Aberdeen are keeping a close eye on the pennies so they can spend the big money on a new ground.

Aberdeen are still looking to move from Pittodrie and hope to submit a feasibility report to the council on two sites in February next year. Chairman Stewart Milne spoke to shareholders on the planned move at the club's AGM and announced that work had been taking place behind the scenes for several months. He said: "There's a lot of work been going on in the background over the last six to nine months to do an evaluation. Two sites were identified. That should all come to a conclusion at the end of January and there'll be a report going to the council early to mid-February hopefully with a clear recommendation that one of the sites should be pursued." Milne appears to be want to remain involved when he commented on his own position, saying: "There's still a lot of unfinished business to be done. I'd like to see it through. I'm still committed to the football club and it would give me great pride and pleasure to see us one day move into a new stadium."

Last month Aberdeen announced their most successful trading results, with annual financial figures to 30 June 2008 reporting an operating profit of £2.3million, a bottom-line profit of £1.1million on a turnover of £12.9million. With club's net bank debt of £6.5million, its lowest level for many years, the club seem to be in a position to cope with the changed financial climate. The balance sheet was helped by last season's UEFA Cup run and Milne is keen to return to the European stage next season. He said: "It's vital for the club and the fans that we are playing in Europe on a regular basis, both from a football perspective and also from a financial perspective. I've said for many years if football is going to survive and grow and go forward in the medium to long term, football's going to have to learn to live within its means. More and more clubs are realising just how important that is and that's going to be even more important in the environment we're going to enter into over the next couple of years because I think it is going to pose some real challenges within the game."

Director of football Willie Miller also spoke of bringing European football back to Pittodrie after missing out on a UEFA Cup place last season. He said: "Last year was a fabulous year and being in Europe has given us a taste for it and that's where we want to be again. We're bitterly disappointed we didn't make that last year but we're getting back up the league, we're climbing back up there slowly and we've got the Scottish Cup so that's a realistic target for us. Europe is difficult. It's difficult to get to and it's difficult to sustain a challenge in Europe so I think last year was pretty good going by the manager and the players and it is something we'd like to do again. If you get to the later stages, it is financially very exciting."

On the playing side of things, Miller revealed Aberdeen will do all they can to keep hold of Sone Aluko, who has been a big hit this season since his return to Pittodrie on a permanent basis in August. He said: "He still is a young player but he's maturing, he's maturing quickly, probably quicker than we anticipated. He is an exciting player, he's an exciting talent. I get excited when I see him on the ball. I can hear that buzz. He wins games for you. We want to bring players like that to the club. We'll do everything we possibly can to hold onto him. I think, enjoy him while he's here. If he continues the way he's going then he is going to attract interest and that will be a problem for us."

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