The Aberdeen U11s recently travelled to England to play against some of the country’s elite academy teams. Gavin Levey, Head of Junior Academy, told us about the trip south, which is now an annual fixture in the calendar.

“Last year was the first time we travelled with a group that young.

Every year we go away for what is known as “the Derby trip” at the end of the season and we take the U12 and U13s. The event is organised by the Manchester United youth coach Tom Statham. A few years back, we were having breakfast at one of the events with Tom and said we would like our younger squad to come down too, so he agreed to organise something with some of the teams who normally go to Derby. From that conversation, he put on a festival for us in Oakham in the East Midlands.

“Any festivals we take part in gives us a good experience. The good thing about being invited to Oakham is that we are the only Scottish club that takes part. The only teams that are invited are ones that the organiser believes are there to develop players and that is the most important thing for us at this stage.

“The great thing about the festival is it is not a tournament. The whole environment of the festival is about developing players. You never have a coach shouting at a referee, there is never a coach shouting at a player, there are no team lines submitted, so if a team wants to bring an U12 or U13 player who for example is returning from injury, it is not a problem. If a team decides they have some boys who are a year older who could really benefit from the experience to get their confidence up, then they will play them and no one cares. It is just a really good environment to try and develop kids in, and the facilities were absolutely first class.

“There were a lot of teams involved in an intense two day programme and we played Sheffield United, Millwall, Watford, Bradford City and Birmingham City. We take two seven-a-side teams down with us and we played two games against each side, normally at the same time. The games are 40 minutes long, 20 minutes each half. What was good this time was that a number of the sides said they wanted to take down a few younger players, so it gave us chance to do that as well. The teams were officially U11s but we had a couple of U10s players and we even had an U9 player, one of our youngest players in the Academy, who came as well.

“Normally we find that we perform very well against these types of teams in England. Down south, they do not know much about teams from Scotland so when they play against us, they sometimes get a bit of a surprise. In the English Academies, the focus is very much on pass and move, pass and move, all the time which is similar to what we are trying to do. The pace of the games is different. Our games week in, week out are played at a higher tempo.

“Once again this year, the boys performed very well and we had some exceptional performances on this trip. In total we played ten games and only lost two of them, which was quite encouraging for us. Each year we go down there we do perform quite well. What made the games a bit more exciting was the fact we played with slightly bigger goals. We used nine a side goals which led to higher scoring games. One of our games finished 6-6. It was not down to bad defending, it was just the ‘keepers could not get to all the shots.

“These means more players are taking a memory away of scoring a goal at festival.

“We asked the parents how many had been away from home before and about half had done something with the school. We thought about it last year and felt the earlier we can get the kids going away on these trips, staying away from home, staying as a team so they can bond, the better it is for their development. Also on the pitch it is good for them at a young age to come up against Academies who might play a different style to what they are used to playing against on a weekly basis.

“It was all about development football. To take a group away as young as that, it sets them up for future trips and a future in the Youth Academy by giving them incentives. They now know that the harder they work, the longer they will stay in the system and the more experiences like this they will get.

“When you are working with kids this young, the environment that we have to create is simple, it is serious fun. It has to be fun for the kids so they can express themselves. It has to be serious because it is an elite programme at the end of the day and the purpose of it is to get the best kids through the system, but the environment we create has got to get the balance right. Every training session and practice and game we take part in has to be serious but it has to be fun as well.

“We said to the parents before we went that we would learn more about their child in the two or three days that we were away than we would for the whole of the season. It is not just about the games, it is about how they conduct themselves off the pitch. They were excellent to take away, a great group.

“When the kids come into the Academy, it is not just about getting them to be the best footballers they can, there are life skills to teach them as well. We expect every player to say please and thank you in the canteen. They all have to go to dinner looking exactly the same with their shirts tucked in, because this is our image. All the players are told to respect the referees. We want everyone to remember Aberdeen FC positively. That gets recognised by these tournament organisers. It is an invitational festival and we have been lucky enough to have been invited both years, and that is in part because of the behaviour of our boys.

“The trip was only made possible thanks to our Youth Academy Sponsors. (Statoil, Saltire, SMG, McIntosh Plant Hire, John Delday)

“I would like to say a big thank you to all the parents for their support and also thank the following companies: Morris Tax Consultancy Ltd, Graeme Barber Butcher, Alford, Deep Blue Engineering Solutions, Frasers of Ellon, Martin Buchan Wellhead Specialist Ltd. Burnett & Reid, FIS Chemicals, Tesco Westhill, International Doors & Windows and Carden Motor Company

“Thanks all the AFC staff who came down – Coaches Scott Duncan and Stephen Boddie, David Clark and Emma Fisher who was our sports scientist. Finally, thanks to our friend Tom Stratham who puts on an absolutely fantastic event and makes the nine hours worth travelling.”