Dejan Jovelić officially arrived in Seattle on Tuesday and took part in his first Sounders training session before being introduced to local media at Longacres alongside head coach Brian Schmetzer and general manager Craig Waibel.

Here are the best and most notable quotes from the Sounders’ new No. 9’s introductory press conference, which you can watch below.

Cool and confident

One thing that’s clear from watching the intro presser is that Jovelić doesn't lack confidence. He practically oozes it.

A team that has been battered by injuries and losses for the last month could use some of that.

“I’m here to bring goals and to help win the games. I’m the striker who works hard, who is helping the team in every possible way. I can score with left, right, head – doesn’t matter,” Jovelić said. “If Seattle is playing the way they played the last couple of years, I’m gonna score a lot of goals. I’m sure, and I’m ready for it.”

He doubled down later when asked how Seattle could get the best out of him.

“I hope that everyone is healthy, and if Seattle is playing the way they played in the last five years, there is no way I’m not scoring goals here,” he said.

Brian Schmetzer said that buzz is already palpable on the training ground.

Does Albert Rusnák deserve some credit?

No Sounders player has taken more heat during the club’s recent skid than Albert Rusnák, but Seattle’s incumbent DP apparently deserves some credit for helping facilitate the move that brought Jovelić to Seattle.

Waibel revealed that restructuring Rusnák’s contract to open the necessary DP slot required some buy-in from the midfielder, and that Rusnák wanted to know the move would help Seattle compete for trophies.

Niko Moreno first reported that Seattle agreed to a 2.5-year extension with Rusnák to free up the DP spot they subsequently used on Jovelić.

“Albert was not going to – we weren’t going to get in a conversation about reconstructing his deal without a player coming in that was going to be impressive for him, one that he felt was going to help us win and lift trophies,” Waibel said.

Waibel went on to explain that Rusnák and Jovelić actually spoke during the process.

“Albert deserves a lot of praise for the way he’s gone about the last seven to nine days as well, in order to construct a deal that made sense for him and his family, that made sense for the club, and also made sense for us to be able to move and bring Dejan in,” Waibel said.

“It goes back to the quality of human Albert is, goes to the quality of human that [Jovelić] is, because I know they’ve spoken. I know that they chatted a bit in the middle there, and again, I think Albert’s a tough guy to impress. So, in order to do this, there was a lot of work that went into it, but he deserves a lot of credit for making it happen.”

Jovelić offered some appreciation of his own, revealing that Rusnák also drove him to his first day of training.

“I wanted to add as well for Albert. He is the one who helped for this deal to make it happen, and he was the one who was driving me today to the training facility,” Jovelić said. “So, one more time, I want to say thank you to him. And also, I mean, the guys are great.

"They already started making jokes, Preki and Deki, so I like the connection, and hopefully we are gonna be successful in the next four, five years. I’m very happy and ready to go.”

Months in the making?

Given the timing of Jovelić’s arrival amid Seattle’s historic losing streak, it would be easy to view the move as a reaction to the club’s downturn.

But Waibel revealed that the Sounders had actually been pursuing Jovelić for months, repeatedly getting rejected before an opening finally emerged.

“This one was a little different in the sense that they just kind of kept slamming the door in our face. And then recently things changed, and the ability to be opportunistic in a really, really quick manner was essential,” Waibel said.

“When they cracked the door open, we kind of kept kicking it, and we just kind of persevered in that sense.”

Sporting KC sporting director David Lee evidently had been clear throughout the process that Jovelić wasn’t available, until one small change in language gave Seattle the opening.

“Kansas City was great to deal with, to be honest. David Lee – his communication throughout was simple, it was direct,” Waibel said. “We knew exactly where we stood from a couple months ago, when the answer was ‘get away from me,’ to, you know, I think he said the word ‘maybe’ once, and I didn’t let him forget it.

"We just kind of kept reminding him that maybe can turn into for sure, and thankfully we were able to get it there.”

How did he snag the No. 9?

In what's hopefully a sign of things to come on the field when they play together, Jesús Ferreira offered Jovelić an assist to lock down his preferred jersey number.

One of the immediate questions after Jovelić’s signing was how he wound up with the No. 9 shirt, which previously belonged to Ferreira.

According to Jovelić, he never asked Ferreira to give it up.

“I knew that [Jesús] is No. 9, and for me coming here, I didn’t want to put any pressure on him to give me or to ask him for the number,” Jovelić said. “I was ready to wear any number, but I’m very happy because he gave me [No. 9].

"This is one more thing that he showed, and the people in the club, how they actually behave to the new players. So I’m very grateful, and hopefully we are gonna combine together and make our fans happy.”