Miller: We’ll increase full-time pool – but onus is on youth
Published:
ABERDEEN will not shirk responsibility in moves to strengthen for the new season.
Injuries took their toll last term as our campaign ultimately suffered due to the long-term loss of a number of key players.
With that in mind we will increase the pool of full-time players to 46, which will include a first team squad of 18 players.
Those 18 will be unrestricted players, so as far as Jimmy Calderwood is concerned they can be any age or nationality.
Obviously there are still a few places in that 18 pool to be filled, but we are working hard to bring in the right players in time for the new season.
As Aberdeen are working within a budget, a structure has been put in place that puts the onus firmly on bringing through young talent.
Outwith the first team pool there will be eight players in the U21s, making up 26 players vying for that first team squad.
Below that level Aberdeen have the younger full-time professionals under the guidance of Neil Cooper.
Neil Simpson has also been promoted to work with the U19 squad next season.
At present there are 16 signed U19 players and we hope to expand that number to 20 by the start of the season.
That will give Jimmy Calderwood and his backroom team a pool of 46 full-time players which is a major step forward in the development of the club.
Employing 20 players in the U19 age group is a sign of the hard work that has been done to develop youth.
We are striving to bring the average age of the first team squad down by bringing through young talent.
It is important that there is a natural progression from youth level through to U19s, U21s and then the first team.
There are already great examples of players progressing through from youth and going on to achieve real success.
Russell Anderson was a kid at Pittodrie when I was a manager, and he has gone on to be club captain and earn a dream move to the English Premier League.
Michael Hart, Chris Clark and Kevin McNaughton have also graduated from our youth scheme and tried their luck in England.
In the current squad we have Andrew Considine, Richard Foster, Chris Maguire, Darren Mackie and Zander Diamond who are all products of our youth system.
But we will not stop there, and are determined to bring in more top talent as a lot of time, effort and finance has been dedicated towards that.
That is the only route to take and ensure the long-term future of Aberdeen. And it is a route that we are pursuing vigorously.
READ WILLIE MILLER’S EXCLUSIVE COLUMN EVERY MONDAY – ONLY IN THE EVENING EXPRSS
RELATED ARTICLES
Youth is the way forward – we will produce stars
Readers' Comments
Excuse me for the being scpetic but haven't we heard all of this before about strenghtening the pool, opeing the purse strings, blether blether blether !! I recall a radio interview with WM immediately after the Bayern game and the same was said then. ddint we also hear rthe same during the transfer window l;ast season ! We now read today that "agents aren't getting back to WM or JC" Stop making ludicrous promises which we all know wont be kept !
john bruce
Report this comment
Willie says that injury took it's toll on the team last season, but I actually thought the team played much better when Jimmy's "favourites" were all out injured!
Kevin Rae
Report this comment
Its sad how few decent young players Aberdeen have produced in recent times. The only way forward for our club is to concentrate on youth rather than our current approach of signing Dutch amateurs or ex Dunfermline players. I think the fans would be alot more patient with JC if he was trying to develop a young team.
Davy Brown
Report this comment
Aberdeen fans patient with Jimmy ? No never because you all think he has done a bad job which he hasn't and people always go on about him signing dutch amatuers ..... he hasn't signed ONE yet, Dutch players yes but not amatuers, I think everyone should be behind him anyway and hope the signings he makes are good enough to get us back to 3rd place again.
ryan watt
Report this comment
Here here Ryan!Your not going to change that mindset though, while it has been frustrating so far with the lack of signings, i find it amazing at the amount of negativity so far!
Andrew Mitchell
Report this comment
The Evening Express is happy to encourage discussion and debate on the topics featured within our newspaper and on our website.
However, we would urge people to respect the opinions of others even if they do not agree with them. We will not tolerate abusive comments of any type and such posts will be removed with the people responsible facing a ban from this website.
Only registered users can supply comments, and your registered name and location will automatically be appended to any comment that you upload.
We reserve the right to remove comments from anyone using a false name or pseudonym.