Aberdeen: Mark Reynolds revels in rich pickings

Dutch test next: Mark Reynolds. Picture: SNS

While the Aberdeen vice-captain was helping Derek McInnes’s side reach the next round of the Europa League with a demolition of Daugava Riga in Latvia, his former Motherwell team-mate McCormack was making an £11m move to Fulham from Leeds.

The 27-year-old, who made his Scotland debut against Nigeria last month, believes McCormack’s move, plus Snodgrass’ £8m switch from Norwich to Hull, proves how much talent there now is in the Scotland squad.

“All of these players have bucked the trend which we keep hearing about with critics saying we don’t produce enough talent,” said Reynolds.

“We are starting to see guys who are moving for around the £10m mark and if you combine the likes of Snoddy, Ross and Steven Fletcher, then we are getting into the tens of millions.

“Scottish football has had a bad name for not producing quality players, but you only need to look about and you see guys who are getting huge price tags placed around their necks. They are certainly worth those price tags and they are stepping up and proving they can compete at the highest level.

“I played with all of these boys. I’m not someone who says that I could never have imagined they would move for such huge amounts of money as they were always top, top players.”

Reynolds is particularly pleased for McCormack, who became the second most expensive Scottish player of all time this week when he moved to Fulham.

McCormack, who played for the Cottagers yesterday against Motherwell, had to take a step back when he was allowed to leave Rangers eight years ago, only to resurrect his career at Fir Park and go on to huge things, landing the move to London after captaining Leeds United last season and netting 28 goals.

Reynolds said: “I know Ross very well, he came to Motherwell and was unbelievable for us. You could clearly see that he was just a natural finisher.

“It looked publicly that he had taken a knock at Rangers and had to step back down to get his career going again, but at no point did he have a chip on his shoulder or allow his head to go down.”

Reynolds and his Aberdeen team-mates are thriving at present too, but they face a big ask this week to get past Dutch side Groningen in the second qualifying round of the Europa League.

“Groningen will be a step up in class for us, but it could be a benefit for us to have come in to the qualifiers at the first round as we now have two competitive 90 minutes under our belts. We are scoring goals and our strikers are scoring freely and we are keeping clean sheets.

“Hopefully that will stand us in good stead and as Groningen haven’t had the games, they will maybe not be as match sharp as they would like.”