Jim Goodwin insists Aberdeen didn’t need to dip into their Calvin Ramsay profits to land Bojan Miovski. The Dons boss has continued his busy summer rebuild with the capture of the MTK Budapest striker for an undisclosed fee.
It comes after Pittodrie chief Dave Cormack sanctioned the £100,000 purchase of Miovski’s former MTK team-mate Ylber Ramadani earlier this month. The Reds have also shelled out cash to land Nottingham Forrest full-back Jayden Richardson as a replacement for new Anfield starlet Ramsey, while Liam Scales and Anthony Stewart will be welcomed aboard when the Dons jet out to their Spanish training camp on Monday
But Goodwin insists the ambitious Granite City outfit would have pushed the boat out for their new recruits regardless of their £8million Ramsey windfall from Liverpool as he hailed Cormack’s financial backing. “The Ramsay money certainly helps but it wasn’t the be all and end all,” stressed the Irishman. “We’d still be making these deals had Calvin Ramsay stayed.
“That’s a great position for the club to be in financially. Of course, the deal for Calvin was an incredible bit of business for everybody.
“The boy has earned the right to go to one of the biggest clubs in the world. There won’t be many clubs out there worldwide selling 18 year olds for the type of money we have done.
“That money is important because that stabilise everything for the next couple of years. It goes a long way to improving facilities and everything else, but the playing budget is the most important thing.
“In fairness to the chairman and board, they don’t take a lot out of the club. Everything does get reinvested - that’s why we’re able to sign players under contract like Ramadani, Richardson and Miovski.”
As is the case with Ramadani, the Dons are still waiting for visa clearance before Miovski can join up with Goodwin’s group. But the Pittodrie gaffer is excited by the North Macedonia international’s potential.
The striker, 23 today, has picked up six caps including a substitute appearance in the shock 1-0 defeat of Italy which robbed the Euro 2020 winners of a place at the World Cup. Aberdeen faced competition from clubs in Hungary, Russia, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland to secure his signature and Goodwin is confident the club will eventually earn a healthy return on their investment.
He said: “Yeah, there was [competition to sign him]. He was contracted to MTK and there was quite a bit of interest in him. There was a couple of big bids that actually went in for him last January from a couple of teams in Europe.
“But thankfully they didn’t come off and he was still available when I came into the club in February. We all agreed that this is the type of centre-forward that we should be bringing into the club if we could make it happen.
“But we couldn’t have made it happen without the board’s support, and them believing in the strategy and vision we have for the team. He fits exactly the profile of striker that I gave to Darren Mowbray, the head of recruitment.
“He’s a number nine. He’s about 6’3, very mobile, very athletic. He’s left sided and has got an eye for a goal. He’s obviously very heavily involved with the North Macedonian international team as well. For a young lad, he’s still only 23, he’s got six caps already and has been doing very, very well.
“The good thing for me as well is that he’s still got a lot of room for development. That’s what we’re trying to do. He’s certainly not the finished article. But we believe the level he’s coming in at right now, we expect him to score goals straight away. But there will also be improvement in him.
“There’s no pressure on him whatsoever. It’s a real sign of intent from the club to show our supporters that we have ambition.” The Dons are also tracking striker Tobias Lauritsen from Norwegian outfit Odd but Goodwin played it coy as he said: “We’re speaking to so many players that it wouldn’t be fair for me to mention them all. But Lauritsen is a good player.”
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