The funds from Adam Rooney’s sale to Salford City will be reinvested in the Aberdeen squad.
Rooney, the club’s top scorer in three of the last four seasons, joined the National League North side for an undisclosed fee yesterday and manager Derek McInnes is keen to find a replacement as soon as possible.
The Dons’ Europa League tie with Burnley is six days away and McInnes has only Stevie May and Sam Cosgrove as senior strikers, with the latter yet to score for the club and May netting once since Christmas.
There was no encouragement given to Salford over the deal for Rooney, according to McInnes, but it became clear over the last week the Ammies, backed by several of Manchester United’s ‘Class of 92’ and businessman Peter Lim, wanted to get the deal done.
McInnes said: “We’ll use the money from the Salford deal to put towards trying to add to the squad, another striker hopefully. We move on and wish Adam well. I’ve no doubts he will be a success.
“We gave Adam every opportunity to stay and fight for his place. We didn’t want to give him up easily because he has been a brilliant signing for me – a free transfer four years ago. He has scored important goals but not only that, he has been a part of the culture in the dressing room and showed how to be a professional footballer. It’s important to fill your dressing room with good people like that.
“After a conversation with Adam, it was clear he was keen on the move. We have made it happen for him. The timing was agreed over the last few weeks and it had to suit us a bit better to try to bring a striker in. But unfortunately in the last few days he might have missed out on the Salford deal, so we’ve allowed this to happen. There was an urgency from Salford to get this done.”
McInnes is likely to be without seven first-team players heading into tonight’s friendly. Mikey Devlin, Greg Tansey, Frank Ross (all groin), Niall McGinn (thigh), Andrew Considine (concussion), Mark Reynolds and Stephen Gleeson (both knee) are all out, with Reynolds being sent for a scan and likely to miss a considerable period of time.
It means the Dons have had just two fit defenders – Shay Logan and Scott McKenna – in training this week and it has shed a spotlight on the club’s summer recruitment.
He added: “We’d like to have had more addition in. The injuries have put more focus on the squad. The fact the Burnley game is coming around quickly and the level of the opponent has fast forwarded the spotlight on the recruitment. Taking all that into consideration, I’d like to have a bigger squad to choose from, certainly for the game tonight. We’ve had seven or eight injuries this week.”
The Dons manager said there had been no enquiries for defender McKenna, despite reported interest from Swansea City.