JIM GOODWIN has revealed he has spoken to Aberdeen captain Anthony Stewart following the defender’s ‘regrettable’ comments about Sunday’s Viaplay Cup semi-final opponents Rangers.
Speaking at a media event at Hampden earlier this week, Stewart was asked if he would prefer to face Alfredo Morelos or Antonio Colak at the national stadium this weekend and opted for the former, explaining that he considered Colak to be the better player.
The Dons skipper faced a backlash from supporters and pundits alike for offering his opinion ahead of such a big game and while Goodwin admits that his centre-half didn’t do himself any favours, he insisted that there was no disrespect intended on his player’s part.
“I think it's important to point out that Anthony Stewart meant no disrespect by the remarks that he made,” Goodwin explained at a press conference on Friday.
“I think they are regrettable. Having spoken to Anthony last night and again this morning, he realises that he probably should have shown a bit more common sense at that particular time.
“You journalists are quite clever in your approach sometimes and I think he's allowed himself to get drawn into an area where he should know better.
“We'll ensure that kind of remark is not made again. We respect Rangers but I don't want to spend time talking about the opposition.
“We've given them a lot of respect during training and in the build-up, in some of the analysis. It's really important we focus on Aberdeen, I focus on my squad and we look forward to a really important day out on Sunday.”
Speaking earlier on Friday, Rangers manager Michael Beale admitted that he had not heard or read Stewart's comments until he was asked at a press conference if they would provoke a response from Morelos.
“That’s an interesting opinion,” Beale said. “It’s a personal opinion. I don’t know if Alfredo needs any more motivation than playing in a final.
“To get to a final by playing in semi-final, I think that’s Alfredo’s motivation at the moment. I didn’t see that comment.
“I’d hate to comment on it without seeing it actually come from his mouth so I’ll maybe comment on that another time.”
