Jimmy Calderwood, the Aberdeen manager, may still have been in buoyant mood last night as he returned from Ukraine after his side’s heroic result in their Uefa Cup first-round tie against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, but his thoughts were on how to keep his squad together for the future.

Ten players, including Jamie Langfield, Jamie Smith, Michael Hart, Barry Nicholson, Chris Clark and Zander Diamond, will be out of contract in the summer and therefore free to speak to other clubs in January. Calderwood insisted they all wish to remain at Pittodrie and he urged Willie Miller, the director of football, to open talks with them as soon as possible.

The 1-1 draw in Dnipro after a goal-less game in the first leg of the tie, means that Aberdeen’s progression to the group stage of the competition is likely to generate £1 million.

“We have taken three years to get to where we are,” Calderwood said. “It didn’t just come together with a bit of luck and the directors have played their part. You don’t want to lose players of the quality we have.”

Now, as well as resigning those of his squad he wishes to keep, he would like to add to it too. “We don’t just want continuity,” he insisted, “we want to add more quality to the squad. We want to be able to carry on the work we have done but we need the tools to do it.“