Chief Executive Adrian Bevington met with the media on Friday morning at Pittodrie to discuss his new role.

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Joining The Dons

“It’s a great opportunity for me. I’m absolutely delighted to be here. It’s all moved very quickly, and what I must say is the reaction and response I’ve had from the fans, and everyone I’ve met within the club has been absolutely fantastic.

“Obviously, I’m very much aware of the heritage of this club. No one needs to sell Aberdeen Football Club to me. You know, so rich in history in my own lifetime. So when you do get an opportunity like this for a club where it is so steeped in football history and tradition, and there’s still so much opportunity to look forward with a real hardcore fan base, a proper football club. It’s something that immediately jumped at me.

“I’m absolutely delighted to be here. I’m honoured and privileged to be asked to take on the role I’ve been given at Aberdeen Football Club.

“It is a club with real heritage, but the other thing I would add as well part of the conversations are, when you meet and speak with the owner of a football club, and I must say that the chairman, Dave Cormack, and the board members I’ve spoken to, all seriously impressed me.

“There’s a lot of knowledge, both commercial and football knowledge, on the board. There’s a lot of ideas, special projects that we’re working on. You’ve got the Cormack Park project. You’ve got the potential with the stadium as well, which obviously the chairman is absolutely driven by. And just the general commitment of the board and the chairman to the football club.

“Not every football club has that level of ownership where they are really determined to succeed. And what I would say on that as well, I have had a lot of different experiences within football. And the best chairman that I’ve ever worked for in club football is undoubtedly Steve Gibson at Middlesbrough, who I think is regarded far and wide as one of the best chairmen in the United Kingdom.

“And the commitment that Dave Cormack has shown Aberdeen and has shown me in the conversations that we’ve had is very similar to the attitude and ambition and commitment of Steve Gibson at Middlesbrough, and that’s a big reason why I’m here.

“We’ve probably known each other about seven years now, something like six or seven years, very informally. And we just kept some dialogue going at different moments. It’s not like we were in constant conversation, but we’ve had a number of chats, both light touch and more deep conversations over a long period of time, which I think, again, has allowed us to feel that we have that capability to work together.

“There was never any discussion saying that was always the plan. It’s just that circumstances have dictated that. And I’m just really pleased that Dave and the board have decided that I’m the person that they trust to work with them to lead the club forward."

Getting to work immediately

“I think it’s my ninth day in the job, and like any incoming CEO to any business, particularly in a football club, there’s a lot to get your head around very quickly.

“From the outside looking in, you’ve got an idea of what you might be dealing with, but it’s only when you arrive at the club and do start working through with all of your colleagues. And I must say, I’ve been hugely impressed by everyone on the staff that I’ve met, both at the training ground, Cormack Park, and here at Pittodrie.

“We’re still working through what exactly all the priorities are on a day-to-day basis, but my main objective over the last week or so has been to get myself absolutely immersed in every element of the club.

“We’ve had really detailed senior leadership team meetings this week where we’ve gone through a number of different issues. I spent a couple of days with Dave last week in person, where we went through a lot of different stuff that he’s working on as well.

“My focus very much is making sure that I am leading the team of the senior management team here. It’s not all my work. It’s the senior management team and then the whole of the workforce.

“I’ve had meetings with Stephen. I’ve also been in touch with Lutz. We’ve had a few conversations. So, on the football side, but also here at the stadium, we’re working through, whether it be commercial, marketing, we’ve got a relatively new commercial director, we’ve got a new marketing director in the club.

“There’s a lot of fresh energy coming in and there’s a lot of opportunities for us off the pitch that we’ve got to work hard to capitalise on."

Being the best we can be

“I think what we’ve got to be, and it’s not just my opinion, this is a general consensus across the board and the senior leadership. We have to be as creative, commercially minded, flexible as possible, but we’ve also got to be ensuring that we’re reaching out to our target audience that maybe some of that isn’t fully tapped into at this moment, whether that be in the Aberdeen area or whether that be further afield in the UK or globally.

“I think there’s a big piece of work for us as a club, both from a marketing and commercial perspective, to attack new lines of revenue streams and a wider fan base.

“But the message beyond that that I really want to get across as well is that everything that we do as a football club, we have to ensure that we do it well. It is about high professional standards here. And that’s something that I’ve always tried to apply throughout my working career, that if you’re going to do something, you have to really commit to it and deliver it to the highest standard possible within the context of what you’re working with."

Background in football

“Hopefully I’m bringing a lot of football experience, both on the business side of the operations of the club, because I have been in football for, it’s over 30 years now, and not everyone has the experience of working significantly for a federation, and I had 17 years at the English FA.

“But I also worked with the Welsh FA for a period as a consultant, and I’ve also got several levels of experience as well within club football, which straddle both the technical side, where, in effect, being sporting director, director of football at Middlesbrough, to managing director of the whole operations with the England team structure, to consultant CEO at Nottingham Forest for a season in the Championship.

“I think that gives me a lot of experience that way, but it’s not just about in England. I’m pretty confident that over a long period I’ve built up a substantial understanding and network within the Scottish football stakeholder community, which will stand me in good stead moving forward.

“To the point where I have already had conversations with the likes of Ian Maxwell, Craig Mulholland, Neil Doncaster, who all know of me anyway or know me through the industry, which I think, while I’m new to Scottish football in a professional capacity, I’m not unknown to people in Scottish football, so hopefully that will help moving forward.

“What I would say on that is (links to previous jobs in Scotland) I’m sitting here today, very proudly, as Aberdeen Football Club Chief Executive, and the responsibility of this role, is not something I take lightly. And while I’m in this position, I will only be speaking about Aberdeen Football Club."

Building a new stadium

“What I would say is quite clear to me that the club, the chairman, is absolutely committed to wanting to deliver a new stadium for the north-east of Scotland and for Aberdeen Football Club. So that’s undoubtedly something that the chairman is very passionate about.

“I do hope that I can help and support him in that regard. And yes, I’ve got experience earlier on in my career when I was involved with the build and the opening of Middlesbrough Football Club’s Riverside Stadium, but also, I’d say more recently than that, was the build and opening and then activation of Wembley Stadium.

“There's two pretty big stadiums there, and I was involved in the process and the opening of St George’s Park National Football Centre down there.

“So I’ve got quite a bit of experience around major capital projects in that regard. And I will do everything I can to build relationships within the local stakeholder community, to support Dave and the board in that regard, to drive us forward, to see if we can get this moving in the right direction and across the line."

Recent SPFL sanction

“I’m aware of it, obviously. The game took place before I even started in the job, but I’ve been aware over the course of the last week of the discussions with the regulatory body with regards to the sanction, and it is what it is.

“What I would say from being in football, most of my working life with different passionate fan bases, and Aberdeen clearly have a hugely passionate fan base, then the vast majority of fans are undoubtedly very well behaved.

“What we have to ensure is that moving forward we don’t put ourselves in a position again where we can be at risk of further sanction.

“My words are, the vast majority of our fans are fantastically well behaved, tremendously passionate, and we just have to make sure that we are aware of our responsibilities moving forward."

The fanbase

“I don’t want to put hard numbers on it like that. I think it’s more about the case of, there’s a great opportunity here.

“There’s a really loyal fan base that shines through, and it’s tangible through historical evidence, but just also with the work that’s already going on and being going on for quite some time within the club with the DNA project and the membership that we have.

“I was in a meeting for a couple of hours on this yesterday with the team that lead in that area that, the continued work and refreshed work in that to drive the fan base forward.

“And all of the meetings that I’ve been in where it’s like always looking at, what can we do more? What can we do better for that engagement?

“And it might sound like it’s a bit broad brush at this moment in time, but you’re going to have to accept that nine days in, that’s where I’m at.

“I don’t really want to compare it to any club. I understand the question. It’s more about what can we do with Aberdeen Football Club to make it the best version of Aberdeen Football Club that we can be, which is being successful on the pitch and being highly regarded and successful and commercially astute off the pitch."

Stephen Robinson and on-pitch goals

“I’ve already had some really good discussions with Stephen. And I was very impressed with him, I have to say, the first time in my life I’d sat down with him and met with him at the training ground last week.

“I walked away without any shadow of doubt that this is an individual who is absolutely driven to the max with very high professional standards. And I’ve worked with and met a lot of managers over the years.

“I’m very confident that Stephen and his coaching staff are going to leave no stone unturned moving forward.

“What the outcome is at the end of the season, I’m not going to sit here and put a target on that, that would be very unwise of me to do so at this point.

“I think what we are very clear about this football club is that we’re driven and determined and highly ambitious as a football club. We do want to achieve success as a football club.

“We want to be in European football. We want to be at the latter stages and winning cup competitions as the team did last year.

“We’ve got to finish as high as we possibly can in the league."

Clear roles

“But also off the pitch, we want to be regarded as being, you know what, Aberdeen, what a club they are to deal with. They’re great with the way they engage with their fans. They’re really productive commercially.

“We actually want to have a look at what Aberdeen are doing because they do stuff well and they do stuff that’s new.

“And I’m convinced with the people that we’ve got within the workforce now, combined as well with the people who’ve been at the club a long time, and that isn’t lost on me.

“I think it’s really important when you talk about football clubs. There’s a lot of people who, you know, give their lives to football clubs because they’re so passionate about it, and they make the club operate the way it does on a day-to-day basis, and sometimes that’s taken a little bit for granted, and that’s something that I won’t ever take for granted. I can assure you.

“The board are the people who own the football club, right? And Dave is the chairman, is the leader of the football club in that regard.

“I am the senior executive at this football club, and that undoubtedly has a huge amount of responsibility, and that’s responsibility that I’m very comfortable taking on. That doesn’t phase me whatsoever. And I want to embrace that and I will embrace it.

“I think my role is to ensure that the agreed strategies that we have, and there’s a lot of work going on as we speak, I’ve got a meeting this afternoon about refreshing our strategic vision for the club as we move forward.

“My role is to lead the executive, both here at Pittodrie and the football departments, male and female, at Cormack Park, to ensure that we are delivering against all of the objectives that we’ve agreed with the board, that we will achieve.

“We’ve got to stretch ourselves. We have to be ambitious; we have to be punchy.

“I’m not coming here to be in cruise control. So I will be hands-on, but I also like to ensure that the people who work with me have the opportunity to develop and also take decisions themselves with support from me.

“But I’m a very driven person myself, and those people who’ve worked with me already in the week that’s just gone on would endorse that.

“If we say we’re going to do something, we do it, and we have accountability for who’s doing it, when they’re doing it, and it’s absolutely on point, but they’re just basic professional standards that I’d expect to be applied anywhere."

Supporting the football operation

“Let’s be frank, we’re not the only football club in Scotland that has had a number of changes at head coach or managerial level. I think we have to put that into context.

“Beyond that, from a football philosophy, I think it is important that the club does have a clear, defined football philosophy.

“That really is the remit of the sporting director, and I’ve had some really good conversations already with Lutz, who I’ve known a little bit from the industry anyway.

“In conjunction with Stephen, I’m not one of these people who comes into football who doesn’t respect and appreciate the influence and importance of the role of the head coach or manager, whatever the given title at a given moment.

“That, for me, is a hugely important aspect of it.

“I think what we’re trying to do here within this football club is make sure that we support Stephen as much as we possibly can. That he has to feel my support on a day-to-day basis.

“And that’s something that I really got across to him in the first meeting that I had, and I will do everything I can to support him.

“I also want to support Lutz so that we can plan long term. It’s not just about the first team; it’s about the whole process of development right around the club and performance services.

“I think everyone understandably looks at the first team and the immediate results. But when you’re a sporting director at a club, you’re looking at every aspect of it.

“So there’s a long-term plan, long-term vision and philosophy, while there’s the immediate match action, which, let’s be honest, everyone in the fan base, what do they care most about?

“They care about Saturday afternoon, three o’clock or whatever time we kick off these days, what’s happening on the pitch, and that’s where we have to support Stephen in that regard."

Starting in a good place

“It isn’t just looking at the history that’s all over the walls, including in this room (Sir Alex Ferguson lounge), but that’s really inspirational for me.

“I’m a passionate football fan from the very earliest years of my life.

“Even though we are planning for a new stadium, there’s still so much greatness about this place.

“Sometimes you walk into a football club and they’re in disrepair and you think, how are we going to get out of this situation?

“This is not where Aberdeen Football Club are. This has already got a great set of people working here. It’s got a good, strong, fantastic ownership.

“If we can get the football right and keep the commercial growing, effectively, we’ve got every chance of achieving significant success with this football club."

The Staff

“My job is to make sure that the communication internally and the roles and responsibilities, expectations of what everyone’s purpose within the club is, is very clearly defined and understood.

“And the way that I operate is I’m very visible around the building and here at Pittodrie and at Cormack Park. I like to understand what’s going on throughout the day.

“I plan every day. I plan every day, but I also plan what’s in the next week or two, but I’m also planning what’s in the next month, what’s in the next year. That’s how I operate. I’ve always operated that way.

“And the way I operate again is, I’m very comfortable managing a multitude of issues at the same time because you have to be able to do that from the technical and also the operational and the budget side of it.

“But to do that, you’ve also got to have good people around you.

“And when I walked through the door last week, I had no idea, in all honesty, of the calibre of people that I would have been encountering and what I can’t hide is just my delight at the level of quality that I’ve found here and at Cormack Park.

“It’s really, really good. This club is in a very good place with the opportunity to build upon.

Lutz Pfannenstiel

“Yeah, we had a really long conversation. I think it was on Monday. And then we’ve been in contact again in the last 24 hours as well.

“I’m the chief executive. I’m not the sporting director, and I think it’s really important for people to understand that where I think I’ve got an advantage is because I’ve been on the football side as well. I can maybe support a little bit more there.

“So when I’m in a meeting, you know, with Lutz, with Stephen, with Darren Mowbray, and we’re talking about transfer windows and players, I’m not going to be trying to push who they should have, but I can help them with some thoughts.

“But I’ve also got this network myself that may not be the exact same network that they’ve got that can complement them."

Scottish FA proposal

“Well, I need to understand more about the exact proposals from the Scottish FA. Obviously, I’m aware of them, generically.

“And I’ve had some really good dialogue with Craig Mulholland and Ian Maxwell, who are guys that I know anyway.

“So I’m convinced that from an Aberdeen Football Club point of view, that we’ll be very much at the heart of those discussions, which I think is important for our supporter base.

“As a generalism, I’m someone who’s always been very committed to youth development, in my last role at Middlesbrough.

“And this is not all down to me for clarity, but we brought in Djed Spence while I was there and he then moved on via Nottingham Forest to Tottenham for a significant transfer fee.

“Hayden Hackney, I think he came in his first year as a professional while he was at Middlesbrough, and obviously he’s just moved on for best part of £25 million, I think it is, to Everton.

“I’m very much aware of the importance in the football ecosystem that you have to develop players and if you are moving players on for a significant fee at a low cost or you’ve developed yourself ideally, that’s a real successful model for you.

“I understand as well from a fan’s point of view, they love it when one of their own comes through. It’s really important to the fan base that way.

“And look, you can’t just play players for the sake of it. You can’t say to the manager, you have to play that player because he’s a local guy or he’s come through the system. In my opinion, they have to be good enough.

“We have to ensure that we are producing good enough quality players that can play in our first team that get the game minutes. And we’ve got to find that pathway with the proposals within what the SFA are talking about at the moment."

Strong relationships

“It was an unbelievably good meeting.

“I have to let Stephen manage the team and the squad. That’s his job. What he doesn’t want from me, in my opinion, is me sitting on his shoulder every five minutes. That’s not healthy.

“We were on WhatsApp yesterday, we’re seeing each other Tuesday next week. You know, we’ve built up a very good rapport very quickly.

“And the most important thing here is the people relationship skills, where you do have that good working relationship that over a period of time builds trust.

“But I came out the first meeting and I’m sure Stephen did as well, feel a good level of common ground there.

“What I want is Stephen Robinson to succeed over a long period of time with Aberdeen Football Club because if Stephen is succeeding over a long period of time, that means I’m doing a decent enough job and we’re all doing pretty well, one would suggest.

“But Stephen’s got a very tough job as the manager of a football team, as every manager is. It’s an incredibly demanding job, but as I’ve said already, he is a highly professional individual and just looking at the preparation work that he puts in has really impressed me."

Targets

“I think we must drive a level of consistency in our overall outcomes over the course, year on year. So I can’t sit here today and say, this is what we’re going to do this season. I’m just not going to do that. That would be naïve and foolish of me to do so.

What I’m confident in is that as a club, we’re absolutely committed to improving and where we are. The manager’s absolutely determined to drive us forward.

“As a club, we do want to be competing in European competition on a regular basis again. We want to be at the latter stages of cup competitions.

“It’s easy to say, we want to win cups, but so do other teams in this league. You put yourself in a difficult position by putting those absolute core targets on, but we have to strive to be highly competitive at the top end of the league, and in the cup competitions and getting to Europe on a regular basis."