Chief executive Alan Burrows has warned that Aberdeen “will be a very difficult club to deal with” if any interested parties attempt to sign their best players.
Strikers Luis “Duk” Lopes and Bojan Miovski have notched 18 goals apiece in their maiden seasons at Pittodrie and have been the subject of interest from elsewhere.
“Both Duk and Miovski are in the first year of long-term contracts,” said Burrows. “The club is under no pressure to sell them and the club don’t want to sell them.
“If anybody wants to take our best assets away from us, particularly ones who have long contracts, we’re going to be a very difficult club to deal with.
“We have to marry up a model that says we develop young players through the academy and players we bring in to develop and sell, but at the same time you’ve got to balance that by building a squad rather than consistently chipping away at it, so in order to do that you’ve got to retain the best value for these players.
“People have got to know that Aberdeen Football Club will do that. The board have done that in the past, they’ve knocked back big offers for players and I sense from the ownership group and the board that they’re more than prepared to do that again.
“We want to build a strong team and retain the best players whilst also understanding that there is a model that requires us to continually look to trade on players to continue the health of the football club and invest in the team.
“It won’t be easy for anybody who wants to take any of our best players, that’s for sure.”
Burrows was speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, a day after interim boss Barry Robson – who was initially in situ only until the end of this season – was handed a contract for the next two years.
The recently-recruited CEO explained why former under-18s coach Robson, who has won eight of his 10 games in charge, emerged as the favoured choice following an “extensive” recruitment process that explored “a number of key candidates”.
“I had never met Barry before I came to the club but I’d heard a lot about him. I was really taken aback by how highly regarded he was by the senior people at Pittodrie and then after my first meeting with him at Cormack Park,” said Burrows, who joined Aberdeen at the end of February, a month after Robson took the reins from the sacked Jim Goodwin.
“That hour-and-a-half I could really sense what type of character he is and I really liked him from the get-go. I thought ‘this guy’s really got the materials to be doing it’.
“In terms of the stuff he’s been doing away from the pitch, Barry’s been developing a bit of a DNA about what it means to be an Aberdeen player, right through from the youngest academy players, to the development age groups, to the first team, and really trying to home in on what it means to play for this club and be successful.
“And now that he’s the manager, we’re really excited about him being able to drive that forward from the top down.
“It’s almost that utopia of what football clubs want, that connectivity between the three different areas of player development and we think Barry now is the flagship, most senior person within the football department and he can really drive that forward and connect up those departments.
“First and foremost it’s about winning matches – and he’s doing that. Developing players and giving them confidence and a structure, and he’s done that.
“And the third thing is to connect up all the various departments and the various age groups to create a real synergy between the very youngest player and the most senior player.
“Those were the three key reasons about (appointing) Barry and also we’ve got a big job to do this summer and that was part of the reason for expediting the process slightly from what we’d said about six weeks ago.”
Clement wants ruthless Rangers after nervy win over Hearts
Rangers boss Philippe Clement called on his team to show greater ruthlessness after they were made to work for a 1-0 win over Hearts in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.
Cyriel Dessers put the Gers ahead after just six minutes at Ibrox, diverting James Tavernier's effort past visiting goalkeeper Craig Gordon.
However, Clement's team failed to build on that quick start and inched over the line amid a tense atmosphere, moving back to within nine points of pacesetters Celtic and Aberdeen.
Speaking after the game, Clement acknowledged his players are fatigued after a gruelling run of fixtures but added they must start taking their chances.
"We made too many wrong choices with the ball and became too sloppy," Clement said.
"It's the end of a very busy period, though, with a lot of travelling and they're all human beings, not robots.
"We missed scoring the second goal and we know that until you get that goal the other team stays in the game, so I want us to kill the belief of the opponent faster.
"I'm very satisfied with the result and the deserved three points. We didn't show the same quality in the second half and we didn't finish off the game. We had a few chances, but it stays nervous until the last second."
Rangers host Dundee United after the international break, while Celtic visit Hearts and Aberdeen travel to St. Mirren.
Celtic show 'another side' in following up Leipzig win by beating Kilmarnock
Celtic beat Kilmarnock 2-0 on Sunday to return to the top of the Scottish Premiership table, showing "another side" to their play after stunning RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
Brendan Rodgers' side defeated German side Leipzig 3-1 on Tuesday to put themselves in a strong position in the league phase of the Champions League, but their attentions returned to domestic action this weekend.
And after Aberdeen eased past Dundee, Celtic knew they must win again to reclaim top spot on goal difference.
Goals from Callum McGregor and Nicolas Kuhn ensured they did just that, although it was a battle for the champions.
"They're totally different games, more fighting football [against Kilmarnock] and what you've got to contend with," Celtic boss Rodgers told Sky Sports.
"But I thought the players were absolutely brilliant, how they had to defend the pressure. The build-up comes quite direct from behind, so they know you have to stand up to the long balls and long throws and everything else.
"The players have shown this week they can deal with all types of games. Today was a brilliant, brilliant win for us and showed another side to us."
They will next face Hearts on 23 November, after the international break.
Celtic show 'another side' in following up Leipzig win by beating Kilmarnoc
Celtic beat Kilmarnock 2-0 on Sunday to return to the top of the Scottish Premiership table, showing "another side" to their play after stunning RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
Brendan Rodgers' side defeated German side Leipzig 3-1 on Tuesday to put themselves in a strong position in the league phase of the Champions League, but their attentions returned to domestic action this weekend.
And after Aberdeen eased past Dundee, Celtic knew they must win again to reclaim top spot on goal difference.
Goals from Callum McGregor and Nicolas Kuhn ensured they did just that, although it was a battle for the champions.
"They're totally different games, more fighting football [against Kilmarnock] and what you've got to contend with," Celtic boss Rodgers told Sky Sports.
"But I thought the players were absolutely brilliant, how they had to defend the pressure. The build-up comes quite direct from behind, so they know you have to stand up to the long balls and long throws and everything else.
"The players have shown this week they can deal with all types of games. Today was a brilliant, brilliant win for us and showed another side to us."
They will next face Hearts on 23 November, after the international break.
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