Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack will not shy away from backing manager Jimmy Thelin to meet the growing challenge in the Scottish Premiership.
Scottish football’s top-flight is at the strongest it has been in the last decade following the presence of the established leading clubs in the country.
The Dons are duking it out with the leading clubs from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee for honours and Cormack knows his club must invest to meet the increased competition.
He said: “The league is a lot more competitive than it was ten years ago.
“Ten years ago Hearts and Hibs got relegated, Rangers were coming back up and Dundee United were gone for five years.
“But they are all back in the top-flight now and it has made for a really competitive environment.
“That’s a positive thing for Scottish football as a whole.
“The good news is there’s been a lot of investment. United, Hearts, Hibs, Rangers and Celtic are heavy investors.
“It’s up to us as a club to meet that challenge and you do that by having the right people in place and the right approach.”
‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’
Cormack has met that challenge consistently by supporting his manager’s efforts to strengthen the team.
The chairman has continued that support with significant seven-figure support for Dons boss Jimmy Thelin since he arrived in Scotland a year ago.
But Cormack says the financial commitment must be consistent across transfer windows.
He said: “We are intending to spend this summer but it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
“We spent £3million in the last two transfer windows and in Jimmy we’ve got a man with a great track record in Sweden and we’re delighted he’s here.
“He just gets on with his job, which is to win football matches. What he does is the job the fans rightly take most interest in.”
Thelin has rewarded that backing by bringing the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie for the first time since 1990 and the Dons chairman is delighted to see the feelgood factor growing at the club.
He said: “Behind the team there are a lot of really positive and encouraging things happening at the club in terms of fan engagement.
“Our average crowds are up, the average age of fans coming to games is getting younger, and everyone at the club is working hard to nurture the future fans of Aberdeen too.”
Cormack Park redevelopment plans
Supporting Thelin’s recruitment drive is only part of the equation for the Dons board of directors, however.
Following the Scottish Cup final win last month Cormack confirmed his family have invested another £8million into the club.
Some will be used to support the manager, but the chairman is also focused on driving further improvements at Cormack Park, the club’s training ground.
Cormack said: “We’re going to make a significant investment in our training facility.
“We’re in the process of evaluating an expansion of what we need to do there.
“But the key project for us there would be getting a full-size indoor pitch in place. That in and of itself is about probably a £4 million investment.
“There are some other things we’re looking to do as well at Cormack Park given we’ve got the Girls Academy there now as well.
“We probably need to think about how we expand or add to what we have there.
“We’re just finishing off the plans for that, but we definitely want to commit to putting an indoor pitch there.”
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