Neil Warnock insists the lure of tomorrow's clash between Aberdeen and Rangers made him take the Pittodrie managerial position early.
The 75-year-old takes over from Barry Robson, who was dismissed last Wednesday, with the club currently sat eighth in the Scottish Premiership.
Warnock has revealed that he was set to take over from next week, but he could not resist an early start with a trip to Ibrox on the cards tomorrow.
In his press conference, he said: "I was going to start next week but the lure of taking over for a game like tomorrow night is too good.
“I’m really looking forward to the challenge here at Aberdeen.
“I’ve made no secret of the fact I’ve always wanted to manage in Scotland so when I spoke to (chairman) Dave (Cormack) and (chief executive) Alan (Burrows) and they asked me to help out it just felt like the right opportunity.
“By all accounts there is a good group of lads here and it’s my job now to get the best out of them.
“Aberdeen is a big club with clear ambition and I’m hoping that during my time here the supporters will get behind the team and I can put a smile on their faces.”
Warnock has been in charge of 15 different clubs over more than four decades of management and came out of retirement 12 months ago for a second stint at Huddersfield.
He steered the Terriers to safety in the Sky Bet Championship before departing in September after taking charge of his last game against Stoke.
Aberdeen chairman Cormack told the club website: “From the moment we first spoke with Neil his enthusiasm for managing Aberdeen was infectious.
“He has had an incredible career in management, not only in terms of volume of games and winning promotions, but also of coming into clubs at short notice and making an immediate impact.
“We look forward to Neil, Ronnie (Jepson) and the team pushing hard in the remaining four months of the campaign as we still have a huge amount to play for both in the SPFL Premiership and the Scottish Cup.”
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