THE deadline day capture of Dominic Ball should go a long way to addressing the defensive frailty which has, regardless of all of the success they have enjoyed during the past four seasons, long been costly for Aberdeen.
The Pittodrie club’s propensity for conceding soft and needless goals has been a source of frustration to their manager Derek McInnes not to mention their supporters for some time.
The Betfred Cup final against Celtic last November and the Ladbrokes Premiership game they played against Rangers in April are perfect examples of matches where this failing has gifted easy victories to their opponents. There are many more.
Bringing in Ball on a season-long loan deal from Rotherham United - where he fell out of favour after Alan Stubbs, the manager who signed him, departed - will improve Aberdeen tangibly at the back.
Many Rangers supporters took to the internet yesterday to deride his capabilities, express the view that he would make little difference to opponents their team will be vying for second spot with and voice their disgust their former player had moved to their loathed rivals.
Yet, the last time the Ibrox club were truly reliable defensively themselves was when Ball was operating as a holding midfielder just in front of a back in four during the second half of the 2015/16 campaign.
Certainly, the then Spurs man was outstanding in their epic William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Celtic at Hampden two seasons ago.
Would Rangers have lost the final against Hibernian had Ball, who was suspended as a result of the yellow card he picked up in the course of that thrilling penalty shoot-out victory, been available? It is highly unlikely. They were not the same side in his absence.
Aberdeen have - despite the widespread predictions that their reign as the best of the rest in Scottish football was at an end - made an excellent start to the new term and went into the international break as the only undefeated side in the top flight.
The acquisition of Ball, who has been brought in along with Kari Arnason, Ryan Christie, Gary Mackay-Steven, Stevie May, Nicky Maynard and Greg Stewart, will make them an even more formidable outfit in the coming months.
It will still not be enough for them to challenge Celtic – who can, as McInnes pointed out following their Scottish Cup final loss to Brendan Rodgers’s side in May, afford to pay Scott Sinclair every month around the same sum as they spend on their entire squad – for the title.
The arrival of the former England Under-20 internationalist, though, is likely to maintain their high standards, make them far harder to beat and improve their prospects of landing that elusive piece of silverware.
This final piece of business in the transfer market completed a remarkable summer’s work by McInnes. He lost first team mainstays Jonny Hayes, Ryan Jack, his captain, Niall McGinn and Ash Taylor, at the end of last season, and was tipped to toil as a result. If anything, his side is now even better.
The only thing Aberdeen chief executive Stewart Milne and their fans have to fear going forward is of a larger and richer club luring him away.
The 46-year-old looked all set to move on back in June when he was granted permission to speak to Sunderland. Wisely, he chose to stay put.
Having suffered a bruising experience at Bristol City, who were plagued by similar financial problems and boardroom unrest, during his previous stint in the dugout down south he resisted what must have been a considerable temptation.
But if McInnes continues to work wonders in the north-east, and all the early signs are that he will do, it is a certainty that another potential suitor will come calling.
He has long been linked with a return to Rangers, the club he spent five years at as a player during the 1990s, and if Pedro Caixinha struggles he would be a popular choice to take over.
However, the moment a Championship, or even a Premier League, club in England parts company with their manager, and that will happen before too long, McInnes will become one of the leading candidates to succeed him.
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