Aberdeen’s £535,000 signing Bojan Miovski can make an immediate goalscoring impact, insists Jonny Hayes.
North Macedonian international Miovski will be an unknown quantity to many – but not Hayes.
The versatile winger/left-back trained with the 23-year-old summer signing for a week in Spain.
From day one, Hayes was excited by the striker, who penned a four-year deal from Hungarian club MTK Budapest.
Although Miovski trained with the Reds at the camp in Alicante last week, the forward did not travel to Scotland with the squad.
That is because he is still waiting for his visa to be granted, a process which has been complicated by Brexit.
It is understood Miovski will not be available for Sunday’s season-opening Premier Sports Cup group clash at Peterhead.
Hayes said: “I’m excited to see Bojan playing in competitive games.
“He’s an unknown quantity in Scottish football, but he displayed enough in a few days to show he’s capable of hitting the ground running and scoring goals.
“For someone who was having his first day in training, he really impressed me.
“Bojan is hungry, you can tell that.
“He’s a nice lad. He was in and around the training camp for a week.
“He settled in quite quickly.”
Striker Miovski waiting on visa
MTK Budapest rejected a bid of €1.2 million (£1.02m) for Miovski from Austrian club Rapid Vienna last summer.
It is understood Czech Republic club Slavia Prague were keen on signing Miovski in January, but were quoted a price of between €1.5m to €2m (£1.28m to £1.71m).
Miovski netted 10 times in 31 games in all competitions for MTK Budapest last season.
The new Don played in North Macedonia’s historic 1-0 World Cup play-off semi-final defeat of Euro 2020 champions Italy in March.
Miovski won the flick-on to allow Aleksandar Trajkovski to score the winner against Italy.
However, the Aberdeen striker will not be going to the World Cup in Qatar as North Macedonia lost the play-off final 2-0 to Portugal.
Striker Miovski also featured in that play-off final.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjIpKU-UlXM
Aberdeen also signed Albanian international Ylber Ramadani from MTK Budapest for £100,000.
Ramadani has yet to meet up with the Dons squad, despite signing a three-year deal on June 8.
The defensive midfielder’s visa has been processed, but the 26-year-old is still awaiting his passport to come through.
It is understood Ramadani will also not be available for the Peterhead clash, but the Dons hope he will arrive in the Granite City early next week.
Experience of Macedonian skill
Hayes insists it is ‘no surprise’ Miovski impressed as he has experienced first-hand the technical skill of Macedonian players.
In the 2015-16 Europa League first qualifying round, Aberdeen faced Macedonian side KF Schkendija.
The Reds drew 1-1 away from home and 0-0 at Pittodrie to progress on the away goals rule.
Hayes, 34, said: “People probably look down on the likes of Albania and Macedonia.
“But they’re highly technical players.
“I remember we played Shkendija seven years ago and they were a much better team than us.
“We went through on away goals in the end.
“We’ve played teams from what people say are lesser countries and they’re technically very good.
“It’s absolutely no surprise that Bojan has come in, been sharp in training and looked really good.”
Almost £1 million in transfer fees
Miovski and Ramadani were both recruited as part of a squad rebuild which has already cost Aberdeen close to £1 million.
Dons boss Jim Goodwin has made six signings and splashed out £300,000 to secure right-back Jayden Richardson from Nottingham Forest.
Defender Anthony Stewart (Wycombe Wanderers) and keeper Kelle Roos (Derby County) were signed on frees after their contracts expired.
Celtic defender Liam Scales arrived on a season-long loan from the Premiership champions.
However, Goodwin has confirmed he aims to move in the January transfer window to make Scales a permanent signing.
Having finished a lowly 10th in the Premiership last season, Goodwin has undertaken a squad reconstruction that is still ongoing.
More summer signings – up to four – are set to be secured.
Hayes optimistic about the new season
Hayes insists the new additions are ‘under no illusions’ about the expectation to deliver success at Aberdeen.
He said: “We’ve got to be optimistic.
“After last season, we don’t need to go back over saying how disappointing it was.
“We know what’s expected here.
“The new lads are under no illusions – they weren’t here last year, but they know it wasn’t good enough all round.”
Hard work in Spain paying off
Aberdeen concluded their pre-season preparations with a 7-1 friendly defeat of Highland League Brechin City on Wednesday.
Hayes netted one of the goals in the comfortable win at Glebe Park.
He said: “We got more minutes under our belt against Brechin.
“There was a tough trip last week to Spain where we had plenty of hard training and worked on our sharpness.
“The season comes round quite fast this year, so it’s important to get as much out of these games as we can.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces in. The manager’s been able to spend a little bit of time with them and implement his ideas.
“You can see that there were certain patterns evident in the win over Brechin that we’ve worked on over the last week or so.
“We got a bit of fitness, too, and that can give us a fitness base.”
🔴 2️⃣ goals for @VicenteBesuijen in Brechin last night.
🔴 RedTV subscribers can watch all the goals from our pitchside camera.
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) July 7, 2022
The need to impress boss Goodwin
Goodwin’s new-look Aberdeen will begin the campaign with the Premier Sports Cup clash at League One Peterhead.
Hayes insists all the players will be out to impress the manager.
He said: “It’s competitive football starting on Sunday.
“No two games are the same, we know that and we know we need to impress the manager.
“That will go a long way to helping us win our first game.”
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