'Nigeria keeper heads for Saints after Dons trial'
Goalkeeper Nathaniel Nwosu, who won a Nigeria cap in November 2022 but currently plays for Tayport in the Midlands League, is to join Aberdeen on trial this week having spent last week with St Johnstone and with Stoke City, St Mirren, Dunfermline Athletic and Dumbarton all monitoring the 19-year-old. (The Herald), externalRead Monday's Scottish Gossip in full.
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Daily Record
7 hours ago
- Daily Record
SFA president demands football banning orders for yobs as he reveals rule changes to help thugs crackdown
Mike Mulraney has spoken out after a spate of ugly incidents during last season SFA chairman Mike Mulraney has called for a crackdown on Scottish football 's yobs with more banning orders dished out by the courts. The football supremo is furious after a series of flashpoints last season and believes the only way to tackle the menace is more football banning orders - which can see thugs barred from all UK stadiums for up to ten years. Mulraney said: 'What I'd say there is that there is a difference between loving your club and expressing that with vigour and exhilarating fashion and so forth, and chucking a seat. 'It's straight forward. It's criminal. The problem for me at the moment with the flares and so forth is there is no jeopardy to doing that. 'Until there is jeopardy for action you tend not to be able to change people's behaviour. So if we want to change behaviour we need banning orders. When you get banning orders, people won't do it because they don't want to be banned.' Our national game saw a meteoric rise in unwanted flashpoints last season. Former Aberdeen defender Jack MacKenzie was whacked in the face by a seat thrown by his own fans on the final day of the league campaign at Tannadice. While missiles and other objects were thrown on to the pitch during three Old Firm league matches in succession. And before last December's Premier Sports Cup final, fans of both Celtic and Rangers ran riot in Glasgow city centre. At the Edinburgh derby on Boxing Day, a Hearts supporter was ejected from Tynecastle and arrested in relation to an alleged incident of racism. And the continuing use of pyro by fans all over the country continues to give authorities a major headache. But the latest figures for the season just finished show that just five fans were hit with FBOs. This is a marked drop from 37 in the 2023/24 season and 59 in 2022/23. In the last decade across Scotland, a total of 504 FBOs have been issued with Rangers and Hibernian supporters topping the table - much of which related to the pitch invasion after the 2016 Scottish Cup Final. There is now support at government level for enforcing more FBOs and Mulraney believes it has to happen. He stated: 'Right now there is no jeopardy. I believe the Scottish Government is supportive of our view on this now. I believe the police are supportive of our view on this now. 'We're football, we can't go and sort that out. We need the judiciary to sort that out and if they need to tweak the wording on the legislation, tweak the wording on the legislation, that's their game. 'For me, it's really simple. At this point in time, misbehaviour seldom carries jeopardy. 'There is almost no jeopardy for misbehaviour. It's about protecting those who are not guilty of anything. Everyone's forgetting about them, the 99.8 percent of fans who wouldn't dream of doing it. Who's looking after them? 'Instead of everybody asking us to focus on the 0.2 percent, the real question should be 'what are you doing to protect all these people who are not breaking the law?' At the last Old Firm game in April at Ibrox, a bottle was thrown at Celtic keeper Viljami Sinisalo with Rangers substitute Neraysho Kasanwirjo - who had been warming up nearby - entering the pitch to remove it. Sinisalo said other items were directed towards him. 'First of all, I was hit with something in my lower leg,' said the Finn. 'It wasn't just a bottle, there was lighters, vapes, coins, mugs, all sorts. 'Let's say that glass bottle hits me or hits someone else, what happens next? What if it hits you in the eye and you can't play football after that. Those are the questions that we need answers for.' When Rangers and Celtic met at Ibrox in January, an object was thrown from the crowd and struck visiting midfielder Arne Engels, who required treatment. 'It's not the first time it's happened,' added Sinisalo. 'I was there when Arne was hit, [team-mate] Greg [Taylor] has been hit, [former Celtic keeper] Joe Hart's been hit, staff members have been hit. 'It's up to the authorities and the club there. I'm just glad I never got hit because things could be bad if you get hit.' During the same game a Celtic fan was also filmed mocking Ibrox disaster victims. There has been a huge debate over the use of pyrotechnics and smoke bombs. A lot of the ultras' scene want to be given the green light but Mulraney said that won't happen because they are illegal within stadiums. He stated: 'They've made the law. They've said it's illegal. On you go. I'm not the police nor should I be and I think that's important as well. 'People have got to remember that. Those who say we need football to do more outside the stadiums. 'We cannot ever be allowed to be the police of society, for there is the road to damnation for a society. "My job is to protect the fans who don't want it to happen. 'My job is to protect the fan with asthma who's standing three seats away from the guy who's smoking him out and he's leaving the game. 'It's for the government and the judiciary to instil jeopardy and it's for me to put pressure on them. 'I can ask for a banning order but if they don't do it there's not a lot I can do about that other than keep and put pressure on to make it happen. 'So we're changing our rules to improve the position that we can and we will support the police, the government and anyone else who's interested in installing some form of jeopardy behind the law of the land that they've already made.'
Press and Journal
8 hours ago
- Press and Journal
Five youngsters hoping to make Aberdeen's European squad
Aberdeen look set to call on youth academy prospects to bolster their squad for the club's return to European action next season. The transfer window opens next week, but the Dons have already been busy by adding new players to their squad. Australian trio Kusini Yengi, Nick Suman and Nicolas Milanovic and German full-back Emmanuel Gyamfi are the latest additions to manager Jimmy Thelin's playing cohort as he strengthens for the Conference League play-off round on August 21 and 28. But, as it stands, Aberdeen will have to turn to their young prospects to bolster the ranks for European competition. Under Uefa competition rules, clubs are allowed to name a squad of 25 players for European competition. However, eight of the players must be deemed locally-trained. The criteria is split into two sub-categories: club-trained and association-trained, with clubs required to have four of each. Aberdeen have ONE club-trained player in Jack Milne and two association-trained players in captain Graeme Shinnie and vice-captain Nicky Devlin. Uefa rules dictate if a club have fewer than eight players in both sub-categories, the overall squad limit of 25 must be reduced accordingly. In the Dons' case that leaves manager Thelin only able to select 17 players from his squad of non-association trained players, which currently stands at 22. Aberdeen faced a similar issue two years ago and were only able to list a squad of 21 players for the Conference League. Jack MacKenzie was the only club-trained squad member, while Shinnie, Devlin and goalkeeper Ross Doohan met the association-trained criteria. As a result, Dutch Dons attacker Vicente Besuijen missed out on a place in the squad for the competition. Former Aberdeen boss Barry Robson was able to bolster his squad from his List B pool and included Connor Barron, Ryan Duncan and Tom Ritchie in his squad in 2023. Thelin will be looking to do the same from his available players next season. Duncan, who spent last season on loan at Queen's Park, still meets the criteria as he was born after January 1, 2004. Striker Fletcher Boyd, and goalkeeper Rodrigo Vitols will also be strong contenders to make the final squad for Europe. But there are five other young Dons who have returned to Pittodrie, having each gained significant senior experience in the last campaign, who will be hoping to catch the manager's eye. Leading the way is winger Adam Emslie, who has had a breakthrough season on loan at League One side Cove Rangers. The 19-year-old built on a productive spell with Formartine United in the Highland League in the 2023-24 campaign by playing 39 games for Paul Hartley's side, starting 35 of them. With 13 goals and seven assists to his name from his time at Balmoral Stadium, it is fair to say the winger's season across the city was a successful one. Emslie was not the only player to impress in the blue of Cove Rangers, however. Findlay Marshall also had an excellent campaign at Balmoral Stadium. The 19-year-old quickly cemented his place at Cove, starting 29 of 38 games for the club and scoring eight goals and creating four others in an impressive campaign. Attacking midfielder Dylan Lobban reinvented himself in a new role as an attacking full-back for Hartley's side, starting 28 of 33 games for Cove and contributing two goals and three assists. Also 19, his performances led to him being named development player of the year by his parent club in the annual Aberdeen FC end of season awards. Two other Dons players will be hoping their performances at loan clubs in the second half of the campaign have propelled them into the Reds first-team picture, too. Midfielder Alfie Stewart's January loan move to Caley Thistle was a success, with the 18-year-old midfielder scoring three goals and providing three assists after starting 13 of his 17 appearances for Scott Kellacher's side. Alfie Bavidge will also look back on his brief time at Caledonian Stadium with fond memories. The 19-year-old striker had a difficult first half of the campaign in the Championship with Ayr United. He scored two goals, in a 5-3 win against Falkirk, after making 15 appearances for the Honest Men, but only started three games. A January switch to the Highlands, where his dad Martin played as a youngster, proved a much more prolific environment, however. Bavidge started 10 games for Caley Jags, scoring six times in a hugely encouraging spell before a hamstring injury brought his campaign to a premature end.
Scotsman
12 hours ago
- Scotsman
Hearts reveal their financial plan for transfers, squad size and Tony Bloom's £10m
Part 1 of our exclusive interview with Tynecastle chief executive Andrew McKinlay Sign up to our Hearts newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Hearts chief executive Andrew McKinlay today revealed the club's financial plan for next season in an exclusive interview with the Edinburgh News. He spoke at length on efforts to break even, squad size, targets, transfers and the proposed £9.86m investment from British businessman Tony Bloom. With new head coach Derek McInnes preparing for pre-season, Tynecastle officials are balancing the books while first-team numbers increase. Hearts currently have 30 players in their squad, including summer signings Christian Borchgrevink, Alexandros Kyziridis, Elton Kabangu and Oisin McEntee. Another two new recruits are imminent in the shape of Claudio Braga and Stuart Findlay, with Islam Chesnokov potentially taking the number to 33. Several players will depart over the coming weeks to reduce McInnes' playing pool. In future, player trading will be a crucial area for generating revenue. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The new manager has not been set specific targets, according to McKinlay, because he already holds a firm understanding of what constitutes success at Hearts. McInnes stated upon his unveiling that he wanted to challenge for Europe and win silverware in Edinburgh after previously managing St Johnstone, Bristol City, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock. He will gather his new squad next week when they report to Riccarton for pre-season training. McKinlay outlined how discussions with the 53-year-old have gone. 'It's not so much targets. We almost don't need to set Derek targets,' McKinlay explained. 'He's very self-aware of it and I guess that's one of the great advantages of bringing someone in that already understands Scottish football, the club and the demands, and has managed one of our main competitors. 'We've just finished in the bottom six, we all know that. The first thing is to re-establish, make sure we're in that top six, make sure we're challenging for Europe, we're doing that every year. I think Derek, when he was at Aberdeen, it was seven years in a row. Last year was the first time we'd done three years in a row in our history. So, we should be doing it pretty much every year, it should be rare that we're not doing it and I think that's the first thing we want to establish. 'Yes, this year was very disappointing in the games against Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen and Hibs. We didn't beat any of them. I'm told that's the first time since the 1990s, so we need to get that going again. I've still never won at Pittodrie. Derek would be quite keen to win at Pittodrie, as would I. So I'm sure the fixture computer will send us up there on day one. Or Kilmarnock. So those are sort of small things.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Hearts transfers plus Celtic and Rangers Premiership challenge Working in tandem with Graeme Jones, the Hearts sporting director, McInnes aims to restore the club to a challenging position in Scotland. Bloom's investment allied to a partnership with Jamestown Analytics gives Hearts added tools to facilitate their aspirations. Bloom's involvement at Brighton and Hove Albion in England, and at the Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise, offers evidence that he can help teams overachieve. There is a quiet confidence around Tynecastle at the moment and McKinlay believes that, in future years, a challenge to Celtic and Rangers could be possible. 'The other team that in my time here we've had zero success against from a winning perspective is Rangers, which I find incredible,' he added. 'In fact, this year we should have beaten them so we'd like to do that. It's hard to put a timescale on it. We'll see how things evolve with the player recruitment, etc, but we genuinely want to start looking above and looking at challenging the teams that most people would say: 'You just can't do that - you can't do that from a financial perspective.' And we can't do it from a financial perspective, which is why the era that we're about to embark on to me is very exciting because we've got the opportunity to use the analytics, bring Derek in, Graeme as sporting director. 'This gives us an opportunity, we think, to do something that in many ways looked like it wasn't possible. Time will tell. People will also ask us: 'Why do you think that? How can you think that? That's ridiculous. That's crazy.' One of the main reasons is that you look at what Union have achieved in Belgium [winning the title]. They still do that on a fraction of the budget of Club Brugge and Anderlecht. That's what gives me hope that we can genuinely become one of the big forces in Scotland, even if we have a fraction of the budget of others.' What are Hearts finances? How much will Tony Bloom invest? Hearts' finances are impacted this year by the fact they finished seventh in the Premiership and did not qualify for European competition. Guaranteed league-stage matches in the UEFA Conference League bring in upwards of £5m, which will instead go to Aberdeen as they secured the Europa League play-off spot by winning the Scottish Cup. Bloom's investment - due to be formally approved at a Hearts EGM next week - will help plug the financial gap. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad McKinlay still expects the 2025/26 campaign to be one of the most difficult of his tenure. Hearts posted a £1.2m operating loss, and a £4.4m overall loss, in their accounts for season 2023/24 when they also did not play European group-stage football. 'It's a big gap, there's no doubt about that,' he acknowledged. 'We're not looking to decrease the investment in the squad, so the Tony Bloom investment is very important to allow us to do that for at least a season. We don't want to just spend the Tony Bloom investment on plugging gaps, but the timing is quite important whilst we establish a better player trading model than we've had. When we talk about the analytics, bringing in better players, there's two pieces to that. Firstly, we're better on the pitch and we do better. But then if those players do better and we do better, then their value is likely to increase and we're likely to sell. Brighton EPL progress and USG title win in Belgium 'If you look at the models of Brighton and Union, that's the way it works. Union, without player trading, I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but there would be significant losses. If you look at Scottish football, at most clubs it's losses without someone putting money in or player trading. Hopefully we'll be back in Europe this time next year but, as we all know, the guaranteed group stage for finishing third or winning the Scottish Cup won't be there. So, it harder again to get that. 'We are envisaging next season being one of our hardest seasons financially. It's not going to be the hardest season financially compared to historical seasons. It's like everything in life. You get used to having a certain level of income. You spend based on your level of income. As a football club, that's very difficult because of Europe having such ups and downs. But that's the reality and that's where we are at the moment. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'So, the investment that we're expecting to come in soon will be very helpful in allowing us almost to transition and change the business into a business that does break even. We're not looking to make profits, we're looking to get all the money back into the club. We're not looking to pay dividends or anything like that. It's to break even, but part of that will be significantly better player trading.' Which means players being sold when their value peaks. Trimming the squad is something Hearts are actively working on. 'Some of it will depend on who goes out because I think fundamentally, and we've talked about this previously, but Derek shares the view that the squad's a bit bloated at the moment. It's a bit too big,' admitted McKinlay. 'We've had some out of contract but not that many. There are others that are more on the side. 'That's always the risk in football. It's quite often that you bring in before you go out and that's always quite nervy from a board perspective. We're comfortable with the direction that, by the end of the window closing, we will hopefully have the squad size that we want with the quality of player that we want.' • Read the second edition of our exclusive three-part interview with Andrew McKinlay on Wednesday at
