Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack: Why we must back Jimmy Thelin.

Aberdeen chairman Dave Cormack will not hesitate to back manager Jimmy Thelin as he faces a growing threat in the Scottish Premiership. Scottish football’s top division is at its strongest point in a decade, thanks to the participation of the country’s established major clubs.

The Dons are competing for titles with the top clubs in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee, and Cormack understands that his club must invest to keep up with the heightened competition. He stated, “The league is significantly more competitive than it was ten years ago.

“Ten years ago, Hearts and Hibs were demoted, Rangers were making a comeback, and Dundee United had been gone for five years.

“But they’re all back in the top flight today, which has made for a really competitive environment. “That’s good news for Scottish football as a whole.

“The good news is there’s been a lot of investment. United, Hearts, Hibs, Rangers and Celtic are heavy investors.

“It’s up to us as a club to meet that challenge and you do that by having the right people in place and the right approach.”

‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint’

Cormack has met that challenge consistently by supporting his manager’s efforts to strengthen the team.

The chairman has continued that support with significant seven-figure support for Dons boss Jimmy Thelin since he arrived in Scotland a year ago.

But Cormack says the financial commitment must be consistent across transfer windows.

He remarked, “We plan to spend the summer, but it will be a marathon, not a sprint. “We invested £3 million in the last two transfer windows, and with Jimmy, we have a man with a proven track record in Sweden, and we’re thrilled he’s here. “He simply gets on with his job, which is to win football matches. What he does is the job that fans, understandably, are most interested in.

Thelin has rewarded that support by bringing the Scottish Cup back to Pittodrie for the first time since 1990, and the Dons chairman is overjoyed to see the club’s positive momentum developing. He stated: “Behind the team, there are a lot of really great and promising things going on within the club in terms of fan engagement.

“Our average crowds are up, the average age of fans coming to games is getting younger, and everyone at the club is working hard to nurture the future fans of Aberdeen too.”Cormack Park redevelopment plans

However, the Dons board of directors is concerned with more than just Thelin’s recruitment campaign. Following the Scottish Cup final victory last month, Cormack stated that his family had invested an additional £8 million in the club.

Some will be used to assist the manager, but the chairman is also committed to driving additional improvements at Cormack Park, the club’s training facility.

Cormack stated: “We intend to make a big investment in our training facilities.

“We are currently analysing an expansion of what we need to do there. “However, the most important objective for us would be to establish a full-size indoor pitch.

That alone is likely to cost around £4 million. “We’re looking into doing some other things in Cormack Park now that we have the Girls Academy there. “We probably need to consider how we can extend or add to what we have there.

“We’re just finishing off the plans for that, but we definitely want to commit to putting an indoor pitch there.”

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