Stephen Glass insisted Aberdeen wouldn’t be held to ransom on the last day of the transfer window by clubs trying to grab his stars on the cheap.
The Dons boss knows Calvin Ramsay and Ryan Hedges are being tracked by a host of clubs but reckons if deals aren’t done early this month, giving him time to find replacements, chairman Dave Cormack and his board will back him by refusing to sell.
Right-back Ramsay is being tracked by clubs of the standard of Manchester United, Newcastle, Bologna and Eintracht Frankfurt, while midfielder Hedges is high on Blackburn’s wanted list.
Glass will deal with losing the duo if acceptable bids are made but only if he can make his own moves to bring in quality signings.
He said: “We definitely don’t want things happening late in the window. Even with all the outside speculation with everything that’s going on.
“I think if anything happens, it would happen fairly early.
“We’ve got Rangers coming on the 18th and it would be ideal if things were done before that, if anything is going to happen.
“That might be pie in the sky but I don’t think we’ll be put under the gun on the last day of the window. I don’t think the chairman and the board will allow that.
“It’s an important thing for management and staff to know that, once we start getting closer (to the end of the window), we know what we’ve got until the summer.
“There’s a Scottish Cup at stake and there’s a second half of the league campaign to make sure that we attack properly. It’s important to do that.”
Glass admitted there is firm interest in 18-year-old Ramsay but is adamant his club haven’t put a price on the kid and that the defender is taking the uncertainty about his future in his stride.
“There are a lot of clubs who have been in touch,” he said. “Gunner (director of football Steven Gunn) deals with all this. The way it works at the club, if anyone comes to me they get passed straight to Gunner.
“He’s had numerous clubs in touch, I think. There has not been a price put on anybody’s head because no one has put bids in yet. I think that’s when things come to a head because clubs have to make an offer or not.
“It’s a misconception that you tell people the price and you can buy him or not – for any player. That’s where we are with it.
“I would expect some of our players to be the subject of bids, definitely. Whether those meet what the chairman and the board think is right for the players to leave the club remains to be seen.
“That’s the important thing – there is no necessity to sell players. In the long-term there is, that’s what the club is built on. In the short-term no one will leave unless the club thinks it’s right for the club.
“You see the market at the moment for young Scottish players and it’s important the club are strong – which they always have been.”
Glass would accept Ramsay being sold and loaned back to the Dons for the remainder of the Premiership season.
He added: “If that’s what it becomes then it would be a buying club seeing if that is right for them. Calvin loves playing here so I don’t think that is ever going to be an issue.”
