THE DONS RECEIVED A MASSIVE BOOST LAST WEEK AHEAD OF THE START OF THE NEW LEAGUE SEASON WITH THE NEWS THAT STRIKER, AND LAST SEASON'S TOP SCORER, ADAM ROONEY HAS SIGNED A CONTRACT EXTENSION THAT WILL SEE HIM REMAIN AT PITTODRIE UNTIL THE SUMMER OF 2020.

Since arriving at Aberdeen in January 2014, Adam has made 107 appearances (18 as a substitute) and scored an incredible 60 goals, including 14 from the penalty spot. He spoke to RedMatchday about his decision.
“When you make a decision about your future there are a number of factors to think about but in truth, this was an easy decision.

“Not everything in football is about money. It is about where you are happy and where you are enjoying your football. I know there are a lot of lads who go down to England but I think you have to take more things into consideration, your life away from the field and if you are enjoying your football. That is more important. There is no point in going somewhere for a lot of money if you are not happy and enjoying it.

“I am settled here, my family love it, we really enjoy living in the area, the football club is going well after a good couple of seasons and hopefully we are going on to have some more strong seasons in the years ahead.

“I feel that I am playing well and this is the most settled I have been at a football club. I am enjoying my football, I enjoy being with my teammates, I really like the environment I am working in and we are well looked after by the club. We stay in the best hotels when we go to away games, we have a new team bus, the club is run very well off the pitch.

“The squad has been improving year on year, so it is all positive. I am really looking forward to this season and I am also looking forward to the future with hopefully a new training ground and stadium just around the corner.

“Finally, I get on well with the fans. Their support towards me has been great since the first day I arrived. I would like to thank them for that and I really appreciate the supporters singing my name in Maribor at the end of the game after I missed the penalty. It is great having their backing after something like that.

“Everything is very positive here. I think it is a place you would rather be than in England at a club struggle at the bottom of the Championship or League One. When you look at all that, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make to sign the new contract.

“Since I’ve been here we have continued to improve and improve and the squad has continued to get stronger. We now want to win some more trophies. We have the nucleus of a very good squad. There are a lot of lads like myself on longer contracts.

“I think we have got stronger this year. I think if you look at the performances against Maribor over the two legs, we dominated a very good side but did not take our chances. We have to go into the season now with confidence and hopefully we will kick on.

“You need competition for places. I think the lads who have come in offer something different. It is going to be a long season. It feels like we have played half a season already and we are only playing the second league game against Hearts! We are going to need lots of bodies over the course of the campaign which we’ve maybe missed in the last couple of seasons.

“You see that already with Jonny missing a number of games. Wes has come in for him and done brilliant. We are going to need that during the season, players to come in and do a job when we need them.

“Going out of Europe was a big disappointment but hopefully if we keep improving we can make the group stages one day. Personally, it was really hard to take after that penalty. I have missed some penalties in the past.
Unfortunately that was my first miss for Aberdeen and it did not come at a great time.

I was made to stand and wait for a while, but that did not affect me. What was more disappointing was the fact we were not given the goal after Niall scored. I did not realise he had rolled the ball in till afterwards. The referee should have let Niall score the goal. The penalty itself, I did what I wanted to do and stuck the ball down the middle but the keeper got a foot to it.

“Hopefully that will be the only one I miss for the club. If we had got another penalty, I would still have taken it and I will take the next one we get in the league. Hopefully I will score more than I miss and get us more points than would cost us if I don’t.

“The lads always try and pick each other up. You could see on the flight back that although the boys were disappointed, everyone was quick to try and pick me up. I don’t know how many of the lads came up to me to say forget about the penalty miss, you have scored enough goals since you have been here and dug us out on other occasions. It is good to have your mates round about you as it is never good to miss a penalty in that situation. We have to make sure we look after each other and it is something we are very good at here.

“When I played against Maribor for Birmingham, they were maybe a better side but we certainly did not dominate them as much as we did over the two games. Their keeper said to me afterwards,

“Well done, you were the better side” which I think highlights it. I think they realised they were a bit lucky to get through but we unfortunately did not take our chances and the referee certainly did not help.

“I though Ryan Jack was excellent in the two games. He really dominated the midfield and smashed into tackles. He dictated the tempo, even when we went down to ten men. Our midfield controlled the game.

“After coming off the back of the European games, people used to say it would affect us and then last year we made a great start. Although the last couple of seasons we have died off a bit, that has happened when we have lost the games against Celtic and the league has been too far ahead for us. It is difficult to keep the fight up when the league has gone, so the points tally they have won by is a bit misleading. This year, we have to make sure we keep going to the very end and put ourselves in a position where we can challenge. We know we need to keep ourselves in that position going into the final stretch and try and get as close as we can.

“I think the winter break will work in our favour this season. Playing for 12 months of the season, a break half way though should allow us to refresh the batteries. I am sure it will help Niall who plays for 13 months of the year!

“We will not worry what other teams are doing. We go out to win every game and we go out to win as many points as we can. We are always looking to improve on each season. Setting a new points tally has to be our aim and we will see where it takes us”.