The chairman is a friend but that won’t stop him sacking me if I’m not cutting it Glass expects no favours from Cormack
STEPHEN GLASS admits Dave Cormack is a friend but knows that won’t stop the chairman firing him if he doesn’t make Aberdeen a success again.
The former Atlanta United 2 coach was chosen to succeed Derek McInnes, the first managerial appointment of Cormack’s reign. Glass and Cormack know each other from being in Atlanta for the last couple of years but the new gaffer is adamant he has earned the job on merit. Glass said: “I think the relationship between myself and the chairman is getting overstated. I know him pretty well but I’m under no illusions. If I’m not successful at this club, I know what happens to managers at football clubs. That’s real. “Yes, he’s a family friend but he’s probably the guy that could fire me at some point. “The relationship will still continue then but I would just potentially not be the manager of the football club. There will be no extra leeway because I know the chairman. “I also had the last couple of years to prove that I wasn’t the right person for the job, that I didn’t live my life right. I didn’t meet him thinking, ‘I might be the Aberdeen manager.’” There is also the link-up with Atlanta United and Aberdeen but Glass is adamant the Dons are his one and only priority. He also made it clear the Pittodrie outfit are not a feeder club for their MLS partners but he does hope to bring more players across the Atlantic.
Glass said: “I hope so. Anything that strengthens us is good. I know there are players there who would help us. They’re not going to give us everyone I want. They’re a team who want to stay strong.
“There are players on the periphery or younger ones, who might benefit from being here and we would benefit from. Whether that happens or not I don’t know.
“There are rules on how many you can take from one club anyway. This is not a feeder club from Atlanta.
“The feeling and perception is that I’m here because of Atlanta but I’m not here because of Atlanta United. If I can use and help Atlanta at the same time as helping Aberdeen, fine, but Aberdeen is my priority, 100 percent.
“I’m back home and I want the best for this club.”
Glass has been coaching in America for the best part of a decade and believes he has earned this opportunity.
He said: “I’ve not been coaching for 10 minutes.
“The pro licence I was on was not last week. It was seven or eight years ago. John Kennedy was on it, Duncan Ferguson was on it. Lee McCulloch, Neil McCann, Davie Weir, some proper guys that if they were sitting in this chair you wouldn’t be asking, ‘Are you ready for this job?’
“The fact I’ve gone away on a different avenue, I’ve actually done a lot more coaching work on the pitch than people realise. When you coach the way I was, you handle three or four teams at a time.
“I’d be coaching three hours a night every day of the week. At the weekend all of those teams have games so you might coach eight games on a weekend. It’s a grind, it’s not a holiday.”
Glass has vowed to play youth but he will also be looking for financial backing from the board.
He added: “This club is special to me and if I didn’t think I would be a success I’d still be at Atlanta.
“I wouldn’t be coming back to Scotland for something that was a ‘maybe’ job. My wife wouldn’t let me.
“The relationship is one of that I’m a manager at a football club that wants better players.
“I’ll be asking for backing, to him and the board.”