4 days ago
What does the future hold for these seven Aberdeen players?
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin will have food for thought as he enjoys some well-deserved time off after a satisfying end to his first season in Scottish football.
The Scottish Cup takes pride of place in the boardroom at Pittodrie for the first time in 35 years after Thelin guided his team to a stunning victory against Celtic at Hampden last month.
With the trophy comes guaranteed European group stage football next season and a busy summer of transfer activity is expected at Pittodrie as a result.
Australian duo Nicolas Milanovic and Nick Suman are the first new faces on board at the Dons and there undoubtedly will be more.
How many will depend on which members of the current squad are part of Thelin's plans in the next campaign.
Thelin has four members of his first-team squad returning from loans and a few who struggled for game time in the cup-winning campaign.
We take a look at some of the decisions which will be on the Aberdeen manager's to-do list when he returns for pre-season training at the end of the month.
Richard Jensen, Ryan Duncan, Slobodan Rubezic and James McGarry are the four senior players who will return to the club following the conclusion of their loan spells.
Central defender Jensen spent the season on loan with Vejle Boldklub in Denmark but struggled for game time.
He played 12 games, scoring once, as his club survived relegation from the Superliga by one point.
Ryan Duncan had a more fruitful campaign in Scottish football. The attacker spent the season on loan at Championship side Queen's Park.
He scored four goals and provided six assists in 39 appearances for the Spiders and was in the team which knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup at Ibrox in February.
Two other Dons players headed out on loan in the winter window.
Slobodan Rubezic rejoined Novo Pazar in January and the defender scored one goal in 16 appearances in the second half of the season.
Rubezic's efforts helped his former club qualify for the Conference League second qualifying round following a third-place finish third in the Serbian SuperLiga.
Despite media reports in Serbia, the loan club does not have an option to make the move permanent.
Injury curtailed New Zealand left back James McGarry's loan move at Greek outfit Athens Kallithea.
The defender made just eight appearances as his club was relegated from the Super League after finishing second bottom of the division.
The quartet of loan players are all heading into the final year of their contract as they return to the Dons.
The same goes for Ester Sokler and Vicente Besuijen.
Injury curtailed the contribution of both players to the Aberdeen cause this season.
Slovenian striker Sokler led the line at the start of the season as team-mate Bojan Miovski finalised his move to Girona.
Five of his seven goals in the campaign came in the League Cup with Sokler making 28 appearances overall.
However, injuries in the second half of the campaign restricted his contribution to the campaign.
The same can be said for attacker Besuijen.
Following two goals in 15 appearances, a knee injury against St Johnstone in December ended the Colombian-born player's campaign prematurely.
When it comes to Dons players who could benefit from some much needed match action one man springs to mind.
Step forward Peter Ambrose.
The Nigerian attacker was viewed as developmental prospect when he arrived from Hungarian side Ujpest last summer.
He scored just two goals in 23 appearances, mostly from the bench, and with two years remaining on his three-year deal he looks a prime candidate for a loan if he gets the opportunity for more minutes elsewhere.
After all, it worked out for Pape Gueye a year ago didn't it?
The Senegalese striker struggled to make much impression at all in his first season with the Dons before summer football on loan at Kristiansund BK in Norway rejuvenated his career.
