Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Aberdeen return for first day of pre-season with boss Stephen Glass confident they will be fired up and ready for new campaign

Summer signings Scott Brown and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas during an Aberdeen training session at Cormack Park
Summer signings Scott Brown and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas during an Aberdeen training session at Cormack Park

Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass’ Reds Revolution stepped up another notch today as his new-look squad returned for pre-season training.

And the Dons gaffer is confident his squad will be fired up and ready for the first fixture of the new campaign when facing BK Hacken in the Uefa Conference League on July 22.

Right-back Jack Gurr, 25, was a new face at Cormack Park today, having completed a move on a one-year deal from Atlanta United.

Defender Gurr joined fellow new signings Scott Brown (Celtic), Jay Emmanuel-Thomas (Livingston) and Teddy Jenks (Brighton, on loan) who all reported for duty at the club’s £13 million training facility.

Former Celtic captain Brown, who was has signed on a two-year deal in a player-coach capacity, has been given the number eight in the squad.

Aberdeen boss Stephen Glass with player/coach Scott Brown during an Aberdeen training session.

Scotland international defender Declan Gallagher will officially sign with the Dons on a two-year deal when his involvement at Euro 2020 ends.

Dons boss Glass intends to add more additions to his squad with a move for Houston Dynamo’s United States international striker Christian Ramirez top of his wish-list.

The Reds have thrashed out a fee with Major League Soccer for the 30-year-old and Ramirez has also agreed personal terms on a move to Pittodrie.

Now Aberdeen have to negotiate the final hurdle of securing a work permit for the striker, capped twice by his country.

Hard work started before pre-season

Glass revealed the squad were already two weeks into a training programme before they even arrived at Cormack Park today.

The players will be tested on their fitness, but Glass has no doubt they will all pass with flying colours.

New signing Jack Gurr during his first Aberdeen training session at Cormack Park.
An Aberdeen training session at Cormack Park on the first day back for pre-season.

He said: “They got a little period after the end of the season to take their time and regenerate a little bit.

“They then had a programme of roughly two weeks which led into what is going to come to them.

“We will do a little bit of testing to make sure they are all on top of it.

“I am pretty sure they will all be on top of it and then from then we can really map out the pre-season.”

New Dons assistant Henry Apaloo works with squad for first time

Newly-appointed assistant coach Henry Apaloo was also at Cormack Park to help put the new-look squad through their paces.

Apaloo was formerly assistant coach at Atlanta United 2, alongside Glass.

Northern Ireland international attacker Niall McGinn reported back for duty, having signed a one-year contract extension.

McGinn’s contract expired at the end of last season, but Glass opted to retain him for another campaign.

New Aberdeen signing Scott Brown during the training session at Cormack Park.
New signing Jay Emmanuel-Thomas started working with the Dons today.
Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass with Johnny Hayes on the first day of pre-season training.

Pre-season will be at Cormack Park

Aberdeen have traditionally travelled overseas for a pre-season training camps and friendlies.

Under previous manager Derek McInnes the squad had travelled to pre-season camps in the Republic of Ireland, using facilities at Cork and Dublin.

Former manager Craig Brown had taken the Dons to Holland and Germany for pre-season tours and training camps.

However due to the coronavirus pandemic that will not happen this year as Glass has opted to do all his work at the club’s state-of-the-art Cormack Park training facility.

That way Glass can completely control pre-season within the club’s bio-secure Covid-19 bubble.

Manager Stephen Glass alongside coach Allan Russell and assistant Henry Apaloo during the first day of pre-season training.

Glass said: “We’re going to do everything at Cormack Park.

“We’ll play a couple of games among ourselves to get them used to playing 11 v 11 and we’ll have some teams coming in.

“I’m trying to control it so that the players get a good even amount of minutes.

“Traditionally you would usually play Tuesday and Thursday and split your group.

“I’m going to try to have some people play two games in one day to keep the players on the same calendar.

Welsh international attacker Ryan Hedges returns to training at Cormack Park, with Teddy Jenks, behind.

“We can actually plug in extra games among ourselves as we have enough guys to do that.

“We can really control what the pre-season looks like, the intensity and how many games we play.

“A lot of big clubs do that these days where you don’t go and play 15 pre-season games.

“You can fit enough into your training – if the training is at the right intensity.

“Come the start of the season, you will see a group that is well prepared.”

https://wpcluster.dctdigital.com/eveningexpress/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/donsnews/a-poor-league-start-a-player-at-the-euros-and-a-face-from-premier-league-past-what-do-we-know-about-aberdeens-european-opponents-bk-hacken/

This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.