Tomas Cerny spoke with the Red Matchday editor on Thursday at Cormack Park.

RedTV | To watch the interview in full please click here

 

“I am absolutely delighted to stay at the club for one more year. I am grateful for the opportunity to extend the contract. Staying at this level of football, it is a fantastic opportunity and I am excited about the new season.

“My family and I enjoy living in Aberdeen. We have found a new home, a place to bring up the family. We are settled and planning to stay here long term.

“I love the whole area, Aberdeenshire has so many outdoor opportunities and I think it is a great place to have a family. It is great to get out and enjoy the outdoors.

“With the age that my children are at, you don’t want to be moving them around every year. I am very happy to be at Aberdeen for the third year running! It is brilliant.

“The fans have been great with me. The couple of occasions that I have played the reception that they gave me was fantastic.

“The role that I have is something that I enjoy. I am here to support Joe and to push him hard and to make him be at his best, which he has been, and I have to be ready if I get called on upon.

“Joe and I are both experienced goalkeepers who have been through a lot. We understand what is required, we have both been the number one choice and number two choice so we both understand each other’s role. We try to help each other out and do our best to help the team.

“There is still so much to enjoy for me.

“The new facility we have at Cormack Park is the best place that I have trained. It could be anywhere, it could be Chelsea’s training ground it could be Bayern Munich’s, the grass is perfect, every pitch is beautiful, and it is a pleasure to be on it.

“The break we had was very long. As a goalkeeper, trying to stay fit at home, if you have not been diving around, getting the body used to that type of stress takes a while. The first couple of weeks of pre-season were sore but it is getting better!

“Gordon Marshall has done it all, he has been at a number of clubs and played a lot of games at a high level. He played until he was a bit older, so he understands what a younger goalkeeper needs and what an older goalkeeper needs. He tries to meet those needs individually.

“He is good at judging what each goalkeeper needs to be prepared and to be at their best, that is a great strength and skill. There are many goalkeeping coaches who have a ‘one fits all’ approach, Gordon has a good judgement and applies it to training.

“We have an open training environment where Gordon, Joe and myself will discuss things and try to solve problems among ourselves. It is credit to Gordon and the type of goalkeepers that we have. It is an open dialogue that we have to try and work out what is best for us as a group. That has been working really well if you look at Joe’s record at Aberdeen.

“Helping out the young goalkeeper’s like Tom Ritchie is part of my role.

“He trains with the first team on a daily basis so that should give him a lot of confidence.

“He is training and working really hard to try and improve. He is a talented boy and it is up to him over the next couple of years to keep working hard and to take that opportunity.

“I don’t see why we can’t win a trophy this season.

“I so much want to be part of an Aberdeen team that lifts some silverware. We have kept our squad from last season, and we have added Jonny who is a great player with loads of experience. That should make us even stronger.

“The league is very competitive, and we have to show those consistency levels. Towards the end of last season, we were looking stronger and I think we would have had a good chance of finishing third and we were still in the Scottish Cup.

“The gaffer is always stressing to us when we play these cup games that we are one or two games away from winning a trophy. We have shown in cup games that we can beat anyone in a one off game and that is something that we will try and do again and hopefully lift some silverware.”