Goodwin hopeful of permanent deal for Celtic loanee Scales
JIM GOODWIN wants to make Liam Scales’ loan move from Celtic to Aberdeen a permanent switch.
The Irish defender has moved north to Pittodrie on a season-long loan deal.
However, some fans have been left concerned that there is no option to buy the 23-yearold at the end of his stint.
Goodwin previously tried to sign Scales for St Mirren when he was manager of the Paisley side and he hopes that the player is at the Dons beyond the end of the upcoming campaign.
He said: “I’m a big fan of the loan market as it gives you the opportunity to sign players that you would maybe not normally be able to afford.
“The size of club we are, we want to be signing players on permanent contracts. That conversation was had with Celtic initially.
“We wanted to know what the number was and could we make it happen. Celtic are not willing to sell Liam right now at this moment in time.
“That is fair enough because he is their player and he is on a long-term contract [until 2025].
“Certainly we will enter into those discussions again in January if Liam has the kind of success we expect him to have.
“Hopefully he is enjoying his time at Aberdeen and will want to sign on with us. That is by and by just now. The players that we have signed are really good ones. We need to use the loan market as we see fit then we will do that.”
Meanwhile, Aberdeen’s new North Macedonian striker Bojan Miovski was last night set to undergo his medical for the club at their pre-season training camp in Spain.
Goodwin has high hopes for the 23-year-old who has 10 caps for his country.
He said: “His representatives and Bojan recognised there are a lot of big, big teams coming to watch Aberdeen off the back of [Calvin] Ramsay [who was recently sold to Liverpool].
“There have been teams from all over Europe at Pittodrie over the last couple of seasons watching a number of our players.
“There have been plenty of our players linked with moves. I think all of that along with video conversations we had with Bojan. We showed him the infrastructure and Steven Gunn, the director of football, sold him and his representatives a great pitch on the call.
“I think he saw the facilities, Pittodrie, the fanbase, the ambition of the club, the talk about the new stadium. I just think the boy wanted to be part of something like that. Obviously I told him how we want to play and how I see him fitting into that.
“I think it all added up into what he thought would be a good move and a good opportunity. We are getting a really exciting player in Bojan. Again one that is by no means the finished article but he certainly has huge potential.
“He is playing regularly for North Macedonia who are improving all the time and came close to qualifying for the World Cup. They recently beat Italy as well.
“Bojan scored in his last game for North Macedonia. He is one we can all be a little bit excited about without putting too much pressure on him.”