Ryan Christie sorry for anti-Aberdeen tweet after loan move from Celtic

New Aberdeen loan signing Ryan Christie has vowed to win over supporters after apologising for an online outburst about the club from his youth.

The 21-year-old Celtic player closed down his Twitter account on Tuesday night once his switch to Pittodrie had been confirmed after a foul-mouthed tweet he posted in 2012 resurfaced.

Written while he was a youth-team player at Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Christie said he 'hated' Aberdeen ahead of a Scottish Cup semi-final with Hibernian.

The Scotland U21 international is now determined to prove himself to fans and said: "It looks bad but when I tweeted it I was very young.

"I can't even remember tweeting it to be honest. When I was growing up in Inverness there was a rivalry with Aberdeen and I would have been winding up my Aberdeen-supporting mates.

"Looking at it now, I apologise to anyone who has taken offence but I hope nobody reads too much into it. I was only 17 and my Twitter is long gone now.

"It's up to me now to win people over. If anyone is annoyed with me, the challenge is to win them back with my performances."

Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes has urged supporters not to hold Christie's comments against him during his time there.

He added: "I'm more interested in the mature 21-year-old Ryan Christie than the 17-year-old one. I think anyone at 17 has maybe said or done things that weren't right.

"He could have gone to other clubs but he was desperate to come here. It would be wrong to take what he said too seriously.

"We have a brilliant player in and we're only interested in what he does for us. To muddy the waters with things like 'we shouldn't be taking players from Celtic' or 'look at what he said in the past' is wrong.

"We are grateful to Brendan (Rodgers) for letting him come here and Celtic were good to deal with."