STRIKE IT LUCKY
Goodwin grateful Dons have buying power to land Miovski
WHEN Jim Goodwin was cutting his teeth as a manager at Alloa and St Mirren, he knew the limitations of the job and the financial realities that faced him.
When it came to the recruitment of new players, he invariably had to wheel and deal. It was all about trying to pick up the odd bargain here and there on a free transfer.
Money was too tight to mention. Now reshaping his squad at Aberdeen, though, the Dons boss has a little more room for manoeuvre.
The signing of Bojan Miovski is a prime example. An international striker with North Macedonia, Miovski has now agreed terms on a four-year deal with Aberdeen and will join for an undisclosed fee from MTK Budapest.
Albanian international midfielder Ylber Ramadani made the same move last week, leaving MTK to join Aberdeen in a deal worth £100,000.
Goodwin also confirmed yesterday that the club retain an interest in Norwegian striker Tobias Lauritsen, with a fee of around £300,000 being mooted.
Yet, the deal for Miovski is intriguing. Only a few months ago, reports in Hungary suggested MTK were knocking back bids of around £1million for the player from a host of clubs around Europe.
MTK were then relegated from the Hungarian top flight and, with Miovski having just a year left on his contract, they were forced to take a cut-price deal understood to be worth just over £250,000.
Miovski might well end up proving to be a bargain. But for Aberdeen to pay a transfer fee and hand him a lengthy contract represents a significant outlay and show of commitment.
Normally when a Scottish club pays a decent fee and hands out a four-year deal to a new recruit, it’s usually a safe bet that the player will be heading to Glasgow.
Only the two Old Firm clubs can typically afford that sort of outlay on a player. But, even beyond the club-record sale of Calvin Ramsay to Liverpool, Goodwin insists the money is there to revamp his squad.
He also played down any suggestion that the investment in Miovski will bring an extra level of pressure to the young striker, who turns 23 today.
Backing him to hit the ground running, Goodwin said: ‘I don’t think this guy is bothered by pressure. I’ve had a couple of conversations with him over Zoom and he’s a very good character with good confidence and self-belief.
‘You don’t get to the level he’s been playing at without those qualities. North Macedonia only just missed out on qualifying for the World Cup and had a great result against Italy not so long ago.
‘So Bojan has to be a certain type of character to be playing at that sort of level.
‘He’s certainly not the finished article. But we believe the level he’s coming in at right now, we expect him to score goals straight away. But there will also be improvement in him.
‘There’s no pressure on him whatsoever. It’s a real sign of intent from the club to show our supporters that we have ambition. Signing quality players like this will hopefully excite the fans for next season.’
Paying tribute to the work carried out behind the scenes and the investment from the board, Goodwin (below) added: ‘It’s fair to say that the resources here at Aberdeen are the best that I’ve probably experienced as a manager in the last six years or so. That’s no disrespect to the other clubs I’ve been at. ‘I haven’t been used to it in the past, having this kind of money to actually pay transfer fees for players. Normally we would be looking in the free agent market. ‘It’s great credit to everyone involved up here. That’s why some of them have taken a bit longer than we would have liked. When you’re in the free agent market and guys are available, you can make them an offer today and sign them tomorrow. But when you’re actually trying to sign players who are already contracted to clubs, there’s quite a lengthy negotiation process, to get a transfer fee agreed, to get personal terms agreed.’
Miovski will join the Dons subject to international clearance, hopefully in time for their preseason training camp in Spain next week. He has ten caps for North Macedonia and scored nine goals in 29 games for MTK last season.
Goodwin added: ‘He’s a player we’ve been tracking for months. He fits the profile of striker that I gave to Darren Mowbray, our head of recruitment. We’re delighted to get that one over the line.
‘He’s a No9. He’s about 6ft 3ins, very mobile, very athletic. He’s left-sided and has got an eye for a goal, there’s no doubt about it.
‘He’s heavily involved with the North Macedonian international team as well. For a young lad, he’s got ten caps already and has been doing very, very well.
‘The good thing for me as well is that he’s still got a lot of room for improvement and development. ‘It is a big investment but we believe that this is the type of player that we need and one that could become a very saleable asset for Aberdeen in the future.’
Goodwin revealed that Aberdeen had to fight off some stiff competition to land Miovski, but also insisted that the recent investment in new players wasn’t entirely dependent on the sale of Ramsay to Liverpool.
‘It (Ramsay cash) certainly helps but it wasn’t the be all and end all,’ he added. ‘We would still be making these deals had Calvin stayed.
‘There was competition to sign Bojan. He was contracted to MTK and there was quite a bit of interest in him. There were a couple of big bids that actually went in for him last January.
‘We all agreed that this is the type of centre-forward that we should be bringing into the club if we could make it happen.
‘But we couldn’t have made it happen without the board’s support, and them believing in the strategy and vision we have for the team.’