STEPHEN Glass tonight insisted his time at Atlanta United had prepared him for the Aberdeen manager’s job – and vowed to repay the Pittodrie board for showing faith in him with trophies.

The former Aberdeen, Newcastle United, Watford and Scotland winger, who has spent the last two seasons coaching the Atlanta reserve team, is a surprise choice to take over from Derek McInnes.

However, Glass, who won the League Cup in 1995 with the Dons, is confident he can excel in the north-east thanks to his time with the MLS franchise and deliver silverware in the seasons to come.    

Speaking from the United States, he said: “I wouldn’t come home for something that I didn’t know I could make a success.  “I am leaving behind an opportunity to work at the best club in the United States, which is a big thing when you think about the size of the country, the size of Europe. 

“So it had to be right. The club’s right, the people I’m going to work for and with are right, there is a great existing staff. 

“The trust people are putting in me is big, but I believe I’ll repay it. The people I am hoping to get on board, they want to do the same thing.”   

Glass continued: “I’m better prepared for my time in the States. I progressed quickly through the ranks and was fortunate to get involved with the first team in interim charge last year, handling big players. 

“Players who were sold for a lot of money too. We sold one for £20 million when I was in charge. So handling players like that and players of the calibre Atlanta have, it’s been great for me. 

“I think I’ve got a good man management style. Players respond. I believe I’ve got a good teaching style that players improve.

“George Bello is one here. He was 18 or 19 and I think he’d played four times for the first team when we took over, but we actually played him in every game bar one with the first team. He subsequently became an international just in January there.

“I’ve got the ability, along with the staff, to improve the young players. Senior players have been pretty responsive as well. I just think the players I’ve played with, the coaches I’ve worked under, I’ve had such a good grounding that I’ve taken bits from all of them.”

Glass, who looks set to bring in Celtic captain Scott Brown as his assistant at the end of the 2020/21 campaign, is hoping to be in the dugout for Aberdeen’s first post-split fixture against St Johnstone at McDiarmid Park on April 10.

He is keen to build on what McInnes achieved during his eight years as manager at Aberdeen both at home and abroad.  

“I think we can, the staff that are there and what I’ll add, can really push things hopefully to another level that hasn’t been around the club for a while,” he said.  

“It’s been successful here and there, but we’re looking for a sustained period of success and get to that next level in Europe.

"Successful Aberdeen managers put trophies in the cabinet and hopefully I’m there long enough that I can be one of those managers who does that.”