Willie Miller,
Director of Football Development.

The launch of the AFC Youth Academy in 2006 marked significant milestone in the history of this Club. The decision to invest such substantial resources into producing even more home grown players has proved to have been the right one and indeed the only viable one for AFC to flourish.

I would like to thank Len Taylor for his tireless work and enthusiasm in helping to establish the Aberdeen Football Club Youth Academy; his commitment to the task was inspiring. Len has decided to retire from the position of Academy head and I am delighted to welcome a name well known to every Aberdeen supporter, Neil Simpson, as his successor.

Len will not depart us totally and he has agreed to give us some of his time on a regular basis to help us establish our schools programme which will give our youngsters an opportunity to have more practice hours during their school day in turn help us to produce better technical players.

The work done within the Academy has been hugely successful in producing players with technical ability to represent our first team and our national team at various age groups.

Chris Maguire travelled through the ranks to the heady heights of being a first team regular and gaining full international recognition and we have high hopes for current first team players, Ryan Jack, Fraser Fyvie, Clark Robertson and Peter Pawlett to follow in Chris's footsteps.

Under the stewardship of the Youth Academy team, and thanks to the continued support of our fantastic sponsors, we are now seeing an unparalleled number of players making the breakthrough into the first team while, with international representation at every level, that conveyor belt looks set to continue.

With a move to our new stadium imminent, you are coming to Aberdeen Football Club during one of the most exciting periods in the Club's history and I would like to welcome you on board and assure you that we will support you in every way possible in your quest for success.