Aberdeen’s 2009-10 youth squad: Where are they now?

We recently looked at the career progress of Aberdeen’s Development League winners from season 2014/15.

Five years on, their fortunes have varied, with the likes of Scott McKenna still at Aberdeen and captaining Scotland, while others have dropped down to junior football:

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/sport/football/aberdeen-fc/donsnews/where-are-aberdeens-2014-15-spfl-development-league-champions-now/

Defender Jack Grimmer – who has recently secured promotion to the English Championship with Wycombe Wanderers, came through the ranks at Pittodrie a few years before the class of 2014/15.

One of the youth squads he was a part of, the 2009/10 group, stands out a decade later, as another selection of the varied trajectories football careers can take.

Here are some of the players from the 2009/10 Aberdeen youth squad and where they are now:

Nicky Clark

Striker Clark, 29, never played for Aberdeen, but has gone on to play for Peterhead, Queen of the South, Rangers, Dunfermline Athletic and Dundee United in the lower leagues, as well as Bury in England.

He could make his Premiership debut with United next season.

Anthony Bolger

Irishman Bolger joined Bray Wanderers briefly after his release from Pittodrie’s youth set-up in 2011.

The forward never made a single Reds appearance and now appears to be out of the game at senior level and living in Australia.

Dean Jarvis

Northern Irishman Jarvis was an All-Irish youth boxing champion before joining the Reds academy and the left-back made a substitute appearance for Aberdeen in a 2-0 SPL loss to Inverness under Mark McGhee.

Now 28, Jarvis has since played in Northern Ireland and Ireland, including five years at hometown team Derry City – where he spent five years and played more than 100 times.

He is currently with Larne.

Nicky Low

Low, 28, is one of the players on this list who has remained pretty visible, not least because he went on to play 39 times for the first team.

The Greenock-born midfielder hits a decent free-kick and also scored in the penalty shoot-out which saw Derek McInnes’ Dons secure the League Cup at Parkhead in 2014.

Low left Aberdeen in pursuit of more game time, first joining Dundee, where he almost retired due to persistent injury.

However, he has gone on to play for Derry City and Queen of the South, and is currently with East Stirlingshire.

The Evening Express spoke to Low last year as he geared up to return with Queens for a Scottish Cup tie.

Gilli Sorensen

Sorensen, 28, also known as Gilli Rolantsson, is a Faroese national team stalwart (36 caps) who was once on the Aberdeen books.

He has, like his compatriot Hallur Hansson, gone on to success in Scandinavian football, winning both the Danish top-flight and national trophy with Aalborg in 2013/14.

Since 2016, the wide man has been plying his trade with Brann in Norway, where he has tasted the Europa League qualifying rounds – something all too familiar to Aberdeen fans.

Callum McRobbie

Highly-rated McRobbie, 28, was capped by Scotland Under-19s in 2009.

However, after his Pittodrie release – without making a single senior appearance – the highest level he has played is a season-long spell at Albion Rovers.

Most of McRobbie’s action has come at junior level, and he has turned out for the likes of Rutherglen Glencairn, Shettleston, Cumnock and Cambuslang. He was back at Glencairn last season.

Clark Robertson

Defender Robertson, now 26, made 68 first-team appearances for Aberdeen – having been given plenty of game time and a new three-year deal under Craig Brown’s management.

However, he made just one substitute appearance in his final season (2014/15) under Brown’s successor, current boss Derek McInnes, and was released at the age of 21.

Robertson also found his way to England, making more than 100 appearances in three years with Blackpool before joining Rotherham United and, like Rose, earning promotion to the Championship ahead of next season.

Conor Devaney

Spittal native Devaney, 27, appears to have dropped out of the game following his Dons release in 2012 and spells with East of Scotland League sides Broxburn and Coldstream.

Jamie Masson

Fraserburgh’s Masson, 27, played 11 times and even scored for Aberdeen’s first-team before his departure, afterwards spending two years at Formartine United.

The winger is currently at Cove Rangers, with whom he achieved promotion from the Highland League to the SPFL.

His star has continued to rise at the Balmoral Stadium under Paul Hartley, and he was League Two’s top assist-maker as Cove romped to promotion last season.

Jordon Brown

Attacker Brown, also 27, is one of Masson’s team-mates at Cove, having found his way to Aberdeen’s second team via a stint at Peterhead.

He scored in the SPFL League Two play-off final thrashing of Berwick Rangers last summer, helping Cove climb the pyramid.

Brown made two substitute appearances for Aberdeen in 2012/13 under Craig Brown.

Lewis Davidson

Defender Davidson, 29, returned to former club Peterhead after leaving Aberdeen, before joining Turriff and then current club, Highland League big guns Fraserburgh.

He has won the Aberdeenshire Shield three times while at the Haughs and Bellslea.

Dominico Gibson

Defender-midfielder Gibson, 28, is now with Broxburn in the East of Scotland League, following spells with the likes of East Stirlingshire and Edinburgh City.

Craig Brown handed Gibson his sole Reds appearance on the final day of the 2009/10 season.

Patrick Barrett

“Paddy” Barrett joined Dundee United after leaving Aberdeen’s academy, but – having also failed to break through at Tannadice – he returned to hometown club Waterford in Ireland in 2014.

After spells at Galway and Dundalk, he headed for the United States, first joining FC Cincinatti in the USL Championship.

The defender is now with Cincinatti’s league rivals Indy Eleven, who share the 60,000-seater Lucas Oil Stadium with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.

Przemyslaw Lukasik

Polish goalkeeper Lukasik returned to his homeland after departing Pittodrie in 2012, playing the third and fourth tiers before retiring in 2016.

Dean Carse

Hutchison Vale product Carse, 26, has had spells with Berwick Rangers, Bonnyrigg Rose, Edinburgh City and Civil Service Strollers since his 2012 release.

Stephen O’Neill

O’Neill, 26, joined Peterhead after his release from Aberdeen in 2013, who loaned him out to East Fife for six months.

He then joined East Fife the following year, and is currently plying his trade for Cumbernauld Colts in the Lowland League.

Declan McManus

McManus, like Masson above, has hit the headlines in the lower echelons of the SPFL, and last season banged in 24 in 34 games (all competitions) at League One Falkirk.

The 25-year-old was at Pittodrie until 2015, making 13 first-team appearances, when he left after agreeing a pre-contract with Fleetwood Town.

However, he spent a significant chunk of his two-year spell on loan, with Morton then Raith Rovers, before returning to Scotland permanently with Dunfermline in 2017/18.

McManus then signed a two-year deal with Ross County, who sent him to the Bairns last term. Finding his feet with a superb goal tally has earned him a move back to Dunfermline in the Championship for next season.

Ryan Fraser

Former Dons winger Fraser, 26, has certainly made his mark in the English Premier League with Bournemouth and was one of the division’s highest assist-makers in 2018/19.

However, he is currently a free agent – and linked to the likes of Everton and Arsenal –  after controversially refusing to complete the coronavirus-affected campaign after his contract ran out. He also admitted allowing speculation over his future to affect his performances before the Covid-19 crisis.

Back in 2012, Fraser turned down a three-year Dons deal to sign on at then-League One Cherries as they began their rapid rise to the top-flight.

He secured a Championship winners’ medal with Bournemouth in 2015, and also had a successful period on loan at Ipswich, before becoming a bonafide Premier League player and Scotland international.

Ryan Jack

Midfielder Jack, 28, won the League Cup with Aberdeen in 2014, and eventually reached exactly 250 appearances.

He was stripped of the captain’s armband ahead of the 2017 Scottish Cup final loss to Celtic when it became clear he was going to join the Dons’ bitter rivals Rangers at the expiry of his contract.

Mitchel Megginson

Megginson, 27, only scored once in 34 Aberdeen appearances before his release and spells with Dumbarton, Raith Rovers and Alloa.

He returned to the Granite City in 2016, joining his dad Mike’s old team, Cove Rangers, as boss John Sheran tried to guide them to the SPFL.

Something has clicked for Megginson at Cove in spectacular fashion. He scored 49 goals in his side’s promotion season and, in their first year in the SPFL, he finished joint top of the scoring charts with Dundee United’s Lawrence Shankland.

Scott Ross

Centre-back Ross, 28, was let go by Aberdeen in the 2010, and joined Peterhead, spending seven years with the Buchan outfit.

He made close to 200 appearances and won League Two in 2013/14, before leaving for Cove, where he’s joined Megginson, Brown and Masson in their rise to the SPFL and further success.

Hallur Hansson

Faroese midfielder Hansson, who was 18 when he made his sole appearance for Aberdeen under Mark McGhee, has had a decent career, but not in Scotland.

Now 27 – and after spells at HB Torshavn, Aalborg, Vikingur and Vendsyssel FF – he has established himself at Danish Superliga side AC Horsens, making more than 100 appearances.

He is also a 48-cap international and counting.

Joe Shaughnessy

Then-right-back Shaughnessy, 28, left Aberdeen in search of regular football in 2015, joining St Johnstone and racking up more than 150 appearances as a centre-back.

He was also named club captain while at McDiarmid Park, with Dons boss Derek McInnes attempting to lure the Irishman back to the north-east as his contract came to an end last summer.

However, a deal couldn’t be thrashed out, and Shaughnessy,spent last season at troubled Southend United, who were relegated to England’s League Two, making 21 appearances in the curtailed campaign.

He has signed for Premiership St Mirren ahead of the new season.

Scott Bain

Goalkeeper Bain, now 28, played in one friendly for the Dons and was released in 2011.

From there, the stopper joined Alloa, making 100 appearances and earning a move to Dundee, where he made another 100-plus appearances.

In 2018, Bain, who has gone on to play three times for Scotland, left Dens Park for Premiership champions Celtic, initially on loan. He was first-choice for the Hoops in 2018/19, and, despite playing serving as a back-up option last term, still played in five Champions League qualification games.

Jack Grimmer

Grimmer, now 26, became the youngest ever Don to play for the first team in April 2010 at the age of 16 years, two months and 13 days.

After four Dons appearances he moved to then-Premier League side Fulham for £200,000 in 2012.

Following loan deals at Port Vale and Shrewsbury, he broke into the Fulham starting line-up in late 2014 and made 19 starts in the Championship.

However, another spell on loan at Shrewsbury followed, before he made a permanent move to Coventry City, helping the Sky Blues win the League Two play-offs in 2018.

After his release from Coventry a year later, defender Grimmer was picked up by Wycombe, who he helped to victory in the League One play-offs to secure Championship football for next term.

https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/sport/football/english-football/former-aberdeen-defender-jack-grimmers-delight-at-promotion-to-championship-with-wycombe-wanderers/