Mark McGhee knows he has a job on his hands winning over the Aberdeen squad but the Dons manager is confident everyone at the club will be pulling together in time for the new season.
The Dons players were stunned after the shock dismissal of previous manager Jimmy Calderwood and some spoke out against the decision announced just minutes after the Pittodrie players had secured fourth spot in the SPL and qualification for the Europa League.
McGhee, who met the full squad for the first time on Wednesday, admitted it will not be easy for the players to adjust to the new set-up, but after a frank discussion before training he believes it will not take too long to unite the club.
Aberdeen head to Austria next week for a nine-day training camp which McGhee believes will forge team spirit ahead of the new campaign.
He said: “It can be difficult for players to make the transition when a new manager comes in, especially given the success of the previous manager.
“The players would have been sad to see Jimmy go and now they will be waiting to see what they are going to get with me.
“They will have heard things here and there and spoken to their friends at Motherwell but we will make it easy for them and tell them we are here to work with them as a team and to try to improve them.
“We will work as hard for them as they do for us and, hopefully by the time we come back from Austria, we will all know all about each other.”
McGhee’s focus is firmly on Aberdeen’s first competitive match of the season – the Europa League third-round tie on July 30 – which takes place two weeks before the start of the SPL season against Celtic at Pittodrie.
McGhee admitted he would rather have used the league campaign opener as his main target but he now will set his sights on the European tie. He will find out the opposition when the draw is made on Friday, July 17.
McGhee said: “I would have preferred to have a league match before the European game but now we need to use the Europa League match as our main focal point for pre-season.”
The Dons manager is continuing his pursuit of new players, with out-of-contract Motherwell midfielder Stephen Hughes still assessing his options.