2015 looks like being another busy and hopefully successful year for the AFC Youth Academy, building on the strong foundations that have seen so many exciting talents making their way up through the different age groups of late.
With the Statoil partnership being announced a couple of weeks ago, there is much for Academy Director Neil Simpson to look forward to in the new year. He spoke recently to RedMatchday and started by explaining what impact the Statoil deal will have at the grassroots level.
“There are so many sporting organisations and individuals that Statoil could have targeted but we have built a strong partnership with them since coming into the city and they have identified Aberdeen FC as having a strong Youth Academy and being an organisation they want to work with.
“This partnership will allow us to develop better talent. They have their ‘Heroes of tomorrow’ programme’ and we are also developing talented individuals as well, so the partnership works well.
“The funding will allow us to improve a lot of aspects within the Academy. Academy Scotland works over different levels – Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. We are currently at sliver level but want to get the highest possible category we can.
“The higher the criteria you meet, the higher the qualification you get. Some of the different areas that are assessed are your sports science programme, your facilities, your coach education programme, your Academy plans. One of the areas we find more difficulty with is in terms of the facilities. That knocks us back a little bit so hopefully we can improve that area a lot when we get the new training facility. Having our own training facility will give us the opportunity to do so much more. We could organise more games for example, say against local boys clubs, on any night of the week.
“As far as coach education is concerned, we have to continually improve the standard of our coaching and we do that but at the same time, we have lost a few coaches to the SFA, some have retired and some have moved out of the area, so it is always an on-going process.
“On top of all that, there is another programme which measures how many players have been in your first team, how many players get capped at youth level, how many go on and play in the SPFL, the English Premiership, the English Championship or other big leagues. At the moment, we are third behind Celtic and Rangers. It is a great credit to everyone who has worked on the programme over the past five years or so that we have got to that level, but we always strive to do even better.
“The main highlight in 2014 for me personally was probably the number of players who got into the various Scotland squads. We have seen many players selected from U15s level up to U21s.
“We also had a great trip to Stavanger. The Aberdeen U13s and U14s travelled over to Norway for the Hess Invitational (Elite tournament) – and they came back with two trophies. The tournament, organised by Viking FK, was made up with teams from all over Norway plus the young Dons.
“Playing in an international tournament, compared with the normal domestic matches they play, was great for the kids. It was a very good experience for them in terms of their development. It was good for the players to be exposed to that kind of environment. They learn things like how to prepare for games similar to the way you would a European game, they learn to eat different food before a game, learn what it is like staying in a hotel prior to a game. That was a great experience for the young players.
“Also in 2014, the increase in our scouting network has been a major boost. With Colin Grant retiring, Jim Fraser has taken over as scouting coordinator and we are now up to our full contingent of scouts from Moray down to Angus and gives us an opportunity to identify kids at a younger age group. There should not be any kids in the area that we do not know about.
“Every scout we employ has a minimum of five networked scouts who act like spotters for us and many are also coaches. They then feedback information from schools, boys clubs and so on to one of our scouts. If you add them all up, we now have 50, 60, 70 people on the ground watching games every weekend. Before that, we had three scouts.
“We have taken our sports science programme in-house so we can deliver all the sessions ourselves. Graham Kirk oversees it all and along with Emma Fisher, who worked for RGU Sport. She is now a vital part in the successful running of our Youth Academy as she is also senior project co-ordinator. Neil McFarlane who used to deliver the programme for RGU still works in an advisory role, which is great.
“Sports science is very important. Obviously we don’t want to be working with 9 or 10 year olds on body weights because technique should be the priority with that age group, but I do think once players get to secondary school, they should be working on their body weight, their flexibility, their speed. There is also a far better awareness of nutrition.
“I remember my first ever pre-match meal when I made my Aberdeen debut. It was in the Ashley-House Hotel. Someone asked me what I wanted to eat, so I said I’d have what everyone else was easting. They said steak so I got one as well! Things have certainly changed since then!
“The culture has completely changed within the whole club, not just the Youth Academy. There are a lot of very good role models amongst the staff and the first team players. Our young players who graduate are now in very safe hands. “I am pleased to see the players who stepped up in the summer doing so well. I think it is difficult when you are allowed to play five over age players in the SPFL Development League because it can mean that not so many of the younger players get the same opportunities with the U20s, but at the same time, it means they have to up their game and need to work harder, which they have certainly done. We maybe also need to find another solution to help the boys who are too old for the U17s but are not playing regularly for the 20s. That might mean changing the current U17 league set-up so these boys can be included. It is certainly something the clubs are going to have to look at.
“Overall, in 2015 we are looking to continue the good work. We had a fantastic trip to Real Madrid last year and I am keen that we go to look at another club this year. We took a lot from that trip. You are always learning, so we can move forward and make our own programme better. That is something we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future.”
