Dons new boys have raised the bar: Glass

Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass believes his new recruits will raise the bar at Pittodrie. Christian Ramirez is the sixth new face at the club this summer, joining Jack Gurr, Declan Gallagher, Jay EmmanuelThomas, Teddy Jenks and Scott Brown in making the move to Pittodrie.

Goalkeeper Gary Woods, who spent last season on loan, has also made his move to the Dons permanent after signing a twoyear deal following the expiry of his contract at Oldham Athletic. Glass insists he set his stall out early with the capture of playercoach Brown from Celtic and reckons his first signing for Aberdeen may turn out to be the best he makes in management.

The Dons boss said: “The players we’ve brought in are really high-level players, real winners and I think the first signing that I made as a manager in Scott Brown, I’ll be doing well if I make another signing as good as that in my whole time as a manager.

“You take the Celtic captain who Celtic still want to keep. If we produced him on the last day of pre-season or before the first game, people would be going crazy and saying it’s an unbelievable signing.

“It shouldn’t be forgotten, the level of signings.”

Glass is pleased with the progress he has made in terms of recruitment during the close season and has hinted he is close to having his squad in place for the new campaign.

Swedish club BK Hacken visit Pittodrie for the first game of the season in the Conference League second qualifying leg first round on July 22 and it seems likely the squad in place now will be the one for the opening match.

The Aberdeen manager said: “I think we’re close to being done. We’ve done it early, we can prepare for pre-season and this hugely important Hacken game. We’re happy with the balance of the group.

“We could have easily signed six or seven other players that are squad players but we’re not interested in bringing in people to fill the squad – we’re not interested in gambles, I want people that are going to come in and affect this team.

“Even the presence of the guys we’ve brought in, there’s a physicality about them, they’re men and there’s a lot of pure winners. They’re excited about coming to play at a club like this.

“Big JET from the start was very excited about playing for Aberdeen. People know the size of this club and it’s something that the people here value. Any player that has been on the fence, we pretty much quickly said ‘OK, they don’t want to be here, let’s move on.’

“That’s big for us. Every player that has come here has straight away wanted to be a part of what we’re doing.”

CHAMPIONS: Aberdeen Women celebrate with the SWPL2 championship trophy after a thrilling win against Boroughmuir Thistle at Balmoral Stadium yesterday. See The Score.