Celtic captain Scott Brown says he hopes he can play his part in taking Aberdeen to the next level.
The 35-year-old will end a 14-year association with the Hoops when he joins the Dons as a player-coach this summer.
The former Scotland skipper is relishing the prospect of working alongside new Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass after agreeing a two-year deal.
He said: “It will be a new fresh start and something I have looked to get into.
“I am really looking forward to the challenge next season and helping Stephen and the backroom staff but also playing.
“I will get to see how budgets work, how you work with the boardroom and how you prepare training.
“It is the road I want to go down and a good chance to learn.
“I know Stephen very well. He is going to be a fantastic coach and he is a great friend.
“I have spoken with him and Dave (Cormack) a lot recently and now it is about building a partnership up to make sure we set the correct foundations at the football club and push on from there.
“Aberdeen is a great football club.
“We have had some great battles up there and they have played some great football up there.
“I’m looking forward to that challenge.”
Brown says he has been impressed by the ambition shown by Dons chairman Dave Cormack and the vision he has for the Reds.
He said: “He has been fantastic. We have been on the phone quite a lot recently.
“He is coming over. We have not had any face-to-face time or anything like that yet.
“He has been great and offered me and Stephen this opportunity to come into the football club.
“He is backing us well and put a lot of faith in letting us show our philosophy.
“We want to build a good football team that plays good football and presses high up the park.
“We all have the same philosophy.
“We can push forward now.
“Del (Derek McInnes) did a fantastic job over the years and pushed us every season for the league.
“It is going to be a hard job but we are all looking forward to it.”
He added: “Dave is an Aberdeen fan and wants the best for the club, as we do.
“From next season we want to push the club on as far as we possibly can and he will be a huge part of it.
“We will work closely with him. We want to build that reputation of a good football team but also a winning mentality.
“That’s what he wants to build and we need to make sure we deliver that.”
There has been a mixed reaction from the Dons support to Brown’s imminent arrival but the former Hibernian player is confident he can win over the Red Army.
He said: “I had to win over the fans at Easter Road coming through as a young lad.
“I had to win over the fans at Celtic as well and I am sure there will be in both sets of fans still some who don’t like the way I play but that’s part and parcel of football, you can’t please everybody.
“But wherever I go, whoever I play for, I will give 110 per cent on the park, give a lot on the training round as well and I will always do what is best for the football club.”