Mikey Moore believes his loan spell at Rangers is helping with his now widely-known ambition to become one of the best players in the world.
The 18-year-old attacker caused a bit of a stir shortly after arriving from Spurs at the start of the season by revealing the lofty career aim and he remains unrepentant.
Moore has slowly grown into life at Ibrox and underlined his place as a fan favourite by scoring the clinching goal in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Celtic at Parkhead.
Ahead of the second of this week’s William Hill Premiership double-header on Sunday against Aberdeen – the Gers won 2-0 at Ibrox on Tuesday night – Moore was relaxed when asked if he was still looking to hit the heights.
He said: “When I’m a young player coming up, I’m aiming to be the best I can be.
“If I haven’t got that self-belief that I can go and be one of the best players in the world, then for me, what’s the point? That’s what I’ve always wanted to be as a footballer.
“I’ve still got a long, long way to go before I’m at that level.
“For me, game by game, I’m improving as a person, firstly, and as a footballer. That’s one of my goals, really.
“To be the best player in the world, you’ve got to deal with huge amounts of pressure and huge games.
“Being up here, for a first loan, I don’t think you can get a much better taste of that.
“Every single game is to keep you in a spot to do really good things.
“For me, that was one of the main things before I came up here. There were so many parts of the club which I wanted to experience, but that’s a massive part of it.
“The pressure you get in those games, there’s such a demand to perform and to win every game. For me, that’s been a massive thing.”
Aberdeen defender Mats Knoester felt there were enough signs of encouragement in Tuesday’s defeat at Ibrox to suggest his team, who remain under the charge of interim boss Peter Leven, are capable of getting a more favourable result in Sunday’s Pittodrie rematch.
“First of all, it was a loss, so we came with empty hands back to Aberdeen, so that’s the negative side,” said the Dutchman.
“But if we can finish at least one or two of these very big chances and don’t allow them to score so easy in a set-piece, then it can be a whole different game and a whole different picture also from the outside.
“So I think there are also positive things to take from the game.”
Knoester admits Aberdeen need to reduce the number of goals they are conceding from set-pieces.
“Personally, I don’t feel nervousness (when defending set-pieces), but I agree that it’s way too easy and we have to fix that and feel the responsibility in those moments,” he said.
