New Aberdeen star Bojan Miovski didn’t get to meet Calvin Ramsay but he saw the kid moving from the Dons to Liverpool and understood Pittodrie could be a springboard to the English Premier League.
And the North Macedonia international makes no bones about wanting to ply his trade in that division at some point in his career, knowing full well in order to achieve that goal he will have to score plenty of them in the Granite City. Miovski got off to the perfect start with a debut goal against Raith Rovers on Sunday, just five minutes into an Aberdeen career that had been delayed by three weeks due to work permit issues.
But the striker is here from MTK Budapest and has set himself a lofty target of finishing among Scotland’s top three scorers in his first campaign in his first season. The 23-year-old said: “I am so excited to have started very well. I am thankful I had the penalty to shoot as it gave me more confidence in the game and the future in the league.
“When we got the penalty my team-mates said I can take it. The coach also said that I can shoot. I hope to be the penalty taker – if I score, why not?
“I will give everything on the pitch to score a lot of goals. I think every striker wants to be number one in the league. If I score 10 or 15 goals, I want to finish in the top three.”
Miovski knows he is playing catch-up with his team-mates on the fitness front but is confident that he will be up to speed quickly. He added: “I knew that I had to wait three weeks (for the work permit). I trained along with a programme from the club. It was hard to train alone but finally I am here and I am happy about that.
“My legs were a little bit heavy because I had not played games. That was my first game of the season. The guys here are so amazing as they have helped me so much in training and with everything. From the first day when I signed they have given me a lot of support and I appreciate that.”
The striker had plenty of options before signing for Jim Goodwin’s side and he admits that the chance to develop his career at Aberdeen swayed his decision. He said: “The club has a lot of young players here and I wanted to go to a club where I can improve.
“This is my best decision already. I know they sell players to the Premier League and this is what I want in the future.”
Boss Goodwin is delighted with his new recruits but he isn’t getting carried away - particularly after a first half display against Raith that wasn’t up to scratch in his opinion. Goodwin saw enough to provide his players with a half-time reality check ahead of their visit to Celtic Park on day one of the league season on Sunday.
They might have been 2-0 up, but their manager wasn’t entirely happy and the message was clear: perform like that at Parkhead and you’ll get nothing.
Goodwin said: “We were delighted with the end result against Raith and another clean sheet was pleasing as well. But as much as there were positive elements, there were also lots of things we need to do better.
“In the opening 15-20 minutes we were very sloppy with some of our possession - poor turnovers and cheap transitions when that happened defensively. Maybe they thought it was going to be too easy early doors but when we got to grips with that the boys were better.
“I explained to the guys at half time that if they do that next weekend at Parkhead, then they’ll find themselves 2-0 or 3-0 down at half-time and then it’s a hell of a long way back. So there are elements of our game that we need to get better at, but that’s only natural because it’s a relatively new group.
“We have spent a long time in pre-season talking about the offensive patterns of play and it was only last week that we really touched on the defensive shape. We will work even harder on that this week in preparation for what is going to be an extremely difficult opener. But there were bits of it that were really good. Some exciting and entertaining football.
“The fans seem to be on board and buying into what we’re trying to do. We should have had another two or three goals on Sunday. All in all, I have to be satisfied because it’s very early days for this group of players. There are real signs of optimism and hope, I think.
“I don’t think we can ask for a better start to the competitive games from our point of view. We haven’t conceded and Anthony Stewart and Liam Scales have struck up a decent partnership. Kelle Roos in goal hasn’t been tested too much but has brought confidence to the back line.
“Ylber Ramadani reads the game so well in front of them. I feel there’s nobody who is going to outmuscle and outfight us this season. We’ve got real leaders in the group and we have real good quality in the attacking areas where we can go and hurt teams and we’ve got pace, which is the most important thing.”
