West Bromwich Albion coach Aaron Danks recently visited Aberdeen to pass on advice to more than 60 local coaches. Danks, who manages the English Premier League side’s Under-18 team, was invited to Aberdeen as part of a scheme organised by the AFC Community Trust and the SFA (north region) to help boost the standards of coaching at all levels of football in the area. Managers and coaches from Highland League, Amateur, Junior and school teams joined AFC’s community coaching staff at a special session with Danks at Aberdeen Sports Village.

Danks, 31, has been with the Baggies for more than a decade. He started out as the club’s U12 coach before acting as a video analyst with the first team. He has managed their U18 side full-time for the last three years.

“I got invited by the SFA to conduct two coaching workshops. The first one we did was at Dunfermline and then a day later I went to Aberdeen. I got to meet some of their young and up and coming coaches and did a Q&A with them. Then that evening I worked with the Aberdeen U14s who were fantastic. They were a really good group of players. As I worked with them we put on a coaching session for other coaches to watch and observe and did a little presentation afterwards. “It was great for me personally. I see the sessions like the one in Aberdeen as a way of developing myself as a coach as well. Making a presentation outwith my normal comfort zone will help me when I have to deal with other coaches at the club. I hope the people in Aberdeen got something out of it as well.

“Scotland at the moment is a good place for young kids in terms of getting themselves through from Youth Academies and into the Leagues. Many players in England at the moment are not getting that opportunity.

“There are also a lot of good coaches up there and there is a lot of good work going on. What I like is there is a bit of an old school feel to it. The facilities are maybe not fantastic but everyone is hard working. The players want to put the hours in and they all want to do the work.

“In England there is a lot of money and some of the facilities are sensational. I will take a team to Manchester City next week and the environment the players will play in is as good as anything in the world. They maybe don’t have that in Scotland but what they do have is coaches full of enthusiasm for the game and players who are so determined to make a career for themselves. They are so hungry for knowledge and to learn. It was very refreshing for me to see.”

Albion have made significant investment in their youth development programme in recent years and are now ranked among the elite in England, which pleases Danks.

“We are relatively young in Academy terms. The initial investment was made 10 years ago and it’s only now that we are seeing the benefits of that.”

Danks was delighted to learn the Dons have made investment in their own youth academy a priority, despite the fact money is much tighter north of the border. He pointed to the success enjoyed by Aberdeen in the 1980s – with a virtually homegrown side – as proof it’s not all about having the most money or best training facilities.

“Sometimes we shy away from looking back at what clubs were good at. Having the most money and best facilities doesn’t guarantee you will produce the best players. It’s the standard of the coaches and the environment they help to create at their club that matters. We should all be studying what Aberdeen did to bring through that generation of players. I accept that times have changed a lot from those days. Kids play a lot less of the street football that helped players hone their skills in the past.

What we need to do now is recreate an environment where they are able to do that.

“I go all the way back to when I first started coaching. I used to get on a bus with a bag of balls and go to schools in my area and organise sessions on any bits of grass we could find.

“There is a great book by Rasmus Ankersen that talks about the ‘Goldmine Effect’ in sport. It highlights talents emerging around the world, sometimes in the least expected places. And it’s often on a small budget and in conditions that are far from luxurious. It’s vital not to get obsessed with the money that might be available or the standard of training facilities.

“If the coaches do things right, that can be overcome. That means making coaching sessions fun as well as interesting. If you can do that you will find you get more out of those being coached – and they will be eager to learn even more in the future.”

Liverpool’s Under-21 coach, Mick Beale, will be the star guest at the next session, which takes place in Aberdeen on October 2.

Liverpool’s Under-21 coach, Mick Beale, will be the star guest at the next session, which takes place in Aberdeen on October 2.