat them. I do not have any fears.”