Ahead of the winter shutdown, Ryan Jack recently took time out to speak with RedMatchday Magazine:
“This is the first time I’ve experienced a winter break.
“I think it’s a good idea but it maybe needs looking at again because we just seem to have crammed all the missing games into December, which became a crazy month. Eight games at that of time of the year can’t suit anyone with money being tight too, I wouldn’t want to be a supporter trying to pay for eight games, doing the travelling and dealing with Christmas. So we really appreciate their support.
“I think it will be good mentally as much as anything for the boys, you get a little few days to switch off and recharge, see your family and that kind of thing. I think that’s useful.
“It’ll be nice to be in one place for a while before we head off to Dubai because it does get full on at times and you do miss the family.
“Going to Dubai will be good, getting some training in good conditions is great because at this time of the year in Scotland, that’s not always easy. We need to be sharp for when we come back because we’ve got the cup game with Stranraer and we want to be at our best because we are looking to get another good cup run going after the disappointment of the League Cup final.
“We want to use the lesson of that day as the spur to get back to Hampden again and to pick up a trophy this time, to use that as the spur to move forward. We are desperate to put things right on that front.
“It’s hard to pinpoint why we had a little dip after the final, but maybe subconsciously, losing the cup final has had a bigger impact on us than we imagined. Ahead of the final, against Inverness and Partick, the form couldn’t have been better going into that game, we’d won two tough away games, and so we were in great shape. And then we let ourselves down at Hampden and it was really hard to live with that.
“A week later at Ibrox, I thought the performance wasn’t as bad as it was made out to be by some people. I think the reaction to that result just reminds you of how far the club has come. I’m from the city, my family’s here and we all remember the times when just getting in the top six at the split was a success for us, and that’s not that long ago.
“Things have moved very fast under the manager and a lot of the players have come through those times and helped bring the club back to where it should be, playing in cup finals, qualifying for Europe, challenging at the top end of the league.
“When two defeats can generate the reaction that they did, it shows we are a long way from days when losing three and four games in a row wasn’t unusual. We lost by nine goals to Celtic not too long ago and back then, that was a crisis and everyone was rightly angry about how results were going here.
“The club is very different now.
“Both on and off the park there are so many good things happening. Many things that people don’t see.
“Now, we are in a good place, but you can’t win every week, you get setbacks in this game. It’s how you then react that is so important and it’s easier to react if you have everyone behind you.
“We know playing for Aberdeen every game is a must win game. There is always that expectation and that demand. The players know that. And rightly so. That is why we are here.
“Players and staff, we expect more from ourselves every week, we expect to be challenging at the top of the table, to be competing for cup finals, playing in Europe.
“But we have to remember where we’ve come from, how quickly we’ve done it and just what the resources are here compared with other clubs. I think the core of players we’ve had through it all, like Andy Considine, Niall McGinn, Mark Reynolds and plenty of others, deserve some credit for seeing it through and bringing the club back up to where it is now.
“You have to remember that we’ve made the move forward without having our own training facility too, because that is so important. When you’re a kid, you don’t mind getting on the buses to different training places or helping set things up but when you get older, you want to come in and be able to do your job, to do your work, to be able to come into your place of work and get your head down without thinking about where are we today, what are the conditions like?
“Getting our own training facility will be massive for us and I think that will then help the club go forward. You go and see what the likes of Hearts or Dundee United for example have and it is top notch and a club like this needs that too, good pitches, a base. Not only will it help with training, it helps when you want to bring a new player in too, factors like that can tip the balance over another club that maybe has better facilities.
“We have a very good group of players in that dressing room and a strong squad. It is important that everyone sticks together. I believe we have the players who have the ability and the character to answer up and react to the challenges we face in 2017.”
“We have a very good group of players in that dressing room and a strong squad. It is important that everyone sticks together. I believe we have the players who have the ability and the character to answer up and react to the challenges we face in 2017.”
