IF 2017 were to stop this weekend, and after tomorrow’s Presidential inauguration it’s a 5/1 shot, then the best football club in Scotland competition would be between Aberdeen and Kilmarnock.
Both have stood firm in the last couple of days as some much-needed money has been dangled in front of them, and while we live in era when everyone bar Celtic tends to gnaw the hand off any would-be buyer, something different has happened this time.
Cardiff City have offered £500,000 for Aberdeen winger Johnny Hayes who while by no means a world beater is a fine left footed winger with an eye for goal and a bit of devilment about him.
He is worth more than that.
Down in Ayrshire, Kilmarnock are believed to be looking for the best part of £1m for Souleymane Coulibaly, he of the extraordinary goals, who is being chased by a number of Egyptian clubs with a £500,000 bid having been mentioned but apparently not yet officially made.
The Ivorian is worth less than that, with all due respect, and yet he’s going nowhere for that amount.
Aberdeen could do with some money. Kilmarnock are desperate for any sums never mind the, say, £650,000 they might get for their one and only in-form striker.
And yet the two clubs are standing firm. Good on them.
For too long English clubs – okay, Welsh and Egyptian in these cases – have plundered our clubs because they know cash is so short which means that while even the strongest chairman might knockback a bid or even two, they would cave in soon enough because the lights have to be kept on.
Aberdeen aren’t that desperate but Kilmarnock are. They are the one Premiership club everyone fears for if they ever got relegated. Things have not been great at Rugby Park for a long time and so half a million quid can keep the going for a season or so.
To put that into context, it is the same as Albion Rovers drawing Celtic in the Scottish Cup. A cash crisis is turned into stability in the blink of an eye.
Both clubs are showing some guts and that is deserving of our respect, as it would be too easy and incredibly understandable for them to blink at that first half-decent cheque.
In saying all that, it would be wise for Kilmarnock to accept a bid they deem worthy of Coulibaly but only if they get in another striker. Lee Clark, the manager, has said he would have replacements lined up were his players to leave.
They are playing a dangerous game to some degree; however, they are quite right to stand firm.
As for Aberdeen and their manager Derek McInnes, who described Cardiff’s third attempt to buy Hayes as “bizarre” they have played a blinded in their stand-off with the Welsh club now managed by the charmless Neil Warnock.
The North East club could do a lot with that kind of money including offering new deals to out of contract players, which this summer will include the talented Niall McGinn, but they won’t be bullied during this transfer window. That’s for sure.
We tend to talk down our game and often it’s for good reason, and yet it’s been heartening to see our teams showing some backbone.
And if it wipes a smile off the face of Warnock then all the better.
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