Stephen Glass was named the Aberdeen manager earlier today and, despite being unveiled from the other side of the Atlantic, he made it immediately clear that the inconvenience of a few thousand miles isn’t going to stop him from getting down to work straight away.

“I’m very proud and pleased that the club has chosen to appoint me and give me the opportunity to be the manager of Aberdeen Football Club and I can assure everyone that I will be working as hard as possible to bring success here.

“I’m hoping to be in situ for the first game after the split. Obviously there’s quarantine rules and so on that we have to be very respectful about, but I’ll be there as soon as I can be. I’ll be speaking to the staff and the players in the meantime but it’s important that Paul continues to take care of things his way for the moment. He’s going to be able to take all this forward until I can get in there and pick things up.

“Other than the Scottish Cup fixtures, we know exactly who our opponents are to the end of the season, so although I watch plenty of games in the SPFL anyway, I can start to really focus on my homework ahead of those games. These last five league games are massively important as are the cup games, because we all know the prize that’s there at the end of that.

“I’m up to speed with things at the club, I’ve kept a close eye on games for a couple of years now. When Jon Gallagher went over last season, that sparked my interest and I wanted to see how he was doing over there. Then there were no games over here because of the coronavirus, so I was able to watch RedTV pretty religiously and I think I’ve watched every game this season. I’ll certainly go back and review them again now but I need to be looking at the coming opposition too, I need to start planning training, so there’s plenty of work to do.

“I’m very pleased to be able to get in before the end of the season. I think I can come in and affect things very quickly. I’ll enjoy working with the existing staff, we’ll have that period to see how each other works, hopefully be successful through to the end of the season, and then really go into pre-season knowing exactly what we’ve got on our hands. There’s a lot of players out of contract this summer but there’s no decisions made on any of them at the moment. There are some really good players at Pittodrie at present, we’ll be looking at players from outwith who we might want to bring in too and I want to look at the young players who might be pushing through. I can take a look at everything over the next couple of months and see how we want to shape up next season.”

Stephen comes back to Aberdeen with an impressive coaching CV, having gained plenty of experience across the levels, particularly in the United States.

“I’ve been there for ten years. I started coaching a youth team in North Carolina and that was really valuable, because it means you have to put the hours in and get your hands dirty. The amount of games and hours of coaching sessions I’ve done really adds up. I thought it was the best way to learn and I feel it means I’m better prepared now for the task than I was when I had a year in Ireland with Shamrock Rovers, when I wasn’t ready.

“I went back to America, I ended up with Atlanta through the Academy, learning more about working in a professional club and I progressed through the ranks fairly quickly, coaching the 17s, then the second team. I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to be in interim charge of the first team last year, handling big players, players that were bought and sold for quite a bit of money, $20million in the case of Pity Martinez. I also introduced young George Bello to the first team and he’s gone on to become an international footballer. I learnt a lot by working with that level of player, and I have to say that working at Atlanta has been great for me.

“But when there’s a chance to put your name forward for Aberdeen, it’s something I had to do. I wouldn’t come back here for something where I didn’t think I could be successful. I’m leaving behind what I think is the best club in the United States, so it had to be something special. But this club is right, the people I’m going to be working for are right, there are good young players here, there’s the potential for the team to do really well and I want to put my stamp on things now.

“I want to put an attacking team on the pitch. When I came to the club, that was what was expected here, from Sir Alex’s time, Alex Smith’s time. Attacking play, trying to win games every week, going to Glasgow to win. If we can put an Aberdeen team on the pitch that people believe in, I think they will come to Pittodrie in numbers to back the team. Fast, attacking football, scoring goals, that’s what we will be looking for.

“We want to be winners. I think people can be guided in that direction if you put them in the right environment every day. I think it’s important that the training is driven, that the senior players take responsibility for that. I think that mentality should be in there already for any player, but you either want to be the best or you don’t. There’s enough people around Aberdeen who want to be the best and with the staff who are already there plus what we hope to add, we can push them to another level. It hasn’t been around the club for a while. It’s been successful here and there, but now we are looking for a sustained period of success. Successful Aberdeen managers put trophies in the cabinet and hopefully I can be here long enough to do that.”

photos supplied by Atlanta United

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