Jim Goodwin spoke to the media on Friday lunchtime as he previewed our Premier Sports Cup opener with Peterhead on Sunday afternoon. You can watch his press conference in full on RedTV by clicking on the red button, or find out what the manager had to say below.

Question: Anthony Stewart has just been announced as the new captain. What was it about him that made you decide that he was the right man for the job?

Answer: “Anthony is a player with great experience. He’s played at a very good level in England, in the Championship and in League One. He’s just a perfect character. For me, he ticks all the boxes in terms of his leadership qualities. He’s very well respected in the dressing room already. He’s only been in a short period of time. He’s a player that I know, I can trust and will carry out the message that I want implemented on a match day.

“I think it is important to also say that we’ve got a number of leaders within the group, I could have probably given the armband to another four or five members of the squad. I think Anthony is a good choice. He’ll enjoy that responsibility of wearing the armband and representing this great club and leading the boys into battle every weekend.”

Q. Your first competitive game against Peterhead is this Sunday, what’s your thoughts heading into that?

A. “We’re really looking forward to getting back into the competitive football. It’s been quite a quick turnaround, there’s no getting away from that. We’ve had a great pre-season so far. The boys have worked really, really hard on getting their fitness back to where it needs to be with a decent run out against Brechin a couple of nights ago. We managed to get a few good goals, which gives confidence to the group and to the goal scorers. Peterhead will be very similar. I’ve experienced this group stage of the competition with St. Mirren a number of times. When you’re the Premier League team, the expectation is obviously on you to go and to go and win. We’re playing against lower league opposition, we will be huge favourites going into every game. We won’t get too many pats on the back if we win, but we will get a huge volley of criticism, if we don’t. The players will be well aware of that. We won’t underestimate the opposition, we’ll give them the utmost respect, we’ll prepare for these games in the next couple of weeks the same way we would prepare for any Premier League team. And hopefully, with that said the guys will give a good showing of themselves and we’ll be able to top the group and progress to the next stage.”

Q. How optimistic are you feeling looking ahead to this campaign?

A. “I am extremely optimistic and very, very excited to to get going. We have done great business so far. We’ve signed half a dozen players already, I think we have probably been one of the busier teams in the Premier League up to now. There is still a good six or seven weeks left of the transfer window, we’re not done by any stretch. We still have got to add three or four good quality players to the group. We’ve promoted a couple of young lads from the Academy as well, that trained  with the first team last season, to be a part of the squad for this season which is important. We are really looking forward to getting going. The new guys have settled in brilliantly, they are the right types of character, but also bring the right amount of quality as well. It’s been well documented how disappointing last campaign was, and we need to make sure we don’t have a repeat of that. I think with the recruitment that we’ve done so far and the the other players that we’re in negotiations with, I think it will be a far different team from the one that the Aberdeen supporters saw last season.”

Q. You mentioned that negotiations are ongoing, how close are you to bring anyone else in?

A. “We’re in constant dialogue with at least three players at the moment. When you’re dealing with players who are under contract at the clubs out there, then you know those negotiations are sometimes more difficult than signing free agents. We’ve got a couple of boys that have been going through the visa application process with Ramadani and Miovski.

“We had great news earlier about Ramadani. We expect him to be in the country on Sunday and ready to train with the group on Monday, which gives us all a great lift, because he’s one that we’re very excited about. He is an Albanian International, a great age at 26. He’ll bring, the quality and the competitiveness that we need for that particular area of the pitch. Miovski will probably be another week to 10 days, I would imagine. We’re going through similar challenges, like all the other businesses out there at the moment in terms of recruiting  outside of the UK at the moment. There’s a lot of red tape to go through, which is very frustrating. We’re confident that we’ll get Miovski in as well in the next 10 days, too. It is exciting times ahead. We’ve let go about 14 players, I think since I first came in February. We’ve made some big changes to the backroom team as well. People need to be patient when it comes to replacing those players that we let go. We have still got three or four still to come in.”

Q. What do you think can be achieved with this group of players?

A. “I am extremely confident in the group of players that we’ve put together so far. Once we finish the recruitment process, and we get the next three or four players into the building, then I think we’ll be in a fantastic position going forward. Without being disrespectful to the players who have left, I think this squad will be far more competitive and it will have far more energy. It will be younger and it will be fresher to have a bit more pace in the team. We’ll have a lot more quality in the team as well which will enable us to win more games this season.

“Aberdeen is one of the biggest teams in the Premier League, and we need to be competing at the right hand of the table, we need to make sure that we don’t ever have a repeat of what happened last season. I’m confident with the team that I’m building, with the backroom team that I’ve put together and with the hard work that the players are putting in on the training pitch that we will be in a far better position this time around.”

Q. There were a few different goal scorers against Brechin the other night, is that something that you have worked on?

A. “We have been working on the shape of the team, more on the offensive side of things than what we have done on the defensive side of things, purely based on the fact that we’re going into the League Cup, and we would expect to have in excess of 70% of the ball in the majority of these League Cup games. We’ve been working on a lot of patterns of play, forward movement, rotation in the final third, trying to exploit key areas in the pitch where we think we can get an advantage against the opposition in these games.

“We need to work on the defensive side of things because we conceded far too many goals last season, which is why we’ve made the changes that we’ve made. We’ve strengthened the goalkeeping department with Kelle Roos coming in. We’ve strengthened the central defensive area with Liam Scales and Anthony Stewart coming in. Obviously Calvin Ramsay has gone and so Jayden Richardson comes in. We’ve made a lot of significant changes and as much as we are obviously focusing at the moment at the top end of the pitch and in the final third, we are still doing small bits of detail on the back four and on the goalkeeper.

“The main emphasis in this League Cup campaign is to go and score goals, to go and entertain the fans to win games comfortably and to give the fans something to be excited about.  Up to now, pre-season has been really successful. We had a great trip to Spain, really, really pleased that the club were willing to invest in our trip the way that they did, because it’s so important that we got that week together with the new guys and help them to gel into the squad and that was really, really good over there. We got a lot of hard work in on the training pitch but as well as that the players got to bond with each other. I think you get to know each other a little bit better when you’re in each other’s pockets for a week as well away from home. It’s been a great pre-season up to now but we have to  back that up with the good positive results in the upcoming competitive fixtures in the League Cup.”

Q. You’ve mentioned that you have competition for places across the pitch. You have got Joe Lewis and Kelle Roos who are both top goalkeepers, have you decided on a number one for this season?

A. “That’s what we wanted and that’s what I want in every area of the pitch. I didn’t think I had that when I came in last February. We relied too heavily on certain individuals all the time. When those individuals took a dip in form or lost confidence, then we weren’t able to take them out, because I didn’t feel that the backup replacements for those particular individuals were good enough. This year will be different. We’ll have a number of players in key positions, and I don’t care whether it’s the most experienced player in the group, the captain or the main number nine, nobody should be comfortable thinking regardless of performance, they’re going to get a jersey the following week. That’s the message we’re giving to them. They they need to fight and scrap and compete every single week for the jersey to earn the right to be picked in the next game.

“I’ll pick my strongest 11 every game. There won’t be any rotation in this League Cup, it is far too important. Some managers and Premier League teams treat this competition as almost a pre-season run out. I want to keep as many clean sheets as possible. I want to score as many goals as possible.”

Q. You’ve also got a number of exciting young players coming through, it must be good to have a core of 19/20 year olds in the first team squad?

A. “The young players have been a part of the group from the start of pre-season. They came with us on the trip to Spain so they could gain that valuable experience of being around the senior players. Kieran Ngwenya had a successful loan at Kelty Hearts last year, helping them to win promotion. Ryan Duncan had a similar successful loan period at Peterhead. He’ll remain part of the first team group, at least for the first half of the season, and then we’ll see what happens going into the second half.

“Connor Baron, as you know, has been hugely successful the second half of last season. Another one worth pointing out as well is Jack Milne He is a young centre back, he’s about six foot three, he’s got a great chance in the game if he continues to listen and learn and develop the way that we think he will. That pathway from the Academy into the first team will always be there. It’s a big part of what Aberdeen is about. You see the business that we’ve already done this summer in terms of Calvin Ramsay going to Liverpool and we want to we want to be in the habit of of giving young players the opportunity to flourish in the first team and then at the right time capitalise on on them as assets.”