Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass wanted leaders for the new season

Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass insists he deliberately sought to sign leaders during the summer transfer window.

Glass moved to add that quality to the squad ahead of his first full campaign at the Reds’ helm.

Aberdeen slumped to a disappointing fourth in the Premiership last season and failed to make an impact in either domestic cup.

Glass wants leaders in the team to spear-head the assault for success on two fronts with the Dons also competing in Europe as well as domestically.

Aberdeen will kick-off their Uefa Europa Conference League campaign with a second qualifying round tie against BK Hacken on July 22.

Glass is confident he has added further authority to the Dons with experienced signings Scott Brown, Declan Gallagher, Christian Ramirez and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.

He said: “I deliberately targeted guys who are leaders.

“I wouldn’t want to be critical of the group, but I’d say it (leadership) was something I wanted to add.

“I felt it was important to add that to the guys already here.”

Strong candidates for captaincy

Having added those leaders Glass now faces a conundrum of who to name as club captain ahead of that second qualifying round first leg tie

Glass recently confirmed he has yet to make a decision on who will skipper the club in the upcoming campaign.

Keeper Joe Lewis remains in possession of the captain’s arm-band for now, although Glass said that could yet change ahead of the tie with BK Hacken.

He will make his decision in the build-up to that Pittodrie tie against the Swedish side.

Brown looks to be the outstanding candidate having captained Celtic and Scotland.

The 36-year-old won 21 trophies at Parkhead, led Celtic to nine-in-a-row and an unprecedented Quadruple Treble.

Scotland international defender Gallagher, who was part of Steve Clarke’s 26-man squad at Euro 2020, captained Motherwell last season.

Another candidate to lead the Reds is veteran defender Considine, who is fourth on Aberdeen’s all-time appearance list and is set to enter into his 19th season in the first team.

Keeper Lewis has held the captaincy for two seasons following the exit of Graeme Shinnie to Derby County in summer 2019.

Lewis’ underlined his commitment to the club when receiving the captaincy by penning a five-year contract extension until 2024.

Euro preparations step up with friendlies

Aberdeen will step up their preparations for the Uefa Europa Conference League opener with friendlies against Championship side Reading and Scottish Cup and League Cup winners St Johnstone this week.

Both friendlies will be behind closed doors on Friday at Cormack Park, with the Dons facing Reading at 1.30pm and St Johnstone at 6.30pm.

Reading are currently at a week-long training camp in Scotland and will face the Dons before returning back to England for friendlies against West Ham and Charlton.

Regardless of who leads the Dons out against BK Hacken as captain, Glass is confident he has brought more leaders into the team.

Glass said: “The players we’ve brought in are really high-level players, real winners.

“It shouldn’t be forgotten the level of signings we have introduced for the new season.”

No waiting for targets sitting on the fence

Another fundamental for Glass during the summer rebuild was not just adding quality and leadership, but also players completely dedicated to his project at Aberdeen.

If any transfer targets delayed on making a decision, Glass quickly moved on to other players who wanted to be part of his plans.

He said: “People know the size of this club and it’s something that the people here value.

“Any player that has been on the fence and might be speaking to other clubs, we pretty much quickly said: ‘Okay, they don’t want to be here, let’s move on.’

“That’s big for us. Every player that has come here, straight away they wanted to be a part of what we’re doing.

“It wasn’t if something doesn’t happen in a week or two (it didn’t happen).

“None of that was going on.

“If that went on with anybody we just moved on – we are not interested in that at the club.”