Wow. It was a signing which, from many credible sources, appeared well in the pipeline since before the season ended, but which Aberdeen fans dare not have believed would truly materialise.
It seemed simultaneously inevitable, yet implausible.
This is not your ordinary transfer. It is not simply pushing the boat out a little further than the handbook recommends.
It is sailing it into brand new waters: ones not charted by Aberdeen for many decades, if indeed ever before.
It is, unashamedly, a brash and forceful repositioning of Aberdeen within the modern football market.
It follows the formula which delivered the brilliant Duk to Pittodrie – and applies a substantial multiplier.
The fee is officially described as undisclosed, but, given the profile of the player and the markets in which he would otherwise have been shopped, it can be taken as read that it is large; likely the largest the club has ever paid.
The calculation is that sums outlaid here, and over the course of however much of Leighton Clarkson’s contracted tenure he completes, will be recouped and more when the player is sold, allowing Aberdeen to essentially receive years of high-quality play for less than nothing.
That represents a philosophical change in top-level policy.
Dave Cormack had always been clear that his model envisaged Pittodrie being a place for young talent to develop and be moved on at profit; aggressively pursuing other clubs’ future stars supercharges that project and has the potential to elevate it to a whole other plane.
The message is that the Dons are not going to be content with eking the maximum out of the sort of players Aberdeen “should” be signing.
More of these bets would need to land than fail for it to be a viable long-term strategy.
But as opening gambits go, Clarkson feels like a terrific punt.
Leighton Clarkson: Barry Robson can make me a better player at Aberdeen
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