Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin admits he was amused listening to Rangers counterpart Giovanni van Bronckhorst talking about financial disparities following the Ibrox side’s thrashing by Ajax.
Van Bronckhorst claimed it was “too much to ask” for Rangers to compete in the Champions League without “hundreds of millions” following his side’s 4-0 defeat in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
Aberdeen fans will expect their team to at least match Rangers at Pittodrie in the cinch Premiership on Saturday despite their club’s wage bill being less than a fifth of their opponents.
Goodwin told Sky Sports: “I always find it amusing when managers from either side of the Old Firm come out and talk about financial gulfs.
“I mean, welcome to the world of the other 10 Premiership clubs.
“I think here at Aberdeen I have got good resources available to me. Of course, they are not the same level of what Rangers and Celtic have got available but we make do with what we have got.
“We have got a fantastic, state-of-the-art training facility and we have got great plans for the stadium in the coming years.
“We have a great air of positivity in the city because of how the team are doing. We are in the quarter-finals of the League Cup and where we are sitting in the league table, albeit it’s very early days, third, is where we want to be come the end of the season as a minimum requirement.
“But if we win on Saturday we go level on points with Rangers and you just never know what can happen after that.”
Goodwin promised his side would attack Rangers, who also lost 4-0 in their most recent league game against Celtic.
The former St Mirren boss told a media conference: “We are going to approach this game the same way we have approached every other game. We have been a team that has been very much on the front foot and we have been pressing teams high up the pitch.
“I don’t want us to be passive and show them too much respect – we want to get after them from the first minute, get them on the back foot and really create an electric atmosphere within Pittodrie.”
The Dons will be without on-loan Liverpool midfielder Leighton Clarkson after accepting a retrospective red card for his challenge on Ross County’s Callum Johnson.
Goodwin admitted the tackle looked much worse when he watched the footage back, but added: “Leighton Clarkson is not that type of player. He hasn’t been brought here to be a midfield enforcer, he is anything but.
“He is technically very, very good and has scored a couple of wonder goals already. He holds his hands up that he mistimed that tackle but it’s not something he is renowned for.”
