Ross McCrorie

“He is the type of signing we should be doing at this club.

“He is a young Scottish talent.

“He is someone I have admired for a couple of seasons and every transfer window that came up, I was always keen to see where he was at and where he was in the pecking order there. He had a loan spell at Portsmouth last season and when the opportunity came – and we are obviously restricted about what we can do in terms of spending a fee – but when the opportunity came up and the fee could be delayed to next season – we were delighted to at least have that chance to try and bring him here.

“Once we got that opportunity to bring him here and to speak to him, we could not have been more impressed with the boy.

“I spoke to a lot of people who worked with him before, a lot of our lads know him from the International set up and the Scotland U21s – a lot of my staff have been involved with the U21s and everyone has spoken highly of him as a boy. I think you can see that. I don’t know him as well as I am going to get to know him, but I know what he is and what he brings.

“He brings real stature, a young Scottish talent, 22 years of age coming on a four-year deal; we could not be more pleased with that signing.

“Whilst our priorities lay elsewhere on the pitch, obviously we are struggling for a number 9 at the moment with the injuries that we have had, and we will continue to see what we can do there. We are searching high and low to try and get a striker that can fit the bill for us in the short term. But we had the chance to get Ross in and once I had the conversation with Chairman, everyone sees the merit of it with the long term planning and another Scottish player with real value and we feel that we can help develop him, let him find a home here and let him get games under his belt and fulfil his potential.

“We have spoken over the past few weeks about the difficulties we have bringing players here, and the fact of the matter is if we did not have so many injuries we might not have been able to do this but I applaud the foresight of the board from my recommendations to bring that type of player to the club and being able to find a way to do it. Once we managed to overcome the hurdle of not being able to pay any money just now – that figure being delayed until next year – then it was all about speaking to Ross and once I had done that I knew he wanted to come here. He knew a lot about the club, a lot about the players, and asked the right questions, questions that you would expect from a young player that wants to get going. Even when I spoke to him yesterday, he was just so keen to get here today.

“He is a manager’s dream in terms of the fact he can play several positions. I have spoken to Ross about where I think we can get the best out of him, but he is happy to play anywhere and to be at Aberdeen which is the important thing.

The week ahead

“It is important to get back to the football.

“The narrative has been anything but that of late. It has not been pleasing for anyone. We just want to knuckle down now and get on with the job in hand. We are looking forward to the game on

“Thursday against St Johnstone. We are looking forward to getting the lads back in and integrating them back into the squad and trying to get some of the injured players back as well to make us as strong as possible.

“Four games in 11 days, three important league games alongside the European game.

“The league table with us being down on the games is not what we want so Thursday allows us the chance to get some points on the board. Against a difficult team in St Johnstone, who have always proven difficult for any opponent and they are off the back of a good win at the weekend. But it is just good to be back preparing for that game.

Fitness

“The players who have been isolating have been doing plenty of work on their own but have obviously been restricted as to what they can do, having to use treadmills and bikes in their flats etc.

“So getting proper work into them has been a challenge but now that we have got them back into the training ground, we will then make an assessment regards their fitness.

“Some of them will come into contention for Thursday and we will judge it over the next couple of days, who is in a position to start or otherwise.

Striker

“We are keen to bring someone in.

“The numbers of the squad are big enough but we have had the impact of injuries. It is unbelievable the injuries we have had at centre forward. We brought Ryan in and he went over his ankle in training, just adding to what was a miserable week for us. Sam and Ryan are going to be out long term. Curtis is still recovering from his operation that he had during the close season. He is making his way back slowly and obviously we have been without Bruce.

“We will try (to bring someone in).

“We feel as though we have got good numbers and got good options elsewhere.

“But we know how important it is to have a number 9 and have that threat at the top end of the pitch.

“For the game on Thursday we have a couple of injuries and suspensions, but when everyone is available, we have got a very strong squad.

Squad

“We have a good set of lads.

“We have the full season ahead of us. Everyone has to play the same amount of games and it is important to stay calm and keep our heads on the game and look forward to the campaign, as we were a few weeks ago.

“We just have to look after Aberdeen and make sure we don’t give anyone else anything to comment about us. We will get on with our job, we will be professional as we can, we will do everything right to keep the players safe and we will do everything right to make sure we get a team on the pitch and do our job properly.

“We are like a family and it has not been nice seeing boys getting abuse with some of the stuff that has been thrown at them. They made a mistake, they put themselves in that position, but they are all good lads and they are my players.

“For the other players, that is their team mates out there, so we are all here to protect each other and look after each other.

“Sometimes we need to deal with certain things but we are here to work together for the same goal and sometimes these sorts of things can strengthen a group. We have always had a strong group here and it is very important to me that we have that.

“We move forward now and concentrate on the games.”

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