Jim Goodwin has confessed that he would love to bring Connor Ronan to Aberdeen but admitted they face stiff competition to sign the Wolves midfielder.
As exclusively reported by Record Sport, Ronan is a target and the Dons boss also refused to rule out a move for Wigan Athletic’s Jamie McGrath later in the transfer window. Hearts are after Ronan as well though and are still in the mix for the player who featured for St Mirren under Goodwin last season.
Ronan, who returned to pre-season training with Wolves yesterday, stood out for the Buddies and Goodwin is keen for him to return to Scotland. He said: “I have been linked with pretty much every player I worked with at St Mirren from February until now, and I’m not going to deny the fact I have a lot of admiration for Connor Ronan as a player and as a person.
“He is a terrifically talented player and won all of the Player of the Year awards at St Mirren last season.
“I sold St Mirren to him and told him I would get him in that Irish set up.
“I banged the drum for him although he got himself into the Ireland squad.
“I was having dialogue with the FAI and making sure they came to watch him because he deserved the opportunity.
“We got him into the squad but unfortunately we weren’t able to him a cap like we did with Jamie McGrath that time.
“Connor is a terrific player and has no end of admirers looking at him just now I would imagine. I’m not going to deny the fact that I would love to work with him again.”
McGrath could yet stay at Wigan but Goodwin is a huge admirer for the player he brought to Paisley in 2020.
Goodwin said: “I could name 20 players to you right now that we are looking at. Jamie is another hugely talented player who plays in a similar position to Connor.
“The Wigan thing hasn’t quite worked out the way I think he would have hoped. My advice to him way back in January was to go to Aberdeen
“I thought it was the right move for him next time round but he chose to go to Wigan. He didn’t get the game time he wanted and ended up falling out of the international set up as well which is a real kick in the teeth for him after working so hard to get back into it.
“I think he needs to go somewhere where he is going to play regularly and to be given the confidence and the freedom to play the ways he is capable of.
“I’m pretty sure he will do part of the pre-season with Wigan and where he ends up on the back of that, if he changes the mind of the Wigan manager (Leam Richardson) fair play to him.
“If it becomes an opportunity for us or someone else to do something then I’m pretty sure there will be a list of potential managers out there wanting him as well.”
Meanwhile, striker Bojan Miovski will today undergo a medical for Aberdeen in Spain.
However, Goodwin revealed that the club are facing a Brexit headache in regards to the North Macedonian striker.
Goodwin “He is allowed to come out to Spain to do the medical due to the European thing and he can train with us as well.
“However once we go back to Aberdeen he unfortunately won’t be able to come with us because he has to do that Visa process.
“There is a lot of red tape and without going into the politics of Brexit it certainly hasn’t helped the football side of things.
“It’s affected every industry across the UK with the red tape in terms of brining people in to work.
“Football is no different. We don’t get any preferential treatment and we have to go through the same procedures as everyone else. It just adds that little bit extra time to the process.”
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