ABERDEEN have started building a new team for next season, with former Kilmarnock player Gary McDonald signing a pre-contract agreement with the Dons. The 26-year-old rejected a deal to extend his stay at Oldham and says he has moved to Pittodrie to win trophies.
Manager Jimmy Calderwood yesterday clinched a deal to make McDonald his first summer recruit, and the midfielder will officially become an Aberdeen player in June when his Oldham contract expires. He will sign a two-year deal.
McDonald has spent t
wo seasons in England after leaving Kilmarnock in 2006, making 91 appearances for the Coca-Cola League One side and scoring 12 goals. He will be best remembered by Oldham fans for the spectacular goal he scored earlier this season in a 1-0 win over Everton at Goodison Park in the third round of the FA Cup.
But McDonald feels the time is right to head back north of the border and believes Aberdeen can be a revitalised force in coming seasons, having not won a trophy since landing the League Cup in November 1995.
"Oldham offered me a contract a few weeks ago and I was just thinking about it," he told RedTV, on
www.afc.co.uk.
"I got a phone call from the manager (Calderwood] and pretty much once I got the phone call my mind was made up that I was wanting to come here.
"Just coming to a big club like Aberdeen and hopefully winning trophies, playing in cup finals and hopefully getting the team back into Europe, things like that were a big pull for me."
McDonald is expected to be the first of many summer recruits by the Dons as Calderwood makes sweeping changes to his squad. He has already released Jackie McNamara and will see Barry Nicholson leave in the summer after the midfielder rejected new terms in the hope of landing a move to England.
Calderwood has also decided to release Derek Soutar, Greg Kelly, Richie Byrne, Dave Bus, Jonathan Smith and Steve Lovell, while key striker Lee Miller has yet to inform the club whether he will accept a new deal.
McDonald, who played for the Scotland Future team three years ago and scored against Poland, describes himself as a "box-to-box player" and may be expected to take on Nicholson's midfield role.
"I like to get forward, support the strikers, and hopefully chip in with a goal or two as well," he said. "I played against the boys (while at Kilmarnock] and with one or two in the Scotland set-up. I can't wait to get back started and meet everyone and get my teeth into it."
Calderwood, meanwhile, has admitted it was difficult to inform Irish defender Byrne that he would not be offered a new deal at Pittodrie next season. "Telling Richie I was letting him go is one of the hardest decisions I've made as a manager," said Calderwood.
"It's never easy telling any player that they don't have a future at the club, particularly when they really want to stay.
"I've signed him for Dunfermline and Aberdeen so everyone knows what I think of him. But he's just had a horrible season with injuries."
The full article contains 545 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
