Andrew Considine refuses to countenance accusations of defeatism nor is he in the mood to placate those Aberdeen fans who suggest aiming to be second behind Celtic in the Ladbrokes Premiership is simply not acceptable.
There is unison at Pittodrie on the issue with, the Scottish champions' sizzling Champions League performance in the 5-0 win over Astana in midweek underlining the inevitable, that no other team can compete for the principal domestic prize.
Indeed, the 30-year-old insists runners-up spot is not only a legitimate aspiration, it would be preferable to winning one of the cup competitions as he and his team-mates hope to fillet Dundee at Pittodrie this afternoon, just as they did a little over four months ago when they won 7-0 at Dens Park as Considine hit a hat-trick.
The defender, who made his 400th appearance for the club in last week’s win at Ross County, is seventh on the list of those who have dedicated their careers to Aberdeen, a group headed by Willie Miller, who pulled on the Aberdeen strip a remarkable 797 times.
Even the legendary centre-back would, however, have to agree with Considine that Brendan Rodgers’ outfit are peerless.
“The main aim is to finish second again,” Considine said. “That would be huge for us, huge for the club, especially because teams like Hibs are looking very strong; Hearts too, and St Johnstone.
“And Rangers have recruited massively and spent a lot of money. To beat all of them to second place would be huge and put out a big statement.
“Lifting silverware is also something every player wants to do but finishing second is massive; better, in my view, than winning a trophy.
“It brings you experience in Europe. Don’t get me wrong, when we won the League Cup by beating Inverness Caley Thistle in 2014 it was an incredible achievement.
“It was fantastic for the city and for the club, but having those "best of the rest" bragging rights is something that’s really good for the club.”
As the Champions League group stage beckons for Celtic – and with it a £30m windfall – the full-back harked back to Ronny Deila’s last hurrah in charge at Parkhead.
He said: “We can push Celtic as hard as we can, but if you look at their resources, what comes to my mind is Ronny Deila’s final season when we were catching them, if not ahead of them, and in the winter transfer window they went and spent so many millions and they just went into another gear and they were off and won the league.
“So it’s tougher for teams like us and Rangers, Hibs, Hearts and St Johnstone to match that. I don’t think that’s defeatist.
“Some people might expect us to say, ‘You should be saying you’re going to win the league’, but you have to be honest: second is very realistic for a team like Aberdeen. Our aim is to be the best of the rest.”
Considine pointed to comments emanating from Ibrox last season that suggested Rangers assumed they will grab second place, if not the league title.
He admitted it was a close-run affair at one time between the Pittodrie side and their Govan rivals, but McInnes’s men finished nine points clear.
“The biggest challenge for us is to make sure we have a season like we had last year,” he added.
“That’s huge for us. But I feel the way the manager has recruited this season means he’s brought in much the same calibre as the boys he let go.
“We’re looking very strong and we have some very good young players coming through as well. There’s an exciting year ahead.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here