CHAMPIONS LEAGUE STILL CORMACK’S TARGET

DAVE CORMACK insists Aberdeen can still put themselves in the running for Champions League football despite the crippling financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic. An ever-improving co-efficient will see the top two teams in the Premiership enter the qualifiers for the main tournament next season, with three other sides trying to make it into the Europa League and the newly-introduced Europa Conference League. The Dons have been in the Europa League qualifiers for the past seven seasons as a consequence of league finishes. And despite the fact the Old Firm will be expected to retain a stranglehold over the top two spots, Cormack is adamant they will strive to break that — and earn game-changing sums of money. Asked if qualification for the Champions League was a realistic goal with a £5million loss predicted in this financial year, Cormack said: ‘Absolutely, and maybe for the first time in three years the league is kind of open to that opportunity. ‘We will go into the transfer window looking at ins and outs. January is always a difficult window but we will look at what we can get to push as hard as we can. Every incentive is there for us.’ That push will start in the coming days, with Cormack explaining: ‘We have to look holistically at the whole squad because we have a big squad. ‘One of the reasons we had planned to lose £2m last year, but it ended up being £3m because of Covid, was to invest and to get ahead of changes in the squad because the worst thing you can do is go into the summer needing six players.’

As Sportsmail revealed on Saturday, Cormack believes a plan to revive the Atlantic League is unlikely to get off the ground after Celtic registered their opposition to it. But the Aberdeen chairman believes economic pressure will ensure change will come sooner or later. He added: ‘There is no doubt, in particular Celtic, and I don’t blame them, have made it clear that they would like a bigger platform to play on. ‘I do not want to sit back and wait for the crumbs off the table of something we had no input to. That’s important for us to look at.’