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Dons eye loans instead of under-19s to speed youth into first team

Dons eye loans instead of under-19s to speed youth into first team

BBC News03-07-2025
Aberdeen have changed the focus of their academy system to give young players earlier first-team experience by using Scottish football's new loan system while being "more aggressive" in attracting talent from other parts of the country and abroad.The Scottish Premiership club has decided it will not participate in the new Club Academy Scotland (CAS) Under-19s programme and will instead train players at that level with the first-team under a new "transition coach".Meanwhile, Aberdeen will make use of the "more flexible" new co-operation agreements with lower-level clubs where young players can be sent out on loan but recalled at any time outside of normal transfer windows.Aberdeen say it is a result of some "difficult conversations" in an "extensive review" over how "to make best use of our £2.2m annual investment in youth development". They say the transition of players from youth football to the first-team "has been getting progressively more difficult over the last decade" for all clubs and concluded "we have not adequately resourced" this area.Meanwhile, Aberdeen were disappointed with the level of compensation for midfielder Connor Barron's switch to Rangers last summer and the effects of Brexit on the UK transfer market.Director of football Steven Gunn told the club website said they needed a different approach "focusing on quality and not quantity"."As a result, our young players won't be taking part in the newly adopted CAS U19s programme, but we will compete in the new CAS U17s format where the team will be predominantly made up of our schoolboys playing up an age group," he said.To "expose our best young players to senior, competitive football at a much younger age", this group, "sitting under the transition coach", who will be appointed in the coming weeks, "will train with first team on a daily basis".Gunn said Aberdeen "has committed additional budget" and would "take a much more aggressive approach to strategic recruitment of younger players, both from Scotland and abroad, to complement the very best players progressing from our own academy".
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