Aberdeen depart on Europa League duty this morning with immediate questions centring not so much on their game against Rijeka tomorrow night, but whether the stand-off between the club and defender Scott McKenna will see the player left at home.
McKenna, a target for a clutch of clubs in the English Championships – most recently Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest – appears to wish to force manager Derek McInnes’s hand with his transfer request.
But the £3million bids from those clubs have been deemed well short of the mark, although with the English transfer deadline closing at 5pm tomorrow, speculation is rife that the 22-year-old Scotland player will remain at home while his team-mates take off for Croatia.
READ MORE: Aberdeen star Scott McKenna hands in transfer request amid QPR and Celtic interest
McInnes is reported to have insisted McKenna, under contract till 2023, will make the trip, especially as Aberdeen’s defensive options have been wrecked by injuries to Mikey Devlin and Ash Taylor. Another absentee could prove catastrophic.
New Aberdeen full-back Greg Leigh, on a season-long loan from Dutch outfit NEC Breda, believes the youngster is a “special talent” and has what it needs to hit the big-time in English football.
“I had heard about him before I had signed,” Leigh said, “so it is really good to play with him.
“It was something I was looking forward to as it is great to play next to someone who is so confident on and off the ball.
“He pushes me on to be my best and do what I can do, rather than looking for me to always cover for him.
“He wants me to go do my thing rather than worrying too much. Every full-back wants that.
“He is 22 so the possibilities are endless. If he takes that next step it would depend how he develops and who takes him on.
“I have heard a lot about his development physically. I work with him every day so I know he is a tough lad physically.
“The possibilities are endless; he can go as high as he wants.
“In England, it is all about proving yourself at certain levels to move on. That is the case for anyone who has moved on to the Championship or the Premier League.”
READ MORE: Sam Cosgrove has become complete striker at Aberdeen for Ryan Hedges
Leigh 24, has hit the ground running since his move to Pittodrie, admits he’s surprise at how well and how quickly McInnes’s new squad – with eight players brought-in during the summer – has worked together.
He said: “I have been involved in teams before that have brought in a lot of players and it has worked as well.
“The one thing this manager and the club do well is they bring in personalities who want to work hard and do well. They are also good people. I am really excited by the fact that a lot of the players are just good people to hang around outside of football.
“That really helps bringing the dressing room together to work hard for each other. It has helped with understanding how each other plays and how we can work to our strengths.
“That is the difference to my previous clubs as at this club they put their egos aside and work as a unit.
“That is really instrumental from the gaffer.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here